WorkPuzzle

Tidemark Online Community: Dipping Your Toe Into a Private Social Network

Over the last few weeks, we’ve focused significant time and dialog on the topic of social media. In the process, we’ve attempted to give you insight concerning an up and coming business trend—the widespread use of private social networks for business applications.

If you’re new to the conversation, you may want to read a few of the previous posts on this topic.  Visit WorkPuzzle and scroll back through the discussions over the last month or so. It won’t take long to catch up.

In my personal conversations with readers over the last few weeks, I've noticed there still seems to be a little confusion and concern about how all this “private social network stuff" works. If you are confused, don’t feel discouraged.  Emerging technologies will always feel awkward and intimidating at first, but will later seem less frightening and even routine (you probably don’t get concerned about opening up your email, right?).    

How do you get over the initial awkwardness of new technology? One way is to join a private social network as a user before running a network (a virtual office) by yourself.

 And that is exactly what we are offering you today. 

I'd like to personally invite each of you to join the Tidemark Online Community as a way of “dipping your toe” into the concept of a private social network.

I promise you, joining is relatively painless (it takes about 3 minutes to create your profile) and you can control your involvement and privacy. By joining our online community you’ll experience a little bit of how we do business at Tidemark.

Now keep in mind—Tidemark is not a real estate company. Some of the issues that we work on in the virtual office do not directly translate to the ideal real estate virtual office. However, by joining and participating in our private social network, you’ll start to see how becoming a community manager of a virtual real estate office could work for you.

To get started, click on the link below. We look forward to seeing  you on the virtual side of Tidemark.

Join the Tidemark Online Community

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: The Manager’s Role in a Virtual Office--Part 2

We have been writing about the importance of developing a virtual office by establishing your own private social network that becomes your "homebase" on the internet.  

Having a virtual office changes the way you interact with your agents, vendors, community, and even competitive agents you are trying to recruit. We have written far too much over the past month to accurately summarize here, so you may want to read the previous posts before reading this excerpt.

In the last edition, Ben listed the two most common questions we hear: 

1. What is the manager’s role in the virtual office?

and 

2. With all the responsibilities a manager already has, how can this significant responsibility be added to an already full plate?

Ben answered question 1--it is my job to answer question 2. 

Before I answer question 2, I want to remind you of a manager survey we conducted in September of last year.  

When we asked managers to list, in the order of priority, the tasks at the core of their job description, the following results were very clear-- recruiting was number one, followed by retention, then training and building office culture, then coaching agents, and finally deal-doctoring. 

When asked in the same survey what managers thought they did best, only 6% of the managers answered "recruiting". Clearly there is a disconnect between stated priority and the desire to perform stated priority.

Here's the point:  The survey showed a need for a method to better align the expectations of executive management with the day-to-day performance of the manager.

This got us thinking... perhaps there is a better way to wrap all of the above priorities into one common platform that would make recruiting feel more natural rather than a chore that most managers seem to despise.   

While the "work" or recruiting will never disappear completely, what if the execution of the recruiting tasks could be mostly done as a natural extension of ongoing conversations within the normal office dialogue?

This is the goal of RecruitingSocial.

So, let's get back to the question--how do you add something like managing a virtual office to your plate if you're already maxed out?

Like any duty, you must rank its level of importance. Once a duty is ranked, you must follow through and devote the appropriate amount of time to the duty in order meet your goals.

How many people truly spend the first two hours of their day working on their most important tasks? In interviewing thousands of people as a psychologist, I have found that most people don't.

I would recommend changing your daily routine so that your first and most productive hours are focused on completing your higher ranked duties.

Here is a suggested framework: 

Step 1: Spend 30 minutes scanning email and only responding to urgent items.

Step 2: Turn off email and other distractions. Focus for 2-3 hours on completing your highest ranked duties. 

Step 3: Take a lunch break away from your desk. Leaving your computer and recharging is the key to being productive after hard focus on your most important duties.

Step 4: Devote the second half of your day to taking care of ongoing tasks and other reactionary work that requires less mental stamina.

RecruitingSocial centralizes the duties that are, in most cases, highly ranked.  And, it offers the ability to complete a lot of highly ranked duties in one central platform.

It is our hope that RecruitingSocial will soon be a part of your daily routine.  In our next blog, we'll show you how you can start dipping your toe in and seeing how this works. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: The Manager’s Role in a Virtual Office--Part 1

The rationale behind RecruitingSocial is that experienced agent recruiting will be much more effective (in general) if you allow competitive agents to become involved with your team before you ask them to leave their current broker. 

