Ron Muns the Founder of HDI, my former employer, had a philosophy; always embrace valuable information and share it with your members no matter the source. And even if the “source” is "competitive", as long as it is credible and valuable, share it with your membership. The philosophy is more relevant today than ever.
Today with the pervasive information “traveling” throughout the networks called social media, information is just information, the value add is getting it to the right people, joining in the conversation, and enabling a vibrant discussion around the topic. The model is the same, the delivery has changed. There are so many new delivery methods.
There are also a ton of people that are trying to jockey for a position as a social media “expert” to help organizations figure out the best way to engage with this new medium. But there can’t be any true “experts.” There are people that are ahead of the curve on the tools and skills needed to navigate the virtual web, but the information is too vast and rapidly changing for anyone to have the time to be designated “expert.” Learn from people or organizations that are willing to help; avoid the "experts."
The greatest value we can add from an organizational perspective is to learn social media so we can share the information that will help the communities, customers, and members we serve. Give them a way to help each other through engaging the social media. Get to know Social Media to understand, learn, and grow with your community.
The goal is the same as when Ron started his company many moons ago before Social Media. You must know how to utilize social media, but it is not simply the social medium that is important; it is how you use it to serve your customers information that is credible and valuable …
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Get Involved in the Conversation…
I tell my kids that the key to a successful life is to get involved and love to learn. Getting people involved is what I spend my time and energy doing in my personal and professional life. It is very rewarding when I send out a request for applicants to get involved as a volunteer, and hundreds of people apply. I wish it was thousands, and it should be, but that is one of the other secrets I share with my kids; so few step up that when you do, you stand out. And standing out in an organization by volunteering your knowledge and abilities always adds to a successful life.
I have also defined success for my kids. Success is not about the money and stuff, success is about strong families, strong relationships, fulfilling your spirit with knowledge, sharing that knowledge to help others, and leaving behind a legacy to be proud of.
The material wealth may or may not come, but mostly you “get what you need” to quote a great Stone’s song.
The way to get involved in the conversation is to engage in your profession through membership or community models, utilize the social network tools and groups that focus on your interest, create a group that focuses on the things that get your passion flowing, but get involved.
Get in the conversation and success will follow. However you define success…
I have also defined success for my kids. Success is not about the money and stuff, success is about strong families, strong relationships, fulfilling your spirit with knowledge, sharing that knowledge to help others, and leaving behind a legacy to be proud of.
The material wealth may or may not come, but mostly you “get what you need” to quote a great Stone’s song.
The way to get involved in the conversation is to engage in your profession through membership or community models, utilize the social network tools and groups that focus on your interest, create a group that focuses on the things that get your passion flowing, but get involved.
Get in the conversation and success will follow. However you define success…
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Social Identity; How many should we have?
A long, long time ago, in a far off land, it used to be that having more than one identity made you either a spy or a two faced B------! Today in the new world of social everything, you have to have as many identities as you have interests. With the lines blurring between business and personal lives we are continuing to see and create social identities on the web that match the personal, business, personal/business, pursuits we have in life. It is interesting times we live in where it is possible and within anyone's reach to be the next “celebrity” personality or “expert” on the social web. The opportunity for existing businesses to change and grow with the times seems dependent on getting connected in the new social world. But how do we do that?
What makes a social identity a celebrity or expert in the social space? What’s the reason 15,498 social identities follow jaybaer (twitter identity)? How did Pete Cashmore (mashable) attract 1,954,790 social identities to follow this identity, and when he created a personal identity of (PeteCashmore) in days he had 5,101 followers? Who is behind (Servicesphere), the IT Service Management expert with nearly 1000 followers?
In a social world of many identities, what seems to be happening is what has happened throughout time, people are attracted to a trusted source on a topic that interests them. What these few examples, and there are many more, have in common is trust, credibility, and a seemingly endless amount of caffeine at their disposal. They are “living” in the social societies of the web. They eat breathe and endlessly create value for their followers. They are pioneers in a social world where people crave information, and they deliver.
