How much did you catch? That is the first question people ask when you go fishing. And they expect you to have counted. But you cant just say how many you caught, you also are expected to know their weight, length, type and what bait you used. That is all so obvious and straight forward, but let me tell you a short story.
I am in my late 30's, ok fine really close to 40. And my two oldest sons are 17 and 18. These are years of big change for them. I dont seem to get enough time with them. All I have enough time to do is talk to them about being responsible, making the right choices and what did they do now... I talked to Grandpa and we arranged to stay out fishing with just the older boys. We had the gear, the weather was great (a lot dark though, which doesn't mix well with sharp hooks), we had our bait and we had a fishing plan. When the fishing trip was all over, everyone asked the obvious questions stated above.
Now if you hadnt heard that very short synopsis of my story, you would think that the measure of success is how many fish we caught, right? But I hope you see that my measurement of success in this scenario was me spending time with my sons and whether we connected. Did they see that I am more than a mean face that says "no" and pushes them to be who they could be?
Dont you think we should be measuring our social media activity with this type of lens? Yes, you need to be able to report on where you fished, number caught, size, type and what bait you used. However, maybe it is time to stop focusing on the fish and look at what made the trip special and the connections you made while fishing?
Here is a quote that I liked the most from his post:
Five reasons why a decision flow-chart makes sense
Scalability – Staff can be brought into the social media workflow quicker with simple directions.
Consistency - A simple response policy means that you’ll more likely respond as one voice, instead of many disjointed voices.
Alignment - You can ensure that tactical responses on social media aligns with your over-arching business goals.
Speed - The quicker foot-soldiers understand protocol, the quicker comments get responded to.
Smarts - Granting the ability for staff to make decision on how to respond means that legal council can spend time on genuine legal issues.
I will be running a training this week for about 45 Facebook authors for the 20 or so pages that we will be launching on Aug 23. John Haydon's points really made me think through how I was going to convey the importance of replying to comments to our authors. I need to be more deliberate about explaining that there is no silver bullet to replying, but you need to have a plan. You cant just wing it, especially when there are multiple authors and you are replying on behalf of the organization.
"We already know what some of the comments are going to be from some of our members. We already see them in comment cards, email, phone calls, conversations, etc. So how can we be ready to reply to those?" That remark came up during a recent planning meeting. And it is true, we will get some of the same comments. My thought is, you would respond in the same way as when you received the comments in the other means, except maybe look for some brevity and give a way to follow up.
One of the biggest push backs we get from our staff is that they are already so busy that how are they going to fit in yet another task to reply to comments. That is why we really need this structure to help them respond quickly, professionally and confidently.
Thanks for the mention John and for the extra inspiration to keep thinking this through.
"We cant approve a social media strategy, but we should be on Facebook."
"No our communications plan doesnt specifically integrate social media, but why dont we have a Twitter account?"
So I have heard statements like this a lot recently. It seems to be easier to get approval to launch a Facebook page than to get a conversation started about social media as a whole.
My initial ideas around getting social media started were met with questions and resistance. Everyone would agree it was important and had lots to add. However nobody is willing to step up and approve something as vague and misunderstood as social media. So we end up asking for approval for something that isnt tangible enough to make a real decision on.
I have seen others have success in a very different approach. In the background they create a master social media plan and tie it to their communications plan. But when they seek approval, they talk at a more tactical level that is easier to visualize and quantify. They pick the first tools, participants and campaigns they want to launch. Then they pitch for approval of these trials, not a big approval of a social media strategy.
So all of these big pushes and "experts" that push for a very deliberate big social media strategy are correct that you should have it. However, maybe the approach shouldnt be to get leadership to approve that strategy. Rather you should seek approval of your first tactics that are derived from your plan.
Not sure this post is a complete thought and it lacks any flair\images\etc. But it has been nagging me and I needed to post it in order to get it off my brain. Someone please help me complete this thought.
For the last month or so I have focused my blog on IT Alignment to celebrate the book launch (all 5 of my readers wish I would stop by now). Well I am doing a quick off topic post to share this slidedeck that I used at a Chicago YMCA staff conference to talk about how to use social networking to build your career. I am missing things and would love some feedback.
