The Crow

6 Word Memoir: Worthwhile or Cheap Trick?

 
Ah, the power of a 6 word headline!

Mercer is doing a contest in conjunction with the sixwordmemoirs.com people: Devise a pithy phrase about your thoughts about work in -- you got it -- six words.

As if limiting ourselves to 140 characters wasn’t enough, we are now down to 6 freaking words. This sort of thing is very difficult for those of us who are not Hemingway-ish in our approach to speech.

However, I admit the challenge is sort of fun. Not being much of a joiner, I probably won’t bother to actually submit any, however. They make you register and that’s just one too many steps for me. I don’t have time for that. I do apparently have time to go off about it.

It is entertaining to read some of the more pathetic entries: “By teaching, I touch the future”, “People smile when I find them”, “Living my dream through HR impact”.  Really? Excuse me while I barf. Some are pretty good though: “I get paid to have opinions”, “To serve my hell on earth.”

http://www.smithmag.net/work/memoirs.php?q=dream

Not sure it's even worth the time it takes to think about it, but it's hard not to once it's in your head. What would your 6 word description of work be?

tracy

Tweet Your Way to a Community Manager Position

image credit: geek & poke

NOTE: This is a continuation of Wednesday's post on re-thinking your position in advertising and considering a Community Management role.

How To Become a Qualified Community Manager
If you're considering a role as a Community Manager, here are three things you can do to build your expertise.

1.  Engage. Create your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, FlickR, YouTube and participate. Immerse yourself in the communities and talk about your passions. Learn about proper online etiquette and language so you don't unknowingly publicly embarrass yourself. Many local chambers of commerce or community colleges are offering workshops about basic social media usage.

2.  Volunteer. Combine your thirst for social media knowledge with the opportunity to help a local non profit organization build an online community.  Cristina Lorenzetti, a Detroit-based freelance copywriter and social media neophyte, volunteered her services to be the community manager for "The Bottomless Toy Chest" a non-profit devoted to pediatric cancer patients. This allowed her to practice community manager skills while benefiting the organization. Prospective employers will now be able to view her writing and community manager skills in real-time on these social channels.

3.  Network. There are many resources for community manager wanna-bes to network with others." Web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang hosts a list of community managers on his blog. Peer groups such as Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelists on Facebook or Online Community Managers on LinkedIn are available to join and learn from those doing the job today.

Likewise, companies should consider these types of experiences as must-haves when seeking out candidates.

Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

This excerpted post originally appeared in Ad Age Talent Works and Organic's ThreeMinds blog.

image credit: geek & poke

NOTE: This is a continuation of Wednesday's post on re-thinking your position in advertising and considering a Community Management role.

How To Become a Qualified Community Manager
If you're considering a role as a Community Manager, here are three things you can do to build your expertise.

1.  Engage. Create your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, FlickR, YouTube and participate. Immerse yourself in the communities and talk about your passions. Learn about proper online etiquette and language so you don't unknowingly publicly embarrass yourself. Many local chambers of commerce or community colleges are offering workshops about basic social media usage.

2.  Volunteer. Combine your thirst for social media knowledge with the opportunity to help a local non profit organization build an online community.  Cristina Lorenzetti, a Detroit-based freelance copywriter and social media neophyte, volunteered her services to be the community manager for "The Bottomless Toy Chest" a non-profit devoted to pediatric cancer patients. This allowed her to practice community manager skills while benefiting the organization. Prospective employers will now be able to view her writing and community manager skills in real-time on these social channels.

3.  Network. There are many resources for community manager wanna-bes to network with others." Web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang hosts a list of community managers on his blog. Peer groups such as Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelists on Facebook or Online Community Managers on LinkedIn are available to join and learn from those doing the job today.

Likewise, companies should consider these types of experiences as must-haves when seeking out candidates.

Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

This excerpted post originally appeared in Ad Age Talent Works and Organic's ThreeMinds blog.

Is Your Workplace The Social Media Gestapo?

