WorkPuzzle

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.

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.

Overcoming the Fear of Social Media

Here’s a crazy confession.  In 1999, I started a social media company.   

I’m not kidding. 

I was working for a high-tech company in Oregon at the time, and I developed a relationship with a brilliant software developer in Vancouver, BC.  Ten years earlier, this developer successfully launched a payroll software company and had some extra time to dedicate toward side projects.  One of those projects was called “Community Circles.”   

Community Circles was the software backbone for a new online social network, but it needed to be applied to a compelling problem.  At the time, that problem was employee retention at large companies.   

As you may remember, this was the height of the “dot-com” bubble.  Traditional companies were having a very difficult time retaining their best employees.  Many were running off to new, exciting startups that were offering lucrative stock options and crazy benefits.   

How could a boring old traditional company compete with such enticing options?  Part of the answer to this problem (in our opinion) was....close personal relationships inside the company.  The rationale was that if an employee had close relationships within their existing company, it would be painful for them to leave.    

What better way to foster these relationships than a private online social network?  Since social networks were not available outside the company (ex. Facebook), an employee would be cut off from the social network if they left the company. 

By the time we launched pilot programs the next year, we were marketing the social networks as “PlateSpinner.”  The focus was on Gen X employees who were having a difficult time balancing their work and personal lives. 

Long story short—not long after we got up and running with our pilots, the "dot-com crash" occurred.  We quickly saw our “compelling problem” evaporate because unemployment was rising and those traditional companies were now having no problem with retention.  Not long after the employment tide changed, PlateSpinner died. 

This is a classic entrepreneurial story of having a great idea…at the wrong time.  In hindsight, the technology was not yet available to support the concept of an online social network.  The main problem was that high-speed internet connections were not common enough yet, and much of what makes a social network interesting requires larger bandwidths.    

By now, you might be wondering why I’m telling you this story.  The purpose is to provide you some background information, leading up to an important interaction that occurred while we were introducing large companies to the Platespinner social network back in the spring of 2000...  

The interaction happened in a meeting with one of the executives at Costco.  As you may know, Costco is headquartered in Seattle and was trying, at the time, to keep talented employees from joining crazy little retailing startups, like Amazon.com and HomeGrocer.com.  Costco had the need for a product like Platespinner. 

As we explained the concept of an online social network to this executive (he was in his mid-sixties), he stopped the presentation about halfway through and asked this question: 

“Would using this product require that employees have access to a computer and the internet?”

“Yes, it does,” I answered.

“If that’s the case,” he responded, “I don’t think we would be interested in giving our employees access to such a technology.  A couple of years ago, we gave them access to email, and it has been nearly impossible to control.  All they do is talk to each other now—no one seems to do any work!” 

At that point in time, what emotion was that executive experiencing?    

Fear. 

He was fearful of unleashing a technology in his company that would spiral out of control and cause his employees to lose focus and waste time.   

Looking back, I’m surprised at his insight.  Back in the year 2000, this executive was able to quickly get his arms around a new technology that would not become mainstream in the business world for another decade.  And, as he thought through the implications of such an innovation, he understood the apprehension that he and other business leaders would experience if online social networking was made available to employees. 

Now...fast forward to 2012.  While online social networks are now near ubiquitous in society and very common in businesses, the number one emotion that business leaders experience when talking about social networks is still fear. 

Over the next couple of discussions, we’ll delve into some research that Harvard Business Review has published on this topic and learn how progressive organizations are overcoming the fear of embracing social networking technologies.  The promised benefits of the social networking revolution are on the other side of this chasm.

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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.