The traditional recruiting model of coaxing individuals to make a change from a position of dissatisfaction (i.e. “You’re unhappy with your current situation, come work with me and life will be better…”) will always be an uphill battle.  A person has to be in a lot of pain to make a change under these circumstances.

A better way is to initially let candidates experience and gain benefit from your organization as part of their normal business activities--this makes conceptualizing a change seem much more natural.  In essence, you’re encouraging competitive agents to test-drive (become involved in) your organization before making a new commitment.

This involvement is called collaboration, and it is something that is very compelling to the up-and-coming generation of agents.  You will also find that it is interesting to seasoned agents who are embracing new technologies to remain competitive.

As Dave mentioned earlier this week, the best place for this type of collaboration to happen is in a virtual office.  While physical offices will remain an important part of any real estate company, collaboration that includes a broad range of participants will not typically happen there.  Technology has equipped conversations to take place outside the physical realm, and this is where the water is flowing downhill.

A couple of questions we’re starting to hear frequently as we share ideas about virtual offices powered by private social networks are…

1.  “What is the manager’s role in the virtual office?”

and

2. “With all the responsibilities the manager already has, how can this significant responsibility be added to an already full plate?”

To answer the first question, I believe it is important to understand the reason a competitive agent would potentially be interested in collaborating with your organization--especially if that collaboration happened inside the safety of a private social network.

Master Burnett, a social networking thought leader at BraveNewTalent, recently documented the following trends concerning how talented individuals are now using social networks in the workplace:

• Social Networks are becoming the new “meeting places” for even local citizens.
• Social Networks are becoming the backbone of the modern support system.
• Social Networks are where content gets discovered.
• Social Networks are where discussions happen (whether you participate or not).
• Social Networks are where perceptions are formed, vetted, and cemented.

Let these discoveries sink in for a few minutes...  

If this type of information is really starting to flow between individuals in the real estate industry along social networking pipelines, there is a huge advantage to becoming a significant node in this information exchange.  You’ll never be the center of the information exchange (social networking doesn’t work that way), but your goal should be for your private social network to become an important meeting place for these discussions to take place.

So what is your role as a manager?  The best analogy I’ve heard on this topic is to think of yourself as a gardener.  What do gardeners do?

1.  Gardeners plan.  How do you want your social network to look when it is full grown?  What groups and topics would make your social network interesting?  What areas would need more of your personal attention than others?  If you start small, how do you plan to expand the boundaries of your garden?

2.  Gardeners plant.  With an initial framework in place, think about how to seed your groups and discussion so they can get off to a good start.  This can mean getting advocates (perhaps existing agents or staff members) to take responsibility for certain groups and discussion topics.

3.  Gardeners weed.  In every social network, there are discussions that need some moderation and oversight from someone in charge (remember this is a private network that you own).  While the idea is not to be authoritarian or heavy-handed, it does help to have someone shape discussions when they become unruly.

4.  Gardeners harvest and replant.  Every discussion eventually has a natural end.  Someone needs to be responsible for pulling the plug and re-starting discussions that are relevant and interesting.  Without constant replanting, the whole network dies.

Now for question #2 -- How can the typical over-worked real estate manager make all this happen?  

We’ll have to put this off until the next blog.  I will tell you this—it is not as hard as you might imagine, and many real estate managers are a natural fit for the tasks required to be successful at this.  Stay tuned… 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: 4 Reasons You Need a Virtual Office

Over the last month, we have built a very strong foundation to support the fact that social media is here to stay and have described how our clients can best utilize this trend to increase market share.  In the last two editions (1, 2), Ben announced our new solution, why we chose to invest in it, and how we believe it will help you recruit, manage, and lead the real estate industry in this new direction.    

There was a day when your brick and mortar office was your complete identity.  It was your castle...your fort.  It was the only place that your troops gathered for strategy and inspiration, as well as the place they assembled to perform the majority of their work.  This is slowly becoming less and less the case.  People, especially young professionals, are increasingly mobile and have more access to the things they need outside the office.  They are also quite tied to their social media platforms, in general.  The internet has changed the game, and within the most innovative companies, social media has changed marketing, communication, collaboration, and recruiting. 

While many smaller companies are trying to find a way to capture the benefits of this trend with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, they continue to be frustrated with the results of these endeavors.  Why?  

