Posted by Chuck Musciano in Networking, Technology.
Tags: Communication, Networking, Social Media
At any industry event, the impact of social media is evident. People are tweeting as the event transpires. Bloggers c0ver keynote addresses live. Vendors stream video from their booths, letting you watch presentations as you browse the show floor.
It is now common to see people run into folks they know but have never actually met. Relationships built on Twitter or Facebook come alive when people actually meet face to face. Closing the loop with a physical connection is now the last component of a rich relationship; it used to be the first.
In spite of all this connectedness and mobile technology, one thing has remained absolutely unchanged throughout the lifetime of the internet: the business card. How can it be, with all this technology at our disposal, that the single most important way to gather important data about a person is a little card? Even people who have built a strong relationship electronically will still exchange cards when they meet for the first time.
Why? What is missing from the new media that this old solution provides?
The problem has two sources. First, people still need to exchange some basic data to complete a connection: name, phone number, email address. Physical address is becoming much less important; other items (like your Twitter or Facebook name) are becoming more prominent. Even so, the basic way to reach most people is by phone or email.
Secondly, there is no simple way to exchange this information. I have used many electronic devices over the years, from a Casio Zoomer to various Palm devices to all sorts of phones. Each of this gadgets has had some way to create a business card and send it to someone else, either by infrared or Bluetooth. It was always very cool, seemed to work like magic, and never got used more than once or twice. After you had shown off your geek skills to admiring neighbors, you then exchanged business cards and went on your way.
I don’t know that this will ever change. There is no cross-platform standard for exchanging virtual business cards that actually works. I know all about Bluetooth Object Exchange, but it’s just too hard to set up and actually use in real life.
Even if you could establish such a standard, it would take years for everyone to acquire a device that used it. In the meantime, you’d still be handing out business cards. And you’d still need cards for people without a device, not to mention needing cards to throw into drawings and such at industry events.
It’s actually kind of quaint that such an old practice simply will not succumb to modern technology. Even as more and more people tweet and blog and post and stream, you still cannot avoid asking that age-old question: “May I have your card?”
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Networking.
Tags: Communication, Networking, Relationships, Small Talk
I love “small world” stories. I love wandering into an event and discovering that someone in the room went to my elementary school, or likes the same movies, or knows someone I know. I like that “who’d have thought?” moment when two people make a connection that they would have never thought possible just moments before.
Much is made these days of networking and how to use it to our advantage in our personal and professional lives. While a lot of focus is on the social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, there is still a lot of value in face-to-face networking. It’s just that people seem to avoid it, and that lots of people seem to be bad at it. I think that’s a shame. With a little practice, everyone can get better at real networking.
The key is to master the art of small talk. Small talk, far from being as diminutive as its name suggests, is the real grease that makes networking flow. Through small talk, you can discover the serendipitous connections that will open the door to better, deeper network connections.
Good small talk is easy. A simple rule for starting a good “small” conversation is to avoid talking about the actual topic that has brought you together with other people. For example, if you are at an event addressing server virtualization, do not talk about any aspect of servers, virtualization, data centers, or even computing. This stuff is deadly dull even when you want to talk about it; the idea that you’re going to create a warm connection with someone over a meaningful conversation about virtual memory is ludicrous.
Instead, bring up topics that are likely to generate a connection with someone. Where do they live? Where are they from? Where did they go to school? Do they have kids? Hobbies? Seen any good movies? Back from vacation? Doing something interesting this weekend? Play golf? Like to run? There are dozens of simple questions that will get people talking about something that interests them. The idea is to learn about the other person, find some connections between you and them, and let those connections strengthen your shared knowledge and resulting relationship.
I’m often puzzled why people struggle with this kind of networking. I’ve seen so many people standing in awkward, uncomfortable silence at networking events, staring at their drinks and stuck for conversation. That’s foreign to me; anyone who knows me will tell you that I am never stuck for something to say.
Many people in IT are introverts (that’s what the “I” stands for) and have a hard time starting these kinds of conversations. They gravitate back to the safety of technology, which makes it hard to meet non-technical people. If you are one of these people, you may need to consciously focus on being better at this kind of engagement with people. That’s OK.
I once worked for someone who knew they were bad at this stuff and had to consciously prepare for events. When the event was over, they were exhausted by the effort. But they recognized the value of small talk and making connections, so they made the effort, improving over time.
Are you using small talk to build and enrich your network? Does it come easy, or do you have to work at it? Either way, small talk paves the way to big rewards in your network. So, seen any good movies lately?
