time management
Should we have multiple company bloggers?
Oct 2nd
It takes a lot of work to have a company blog and your approach is not a decision to be taken lightly. Your blogging strategy will have a powerful impact on the direction of your entire social media effort.
Some of the best blogs in the world have evolved to support a number of corporate strategies. And that’s where you need to start — assess the strategy, resources. culture, and capabilities of your company. It’s almost trite to say “start with strategy” but it is ESSENTIAL and will save you a lot of pain later. Let’s look at the implications of this decision by comparing three different corporate blogging strategies:
The multiple blogger strategy
A team of bloggers contributes content, with or without attribution.
Advantages
- This is the most common approach because it fits well with traditional organizational structures, i.e. “the blog is run by our PR team.” So it’s usually the easiest route to success … and there is something to be said for that.
- This strategy can also shine a light on the many voices and talents in your company. MLT Creative does a superb job of this, providing a blog that examines inbound marketing, research, and creative strategy by highlighting various experts on their team.
- Multiple bloggers also distributes the workload and provides the best opportunity for frequent, consistent content.
Disadvantages
- When you start a blog, all these people in the company will say “Oh yeah, I’ll contribute once a month.” They are big, fat liars.
- Managing many moving parts and a content plan can be very complicated.
- Being wedded to a schedule may make you inherently less flexible and responsive to external opportunities.
- I have rarely seen a corporate blog with multiple bloggers that has been able to establish a real community.
The single blogger strategy
One person is the “face of the company.”
Advantages
- If you have a company executive who is a natural communicator and voice of authority, it may represent a unique opportunity to differentiate your brand. What customer would not love getting a first-hand view from a well-known executive? Bill Marriott blogs for his hotel chain. That is an advantage no other hotel brand can touch.
- If your goal is to humanize your brand and create customer dialogue, your best bet is to have a dedicated blogger. People want to connect and converse with a real person. It is difficult to ask a question or comment when the author is not even identified.
- It’s easier for a single person to develop a blogging voice and competency than an entire team.
- Having a single point of responsibility is the most flexible and responsive situation that takes advantage of the rapid and real-time nature of the social web. It also assures that the job is going to get done.
Disadvantages
- It may be risky putting all your eggs in one blogging basket. What happens when your celebrity blogger leaves?
- Funding a dedicated blogger may be impractical for most companies.
- It may limit the scope and variety of content you deliver.
Hybrid approaches
Multiple, single bloggers — IBM has more than 50 blogs featuring individual superstar scientists and engineers. It is the best of both worlds since it features multiple voices but also creates emotional bonds with individuals.
Blogs segmented by market — An emerging best practice is to have multiple company blogs aimed at different demographics. These may use a combination of individuals and teams depending on the market.
Turn the blog over to stakeholders – Patagonia, Starbucks, and Fiskars famously use customers as their bloggers. This can create compelling content, external validation for your brand message, and a great opportunity for engagement.
The {grow} model — That would be me. I offer a variety of content options in a format that could also be adopted by larger and more complex companies. Here is my mix:
- As the primary blogger, I establish a voice of authority and an emotional connection with readers that enables community.
- I have several regular, paid contributors who provide diverse points of view.
- I try to mix it up with guest posts from community members, videos, and cartoons to provide different types of entertaining content and a consistent publishing schedule.
Of course there are lots of other options and approaches and I’d love to hear your take on this in the comment section. What’s working, or not working, for you?
Twitter, Klout and the vacation effect
Jun 18th
As somebody with a fairly high social media presence, it’s not easy to “sneak off” for an extended vacation. I have a blog community to think about and I also get a lot of business-related tweets. I don’t want to disappoint people so I announced that I was going on vacation, where and when.
Although this was certainly a digital de-tox, I occasionally sent out a few tweets along the way. An interesting thing happened. Every time I sent out a tweet I was scolded by multiple people with something like “Why are you tweeting? I thought you were on vacation!” It got to the point where I cringed each time I sent out a tweet.
Now I would like to know something. Who made the rule that you can’t tweet while you’re on vacation? And why are we policing each other?
Certainly there is a business element to Twitter. Heck, I wrote a whole book about it. But Twitter is also home to some of my best friends from around the world and sending out a tweet is an easy and quick way to keep in touch with them along the way.
To me, and I hope to you, Twitter is FUN. In fact, I even did a little writing on my vacation. Yes, that’s fun too.
I don’t normally obssess about Klout scores but was curious to see what would happen when I went on vacation. Here’s the answer:
So the implication is, going on vacation makes you less influential! And of course, a little getaway also cost me value on Empire Avenue, which I care even less about than Klout:
Hey, I’m a great buy right now. Ha!
Scolded by my readers, pounded by Klout, abandoned by Empire Avernue! What’s a guy to do? The message seems to be that the world of social media punishes those who go on vacation. To succeed on the social web, stay put! : )
Addition to the original post: Quite a few people have mis-interpreted this post and I feel compelled to clarify.
This post was written tongue-in-cheek. I am not seriously advocating dismissing vacation for social media, I am not really lamenting the loss of my “numbers” and I’m not really encouraging people to buy me on Empire Avenue because I’m a deal.
Writing for a diverse audience is difficult, especially under the pressure of other deadlines, as well as making up for vacation time. I guess I assume that people “get me” and my sense of humor but that is not always the case, especially for new readers.
The point of this post is to encourage balance in your life and NOT be caught up in the numbers. Stay centered, stay focused, stay real, and the results will take care of themselves. Sorry for any confusion!
Social media and the vacation #FAIL
Jun 1st
I’ve been a social media netizen for three years.
I’ve figured out Twitter.
I’m figuring out blogging.
I know enough about integrating all this stuff to be a little dangerous.
