Being Anti-Social on Social Media

So Fintelis is a new company, and as a new company I decided it needed to use new media, and have some sort of a social media footprint. I know a little about the internet, so I decided that it was obviously something I could do myself. I set up a web page, decided on including a blog (thanks to excellent advice from Angela Podmore of Kinetic PR) and waited for the visitors, and resulting business. Nothing. I know; I'll join Twitter. Still nothing. Maybe if I'm more active on LinkedIn?

Hmmm.

You see there's more to this social media mullarky than I realised. I know enough to be dangerous, and was lucky to get away with just a low profile. I was fortunate enough to bump into someone who has made himself a brand using social media, Donato Esposito, better known to anyone online in the West Midlands, and beyond, as Bostin Bloke. I mentioned my problems to him, and it seems I'm not alone.

There seem to be as many social media outlets out there as there are people. Which are appropriate for which market? He mentioned Facebook.

"I'm on Facebook, " I said, "but I'm keeping that for non-work related friends..."

"So it's not important for you that clients know you have a personality? Or do you have stuff on Facebook you don't want clients to see?"

You see, I've been imagining that I can channel work into LinkedIn, this blog and Twitter, and just use Facebook for the personal stuff. So my "work" channels tend to be very dry, but I'm lucky that I'm not the sort of person who is indiscreet or insulting elsewhere.

Donato mentioned some large and well known brands that have failed far worse than I have, relying on cheap (or even free) fresh faced, straight out of college enthusiasts to try and build an online presence - typically building one aimed at attracting people like them, a straight out of college enthusiast, rather than their target market. I mentally re-read my output. Gulp. It's aimed at .. me, and people like me... Ooops. Building an online brand requires a blend of marketing, technology savvy and, in certain cases, chutzpah that doesn't tend to "just happen."

I'd mention the brands concerned, but since they ended up going to Donato for him to help them out of the hole they dug, it wouldn't be fair. Let's just say that some of them would think nothing of spending a great deal of money on an expert to redesign their stationery - but for some reason the thought of spending some money on how they are perceived in new media seemed to be offensive.

Now I'm one person, running a one person consultancy. I'm going to have a think, and try and retarget my output. Even, shock, consider spending some money and, more importantly, time talking to someone who knows what they're doing. It's been a big step admitting that in this field I'm not that someone!

Similar mistakes made by large blue chips have taken cost and time to clear up. The "free" route can sometimes end up costing them dear.

There are instances as well of worse problems in the social media/business mix. Remember the spy chief with the inappropriate Facebook page? The budding politicians with indiscreet Tweeting? The blurring between social and work media has already claimed some scalps, and I suspect any lazy journalists might still be able to get some copy through scouring the Twitter feeds of people in the public eye who are new to the whole arena.

At least the boss of of BP didn't send any Tweets from his sailing holiday "Having great time on clear blue water. LOL."

Knowledge - Capture, Keeping and Using It

I recently attended an interesting evening get together arranged by Awen Clement at a very trendy, if somewhat overheated, coffee shop in Birmingham which looked at "Knowledge." I'm certainly not in the "knowledge professional" league of the other attendees, but I have some particular interests in the field, as should everyone who works in engineering.

