Social Media Tools Are Not The Boss Of Me

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..... anymore.

A few weeks ago I embarked on a social media nip and tuck to frame up my social media efforts. My goals are to deepen and strengthen my connections, collaborate on a professional project and write beyond the blog

A work in progress, I am reevaluating how I am using the tools and checking out some new ones. Touching on the very basics, here is what I've done so far in no particular order other than the length of the bullet:

  • Test drove out Nutshell Mail 
  • Created my first Google doc
  • Set aside time to write each morning
  • Updated my contact form on the blog
  • Reduced my RSS feeds to just over 100
  • Set LinkedIn to weekly vs. daily updates 
  • Unsubscribed from many retail mailing lists
  • Deleted memberships in 2 online HR communities
  • Routed some mail to a gmail account to check it out
  • Decreased the email notifications from Facebook - a lot. 
  • Reviewed current LinkedIn groups, added some and left others

Up next is setting aside time to actually read my Google Reader items and not scan them on the fly, reviewing professional email newsletter subscriptions with an eye on reduction, reviewing my Linked In profile, updating my blog roll, dusting off my Google Voice number and checking out Google calendar.

It's a start. It's part of the grand plan. And it's all good. 

How about you? Do you have basic strategies that work best for you? Tell me about them in the comments below. 

Photo credit iStock Photo

On Defense and Diamonds

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Defense! Defense! is great for a sports team, but can be bad for an organization. Organizations are a sum of many parts and to ensure organizational success, it is imperative that everything, and everyone, functions at their best.

When you are going for the gold, defensive employees are bad news.

On Defensiveness

Defensive employees can be impossible to reason with. They can be blinded by ego or anger and driven by an insatiable need to be right. They can perceive questions as threats and lock horns at the first hint of a challenge.

Collaborative problem solving comes to a halt, organizational goals are subordinate to personal agendas and when allowed to continue, the repercussions of defensive behaviors are felt across the organization.

On Diamonds

There's no denying that every organization has a defensive employee (or two) and that they are a problem however, if you look hard enough at the crabby, stone age rock heads, you can uncover a few gems. 

Watch for the employees who attempt to or are able to respond with a level head to retorts by defensive employees. Watch for the ones who see through the bluster and who do not get into the muck. Take a look at those who take the high road and know when to sort through the junk, when to steer clear of the madness, and when to simply shake their head and sigh.

They may not get it right all the time but they are aware and they are trying. Find them, dust them off and shine them up. Encourage them and mentor them. They are your diamonds in the rough.

In Closing

Although organizations can uncover some gems when dealing with defensive employees, they don't need the defense present to do so. It is poison to your organization and must be addressed directly. Some employees will respond and others will not. 

For those that don't, send them to the mine to pound rocks, to your competitor to poison their organization or to any other place of your choosing . . . as long as it is outside of your organization.

You need to make room for your diamonds to shine.

    

Photo credit iStock Photo