So what does this all mean for the rest of us? And in particular those of us that currently have small businesses, have written a book, are running for elected office, and are artists, musicians, and human beings. The answer seems to be to engage with the new social society in the areas that we are truly passionate about. Not just to make money because people can sniff that out a mile away in this new social society. We need to be contributing value to the conversation happening in this new world.
Back to my initial question; how many social identities should we have? My guess is as many identities as we have interests. As long as those identities are created for the purpose of adding value in the chosen social arena of interest, create away. We need to be in the social society for the same reasons we engage in the “real” society; to add value to our lives and the lives of others. We go to work, we go home and coach the kids sports team, follow the politics of the day and rant, read a good book, and sleep. The only thing different between the social web society and “real society” is to make it in the virtual world you just can’t sleep!
Make another pot of coffee dear it’s going to be a long day!
What makes a social identity a celebrity or expert in the social space? What’s the reason 15,498 social identities follow jaybaer (twitter identity)? How did Pete Cashmore (mashable) attract 1,954,790 social identities to follow this identity, and when he created a personal identity of (PeteCashmore) in days he had 5,101 followers? Who is behind (Servicesphere), the IT Service Management expert with nearly 1000 followers?
In a social world of many identities, what seems to be happening is what has happened throughout time, people are attracted to a trusted source on a topic that interests them. What these few examples, and there are many more, have in common is trust, credibility, and a seemingly endless amount of caffeine at their disposal. They are “living” in the social societies of the web. They eat breathe and endlessly create value for their followers. They are pioneers in a social world where people crave information, and they deliver.
So what does this all mean for the rest of us? And in particular those of us that currently have small businesses, have written a book, are running for elected office, and are artists, musicians, and human beings. The answer seems to be to engage with the new social society in the areas that we are truly passionate about. Not just to make money because people can sniff that out a mile away in this new social society. We need to be contributing value to the conversation happening in this new world.
Back to my initial question; how many social identities should we have? My guess is as many identities as we have interests. As long as those identities are created for the purpose of adding value in the chosen social arena of interest, create away. We need to be in the social society for the same reasons we engage in the “real” society; to add value to our lives and the lives of others. We go to work, we go home and coach the kids sports team, follow the politics of the day and rant, read a good book, and sleep. The only thing different between the social web society and “real society” is to make it in the virtual world you just can’t sleep!
Make another pot of coffee dear it’s going to be a long day!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Social Media Week!
I learned that this week is Social Media Week! Here is a link to learn more .
The social media “world” is a very confusing landscape to navigate. But if you are in business, you really need to understand how it can help you gain a competitive edge and improve customer relations. Business needs to be in this world just as they needed to increase their presence on the net with a business website. Similar to why a business needs a website, businesses need a social web strategy to expand their brand and image in their respective industry.
NewComm Forum, a conference my company is hosting is looking to help people navigate this social landscape by providing speakers that “live” in the virtual world. And believe me it is a new world. When I talk to business owners and they ask me what I do, the conversation always comes back to social media. These business people are confused by the social web because it is a “new frontier” similar to the .com revolution of years past. But they instinctively know they should be doing something on these social networks.
I tell them this new “world” offers opportunities that will enhance their businesses but the ROI depends on the type of business they are in, and the resources they have to make sure they have a visible, professional, and active social identity.
As the number of organizations that use the social web to build and grow business increases, so will the opportunity to build relationships between social media companies and the customers they serve. That is the opportunity that most excites me in this new world.
Please feel free to comment and if you would please take the 3 question survey I have created about Social Media Week; I would appreciate it! Thank you in advance.
Survey Link
The social media “world” is a very confusing landscape to navigate. But if you are in business, you really need to understand how it can help you gain a competitive edge and improve customer relations. Business needs to be in this world just as they needed to increase their presence on the net with a business website. Similar to why a business needs a website, businesses need a social web strategy to expand their brand and image in their respective industry.
