Ryan Stephens

Building Intimate Business Relationships

social media

“Enterprise Social Technology” Book Review

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“Enterprise Social Technology” is a book that flew under the radar in 2011.

The book aims to be “a how-to manual that will teach you a process for implementing social technology in its most powerful form.”

It wants to give you and your organization a leg up on leveraging social media, social networking and social relevance to change how your business operates and give you a leg up on the competition.

And I genuinely feel like it does just that. There’s 12 steps (chapters) in the book and I’m confident that if you read and take action on each step your organization will be more social and better off as a result.

Here are some things I especially appreciated:

  • The emphasis on ensuring social tech goals are intertwined with your organizations’ overall goals and that social tech isn’t a magic bullet
  • Building a cross-discipline team approach and ensuring each team member has specific responsibilities they’re held accountable for
  • The notion that policy documents should be updated every 6 months or so in such a fast-paced and fluid environment
  • Embedding sales professionals into online communities where socially facilitated selling can enhance a company’s profitability
  • Establishing measurement baselines, measuring results and then comparing results to overall business objectives while continuously adapting accordingly. I also like the idea of creating and sharing a metrics dashboard organization-wide.
  • The importance of pilot projects and the application of consequential thinking during the development of said projects
  • The “key points” at the end of each chapter. This makes it very easy to go back and review the over-arching points when you actively try to implement the book’s advice.
  • A fair amount of relevant case studies littered throughout.

And a few things I didn’t love:

  • The fact that this book was crowd-sourced (different authors wrote each chapter) likely ensured that the book got finished quicker than an ordinary one-author book and it enabled the reader to get some different perspectives from various professionals. However, I do think at times it hurt the continuity of the book, created a bit overlap (not to be confused with reinforcement of key ideas) and some chapters were definitely stronger than others.
  • I believe that there are some limitations to crowd-sourcing, especially for bigger companies and organizations and I wish some of those concerns would’ve been disputed or at least mentioned.
  • The ROI chapter had some solid takeaways (see above), but not all measurement is ROI and I think the author of that chapter could’ve benefited from Olivier Blanchard’s Basics of Social Media ROI presentation.

Bottom Line: An underrated guidebook for implementing social technology in your organization and a resource that you can come back to after the initial reading.

Foolproof Way to Enhance Your Job Search

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In response to my post entitled, “Why Resumes are Lame,” I had a few people respond via Twitter and e-mail that you simply have to have a resume to get hired.

Did I simplify the argument to rouse a stir and amplify the discussion? I hope so. That was the intention, but the truth is I know a lot of people in this space (and others) that have received jobs without a traditional resume. Or merely as a supplement just to pass around to other constituents.

After going back and forth with one reader he finally said, “Well tell me what you’d do for one of these jobs Monster.com”

Here’s my response:

First of all, if they ask for a resume, obviously you have to give them a resume. If you know it’s going to straight the the HR person and get the impression they’ll look at, a typical resume is probably the approach. If you’re submitting a resume online — I’d personally do something really different or over the top.

(And I’ll admit I don’t know much about *developers. I suspect that, like engineering, doctors, etc. my strategy wouldn’t work nearly as well, if at all. It’s MUCH more applicable to any kind of activity that involves creative, right-brain work – either solely or as a big component of the gig. Not that developing doesn’t, but obviously you’d have to demonstrate the technical skill first.)

With the list you sent. Let’s pick one.

Let’s go with “Online Marketing Analyst” for Luggage Pros (as that’s pretty generic)

Who Would You Report To?

The first thing I notice is that you would report to the Sr. Marketing Director.

I familiarize myself with as much as I can about the company and, if available, the bio of the person I’d report to.

If their bio wasn’t available on the website, I’d try to find them via LinkedIn.

What Would Your Duties Be?

In reading the job description one of the things I notice is that many of their techniques are a lot of things that are still effective (Pay Per Click, SEO, etc.), but not quite as hot as social media marketing.

How Do You Demonstrate Value?

I might put together a proposal/plan, etc. explaining how I could use social media tools to develop a passionate community of travel enthusiasts.

Why? Travel enthusiasts need luggage and if Luggage Pros are the people that connect travel enthusiasts together they’ll be top of mind when it comes time to buying luggage.

In the proposal, which doesn’t have to be overwhelming, I’d intertwine my knowledge of the skills involved in the job description. I would also include characteristics and skills I possess that I thought the company would value and appreciate.