But the one thing I haven’t figured out is vacations.
I love to travel and each year I plan one big blow-out vacation. This week, my wife and I will heading to Scandinavia and Russia for two weeks. On top of this grand adventure, I get to meet two of my best Twitter buddies, Jon Buscall and Kimmo Linkama (stay tuned!).
And while I’m filled with anticipation for this much-needed break, I’m also filled with anxiety because ever since the dawn of the social web and starting my own business I have not done vacations well. I’m probably not the only member of this club?
One thing I have learned about myself — I’m a hard worker but can only keep up the pace with regular vacations. When I don’t get a break, I’m less effective and begin to get irritable.
And while I have done a pretty good job TAKING vacations, I have not done a great job ENJOYING vacations.
Leading up to last year’s trip I had to complete some intense customer projects, which seemed to multiply as departure day approached. I had to get my blogging house in order … and of course I had to start planning for the trip. So by the time I left, I was exhausted.
During the trip I allowed myself to get sucked back into the digital tsunami. I could not ignore customer emails that started with “I know you’re in Europe but … ” And by the end of the trip I was already worrying about the wall of work and emails I would have to deal with when I got back.
So this year, I’m learning from my mistakes. I did a better job setting expectations with customers. I’m simply going to be unavailable for two weeks.
I’m turning my email stream over to my virtual assistant so it will be more managable when I get home.
On most of my trip, I won’t even have a wireless signal.
I’ll probably try to do a little tweeting when I’m gone because I enjoy that, but I’m changing my bio to read “I’m not ignoring you, I’m on vacation.”
And I’m turning the blog over to you! Tomorrow starts the Second Annual Community Week on {grow}. I’ve asked some long-time, loyal readers to take over the blogging responsibilties for a few days. After all, if we’re a community, I don’t need to do the heavy lifting ALL the time right? : )
We have a great line-up of exciting topics lined up that will present some interesting and diverse views. Please support these folks with your tweets and comments — maybe next year you’ll be a Community Week blogger!
Any way, I’m off to relax and I’m sure will be filled with lots of great ideas and stories to share with you when I return! Au revoir!
How to explain social media to your spouse
May 19th
I loved Amber Naslund’s recent post about the always-on, world of digital media. As she correctly said, The New World of Work Includes Social Media.
But here’s the problem. That’s easy for ME to say.
It’s easy for Amber to say.
But is it easy for you to explain to your spouse? How do you explain why you always need to be tethered to the Internet?
Before I get into the heart of the post, you have to promise me something. Actually, three things:
- You are not a workaholic/addictive personality using social media as an excuse to avoid your family. This is not a post about time management. This is a post about sensitively handling a shift in a person’s lifestyle.
- You are not playing World of Warcraft or Farmville and explaining it to your spouse as social media research, and
- You are responsibly trying to have a balance with family life most of the time. That’s important.
If you can agree to these things, I think you’re probably just a stressed marketing pro like the rest of us trying to hang on and stay afloat. If that’s the case, here are some ideas to explain to your spouse why you don’t have a 9-5 job any more.
Prepare martinis. No, that’s really not the first thing to do. The real first step is to “listen.” But if I wrote “listen” you would skip over this paragraph and that would be a big mistake, so I tricked you. I know you, don’t I?
Seriously. You need to just shut up. Don’t explain anything at first. If your spouse doesn’t understand why you spend so much time on the social web, let them express their feelings and frustrations FIRST. This doesn’t mean be quiet and prepare to speak, this means authentically connect and try to truly understand what is going on. Don’t rule out that they may be right. Maybe you ARE over-doing it. P.S. Don’t skip this step.
Empathize. This would be expressed in words like: “Wow. I can see how much this is impacting you. I would probably feel the same way.” Or, “I had no idea this was having this kind of an affect on you.” It’s important that you acknowledge the feelings of the other person as being legitimate.
Lead with feelings. Yes guys, that means you too. How does it make you FEEL to be immersed in social media marketing? Energized? Depressed? Excited? Renewed? Overwhelmed? Leading with these kind of words will help set the stage so you can have a non-defensive discussion. You can’t really argue with feelings. They just are.
Don’t explain, show. Chances are you’ve tried to explain what is going on before. Doesn’t work, does it? There is no way people can understand why social media is so time consuming unless they SEE it. Let them into your world. And before you have your talk, do a little homework. Have this ready:
- Something to make an impression that the marketing world is changing relentlessly. The Qualman “shift” video is always good for something like this and I’m sure you can recommend others.
- Be able to demonstrate your typical routine on each social platform. Show how it is connected to your work, your income and your future. Explain why there are no shortcuts.
- Give examples of how quickly the technology is changing. Don’t make them read. Show graphs and videos where you can make quick, bold impressions demonstrating urgency and change. Mine Mashable for that stuff.
Be honest. Chances are, the time you spend on the social web is not going to lessen. Let’s face it. These productivity tools only pull us into new niches and corners and rabbit holes. The world is getting faster, not slower.
Tune in to priorities. Be prepared to make a concession to important needs. When are the times you absolutely, positively need to put the smartphone down? Dinner? Vacation? Playtime with the kids? Sunday mornings? Listen intently, respond compassionately, keep your promises.
Follow-up. Check-in every other week or so and see how things are going on this issue. Are you keeping your promises?
OK. Help fill in the gaps for me. How are you handling the workload and explaining social media immersion to your family?
P.S. I have an urge to provide a little explanation here. Sometimes when I read “self help” oriented blog posts I think … “who are you to be giving advice?” For the record, I do have a masters degree in applied behavioral sciences and spent a lot of time with conflict resolution. I don’t write about this stuff too often but I will probably be getting into those areas now and then because it is interesting to me.
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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