...or what you should do with Social Media and what you shouldn't
Getting in touch with Social Media beginning 2006 (XING) I thought its only another way to store contact information. I assure you, it's far more.
Let me share a story, which shows an example where using Social Media is not adding value.
I used to work at an IT consulting company with 200-300 employees. We had a coffee area which I thought was a great place for networking and get to know new colleagues. There was a guy who I met regularly there. Even saying hi, seemed to be a terrible hassle for him. It seemed he wouldn't have greeted me If he could have avoided it. You can imagine my surprise, when I received a contact request on XING from this guy “Dear Marc, I would like to stay in contact with you like this??? For crying out loud, you should have talked to me in the cafeteria in the first place!!!!
I used to work at an IT consulting company with 200-300 employees. We had a coffee area which I thought was a great place for networking and get to know new colleagues. There was a guy who I met regularly there. Even saying hi, seemed to be a terrible hassle for him. It seemed he wouldn't have greeted me If he could have avoided it. You can imagine my surprise, when I received a contact request on XING from this guy “Dear Marc, I would like to stay in contact with you like this??? For crying out loud, you should have talked to me in the cafeteria in the first place!!!!
What happened after this? I added him because I did not want to be rude. After leaving this company I have never heard from him . No personal contact, no message in XING. So I don't know what he does now, and I don't care too much either. Based on our Xing interaction I'd rather would not offer him a job or recommend him, nor would I ask him for a job etc.
The conclusion: Social media is (only) an instrument to leverage your networking activity
If your networking activity (meeting people, talking to people in the real world etc.) is ZERO, then all the effort you are putting into your Social Media activities will only generate little benefit. You hardly ever will establish a sustainable relation only by filling in a profile and adding contacts.
Some Do's
- Ask yourself, what skills and knowledge you have to bring others a benefit. (What)
- Define which people would appreciate these skills and knowledge (Who)
- Be clear how to ensure your assets are transparent and credible eg. writing, holding speeches, diploma, certification (How)
- Where will you present these assets, eg. speeches, writing in newspapers, blogging/social media (Where)
- Define which Social Medias you want to use in which way in order to serve you best. (Which)
...and some Don't s
- If you add some contacts you do not know yet (..and yes you should do that) add a good reason to your message why you want to add him. Why should somebody, who doesn't know you, want to be connected, when he just gets a generic system message?
- Do not make it your first priority adding all your colleagues, who work for the same company. You have much better ways to interact with them while your working there, above all when it is not a company with thousands of employees. Of course it is important to add them if you should leave.
does that mean if somebody starts adding a lot of people in XING, the person will leave soon the company? ;-)
ReplyDeleteActually thats a very good point. Absolutely it could be seen as an indication yes. I think you can read a lot out of changes made on one's profile. Being much more active than before, enhancing old information such as education, adding new people from the same company. Knowing the market a bid and current job openings etc you sometimes can at least guess. I think some people underestimate this. So of course adding all the contacts should only be done when you resigned already. My point was, that having mainly Social Media contacts who work in the same company is rather a sign that the power of social media is not properly used;-)
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