Ben described it well in his last article... You as a manager, won't benefit from the above platforms unless you have a way for everything to point back to not only you personally, and not only your company, but to your individual office and the people within it.  

First, imagine that you have your own online office where much of the collaboration, inspiration, problem solving, daily tips, and success stories could be communicated.  Now, imagine that outside agents, vendors, customers, and clients were able not only to see inside some of the collaboration of your office, but they could join in on some of it as well.  THIS is what the bigger companies are doing, and we're betting this is how the younger generation will strive to go about their work.  

Don't get me wrong, brick and mortar offices will always be necessary for a variety of reasons...but your online representation of your office and all of its communication and collaboration will be a key ingredient to attracting, retaining, and collaborating with the best and the brightest.  

So, here are four reasons why you need to seriously consider an online social media office:  

1. You need your own online TURF.  As Ben mentioned in the last edition -- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networking sites should be used solely as your outposts and embassies, all pointing back to your turf...your office. 

2. To build new channels for collaboration.  Imagine your agents pitching in (in real time) to help someone with an urgent question or problem. 

3. To create value.  Imagine developing a network of customers, vendors, and perhaps outside agents that you've been trying to recruit, and leveraging their collective brainpower to explore and develop new ideas.   

4. To Recruit.  Agents want to get a glimpse of your culture.  They want to have conversations with agents, look around, and perhaps even develop some ongoing dialogue in order to see the dynamics of your office and how you and your agents think before signing on.  This is one powerful way of accomplishing that.  

Karl Moore, of Forbes summarizes this trend well: 

"The benefits of collaboration networks are limitless.  These networks breed co-creation, shared value, and cultures of collaboration that can be leveraged beyond the network.  The new generation of Millennials and Generation C (connected, computerized, and community-oriented) have fully adopted the collaborative mindset as their own.  They are educated, interactive, and collaborative, and have grown up using social networks as a tool for brainstorming and problem solving.  This reflects a broad shift in generational thinking that is taking place.  The broadcast generation from the industrial age is being met by a collaborative generation from the new knowledge age.  The old ways of staying within the four walls to solve problems, guarding company information, and developing products, services, and solutions in isolation are gone.

Companies that can create or participate in a collaborative network and organize themselves to best leverage the benefits will enjoy a competitive advantage.  Companies of all sizes can start by setting up a network of internal experts, suppliers, partners and customers." 

And now you can too. If you haven't done so already, scroll back to the last two editions (1, 2) and learn about the conception of what we now call "RecruitingSocial."

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: The Need for a Private Social Network

As mentioned in the last post, Tidemark is in the process of pre-launching RecruitingSocial—the new social media recruiting tool that has been under development for the past few months. 

As we constructed this tool, one of the business trends that we chose to take advantage of was the introduction (and now aggressive growth) of private social networks for business applications.  

As you may know, there has been a “land grab” for technologies that equip businesses to build and maintain private social networks.  In June, I wrote a detailed blog on this topic.  If you don’t remember this discussion, you may want to re-read it  before digesting the rest of this article. 

In the private social networking arena, there are more than 50 companies that are all competing for attention in this (now) crowded business demographic.  As you might imagine, each company tries to differentiate itself with a unique approach and focus, but the over-arching theme is arming businesses to harness the promise of social networking technology. 

The alternative to focusing on a private social network approach, is to attempt to build tools that help managers make sense of and navigate the major public social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  There are some outstanding companies that have consultancies focused on this model.  One such company is Social Media Examiner.  It is amazing the number of good ideas this company generates in the area of marketing businesses on public social networks.  There is much to learn. 

In developing RecruitingSocial, one of the early decisions we had to make was whether to put our emphasis on a private social network approach, or on public social network methodologies.  Both concepts have advantages and disadvantages, and both methodologies have compelling examples of success. 

We ended up choosing the private network approach because we believe this gives the individual real estate manager a way of building a platform that he/she can optimize for recruiting success.

So where does that leave public social networks in this process?  We believe that these environments are best used as support mechanisms for a manager’s private social network.  

Although we didn’t realize it at the time we conceptualized this model, there were other thought leaders who were heading down the same path.  One of the individuals who does a great job of articulating this philosophy is Michael Hyatt in his best-selling book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World:

“A good social media strategy has three components: 

1. A Homebase.  This is a digital property you own and control.  It is where your loyal fans gather.  It can be as simple as a blog or as complex as a self-hosted community.  Regardless, it is where you direct all internet traffic.  Why?  Because this is the place where you can best sell your ideas or products.  You control the borders and determine who has access. 

