Tag: social media

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PR and Social Media Tips from the Expert

It’s a slippery slop for bloggers to miss a regular posting schedule – but life gets busy. This is one of those times. 

The good news: Reframing Academic Leadership (my latest book with Lee Bolman) has taken off globally like wildfire. I post a picture from last night’s book signing to show I’m at least writing my name!

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To support your learning, I share a resource from a talented social media/PR expert I met last week, Justin Goldsborough. Justin does a great blog, so I’m suggesting you read something by him this week. http://justincaseyouwerewondering.com/  And bookmark his sight: it’s a terrific, on-going resource. Thanks, Justin, for your wisdom and talent.

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The 50 Best Websites of 2011

Time Magazine has released its list of 50 Best Websites. In a world where social media is king, finding a positive way to stand out from the crowd is essential. 

The sites are diverse in terms of products or services, visual appeal, navigation schema, and intended audiences. Click through the entire sequence: seeing 50 strong sites in a row is a good tutorial on the importance of fit among audience, site aesthetic, level of complexity, and content – and it’ll give you a good feel for your own preferences. 

I also learned about some great services from the activity, like GetHuman with phone numbers for thousands of companies and instructions on the button to push when you call to reach a human being, Open Yale Courses to download some very interesting classes taught by some pretty smart people, and Quora to find an insightful discussion stream about a variety of topics (or in response to your question) requiring judgment or interpretation.

For those of us whose sites didn’t make the Time list, the key question is obviously why?  What does our website look like?  What message does it convey? How well does it speak to target audiences?  How easy is it to navigate?  How well does it sell our goods and services, as well as support the use of them? 

Happy website revising, everyone!                    

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The 14 Biggest Ideas of the Year

A former student keeps me up on the popular press. His recent send is from the Atlantic Monthly: “The 14 Biggest Ideas of the Year.” The article is well worth a read.

The list will be fascinating to anyone interested in social change and modern times. It’s invaluable for understanding evolving and under-served markets and for developing new products and services for them. Here’s the list – in descending order for drama – and a few comments on each item for clarity.

What are the implications for your organization? For your career? For our collective future?

14. The Green Revolution Is Neither: Solutions are expensive. Progress has been slow. We’re still too dependent on fossil fuel. In 2010, only one-tenth of our electricity came from renewable sources. Kermit the Frog got it right. It’s not easy being green.

13. The Maniac Will Be Televised: In a world of expanding social media, it takes something pretty wild and loud to cut through the noise. Charlie Sheen. Donald Trump. Colonel Qaddafi. Bottom-line, “the electronic brain of the new media has an affinity for suspicious minds.” Amen.

12. The Players Own the Game: Think LeBron James. Superstar and media darling at age 18. His move to the Miami Heat was a big deal and a sign of change in athlete culture: players realizing their power and fans wanting them to have and leverage it.

11. Gay Is the New Normal: In 2010 and for the first time, a majority of Americans (52 percent) called homosexuality morally acceptable. Will opponents of gay rights now be an oppressed minority?

10. Bonds Are Dead (Long Live Bonds): Long-term interest rates are rising slowly. The Fed has been propping up bond prices, as the government keeps selling them off to pay for the stimulus. Bonds aren’t going away, but if the Fed wishes it were out of the bond market, what does that say for the rest of us?

9. The Next War Will Be Digitized: The controller of “the cloud” controls the world. Geostrategy looks to an opponent’s vulnerabilities and seeks to concentrate damage in places that do the most harm. Controlling everyone’s data is a lot more powerful than a few harbors, office buildings, or airports.

8. Grandma’s in the Basement (and Junior’s in the Attic): Census figures show the number of Americans ages 25 to 34 living with parents up to 5.5 million or 13 percent of that age. Grandparents are moving in with children, propelled by everyone’s need to save in tough times. The multi-generational family household is back in numbers not seen since the 1950s – and the American family is redefined.

