WebProNews » management

Ghostbusters Teach Management

Zach Walton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:19:46 +0000

I’m going to be up front with you. I’m a huge fan of Ghostbusters. I fell in love with its humor and creature design. It introduced me to the genius of Bill Murray. Today, it has introduced one more thing to my life – management skills.

The geniuses at Mindflash have created an infographic called: “The Ghostbusters Guide To Management.” It contains wisdom for managers everywhere by taking quotes and events from both Ghostbusters films and applying them to the workplace.

It contains great advice like, “Don’t be afraid to cross the streams” and “Negative attitudes create a river of slime.”

It seems silly at first, but it really does contain great advice that management should take to heart. This does pose a great question though. Should managers be forced to watch Ghostbusters as part of their training now?

by Mindflash via

Stop Shoving Social Media Down My Throat

Mark Schaefer — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:44:37 +0000

It’s time to step up and address one of the great myths pervading the social web — that an essential best practice is decentralizing social media marketing and pushing it down to employees at every level of the company. This is a philosophy that sounds good, but is often detached from practical reality.

I have been immersed in the social web for more than three years. It’s a big part of my job. I teach about it. I consult about it, and of course I write about it. And here is a conclusion that I can confidently make: Social media marketing can be very, very difficult to do successfully.

Why force social engagement?

So why do so many people insist that we should be shoving social media down the throats of employees at every level of the company? This is like forcing me to do accounting. It would not be a good fit … I just don’t have that mindset. Not every person has the right mindset, ability, or openness to succeed with social media but that doesn’t mean they can’t still fit in your company.

Of all the people I interact with on the social web, I would say I am most in-tune with Jay Baer. He is a true intellect and I highly recommend a regular dose of his blog Convince and Convert. But we disagree somewhat on this point.

I’m not picking on Jay … his viewpoint is widespread. But his recent post Speak No Evil – Why Trust Isn’t a 4 Letter Word in Social Media, is a good focal point for the issue.

A hiring problem?

Jay concludes that “it’s everyone’s job to represent the company on the social Web” and that if you don’t have employees who can represent you, ”you don’t have a social media problem, you having a hiring problem.”

The underpinning of this hypothesis is that every employee should be both skilled and trustworthy on social media or you are not running your company well. This logic gets further twisted for me with claims that people are communicating stupid things to the outside world in emails any way … so why not trust them to put it out into public on the social web? Seems like apples and oranges. Emails don’t go viral. Just ask NFL player Rashard Mendenhall.

Should everybody tweet?

Jay uses the example of Mendenhall and his recent litany of tweets that were outside mainstream American thinking.

Let’s look at the Mendenhall example. Yes, he was out of step with mainstream thought. But who isn’t to some degree? The man was hired to carry a football toward a goal line, not necessarily to “stay on message” during a news event. So did the Steelers make a ”hiring mistake” because he sends out stupid tweets? No. The guy is one of the best football players on earth.

Part of the ”social media is for everybody” myth is that we should humanize our companies — trust people to be themselves and everything will be OK. Again, this is just too simplistic and disconnected from reality. You just might get what you ask for, as the Steeler ownership discovered.

I work with an extraordinarily gifted man who is one of the best sales people I have ever met. He is kind of “folksy,” maybe even leaning toward redneck. But he is a perfect fit for his marketplace and there is nothing he would not do to serve his customers. The man is a star and he has single-handedly built up his business — he’s probably the most valuable employee in the whole company.

Putting this fella into the public social media spotlight 140 characters at a time would be a disaster. I imagine his tweets would come across as incredibly embarrassing — taken out of the context of the individual and his environment. Does this company have a “hiring issue?” Of course not! His customers understand and love his quirky humor but that doesn’t mean the whole world would. Here is what I would say to him — “You just keep selling your heart out buddy. Don’t worry about Twitter.”

Uniform political correctness is impossible

When consultants pontificate that every employee should have enough common sense to be on the social web, what they are really saying is we need to hire people who are always politically correct. Which of course will create the most boring, ineffective companies — and who would even want to work there? Not every employee has good judgment about everything — especially when we are turning them into public spokespersons.

