Don’t spray, stay or stray. Understand your audience

So you have some interesting knowledge and insights to share? That’s great, but don’t risk it falling flat because you haven’t found or understood your audience.

Social media technologies have made it easy for us to share whatever we want, with whomever we want, whenever we want. It happens in an instant and can feel enormously gratifying. Yay!

The problem is:, in this hyper-connected world many people are acting without considering their audience. They are engaging in a practice I like to call “spray, stay or stray”:

• SPRAY: You shout into a megaphone and hope someone will hear your voice. You don’t know who your audience should be, so think everyone should hear your message.

• STAY: You limit your voice, unsure of who will value what you know. You have something of value to share, but are unsure where to find your audience. 

• STRAY: Your voice is confused and chaotic. You are unclear what you want to say, so you bombard your audience with multiple, mixed messages.

While it can be tempting to just get your ‘stuff’ out there, it’s worth pausing and considering who you want to share what you know with.

Here are four questions to ask yourself to help you define and find your audience.

1) Who will gain the most value from what I know?

Write down who’ll be interested in your subject matter. This could be colleagues in your organisation or people who do similar work to you elsewhere. Depending on the insights you want to share, your audience might be completely unrelated to your day job. That’s OK.

2) Why is this the right audience?

You cannot be all things to all people, so prioritise your audiences. They should sit at the intersection of the insights you want to share and your professional and personal objectives. Ideally, you’re learning from your audience at the same time that you’re sharing what you know.

3) Where is my audience?

Find where the ‘party’ is already happening and join the conversation. Research hashtags related to your topics in target platforms. While LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional platform, don’t overlook your company’s enterprise social network if your audiences are internal. Attend relevant events. Say ‘yes’ if asked to present on your subject at an event.

4) What do I want to tell my audience?

To avoid ‘straying’, be clear about what you want to tell your audience. If you’ve done the work upfront to identify the core insights you want to share, this step involves crafting 2 or 3 bite-sized messages carrying knowledge, opinion or advice (or a combination) aimed at each audience. These will sit at the heart of what you communicate. Mobilise your writing around these messages in your post, article or presentation.

Sharing your voice with an audience isn’t a performance. The reality is: connecting with your audience is more like immersive art. When you get it right, it’s mesmerising and engaging, and your audience will feel part of something important.  

I took the photo featured in this post at THE LUME Melbourne, a multi-sensory digital art gallery, which opened last year with Van Gough Alive. Immersed myself in Van Gough’s world while perched at his ‘Night Café’ drinking bubbles with my partner. Connection with the audience well and truly nailed!

Sharing what we know over time builds our impact and influence. If you’re absent from social media or your profile is unprofessional, how does this reflect on your value proposition and personal brand? If you’d like to build your credibility as a socially engaged leader, get in touch.

Can we turn kids into grown-ups in just two months?

Yesterday my 14-year-old son missed a meeting with a teacher about some work he was having trouble with. I know this, because the teacher sent him an email expressing her disappointment that he was a no-show and she copied me. It’s not the first time this has happened. And my youngest son is no angel on this front either.

“Google Classroom is not the only thing to stay on top of,” I say to my boys. “You have to check your email regularly. Multiple times a day, otherwise you might miss something.”

As an advocate for a more social way of working, instructing my kids to pay more attention to their email is a bitter pill to swallow. And my kids look at me as if I’m crazy.

Two years of digital transformation in two months

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report that the company had experienced “two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” Many of us working from home would agree. We’ve shifted our office desk to home and we’re trying to get on with work in a different way in the middle of a pandemic. It’s not easy.

Knowing the business rules

Even though our kids are digital natives, after watching mine ‘work from home’ for 30 days or so, I know they’re struggling too. We’re watching them try to adhere to all sorts of business rules and we’re disappointed when they can’t.

Truth be told, we’re asking our kids to operate like grown-ups who have been in the workforce for years, when the reality is, we can’t do a Microsoft and transform them in just two months.

We're asking our kids to operate like grown-ups who have been in the workforce for years.

Here are the capabilities and habits kids need to work on if they are to succeed in today’s distributed world of school. Parents, feel free to add to this list.

Kids, sort out these things:

1. Time management. There are no school bells to tell you when recess is over and Math class is about to begin. Learn to watch the clock and set alarms if necessary.

2. Outcomes. Learn to swallow the frog and focus on the ‘right’ work. Putting off challenging school work will inevitably lead to no meaningful outcomes. That’s bad news for your end of term report.