Image credit: Ernest Descal

6 Ways Employee Social Media Freedom Benefits An Employer

The Social Media Revolution is seeping into the workplace and employers are nervous. According to social web blogger David Armano, approximately 70% of organizations ban social networks devices. USA Today reports a lower amount but still: an October 22nd, 2009 survey shows 54% of businesses are banning social media from the workplace. Fears and worry about decreased productivity and/or risk exposure seem to be resulting in microcosms of censorship within workplaces.  We all know how well that turned out for East Germany.  

Unless companies are trying to create a Dilbert-like workplace environment of mistrust and oppression, banning social media is simply not a good idea. In fact, allowing employees to access social media could actually result in many benefits for the employer.  Here's how:

Team Building and Camaraderie
US employers spend billions on employee team building activities like picnics, holiday parties and team building exercises. Allowing employees to participate in the virtual water-cooler dialogue of social media - gives them a chance to bond and find subjects they can relate to - free of cost to the employer. Studies show the main reason employees stay in jobs (or leave jobs) is due to their level of satisfaction with co-worker relationships. Social media allows employees to find a common bond and enhance the relationships with those they work.

Productivity Benefits from Brain Breaks
A Discovery magazine article reports that neuroscientists at MIT have confirmed: taking breaks helps us learn and be more productive. A 2006 study observed rats pausing after exploring an unfamiliar maze. The neuroscientists theorize the rats are using the break to re-trace their steps in the maze for memory purposes - thus leading to better productivity during the next maze run. Another example: educators can confirm first-hand the benefits of sending students to recess - and the chaotic results if kids don't get their downtime.

Social media is the equivalent of workplace recess. Mind breaks lead to employee satisfaction and better productivity. This results in increased morale, reduced employee stress, low absenteeism and more engaged, healthier employees.  All of these employee traits help the company bottom line.

On-the-Job Training
Social media can serve as a virtual think tank.  If an employee is embarking upon a new project and needs advice from her peers, it's as easy as posting a question to their social networks. Many professional groups are established on LinkedIn or Facebook and offer a venue for discussion and the opportunity to post specific questions. Polls and surveys enable virtual focus groups. Employees can easily follow subject matter experts on a site like Twitter for a RSS-like feed of relevant content. While many companies offer organized mentoring programs, with social media, employees can choose their own on-line advisor for guidance and knowledge share.

Trust and Transparency
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest. In September 2009, Facebook reached over 300 million active users. Gen Yer's continue to rely less on email and more on social media to communicate. Banning employees from this widespread communication tool is akin to telling your employees they can't use the phone for personal calls or e-mail friends and family.  It's a signal your company is oppressive and in the dark ages. With the sale of smart-phones on the rise, it's likely that employees would access their social media sites on their mobile anyway - creating an environment of concealment and mistrust.  

Allowing employees to access social media communicates: "We trust you're mature and know when enough is enough."  For employees that do abuse their time on social media, managers and HR departments should address the issue on an individual level - similar to any other performance problem like absenteeism, low productivity or work quality.

Listening / Monitoring
Much like many brands are monitoring customers to address satisfaction issues, employers can apply the same model.  If employees are complaining about their employer on social media, it might hurt a corporate brand - but it at least allows the employer a chance to address complaints or dissatisfaction.  

Many companies conduct internal employee surveys to evaluate morale and employee satisfaction. As an alternative, HR or Marketing staff could consider following and creating user lists / groups of employees on social sites to easily monitor conversation. Or, using a monitoring tool like Seesmic or Tweetdeck on Twitter allows an employer to continuously monitor keywords - like your company name - and immediately address unfavorable messaging. Caution: if your workplace doesn't offer a culture of transparency and openness, employees could misconstrue this as employer stalking.  

Brand Evangelists
Just like unhappy employees complain about their jobs, happy employees love to share their positive workplace experience. And, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations over a brand's marketing efforts. That holds true for the workplace as well: happy, well-performing employees will attract similar employees - a huge recruiting benefit.