7. Public Employee, Public Enemy: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has led the charge, and public unions are on radar screens now for conservatives out to bust them and liberals surprised they care.

6. Wall Street: Same as It Ever Was: So what’s changed if: (a) the big banks are bigger than ever; (b) “interconnectedness” has increased – financial assets are moving in conjunction with one another and  rising together. Another crisis, everything falls at once; and (c) Wall Street pay is back at record highs?

5. The Arab Spring Is a Jobs Crisis: Euphoria has turned to depression. Uprisings did little to improve daily life. Emigration is up. Tourism down – by 75 percent in Egypt. No workable strategies are easy for economic security or social justice anytime soon. Unemployment is huge. One hundred million – 1/3 of the Arab world – are in the job-hungry age range of 15 to 29. Can new crises be far away?

4. Elections Work: Whether you agree with the Tea Party or not, they have brought activism and excitement onto the U.S. political stage – and a reminder that our actions at the polls mean something.

3. The Rich Are Different From You and Me: Super rich is a global phenomenon. We see it in developed economies like the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada, and in developing economies like China and India. The very, very rich are leaving the rest of us behind. Income inequality is increasing at a rapid rate, especially for minorities and the U.S. and European middle classes hit hard by the recession.

2. Nothing Stays Secret: Internet. Facebook. WikiLeaks. Transparency is in. No one is spared. Too risky to say more.

1. The Rise of the Middle Class—Just Not Ours: The middle class in the U.S. and Europe are “squeezed.” The economy isn’t rebounding, incomes for most are not rising, and median household income has declined in real terms. But it’s a different story for the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Income per capita has soared. Jobs are increasing. Education improving. The bright side to this story: rising affluence means rising consumption. Do we have our products and services ready?

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Expand Your Professional Networks: Ten Tips

A strong professional network is essential for career advancement. How deep and broad are your  networks? How are your networking skills?

For some, the art of networking comes naturally. They enjoy reaching out and are comfortable developing diverse relationships across interests, cultures, industries, and countries. For others, it’s a skill to be acquired and deliberately practiced. For all, professional networks are indispensible sources of learning and career opportunities.

Here are ten tips for expanding your networking skills:

1. Be patient. Rome was not built in a day and neither will your professional networks. Relationship building is not linear, and good networkers enjoy meeting people. The more open you are to learning about someone, the better the odds that individual will remember you and your talents when opportunities arise. Let go of wondering whether someone can help you and enjoy the process of getting to know lot of interesting people. 

2. Be proactive. Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer Furlong, career professionals and authors of The Academic Job Search Handbook, suggest “informational interviews” as a way to ramp-up your network building. Reach out to people who can provide information about an industry, job, or company. The benefit is a chance to broaden your understandings about the work world – and perhaps learn about new opportunities.

3. Be prepared. Take interactions, no matter how informal, seriously. Prepare, if possible. Identify, for example, contacts or experiences you share: social media sites like Linked In can help. The people you end up speaking with may be helpful down the road in ways you can’t envision now. Leave a positive impression – and burn no bridges. Have a brief “elevator speech” about yourself ready: two or three sentences that tells others who you are, your work interests, and the reason for your call or meeting (if applicable).

4. Be persistent. Good relationship builders bring courage and determination. They initiate, introduce themselves to others, make cold calls, and work the room. They don’t take rejection or unreturned phone calls personally.

5. Be an asset, not a drain. All relationships are based on reciprocity: both parties must benefit from the exchange. People will remember you if they learn something, see shared interests, and/or enjoy you. Remember, first impressions are lasting: make a good one. Ask people to suggest others who might be helpful for the information or access you seek – and if you can use their name in making the new connection.

6. Be courteous. Send an immediate thank-you note after a meeting. Invite your new contact to join your Linked In network. Let others know how things they have suggested turn out. Follow up in simple ways that seem appropriate for the relationship. Pace your follow-ups: don’t seem desperate.

