…communications is an integral part of your job
…you work with a dispersed group of constituents
…you are responsible for building & growing relationships
That covers a lot of ground – PR/communications, marketing, sales, any management position, HR, product management, knowledge management, research… many organizational roles fit this description. The difference is that the social media revolution has made us realize that it is no longer as powerful to develop content as it is encourage and promote the content of others. Why? Well, it’s only natural in an ego-crazed world that people have started to trust more in what other people have to say about a person/brand/company than what they say about themselves. In some ways, we’ve broken the social contract by over promoting ourselves and our companies to such an extent that no one really trusts what we have to say about ourselves anymore. So they look to who we are friends with, who we promote, and what we say and do toward others as a way of gauging how much they can trust us. Only then will they start to really hear what we have to say about ourselves.
This is a tough shift. For those of us, myself included, who are so geared toward producing a lot of content to demonstrate our own value it’s risky to stop talking and start referring people to others on a more regular basis. For those that aren’t really paying attention (maybe our bosses) it’s much harder to ‘see’ our value – see my earlier post on the Iceberg Effect. That shift however, is at the core of a community management-based approach to communications and relationships, and vitally important to getting your point across – whether it is to internal teams, customers, prospects, or partners. So… want to think differently about how to communicate? You may want to learn more about community management…. whatever your job title.
Don’t trust us? Here are some people we think you should listen to:
- Aaron Strout
- Adam Cohen
- Alex Howard
- Amber Naslund
- Andrew McAfee
- Angela Connor
- Beth Kanter
- Bill Johnston
- Chris Brogan
- Connie Bensen
- Colin Browning
- Dawn Foster
- Francois Gossieaux
- Greg Verdino
- Heather Strout
- Jake McKee
- Jeremiah Owyang
- KD Paine
- Leslie Poston
- Luis Suarez
- Nancy White
- Peter Kim
- Pistachio Consulting
- Richard Millington
- Scalable Intimacy
- Scott Monty
- Shel Israel
- Shiv Singh
- Steve Garfield
- Stewart Mader
- Todd Defren