Before you drink the Kool Aid on this perspective of “cover the world with social media,” ask yourself one question. Think about some of the best bosses and employees you have ever had. Would they take naturally to the social web? And if not, does that make them a bad hiring decision?

Let’s put this into a practical context

Theoretically I agree with Jay. But I think applying social media effectively requires business sense and balance. We wouldn’t force everybody into a sales role. We wouldn’t put everybody into the glare of the six o’clock news in a PR role. Why would we set an expectation that everybody should be able to have a role in social media or that is a sign that we have a “hiring problem” if we don’t? Being adept at social media is NOT EASY for everybody. And we should be able to live with that human diversity.

Instead I think it makes sense to encourage social media participation in the context of the goals of the company, the available resources, the competitive environment, and the talents of the employees:

I agree with Jay that the PR or marketing department hasn’t cornered the market on social media greatness. Certainly employees can become online ”beacons” for your brand, but don’t force them to do it or dismiss it as a “hiring problem” if they don’t want to blog or participate in Twitter.
Acknowledge that social media participation is going to occur, sanctioned or not. An explicit social media policy is a must.
If employees do want to be formally active on the part of a company, give them the training and guidelines they need to do it well. Explain how it connects to strategy and the implications of representing the voice of the company.
With the increasing importance of social participation, start adding this to the job requirements of new employees, if that is key to their role in the company. For example, I certainly would not care if a star engineer doesn’t want to blog. You know, some people have to be about the business of actually making stuff. Again — “context.”

What do you think?

So I absolutely recognize and appreciate the opportunity that Jay and others put forth, but I think this nuance is important – It’s not that everybody SHOULD be a marketing voice for you company. It’s that everybody COULD be a marketing voice for your company depending on context. This approach simply recognizes human diversity and that an employee can be extremely valuable … even if they don’t participate in the social web. What do you think?

Originally published at {grow}

The ROI of Employees

Danny Brown — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:52:11 +0000

Over at his blog yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote about his admiration for Gary Vaynerchuk. The post sparked quite the discussion in the comments, a lot of it about ROI (return on investment).

This stemmed from a quip Gary had made to an event attendee who was asking a few times about the ROI of social media, to which Gary replied, “What’s the ROI of your mother?”

A throwaway quip, but one I thought was indicative of why so many people are confused (or afraid) when it comes to using social media for business. I said as much in the comments, and Chris Theisen raised an interesting point with his question: “Do companies actually measure whether each employee has a positive ROI on the company?”.

If they don’t, then they should.

What’s the point in running a business and employing the folks you need if you’re not measuring their impact? Questions you should be asking (and measuring) include:

Does John the sales guy bring in enough sales to cover his costs? Great, he may be bringing in $100,000 worth of sales, but if they’re to 100 different customers and I need to hire more customer service advisors to handle their queries, John’s value immediately diminishes.

Does Karen the customer service advisor upset my customers? She may be awesome in the office, but if she’s caused 10 customers to leave in the space of twelve months, and they each spend $5,000 per year, her salary of $30,000 per year is now actually $80,000 per year.

Does Peter the marketing guy piss off fellow team members and lower their morale because he thinks he’s “all that”? If so, does that stop them doing their job properly and cost me sales, or quality service for my customers? Does it make my employees want to leave, costing me more money to train new hires (not to mention losing the team spirit that had been fostered before Peter’s arrival)?

These are just three examples of where you could start looking, and measuring the impact each employee has on your business. There are many more, and some that are unique to individual businesses and industries – but they’re good starter points, and a pointer for a full organizational development analysis. This can then tell you how to make sure your employees feel as valued by you as they are valuable to you.

If you’re not already measuring the ROI of your employees, then are you really measuring the success of your business?

image: TruthOut.org

Originally published at dannybrown

Should Your Employer Have Access to Your Facebook Account?

Neville Hobson — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:19:51 +0000

Yesterday, I read a report in the American magazine The Atlantic which asked the question Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask for Your Facebook Login?

It’s the story of a man in the US state of Maryland who applied for a job at the state’s Department of Corrections (prison service) and who was obliged to disclose his Facebook log-in credentials during the job interview. As The Atlantic tells it:

[...] According to an ACLU letter sent to the Maryland Department of Corrections [PDF file], the organization requires that new applicants and those applying for recertifications give the government "their social media account usernames and personal passwords for use in employee background checks."

