Confronting Social Media at Work

Are you ready?  

It is com­ing soon.  Maybe tomor­row, maybe some­time in 2010, but it is def­i­nitely com­ing to your office.

No, I’m not talk­ing about Hal­loween, or Christ­mas. I’m not even talk­ing about the end of open enrollment.

I am talk­ing about the day in your HR career when you are con­fronted by the need to make a strate­gic rec­om­men­da­tion about social media.

Most HR pro­fes­sion­als won’t be ready!

If you will just invest a lit­tle time, you can posi­tion your­self to enhance your career. You can also ensure you aren’t sud­denly thrust into the posi­tion of bit­ing off more than you can chew at the time you are forced to go on a social media intense diet!

What should you be doing to get ready?

1. Under­stand that social media is not the equiv­a­lent of rocket sci­ence.  It does involve tech­nol­ogy, but it is only a type of tool.  Tools can be used for good or evil.
2. Don’t make devel­op­ing a pol­icy the high­est pri­or­ity on your pro­fes­sional agenda.  You need to develop at least a gen­eral under­stand­ing of the prin­ci­pal tools first.  This doesn’t mean you need to develop the com­pe­tency of a power user.
3. Think about how social media tools might be use­ful within your organization.
4. Think about how social media tools might be used against your organization.
5. Think about iden­ti­fy­ing inter­nal and exter­nal sub­ject mat­ter experts on social media who can offer advice and support.
6. Think about doing this BEFORE you are called on to  give advice.  If you wait until then, you are too late.
7. Think of gain­ing social media exper­tise as an oppor­tu­nity to develop your strate­gic pres­ence at work, and then think about tak­ing advan­tage of this golden opportunity.

Why do you need to be ready?

If you work in an orga­ni­za­tion of any size, it is very likely that you are already being dis­cussed in social media somewhere.

One of your employ­ees did some­thing wrong on the inter­net today some­where.  Even­tu­ally, you are going to hear about it or be asked to assess the sever­ity of their action.  You will be asked to make a rec­om­men­da­tion on how to han­dle this event.  You need to be ready!

Gov­ern­ment agen­cies, labor unions, and other groups are com­mu­ni­cat­ing via social media.  Do you know what they are say­ing?  Do you know where to look?  You should.

You can gain major points by being posi­tioned to pro­vide lead­er­ship in this area. 

Please let me know if you need any help with social media.  I am always happy to pro­vide advice and guidance.

Related Posts:

• Day 5 – The Cur­tain Falls at the Dis­ney Institute
• Time Man­age­ment: Huh?
• Life Lessons from 25 Years in HR
• What the hell is a pos­ter­ous BizStream anyway?
• My 3 Words for this year

Tagged as: Confrontation, open enrollment, Public relations, Social Media, strategic