2.  Embassies.  These are places you don’t own, but where you have a registered profile.  In other words, you have a regular presence on someone else’s property.  You engage in conversations with those who congregate there.  Examples would include Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or even other blogs you follow.  You generally need a “Passport” (verified credentials) granted by the site owner to maintain residency or participate in conversations. 

3.  Outposts.  These are places you don’t own nor have a regular presence.  Instead, you simply listen into conversations about you, your brand, your company, or topics that interest you.  For example, I have search columns in HootSuite that monitor mentions of both my name and my company.  I also have Google Alerts that monitor the same information wherever it may occur on the Web. 

The bottom line is that all the social media tools available fit into one of these three buckets.  If you are just involved in social media for the sake of entertainment, you may not need a homebase.  But if you are serious about building a platform, that’s precisely where you need to start.  From there you can set up embassies and outposts.” 

RecruitingSocial has been designed to be the “Homebase” for the real estate manager who wants to develop a social media platform for engaging competitive agents (candidates) in their local market.  

Sound overwhelming?  It would be if you had to conceptualize and build everything yourself.  That’s why RecruitingSocial was built—to simplify the process of building and maintaining a social media platform for your office. 

In the upcoming blogs, we’ll discuss the details of how all this works. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: Pre-Launch for WorkPuzzle Subscribers

As you know, we’ve spent the month of September exploring the impact that social media is having on the real estate industry.  Most of our thoughts have been pointed at recruiting and the potential that exists for those who become proficient inside this new paradigm.

During these discussions, we’ve hinted that Tidemark was in the process of developing some new tools to help our clients and other leaders in the real estate industry make an impact in the world of social media.

Today, we’re proud to announce the pre-launch of “RecruitingSocial.”  Like HiringCenter and TalentPipeline (the other products Tidemark offers), RecruitingSocial has been designed specifically for the real estate industry and will focus on helping managers become proficient in the use of social media for recruiting and other business purposes.

At this point, our intentions are only being revealed to WorkPuzzle readers.  The public launch of RecruitingSocial will not occur until later this month.

We’re offering a pre-launch among WorkPuzzle readers because many of you have had a hand is shaping this product.  I won’t go into detail, but we’ve been in numerous meetings and online conversations where we hear things like, “Can you guys help us with social media?” or “Why don’t you guys develop something that is in alignment with social media.” or “We like what HiringCenter does, but aren’t we missing a big part of where candidates spend their time?” etc...  We can’t promise that we’ve addressed every issue that has been brought up, but we have listened to much of your input.

So, first of all, thank you for urging us to go down this path and trusting us with your thoughts and insights.  In return for your efforts, we’d like to spend the next couple of weeks discussing what we’ve created and how RecruitingSocial can have an impact on your organization.  Also, we have some fun in store for you along the way.

More to come in upcoming WorkPuzzle discussions…

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

How are Other Small Businesses Using Social Media?

As Dave mentioned in his last post, we have made a concerted effort to focus on social media over the last month.  As you might suspect, much of what we write in WorkPuzzle is based on the questions and concerns that we have heard our clients express.  

But occasionally, we focus on topics that are probably of more interest to us than some of individuals who regularly read WorkPuzzle.  If you’re in that second group, thank you for indulging us for the last few weeks as we’ve explored social media topics.

Of course, this begs the question—if you’re not interested in social media topics, should you be more concerned about these issues?  More specifically, are you putting your business at risk by failing to understand and engage this new technology?

Until recently, the argument could be made that social media was primarily a personal issue.  Not using social media was similar to not knowing who the finalists were in this season’s American Idol.  People may have looked at you a little strange, but it didn’t hurt your business.

At the same time, the only businesses that were taking advantage of social media seemed to be large companies with prominent consumer facing brands.  It was appropriate to rationalize that your business was not Budweiser—you don’t run Super Bowl ads and you don’t participate in business-related social media.  It only made sense to focus marketing effort and budget elsewhere.

Is it reasonable to stay this course, or (as we’ve argued in the past few weeks) are there some fundamental changes taking place around this technology that could start to affect your business?

To find an answer to the question, it may be helpful to look beyond the real estate industry and consider what’s going on among a broader group of small and medium size businesses. 

If you think about it, the typical real estate office operates as a small business.  In turn, many of the marketing techniques that make a local small business service-provider successful would be applicable in a real estate office as well.

