As social media begins to envelop every part of a corporate organization, it becomes important that every employee begins to have a certain level of literacy in using social media tools.  This becomes even more important in outward-facing rules where “social business” is changing the way companies engage with present and potential customers over Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs.  At some point, just as companies emerged that used the Internet as their platform (Amazon, Netflix, etc.), we will see new companies arise that purely use social media as their platform.  And when that happens, it is a natural that they will only be finding and recruiting people over social media, because they only want social media savvy users to work for them.

You think this is way off in the future?  Think again: this is already starting.  Here’s a case study to chew on for thought.

As you know I like to blog about events going on in social media in Japan.  As Twitter is still relatively new there, it is fascinating to see how a different culture starts adopting new technologies in their own way.  And because I speak and read Japanese fluently ...

Steve Greenhouse, who has the labor beat (assuming that is still a proper term) for the NYT has an article today about the Obama's administration plans to utilize government contracting to increase wages and benefits for employees, Obama Aims to Use Federal Contracts as a Way to Lift Wages. The article focuses on the potential economic benefit to workers, but notes the concerns of the business and employer community.

If this seems like deja vu, it is. See Clinton to modify contractor 'blacklisting' rule, from the March 13, 2000 Buffalo Business First newspaper. By December 20, 2000, that story had evolved into a final rule that was published in the federal register. The regulations were suspended by the Bush Administration.

According to Greenhouse's article, the Obama administration proposal, still in the writing phase, would go further.

Much of the concern in the Clinton regulations by the business and employer community focused on this aspect. Each potential government contractor would have to provide the following information which would be taken into account in determining the acceptable bidder:

It's a win for everyone when you find the kind of organization in which your talents can flourish.

But we live in a working-world filled with changes:

1. A CEO may decide it's more profitable to become a manufacturing-focused company than a sales & marketing-driven organization.

2. Mergers and acquisitions create new cultures. New cultures lead to new values and priorities.

3. Customers change their technology, causing your company to change it's tech service response.

4. Downsizing. Fewer people, more responsibilities for those remaining.

Where Did The Talent Go?

I've watched each of the above grow into a crisis of confidence for employees and employers:

• Mysteriously, you don't feel as talented and capable as before.

• At the same time, the organization is wondering where it's talented people went.

Fact: no one suddenly got stupid!

Second fact: Something else will now need to change.

You or Them?

When you were hired it was a good fit because of how business was conducted. Now it doesn't seem that way. Here are some considerations when companies and employees find themselves in a talent mismatch as a result of ...

Some interesting tweets yesterday drew my interest to the content strategy discussion. See for example Content strategy is, in fact, the next big thing & Why Brands are Becoming Media. But, as is often the case this is only half the story. Why so? Well the focus in only on the social media market side, the brand as an external entity. The debate doesn’t cover the internal conversations, the internal brand, the social intranet. It’s not holistic. Not yet.

This line of thinking led me to 3 conclusions:

1) If a large enterprise (say 20K + people)  is serious about creating a content strategy, it needs to commit resources across the company. It can’t just be a marketing or branding exercise. It can’t just be social media marketing.

2) This means connecting up the brand and marketing teams with corporate and internal communications, & the .com and the intranet teams and potentially too, also aspects of the business including sales and product development.

3) To do this the enterprise needs an enterprise social network. You can’t connect these people up without social software.

Now here’s the rub. In making this commitment and doing all of this, the enterprise becomes ...

My wife and I were discussing apathy in the workplace as she is experiencing a fair amount of it from co-workers.  She works in a school setting where budget cuts, years without contracts and pay raises, lack of supplies, etc.., have left people burned out and apathetic about far too many aspects of their jobs.

As I asked my twitter community about this situation, one of my friends relayed this “Just had the bigwig come talk to us & basically say keep working hard so my bonus goes up and eventually we will lift the pay freeze”….  Arrogance, when combined with apathy and frustration is a miserable combination.

If you have a job, leave the apathy behind. There are plenty of people who do not have a job and would gladly step into your “miserable” situation.  Bring your A-game everyday and let’s get something done.

This ends our weekly inspirational speech, paid for...

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