3. Deadlines. Make a note of what assignments and projects are due and when. Hand in work on time. Check in to see if any deadlines have shifted for whatever reason.

4. Dress. This is a tricky one right now, as I’m in gym gear almost 24/7. But kids, at least get out of your pyjamas, brush your hair and look presentable for that early morning Google Classroom session.

5. Dealing with others. When in meetings, look engaged. Your teachers and fellow students won’t love it if you look bored and they’ve love it even less if you fall asleep at your desk. Pay attention, look interested and get involved.

6. Playground politics. When I coach adults in building their digital capability, I say don’t ‘Twitter when you’re bitter’. Same rules apply here. If your little friends are driving you crazy in the virtual playground, don’t feed the trolls. Put your devices down and go do something else.

7. Work-life balance. If you can get your school work done during ‘office hours’ that’s less you have to do after hours to catch up. When it’s finished, switch off and go have fun. Engage in physical activity, since team sport is still out of bounds.

Educators are super heroes

In highlighting these areas for improvement, I’m not targeting schools. My husband and I have only got two kids to manage. Just as the world of work has changed, education has had to transform overnight. Class teachers are herding 25 kids or more every single day from their laptops. They are super heroes as far as I’m concerned, doing a fantastic job.

There is good news

It’s not all hopeless, though. As a fan of working in a more open and social way, here’s where I think many of our kids have the edge on us working adults.

Adults, learn this stuff from your kids:

1. Share your work. Whether it’s presenting to the class or posting a project in progress in the school enterprise social network, our kids are building a habit of working visibly and getting input from others along the way. It’s not weird to them. It’s a natural way of working.

2. Be curious. When all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail. We do things the same way, even if it’s dysfunctional at times, because we’re too busy to re-engineer a process. Kids aren’t wired that way. I marvel (sometimes) at the ingenuity of my two boys who see the world as a place where you can be curious and experiment over and over again.

3. Be honest. How many times have you sat in a meeting, disagreeing with something being discussed, but not speaking up? Kids aren’t afraid of telling it like it is. Sure, we’d like our kids to apply some filters at times, but it’s refreshing to engage in conversations where we feel safe to be ourselves.

4. Be vulnerable. Too many adults think they need to have all the answers at work. We’re already bearing our souls by letting our colleagues peer into our messy living rooms and look at our isolation dress, hair and beards. It’s OK to be imperfect. Keeping things real at work engenders more trust than trying to maintain high production values.

It’s OK to be imperfect. Keeping things real at work engenders more trust than trying to maintain high production values.

Taking good habits into the future of work

As we continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our kids, let’s remember that changing behaviour and habits won’t come about in two months. Your kids are still learning how to navigate this and it will take a while.

At the same time, let’s look to our children for lessons in how we can be more effective in our work. Our kids are going to be the leaders of tomorrow and they will bring into the workplace more open and visible ways of collaborating and doing things. In the meantime, they can teach us a great deal about sharing what we know, asking for help, being curious and telling it like it is. 

When you share what you know

It’s International Working Out Loud Week (18-24 November 2019) and a good time to reflect on the things that can happen when you open up and share the things you know.

I should know! Just a little over two years ago, I got out of the corporate world and began my own communication and social media practice. Back then, I spent time travelling and deepening my connections with people who were interested in the same things as me.

Today, I’m still a big believer in ‘working out loud’ and sharing what you know. In fact, I get a little anxious when I don’t feel like I’m lifting my weight here, which can happen when things get busy.  Here’s why I’m a big fan of working in a visible way and why I think you might benefit too.

When you share what you know, you will:

1. Expand your connections – Powered by social media, sharing what I know has enabled me to make connections and meet people I might otherwise have not had the opportunity to meet. The icing on the cake is I’ve been able to connect with many of these amazing people ‘in real life’ too.

2. Add value to your network – Something that’s common-sense to you could be a revelation for someone else. Digital workplace futurist Dion Hinchliffe once told me: “As far as we think we’ve come in the digital age, there’s always someone who’s cave painting.” Don’t discount sharing the simplest of your lessons.

3. Build your credibility – Another great advocate of sharing what you know, Euan Semple, wrote in his book Organisations Don’t Tweet, People Do that “sharing what you know doesn’t diminish its worth but instead increases its value”. The more you share, the better your chances of building your impact and influence.

4. Get asked to do things – When you take the time to share what you know and care about and reflect that in your ‘digital footprint’, people get to know what you can offer and ask you to contribute to all sorts of interesting projects. One opportunity begets another and another and so it goes. There’s no better fun than that.