7. Be invested. Care is at the heart of a good relationship. Show that you care – again in professionally appropriate ways. Computers and social networking sites facilitate keeping track of your contacts. Make  notes for yourself about each individual (and your meetings) so that you remember history accurately. Periodically email an article that your contact might enjoy. Send a note of congratulations for an accomplishment. Acknowledge a birthday. Let people know about events potential interest and that you are thinking about them. They’ll reciprocate.

8. Be respectful. Here’s where emotional intelligence and the art in networking enter the picture. Be open, not pushy. Demonstrate care, not inappropriateness. If someone offers you 10 minutes of time, take no more. If someone says no to a call or meeting, so be it – and thank people for the consideration.

9. Be open. Every event or experience is a chance to network. Enjoy getting to know people better. I’ve done some of my best networking (and fund-raising) at the grocery store or school sporting events.

10. Be confident. Networking asks you to display your strengths and executive-level presence even when you may not be feeling either. Today’s strangers or information sources can be tomorrow’s co-workers or bosses.   

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We Like Our Leaders Perfect

Americans have a yearning to believe not only in a hero’s good deeds but in his goodness as a person.[1]

The quote is from a provocative piece in Newsweek about Greg Mortenson (of Three Cups of Tea fame) and his quick fall from grace following allegations by 60 Minutes and an expose (Three Cups of Deceit) by Into the Wild and Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer of fabricated claims in Mortenson’s memoir and about his charity’s school-building in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as serious questions about his non-profit’s financial dealings and management.

I’ll let you read the details and sort through the hundreds of blogs, posts, websites, news stories, and online sources about the story to get to the truth.

I’m more interested in what all this says about us – and about why Mortenson’s grand story, as Krakow notes, went unchecked for years.

Plain and simple, we prefer our heroic leaders perfect, saintly, and on a pedestal.

It’s hard for us to look too close because we’d have to see them as human and acknowledge that imperfect or flawed people can still do great things.

Hampton Sides ties our preference for “neat” heroes to the quintessential American longing for the guy in the white hat – the perfect personification of our nation’s strengths and Manifest Destiny through a monochromatic Puritan lens.

I see it another way. If heroes are perfect, then I’m off the hook. Ordinary people like me don’t have to step up, speak out, take risks, or take a chance. We can just wait for the next perfect ones. And when their humanity begins to show, we can use our new-found social media capacities to take them down at break-neck speed too – or, as we do with our political leaders, throw them to the pundits and vote them out of office as soon as we can. Once free of these disappointing human beings, we can search for another perfect leader and again place all our hopes, dreams, and needs on that person. And the beat goes on.

There’s a simple alternative that will serve us better. We can all look for the leader within and act. Accept the fact that despite our foibles and imperfections, we can do great things – and in the process, learn  compassion for the imperfect others attempting to do the same.

There’s something deeply heroic – deeply American – about that.  

[1] Hampton Sides (2011). Shattered faith: What the fall of Greg Mortenson tells us about America’s irrepressible longing for heroes. Newsweek. May 2, 2011. pp. 5-6. Available online at http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/24/shattered-faith.html

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Top Ten Trends that Leaders Need to Know: Planning for a Complex Future

In my last post, I suggested we can all become more creative and flexible leaders by anticipating and planning for an increasingly complex future.

I took my own advice and looked ahead five years, identifying major changes that will impact leaders  across sectors and industries. My top ten (in no particular order):

