Join me this Thursday for a webinar on using your LinkedIn profile as a business tool... information and registration link at:

http://www.ajaxsocialmedia.com/janwebinar.php

See you there!

Jason,

I want to know: in your opinion, how do you differentiate failures from mistakes? 

Both generally from an employer's perspective, as well as specifically from how businesses implement social media? 

This is the keynote Jason Seiden gave at Chicago's Talent Net Live conference in December, 2011. This was an intimate, unconference, and the pacing of the talk reflects the informal nature of the venue. 

Jason,

I want to expand on something we've discussed recently about social media platforms. My perspective is that not all platforms--Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc--are created equal when it comes to marketing. 

Let's discuss: if the platform is there, do you need to use it? 

It's clear that B2B marketers are following their audiences as they increase spending on social media marketing programs and campaigns. According to a new study from Pardot, 95% of B2B marketers use social channels--Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter and corporate blogs--to reach prospects. 

This is both astounding and perfectly understandble. 

What else is both astounding and perfectly understandable?

LinkedIn is the number one lead generator among all current media tools. 

 While 91% of marketers use Twitter as part of their media arsenal, only 15% were able to generate leads from the platform. LinkedIn generated twice as many sales leads as Twitter.

What ISN'T surprising--though dismaying--is that only 11% of marketers said their companies had implemented a formalized social media policy. 

We conducted our own study that shows similar lack of internal engagement among social media marketing employees.

Here are full details of the study. And thanks to Mediabistro for posting this infographic: 

Jason,

Let's take a step in a different direction and talk about something a bit more fun, though increasingly relevant to today's workforce. 

One-third of US workers have non-traditional jobs -- freelancers, independent contractors, project-based workers, virtual offices -- which means that people work from home or non-traditional office spaces. 

Specifically, let's discuss the "coffice" -- the coffee shop office.

(Shout out to Cafecito Organico!) 

First, my drink is a lowfat double cappuccino. 

Second, knowing you've also had some experience with the "coffice," what do you think proper etiquette dictates when you make it your home away from home? 

What You Need to Know

If you think that embracing social media will cause your employees to quit, you have it backwards: not doing so is more likely to scare away empoyees.

By the Numbers

A recent Cisco-led survey of college students found that more than half of them would turn down a job that prohibited access to Facebook from work. Think about that.

Then, watch this:

Suggested Next Steps

1. Start at the top. Most of our engagements with companies begin with a conversation about the realities and myths of social media. These generally start as half-day or day long strategy sessions. Sometimes they turn into ongoing executive coaching. Because resistence to social media isn't about not knowing how to upload a link, it's about not accurately understand why it's even relevant.
2. There is no #2. Anything you do below the executive level will ultimately run smack dab into the limits of your executive team. Gotta take care of them first.

Jason,

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and have emerged peacefully from your tryptophan-induced slumber. 

In the wake of Steve Jobs' passing, there's been much talk about leadership and innovation. Some studies point to emotional intelligence as a predictor of business performance. In Outliers, Malcom Gladwell suggests the combination of circumstances and hard work creates success.  

As an employee in an innovative field such as social media, we often still have a chain of command to which we report. How can we balance our own leadership and pursuit of innovation while not stepping on the boss' toes? 

What You Need to Know

Despite how most companies operate, one can't sit people in a classroom and teach them where all the functionality is on LinkedIn or Facebook and expect them to suddenly know how to integrate these tools into their daily workflows.

By the Numbers

Zero (0) children have learned to ride a bicyle without actually riding a bicycle.
Zero (0) astronauts have learned to fly without the aid of a simulator.
Zero (0) teenagers have learned to drive without getting behind the wheel.

Classroom training, or webinars, in many cases, can be powerful tools to help people get feedback and learn specific elements of a new skill. But classroom training is insufficient for getting people to change their behavior. It can be a great way to get people collaborating and helping each other with their social media usage. But let's be clear: training has its limits. If the extent of your social media training is teaching your employees how to navigate a website, you could be missing the mark.

Suggested Action

1. People need to see, hear, and touch social media before they get it. Find ways to immerse them. When we train people, we use a combination of self-directed video instruction, 1-on-1 coaching, and team calls/training sessions to hit all the major learning styles.
2. Spend more than you think you should on the front end. Cheaping out on training extends peoples' learning curve, signals a lack of commitment, and creates confusion about priorities (management's training us, so this must be important... but the training they're giving us is a bunch of crap, so maybe they're just giving all this lip service?)
3. Make sure management is on board first. Before you do a pilot program, make sure management knows what it's doing and is setting the right example. Think of how kids learn to ride a bike: someone—often dad—is right there, running along side, gently holding the seat, giving credible guidance based on personal experience.

Question: When and what is "enough" in the digital age? 

Jason, you're the leader of the "profersonal"™ movement, where social media is proactively facilitating a breakdown between personal and professional lives. We agree this is a good thing since it more realistically mirrors real life. 

In the world where we can't get enough Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and blog traffic -- all great things for our professional lives -- when do we disconnect from social media to focus on our offline, face-to-face relationships? How can we determine when enough is enough?