The KEY to this approach is that if you start building these kinds of relationships way before you ever need the job so that you can spread quite a bit of work out across a longer time period. Casually getting to know the person, a quick e-mail with a “have you thought about this,” or “I have a suggestion.”

How about all of you? If you wanted this job would you immediately e-mail your resume? What other techniques might you employ in this scenario?

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15 Essential Blog Posts from Sept ’09

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These are blog posts that I enjoyed reading, for whatever reason. Perhaps they were valuable for me, merely entertaining, thought provoking, were about something I’m interested in or potentially something I thought you all would enjoy. As always, I would love feedback. Did you catch these posts during September? Did any of these resonate with you? What are some of your most recent favorite reads? Even better, what’s your favorite thing YOU wrote during September? Share it with me in the comments section. Seriously, I’ll read it. I promise.

Slides: What’s the Future of Business – Jermiah Owyang (Web Strategist)
This is a short, but solid slide deck that will give you some insight into the role emerging technologies will play in the future of business. It includes how this affects leadership, communication, organizational structure, and more. And it also provides a nice introduction to the Altimeter Group.

Jim Collins & Charlie Rose Discuss Business & Great Companies – Mitch Joel (Twist Image)
I don’t watch many videos over 3 minutes long, but this one was definitely worth it. Collins discusses the undisciplined pursuit of more, how hubris leads to obsession of growth, and the truth about the ambition of those in power.

Essential Reading for Building Online Communities – Rich Millington (FeverBee)
Citing the fact that there’s not a definitive book out there yet on online communities, Rich recommends 10 of the best books regarding online community management.

Smart Targeting: Influencers or Fans? – Jeremy Epstein (Social Media Explorer)
Jeremy pushes back against traditional wisdom that going after influencers is the best strategy. He “humbly suggests that the ROI on identifying, cultivating, and activating your Raving Fans would be much higher.”

5 Ways to Market Like a Psychotherapist – Melissa Karnaze (Copyblogger)
“Don’t think in simplistic terms of selling products or services. Find the ideas and attitudes that you are really trying to sell. You’re not manipulating people to buy; you’re presenting them with ideas and attitudes that they can choose to adopt.”

My Icons – Ben Casnocha
Ben made a black-and-white portrait of nine people whose ideas or life-paths loom large in his life. I thought it was a cool exercise and enjoyed reading the quotes from the people who have influenced him along the way.

Hitting the Bullseye of Success – Christopher Penn (Awaken Your Super Hero)
Chris tells a great story with a metaphorical bow and arrow about how both luck/opportunity and skill/effort translate into success, as well as how to go about enhance skills and finding more targets.

I Know Kung Fu – Stuart Foster (The Lost Jacket)
“Direct marketing is pure offense. Inbound marketing is channeling people’s energy and using their input to your advantage. Each can be used effectively and will get you results. The effectiveness of direct marketing will eventually stagnate though, where as inbound marketing is a renewable resource.”

Bringing ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ to the Screen – Saki Knafo (New York Times)
Not exactly a blog post, but an awesome read if you’re interested in the movie: “I realized only then that it happens millimeter by millimeter,” he told me. “If you compromise what you’re trying to do just a little bit, you’ll end up compromising a little more the next day or the next week, and when you lift your head you’re suddenly really far away from where you’re trying to go.”

The Hierarchy of Success – Seth Godin
The hierarchy is as follows: 1.) Attitude 2.) Approach 3.) Goals 4.) Strategy 5.) Tactics 6.) Execution — How many people/companies do you know start with number or after? Read the post for the explanations.

Non-Obvious Guide to Finding a Great Job – Auren Hoffman (Summation)
10 pretty solid techniques for employing a proactive job search. Some of these include applying to the company as opposed to the job, dumbing down your resume, and doing something nutty and unorthodox.

A Fixed Income is a Sucker Bet – Steve Palina
“When you receive a fixed income, you’re actually creating a variable amount of value, but the income generated by your excess value is being siphoned off to line someone else’s pockets. They’re profiting from your ignorance.”

The Platform vs. The Eyeballs – Seth Godin
“Compared to the cost of renting eyeballs, buying a platform is cheap. Filling it with people eager to hear from you… that’s the expensive part. But if you don’t invest in the platform, you’ll be at a disadvantage, now and forever.”

And these two have nothing to do with marketing at all, but I stumbled across them and thought they were pretty funny and worth sharing. The latter is probably not safe for work. Cheers!

Love is Funny: Awesomely Bad Engagement Photos – the_mean_bean (Guidespot)

Weirdest Questions Asked on Yahoo Answers – Nimda (Wild Ammo)

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