WorkPuzzle

Content Rules: How Becoming a Micro-Publisher Can Make Your Real Estate Office More Successful

A few months ago, I acquired a summary of a book called Content Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman.  Our company subscribes to getAbstract, a business book summary service that helps me be more selective about the books I want to spend time reading.

The summary of Content Rules caught my eye because it makes the point that the marketing of products and services is increasingly becoming connected to content creation and management.  The getAbstract summary put it this way:

“On the Internet, a brand new start-up, even a one-person shop, can compete directly and quite favorably with the biggest Fortune 100 companies – as long it offers superior online content.

Today, consumers find the products and services they want by using search engines. Your goal is to create engaging, compelling, and memorable content –blogs, videos, podcasts, and websites – that people like, link to, and pass on to others. This can help your material show up on the first page of search engine results – even ahead of material from huge corporations.”

As a real estate company, have you ever thought of yourself as a content provider?  If not, maybe you should. 

Of course at a basic level, the primary benefit a real estate company offers a consumer is relevant and helpful information concerning the process of buying and/or selling homes.  In this role, you are providing content. 

However, there is a tendency to want to consolidate this content production role under large corporate-powered platforms.  While this is of some benefit, if you stop there you’ve left yourself vulnerable to competitors who leverage the concept of micro-publishing.

As you know, real estate is still a “local business” in most parts of the country.  And on a micro-level, a local real estate office has the opportunity to become the real estate “domain expert” for a local community or neighborhood.   How is this done?  By becoming a niche (real estate/ your specific community or neighborhood) content provider on the internet.

Content Rules gives several (non-real estate) examples on how this can be done.  Here is one I thought was interesting:

“As the new director of instruction at Reynolds Golf Academy in Greensboro, Georgia, golf pro Charlie King badly needed to bring in golfing students, but he had a very limited marketing budget.  King turned to the web to build his clientele by showcasing the Academy with quality online content that would attract golfers who wanted to strengthen their games. He presented useful golfing tips and explained that golf is not as difficult as it may seem. King believed that his expertise and humor would draw golfers to his online activities and thus, eventually, to the school.

In February 2008, King launched his blog, “New Rules of Golf Instruction,” offering free lessons via blog posts and videos. In March 2009, he published an ebook, New Rules of Golf Instruction, as a free download from his blog and Reynolds’ website.  Golf magazine’s website ran an ad-libbed video featuring King teaching a satirical lesson showing angry golfers “The Proper Way to Throw a Club” into the water. The video went viral; at 1.8 million viewers and climbing, it is continuing to generate hits on the Academy’s website, providing great publicity and great fun.”

[Note:  Charlie's video was moved to Golf.com (a site owned by Sports Illustrated) because it got so popular.  To view it, cut the paste the following link into your browser address window:  http://www.golf.com/video/proper-way-throw-your-club ]

Do you think the average golf pro at your local country club is a marketing expert?  Probably not.  If guys like Charlie King can do this, so can you!

The key to playing this game is to turn yourself into a content provider that produces quality content.  What’s quality content?  It’s content that your target audience would not only find interesting, but also helpful and sometimes entertaining.  

Here is a quick checklist for the content your produce.   Quality content is always…

True – Never deal in false messages. As author Annie Lamott teaches, “Good writing is about telling the truth.”

Relevant – Your message must be purposeful and must matter to your audience.

Human – Don’t write about your product; write about how people use it.

Passionate – People will not care about your products unless they see that you do. Use the strength of your feelings to engage them.

Original – An unusual story or a “fresh perspective” captures readers’ interest.

Surprising – Being a bit unexpected is interesting; being shocking is a way to go viral.

In our next WorkPuzzle, we’ll cover some additional guidelines for becoming a content provider and show you how this applies to recruiting. 

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Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

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 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: 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.

Overcoming the Fear of Social Media—Part 2

In our last discussion, I told you about an exchange I had with a Costco executive about ten years ago, while my business partner and I were pitching the idea of using a social network to retain employees. 

While it may sound crazy now, this executive (at the time) was still unsure of the wisdom of giving employees free and easy access to email while on the job.  I’m sure that most of you could not even imagine imposing such a restriction on email today because it has evolved into a much needed and beneficial tool for business communication.  But, that was the lens executives were looking through at the time. 

So, here’s an important question for you:  Do you feel that social media is on the same trajectory that email was on a decade ago?  Or, more specifically, do you believe that social media will become a much needed and beneficial business tool as well? 