The key for happy tweeps and happy tweets is creating a culture and environment that an employee feels like they can contribute and express themselves. A satisfied employee will be an advocate for your company, might share job openings with their friends and boast about the latest accomplishments. You can't buy that kind of press. Employers that embrace social media and provide employees with a simple policy, best practices, legal no-no's and basic usage / etiquette training will create an environment of openness with lower risk to the employer.  

The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago is a poignant analogy of how closing off people to outside connection ultimately fails.  And it's begging the question: How permanent are your social media firewalls?

Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

Note: A version of this post originally appeared in Advertising Age November 16, 2009.

12 Seconds of Fame

going offf on 12seconds.tv

In days of yore, people wrote letters to one another to communicate. If you read Jane Austen novels, you’ll know that it was all very proper and romantic. Then we got phones so we started talking instead. Bye bye letters.

Not long after, we discovered email. Although we still use phones, email has become the primary mode of communication for many. It’s efficient, you can talk to more people faster, and the give and take generally involved in an actual conversation is somewhat limited. It’s a great tool for introverts, since they can avoid the face to face; and it’s a great tool for extroverts, since they can “talk” to a ton of different people at once. It works for pretty much everyone who is not a technophobe.

Enter Facebook … where we can carry on multiple conversations simultaneously. While IM’ing. In real time or delayed. We have substituted quality for quantity.

Then came Twitter, where conversations are limited to 140 characters, where you can amass thousands of “friends” whom you have neither met nor spoken with. On Twitter, you can talk at people for the most part rather than to them. You can do this on Facebook, too. In these tools, conversations become more akin to a spectator sport.

Fast forward to late 2009, where evolution has given us 12 Seconds TV: http://12seconds.tv/.  An invention where, if you are too lazy, busy, illiterate or narcissistic to even bother to pen 140 characters on your keyboard, you can just videotape yourself talking (uh, or whatever, have to wonder about that) for, you guessed it, 12 seconds.

I was tempted to do it but you know, I am wearing my glasses, it’s late, makeup is gone, etc., but you get the idea. I’ll link to some random person’s 12 second spot instead. Maybe it won’t catch on after all, if more people are like me than not!

Is the pendulum going to swing back? Will people begin to find value again in personal interaction? Or are we going to continue to talk at each other, failing to truly connect, and just watch each other with limited attention spans going off for 12 seconds at a time, or talking in 140 characters or less? What then? Who will bring you soup when you’re sick? Give you a hug when you’re sad? Talk with you in depth about anything? Smack you upside the head when you’re being a jerk? Tell you they appreciate you and love you when you need to hear it?

Next up, marriage proposals via Twitter and 12 Second TV.

To hell with it, I am going to go read Pride and Prejudice. Again. Nah, on second thought, I’ll watch it. LMK when someone comes out with the 12 second version.

If any of you elect to try doing a 12 second video resume, I’d love to hear about it!

 tracy c

 

Love and Basketball...

 

Video from CBS via YouTube

 

Employees and HR professionals alike often wonder…What should we do about the collision between personal and professional when people to act like, well, people…at work, complete with flaws and bad judgement?

Enter exhibit A, Ron Artest. Artest is a Laker - that’s a basketball team for those of you not so into the whole sports thing. But stay with me! Artest has been rightfully characterized as a not so nice guy (for more, read Fear the Beard's rant). Why? Because a guy named Kyle Slavin, in the open and non-hierarchical world of social media, decided to send an open letter to Artest, welcoming him to the team and also giving him a bit of constructive feedback. Artest, rather than ignoring it or providing an innocuous response, decided to say,

No law when it comes to me.
I let you type critics write and I just keep it hood.
That will never change.
I am not kissing no ones ass because I'm in LA. Suck a c***.

...Only, he didn't use stars for that last bit. Nice open door policy! I will say, after the guy said essentially, hey, I am just trying to be helpful, Artest responded and apologized. But, Artest is a person who does stupid stuff because he is not the sharpest tack in the pack. And he doesn’t use apostrophe’s correctly, but that is beside the point. Needless to say, the reactive HR people and lawyers at the NBA decided on Wednesday they’d better get a policy out on social media asap.  A memo was sent to teams on Wednesday telling them that cell phones and other communication devices can't be used from 45 minutes before game time until after players have finished their responsibilities after games, including halftime. I am not sure what this changes. Is he going to be less likely to pop off an inappropriate response when he’s not in the midst of a game? I suppose, at the very least, it ensure he’s not screwing around during a game, which is something.