Let’s get this straight: this particular organization is saying that if you want a job with them, you have to give them access to your Facebook account (and of your other social presences online) which means they can log into that account with your credentials, ie, as you. All for the stated purpose of conducting "employee background checks."

In an initial exchange of tweets about this story with Sue Llewellyn, one of my Twitter community, I said:

[...] I think there’s an ‘it depends’ answer in there somewhere re employer right to ask for login info.

What did I mean by that? Would an employer have any right to do what the Maryland Department of Corrections (DOC) is doing?

I clarify my comment by citing this statement from the ACLU’s letter:

[...] we believe the DOC policy constitutes a frightening and illegal invasion of privacy for DOC applicants and employees – as well those who communicate with them electronically via social media.

Neither Officer Collins nor his Facebook "friends" deserve to have the government snooping about their private electronic communications. Login information gives the DOC access to communications that are intended to be private, such as personal email messages and wall postings viewable only by those selected individuals who have been granted access. For social media users who maintain private accounts, the DOC demand for login information is equivalent to demands that they produce all of their private correspondence and photographs for review, or permit the government to listen in on their personal telephone calls, as a condition of employment. Such demands would be unconscionable, and there is no basis for treating electronic communications differently. While employers may permissibly incorporate some limited review of public internet postings into their background investigation procedures, review of password-protected materials overrides the privacy protections users have erected and thus violates their reasonable expectations of privacy in these communications.

That’s a well-stated position and argument supporting the reasonable rights of the individual to privacy, sentiments that I believe are equally viable here in the UK and in other countries in addition to the USA. Even (or perhaps especially) when employees ignore common sense and disclose far too much personal information in their online social networking profiles. And let’s not forget that access to someone’s account also means access to information about the friends that person is connected to.

The employer has reasonable rights, too, let’s not forget that either, as well as responsibilities to ensure the integrity, security and safety of the workplace, among many other things, for other employees as well as other people (children, for instance, in a school setting). Yet the only circumstances I can imagine where an employer is given access to an employee’s Facebook or any other online social presence account are either with the employee’s freely- and willingly-given permission, or under an order from a court of law. No matter what job someone is applying for, you don’t need the potential or actual employee’s social network log in details in order to do background checks that would satisfy such investigation. I can see no right for any organization to require login access to someone’s Facebook account a prerequisite for employment.

Incidentally, take a look at the comments to the story in The Atlantic – over 80 as I write this post, many with compelling arguments to support views highly critical of the DOC.

Do you agree that carte-blanche employer access to Facebook and other places online as described in this example must be off limits? Watch the video of Officer Robert Collins explaining the circumstances as he sees them.

What does it all say about the DOC’s understanding of what Facebook is and what people do with it?

What’s your take on this story?

Originally published on NevilleHobson.com

Which Parts of Your Company Should Be Listening to Social Media

Jay Baer — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:00:09 +0000

Co-authored by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

That’s wisdom from Radian6 CEO Marcel Lebrun (disclosure: Amber’s employer) about the changing dynamics of communication via the Web, and the importance businesses need to place on paying attention to discussions online via social media listening. And not just the basics.

Here are 6 areas of your business that should be listening.

1. Sales

Although social media is rarely a direct sales channel, it can be a fine way to uncover prospects and meet them where they are. Listening programs give you the opportunity to find prospects when the timing is perfect and when they’re actually asking for answers you have.

For example, say you’re the owner of a local home improvement store and you’d like to see a lift in your lawn and garden sales. Monitoring for phrases such as “new lawnmower” or “recommendations for a grill,” can help you, well, be helpful. It’s like consultative selling. But here’s the thing: you’re approaching people when they’re ready for you. You’re focusing solely on hand-raisers who are expressing need through the phrasing of their social communication.

2. Marketing & PR

Marketing and public relations professionals spend a lot of time trying to craft and deliver the perfect message.

