Social Networking Strategies for Business - Workshop @ Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce

The Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce hosted a full morning workshop for its membership on January 26, 2010. Was really honoured to be invited to lead the session and get to meet an incredibly diverse & social-media curious group of local entrepreneurs and managers. From small boutique chocolate makers to global leaders in insurance - and a few dozen others in between... nice cross section of the business leadership in this region.

This workshop will always be a work-in-progress. I love keeping it up to date with new examples, lessons learned, tuning the focus for specific audiences, keeping on top of the cool new tools & platforms that can be helpful for businesses wanting to add social networking into their outreach programs.

For this Chamber of Commerce audience, I focused on four key areas where businesses can benefit from the social media tactics:

• Lead and Demand Generation - how to find prospects and interest for your products or services
• Customer Care and Service - understand the buzz around satisfaction levels, finding new ways to ensure customers are satisfied and feel respected
• Competitive and Market Intelligence - stay ahead of the game on new trends in your market, learn about what your competitors are doing - the good things and the bad things
• Recruiting and Talent Acquisition - how to find and assess great candidates, and build contacts with specialized free-lancers and contractors to fill your skills gap

Using these four themes as organizing principles, we had a great interactive discussion exploring many of the common platforms and channels in the social networking space: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slideshare, YouTube, blogs, wikis, and specialty communities.

I hope the participants all walked away with the confidence and ambition to try at least one new thing this week.

And a thank you to my management team at Nuxeo for letting me invest some time in this workshop. It keeps my skills sharp, relevant and proves that we walk the talk when it comes to giving back to the community.

Social Networking for Business

View more presentations from Cheryl McKinnon.

My Favourite Fridge Picture

Inspired by my friend (and former boss) Daniel Kraft and his new venture iFridge, here's my favourite photo of a fridge.

It's my Baba's fridge. She passed away 2 years ago, a very sad time for my family.

My Baba was born in a small town in one of those regions that changed their borders every time the winds of war shifted... Ukraine/Poland/Belarus... a difficult time. She was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth. After she came to Canada - a displaced person and a teenage bride and mother, she developed a real fascination with the Queen. They actually looked like they could be sisters. Same hair, glasses, shape of face.

On one of my first business trips to London, I found that postcard of the Queen. Almost life sized picture of her smiling face. So I sent it to my Baba. She put it up on her fridge when she got it, and never took it down. Over the years I'd go home to visit family for the holidays, and it made me smile that the postcard of the Queen was still there. She looked at it every day, and I hoped she thought of me and was proud.

My aunt told me once that she would even talk to it from time to time.

At the church after her funeral service, the family gathered and I turned to my aunt and asked for one small favour. She granted my request and it put a little smile on my face on a day bereft of smiles.

So that postcard of the Queen is now on my fridge at home. And I see the big smile and remember my Baba, knowing she's watching out for all of us.

On Being a Blogmother

About 20 people came out last Thursday for my spur-of-the-moment social media 101 workshop. Thrilled with attendance given snowy blowy conditions across the Waterloo region. Even had a New Yorker fly up specifically for the networking opportunity and to enjoy a social evening with a group of tremendous people in the local tech/ECM community. So grateful to Kristina of the Laudi Group, a recruiter here in the area for stopping by on short notice - hoping some good connections were made.

About half of the group were newly unemployed - looking for tips on how to start or at least spiff up their online professional profiles.

The other half still employed know that they need to take control of their voice, their web presence and ultimate career path. Because no one can rely on a boss or a company to do that for you.


(yes I used this cartoon - thanks again to the brilliant Hugh MacLeod)

Within 6 hours, one new blog was launched. Welcome Brigid Greenway's The KISS Principle of Lead Generation. Brigid is goddess of the numbers and metrics of all things lead and demand generating and her perspectives are that of a pro. If you are looking for marketing insights earned in the trenches with real blood, sweat and tears, please check her out.

Within 24 hours, I've seen about a dozen LinkedIn profiles updated and refreshed. I've had a couple of newbie Twitter followers. Glad that the workshop inspired action.

I could have talked about this stuff all night, but wanted to make sure there was ample time for networking, hugs and sharing of other success (and #fail) stories.