Hollis Thomases, a columnist for Inc. Magazine, just reported on several recent research projects involving small businesses and social media.  I think the findings will surprise you:

"It was only about a year ago that a Hiscox study found only 12% of small business owners 'described social media promotion as a must and nearly 50% weren't using social media at all.'

Oh, how times change.

A newly released study by Vocus now finds that for 77% of small and medium-size businesses (or SMBs), social media accounts for 25% or more of total marketing efforts.”

Let those percentages soak in a little bit.  The study highlights a significant turn of events.  

Here are some more data points:

“The Vocus study also found that 84% of SMBs plan to increase their spend on social media, mainly because 78% said social media 'has helped a great deal.'

In addition to investing more in social media, future plans include using more social media sites, sharing more, engaging more, hiring more help and spending more time on and in social media.”

When things change this quickly (remember these two studies were only one year apart), it is difficult to know how to react.  As I mentioned before, don't beat yourself up for not being on top of this six months ago!

But on the other hand, it would be a mistake to ignore this type of quickly mounting research data.  It may be time for you to develop and implement a social media strategy of your own.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Collaborating, Generation Y, and Social Media

I learn most by watching and listening to my children.  And it just so happens that my kids fit nicely into the Gen Y demographic, which sooner or later will be, not only your predominant workforce, but your primary customer.  (More on my kids later...)  Gen Y's are those born between 1976 and 1991.  If you haven't noticed, most products and advertisers are pitching to them.  Are you?  

We all realize that when it comes to managing an office of all ages, there has to be a delicate balance between meeting the needs of the current workforce (and customers), while also building for the future.  Neither can be neglected.  

But what does this newer generation need?  What are they looking for?  

In a thoughtful article written by Bill Paterson of Microsoft, published by Forbes magazine, Bill states: 

"The workforce dynamics are always changing – but none more so than the influx of Gen-Y talent that will make-up the majority staffing over the next few years.  Sure we’ve been hit with new paradigms before:  open-cubicle design, virtual offices, and yes– even the latest craze of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) IT policies, but this next shift promises to bring some of the biggest shake-up over last decade.  Why might you ask?  Allow me to explain.  

Generation-Y represent a new class of employee:  one shaped with a deep appreciation of technology combined with a desire to work collaboratively as teams versus seeking advancement solely on the basis of individual contribution.  Interestingly, studies have shown that this new generation of employee not only thrives in highly collaborative workplaces, but is now making this a key requirement in selecting where to work.  And it is in this area – becoming a highly collaborative workplace– which many organizations have their work cut out for them."

Given the above research, one begins to understand why Oracle bought Involver, Microsoft bought Yammers, and Sales Force bought Buddy Media; They are building the groundwork for collaboration to occur...All are platforms designed to meet the following needs: collaboration, cooperation, and a sense of belonging. These companies believe that this kind of platform is important enough to the future of their business to invest billions of dollars in them.  

So, back to my kids... They each work for highly collaborative environments in completely different industries.  Why?  Because they are drawn to such environments, and have actually left companies that were not highly collaborative.  Everything that I am reading about this topic resonates with what I am seeing right under my own nose. 

You might be wondering why we have been writing so much about social media, without clear direction on how to use it.  I can answer that by saying two things:  (1) We are studying and writing about it as a way to learn more, and (2) We are simultaneously developing a product to provide an answer to all we are proposing...  

More on this soon... In the meantime, please share your thoughts.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Is Your Social Media Content Up to Snuff?

I am writing this blog on the heels of Ben’s series (1, 2, 3) regarding Fear in Social Media.  Assuming you are open-minded to the concepts Ben discussed, and are possibly teetering on jumping into the wonderful world of the social web…let’s discuss content.

In my previous blog, I discussed the importance of engagement in social media strategies.  It is important to know your audience and engage them where they are, without imposing your brand, but rather share intriguing content that is meaningful to them.

Part of the engagement process is to ensure that what you are communicating has value to those with whom you are sharing.  Pay attention to your target audience, “listen” to their conversations, and then participate.  If something you share is interesting to one person, it will likely be interesting to others.  The goal is to get people interested in YOU by demonstrating the value that you bring to them.  The nature of social media allows for your message to be broadcast to a large spectrum, so let’s make sure what you choose to share has the effect you desire. 

So, how do you know if what you are saying is good?  By making sure it isn’t bad.  In a recent Inc. magazine article, Minda Zetlin, a business technology writer, speaker and author; suggests that you ask yourself these three questions…and be honest with your answers!