NewComm Forum, a conference my company is hosting is looking to help people navigate this social landscape by providing speakers that “live” in the virtual world. And believe me it is a new world. When I talk to business owners and they ask me what I do, the conversation always comes back to social media. These business people are confused by the social web because it is a “new frontier” similar to the .com revolution of years past. But they instinctively know they should be doing something on these social networks.
I tell them this new “world” offers opportunities that will enhance their businesses but the ROI depends on the type of business they are in, and the resources they have to make sure they have a visible, professional, and active social identity.
As the number of organizations that use the social web to build and grow business increases, so will the opportunity to build relationships between social media companies and the customers they serve. That is the opportunity that most excites me in this new world.
Please feel free to comment and if you would please take the 3 question survey I have created about Social Media Week; I would appreciate it! Thank you in advance.
Survey Link
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Some People Just Get IT!
I love to learn, and my favorite way of learning is to share ideas and information with like minded individuals. Today I learned a boat load of great information and knowledge from a social media master, Chris Dancy of ServiceSphere. He is a humble man and will tell you he is learning all the time as well, but when you compare where he is in the social media space, he is light years ahead of many; especially me!! I wanted to thank him for his time and eye opening discussion around the many perspectives and current uses of social media. If you don’t know him you will find him in the twittershere under the ServiceShere moniker.
I have also been reviewing the nearly 200 applications for the Strategic Advisory Board for our Software Testing Professional (STP) Collaborative. I am always honored but never surprised by the willingness of people to get involved in their profession. There will only be a handful of people that will be chosen due to the logistics of managing such a group, but I will find a way to harness the passion of the people that want to offer their time to help others in the software testing community.
The beauty of membership is it is about people. And people are what it is all about. Today was a really good day in my world of people.
Thank you Chris and thanks to the 200 applicants that have offered their knowledge to help the STP community!
I have also been reviewing the nearly 200 applications for the Strategic Advisory Board for our Software Testing Professional (STP) Collaborative. I am always honored but never surprised by the willingness of people to get involved in their profession. There will only be a handful of people that will be chosen due to the logistics of managing such a group, but I will find a way to harness the passion of the people that want to offer their time to help others in the software testing community.
The beauty of membership is it is about people. And people are what it is all about. Today was a really good day in my world of people.
Thank you Chris and thanks to the 200 applicants that have offered their knowledge to help the STP community!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
My Introduction to the STP Collaborative...
Dear IT Software Professional:
I consider it an honor and privilege to serve the membership organization for STP Collaborative as your new membership director. It is an exciting and challenging endeavor for me to join this new organization after spending the last seven years building and managing a very “mature” membership organization focused on help desk and IT service and support professionals. When I joined that organization, we were determined to lead the industry to a more respected position within IT, and I believe with the help of the membership, we did that with great success.
Membership organizations thrive on participation from professionals that believe they can make a difference in the future of an industry. The most rewarding part of working within a membership organization is working with professionals who want to make a difference. Through traditional and online communications and new social channels, live local events and industry conferences, we have the opportunity to have a positive impact and influence on our industry. Many great ideas have changed entire industries, and often are the result of small groups of individuals working together and sharing common practices.
It is this idea of individual collaboration, working together to improve organizational and personal efficiency, and the willingness to share, that I hope to foster here. Content is everywhere, but the implementation, validation, and continuous improvements through the collaboration of people, is the key differentiator in a membership organization.
With the advent of social media platforms that enable people to work together virtually, many have questioned the viability of membership organizations as a whole. I believe that there has never been a greater need for human collaboration than we face today. Technology provides a great introduction to common interests, and allows us to extend that all-important experience of looking someone in the eye, shaking hands, and building a relationship.
Technology will be a key approach of this membership model, but it will be driven by advisory boards made up of human beings. As membership director, I plan to focus on managing a strong strategic advisory board and conference planning board. This year we will also introduce a new executive roundtable level of membership that will bring professionals together at forum meetings, including admission to our annual conference, STPCon. We are working to enhance our partnership with other organizations to support a local roundtable series throughout the country so that professionals in common geographic areas can learn and network together. We’ve introduced a robust professional development offering consisting of quarterly public training events, and plan on increasing our webinar offerings, and will be looking to practitioners to host and highlight the great things they are achieving in their organizations through case study style presentations and articles in the STP magazine.
