GenXmanager: Leadership for the Generation X Manager

I was part of a panel at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit yesterday (March 10^th). I was on stage with Jeanne Homl from NASA and Walton Smith from Booz Allen Hamilton. The moderator asked how many participants in the room worked for companies that ban social media access. About two-thirds of the audience raised their hands. After seeing this many hands go up, I had a change of heart.

I’ve changed my mind from my prior opinion. I now believe that organizations should BAN social media access.

Here are the Top 10 reasons why:

Number 10: Social media is a fad. Two years from now we’ll be moving to the next marketing or management fad.

Number 9: Social media takes control away from the corporation; and you can’t have that. Controlling the message is what it’s all about.

Number 8: Employees are simply going to goof off. They don’t do anything non-work related now like go to the water cooler, the coffee machine, or even the bathroom.

Number 7: Social media is only good for watching funny YouTube videos and knowing what a former classmate is eating for lunch. Social media, please, what a waste of time.

Number 6:Social media serves no business purpose. Your salespeople are top notch. Come on, will teaching them how to use LinkedIn really make them more effective?

Number 5: Employees simply cannot be trusted and will likely say things in social networks that will become bad publicity for your company.

Number 4: Millennials expect access to social media at work. Hey, Millennials, wake up! It’s a bad economy. Be happy you have a job.

Number 3: Your team already shares knowledge effectively and adding another technology to the mix is simply going to make it more confusing.

Number 2: Social media will simply bring viruses and Trojan horses into your network. For security reasons alone it should be banned!

And the Number 1 reason for banning social media access:
Your competition isn’t using it, so why should you.

Please note: This article was written with a bit of sarcasm and a dash of wit. In reality I believe social media should not be banned but embraced by organizations. Consider this post “reverse psychology” for those organizations that ban employee access to social media.

Which personality type is the most avid user of social media? Well, according to a study in Computers in Human Behavior, extroverted neurotics open to new experiences are the most likely users. The study titled “Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’ personality and social media use” examined users of social media and three dimensions of the Big-Five personality model.

The Big Five model includes:

1. openness to experience: appreciation for a variety of experiences
2. conscientiousness: careful and dependable as well as self-disciplined
3. extraversion: outgoing and sociable
4. agreeableness: courteous and caring
5. neuroticism: anxious and depressed and sometimes hostile

This study only looked at openness to experience, extraversion, and neuroticism.

The scientific survey was sent to 10,000 qualified U.S. adults with 1,482 validly completed surveys returned. Of these, 959 cases were examined. 67% of the respondents were female and 33% were male. Ages ranged from 18 – 84 with an average age of 46.

After the statistical analysis was complete the researchers found that the most avid users of social media were extroverts open to new experiences. They also found that people who are more emotionally stable will use social media less frequently. The researchers state that “anxious and worrisome individuals tend to use social media more frequently than those who are emotionally stable.”

So, it is good to know that most reading this blog are gregarious extroverts open to change and new experiences but are quite emotionally unstable. I’m just the messenger.

Read the study for yourself and make your own conclusions. Remember that all scientific research has its limitations.

Article Reference
Correa, T. , Willard Hinsley, A. and Gil de Zuniga, H. , 2009-08-05 “Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’ personality and social media use” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Sheraton Boston, Boston, MA Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2010-01-15 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p374999_index.html

Example 2: Facebook status update made via Twitter

The first update is what my friends (or fans) expect. The second would likely solicit the following response, “Huh? What’s ‘RT’? What’s up with the pound sign?” In addition, on Facebook, the first update is more engaging and will stand out much better in a newsfeed than the second.

Different Purposes

Though both Facebook and Twitter engage friends, fans, and followers, they do so differently. Fans of the UB/Towson MBA page expect information about the program that is pertinent to both prospective and current students. It is entirely student focused. The MBA Twitter account is meant to engage the business community, entrepreneurs, the local and national media, and other MBA programs. We found that very few students are on Twitter (surprisingly few). Most are on Facebook.

Here’s an example of our Twitter page and our Facebook page. Notice the differences in content. The first is Twitter; the second Facebook.

Twitter Page

Facebook Page

I personally think it’s best to update each separately but you’ll need to decide for yourself considering the factors just discussed.

Social Media Score!

I took my wife and five year old daughter to New York to see the city in its Christmas spectacular best. During our travels I encountered one great social media score and one fail. Let me talk about the fail first.

Dylan’s Candy Bar

My wife and daughter wanted to go to Dylan’s Candy Bar which is quite an amazing retail operation. The place is three floors packed with sugary delight. The colors are vibrant. The employees are friendly and the atmosphere is pleasant; unless you are taking photos or video that is.

I pulled out my iPhone and was going to shoot a few photos and record some video. After which I was going to share on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, and load to YouTube. I snapped off a few pictures just before an employee came rushing over saying (rather politely), “I’m sorry sir but we don’t allow photos or video in the store.” I said, “okay” and put the phone away.

Talk about a lost marketing opportunity. I was about to tell hundreds of people how wonderful the store was and how cool it looked from the inside. Perhaps if a few of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers were planning to go to New York City they would add Dylan’s to their itinerary. As many of you reading this know, social media is a great tool for word of mouth marketing. Fail.

Compare this to the next example.

Charmin’s Enjoy the Go Restrooms

As we were walking in Time Square we see this storefront (not sure what else to call it). Outside was a guy with a toilet seat around his waist. The store read ‘Charmin’ with the tag line, “Enjoy the go”. As it so happened, my family had to “go” so we went inside. What we found was spectacular (even indescribable).

A pop-style song titled “enjoy the go” was playing loudly. There were about 25 restrooms which were cleaned by smiling, dancing, employees after each use. I never felt so happy about going to the bathroom. Imagine the Disney Store or FAO Schwarz but for bathrooms. After we were finished “going” we exited into an interactive area where you could do the “potty dance”, video record a “bathroom confessional”, and have your photo taken on a giant toilet (I’m not kidding about any of this). Here are a few photos (click to enlarge them).

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Enter social media. Charmin had computers that connected to Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. They encouraged you to share the experience with your friends. You could even take a photo with the Charmin-themed background for your Facebook profile. They had no problem with me taking photos. The staff even asked if I wanted a photo taken with my family. Of course I shared this experience with everyone…I couldn’t help it. This place was so innovative I had to share it. In true social media fashion, after I tweeted how awesome this place was @Enjoythego replied back saying, “@RonDesi Cody: So glad you like it #charminrestrooms.” Score. Big time score for Charmin.

There you have it. One social media fail and one social media score. How can your organization revamp to use social media? How can you encourage your customers to share how wonderful your product or service is? How can you make the experience so radically amazing they will want to share it enthusiastically with their hundreds of friends and followers? You want to score.

I was randomly messing around on YouTube last night after conducting a webinar and noticed a news item that read “1080p Launches”. That’s right, YouTube is going from 720p to full 1080p HD starting “next week” (December 20th I assume). I applauded YouTube’s move to widescreen, HQ, and eventually 720p HD. YouTube raises the bar and I again, applaud their efforts.

I urge you to take a look at the Toy Story 3 trailer and go full screen. It is amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-MYl-HzNw

Though I welcome the move to 1080p HD, I hope that their servers can handle the load. I have a fairly fast home connection and a peppy laptop but I find playing HD videos on YouTube is an exercise in patience. The HD videos load slowly, buffer, and skip.

I’ll admit that there were no issues watching the Toy Story 3 trailer in full 1080p HD. So I hope that is a good omen of what to expect from YouTube.