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Blogging for Humans
- 1. Blogging for Humans or Blogging, for Humans or Blogging: for Humans (Intelligently representing your organization with personality and pizzazz, while retaining your sanity.)
- 2. Who I am...
- 4. However...
- 5. Fortunately... Personal Brand + Organizational Brand =
- 10. Many organizations are still reacting like this...
- 14. Setting goals is more important than setting rules. Why are we doing this? (It's okay not to be everywhere.)
Editor's Notes
- Mostly manage the blog and Twitter account. Also handle other forward-facing interactions like support on Get Satisfaction, and sometimes do guest posts and speaking spots like at SXSW.
- Not only am I not interested in giving up my online presences and personal brand -- they're a big part of what got me my job.
- Personal brand and organizational brand are not enemies. They're two great tastes that taste great together!
- Organizations run by the efforts of people. This is not a secret. And yet, traditionally, we try to pretend we're this homogenous, dry lump. The Internet and its culture(s) are helping this change and evolve very quickly, however.
- We forward goofy emails; we gossip around the water cooler. If we're isolated (at work or anywhere) we're usually miserable. Online is no exception.
- Trying to control a brand makes external people unhappy, too. Internet culture tends to be very egalitarian. Those who can get away with not being open have something other people want very, very badly (and often aren't allowed to have).
- If we ignore what others are saying, everyone else will, too, and it will all go away. Or, even worse, decisions about how to respond will be made by people who know nothing about the culture, perceptions, or problem at hand. A friend of mine works at a big, multinational company. There was recently some discussion about some negative social commentary being made, and in a meeting she asked the corporate marketing folks what their strategy was for social media. They didn't have one, because they "don't believe in social media". She had to point out that the Internet didn't care what they believed, they were going to use it to communicate and criticize anyway.
- Just start. Nothing will happen that's that bad. There are lots of books, but there is no rule book. The Internet is all about rapid iteration and evolution. Fortunately, that applies to everyone who's participating, including your organization.
- Sometimes you will screw up. Sometimes you will have to say no. That's okay. If you're sorry, honest, and sincerely and visibly doing your best to make it right (or are straightforward about why you're saying now), people are really good at accepting that and forgiving. Often the people you're afraid of disappointing or pissing off will become your best champions. And even those who get mad don't tend to stay that way for very long. There will always be something else shiny or annoying to react to. And some people just want attention.
- Some rules are common to all companies. It's the stuff the legal department manages, and largely common sense. Don't give away corporate secrets. Don't promise something you're not going to do. Don't slander the competition (or anyone else). Some things are just about projecting a professional image (like not swearing, though even that isn't really a big deal for some companies, usually small ones). And if you have a question - ask. Even better, ask and present what you think are the best solutions. (It's easier for people to pick an existing option than to think up a whole new one themselves.)
- Like most things, doing something just because everyone else seems to be often turns out to be a bad idea. Social media (like blogging) is part of your business. If doing it isn't going to benefit the organization -- why do it? Knowing what you want to get out of it will save time and money, and help you build a smarter, more efficient, more well regarded organizational (and personal) brand.
- This can be a particularly useful exercise for reticent management. Get their minds off how much they don't know or how things could go wrong. Get everyone focused on what awesome benefits the organization will reap from the efforts. Also, determining who is going to do what helps manage politics and workload. Expectations are set and just have to be followed. If a ball is dropped or mistake is made, you'll also know who's responsible and can focus on how to make it work better next time.
- If you think you'll just make it up as you go along you'll find you run out of ideas very quickly, and one of the most important things to growing an audience and brand is consistency. You need to be trained to post as much as your audience needs to be trained to read. Once you determine strategy, then you're halfway to having your tactics for achieving the goals, too, and will have tools at your disposal to make the day to day work easier. (E.g. editorial calendar, guest posts, etc.)
- Doing work online isn't really any different than doing work offline, but it's got a lot of unknowns, so people tend to treat it as very foreign. Framing online efforts the same way you would any project helps it become more familiar, and helps shut down the paralyzing doubts, ignorance, and unknowns.
- Being the face of an organizational brand is good for the organization and you. Your respective benefits and values will rub off on each other. (But the reverse is also true if you don't put in the effort.)
- The credit for your hard work WILL reflect on you, not just on the organization. But since this is really about the people, the best part is that those you meet, or who read your stuff, etc. will connect with both your organization and you, and you never know where that can lead. I know a girl who's a fellow community manager, but who went to journalism school and loves to write and report. She's networked her contacts into several guest writing gigs.
- The number of people who thoroughly become inextricably linked with their company's brand is VERY small, and, as noted, usually they've worked very, very hard to be that visible. Most average folks have too many hats to wear to even begin worrying about that becoming a problem. And beyond that, refer back to the Internet's short attention span. If you move on, the Internet will come to see you as the you of your new role fairly quickly. And your former organization will either jhave another person or people to fill your role, or its brand will begin to decay.
- Being part of building your organization's brand will help you develop key skills you're going to need for your career in the future, learn an incredible amount, meet a lot of people, and form extremely valuable connections and friendships. And most of that will start to happen in "Internet time", which is much faster than regular time offline (especially time spent at work).
- People will say and do things online, thanks to the perception of anonymity, that they would never say or do to your face. Just get used to it. People will start screaming bloody murder, and stop just as quickly if you acknowledge them. And start singing your praises just as quickly if you make a good effort to help them. Again, it's not about you, or what you want, it's about how you can help them get what they want.
- Business might be business, but it's run by people, who have feelings and moods and are generally messy. We manage that with processes and rules. These exist to stave off chaos, but people tend to be good with rules most of the time if they're clear, make sense, and are consistently enforced. It is very rare that people will get mad about something other than for these two reasons: they're mistaken and wrong, or your organization is either wrong or broken. The former is easier to defuse... Trying to understand someone's perspective, even as simple as how they interpreted something you wrote, or how they expected your software to work, can teach you an amazing amount about your work and what happens to it once it's out in public. Also, acknowledge screw-ups and changes out in the open. Don't try to be secretly revisionist. You WILL get called on it and lose credibility and trust. (Both of those can be destroyed MUCH more quickly than they can be earned.)
- Whether you're growing your company's online audience or customer engagement or just want to keep in touch with friends and family -- same skills. Also, things like growing a thick skin will make the Internet a more pleasant place to be in general.