Software applications are produced by developers based on the business requirements, and include testing and quality professionals, business analysts, project managers, and ultimately result in a product or service that supports the overall business objective. It is a complex maze of individuals, communicating and working together, and is most effective when the team has a common vision and goal. It is an international effort at many organizations, including many teams of professionals working together virtually. If we think about how difficult it is to work with someone two cubicles down, we start to appreciate the issues when we are separated from team member’s two time zones away.
It is our vision and goal to get the members of software teams to effectively communicate and collaborate to improve the reputation of all of the IT units responsible for business success.
We invite you to join us and share your ideas and goals for STP Collaborative. Ultimately you will be the testers of our success. We will do our best to deliver valuable news and information, education and training, and opportunities for professional networking and knowledge sharing to serve this community.
We are here to help you achieve the recognition you deserve by delivering your IT software and applications with the highest possible level of quality, on time and within budget.
Let the journey begin…
Rich Hand
Director of Membership
I consider it an honor and privilege to serve the membership organization for STP Collaborative as your new membership director. It is an exciting and challenging endeavor for me to join this new organization after spending the last seven years building and managing a very “mature” membership organization focused on help desk and IT service and support professionals. When I joined that organization, we were determined to lead the industry to a more respected position within IT, and I believe with the help of the membership, we did that with great success.
Membership organizations thrive on participation from professionals that believe they can make a difference in the future of an industry. The most rewarding part of working within a membership organization is working with professionals who want to make a difference. Through traditional and online communications and new social channels, live local events and industry conferences, we have the opportunity to have a positive impact and influence on our industry. Many great ideas have changed entire industries, and often are the result of small groups of individuals working together and sharing common practices.
It is this idea of individual collaboration, working together to improve organizational and personal efficiency, and the willingness to share, that I hope to foster here. Content is everywhere, but the implementation, validation, and continuous improvements through the collaboration of people, is the key differentiator in a membership organization.
With the advent of social media platforms that enable people to work together virtually, many have questioned the viability of membership organizations as a whole. I believe that there has never been a greater need for human collaboration than we face today. Technology provides a great introduction to common interests, and allows us to extend that all-important experience of looking someone in the eye, shaking hands, and building a relationship.
Technology will be a key approach of this membership model, but it will be driven by advisory boards made up of human beings. As membership director, I plan to focus on managing a strong strategic advisory board and conference planning board. This year we will also introduce a new executive roundtable level of membership that will bring professionals together at forum meetings, including admission to our annual conference, STPCon. We are working to enhance our partnership with other organizations to support a local roundtable series throughout the country so that professionals in common geographic areas can learn and network together. We’ve introduced a robust professional development offering consisting of quarterly public training events, and plan on increasing our webinar offerings, and will be looking to practitioners to host and highlight the great things they are achieving in their organizations through case study style presentations and articles in the STP magazine.
Software applications are produced by developers based on the business requirements, and include testing and quality professionals, business analysts, project managers, and ultimately result in a product or service that supports the overall business objective. It is a complex maze of individuals, communicating and working together, and is most effective when the team has a common vision and goal. It is an international effort at many organizations, including many teams of professionals working together virtually. If we think about how difficult it is to work with someone two cubicles down, we start to appreciate the issues when we are separated from team member’s two time zones away.
It is our vision and goal to get the members of software teams to effectively communicate and collaborate to improve the reputation of all of the IT units responsible for business success.
We invite you to join us and share your ideas and goals for STP Collaborative. Ultimately you will be the testers of our success. We will do our best to deliver valuable news and information, education and training, and opportunities for professional networking and knowledge sharing to serve this community.
We are here to help you achieve the recognition you deserve by delivering your IT software and applications with the highest possible level of quality, on time and within budget.
