Employees are using social media. How should businesses handle that? They can take a hard approach or trust their employees, but which choice is best? Watch my video below to learn more.

The other day at one of my chamber meetings, a fellow member remarked on my hat and noted that even if people didn’t remember my name, they’d always remember my hat. I think he’s right, because it’s a fairly distinctive hat. In fact, that’s one reason (though not the only) that I wear it. I know people will remember me by my hat and that if they ask someone else about me, chances are that person will also remember if the hat is alluded to. Of course, I also dress up and I make it a point to have a memorable tag line, because I realize that sometimes it will be some of that information that helps someone find me.

Still appearance alone isn’t enough and neither is a clever tag line. What will really make you stand out is showing people you can walk that talk you give out. So be able to back up what you do and you’ll be pleased with the credibility that also gets associated with the image.

What do you do to stand out to the people you know? Each day, I meet lots of different people. Some of them are new, most of them I’ve already met a couple times. What makes someone stand out to me is going to half involve appearance, and half involve what they actually say. Afterwords I’ll research them and find out more, and see if my initial impression is confirmed or disproved. Depending on what I find a conversation may follow or it might not. That’s what I do to check up on people who stand out to me.

There’s also a social media component to this and I’ll cover that in the next post.

Book Review Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan

Social Media 101 is chalk full of useful tips and suggestions for how to leverage social media for your business. Best of all the writing is not only approachable, but its to read a couple of chapters, put it down, and then come back to it later. I’ve found numerous useful tips that I’ve tried out, from the book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is wanting to learn more about how to use social media for business. Then check out Chris’s blog, which will have more useful information for you.

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Social Media coach radio:  Is social media a vocation? In this episode, I ask if social media is a vocation and offer evidence that it is.

Social Media Coach radio: Is Mobile overrated? In this episode I ask if mobile is overrated.

Interview with Eric Radtke of DNS.com about geo-location and DNS safety. In this interview I discuss geo-location technology and DNS Safety issues with Eric Radtke, as we learn more about how geo-location is changing the internet.

I clicked on a link to an article on a website, and quickly found myself irritated when I realized that in each article the person wrote there was a link to the book he’d written. Additionally, he had a link to his amazon wishlist, if you found his article helpful…the premise being that you would buy something for him. It was clear to me that while he was offering valuable information, he was also going overboard on the advertising of it. Instead of interesting me in the book, I became less interested, because it was clear that he wasn’t offering information to be helpful, so much as to get people to buy his book.

I think making an occasional mention about a product you have to offer is perfectly acceptable. You want people to know about your products and ideally they will buy from you if they see value in what you offer. But if you always are trying to get people to buy you will turn them off pretty quickly  because it will be clear that all you really value is their money.

I usually make an offer once a week on this blog, in regards to the DVD tutorial videos I now have available. You can watch the videos and learn how to use different social media sites. In fact, by mentioning them here, I’m making my offer for this week. But for the majority of my posts I avoid doing this. I do post affiliate links, but I also make it clear that they are affiliate links so that you can knowingly make a choice.

When you are blogging or writing articles you want to develop trust, and develop a relationship. Cutting right to the sale doesn’t enable that to occur. It just tells you the person is more interesting in getting your money than actually helping you with your problem. When I visited the website where the person was trying to sell his book with each post, what I saw was too much advertising with an attempt to disguise it with content. He probably does get some sales, but how many people don’t come back to the site because they feel like he’s more interested in selling than actually helping?

The other day, I got an email from a person I’d done business with, offering up a date when he was going to be doing a conference. I really admire the fact that he doesn’t rest on his laurels. He has every right to, because he’s done a lot with his business, but he’s always trying to innovate and change and offer the same to people he works with.

Business doesn’t stay the same and neither can you. As I look back on the last year, I’ve realized that I’ve evolved or change my approach to running my business and explaining social media because of the very necessary need to innovate and change my understanding of the services I offer. And while it can be occasionally tempting to rest on the laurels of success, I know I can’t rest for long because there’s always something more to do and learn.

It is important to acknowledge and enjoy your success when you have it, but you can’t rest on it too long because doing so will cause you to miss out on what your competition is doing and also on how your industry evolving. To be on the cutting edge means to be looking at what you can change and improve in what you do, even if you already think its successful.

Success is an indicator that your process is working, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. Resting on your laurels doesn’t allow you to see where the improvement could occur, so it’s important to actively examine your processes at all time. Look at your client interactions and ask yourself, what could I improve for the next client? By looking at your process and looking at what you can improve, you avoid complacency and you continue to improve your business.

Different companies have their own cultures and not surprisingly the culture also extends to online interactions, including social media. Consequently social media policies that are developed for companies need to consider the culture that the policies are being developed for. For example, in a recent meeting with a community college, it was suggested that instead of having social media policies, it was better to develop social media guidelines. Semantics? Not really and dismissing the word change as a semantic would be dismissing the entire culture of the community college. That’s not a wise move if you really want to understand how they’ll use social media.

For that community college, social media guidelines respected a key belief they have about respecting the authority and autonomy of different departments. By using guidelines, the culture of independence is respected, while at the same time letting those departments know that there are suggested guidelines if they so choose. If we chose to use the word policy, it would sound like we were trying to centralize the different departments, which would go against a community history and culture that values independence, and not just in the departments but also with students in general.

Understanding the company culture and history is essential to understanding how a given company will use social media for both internal and external communications. This means its wise to pay attention to word choice, because it can signal a lot more than just semantic choice. It tells you a lot about the culture and the values that inform the expression of that culture. In turn it effects the social behavior that occurs on social media for better or worse.