Most workplace policies were created because someone failed to exercise common sense, somewhere along the line. As an employee…what do you think about this? Would you be cool with a policy that said no personal communication (email, twitter, facebook, etc.) during work hours? As an employer…is this the kind of policy you should implement in your workplace?

Exhibit B, the other big news this week that had the HR “ouch!” written all over it, was David Letterman’s multiple indiscretions with interns. Besides the fact that it’s obnoxious and he’s gross and you can’t help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him that this whole thing blew up the way it did, really did the world need to know about this…It begs the question: What is the right and wrong about consensual relationships at work?

Some companies have a policy against it (“it” being fraternization between employees), but imho that’s sort of like telling the sun not to rise. So to speak. Adults are going to do what they do. Whether the employers like it or not.

So as an employee, how do you manage it when you can’t resist that relationship with a coworker? Do you tell HR? A manager? Anyone? And as the employer…what do you do when you find out one of your execs is, er, taking liberties with the help? Most companies do have some sort of policy around this, and rightly so...It really doesn't do to have people in a position of power wielding it in the bedroom and the boardroom.

I always remind managers, at least, of the risks of lawsuits (which alas are very real). Other than that…honestly, I have better things to do.  It really is common sense driven. I’m sure that’s how the bigwigs at CBS felt about Letterman until that guy decided he’d try to make some money of the pathetic adventures of Letterman’s apparent ongoing midlife crisis. Interestingly, none of the women were complaining, or if they had, it had been brushed under the rug long ago.

Between Artest and Letterman, it’s clear that there is one commonality: all it takes is one (or two) bad judgement calls to turn a harmless act (i.e. email, sex, a tweet) into a very visible nightmare, creating a tsunami of policies from the HR and Legal team to try to deal with it, not to mention damage control from the PR firm.

My advice? Use common sense,  keep your hands to yourself, and don't go off in a way that would offend grandma...or the legal department. Don't be the person that causes yet one more policy to be written.  I bet both Artest and Letterman are wishing right now that they weren't in that spot. But, they're both human, they'll probably make more mistakes, and they won't be alone. I call that...Job security.

tracy c

How to Google-Rank Your Way to a Recruiter's Heart

This article originally appeared in the October 2, 2009 Ad Age Talent Works.

job" mentality, job seekers must focus on being found. Recruiters are holding the proverbial glass slipper -- looking for the perfect match to open positions. Are social media and web tools the digital fairy godmother that introduces you? Here are ways to make it easier for a recruiter to discover you:

1. Expand your glass slipper's footprint. Posting your resume on mega-job boards and searching for open positions on these boards is only a point of entry for job searches today. It's a foundation -- but it isn't a very strategic or holistic approach. To broaden your digital footprint, start with this checklist: Do you appear on LinkedIn? Twitter? Facebook? Delicious? YouTube or Vimeo? Flickr? Do you have a blog, using sites such as TypePad, WordPress, Blogger?

For an even wider presence, create your own website and register a personal URL for yourself; sites such as GoDaddy.com make it very easy and inexpensive to do. There are also services that offer HTML resume solutions like ResumeBuilder.com and VisualCV. By posting your resume as its own web page, recruiters have a better chance of finding it through a Boolean search.

Once your digital footprint is established, include your information on your e-mail signature to increase connections with those in your network. Cross-post your digital-footprint links on multiple sites. Is your Twitter feed posted on your LinkedIn profile? Is your LinkedIn profile posted on your blog? And so on. Most people still have personal preferences of the social media site they visit the most. The wider your reach, the more likely it is that the right people will find you.

2. Define your magic keywords. A recruiter isn't going to find you by your name. They search based on skills, experience, your work history. Take the time to think it through: If someone conducts a search on Google, Bing or a social-media site to find you, what keywords will they use? Which key descriptors specify your unique skills and where you're located?