“1. Would I spend time on a Sunday afternoon reading or viewing this (blog post/Facebook update/tweet/video, etc.) if I didn't know the creator?  If the answer is no, your content probably sucks.

2. Will people reading or viewing this information learn something that will either help them solve a problem or engage their emotions?  And that useful information had better not be about your new product or feature, at least not most of the time.  If all your content is a product or feature announcement, it officially sucks.

3. Is the content intended to benefit the reader/viewer or someone else?  Thank yous, acknowledgements, featuring someone in your blog because you owe them a favor, asking people to vote for your pet project... all these things qualify as sucky content.  They have relationship-building value too, so I'm not saying you should never do any of these things.  But be very selective when you do.  And make sure you're also providing a lot of quality content that will reward your reader/viewers for their attention.

What can you do if you want to improve the quality of your content?  One simple way is to start paying attention to other people's content.  Retweeting a great tweet takes about a second, or maybe 30 seconds if you want to add a comment of your own.  Posting a link to a fascinating article or photo or video that someone else uploaded doesn't take much longer.  Actually creating quality content from scratch is certainly more of an investment, but if you do it in the spirit of generosity to your audience, that audience will reward your effort and your business will benefit.  Try it.  You'll see.”

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Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Overcoming the Fear of Social Media—Part 3

We spent last week discussing the apprehension many organizations feel towards using social media technologies for business applications (1, 2).  For many real estate owners and managers this leads to a hands-off (“Let’s see what the agents do with this new technology...”) approach to this topic.

This hesitation could be rooted in the possibility that unwise investments will be made in fad technologies that will soon disappear.  Or, like the Costco executive who once feared email, there could be some anxiety around the possibility of unleashing a force inside the organization that will distract agents from revenue producing activities.

Cartoon credit:  The Duffy Agency / Jetpack Media

So, many leaders remain on the fence, wondering how to handle this issue.  One way to gain some clarity on this topic is to learn how other, non-real estate, organizations are dealing with social media.  I’ll share a few ideas here from the research I referenced in my last blog, but I also encourage you to seek out this type of information on your own.

The Gartner consultants (referenced in the previous discussions) made the following “big picture” observations:

“Social media sponsors who successfully move beyond…negative attitudes tend to build their social media capability in one of two ways:

1. They either use it to demonstrate executive support and build confidence throughout the organization.

or

2. They start small with a narrow and specific purpose.

The large grocery retailer SUPERVALU provides a good example of how to overcome fear in an organization by demonstrating executive support.  CEO and President, Craig Herkert, saw social media as a way to respond faster to market needs, create a flatter organization, and share ideas and innovations… To this end, Herkert uses social media both to communicate with the company and also to respond to questions and comments directly and quickly.  He encourages his executive team to participate and even assigns comments and action items to them via social media where everyone can see.  This creates a cultural intimacy in a company with multiple brands and acquired chains.”

I know this sounds simple, but the executive team at SUPERVALU embraced social media by starting to use it themselves for day-to-day business communications inside the organization.

If you think about it, there was a time in the past when leadership teams within companies stopped sending paper memos to the individuals on their teams, and started using email.  At some point, that day needs to come with social media in your organization as well.

If this approach is a little too scary, you may want to dip your toe in with strategy #2: Start small with a narrow and specific purpose.  The Gartner researchers have some thoughts on this as well:

“[If you’re going to try a narrow approach], note that this is different than starting with a pilot.  Social media pilots don't work because they might limit the initial audience, which needs to grow organically and aggressively for success; or they tend to launch with a half-baked scope or technology that doesn't inspire the community to participate.

Instead, find a narrow purpose that engages people without threatening the organization.  For example, instead of deploying a social network for all its employees to collaborate more effectively (but only starting with a pilot for the "western region"), a company can build a social media solution for sales people to network specifically on how to successfully identify and overcome the top three sales objections.

In other words, consider a starter set of social media purposes that are highly magnetic to individuals to attract them into collaborative communities.  Purposes related to employee health and safety, customer support, or even organizing the company picnic, have all been used to move beyond fear and into action and experience.”

Bottom line: Unless you show leadership around the topic of social media and start using it yourself to empower business communications, you’ll never experience the collaborative benefits this new technology can offer.

While this may sound like a huge hassle, it may be one of the most important competitive differentiators among real estate companies in the next few years.  If you can’t speak the language of younger customers, those customers will find organizations who can. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.