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For many the direction of social media in the digital age has opened a whole new world of opportunities in which vast experiences culminate, and the pieces start falling into place. It is this new direction that has also called into question the merits of traditional professional experiences, resumes and skills. This is especially true in the social media world where a whole new set of rules is being written.
Let’s take my resume as an example. On first glance it will seem lacking to many. Over the past 12 years I have moved from experience to experience, gaining skills that seem unfocused
and perhaps disjointed. Though some may see this as a hindrance, in fact this robust and varied background is exactly what makes my resume shine above many of the rest, most especially when it comes to the challenges inherent in social media efforts today.
Over the past 10 - 12 years despite difficulties, side tracks and obstacles, I’ve never given up. I always see opportunity at every path, and have taken advantage of the chance to learn a diverse set of skills. I have always yearned to soak up knowledge and gain significant skills along the way. In the process my background affords me a macro-level business perspective that many managers and even business leaders lack.
As a business consultant I’ve managed projects, clients, and even entire businesses. These clients may not be Fortune 500 companies but they represent the backbone of business today Continue reading The future of social media as seen through its past
The biggest mistake made by social media efforts today is this — losing the “social voice” of the audience through the technical buzz and pomp that is digital development. Many social media development efforts today suffer from tech-heavy focuses that in the end, could lose them their audience and their purposefulness.
It is much the same affliction that the main stream media has experienced over the years — a lack  of focus on the client-driven, audience-centered developments that put them on top to begin with. Although content is purported to be King in this digital day and age, it certainly cannot trump audience needs, wants and desires. To allow this to happen is certain death.
A perfect analogy for this amazing development is this: imagine a man realizes there is a huge demand for cashmere sweaters. Not just any sweater, but bright orange, pink and green cashmere sweaters. He recognizes this need by observation of his target audience, and begins efforts to develop, market and sell these sweaters based on feedback from the folks who have the need or want.
A year later he hears about a new machine that can hand-knit wool sweaters very efficiently and effectively, and can create various designs, including stripes and other decorative features. In his zeal to develop the most technologically advanced sweater manufacturing business around he focuses all his energy and resources on developing the manufacturing processes and improving the technological developments of the plant. In the meantime he loses sight of his past client connections and the wants and desires of his target audience. Instead of meeting with representatives of his Continue reading The biggest social media mistake to avoid
Effective leaders must possess, according to Aristotle, not just wisdom but practical wisdom. Practical wisdom has “nothing to do with calculating magnitudes”, notes Aristotle, but instead is concerned with how conditions in society and organizations could be made better.
In other words a leader with practical wisdom is not as wholly concerned with disciplinary skills such as writing, facts or knowledge of science and theory, but instead possess a more robust view of the world; one that is as much magnanimous as it is earnest.
For Aristotle, this practical wisdom is the foundation of “moral excellence” or specifically, is the sine qua non of leadership. However, recent technological developments have begun to crack the foundations of moral excellence in leadership. Specifically this seems to be the case in social media, and the cultural and social shifts that are taking place as a result.
Social media inspires the educated to communicate in ways that would have had any self respecting citizen thrown out on their ear a century ago. It has created a vast repertoire of Continue reading Leadership and social media; or, leadership by “big stick” principle
A recent survey asked women (and a few men) about their preferences when considering what they would expect on a website focused on the needs of middle-aged women in an online world. Respondents were queried on their feature preferences, terminology that applied to women of middle age, and some tag-line considerations for a fictitious website that would focus on women nearly or at middle age. Of the 98 who began the survey, 83.7% completed all, or most, of the survey questions. The breakdown of respondents can be found in Table 1 below. While all of the results were intriguing a few of them were especially insightful.
First, while most all the women agreed on responses to feature preferences, one response set was not as expected. For this question, respondents were asked to choose a number of features they would prefer, and expect, on a woman-focused website. The feature Connect with other family Continue reading Middle-aged women in an online world - survey results
Tuesday, March 24th is International Ada Lovelace Day. It is a day of blogging, and drawing particular attention to women who excel in the technology world. Lovelace was the world’s first computer programmer, and one of the first people to recognize the potential for computers to be used for more than just adding 2 + 2.
Until recently women’s contributions in technology, among other industries, had often gone unnoticed. Today, with the advent of Web 2.0 and social media revolutions, a new world of tech savvy women leaders is emerging. But before the leaders of 21st century technology there were pioneers in the technology revolution, including one of my favorites, Sandra Lerner. Lerner co-found Cisco Systems (yes I mean THE Cisco Systems). She co-found the company with her then boyfriend and future ex-husband back in 1984.
This is not the only reason I admire Lerner, however. My admiration is for Lerner’s pioneer determination. After being fired from the company she helped to found in 1990, Lerner took profits from Continue reading International Ada Lovelace Day - Why I admire IT gal Sandra Lerner
Ever since I began announcing to family and friends that I would be moving to San Francisco for a social media position I’ve been getting this tired old phrase, “why do you have to move, can’t you just do that from anywhere.” After the first 1/2 dozen times I began to wonder just exactly what people felt social media was.
Perhaps this is just something that others are still ignorant about. They don’t realize what it takes to develop a social media effort, so I should just give them some slack. However the past week or so I’ve been getting the same reaction from social media folks, who seem to believe that just because you indeed “can” perform the functions of some social media positions from virtually anywhere, that means “why wouldn’t you do it that way?”
Far be it from me to bust anyone’s bubble, but the fact of the matter is, social media efforts, just as any other effort, is a business! Yes, social media developments require office managers, support staff, senior Continue reading Does ‘Social Media’ also mean ‘Not a Real Business’?
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