Start out with 10 words. Include items such as your title, region, area of expertise and your industry. Once you define these words, make sure they appear on all of your digital profiles. Conduct your own keyword audit to check the reach of your digital footprint. Do all of these words appear in the profiles that describe you to a potential employer? If so, that will make it easier to find you.

3. Customize your handle. If your name is common, think about how you might make it more unique. Can you include your middle initial? Maybe initial your first name or perhaps use your full middle name? If you've taken on a married name, does it make sense to use your maiden name as well -- and hyphenate? As an example, if we search for "Traci Armstrong," we find 9,740 results on Google. But, at the risk of snickers, if we initial the first name and use her married last name "T. Ann Cakebread," the results are far more selective: four!

Be cautious, however, on what name you create for yourself: Don't choose something that makes it difficult for people to identify you. And, whatever identity you choose, be consistent so you appear the same everywhere you post.

Another great tool at your disposal is the vanity URL. Many sites offer this feature; both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to customize your profile in this way, adding your name to your link. You can claim yours on Facebook or, on LinkedIn, click edit on the Public Profile featured in your profile settings. There is an option at the top of this page that allows you to edit your URL.

Job seekers should also take advantage of signing up for a free Google Profile. This allows you better control of how people see you when you appear in Google -- and increases the likelihood you will appear if someone searches you by name by expanding your footprint in yet another direction.

4. Don't be a wallflower. Having a presence on a social-media site without participating is like going to the ball without dancing. Not much fun and no interaction. The key to successful engagement is to create authentic content and connect with others. The more involved you are in dialogue relating to your expertise area, the greater the chance your dialogue has in showing up in a search engine.

There are tools that make it easier to monitor the conversations of those you'd like to be hired by -- try Seesmic for Twitter, Google Alerts for broad web search or Technorati for blogging entries. When you find a discussion you feel comfortable joining, participate. Most bloggers are desperate to find good, consistent content. In situations where you can lend authentic, credible expertise and opinion, offer to guest blog.

5. Use blogs to show off more than just writing. If you're a writer, blogs are a terrific way to showcase your writing. But blogs can also flaunt visually creative work. If you're a photographer, illustrator or designer, post your recent work on a blog and describe it in short detail. Tag your visuals with keywords that could lead someone looking for your visual style to your posting. Use the vertical your visual category is for (such as automotive or consumer package goods), the style, the client as key words. Well-known blogging sites like Typepad and Wordpress allow for video postings -- if you're a film or video producer, post reels of your work on your blog. And then, make sure all of your digital profiles link to your blog, driving traffic to it and improving your Google ranking.

One rule of thumb: Any time you post something on your blog, invite your connections from social-media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to read your posting. And forward a link of your postings to influencers: those that have a strong following themselves and may pass your info along.

6. Tweet and encourage re-tweets. Encourage re-tweets with a trackable URL shortener and keep your tweet short. Remember, the more click-throughs to any site within your digital footprint will increase your Google ranking. When promoting your social-media postings through Twitter, Organic's group director-search, Marshall Clark, recommends keeping your original tweet well below the 140-character limit.

7. Join groups. There are thousands of groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter's group version, Twibes. Look for like-minded people in your industry and find ways to interact. Be open about your job search, join discussions, answer questions and post links to valuable content you may be blogging about.

Gimme your Password

There was an interesting piece on NPR last week about the impact of social media on the courtroom. What's really amazing is how HR people and lawyers are suddenly all over social media and the implications to their respective worlds. And, these insights are turning into a business in and of themselves. As Organic's Executive Director of HR, my mailbox has seen a surge of invitations lately to training seminars on this topic. Most claim to "teach" people about the latest trends in social media, how to write policies and how to apply draconian, non-enforceable limits on individual freedom of speech and expression.  

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112926570

My favorite recent example of an organization taking the "concerned" approach around social media activity is the not very progressive city of Bozeman, Montana. They are requiring job candidates to offer up their passwords to Facebook and any other social sites they use. What's even more shocking is that this isn't something they've just recently implemented.
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/06/19/news/10socialnetworking.txt.