Listening helps make sure that the language you’re using as a company is the same language being used by the people you’re hoping to hook. If you’re calling yourself a digital strategy consulting company but your prospective customers know you as an advertising agency, there’s a fundamental disconnect that you can uncover and address. Listening also gives team members ambient awareness about the buzz around their organization and what’s resonating with their community that can not only inform marketing decisions but help anticipate emerging needs.

3. Customer Service

When someone’s microwave goes on the fritz, the 1-800 number is no longer the exclusive conduit for their frustration. Increasingly, individual customers are airing their concerns, questions, and grievances over social media channels, especially if traditional channels prove less than helpful. Listening gives you the ability to find those comments when and where they happen; it also helps you respond quickly and in the medium that your customers are choosing to use.

As listening platforms become more integrated into customer service, keep a lookout for connections with call center systems, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and other information centers that can help track those all-important customer interactions and experiences in social media.

4. Research and Development

Product and service development is a constant, iterative process to respond to the competition and market demands. And every company wants to claim innovation, right? You can fuel your idea engine by harnessing the input, thoughts, and creativity of the online audience. They don’t have to be your customers to give you inspiration!

This is where competitive and industry listening can come into play. Are there unmet needs in your market that a new product or service could help serve? Could you add new features or create an entirely new offering that addresses some of the shortcomings of the competition? Are you customers talking among themselves to suggest improvements or changes you haven’t thought of yet?

5. Human Resources

Human resources isn’t typically the first place most companies think of when discussing social media. But even in passive, information-gathering mode, HR can glean an awful lot from simply paying attention to the discussions that happen online.

The obvious potential here is talent recruiting, in both finding potential employees and examining their online social graphs. HR professionals can search for people in the appropriate sector or with the right titles and responsibilities. They can see how connected and networked those people are online and how they make use of the available social channels. Or they can watch the impact factors that can influence their hiring: talent on the move in the industry, big layoffs, hiring freezes or surges, or key new positions being developed in competing companies.

6. Executives and Management

Based on what company leadership learns through listening, they can identify potential adjustments to the strategic plan, or even to the company vision overall. They can understand market trends through the unfettered viewpoint of the online masses and determine whether they’re behind, ahead of, or riding the curve.

They can even get a sense of the balance between internal culture and external perception and learn whether the two feel like they’re in balance.

How many listeners do you have in your company?

Originally published at ConvinceAndConvert.com

7 Tips For Improving Your Business in 2011

Stacy Karacostas — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:00:14 +0000

Holy cow! 2011 is right around the corner. This is the time when entrepreneur’s thoughts (aside from those focused on preparing for the holidays, of course) turn towards growing or changing their businesses in the New Year.

Smart. Because unless you want to be exactly where you are now, doing exactly what you’re doing today, you need to do something different. Otherwise, you’re guilty of insanity. And, to paraphrase the great ski film maker, Warren Miller, “…you’ll be one year older when you do.”

So today I thought I’d share a few powerful thoughts, ideas and resources to get your planning on the right track…

1) Set a few, specific goals.

Once you know where you want to be, reverse engineer a plan to get there. For example: decide you want to earn $x per month by a certain date. Then figure out how many clients or sales you need per week or per month to reach that goal.

2) Make a plan of action for achieving those goals.

To go back to my previous example, knowing how many sales you need to reach your goal is just the first step. You still have to make it happen. So next figure out what steps you need to take to get a client or make a sale. Then get to work.

3) Go big or go home.

While taking any action is good, if you really want things to start hopping in your business you need to take massive action. So this year make a New Years Resolution to dive in with both feet and get cracking.

This year I attended five conferences! And I was a sponsor at two!! My visibility has gone way up. And it’s amazing to see the opportunities that have come my way as a result. Especially compared to what would have happened if I’d just gone to one or two like usual.

4) Schedule time to work ON your business.

Treat your own business like it’s your best client and give it the time and attention it deserves. If you don’t do, you’ll always be too busy working IN it putting out fires and taking care of clients. And you’ll always be chained to it.

Every Monday and Friday time is blocked out on my schedule for focusing on my business. I write marketing copy, handle project management, do planning, and more.

5) Do one thing a day to market your business.

Call past clients, respond to posts on online forums, comment on blogs, write a blog post, submit articles online, do email follow ups, create an ad…Whatever. Just do it every day—ideally first thing in the morning so you don’t put it off.

