Social Media Success It's About TRUST

It's not only about Trust in Social Media it's about the real economy and life itself!

So what are you doing about building a sound reputation for the wired world? How you behave it will effect everything from your ability to get a job to being able to borrow money.

5 Top Social Media Success Rules

Number 5. Engage its social

If you have a large following it is impossible to talk to everyone however if you have a core inner circle at least talk to them. When you do communicate make sure you use their name and thank them for anything they do for you!  Secondly write to your audience on the topics they are interested in and stick to your core message. I saw a leadership writer tweet "if you don't like what I tweet now, use the un-follow button". He was upset because of criticism he received when overnight he started to put lots of unrelated trivia in his preciously serious twitter stream.

Number 4. Stay away from the "Fluff"

"Empire Avenue" describes itself as a social media rocket fuel and maybe it is. Players ask you to do missions for a reward and often you uncover some great information you can pass on, Often as not however you get to see volumes of fluff… volume for volumes sake!` There is nothing less dissatisfying than going to someones facebook page and seeing lots of photos that you've seen on the last five pages you've visited… the cute cats, loveable dogs, their pretty kids and amazing landscapes… over and over again. It's the old substance trumps form every time. I understand a few human touches are good and the occasional 'personal' stuff doesn't hurt however, not all of the time, you'll end up with a page that is like fairy floss. Very little sugar with lots of volume... not very satisfying,

Number 3. Don't lose heart it takes time and constant effort

If you want to build a reputation on the web you need to keep at it and do at least a little each day or your followers will lose interest. As I said before stick to your core purpose and if you can't come up with new and interesting stuff of your own at least curate good information from others that is pertinent to your topic or topics. As the video says… be consistent!

Number 2. When asking for help from your followers give them something worthwhile  supporting

Again using Empire Avenue as an example you get people asking you to share their information around your networks. Well sharing has two purposes, one the specific message you want to get out and secondly to build your reputation (or brand) generally. Asking someone to tell their network to say happy birthday to your grandmother isn't going to make it. Trying to get others to retweet about your upcoming seminar on how to breed Llamas isn't going to wash with a diverse readership. So if you want someone to share stuff about you make the information your distribute something of interest to a broad audience.

Number 1. Forget "you" in your social media communications

Some social media gurus or divas even refer to themselves as gurus and divas, gimme a break. I heard on the radio today how social media is feeding the natural narcissistic tendencies that a lot of people have today. Me, Me, Me… no its about them, them, them so its not "me and you", its "you and I" or better still "us". I know one notable player again on Empire Avenue who gained some notoriety by answering technical questions (web stuff) who posted a video on you tube scolding his audience for asking dumb questions. He then made it worse by posting videos of himself shopping, eating driving etc… and then complained that some people didn't want to do his missions… he had become his own topic and his narcissistic rants were just plain boring. 

20 Rules of Delegation

Delegation Rule 1: Only do it if you want to develop your staff not to just dump work.

Delegation Rule 2: Trust them first, train & test for competence before you delegate,

Delegation Rule 3: Clearly define the tasks that must be done and limits of authority attached.

Delegation Rule 4: Explain what's in it for the one you are delegating to.

Delegation Rule 5: Inform the team of your reasons for delegating the task to a particular person.

Delegation Rule 6: Answer all questions from the individual you are delegating to and others in the team or others that the decision impacts on.

Delegation Rule 7: Define clearly the importance of the task in terms of desired outcomes.

Delegation Rule 8: Mentor the person you have delegated to particularly in the early stages.

Delegation Rule 9: Maintain your responsibility for the task while handing over authority to act to the person delegated to.

Delegation Rule 10: Ensure the resources needed to the task are supplied to the individual undertaking the task.

Delegation Rule 11: Explain how the delegated task fits into the overall work flow, give the big picture.

Delegation Rule 12: Ensure that the person you delegate to is prepared to take ownership of the task.

Delegation Rule 13: Clearly explain the reason for the task and why it must be done.

