Are you wanting to start an enterprise level conversation about implementing Social Alignment in your company but are not sure where to start? Here are five more questions have been devised to help start a dialogue in your organization:

 1.    How do we describe our corporate culture? Do you or your employees have a clear idea of your culture? It will come out, so be prepared. If your management team is more paranoid than North Korea, don’t expect to see a rosy picture put forth to potential customers. Corporate culture is one area that definitely shows up on social media.

 2.    What is the line between personal and professional branding? If an employee posts information concerning their company on their personal page, who owns the content?  Can we influence what someone posts in his or her spare time about himself or herself? The short answer is that if they share with the world that they are an employee of the company, then they are responsible to the company for protecting the brand.

 3.    What do we want the world to know about us as a company? Our employees are ambassadors for our company, for better or worse. For many prospective buyers, their first point of introduction may be through the social interactions of an employee, whether professional or personal. If we don’t have a clear message, what do you think will happen in the market?

 4.    What are our expectations around professionalism for our employees? If you have a dress code, code of conduct, etc., then it would be logical to have a more restrictive code for social media conduct. If you have loose expectations around how employees are expected to engage, then you probably don’t expect to have a corporate image projected from your employees.

 5.    Who owns the relationship / account? If your junior account team person connects to one of your customer’s employees, what happens when that employee leaves your company? Who owns the customer when a sales rep leaves who is directly connected to the customer on LinkedIn? How about when they have built their pipeline over social media? What happens when your customer service people build a following on Twitter with a personally branded account? What if your employee starts an account on behalf of the company?

 Certainly not easy questions – but then again, social media is a disruptive force which we believe will evolve many industries.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to take advantage of the additional resources Relationship Economics has to offer:

• Sign up for the Relationship Economics Monthly Newsletter and receive poignant, practical and insightful advice regarding business relationships and social networking best practices.
• Attend the next Relationship Economics @ Work Webinar series and learn ways your company can experience unprecedented growth!
• Text ‘RETip’ to 90210 and receive real-time business relationship insight and tips. Opt-out at anytime.
• Join the Relationship Economics Group on LinkedIn and join in on the conversation.
• Follow me on Twitter.

Are you wanting to start an enterprise level conversation about implementing Social Alignment in your company but are not sure where to start? The following five questions have been devised to help start a dialogue in your organization:

1.    What level of Corporate Transparency do we want to have? It is a spectrum, and you need to figure out how open you really want to be.

 2.    What is our definition of Intellectual Property? Your corporate IP is a corporate asset; think copyrights, patents, trademarks; but also corporate proprietary information, customer information, etc.  How do you define what is yours, your employees, your partners, your customers, and what do you share with the market?

 3.    What is the customer’s level of expectation around the customer experience? Do they expect to be engaged? Do they expect real-time feedback and response? Do they expect your people to be empowered to participate in social engagement? Knowing how much will also drive the organization’s view of how you should participate.

 4.    What is our employee’s level of expectation around employee engagement? Do they expect a wide-open policy for everyone? Are there industry regulations regarding participation? How is management participating?

 5.    Are there internal vehicles to vent for employees? Are you giving employees an outlet for voicing feedback? How is morale? Most who say, “I hate… websites” are actually ex-employees. Did you just go through a round of lay-offs? You may want to think about how your employee base will react.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to take advantage of the additional resources Relationship Economics has to offer:

• Sign up for the Relationship Economics Monthly Newsletter and receive poignant, practical and insightful advice regarding business relationships and social networking best practices.
• Attend the next Relationship Economics @ Work Webinar series and learn ways your company can experience unprecedented growth!
• Text ‘RETip’ to 90210 and receive real-time business relationship insight and tips. Opt-out at anytime.
• Join the Relationship Economics Group on LinkedIn and join in on the conversation.
• Follow me on Twitter.

Social media in many ways is reinventing ROI to return on influence, impact and integration. Whether you use social media to strengthen your brand, drive marketing efficiency, or increase sales, here is the second half of 6 best practices to enhance your online return on influence.

 1.    Know Your Social Media “Why”.  Your off-line and on-line presence must be in-line.  You must understand succinctly why you have a social media presence and how to most effectively utilize it as a platform.   To enhance your online return on influence, it is critical that you develop an online purpose – with both a defensive strategy (to protect your brand), as well as an offensive roadmap (to take your message to the market).

 2.    Invest With Unique Insights.  Some say ROI from social media is a myth.  Let me remind you of the three types of relationship builders; on – or off-line; givers who freely give, takers, who use social media as a personal billboard or a solicitation engine, and investors.  Digital relationship investors understand that the fundamental value in any social forum is the exchange of unique insights.  Although we may never completely agree on a particular topic or process, a healthy dose of dissent fuels the participants’ intellectual horsepower.