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Networking.
Tags: Giving, Networking, Relationships
It is happening all too frequently these days. I get a call or an email from a recruiter with the same story: a great person has lost their job and is looking for a new position. This person is a seasoned IT executive, a great asset, and has a long history of success. Would I know of any potential openings in the area? The recruiter is always kind enough to forward to a resume for my review.
Opening the resume, I note that this person has held a number of executive IT positions with local companies over the past several years. Yet I have never heard of them. How can this be? I work in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. We are crawling with technology companies and have one of the strongest local executive networks in the country. Nonetheless, looking at this resume, I am drawing a complete blank. Even after checking LinkedIn, I have no second- or third-level connections to this person.
In contrast, I also hear from folks who are very well-connected. They are in a similar tough position, but they have all sorts of resources to fall back on. They have built relationships that will help them as they seek a new position. More than anything else, they have great name recognition and a history of having done great work that is known in the community.
Those folks with no networks give me precious little to work with. As much as I want to, my ability to assist is limited because this person did not invest in the most important aspect of their long-term career: their network. As they moved up the ladder, racking up those successes, they didn’t take the time to become a part of the community. Now that trouble has arrived, they have no place to turn for help, advice, or a connection to a new job.
Why do people neglect their network? Time and again I have invited local CIOs to various networking events, only to be told that they “don’t have the time” or “don’t do those kinds of things.” I simply cannot understand this mentality.
Investing in your network is like investing in an savings account. You deposit a little at a time, over a long period of time. You accrue value that, in many cases, you hope you never need to use. But when you need it, it’s there, and it’s a lifesaver. Sometimes you draw from your network in little pieces: a question answered or an opinion confirmed. But occasionally you make a major withdrawal: career changes or economic upheaval.
But the real purpose of a network is not about how it helps you. The real purpose of a network is that it gives you the ability to help everyone else, all the time, in many ways. You meet interesting people. You learn from them. You get the privilege of helping them.
Let me be blunt: people who fail to build their networks are acting selfishly. They hurt themselves, certainly, but they also diminish everyone else. By choosing to not give a little to those around them now, they rob our community of their potential contributions. Networks succeed when everyone pitches in, just a little bit. All those little bits create a rich community of people sharing, helping, teaching, and learning. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Are you keeping your network active? Are you an active part of your community? Make a commitment to contribute to your community by networking. And may you never need to draw on the goodwill you’ll be creating.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Networking.
Tags: Networking, Social Media, Twitter
This is the third of three articles recounting the separation of my personal and professional Twitter streams. The first dealt with why, the second with how, and here I share the end result.
In most good experiments, you tend to learn a lot more than you intended about things you never considered before you began. This was certainly the case in my project to separate my single Twitter account into two streams, an open professional stream and a private personal one. Some pertinent discoveries, in no particular order:
- Dividing your account is not complicated, but it can be confusing. I had to pay attention to make sure I did not alter the wrong account at the wrong time. You also need a lot of email addresses; Twitter requires a unique email address for each account. I don’t understand why, but it will make life complicated for those who cannot readily create a handful of addresses to support their new accounts.
- Current Twitter tools are just starting to become adept at managing multiple accounts. Thankfully, the new version of TweetDeck was released soon after I began my adventure. This new version makes multiple account management much easier on both my desktop and iPod Touch. PockeTwit provides some nice multi-account features on my Windows Mobile phone.
- Having a locked personal account dramatically reduces Twitter spam. This alone made the transition worthwhile.
- I had to find a way to gently steer people who followed my personal stream to my professional stream. Since you can’t DM someone unless they are following you, I have to allow them to follow my personal account, DM with a request to switch to my professional account, and then drop them from my personal account. This doesn’t always work; people seem to make the switch about half the time.
- It is annoying that I can only associate my phone with one account. I understand that tweets sent from my phone via SMS can only be sent to one Twitter account, but I’d like to have tweets from both accounts delivered to my phone. Anyone at Twitter listening?
- I got a lot of interest from people who were confronted by this same problem. A few (@BevBrown/@RunnerBev and @BruceCarlson/@CarlsonSpeaking) have also gone down this path. Many others are deciding if this kind of change suits them, and how the idea fits into the overall philosophy of open social media. (Credit goes to @BevBrown for coining the phrase “Twitter splitter.”)
- I am very grateful to those followers who made the leap and refollowed my on my private account. I am also grateful to those who put up with the confusion along the way. I was surprised by those who thanked me for bringing them along to my new account. I learned that for those of us who have developed real relationships through Twitter, the follower/following relationship is an important connection that is not to be trifled with. It’s not like we’re going steady or anything, but it is certainly more than a passing connection.
