TechWag

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If you ask folks about where I work and the things that we do there is a blank slate when it comes to peoples reactions. Not only do we not score high in Google, but if you ask the average person on the street about where I work you get that odd little look of “what are you talking about”. As part of what I am doing with our social media project, is work out some of the approaches that we can take as an organization to increase brand awareness.

In general we have a podcast server, a blip.tv channel, an open campus, and in the near future blogs. We also have our web site that has an RSS feed, and a ton of great people working out how to make the social networking design sing. We are on facebook, linkedin, friendfeed, and will be expanding out to other systems as well. But if you read “Can Social Media help your business be Remarkable” by Kyle Lacy, and you look at the five questions he is asking, what we have not been has been remarkable. If social networking is going to work for our organization, we need to not just be remarkable, but we also need to be compelling in what we do, and how we do it. All the shiny new technology, blogs, integration will not be worth much if we are not remarkable.

Kyle’s five questions are:

1. Love the product and service you sell and believe it can be Remarkable.

2. Talk about what you do with excitement (drink caffeine if you have to).

3. Send surveys to make sure your product or service is staying remarkable.

4. Utilize a blog or forum to allow your customers to share the story (to remark on your story).

5. Believe in the concept of using social media as a HUGE communication tool. It is here to stay.

I love what I do, and think that I work at one of the coolest places on earth. Having a job where you can help people, people you know or have the fortune to meet is something I have wanted for a very long time. This is what makes my job fun, and if you ever talk to me about my job, it is apparent that we are doing great things, delivering great education, and work with some of the coolest people on the Earth.

It is hard to make education exciting, but one of the driving goals in the social media program we are working on is that we want to help foster a one to one relationship between the student and how they learn. That means we provide the same material in a number of formats (video, powerpoint, and podcast) so that they can choose their best learning style. This is being successful based on student comments from our 20 week pilot project.

Surveys we get at the end of every quarter, and have seen my happiness score go from 2.85 out of 5 to 4.26 out of 5, I still have a ways to go, but the social media systems that are in use already are helping out. Students are getting jazzed about the technology, people are talking and suddenly many things are possible that were not possible before. There are many things that need to be measured, but there is a definite improvement in the happiness scale.

The blog is coming, and this has been the hardest component to build out. Blogs are political within the organization, any organization not just mine. There are power, control, and political issues. These issues will hold up the implementation of a blogging service for any company. Once you get the politics worked out, then life starts getting better and people can start writing as part of their job. The biggest thing learned from this is that people are somewhat fearful of social media, and the public exposure that happens with social media. Highlight the positive on this one internally, and allow people to opt out.

We are learning about just how huge the social tool can be, and as we integrate systems, build out more systems, and otherwise make the social networking support system that we need, we should be learning how to manage the controversy. If Amazon and the GLBT book issues, and the Dominos Pizza thing have shown us, it is just as important to know how to handle the controversy as it is the day to day operations. Frankly, start working on what happens when you get controversy now, that will save pain later on when you try to figure out how to engage in a negative PR event.

Kyle provides a great framework to wrap some of the questions you are going to have about your social media project at work. Based on his framework, there are still places to go and things to do, but using the five questions will help you narrow down what you still have to do, and what the expectations are of what you are doing with your project.