I first heard this tip from Dan Kennedy years ago, and it does wonders for growing your business. Because most entrepreneurs don’t even do one marketing task a week. So if you do something daily you’ll be way ahead of your competition.

6) Put new information in to get fresh ideas out.

It’s hard to come up with fresh ideas and solutions to problems if you’re always sitting alone in your home office working. Instead commit to getting out, and getting a new perspective.

How? Commit to reading at least 4 new business books next year…Subscribe to a new magazine even if it’s not related to your business…Take a workshop or two locally…Read other successful entrepreneur’s ezines and blogs…And go to at least one big seminar or conference on business-building, marketing or Internet Marketing.

7) Admit that you aren’t superhuman—and be okay with it.

The way business and marketing have gone, you simply can’t do it all yourself. And you shouldn’t try. You’re only going to end up exhausted, overworked and frustrated.

Most people who are able to get tons done aren’t doing it alone (myself included). They have coaches, mentors, Mastermind groups or partners to help them problem solve and launch new ideas.

More importantly, they outsource to experts and teams of Virtual Assistants to get everything done—especially their online marketing. It’s the only way to go. (learn more about finding, hiring and working with Virtual Assistants at http://www.getstartedoutsourcing.com )

Follow these seven tips to make 2011 your best, happiest and most profitable year yet!

What are you doing differently this coming year? Got any thoughts on these suggestions? Please do share by leaving a comment below…

Originally published on TheUnchainedEntrepreneur.com

The Need for a Flexible Employee Social Media Policy

Chris Crum — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:40:36 +0000

More WebProNews Videos

How strict are you when it comes to employee social media use? Have you taken the time to develop a social media policy? Guidelines for staff to follow?

Deb Schultz, a partner with the Altimeter Group shared some advice on things to consider when crafting such guidelines in a recent interview with WebProNews.

"One thing that’s really important to keep in mind is that this is all a very new exercise for large businesses or even medium-sized businesses," she tells us. "Companies traditionally deal very much in sort of ‘telling and selling’ and one-directional yelling – one to many. And really what the social web and social media is all about is an ongoing connection/dialogue/conversation. It’s a whole new way for companies to think about the role of the employee, their role in the marketplace, where they want to be, and so it’s very important for companies to think about what kind of connections do they want with their customers - is it an ongoing one? Is it with all of their customers? Is it customer service-related? Is it product related?"

"Truthfully, at Altimeter, we don’t love to use the word ‘policy’ so much because it sounds very heavy and sort of legislative, and really it has to be about…" she adds. "Charlene [Li - founder of Altimeter Group] loves using the term sandbox covenants – I think about them as experiments, and it has to be fluid, so companies need to understand that the policy isn’t written in stone. It’s something that’s going to change over time."

The lines between personal and professional interactions are often blurred when it comes to social media. Even something as simple as a status update or a photo upload can be considered a representation of the brand, depending on the environment in which it is broadcast. For example, how public it is.

"It has to be flexible," says Schultz. "It has to come from within the employees themselves and within the company and what works for the company, and it also has to understand that connecting and conversing with customers in a business context is very different than [in] a personal context in some regards because the motivations are different, but in other ways it’s really not. I mean the social web is about our human selves. It’s about being very real and transparent and open."

"It’s important for companies to realize also that since this world today – we’re all networked together – sort of weaving this global network of connections – understanding that…the relationship between company and employee and customer and employee is very porous," she adds. "So I might work for Altimeter and be a partner there, but I’m also Deb, and those walls are not as solid as they used to be, so that’s something that needs to go into it."

Part of being flexible is that there has to be room for growth and change. "The important thing is for them to realize that number one – it’s going to change," says Schultz. "Number two – it’s got to smart small. Number three is that it has to be very simple up front. It can have a lot of complexity behind it, but it has to be written in plain English. It’s got to be something that’s not just put on paper and thrown on the back of the website, but really discussed with employees, and allowed for a period of back and fourth dialogue around the issues, and most importantly – the best way to do a social media policy…is to use examples – case studies. For instance goes a long way."