Before you start to beat yourself up for being “old school,” let me assure you that many of your peers are also struggling with this same issue.  Harvard Business Review recently highlighted the work of Anthony J. Bradley (Group Vice President, Gartner Research) and Mark P. McDonald (Group Vice President and Gartner Fellow, Gartner Executive Programs) on this topic.  The Gartner research was designed to capture a snapshot of how business leaders feel about the future of social media.  Here are some of the researchers’ thoughts: 

“In just a few years, social media has come to dominate many of our personal communications.  We collaborate daily, sometimes productively, sometimes not.  Most organizations, however, still view social media as a threat to productivity, intellectual capital, security, privacy, management authority, or regulatory compliance.  In fact, this is the most common attitude among the more than 250 organizations in the study.” 

The research shows that most companies have yet to embrace a positive attitude toward using social media for true business value.  But, the results are not as out-of-balance as you might imagine: 

“Overall, respondents were split 50/50 between a positive and challenged attitude towards social media with many indicating that they recognize the potential for social media to address strategic needs and generate durable change.” 

Among the challenged attitudes (this is consultant speak for negative) about social media, the most common emotion documented, by quite a large margin, is fearfulness.  In essence, many business leaders are worried when they consider this topic because it is difficult to predict how the technology will impact their companies and industries. 

While some caution is always appropriate when new things come along, maintaining a fearful attitude can be stifling to an organization. 

“The trouble with a fearful attitude is that an organization often doesn't take a specific stance: it discourages and even prohibits the use of social media.  While this approach reduces the potential for undesirable behavior — that's the reason for restriction — it also stifles any business value that might be derived from grassroots use of social media.”

Let’s zero in on the real estate industry to finish up this discussion.  I’ve not noticed much discouraging or prohibiting of social media among in the real estate industry.  With independent contractors as agents, most owners find it difficult to prohibit much of anything. 

However, I don’t see much strategic sponsoring of social media strategies by real estate companies either.  Instead, there is an ad hoc “do it your own way and let the leadership team know how it goes” attitude.  In the background, there is a lot of cringing and even some hand-wringing that goes on as managers watch the messiness of social media play out in front of them.  Most of the messiness relates to the inappropriate combining of personal and professional social circles. 

Why is there no strategic plan for social media in most real estate companies?  Because there is fear and uncertainty about the impact this technology will have on the real estate business in the future. 

In our next discussion, we’ll learn how organizations in other industries are dealing with this fear and uncertainty and how you can start to set a strategic direction for your organization.

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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.

Recruiting Through Collaboration - Part 2

In the last edition, I included the following findings:  

"...The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge, sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises.  MGI's estimates suggest that by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers-- high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals-- by 20 to 25 percent."

I then asked the following questions: 

Question one:  What type of agent do you want to build your organization around?  If you answer that you "don't care," then there is little need to read the remainder of this article.  

Answer:  Most companies want agents who enjoy collaborating and sharing with the rest of the organization.  They typically will put up with lone rangers, but much prefer community-minded individuals, who are willing to give back and share.  The reason is simple:  Lasting communities are built by people who contribute to the whole rather than by those who are parasitic to the whole. 

Question two:  What would attract agents who would want to collaborate and share? 

Answer:  Organizations that visibly collaborate and share will attract those who will collaborate and share.  

Question three:  How do you build a collaborative community through social media that is visible to outside agents and provides collaboration as the first open door toward recruiting? 

Here is my 30,000 foot view of what I am implying:  You potentially have two complimentary goals: (1) Recruiting collaborative agents and (2) Encouraging the practice of collaboration.  Up until the last decade, very few methods existed to support or fuse these two, much less measure either one.  But now the groundwork is being laid for this to happen.  That's right...you guessed it...from the the Social Media platform.  

In their Forbes article titled "From Social Networks to Collaboration Networks: The Next Evolution of Social Media for Business," Karl Moore and Peter Neely write that the smartest companies have realized the power of asking "customers and followers to participate in brainstorming with them so they can learn how to be a better company, offer better products and services, or support the values and issues of the community...They understand that ideas can come from anyone, anywhere and at any time."

