by Jason Davis on Monday, April 26th, 2010 | 4 Comments »

The power of social media is not rocket science – it provides a channel to increase connections and enhance communications by exponentially expanding your reach.  What you do with those connections and your now boundary-less network is up to you – no tool will convince people to buy your services, be your friend, or connect you or your company to clients, consumers, or partners.

However, I believe that if you focus on engaging your community, listening, and adding value where possible, you will find that social media will open doors that you didn’t even know were there before.

My new charity website, cyclingagainstcancer.com, launched yesterday, and it would have never happened the way it did without my community that I have built through my social media presence.  It went a little something like this…

In November 2009, I was reading more and more about the power of Twitter.  I started to think that I was missing a big opportunity to engage with thought leaders in my industry, as well as potential clients and business partners.  I quickly discovered that I was right.  I had already known that my strategy was also to develop a blog – that I had ideas and discussion that wouldn’t fit in 140-character tweets – and conceptually I had developed the idea of HR Think Tank.  Problem is, I knew nothing about developing a blog.  I didn’t know what WordPress was.  Or the Thesis theme, Google XML Sitemaps, or Feedburner.  Enter Michael Long.  Despite the fact that we barely knew each other, Michael stepped up and got me going.  This site wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Michael, and he was in on the call talking conceptually about cyclingagainstcancer.com as well.  He’s a great guy, and there’s a reason he has 17,000+ followers on Twitter – he’s smart, adds value, and he’ll help you out when you need it.

Right around that same time, I attended the #socialrecruiting summit in New York City.  When I committed to increasing my social media footprint, I promised myself I wouldn’t just engage online – where appropriate, I would take the opportunity to meet in person.  That, combined with SEI investigating an increased business presence (both recruiting and otherwise) on various social media platforms, brought me to the Social Recruiting Summit.  It was there that I first started talking to Laurie Ruettimann and Sarah White.  Both are respected thought leaders in the HR and recruitment space, and I am glad I know them.  Increased awareness of both this blog, and of cyclingagainstcancer.com can be attributed to Laurie, who featured me on her Sunday HR Shout Out, and Sarah has continuously gone above and beyond, with one of the many things being the purchase and subsequent donation of a design day from the idesignyourlogo.com team for our logo design.  Speaking of idesignyourlogo.com, they are some great guys – not only do they design some amazing logos, but they also raised money for my PMC, effectively donating over 7 times the cost of the logo in the first place.

With the logo in hand, cyclingagainstcancer.com started to become a reality.  It was then that Veronica Ludwig stepped up huge.  Like with Michael, I had hardly engaged Veronica before she offered to help with design and hosting of the new site.  Lucky for me, she is a great person with a soft-spot for philanthropic efforts and social media.  When Veronica got busy, I turned to Matt Chevy, who blogs over at Life Without Pants, to put my mental concept of the site into a design.  Matt was flexible with our partnership, and was a truly engaging consultant.  His portfolio of work is impressive, and I am happy that I chose him to put my thoughts online to help build the cyclingagainstcancer.com community.

Last but not least, there’s Meghan M. Biro.  I think every one of my readers knows Meghan.  It’s hard not to – she’s engaging, personable, and the founder of TalentCulture, a social community focused on building a culture of innovation, awareness, creativity, and understanding.  That’s what we’re trying to do as well, but around the PMC and cancer advocacy.  Despite being spread thin across a number of other commitments, Meghan stepped up as our first corporate sponsor for cyclingagainstcancer.  It’s very much appreciated.

I’m sure I forgot a host of others, and I am positive there will be many more to add to this list.  Being successful in social media and in business is about the give, more than the take, and as I read back through this post and think about the last 6 months, I find it hard to believe that I have given back half of what I have received from this great community.  I’ll keep trying, and together, we will keep on moving the ball forward.  Thanks for your continued support, and please know that you will always have mine!

by Jason Davis on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

If you know me, you know that I have a book buying addiction.  The other day, I strolled in to Barnes and Noble and saw a career help section set up.  I picked up a small book called The Job Survival Instruction Book, which is a book offering “400+ Tips, Tricks, and Techniques” on how to get, and stay, employed.  I love the tip Karin Ireland gives to readers on page 113:

Here are four types of people, and how to win them over:

1. Directors like to be in charge.  Give them facts quickly and clearly.  Let them know what to expect.

2. Promoters like to gather information and pass it along.  Help them find ways to solve problems and overcome challenges.

3. Analyzers like to question and analyze issues from all sides.  Don’t ask them to be promoters.

4. Supporters like to support others.  Let them know you appreciate their help.

Whether or not you agree with boiling down all people into these four types (or if these are even the ‘right’ types), you should certainly make it a common practice to analyze your audience – be it customers, peers, superiors, or your employees.  To be successful, you need an understanding on how they approach issues and decision making.  Knowing your audience, and tailoring the way you deliver information to help influence the outcome, is one of those ‘difficult to teach’ traits that isn’t on a resume or a job description, but it’s a rockstar trait that separates the great from the rest of the pack.

Think about it – are you assuming your customers want to see what YOU want to show them in your latest software demo?  Do they make decisions the same way, and on the same information as you?  Are you killing a superior with data and information that is impacting their ability to make a timely decision impacting your project?

Do you agree with these four types?  Do you have any experience with seeing a lack of understanding of personality types impact your business?  I would love to hear about it in the comments section!