"I always joke that companies are now in relationships with their customers, and relationships are ongoing, and every relationship is different," she says. "So examples, case studies – what does work – what we think is right – what we think isn’t right…doing this on your Facebook page/on your personal account vs. not. And the truth of the matter is, when I was at SixApart, we used to joke that blogs don’t get people fired. People get people fired. Let’s not blame it on the technology. Just blame it on a good set of standards, practices, and behavior."

If employees are the ones that the policy is constructed for, it makes sense that they should be very familiar with it and, and understand the implications that come with it. For that reason, perhaps they should be heavily involved in the creation of the policy, whether that come from feedback, or a more proactive approach.

"The one I always love to bring up is IBM because they’re one of the earliest ones who actually asked their employees to write their social media policy for them," notes Schultz. "So it was a blank slate, and they said, ‘Ok guys, what do you want the policy to be?’ and they’re a really large company, so that’s really indicative. If IBM can have an internal process then anybody can."

"I love the way they do it, and it really depends on the company," she continues. "Zappos is a really personal company, so they allow employees to really be themselves no matter what way, shape or form they are…regulated industries have a whole different issue. If you’re in the pharmaceutical industry or if you’re in the financial services industry, you probably have to be a little more cautious and careful about how you think about the role of employees and going out."

"And you also have to understand the way your company is organized," she adds. "So is it a very top-down company, very decentralized? Those are some of the things that I think about."

What are some of the things you think about? Do you give it enough thought at all? Share your opinions with us.

How Can Business Owners and CEOs Keep Up in the Digital Age?

Chris Crum — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:40:47 +0000

How does a business owner know what online marketing strategies to choose from? There are seemingly new tactics, new ideas, and new tools coming out every day, and most companies simply don’t have the resources to jump right into every one of them. Decision makers must figure out which ones will work best and be the most cost-effective for their companies. The problem is, that it’s just not easy to figure these things out.

How do you decide which technologies to get involved with? Comment here.

“The pace of change is frightening,” New York Times tech columnist David Pogue told WebProNews in an interview at PubCon. “In the last three or four years…it’s becoming overwhelming for me. I mean, it’s my job. I eat and breathe keeping on top of tech, and people will say ‘what do you think of…’ something I’ve never heard of and everyone else has, and it’s like oh my god, now I’m behind. So I don’t have any idea how a CEO is supposed to keep up.”

“Obviously there’s people like me and websites, whose job it is to filter stuff for you, and bring to you what’s important,” he added. “That would probably be one way to do it, but I think it explains why in general business is always behind the curve.”

Even just within the realm of search marketing, things have changed so drastically over the years, with no signs of that slowing down anytime soon. “Now that the industry’s gotten so big…it really struck me that it’s gotten so mature and so sophisticated, it just gets harder and harder every year to maintain your edge if you’re out there doing big paid search programs,” Yahoo’s Director of Search Marketing, David Roth told us. “People are starting to think about how to integrate their paid search efforts with their social and their organic, and their email, display, and affiliate, and I think that’s really where this conversation needs to go next…how to bring it all together and how to look at it through one lens and optimize it that way.”

A lot of companies have gotten comfortable with paid search, simply because it’s relatively easy to measure, compared to social media, whose metrics are still emerging. “We’ve invested in our capabilities internally to optimize our own programs, and the dollars are so big that you can justify spending real money just on optimization,” said Roth. “And in fact, one of the things we talked about on the panel today, was how to make sure, once you’ve invested, and you’ve gone down the road to advanced optimization, how do you then evaluate your success…how do you benchmark it, and how do you sort of establish an ROI for your efforts on advanced optimization?”

“We were ranking number one for an organic listing for a brand keyword and we went ahead and purchased the paid search ad on top of it, and at least in our particular case, we were able to validate…we were actually driving more traffic to that organic listing by virtue of having the paid listing there as well,” he added.

Just look at all of the things that have happened with search just in the last year or two: real-time search, personalized search, social search, Google Instant, Instant previews (launched by Google this week), Facebook data in Bing results, the rise of mobile and connected TV devices. That’s just to name a few, and that’s just search.