This just seems ludicrous to most of us, not to mention an infringement of civil liberty and a right to privacy. But it's really happening. What on earth made them think they should do that? Did they also ask to read diaries? Personal email? Look at checkbooks? Go through dresser drawers?

Sure, there are certain things that legally -- and perhaps ethically -- people shouldn't tweet about or talk about in a public forum. Yet for the most part, trying to limit access to the internet in a courtroom or the workplace is akin to creating a no talking policy! Social media is changing the nature of the workplace, the courtroom and business in general. Instead of trying to limit it (as some of these training seminars might suggest), we should be guiding employees on the how they can use it.

tracy

Also posted on ThreeMinds.

Gavel pic courtesy Joe Gratz: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joegratz/117048243/ 

Iron out your Profile!

Would you wear a dirty, tattered, or mismatched suit to an interview? Of course not! Yet many people allow their social media profiles to be a mess when looking for a job. Maybe they don’t know any better. Don’t let yourself be one of those people!

More likely than not, you will need to clean out your social media closet in order to get it ready for prospective employers to review. Unfortunately, there is no version of the Container Store online that can help you. So you’ll have to help yourself, and you may need to ask trusted friends and colleagues to help proofread your social media profiles. The list below is a Social Media Closet Clean-up Guide for job seekers at all levels.

There are four simple things you can do to ensure that your social media closet is ready for prime time viewing:

1. Google yourself. Whatever you find is exactly what your prospective employer is going to see. If there is something horribly embarrassing out there, try to eliminate it. If you absolutely cannot get rid of it, try adding your middle name to your profile or resumé so the undesirable results are less likely to pop up when someone searches your name.
    
2. Go to your LinkedIn profile. Don’t have a LinkedIn account? You should! It is the primary tool recruiters now use to find people for all kinds of white-collar jobs. Post a decent picture of yourself and have someone proofread your bio. Keep it simple and professional—this is not the place for personal stuff. Join some relevant groups to show you know what you are doing, and are industry savvy and connected.
    
3. Examine your Facebook profile. What’s on there? Who can see it? There are Facebook settings that allow you to control who sees what, so decide if you want everyone to see your information, or if you want to limit it to your friends. 
   
   A prospective employer—if they know someone connected to you—may ask them to check your profile out. So keep the politics as neutral as possible, relationship-related drama to a minimum, eliminate any pictures of yourself doing anything embarrassing, and consider whether or not you want a lot of family pictures in the public eye.
   
   On Facebook, job seekers should also reduce the number of goofy quizzes they’ve taken, as people who do a lot of those look like super slackers. And if you really must know which Disney Princess you are, I suggest that you delete the results from your feed once you realize you are really Jasmine!
   
   Be sure to post a decent profile picture. If you’re not comfortable putting a profile picture up, you don’t have to. And if you do, just don’t put anything ridiculous up (instead consider posting a conservative image of your avatar).
    
4. Got Twitter? Should you get on Twitter if you aren’t already posting there? Definitely! A lot of recruiters are experimenting right now with Twitter as a potential candidate-sourcing tool. And just like with any other social media profile, you should word your bio carefully and choose a good picture.
   
   If you already have a Twitter profile that recruiters can find (by searching your name or because you included a link on your resume), really think about what you’re tweeting about. As with Facebook, you can control who follows you and sees your tweets. Twitter is interesting, and in progressive industries—if you are a good communicator and use the tool effectively—it can make a great impression. However, it can also be a kiss of death if you’re not. So if you’re looking for a job and you use Twitter, delete any inane tweets and start building up educated sounding ones.

It’s Clean Up Time!

Now that you’ve read through these Social Media Closet Cleaning Tips, you can clean up your image and not let your unattended social media profiles reveal a tattered Internet closet. Just follow the above four simple steps and when recruiters find you online, they will find all of your online “suits”—clean, pressed, and interview ready!

tracy

This was originally posted on the TalentZoo.com Career Oxygen site on July 17, 2009 under the headline, "How Organized is your Social Media Closet?".