With all said and done, was it a Good Thing? For me, absolutely. I feel like I can be much more focused in my professional persona, and a little more relaxed in my private one. As Bruce Carlson shared with me, you can “keep up with your friends better and there seems to be less pressure.”
Ideally, this kind of content stratification should be native to the tools. Someday it will be. Until then, we need to make do with what we have at hand. That’s what drove this process for me; I hope you find my detailed explanation useful as you seek the right balance point in your social media world.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Networking.
Tags: Social Media, Technology, Tools, Twitter
This post is the second in a series on managing layered Twitter streams. The first post explains why this is needed; this post goes on to address how it can be done.
My earlier post outlines the problem at hand: a single Twitter account that has grown to include a broad range of disparate followers, leading me to split the account to better serve two different constituencies. In short, I want a professional stream open to the world, and a private stream that is more tightly controlled.
Step 1: Create my professional account
Splitting a Twitter stream isn’t hard, but it can be confusing. I began with a single account (@cmusciano) that combined personal and professional tweets. I had accumulated about 450 followers, and my goal was to split the stream without unduly confusing or annoying all these people.
Since most of my followers were on the professional side, I elected to make this account my professional stream, but with a new name. Fortunately, Twitter allows users to change their account name on a whim. By simply editing my account preferences, I changed the name of @cmusciano to @EffectiveCIO. This allows my professional Twitter stream to better align with this blog, creating a more consistent presence in both arenas.
When you change your Twitter account name, all of your followers are automatically updated with the new name. Unfortunately, references to the old name in existing tweets are not updated, so someone clicking on an old reference will be misdirected. I don’t know a way around this; it corrects over time as people begin using the new account name.
The last step in this process is to update all those third-party tools that accessed the original account so that they use the new account. This is tedious at best and generally annoying. Many sites don’t have the ability to make these changes; you have to delete your account and start over with the new one.
Step 2: Create my personal account
With a professional account in hand, I needed to recreate my personal account. I wanted to use the same name (@cmusciano), slightly updated to be @CMusciano. I quickly created the new account after renaming the old one. Although remote, there was a chance that I could lose the name while things were in transition. Luckily, having an obscure name makes that unlikely, and I got my new account.
I set up the profile and began the task of migrating my personal followers from the old account to the new one. This is where things get very confusing. You need to remember which account you are logged in as, and it’s easy to lose track and alter the wrong account. I finally used two computers to keep myself from getting confused.
The easiest way to bring folks over was to log in as @CMusciano and visit the Following list of @EffectiveCIO. I scrolled through the list and followed everyone I wanted in my new account. This is an interesting experience; you have to evaluate each relationship and decide if that person is part of your personal or professional world. You don’t want to insult someone, but you do want to ensure that your personal space remains personal. In the end, I added about 90 people and companies to my personal account.
This immediately confuses 90 people. They all get messages telling them that @CMusciano is following them. Since they thought this was already the case, they get confused about what, if anything, to do about it. My goal was that they would refollow me back, re-establishing their presence in my new personal account. Most of them did, fortunately.
During this process, I kept my account unlocked to make it easy for people to follow my new account. After a few days, when the following settled down, I locked the account. I now had a personal account, containing my personal contacts, securely removed from anyone I had not approved. My final step was to link this account to my (equally secure) Facebook page. This allows my Facebook status and personal tweets to be combined, making each account an extension of the other.
Step 3: Create a landing page
With two accounts on Twitter, I felt it would be confusing when people tried to find me. To help with that, I created a Twitter “landing page:” a place where people could learn about my accounts and choose the one that suited their needs.
Since there is no such thing as a Twitter landing page, I created a third account: @ChuckMusciano. This account contains six tweets that explain my other two accounts and directs people to follow me there. It is open, but I’ll never post to it.
When I wrote the content for the instructional tweets, it was a bit of a challenge to craft them in little 140 character snippets and then to post them backwards. This allows them to read in the correct order when you visit that page.
People occasionally follow this account. I delete the spammers and gently DM the real people, asking them to choose a real account to follow instead. It’s too early to tell if the landing page helps at all, but I do feel better having some public explanation of what is going on.
Final thoughts
Although this process is not hard, it can be confusing. After plugging away at it, I am happy with the result. In my next post, I’ll share the final results, reactions from others, and how it’s been working out since the Great Divide.
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