They site several examples of this.  Below are two very interesting examples:

1. Toronto-based Goldcorp, a gold mining firm, sought a new approach to finding gold deposits on their 55,000-acre Red Lake, Ontario property.  With analysts believing that the fifty-year old property had been emptied, high production costs, labor strikes, and lingering debt...the firm was desperate to find new life.  Without options, CEO Rob McEwan created the “Goldcorp Challenge,” whereby he placed every piece of information about the property on the web for all participants to download, study, and submit recommendations.  More than 1,000 participants from over 50 countries signed up to solve Goldcorp’s problem.  Submissions came from a diverse group of participants, many not trained in geology.  This open-source innovation network proved to be invaluable, identifying 110 targets worth more than three billion dollars.  By opening the information to a wider network, the company benefited from collaboration of internal and external knowledge banks.
2. The second example uses the idea of social and collaborative networking within the four walls of the organization.  In mid-2007 IBM created Beehive, an internal social network to connect employees worldwide.  The network gained momentum and currently supports 30,000+ employees.  Each employee can add a bio page, photos and connect with employees from other IBM offices around the world.  What’s interesting about Beehive is how the employees use the internal network.  There are three distinct categories of use:  The first is to connect with employees they meet at conferences or when working on inter-departmental or inter-divisional projects.  The network provides a mechanism to stay connected and get to know other employees and their area of expertise.  The second use is to gain project support and brainstorm with others on how best to complete a project.  The connections provide a collaboration channel to promote the project to others and gather ideas from other people at different levels.  The third use of Beehive is the opportunity to connect with people at higher levels of the organization that are not accessible via traditional channels.  Employees use connections to these executives as a method to share ideas and get career advice with the hope of advancement.  IBM Beehive is a great example of leveraging an internal social network to cultivate communication, interaction, and collaboration within the widely distributed company.

With stories like this, it's no wonder that Oracle bought Involver, Microsoft bought Yammers, and Sales Force bought Buddy Media. 

You are probably asking should we build something on Facebook to begin this process?  Probably not.  Facebook is far too general in scope to use for something like the above and gain any traction within your office or company.  But, what if you had your own community site...sort of a virtual office where outsiders could peak in and see how you think....where your agents could collaborate and problem solve.  What if outside agents could join in the discussion and contribute to ideas and vice-versa? 

Are you seeing where I'm going with this? 

We at Tidemark, are interested enough in the power of this direction, that we began thinking hard and developing strategies in alignment with this movement.  More on this sometime in the near future.... 

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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.

Recruiting Through Collaboration

As you know, we are devoting the next several editions of WorkPuzzle to the exploration of recruiting experienced agents through the tools of social media.  Let me first be clear:  In many ways, I abhor social media.  I am bored easily with it, and frankly most of it seems like a waste of time.  But, then again, I am a baby boomer, and probably as a result could be labeled as a late adaptor to much of the last 15 years of innovation.  But, I have to admit...through the last month of reading and researching this topic, I have come to clearly believe that the vital need to confront this topic has never been more paramount.  

I am finding that the same "real time" and global scale access to social interactions used for political upheaval and consumer research is currently being harnessed by the best and brightest companies for a wide variety of solutions.  Why?  There is reason to believe that the organizations who can figure out how to harness these interactions will lead the next wave of innovation.  But how do you harness these social interactions in a way that makes sense? 

Lee has already presented a convincing argument that directly selling anything to anyone rarely, if ever, really works..and especially through social media; This includes selling your company to an experienced agent through some cheesy pitch.  The best people just won't bite on a blatant pitch of "come join our company."  But what will they respond to?  

Allow me to develop a possibility.  

Many smart-minded people are taking the time to research and write about the untapped potential of collaboration through social media.  

McKinsey Global Institute writes:

"While 72 percent of companies use social technologies in some way, very few are anywhere near to achieving the full potential benefit.  In fact, the most powerful applications of social technologies in the global economy are largely untapped.  Companies will go on developing ways to reach consumers through social technologies and gathering insights for product development, marketing, and customer service.  Yet the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge, sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises.  MGI's estimates suggest that by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers-- high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals-- by 20 to 25 percent."

So, you ask:  "What does this have to do with recruiting experienced agents?"  And in return, I ask you to ponder the following three topics over the next few days:  

Question one:  What type of agent do you want to build your organization around?  If you answer that you "don't care," then there is little need to read the remainder of this article.  

Answer:  Most companies want agents who enjoy collaborating and sharing with the rest of the organization.  They typically will put up with lone rangers, but much prefer community-minded individuals, who are willing to give back and share.  The reason is simple:  Lasting communities are built by people who contribute to the whole rather than by those who are parasitic to the whole. 

Question two:  What would attract agents who would want to collaborate and share? 

Answer:  Organizations that visibly collaborate and share will attract those who will collaborate and share.  

Question three:  How do you build a collaborative community through social media that is visible to outside agents and provides collaboration as the first open door toward recruiting? 

Answer:  Stay tuned....This is a little more complex -- I'll offer a possible answer in the next edition... 

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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.