The Trouble with Trilogies
This is the fourth attempt I have made at drafting the 2nd installment in my Disney Trilogy posts. The idea I want to cover seems to taking up a lot of room in my head, but not transferring well into blog post form. I am pretty sure that when you are done reading this, you will feel as if you have just finished watching The Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers. In other words, the middle part of a trilogy always feels unfinished and sort of half done. Hopefully you will continue reading beyond the caveat!
Blogging the Magic Kingdom
The Disney Institute Consulting Team
This post is the second in a set of three final posts I am writing on thoughts arising out of the recent consulting work that I did with the Disney Institute as part of a group of human resources professionals who are deeply immersed in social media. This group included Alicia Arenas, Michael Long, Mark Stelzner, Yasha Stelzner, and myself.
The first part of this trilogy of posts was titled A Disney Trilogy: Consulting. It covers my thoughts on what the value of the consulting process was to each of the parties involved. In this post, I want to discuss the role of the consultants. Not in terms of talking about the skills of each of the team members or what their background contributed in the process. I think each of the individuals could do a better job of that on their own blogs if they choose to than I ever could. I’ll just say this, the cumulative knowledge, skills and abilities of this group was impressive. Michael Long has created a page on his The Red Recruiter blog that aggregates links to many our Disney Institute posts, and also has a Twubs site that aggregates the Twitter stream related to this event with the hashtag #DisneyI.
So, if I am not writing about the consultants specifically, then what the hell is this post actually about? It is about the progression of the use of social media from a communication technique into something different. It is about how the blending of human resources skills and a solid knowledge of social media techniques may be pushing the HR field in a new direction in which the two areas blend to establish a new range of consultative skills and services.
Grandiose? Perhaps, perhaps not!
The Red Recruiter as Photo Guy!
The Evolution of Live Blogging
I first became aware of live blogging in Summer 2008 in two different ways.
Laurie Ruettimann scored a brilliant coup when she attended the 2008 SHRM conference as a member of the press, and used twitter and her blog to share information from the event. I was attending geek/blogger conferences such as IZEAfest and BlogOrlando at about the same time. Being a nerd at heart, I decided to emulate Laurie and the more tech savvy bloggers I met at these conferences and started to live blog myself as a way to expand my blogging experience. Since then, I have have live blogged or been invited to live blog numerous events, including:
- 2008 BarCamp Tampa
- 2008 IZEAfest
- BlogOrlando3
- Kennedy Recruiting Conference in Orlando, Fall 2008
- 2009 Employers of Excellence Conference by HR.com in Las Vegas
- On the Cutting Edge (SHRMA)
- 2009 SHRM National Conference in New Orleans
- 2009 HR Florida State conference in Orlando
- The Walt Disney Institute in Orlando
- 2009 Fall ERE Expo in Hollywood, FL
- 2009 BarCamp Tampa
- 2009 IZEAfest at SeaWorld
- 2009 Blog World Expo in Las Vegas
- HRevolution
The Evolution of of HR and Social Media
So what is the evolution? Using my anecdotal experience, it goes something like this (covering the time period between SHRM National conferences)
- Laurie attends 2008 SHRM as an individual and becomes a catalyst for others
- the on-line space for HR in terms of blogging, social networking communities, and twitter grows incrementally
- people at SHRM begin to pay attention (oddly enough, Laurie Ruettimann is involved!)
- China Gorman tweets!
- local HR groups tentatively explore social media topics at their meetings
- SHRM National is invaded by tweeters, speakers and bloggers, pushing the conference into a semi-virtual mode that finds an audience
- State groups like HR Florida continue the process
- Out of discussions at Disney, a team of bloggers is invited to do the first ever social media consulting project by the Disney Institute.
What I see is that in the course of one year, the HR/social media space has moved through three phases:
- Early adopters using the tools on a personal basis at home or work, and individuals like Laurie who seek to transform the HR paradigm, or live bloggers like me, participating for the fun of it.
- Informal groups banding together in a temporary community to cover an event in a fairly comprehensive manner, as well as participating in the events as speakers or panels (SHRM National / HR Florida)
- Formal groups working together with specific purpose as we did at Disney, performing HR consultative work while incorporating social media as part of the process
What’s next for Hr and Social Media?
It is the fourth stage that is by far the most intriguing. What is the fourth phase? I’ll wrap this three part series up when I post the final part III of this series. Watch for The Disney Trilogy: Confluence on Tuesday!
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