Why you should pay your people to waste their time on Facebook August 25, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : corporate blogs, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, search marketing, social media ,Of course, you may already be paying your staff to spend time on Ecademy, Linkedin, Facebook and other social networks, but not know it… or maybe you ban them from doing so. You’re making a mistake. I say: don’t be dumb - get them on there before it’s too late, and you get the boot for not doing your job.
Oh yes, I’m serious. I’m actually advocating an approach where you pay your staff to use facebook and similar social networking sites to network, and promote themselves, and your business, to the world. Because otherwise, they’ll not promote you - they’ll just promote themselves. What would you rather pay for?
You could explain it to them like this: —
- You’re valuable to the organisation not just for what you do, but for how you relate to others, and who you relate to.
- We know you have a personal opinion, personal life, and friends and colleagues outside work. You know we wouldn’t employ anyone who didn’t.
- So we know you have a brain. We’re not going to say “don’t use social media in work time”, because we’re social people. We like friends, chat, buzz, news, even fun. Yeah. We know you’ll get your work done better if you get to be sociable. So go do it, but remember the work is primary!
- Keep it structured, though, and use your time well. Remember that our customers might not want to see all of our family and party photos, but they will want to see some insight and ideas that you blog about and introduce them to. So be good. But be you.
- Remember to keep your passwords and access secure - because it’s not our reputation we are concerned about - it’s yours. We want people to say “It must be great to work for those guys - they let you network and be yourself. Maybe their stuff is good too. I’ll get in touch with them.” We might even build in some blog business bonuses…
And now I could explain it to you like this:
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Listen to the Digital Biographer now on BBC Radio Wales August 13, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Radio, digital biographer, ecademy, mainstream media, online identity, social media, sound ,I was pleased to hear that my interview with Adam Walton of BBC Radio Wales yesterday sounded good, was a good three minutes longer than expected, and was ‘top of the hour’ as the lead story.
The programme first went out on Sunday 12th August, is repeated Wednesday, 15th August, and was online in the archive to listen to for a week. You can listen in online (I take up around the first 8 minutes) by clicking the arrow below.
I’d like to thank Broadcaster and Speaker Jeremy Nicholas for his first class advice on preparing for, and handling this radio interview.
Digital Biographer on BBC Radio Wales - Sunday 12th August August 9, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Radio, digital biographer, ecademy, mainstream media, online identity, social media ,I’ve no idea how the 25 minutes or so I spent talking with Adam Walton of BBC Radio Wales yesterday will be edited down to perhaps 5, but we had a good old chat.
There were of course questions related to identity, and I had to clarify that I don’t handle email and messages for my customers — and one great question was — what do I do if my work for someone results in them being offered a writing column or guest blog? The answer… well, you’ll have to listen in.
The programme goes out at 17:03, Sunday 12th August, repeated Wednesday, 15th August, and is online in the archive for a week from Sunday. You can listen in online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/mousemat/
I’d like to thank several Ecademy Members for providing some great soundbites for me to consider on the morning prior to the interview here in the Blogs Section at Ecademy: Why has social networking become so important?.
Specifically, my thanks to Dan Field, Samantha Cannell, Robert Greig, Mark Lee, Iain Wilson and Philip Calvert.