What we heard:

• Squeals of joy when someone first searched for the hashtag #jobs on Twitter
• Amazement of someone who changed his LinkedIn status to 'no longer employed' and immediately got 6 messages promising to pass along leads
• A great lady who confessed she got her last job because she put up a Facebook status saying she was in the mood for something new
• Confession of an "ah-ha" moment when a tech manager got followed by a major analyst firm after retweeting an article link

Job Hunting 2.0 is a bit of an obsession with me right now. My own recent career change experience solidified a lot of the Enterprise 2.0 evangelism I've done over last 2 years, but with some new perspectives that I really wanted to share with those who need it.

• LinkedIn *is* your resume now. And your Google juice is your reference check. To this day I've never sent Eric a resume or a reference - and never will. But I fear that increasingly in tech marketing having no presence means not being qualified.
  
• Quit worrying about how you're going to accommodate the Gen Y'ers in the workplace - and worry more about why they will want to hire you. There is a new generation of entrepreneurial talent that is skipping the usual management bureaucracy path and just building their own company.
  
• If you bitch and moan about not having time to build an online professional profile - stop doing something in your life that is useless. For most it means turning off the fucking TV. Get off the couch. Stop consuming passive media: Read. Write. Engage. No one knows how brilliant you are unless you prove it. Show your work.
  

Being connected professionally means you have people who know and trust you watching your back. Can't think of anything more important in times of instability and uncertainty. Don't ignore the people around you who walk the talk.

Social Media 101 - Building a Better Professional Profile Online

Been a tough week hearing about more layoffs in the Waterloo / Toronto tech community. Some fantastic and talented people out there right now.

So... If you are newly unemployed, and worried that you need a better online professional presence, I'm inviting you to come out on Thursday December 10.

Or... if you are still gainfully employed, but concerned that your lack of web presence is holding you back from new opportunities... I'm inviting you to come out on Thursday December 10.

Bring enthusiasm, a couple of concrete goals, be prepared to chat about what has/has not worked for you so far.

And if there's any local recruiters listening in... please pop in to meet some top notch talent.

Location: Huether Hotel - Third Floor Boardroom
Time: 7-8pm workshop - informal networking after 8pm
No charge - but please RSVP directly to me at cherylmckinnon@hotmail.com

See you there.

Skipping the Middle Man

Spent a lot of time over the last two weeks saying good bye & best wishes to many long time colleagues as I get ready for the next adventure in ECM. One common pattern that's emerged from these chats? Inevitably I ended up telling my favourite people: "Skip the Middle Men. They Don't Get It. Talk Directly to Your Audience Because They Do".

Product marketing, product management and consulting professionals in the enterprise software business write a lot. So why do so few of the really good ones blog? Technology companies inevitably spend precious marketing dollars on PR agencies, media and analyst relations, and rightfully celebrate each hard-earned opportunity to submit an article, get interviewed, talk about their product.

But why wait? Why not just write? Umm...for free?

This fear is not limited to software marketers. Was a bit shocked to spend time this week with some friends in the arts - writers, journalists, broadcast specialists. They don't do it either. They rely on agencies, publishers, middle men to find them work. Of course they need to be paid for their work - it's their profession, but how is anyone going to find them? The middle men have all the evidence of their skills but the buying audience can't find it. Talent hidden is talent useless. Tree falls in the forest....etc etc etc.

But who are these middle men in the enterprise software world? It's anyone who is not a potential buyer or user. It's sales, corporate marketing, brand police, R&D who think they know best because they supervise that guy who wrote the code.

It took me a while to put my finger on it, and after talking to people in several other companies, realize it's not a situation unique to any particular part of the technology world. But I see the pattern consistently now - the subject matter experts don't write for their customer audience, they feel obligated to write for the middle men.

Training materials for people who don't want to be trained. Inane verbal gymnastics to satisfy the chieftains wanting to protect their turf brand. High paid executives and flown-in consultants who hide away in conferences rooms squeezing the lifeblood out of any original thought leadership.

So if I didn't get a chance to say it in person, I'm saying it now. Skip the middle men. They don't get it. Write for the audience who wants to hear you. Start a blog, engage in expert communities, go to local association meetings, take off the gag of fear, take pride in your work, feel proud to put your name on something meaningful, put some skin in the game, live in the market, not in a spreadsheet, channel energy externally not internally, share your knowledge, target people who will read you, don't waste time on those who won't.

Related posts: Make Your Content a Social Object / ROI in Age of Narcissism

My Mission for 2009

Inspired by a conversation with some creative colleagues at our sales kick-off event last summer. Never under-estimate the power of a blank napkin or coaster when sitting with interesting people.