Even and perhaps especially in the case of an internal consultant for a company its useful to do some research into the different departments and how they already interact with each other. Understanding the internal politics as well as how companies already approach communication in other mediums can help with the creation of a policy that proactively anticipates potential problems, while also showing respect to the existing culture that’s in place.

Social media policies aren’t developed in a vacuum. The company culture provides perspective, beliefs, and values that define what employees and even customers will do in context to the company. Doing research and learning about the company culture is essential for developing social media policies (or guidelines) that will mesh with the company and provide the needed integration of social media as a viable method of communication.

I visited an Ikea for the first time yesterday and was amazed at the level of efficiency that was set up to streamline the shopper’s experience. In fact, Ikea created an experience where the entire focus was on simplifying the shopper’s experience as much as possible, in terms of getting what you wanted, while also presenting everything you could buy. The stores are designed to help you get what you want, but also to get you realize you want more than you might actually need.

Ikea’s approach is a very clever way of upselling people. You can’t go in there and just get one item. The store is designed to show you everything you could want, so that buy the time you get ready to buy you’ve already got a longer list of things than you had when you originally got in. The question for readers of this blog is: How can we take Ikea’s approach and do the same with our business?

As I’ve met with prospects and put together more proposals, one of the biggest realizations I’ve had is that I need to include all of my packages in each proposal, even if I don’t think the prospect will go for it. The reason is simple: I’m not the prospect, so I don’t know what s/he will go for. Even if I think I know what the prospect will accept as a package, I provide other packages, both as a contrast point to each other, and also because the prospect might be interested in other packages. By being able to present all the options,  I help the prospect choose the right options, much like what Ikea does at its store.

What about you? What do you do to present all the options for your prospects?

I read an article recently which noted that only 50% of companies that are entering into social media actually have a plan for how they will use it. The companies that do have a plan tend to be much more successful at realizing a profit from using social media, because the plans provide actions and stream line the activities of the people doing the activities. Nonetheless, what was most revealing was how many companies that have plans haven’t embraced using social media throughout all departments or developed policies that defines what’s acceptable and unacceptable with the use of social media.

The entire concept of a social media plan, as I’ve seen it written by many different social media “experts”) revolves around marketing, but ignores customer service and Human Resources, as well as networking, which is somewhat ironic. But social media isn’t just marketing or visibility. It can and should be about customer service (Comcast does an excellent job with social media customer service), and it should include HR, particularly when it comes to developing guidelines for how businesses will use social media, and what employees can and can’t do, as well as having an escalation process in place for dealing with negative situations.

In fact, in general, there isn’t a lot of talk about social media policy. I notice that social media strategy gets buzzed a lot, but what good is strategy if there is no policy to provide guidelines or a foundation to support that strategy? Businesses need strategy and plans for using social media, but they also need policies in order to effectively integrate and streamline social media into their business culture and environment.

A company that is just starting out into social media should develop a plan, but make it a point to include policy development with that plan. I’ve mentioned a couple things that a company could add to a policy, but what would you include? Does your company have a social media policy? Why or why not?

I’m currently interviewing some mayors in Oregon in preparation for my talk on social media at the Oregon Mayor’s Association and one of the points that came up in one of the interviews is that social media should be used to push information, but not used to respond to comments, or at least that was how one mayor used it. And the mayor had some valid reasons, due to the need to keep public records of all internet communication, and also due to regulations on what kind of communication can occur using social media as a medium.

Recently financial advisers have been given a go ahead of sorts to use social media, but they need to use social media within strict guidelines, which also involve keeping records of what was said and only discussing finances in certain ways. Violation of those guidelines can result in the loss of the license and potentials for the company that employees the financial adviser. Recently I read an article that discussed this issue, and noted that many financial advisers are using social media without adhering to those guidelines.

In reading that article, and also interviewing the mayor, it’s clear to me that different industries will have different standards and policies that dictate how social media can be used. Some industries have stricter guidelines that need to be respected by the people in those industries. Conversely, not being involved in social media can be an issue, especially in terms of reaching younger generations.

At the same time, I don’t think just pushing out information is really using social media effectively to engage and interact with people. It certainly can serve to keep people informed, which is a good thing, but it may not necessarily generate the sense of connection that a community may want with an elected official.

What all of this demonstrates however is that different industries do have different standards and we shouldn’t expect that every single industry will adhere to a particular definition or level of interactivity, regardless of whether there is an ideal level of interactivity. At the same time, different industries will also have to deal with people from within the industry who approach using social media more openly than may be preferred by the industry. How the regulators of the industry choose to deal with this kind of activity can define industry standards for social media. In general these industries are doing this in order to adhere to federal guidelines and also avoid legal issues.

Ultimately, as social media continues to become more embedded in our culture and in how different industries reach out to clientele, regulatory committees will need to provide guidance while also determining how flexible they can be with how social media is used.

Occasionally I mention Third Tribe. It’s an internet marketing community I belong to. I get a lot out of it, from the interviews they do with established internet marketers, to the forums where you can get your questions answered by a lot of other people who are also learning and doing internet marketing. It costs $97 a month, but the payoff is you get access to a lot of great information about internet marketing that you can apply to your business efforts. You get to ask me and people like Chris Brogan questions about internet marketing.

You can also join the third Tribe affiliate program (I’m in it), where if people join through your link you get 33% of the proceeds. Sign up today.