Quick… How can you get a whole bunch of corporate types into a room to talk about what social media means for their business?
Give up?
You can start by aligning yourself with the best thinkers in the business . . . and bringing in a renowned expert like Chris Brogan to host an all day boot camp that gets everybody in your business excited about what social can do for them.
That’s what we did last week, working in partnership with Doe-Anderson’s JasonFalls. We in the innovation center linked up with Humana’s HR and IT departments and brought Chris and company to Louisville to host his Inbound Marketing Boot Camp. Talk about an action-packed experience. I think that there was more energy in the room by the end of the day then there was when Chris got the crowd going in the morning. People were ready to move mountains.
Seriously.
If your organization needs a social shot in the arm, then here is a breakdown of our experience:
Chris Brogan – Provided off the cuff commentary on where social media is and where it is going in his signature style. Worth the price of admission alone… but wait – there’s more!
Rick Burnes, Hubspot - Ran everyone through the importance of optimizing blog posts for lead generation
Amber Naslund, Radian6 - Talked about listening and reacting to what people are saying about your brand on-line
Greg Cangialosi, Blue Sky Factory CEO – Gave a great talk on the value of direct E-mail marketing, metrics, and social E-mail
JasonFalls, Doe Anderson – Walked us through the art of Public Relations / Blogger outreach and relationship building
In addition to the direct benefits accrued from the knowledge that these individuals bestowed on the crowd, there were other, more subtle benefits to hosting an event like this one. Here are some that have occurred to me, in no particular order:
Social Media Awareness – Who better to bring in to talk about social media than an expert? And not just any expert, mind you. Chris’ draw was huge, both internally to our organization and regionally, with a packed house (right around 100 attendees) throughout the day. The Humana people I talked to after the event were all very excited to get moving with social after the boot camp and I heard nothing but great things about people’s experiences that day. If you have people in your organization who are on the fence about social media and your business, convince Chris to come to your place of business to throw a boot camp and watch opinions of social media change before your very eyes.
Outing Social Media Sympathizers – Let’s face it, whether they are engaged in social media or not, most people are at least curious to know what all the fuss is about. Throwing an event like this gets people in your organization talking, leading up the event. By identifying the people who are interested in the subject, you are able to find like minds who will eventually help your business become the social enterprise it longs to be… Extra bonus for getting them all in the same room at the same time during the boot camp itself.
Creating Community – We probably could have made it a Humana only event, judging by the interest we had, but by hosting the event and opening up the doors to non-Humana folks I think we gained a lot more as an organization. But social media is all about community and collaboration, and we wanted to share that experience with others outside our own organization. We had the chance to meet and mingle with social media professionals from other organizations, and the importance of that can not be overstated in my opinion. Social media cross-talk is key as we all feel our ways around integration into our business, and strive to support our members/customers in new and engaging ways. Huge plus.
Being the Conversation – A short-term benefit, but a benefit nonetheless, was the conversation that this event generated on Twitter. Participants used the hashtag #imbc and 76 people talked about it throughout the day, many talking about their first time experience with Humana as a company. You can find a list of those people here, thanks to Dave Lowe.
So all in all, as the title of this post states… the Inbound Marketing Boot Camp was a hit. I highly recommend it and can’t say enough about the experience. How are you bringing social to your organization?
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Recently, a Louisiana state representative put forth legislation that would create a sin tax on video game equipment and television sets for what said politico called the “No Child Left Indoors” plan. The tax would likely be heavier on violent games. The revenue generated from the levied tax would theoretically be spent on outdoor equipment and recreation facilities.
New Mexico attempted a similar plan last year to no avail.
A Santa Monica city legislator wants to limit how much time kids in day care can spend playing video games. Moreover, a California assemblywoman is positing that any games played should be educational or healthful (think learning games like Sesame Street titles or exercise games like Wii Fit).
These bills may or may not have legs but is this where we’re going? Do we need the government to tell us to get a little exercise or kids are playing video games too often that are too violent?
I can understand and even sympathize with officials who think we’re letting kids spend too much time indoors playing video games. The populism has a draw. Childhood obesity and overweight is a national and soon-to-be-if-not-already global debacle. How did we ever let this happen?
