Social Enchilada

Mar04

social media, benefits of social media

Does your organization block social media sites?

There is a stigma about social media in the workplace. Many CIOs and IT directors see things like Twitter and Facebook as productivity killers. In many organizations, access to these platforms are blocked at the firewall. But should they be?

I’m guessing you know my answer on this ... NO.

While the paranoid IT department blocks these sites citing productivity and bandwidth concerns, they are overlooking the benefits of allowing employees access to social networks.

Recruiting: Happy employees will happily talk about how great it is to work for your company, while you stand poised to reap the benefits of this through recruiting. In fact, I would suggest that you setup a company fan page and encourage your employees to be there talking about you.

Brand management: Your employees are your team. They are your first line of defense and offense for your company. Happy employees can act as company ambassadors and help evangelize your company to the online world. And if you’ve provided the appropriate mechanisms, can help you identify a potential online crisis; giving your management team the ability to react before things get out-of-hand.

Professional networking: I’ve met alot of contacts through social media channels while working at MindComet and have been able to grow my professional network significantly. This has benefited me and MindComet. People from my network have provided training to our staff and some of these people have spent money with us.

If you are going to encourage social media at your company, by no means do I think you should just open the flood gates. I would suggest that you first draft a corporate social media policy and then educating your staff about the policy. If you’re not sure how to write a social media policy, check out IBM’s policy, and use a reference. You also should define and communicate the consequences for violating your company’s social media policy.

Mar03

community

March Florida community events

Ignite Orlando
March 4, 2009 at 6 pm

Slingapours at Wall Street Plaza
Downtown Orlando, FL

http://www.igniteorlando.com

It is a free event held at night during a weekday. A place where we can all network, talk, drink and watch presentations.

Tweet-Up Happy Hour
March 6, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Fiddler’s Green
WInter Park, FL

Tweet-Up at Fiddler’s Green in Winter Park

doterati event - It’s Hard Being Human: Social Media and You
March 26, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm

TBA Downtown Orlando, FL

http://doterati.com/events/its-hard-being-human-social

Are you being social? Social media has taken the world by storm – and your business needs to get in on the act. Steve Spalding and Nathan Thompson of Crossing Gaps Consulting will show you how to tap into this valuable resource. If your business needs to be more “social,” check out this event where you will come away with a “Social Media Playbook” full of tips and tricks.

Mar02

skittles

I’m not sold on Skittles.com

Have you seen the new Skittles.com?

I’m on the fence in my response to it.

On one hand, they’ve made the site one big mashup of social components. Want to get information about a Skittles flavor? Click on the navigation widget and the Wikipedia page for that flavor appears. Want to see pictures with Skittles as the subject? Click on the navigation widget and a Flickr search page for the term “Skittles” appears. I like the concept and the Twittersphere agrees. As I write this post, #skittles is one of the top trends on Twitter.

On the other hand though, I find myself scratching my head asking, what’s the point? What are their objectives? Does this site help to SELL more Skittles or help Skittles gain feedback about their product? I love social media, but implementing social media for the sake of it, without a clear goal, just doesn’t compute.

To their credit, there is a tremendous amount of buzz on the Internet about this site. Hell, I’m blogging about it. But I ask myself, how long does that buzz last? Once the novelty of the mashup is gone, why should I go back to Skittles.com?

MindComet

Jeremy Hilton