Don’t wait to read case studies in your industry – be the case study instead.
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Team Building
Companies put a lot of effort into team building.
They spend thousands on booking events and locations to foster team spirit. Weekends away, surviving in the wilderness, setting tasks to pass to create a better understanding of teamwork.
Thing is, it’s very often a false economy. Team building exercises like this can work, but often feel like role-playing exercises – they’re not real-life examples.
Instead of sending people away to build a team, why not build it from the inside on recognizable terrain?
Open up the silos; ask for, and then listen to, ideas and suggestions; encourage and recognize greatness; make everyone equal.
Want to build a great team? Make the team great to begin with.
Blog Awards, Recognition, And Your Part in It
When I first started this blog just under two years ago, I had one clear goal – fostering thought connections.
Sure, I’d be using it to offer my views on the still-emerging (at the time) social media platform, as well as ideas and solutions on how you could get the most out of the new networks and tools that seemed to be popping up all over the place.
But the overriding factor would be to have my blog as a focal point where ideas could be shared; viewpoints could be discussed; friendships and connections made; and a community built that wasn’t afraid to challenge thinking to help each other grow.
What I didn’t expect was how the blog would grow in that timescale.
Today I found out that this blog was one of the recipients of Young Entrepreneur’s Top 10 Marketing Blogs Award. While I was uber-happy to be recognized by such an organization to start with, my jaw literally dropped on the floor when I saw the company I was keeping – Seth Godin, Andy Beal, John Jantsch and Valeria Maltoni among others.
These are marketers and bloggers that I look up to immensely, so to be sitting alongside them is pretty mind-blowing. What’s even more mind-blowing is how the Young Entrepreneur award is part of what’s been an incredible first half of the year for this blog.
- In January, it was voted PostRank’s Top Marketing and Social Media Blog.
- In February, it came in at number three as one of the Top 50 Canadian Marketing Blogs.
- In March, it received the Hive Award for Best Social Media Blog at South by Southwest.
- In April, it came in at number six as one of Cision’s Top 100 Social Media and Internet Marketing Blogs.
Couple that with its syndication across the Social Media Today, WebProNews and Newstex business networks as well as its inclusion on the AdAge Power 150 list, and this blog has taken on a life that I could never have foreseen back in September 2008.
Now, while I could lay claim to having done it all myself and how the content has spoken, blah-de-blah-de-blah, even it if were true it’d only tell half the story.
As I mentioned at the start, the aim of this blog has always been to foster a community that would not only question and offer views, but would help the blog grow because of that questioning and view sharing. And these awards and recognition are proof that’s exactly what has happened.
If you didn’t come here and read my thoughts; if you didn’t come here and offer yours; if you didn’t question my viewpoint and make me think differently and strive to be the best I can every time, none of the recognition or award-winning would have happened. I’m not that dumb.
So.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for giving me the time from your life to make me think better. To make me question my thoughts. To make me learn and improve daily.
And thank you even more for helping foster what is, without question, one of the best resources of knowledge, expertise, thought leadership and more – our community.
Your community.
Here’s to you.
Putting the I in Social Media
Whenever I used to meet with a potential new client that was interested in a social media program, I always used to take a piece of paper with a little drawing on it.
The surprise on their faces was always entertaining when they’d ask for my ideas for them, and instead of presenting a huge multi-slide PowerPoint, I’d show them this piece of paper and the four words on it.
The reason for keeping it simple was simplicity itself – if they couldn’t see the benefit of each point, they probably couldn’t see the benefit of social media.
I’ve since upgraded that piece of paper a little, but the message of the four points on it still works today.
Identify
There are so many different social media tools and applications that it can often be like trying to work your way around a maze. So many different turns to take, easy to get lost with all the options available ? which is why it?s important to take the time to identify what will work for you. Decide what you want from social media and then use the appropriate tools.?
Identity
Having an easily identifiable brand is key for anyone both online and off. Although this is usually applicable to business, personal branding offers an invaluable way of building a reputation as someone to go to for a certain niche. So your identity should be the same across whatever platforms you use ? from bio, to profile, to picture, to logo ? keeping the same identity across social media platforms will help people remember you more easily.
Invest
There?s an old saying that says, ?You get out of it what you put into it.? While this can be used for most topics, it?s particularly true of social media. It?s not something you can dip into now and again ? it changes too fast for that. Instead, to really see the fruits of your labour, you need to invest time into it.
A big part of social media is all about building relationships ? and just like relationships in real life, the best ones take time to foster. Use this mindset with social media, place proper investment into it, and you?ll see the benefits fall into place.
Interact
It may seem an obvious thing to say, but there are only two words in social media and one of them is social. Yet still so many people ? businesses, usually, more than individuals ? are missing this key fact. Instead of simply broadcasting yourself, interact with the community and actively take part in social media.
Read and comment on blogs, both inside and outside your niche; converse on Twitter instead of just spamming your latest blog post or affiliate deal; share helpful news with people instead of keeping it to yourself for your own benefit.
Social media can often be a difficult thing to navigate, with different uses for different people. One thing it is to everyone, though, is a wonderful opportunity for all parts of you or your client’s business.
How are you helping others understand their opportunities?
photo credit: Eva the Weaver