Is this the right answer though? Can this problem be solved with legislation? This nuanced political calculus is long on symbolism but short on solutions—real short. We’re falling into the trap of attacking the symptoms of society’s ills as opposed to searching for root causes and developing real solutions.
I’m not saying I have all the answers. I think this problem can only be solved if one by one each of us takes “no kidding” steps to be healthy. Then help a friend or your child to do the same. Through our actions we can germinate a movement, both literally and figuratively.
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
It seems like everyone just can’t stop talking about social media. Just last week my wife received the American Council on Exercise’s (ACE) bimonthly newsletter and sure enough the cover story is “Marketing Your Fitness Business with Online Social Media”. (So yes, she now has homework to do!) It’s no wonder that sole-proprietors in the service industry have caught on. Times they are a changin’, and this economy is a catalyst for finding new ways of doing business.
But if you’re new to social technologies, as I was not so long ago, it can seem seriously overwhelming—not unlike those remote controls above. Blogs, micro-blogs, social networks, aggregators, feeds, sharing, and privacy issues, does it ever end? There’s a flurry of these tools and it seems like a new one catches my eye every time I fire up my laptop or iPhone. My first experience came when I finally gave in and created a basic MySpace page last year. The first time someone “dropped by” my page to “leave some love” was my cue to skedaddle out of there. I deleted my first invitation to Facebook and I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to read the ranting and raving of us common folks in a blog. I just didn’t get it at that time.
I started in the Innovation Center in January of 2008. Since social media was on our horizon, I decided that it was time for me to tiptoe in again. I am happy to report I’ve found what I consider to be the right tools for my needs. This might help if you find you’re overwhelmed.
First things first: limit your time online on any social media/networking site. Set a limit and stick to it. I spend no more than 30 minutes online and usually at night. Some of these actually allow me to be more productive.
Facebook – Sign up, build a profile, add a photo, find friends, and share. It’s that easy. Thankfully, it has enough privacy settings to lock your profile down like Fort Knox. We ought to know—Fort Knox is just down the street. AllFacebook has the must-read, skinny on privacy as well as how to get the most out of the social networking flagship. (Thanks @chimoose)
Google Reader – you can search the blogosphere for blogs centered on topics of interest to you and then read them all in Google Reader. First get a Google account and then simply look for the RSS feed on a website or a blog and click subscribe. I don’t browse to news sites anymore. I let them come to me in the reader. I can share the articles I like with my Gmail contacts.
Blogs – there are several ways to start blogging. You can create your own blog, or contribute to other blogs by posting comments. There are about a dozen of us who are taking our blogging baby steps right here on Crumple it Up. I have found Guide to Blogging very useful.
Twitter – this micro-blogging tool is the latest rage in social media. Messages are limited to 140 characters yet millions of people are using this. As far as I’m concerned, the key to Twitter is that it’s all happening in real time. Want to know what people are thinking about a brand right now? Check. You’ll find out. Also check out what our social media guru @naimul wrote about the rise of the health tweeple.
LinkedIn – this is an online resume and networking hub all in one. If this economy has you down, LinkedIn must be part of your solution to get back up. I hear it’s being used as a really inexpensive recruiting mechanism. It’s ideal for networking and connecting with hard to reach people. You really never know who’s in your network. In my experience, your profile on this page should be kept professional. Save the socializing for other sites.
Delicious – if you’re like me, you have a computer at home, a computer at work, and now a mobile device with a browser. Delicious is social bookmarking. What I love about it is it doesn’t matter which computer or device I am on because all my bookmarks are stored here. I can share them or keep them private.
SlideShare – this is like YouTube but only for presentations. The first three times I used it I found what I was looking for within two minutes. Priceless.
There’s no shortage of social media tools. I haven’t mentioned any video sites like YouTube or 12seconds.tv because I haven’t had much use for them other than entertainment. The theme here is utility. Hone in on what you need, try out a few tools, and keep the ones that make your life easier.
