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Looking Forward - 5 Years of Blogging

My first post this year is to celebrate my blog's birthday! Wow, 5 years ago I started to blog. And although blogging (who said it would be...?!) hasn't always been easy I still enjoy it.

I started blogging to have a way to think out loud. To write my thoughts and ideas down and connect with other writing elsewhere in the blogosphere or on the Net. My main goal was to speed up my learning by not only reading interesting books, articles and posts, but also by publishing my thoughts, questions, doubts and learnings based on my reading. And I must say it really helped.

It definitely also helped to become more connected and visible in the communities that I'm interesting in. Social media in general, and social networking especially. But also: communities, social business, enterprise 2.0, knowledge management, intranet and content management.

One thing I'm wondering about is if a blog truly is a conversation platform. I know there are blogs that show it is. But my blog could use some more interaction and conversation (comments). (Although I get comments regularly, directly on the blog or in other social media.) I'm wondering how to move in that direction. Does it have to do with the things I write about or the way I write about them? Do people mostly comment on big blogs and not small ones? This is something I'm going to work on in the coming year.

If you have any thoughts on how my blog could be better or how I could get more interaction, please leave a comment. It would be greatly appreciated. As I truly appreciate the fact that so many people take the time to follow my blog and (just) read my posts. Thank you very much, you are a great inspiration to keep on blogging!

My Cluetrain Manifesto Notes

It's been years ago since I read 'The Cluetrain Manifesto'. I think I maybe only read parts of it, back in 2001 or so. After leaving Oce I didn't have a copy of The Cluetrain anymore, so I decided to buy my own copy and read through it from beginnning to end. Now there's a 10th anniversary edition making it even more interesting to do so.

Man, what a ride it was. This book is just great. And amazing for the fact they captured what is going on right now so well. This book is a must-read for a social media enthusiasts. But also for all who just started using social media and are trying to understand if this social-thing is a hype or a trend.

I'm not going to summarize the book for you. But I wanted to share some nuggets with you. If you haven't read the book, I hope this will trigger you to go and do so. Please let me know if you do!

• Start here and read through the 95 theses! If you like these and want to know more, read the book.
• "... everything that happens in the marketplace falls into three categories: transaction, conversation, and relationship. In our First World business culture, transaction mattered most, conversation less, and relationship least. Worse, we conceive and justify everything in transactional terms. Nothing happens more than price and "the bottom line". By looking at the market through the prism of transaction, or even conversation, we miss the importance of relationship. We also don't see how relationship has a value all its own: one that transcends, even as it improves, the other two." (p.12)
• "... most of the ones I come up with [that apply The Cluetrain well] are essentially small businesses, with simple organizational underpinnings and a scale made manageable by an intrinsic limit on the number of company participants in the conversation." (p.33)
• "The internet was a force of disintermediation. ... The internet was disintermediating the sedimentary layers of increasing nonhumanity." (p.53)
• "Indeed, conversation requires a broad base of agreement from which we then discuss relatively minor differences. Conversation isn't usually about finding the truth. It's a social activity and a way of building social relationships." (p.62)
• "Whether in the marketplace or at work, people do have genuine, serious concerns. And we have something else: knowledge. Not the sort of boring, abstract knowledge that "Knowledge Management" wants to manage. No. The real thing. We have knowledge of what we do and how we do it - our craft - and it drives our voices; it's what we most like to talk about." (p.80)
• "Markets are conversations. Trade routes pave the storylines. Across the millenia in between, the human voice is the music we have always listened for, and still best understand." (p.82)
• "We don't know what the web is for but we've adopted it faster than any technology since fire." (p.115)
• "People talk to each other. In open, straightforward conversations. Inside and outside organizations. The inside and outside conversations are connecting. We have no choice but to participate in them." (p.123)
• "Companies can't stop customers from speaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers - and empowering them to act on what they hear." (p.144)
• "The long silence - the industrial interruption of the human conversation - is coming to an end." (p.154)
• "Here's some advice on entering the conversation: loosen up. Lighten up. And shut up for a while. Listen for a change." (p.173)
• "We're all learning to talk anew. We're all going to get it right and get it wrong." (p.183)
• "The web, in short, has led every wired person in your organization to expect direct connections not only to information but also to the truth spoken in human voices. And they expect to be able to find what they need and do what they need without any further help from people who dress better than they do." (p.188)
• "Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. Hyperlinks subvert Fort Business. Business is conversation." (p.230)
• "Via intranets, workers are already speaking among themselves. Via the internet, markets are already speaking among themselves. The convergence of these two conversations is not only necessary, but inevitable." (p.236)
• ""Follow the money" may still apply, but to find the money in the first place, follow the conversation." (p.248)

Well, those are my highlights! Hope they help. What part(s) of The Cluetrain did you like most?

An HR 2.0 Fail

I thought I'd wait a bit before posting this...
As you know I changed jobs not too long ago. During the last year I applied for several jobs and was asked to apply for jobs. One of those jobs was interesting for the fact that they had a 2.0 approach to recruiting. This company is trying to reach out to potential new employees in new ways. They also want to be more open about themselves by using social media. Their recruiting website clearly showed their (HR) employees were on Twitter, they used Youtube to tell more about working for their company, etc. I was impressed by it. And I also thought: hey, it looks like this company really understands 'the new way of recruiting/working'.
So, I applied for the job. I could upload my resume and other info to their site. Things went downhill from there...

Of course I got the automatic email saying they would get back to me within two weeks. After 3,5 weeks I thought I'd ask them how things were going. It took another week for them to reply to that email. Then, finally, after about 5-6 weeks they told me I didn't fit well with what they were looking for.
OK, no hard feelings. Really. Maybe I understood the job description incorrectly. Or maybe my resume isn't clear enough. So, I sent an email back asking them to clarify their decision. I asked for feedback, because they only sent me one line telling me I wasn't eligible. Another week passed by. I sent them another email. No response...

I'm not writing this to pick on them (and I'm not mentioning the company's name either). I think there's an important lesson to be learned here. The lesson is: If you says you want to go 2.0, you have to go full-circle.

Social media is not about pushing more information about your company, department or person via even more (new) channels. It starts with listening. Then start commenting and giving feedback. Listen some more and give feedback. Etc. Social media is about having a true conversation with a person (using technology). But if social media is the only thing you're focused on and you forget that good conversation can (and should) continue via 'old' media like the telephone or email due to confidentiality, people will notice and move away from you and/or your company.

What are your experiences with HR 2.0? Please share them with us!

Social Media and the Workplace by Commoncraft

Commoncraft does it again! They released another video explaining something no too easy in an easy way. This video is about social media and the workplace. It mostly focuses on explaining how companies can join in the conversation. And how not only comms but all employees can be empowered by being trained and giving them clear social media guidelines. I enjoyed it and hope you will too. It's great stuff when you need to explain to company decision makers what social media is about and how to use it.