I'm currently talking to a couple of companies which have particular areas of core competency for which they are justly renowned. The first builds essential items of capital plant for a wide range of industries, and has become known as the "go to" people for particularly difficult applications. Whatever the circumstances the odds are they will have seen it, and done it, before. However, there's a growing realisation that this is not down to "the company" (founded in the 1950s) but "the people" - and while they've also a justly deserved reputation for being long term employers who have stuck by their workforce in thick or thin, there's no holding back the tide of time and there are key retirements looming. How can that knowledge be captured before the employees leave (or fall under a bus, for that matter) and how can a system be set up to capture how things are actually (as opposed to theoretically) done in the future? The second issue I won't touch on here, but the first was a topic for discussion over coffee. Firstly, it's a good sign that the company is now aware of the problem. I've worked at a firm with a similar situation, and their response was to call in consultants with tick-sheets and forms. It didn't work, and an entire business area was lost with the workers who left. A typical "engineering mindset" was the verdict of the experts at the coffee house. Their suggestion surprised me. Apparently studies have shown that narrative is the best way of capturing heavily nuanced "practical procedures", much as is taught for witness questioning in law enforcement. The recommendation was videoing of fairly free form narration, going over particular key contracts, but not attempting to guide the interviewees too much on the "first pass". If required the tapes could be transcribed (through outsourcing), which would then enable text searching. It's a novel idea, and one that I've put forward, but I can see there's still some convincing required. The other company may be even trickier; it has an expertise peripheral to its engineering - the shipping of items to areas which are difficult to ship to, usually due to awkward bureaucracies, difficult political situations and conflict. However, as the evening wore on, and the coffee went down, I began to wonder whether much of that capability was down to a few key people in their shipping department, and thought about suggesting someone bring a video camera to work...

Round and About in the West Midlands

There's been a lot going on in the West Midlands "innovative engineering" space since my last blog post.

On 8th June there was the Birmingham Innovation and Entrepreneurship event at Faraday Wharf. A fantastic showcase of some of the region's brightest and best. My personal favourites included "GoGoSheets" - information sharing and co-working using a simple internet browser, and Daden Limited - finally getting commercial value from virtual space. For an engineer, there was perhaps an over concentration on computer and web applications at the expense of "hard" science and engineering. Some redress was Angela Murray's "Roads to Riches" - almost literally turning dirt to money. Well, road sweepings into platinum and rhodium at least.

The West Midlands Cluster Conference in mid-June provided an opportunity to say goodbye the AWM. Will it be missed? Well, opinion at the conference was uniformly "Yes" - and certainly evidence of good work, and high returns on investment, were out on show. I have to say that private canvassing afterwards has given much more mixed feedback. It seems that those who got money are positive; those who didn't aren't, and have criticism about where the money went. I certainly have found trying to deal with AWM difficult on occasion, but have seen some excellent results. However, for me the moment of the conference was hearing the Chief Technology Officer of a major UK company say that he'd like universities to go a step further than they are doing, and take prospective new technologies not just to prototype, but into commercial proving before handing them over to industry. Now I have many, many criticisms of universities and their relationships with industry, but even I recoiled at this. At what stage, exactly, are companies nowadays willing to take risk in the development of new products? On the evidence of this, it seems that they wish to outsource as much risk as possible to the public sector, while complaining bitterly at the fairly small profit that universities then ask for shouldering this risk, if the venture is successful. Shame on you, large UK company who will remain nameless, for now...

I was asked to give a brief workshop on business planning and business plans at a seminar in Birmingham Central Library. through Birmingham Business Insight. On the hottest day of the year a surprisingly large number of hardy souls did an excellent job of testing out my new presentation and discussion framework. The feedback was excellent, very positive yet with some frank points about where I could improve it, and I managed to catch interesting presentations from other people as well, on IP licensing and grants available! I thoroughly recommend the services offered by Business Insight; interesting to note that this is the sort of local devolved organisation the new government says it favours. I wonder whether their budget will be increased with the demise of the RDAs?

On a more personal note I was introduced to the wonder of Skype - how did we talk face-to-face remotely before it? I remember in the early 1990s taking part in a video conference which cost a ridiculous amount of money and took ages to arrange; within minutes of signing up I spoke to contacts in Japan I'd not seen for years, for free. Thoroughly recommended - and paired with GoGoSheets you have a full package! (Yes, I know there are add-ins for Skype, but they seem more complex to use.)

What's happening next? Well, I've meetings in York and Leicester arranged, with real leaders in their respective technology fields, and will be going to an industry roundtable arranged at BCU mid-July. At the end of July I'm looking forward to another CESTAM meeting (I can recommend their "Thrive or Survive" discussions), and my first Birmingham Entrepreneur Meetup. The venue is well regarded! I'll be there tonight (7th July) , in fact, at a Birmingham Knowledge Network open meeting, from 6pm onwards. See you there?

Note to self; schedule in a holiday!