Delegation Rule 14: Explain what measurements will be used to define successful completion of the task.

Delegation Rule 15: Get agreement on timeline and deadlines and include timing for status reports.

Delegation Rule 16: Don't constantly ask for update or hound the person you have delegated to.

Delegation Rule 17: Confirm understanding by getting the person you have delegated to, to explain in their own words what you want them to do.

Delegating Rule 18: Ensure support is agreed from other team members and recipients of the work and other stakeholders.

Delegation Rule 19: Insist that all feedback on success or otherwise of the delegation comes to you directly.

Delegation Rule 20: If the delegation fails be sure you accept the responsibility and if it succeeds share the glory.

No one delegates well where you work? Need to change jobs here's some resume help

The Trivia of Management

So why not have a little fun... just to see how many of us can easily recall all that learning we did when we were studying to become managers.... here's a few questions....

ANSWER ANY TWO in the comments section!!! Results/comments will be released/published on Sunday Evening the 1st of April 2012

What is Maslow's Hierarchy and what are the levels from top to bottom?

What is the Johari Window and why is called the Johari Window?

Are you a Theory X or Theory Y person and what does that mean?

What is the main reason for poor communication?

Can you motivate others and if so how... or if not why not?

What is the difference between leadership and management?

Can leaders be trained to lead or is it a natural instinct only that is found in some individuals?

Hope you enjoy the quick game of Trivia based around career issues!

Some information can be found at http://www.orglearn.org or you may just jump onto Google. Thanks for playing!

Management, Leadership, Career and Resume Help

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MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP CAREER SUCCESS COMMUNICATION TEAMWORK and a BLANK RESUME WITH EXAMPLES Free Resources Management Leadership and Resume Help Historically management and a managers attributes have been seen as falling along a line that runs from: autocratic --- through --- democratic --- to --- laissez-fair. Mangers once picked a style and stuck with it. Modern attitudes and practices are a little more enlightened and beliefs in such old methods need to be dismissed. With managers needing to be leaders a dilemma occurs because management has been about rules, input control, supervision, discipline and maintaining the status quo. Leadership is though more about vision, risk taking, inspiration of followers, destroying the old, seeking new opportunities and creating more effective outputs. A major requirement for modern mangers/leaders is to have or develop high levels of Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQi emotional quotient intelligence) which is said to contribute 80-90% of the competencies that distinguish outstanding from average leaders. IQ is obviously important in understanding the technical aspects of a leadership role, particularly in creating your vision setting and strategic planning; however, in higher levels of organizations, differences in technical skills become less important or perhaps as some argue, of no importance at all. Vision, excellence in communication and the ability to inspire others is where success lies The site "orglearn" is dedicated to providing at least some basic management/leadership information and links to other resources that will help at work students of management and human behaviour, to at least make a start into what, if you are to be successful, will need to be a "lifetime study". Not every manager has the time or resources to undertake formal study or courses. Most of my time is spent in training young managers in the competencies needed to fulfill their role particularly when they move from being the technical expert to become "the Manager" and I thought the resources provided on orglearn may help. The second role of this site is to provide individuals with advice on how to complete their resume. This section grew through popular demand and resume writers from all over the planet have found the free blank resume form and it is used constantly. You fill in the resume form online edit it print it out (see resume form instructions) and even send it to Ric for backup. > USE THE FREE BLANK RESUME TEMPLATE < Resume - Curriculum Vitae - Your Brand Your resume is perhaps one of the most important career documents you have and investing time on resume improvement is never wasted. A generic or all-purpose resume is OK however you must edit or make your resume to specifically match the particulat job you are applying for. If you require personal help with preparing/editing your resume their is a link and further information at the bottom of the blank resume form, resume samples and examples and resume help tips page here: resume examples samples form and resume writing tips Ric Site updated December 30 2011 Text within this web site is: Copyright©1999-2012 Richard Townsend Corporate Learning Consultant

Richard Townsend orglearn Organizational Learning

Career Advice Management and Leadership

"orglearn" was set up as a resource center concerned with management, leadership and the issues we need to consider in both these roles. The regular blog updates are to provide users with 'new' ideas to grow knowledge over time. The site and others linked were aimed to point you to information on management best practice, work issues, careers & succes, job search issues and to help with our best personal management balance sheet, the all important... "resume". The site contains a resume template / resume form with great examples of positive statements that visitors can edit and use.