For further reading, our social media buddies Jason Falls, @jasonfalls, and David Finch, @davidfinch, have written extensively about all these topics on Social Media Explorer. Their motif is to embrace possibilities, and these guys know their stuff. Regardless of whether your desire is to build a personal brand or to learn something new, don’t be afraid to wade in.
What did I miss and more importantly, how are you using these tools to make your life easier?
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
We are about to wrap up a pilot project for the next generation of our bike sharing system (check it out at bcycle.com) and I thought that it might be a good time to talk a little bit about how and why we use pilot programs in the Innovation Center. One of the core tenets of our innovation process is that we prototype and pilot early and often. We’ve found that overdeveloping a pilot before real people get to check it out can actually kill the innovation process, and cause us to miss the most critical insights—so sometimes even an 80% solution is too much! Our very first public bike sharing program took the national stage last summer as the largest bike sharing event in U.S. history. What we learned there paved the way for the emergence of bcycle, and a new set of pilots to get bcycle off and running. Through the course of these big, real-life experiments we’ve learned a lot of salient lessons for managing pilot projects. We know there are a lot of folks out there innovating around health and hey, we like to share… so this is how we roll. Give it a read and let us know what you think.
Define success – what is the goal? Ask your sponsor and your team, “Why are we undertaking this project?” I used to work for a guy who’d often say, “What does success look like?” Defining success is about clearly articulating desired outcomes. In the innovation process it’s not just about being on time and under budget, but also about pushing the envelope a little further, closer to the next big thing. If your environment is as fluid as ours, expect the unexpected. You will often have to remind people what to focus on. Change is inevitable, keep your stakeholders abreast of it and manage their expectations. When we first started all this, success was defined as a functional bike sharing system for our employees to use to get from building to building, to get a little healthier and have a little fun along the way. The success of Freewheelin led us to push the envelope a little further . . . and paved the way for bcycle.
Measure it – if it gets measured it’ll get managed. Once you can articulate what success is figure out how you’re going to prove when you’ve reached it. Then, like Jim Collins says, confront the brutal facts. If your metrics point to a less than desirable outcome, make a change, and be decisive about it. Not all projects are created equal. Your measuring processes may be manual at first, this is ok. If and when the project allows for it, automate! Often with a pilot project you’re not going to know what to measure up front, so this process is iterative. Revisit this often until you get the right information at the right time.
Identify the right stakeholders – especially those with skin in the game. This should be obvious but quite frankly doesn’t always happen. With your internal stakeholders communicate progress often and celebrate the little successes. Build momentum. Get psychology on your side. Give your external stakeholders (customers or users) a voice too. They very well may come up with a better way to use your product or a better product altogether. Be open to this. We had stakeholders ranging from our customers, vendors, business partners, to our executives. Each had to be addressed differently. Doing this right in your projects will pay dividends.
Collaborate – keep the core team small. If you have too many people it can get messy and noisy. Once you’ve got ‘em: collaborate. Avoid those awful, poorly planned meetings. You know the type; you might have attended one today! We kept our status meetings to no longer than 30 minutes and held them first thing in the morning. This helped with focus and cohesion. Let the team use their day to get the real work done (imagine that!) and solve problems. Use Twitter for daily happenings (how long does it take to type 140 characters anyway?) and a wiki to capture lessons learned.
Facilitate decision making – if the project manager isn’t making the decisions he or she needs to have a hotline to the guys and gals that are. If you’re one of those guys or gals, be prepared—and get ready to be on call. My suggestion: get a capable PM and allow him or her plenty of latitude but set clear expectations on when and how to escalate issues.
Build float into the timeline – something is going to go wrong. Murphy is omniscient. I won’t buy a car without an airbag, and I won’t build a project schedule without some slack—both might crash. In all honesty, the probability is much higher if I’m driving. :)
Streamline – if your project management processes and procedures, like how to document, are too tedious, cumbersome, or time consuming you need to get new ones. We’re exploring the use of microblogging to capture meeting minutes—which I think is a brilliant use of a new technology to spice up an old chore (Use Twitter Search for #hcoc to follow the stream)
Lastly, stay flexible, roll with the punches, and keep pushing that envelope—you never know what you might stumble upon!
How do you use pilots in your business? We’d love to hear what you think…
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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