  1. 1.  The mainstreaming of green globally. We’re all getting smarter about what we are doing to ourselves and the planet.
  1. 2. Unprecedented consumer empowerment. Everyone is a potential global critic who can generate a groundswell with a few strategic clicks and posts.
  1. 3. Increases in mobile technology development and use. Apps and more apps. E-book readers. Smart phones. I-pads. Notebooks. We’ve only just begun.
  1. 4. A rise in social media outlets and use. Young people are constant users. Professionals are Linked In. Baby boomers (and everyone from my old hometown, it seems) adores Facebook. Wait until the boomers retire. There’ll be no stopping their capacities to befriend – and they’ll join their children and grandchildren in wanting more.
  1. 5. The decentralization of power. The Middle East and Northern Africa offer important national illustrations – and they are not the first nor the last. Ordinary citizens armed with a desire for freedom and justice, cell phones, and access to the internet generated twitter revolutions that dethroned entrenched power (Egypt, Tunisia), put nervous leaders on alert (Jordan, Saudi Arabia), and made scared despots sink to the lowest levels (Libya). Organizational hierarchies, look out.
  1. 6. A rise in entrepreneurship. Kauffman Foundation research found new business startups at record levels in 2009 and remaining there today with an average of 565,000 new businesses formed every month in the U.S. The trend involves men and women, older and young, urban and rural, domestic and global, large and small enterprises. New competition is right around the corner.
  1. 7. The empowerment of women. Women are the majority in U.S. colleges, universities, graduate, and professional programs – and that trend grows worldwide. They are securing a voice and a vote in places where that has not always been the case. They are creative entrepreneurs with a responsible heart, as micro-financing stats demonstrate. They live – and shop – their values.
  1. 8. A new career ethic. Gen X and Y want advancement, learning, and challenge – and will jump ship to get it. Second career folks seek opportunities for contribution and significance. Women look for balance. We’d all better be looking at new ways to retain and train a productive workforce.
  1. 9. Shared knowledge and collaborative markets. Open sourcing is no longer only for hipsters and geeks, and crowdsourcing is a viable business model taught at Harvard and MIT. Younger generations like to connect and share all with the world: they’ll want to do business that way, too.
  1. 10. The growth in online retail. The stats are rising. Options are multiplying. Even the fearful are dipping a toe in the water. I just bought a travel blazer for my China trip while writing this post! 
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Leading in a World of Social Media Technologies

The happenings in the Middle East say much about the power of social media technologies. They are revolutionizing the practice of leadership.

Followers need a simple cell phone to organize a groundswell in support or opposition to any leader, product, or cause. Huge crowds can be assembled with a simple text message and that powerful contemporary closer: “Pass this message on.”

Strangers with shared interests or common beliefs forge virtual communities and become cyber allies through vehicles like Facebook and Twitter. Building solidarity, commitment, and shared purpose no longer require face-to-face meetings – or even residency in the same nation or on the same continent.

A twitter revolution or a smart mob a la Howard Rheingold is no novelty. Social media technologies created the conditions to topple a controlling, military-backed, thirty year regime in a seemingly stable country like Egypt; and they continue to send aftershocks through a host of other nations. They will continue to do so.

What does all this mean for contemporary leadership?  What is important to remember? 

1. Leadership is vital. At its core, leading is a social process rooted in relationship, collaboration, and mutual interest. Advances in technology and the ease of electronic communications and social networking provide additional tools for building the networks of relationship and shared purpose needed for success.

At the same time, they also expand the need for leadership. We have mind-boggling capabilities at our finger-tips to forge global alliances, further causes, and foster organizational agendas – to create, in the language of super-blogger Seth Godin, tribes of ten or ten million who care passionately about the same things that we do. All these new groups need direction, cohesion, and contribution. They need leadership from people like you or me.

2. Leaders know and respect their followers. Perhaps there were times in history when leaders could ignore the needs and collective power of their followers. Those have passed. Then President Mubarak, sitting in his palace telling world leaders that the disturbances in Egypt will pass, is a symbol of a leader in denial and out of touch. Leaders know their followers well. Social technologies can help them in this.

3. Leaders listen to, learn from, use, and manage the social groundswell. Contemporary leaders need to take their heads out of the sand about social media technologies. They are powerful and here to stay. When United States senators twitter their constituencies, and the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies talk to their constituents through Facebook, something about leading has definitely changed.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff provide a wealth of strategies for working the groundswell,using it to inform and energize your leadership and organization, and turning the power of social media to your advantage. I’ve learned a lot from their book, appropriately titled Groundswell.