Wisdom...

According to Peter Drucker... "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things".

From Jack Welch's perspective mangers need to deal with two fundamental issues and he says... 'You can't grow long-term if you can't eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what [effective] management is'.

In our quest to be an outstanding managers, or more importantly perhaps effective leaders, the following Zig Ziglar advice is pertinent... "Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission". I agree however first we need a powerful vision.

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Write your resume free blank resume form with example statements!

USE THE FREE BLANK RESUME TEMPLATE

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The Cornerstone of Success... Why we need a strong VISION of the future!

Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland gives insights into why a vision is so important. In the story when Alice asks the Cheshire Cat “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to walk from here”… the Cat’s response is: ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to go (end up)’… ‘I don’t much care where’… ‘then it doesn’t matter which way you walk’… etc. Vision (which she did not possess) sets our direction.

The Little Oxford Dictionary I have defines Vision as “…foresight, good judgement in planning…”

Vision statements help us define why we are here in terms of where we want to be in the future.

A vision is perhaps… “a statement of intent” according to the Drucker Foundation’s book “The Organization of the Future” (page 351)

In the Power of Vision video – futurist Joel Barker offers ‘Visions need to be developed by leaders (you need on a personal level be your own leader) and must be shared with the team (family and friends) & the team must support it’. ‘Sharing leads to agreement on direction’. ‘Writing a vision statement is not enough; it must be taken in and acted upon’. ‘Visions must be positive challenging and worth the effort’ and “Vision is never expressed in financial numbers”.

In the book on vision, “The North Bound Train” by Karl Albrecht on page 150 he advises: good visions need to contain “a focussed concept” or a “value creation premise that people can actually picture as existing”, “a sense of noble purpose” or “something really worth doing” (he means I believe a worthwhile future state of existence) and finally “a plausible chance of success” or “something people can realistically believe to be possible”.

Possibly one of the most famous vision statements from history is that of President Kennedy who in 1960 declared, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."

I personally like the statement of Thomas Edison (possibly influenced by his friend Henry Ford)… ‘Cheap electric light for everyone’

Site address http://www.orglearn.org/

So Where Do We Go When We Die

I recently read an article that discussed what we would leave behind when we died. Being a recent cancer survivor this thought resonated with me.

Additionally a website I had created for my local community had expired as no one had bothered to renew it. It was gone wiped possibly never to be seen again.

So what will happen to all the years of work and effort I have put into my website and other activities on the web? What about all the articles I have written and posted to my self hosted WordPress blogs?

With that in mind I thought perhaps I should reproduce my "stuff" ('wisdom') on a public site that at  least in theory would float around in the web-sphere forever. Hence this blog.

The images above are of my website created on: 12-Oct-1999 21:24:56 UTC. The initial idea was to provide a resource site for my management trainees. The site's interactive resume form became quite popular and I monetized the site in the early 2000's using Google AdSense. Until recently a reasonable, if small, income was produced, however the now infamous Panda algorithm change has cut the income by 2/3rds.

I was hoping to leave a small steady income stream for my grandchild (grandchildren) however that is proving a difficult and time consuming, albiet an intellectually challenging, process.

I will gradually transfer all the information from the site to this blog... hmmm then there is the duplicate information problem.

So what what will you leave behind of your thoughts and accumulated wisdom when you die?

To view the site the address is http://www.orglearn.org/ and it is full of career success tips and articles.

Hope you will find your way back here for updates and articles.

Ric (Richard Ian Selby Townsend)