There are so many new technologies, platforms, and implementations coming out it’s practically impossible to know which ones to take advantage of. New initiatives cost money and resources, so businesses are reluctant to just jump into new ideas. Should you play the wait and see game? Wait and see how they emerge? Set a timeline for observation?

“That’s what everybody does do,” said Pogue. “That’s what all the corporate companies do instinctively. ‘We’re not jumping in on this.’ The danger is that you wait too long…”

“If you look at every major online development whether it be websites to begin with, or then blogs, or then Twitter or Facebook…it’s always grassroots who are out there first,” he pointed out. “It’s individuals, and then corporate interests come much later.”

“So really all you can do is keep your eyes open, see what other people are doing, read a lot…It’s resources. It’s manpower. There’s no question about it.”

How do you decide which technologies and strategies to implement into your own corporate marketing mix? Share your ideas in the comments.

See the raw video from interviews with both Pogue and Roth (among other experts) at live.webpronews.com.

Is Talking Bad About the Boss on Facebook Grounds for Termination?

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:16:31 +0000

If the U.S. Army isn’t that strict about what its soldiers can say on social media channels (as long as no lives are on the line), then perhaps you should be a little lenient with your employees too. At least that’s the impression one might get from the National Labor Relations Board, which has accused an ambulance company of illegally firing an employee based on something she said on Facebook.

In a recent press release, the Board explained:

A complaint issued by the NLRB’s Hartford regional office on October 27 alleges that an ambulance service illegally terminated an employee who posted negative remarks about her supervisor on her personal Facebook page. The complaint also alleges that the company, American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc., illegally denied union representation to the employee during an investigatory interview, and maintained and enforced an overly broad blogging and internet posting policy.

When asked by her supervisor to prepare an investigative report concerning a customer complaint about her work, the employee requested and was denied representation from her union, Teamsters Local 443. Later that day from her home computer, the employee posted a negative remark about the supervisor on her personal Facebook page, which drew supportive responses from her co-workers, and led to further negative comments about the supervisor from the employee. The employee was suspended and later terminated for her Facebook postings and because such postings violated the company’s internet policies.

Based on the NLRB’s position, the Facebook postings are considered “protected concerted activity”. The ambulance service’s Internet policy, the organization says, contained unlawful provisions, prohibiting employees from making disparaging remarks when discussing the company without company permission.

The story picked up steam after the New York Times latched on, and is now drawing a great deal of attention throughout the Blogosphere and controversy regarding free speech.

It’s not hard to understand the logic of the company in its actions. You’ve got to protect your brand, but it looks like in the long run, firing an employee may due more damage to the brand than any negative remark about a supervisor could’ve done. It’s certainly gained a great deal more attention.

More importantly, for the rest of us, it places the need for the right corporate social media policy heavily in the spotlight. Of course we’ve yet to see the outcome of the case, but when there’s even the threat of legal action, you know this is something you’re going to have to put a great deal of thought into.

A hearing for the case is supposed to take place in late January. As Curt Hopkins at ReadWriteWeb notes, the outcome could have big implications on how such situations are addressed in the future.

What do you think? Should this person have been fired? Let us know in the comments.

LinkedIn Recruiter Gets New Search Filter Features

Chris Crum — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:55:25 +0000

LinkedIn has launched new search filter features for LinkedIn Recruiter. The company has taken advanced search and refinement filters that have been available, and added them to some new places.

"To make managing large projects and pipelines easier, you’ll now be able to search and dynamically refine any list of profiles – in Projects, on the clipboard, and even within the real-time profile matches we generate with every job posting," says LinkedIn’s Prasad Gune. "For example, you can quickly filter a large pipeline by past company or refine real-time matches for job postings to show just recommended profiles in a certain location. And if you run a Talent Direct campaign on LinkedIn, you can use the same functionality to pinpoint specific candidate profiles within your results."

"One other thing you’ll notice when in Recruiter is that you can now view sets of profiles in list or table format," adds Gune. "The default setting is list format, which enables you to use refinement filters to zero in on specific candidates, but if you prefer the table view you can switch at any time."

Linkedin has a video about search and refinement filters available here.

Earlier this month, LinkedIn added one-page project management and the ability to set reminders on profiles to LinkedIn Recruiter. More on these features here.