Let the journey begin…
Rich Hand
Director of Membership
Friday, January 8, 2010
People are the new IT…
I was in a very engaging conversation with one of my favorite people, a social media guru, ITSM expert, and overall great guy, Chris Dancy, and he made the statement, “people are the new IT” and followed up with “Membership is the new CMDB.” Now I admit we were both drinking (only kidding) when we went off discussing this “revelation” but as I thought more about it, this is a concept worth vetting (It’s Friday after all).
Years ago man controlled machine, and the promise of new technology was a more leisurely world for man at the expense of technology. But if we look at the world today, technology is running the world, and man is being run by technology. Technology is rampant, and it offers endless, new, and different opportunities to do business, connect with people, pay your bills, watch your movies, get your news, and it seems that there is very little we do in life that doesn’t involve technology. It can seem overwhelming, and it is. It seems we are constantly being distracted and driven by technology.
So how does this relate to membership? Membership is the new CMDB. For those of you that are not in technology, CMDB is the acronym for Configuration Management Data Base. It is a way for technology professionals to manage all of the technology in their organization. It is the “connective tissue” that provides the infrastructure needed for technology to work. Your PC is connected to a router, which connects to a server, which hosts the software you need to interface with your database, which connects to the web, which allows your customers to connect to your website and buy your product or service. In a nutshell it is every technology component needed to produce the outcome you or your business is engaged in and important for you to “succeed.”
Membership organizations have become the people CMDB that bring together the service management professional, software tester, developer, knitter, or any other group of people that have a common purpose, into connected “components.” The “components” that make up a successful software tester for example is; access to content that is relevant and validated, trainers that provide relevant training on skills needed to be a successful tester, conferences that provide sessions and speakers, and meetings that bring people together in local groups to discuss important topics to the testers. Membership provides and connects the “components” (people) with the technology, training, and people they need to be successful in their profession.
As I argued in a previous post, membership is where the cutting edge professionals gather to move an industry forward. Membership is disruptive to an industry and is where cutting edge ideas are developed, vetted, and implemented throughout the organizations of the membership. It is where all of the components of a successful industry are “housed.” Just like a CMDB, except today configuration items (CI’s) are people in one place working to provide a service by connecting people, ideas, and excellence.
A bit of a stretch? Maybe but I had an entire 6 pack to get through (just kidding)…
Years ago man controlled machine, and the promise of new technology was a more leisurely world for man at the expense of technology. But if we look at the world today, technology is running the world, and man is being run by technology. Technology is rampant, and it offers endless, new, and different opportunities to do business, connect with people, pay your bills, watch your movies, get your news, and it seems that there is very little we do in life that doesn’t involve technology. It can seem overwhelming, and it is. It seems we are constantly being distracted and driven by technology.
So how does this relate to membership? Membership is the new CMDB. For those of you that are not in technology, CMDB is the acronym for Configuration Management Data Base. It is a way for technology professionals to manage all of the technology in their organization. It is the “connective tissue” that provides the infrastructure needed for technology to work. Your PC is connected to a router, which connects to a server, which hosts the software you need to interface with your database, which connects to the web, which allows your customers to connect to your website and buy your product or service. In a nutshell it is every technology component needed to produce the outcome you or your business is engaged in and important for you to “succeed.”
Membership organizations have become the people CMDB that bring together the service management professional, software tester, developer, knitter, or any other group of people that have a common purpose, into connected “components.” The “components” that make up a successful software tester for example is; access to content that is relevant and validated, trainers that provide relevant training on skills needed to be a successful tester, conferences that provide sessions and speakers, and meetings that bring people together in local groups to discuss important topics to the testers. Membership provides and connects the “components” (people) with the technology, training, and people they need to be successful in their profession.
As I argued in a previous post, membership is where the cutting edge professionals gather to move an industry forward. Membership is disruptive to an industry and is where cutting edge ideas are developed, vetted, and implemented throughout the organizations of the membership. It is where all of the components of a successful industry are “housed.” Just like a CMDB, except today configuration items (CI’s) are people in one place working to provide a service by connecting people, ideas, and excellence.
A bit of a stretch? Maybe but I had an entire 6 pack to get through (just kidding)…
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