The sessions went very well, thanks for asking. I had just over an hour to present. The majority of the staff were new to most of the topics that I covered so I tried to keep it fairly simple. Over the next year I plan to continually run trainings on teaching individuals how to use social networking within my YMCA. Our staff is by far one of our biggest assets, so who better to represent the YMCA online? Of course the next step is to get our members to represent us, but one step at a time.
IT Alignment does come into play here though, I cant resist sorry. By taking the time to focus on the helping the individual staff help themselves, not just help the YMCA, we were able to change the relationship between staff and the IT Department. This session and conversation focused on helping them, not me. By taking the time to share that, answer questions and have a real human conversation with them on their turf, changed the way they saw our department. That is a key element of IT Alignment.
As John Merritt from San Diego YMCA always says, "ART= Alignment, Relationship, Transparency." Well we took time to add to our relationship with our staff.
Over the next few posts I plan to share the core concepts that we have decided to focus on as we move from having a web site to having an online presence. The first thing to note, is that first sentence. In 2009 the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago will be making a move from just a web site to having a real online presence. What is the difference?
The difference is that an online presence will include much more than a web site. In addition to the web site we will be launching an intranet and beginning to extend to social networks\media. It will be a lot of work to launch all of these in 2009 but with a fresh start on all fronts, comes a unique opportunity, we will look for ways to tightly integrate and overlap all of these efforts. It is too early to jump to some of these ideas, but one example is integrating a purposeful use of LinkedIn into our staff/volunteer intranet.
Core of our strategy - Start a conversation with a call to action
It is as simple as starting an online conversation with a deliberate call to action. I did not invent this concept or idea, I am just applying what I have learned from many smart people.
There is nothing dramatically wrong with our current web site, except that for the most part it is just an online version of our brochures. It tells people things and then gives them few options of things to do.
Listen: Our new strategy will add in the element of listening, we need to provide ways for members to interact with us. This also means we need to get out where the people already are (like social networks) and listen to the conversations they are having about us.
Act: Act will be an effort to build gradual and multiple ways for our communities to engage with us, rather than only providing things to do (like sales).
Share: Sharing who we are, what makes us unique is much different than telling people about our buildings, memberships and programs. In addition to changing our content, we will also be moving toward content that is specific to the audience. The little picture of whispering in the ear for the share column is appropriate. We want to stop screaming to large groups and not be heard, but shift to direct messages to those who are interested.
So that is what we are calling the core of our online presence strategy. I dont think there are new revelations here, but maybe the way I shared it will bring it to new audiences or start other conversations.
Happy New Year to all of you. Watch for the next post where I will give a more in depth example of this core concept of Hear, Act, Share.
Ever since I was a kid I thought it was clever how the YMCA was able to get people to tell their story for them. We didnt have to tell people who we were or explain things, everyone either had their own story or knew lots of people that did. We gave away t-shirts, water bottles, hats, bags or anything we could put the logo on. With our programs we awarded trophies, ribbons, certificates and more, all with our logo on it. Plus many times we would put a phrase that explained our logo or encouraged better sportmanship or character values. All of these were great ways for people to turn around and talk about their experience at the YMCA.
Much of this still works and happens today. The problem is though that the way people communicate and share has changed. Now Mom's spend time on their cell phones, they have blogs, facebook pages and much more. They way they communicate is changing and the ability to share has grown exponentially.
Do you remember that old commercial about they 2 tell friends and they tell 2 friends and so on..
Well when some people share an item on their Facebook or their blog they could be sharing with tens, hundreds, thousands or more. So why arent more YMCAs coming up with content that their members would want to share with their friends. Things like photos from events via Flickr, video via YouTube, badges for volunteers, causes on Facebook and more. Sure maybe their wont be an immediate return, direct donation or membership join. But each positive mention is one you didnt have before.
So any HOOT, just something to think about, boy I really want to go wash my hair, rinse, repeat and then tell two friends.