 3.    Who Are You Listening To?  Candidly, my first two weeks on Twitter were a complete waste of time.  I saw little value in the mundane exchange of useless information.  Then I quickly learned that Twitter ROI – for me – is heavily derived from following respected colleagues, industry thought leaders, and generally appealing personalities; those who shared insights I otherwise wouldn’t have regular access to.  Particularly if you rely on social media to source industry influencers, it is critical to ask yourself, who are you really listening to?  After all, we are the product of the advice we take.

 What other best practices have you found of particular value?

Interested in learning more? Be sure to take advantage of the additional resources Relationship Economics has to offer:

• Sign up for the Relationship Economics Monthly Newsletter and receive poignant, practical and insightful advice regarding business relationships and social networking best practices.
• Attend the next Relationship Economics @ Work Webinar series and learn ways your company can experience unprecedented growth!
• Text ‘RETip’ to 90210 and receive real-time business relationship insight and tips. Opt-out at anytime.
• Join the Relationship Economics Group on LinkedIn and join in on the conversation.
• Follow me on Twitter.

Social media in many ways is reinventing ROI to return on influence, impact and integration. Whether you use social media to strengthen your brand, drive marketing efficiency, or increase sales, here is the first half of 6 best practices to enhance your online return on influence.

 1.    Build a Relevant Relationship Bank™.  If you have ever heard me speak, or have had a chance to read Relationship Economics, I describe your portfolio of relationships as your Relationship Bank.  How relevant is your relationship bank to your social media strategy?  The three fundamental attributes in your relationship bank are its’ quality, diversity, and the investment efforts you choose to make.  It is seldom about the number of people you are connected to, but rather the number of interested people in your niche that you develop a relationship with.   

 2.    Toot Your Own Horn.  A mentor often reminds me that “if you don’t toot your own horn, there is no music.”  You must publicize your social media presence, consistently.  Create social links on your website.  Add social links to your email signature, or include them on your business card.  Include social networking profile links along with your forum signature.  Don’t forget to add a professional headshot where appropriate.

 3.    Become an Object of Interest.  Most people will make up their mind to connect with you – or not – in seven to ten seconds, based on your picture (face it, we are all shallow), robust profile, and the most recent one to three status updates.  Keep in mind that people online are browsers, not readers.  It is critical that you keep your status updates poignant, pithy, and of particular interest or value to your target audience.  Ideal if you stick to what you know and can intelligently articulate.  Post updates for the benefit of the consumers of that information, not yourself as the producer of it.

 What other best practices have you found of particular value?

Interested in learning more? Be sure to take advantage of the additional resources Relationship Economics has to offer:

• Sign up for the Relationship Economics Monthly Newsletter and receive poignant, practical and insightful advice regarding business relationships and social networking best practices.
• Attend the next Relationship Economics @ Work Webinar series and learn ways your company can experience unprecedented growth!
• Text ‘RETip’ to 90210 and receive real-time business relationship insight and tips. Opt-out at anytime.
• Join the Relationship Economics Group on LinkedIn and join in on the conversation.
• Follow me on Twitter.

I received the note below from LinkedIn and it reminded me of a handful of key strategic relationship best practices:

• We’re a visual society – we may not remember people’s names, but faces are familiar to us.  
• In a turbulent economy where people are going to constantly change jobs, titles, roles, responsibilities and geographic locations, you must keep updated information on your contacts.
• Social media is an enabler of strategic relationships, NOT a replacement of it.  Use these updates to proactively touch base with your portfolio of relationships.
• Critical that your off-line and on-line presence is in-line.  Consistently update your network with your progress, key accomplishment, questions, sharing of best practices, and unique insights.
• A fundamental value in our portfolio of relationships is our ability to connect others to one another – do this consistently without expecting anything in return

So, here are a handful of questions to ask of your portfolio of strategic relationships: Read the rest of this entry »

In an earlier blog we discussed 5 questions that will start a dialogue about social media in your organization. Here are 5 more questions to keep the conversation going:

How do we describe our corporate culture?

Do you or your employees have a clear idea of your culture? It will come out, so be prepared. If your management team is more paranoid than North Korea, don’t expect to see a rosy picture put forth to potential customers. Corporate culture is one area that definitely shows up on social media.

What is the line between personal and professional branding?

If an employee posts information concerning his or her company on a personal page, who owns the content? Can you influence what someone posts in his or her spare time about himself or herself? The short answer is that if the person shares with the world that he or she is an employee of the company, then that person is responsible to the company for protecting the brand.

What do we want the world to know about us as a company?

Your employees are ambassadors for your company, for better or worse. For many prospective buyers, their first point of introduction may be through the social interactions of an employee, whether professional or personal. If you don’t have a clear message, what do you think will happen in the market? Read the rest of this entry »