5. Help solve problems – A problem shared is a problem halved. Whether you’re contributing knowledge to help someone else, or you’re seeking answers, sharing what you know in a visible way helps people and communities get answers faster than they could trying to do the job via email or asking the usual suspects.

6. Get back as much as you give – You may believe it’s safer to keep your insights and opinions to yourself. That way no one gets hurt. The reality is, when you share what you know on a regular basis and are genuinely helpful, over time the benefit tends to come back to you in spades. Don’t be afraid to give.

“If you don’t share what you know, how does anyone know that you know it?”

I coach executives on why it pays to be socially engaged. I find myself saying to many of them: “If you don’t share what you know, how does anyone know that you know it?” It causes many of them to stop and think about whether they are investing enough time in building mutually beneficial networks and relationships for the long term. I am particularly passionate about women finding their voice via social too – many of us still listen to the voice in our head that says we don’t have anything valuable to share. Stop it, ladies!

Sharing what you know need not be impolite when it comes from a good place. So this week, during Working Out Loud Week, let go. Be a little vulnerable. Ask the Twittersphere a question. Offer advice to stop someone else’s train from crashing. Share some work in progress and ask how it could be improved. You may be surprised at the response you get.

International Working Out Loud Week promotes the practice of working out loud. The goal of a week dedicated to working out loud is to create the circumstances where individuals and organisations are prepared to experiment with working out loud. This is achieved by celebrating working out loud and creating opportunities to connect individuals and organisations with others practicing and learning ways to work out loud.

Educator, entertainer, help desk & cheerleader. The many hats of a community manager

“Good community managers need to be able to go back and forth between strategy and execution – they need to live in both worlds. They need to listen deeply to understand, ask powerful questions and not assume all issues are solved by the ESN (Enterprise Social Network). They connect dots that others might not even see.” - Keeley Sorokti

The comments from Keeley were prompted by a question I posted on Twitter several weeks ago, asking people to share their views on the top three tasks performed by Community Managers.

Doing the ‘business of the business’ in enterprise social doesn’t happen by accident. Pinaki Kathiari summed it up well in his response, when he described community management as “part customer service, help desk, educator, entertainer and cheerleader”. Community Managers wear many different hats.

The reality is if you want to have a thriving enterprise social network, you need to have professional community managers leading the effort to ensure communities are strategic, relevant and valuable to the organisation and the people engaging in them.

What follows is a rough role mandate for a community manager, based on input from people in the job. We start with the most important task and move down the ranks. Here goes.

1.    Influencer, connector and knowledge broker

“Know everyone and build strong relationships.” – Tom Boden. Great community managers are skilful connectors, facilitating relationships all over their organisations to improve how work gets done. They identify influencers and enlist their support as ambassadors and champions to demonstrate how community can work. Influential community managers also know how to ‘encourage’ people or groups to ensure opportunities to make valuable and productive connections are not lost.

2.    Strategic business enabler

“It requires … the ability to translate community needs into tangible business value for the company.” – Mary Thengvall. Smart community managers align use cases for enterprise social with the organisation’s goals and strategy – the real work of the business.  Enterprise social networks exist to help organisations and their people to progress. Savvy community managers understand what’s going on in the business and can articulate a clear strategy demonstrating how working in communities adds real, measurable business value.

3.    Community strategist and tactician

“Sourcing content to support the community goals.” – Daniel Leonard. Community managers own and lead their community strategy. This means setting the direction, as well as curating, creating and seeding content aligned to community goals. Strategic community managers moderate their communities and are always experimenting, trying to work out what type of content will engage, entertain and help their audience learn.

4.    Advocate of the people

“Protecting the vulnerable by advocating for their value and insight.” – Jeff Merrell. People are the focus for decisions about communities. Insightful community managers look at who’s in and who’s out of a conversation to ensure the right people are engaged. This could mean finding a subject matter expert to chime in to help sort out a problem or getting the right leader to answer questions about a big issue. They’re skilled at creating an environment in which "people are seen, heard and feel safe to share" (Rachel Happe).

5.    Role model and champion

“Be engaged, observe, lead, guide and be the most enthusiastic participant.” – Catherine Shinners. Community managers set the tone for participation. They know they can’t expect others to adopt a social way of working if they don’t do it themselves. This means being active and open in their enterprise social network and doing it regularly. They also identify and reward people demonstrating the right behaviours, picking great examples to share in reporting and communications so others may learn.

6.    Trainer and coach

“Helping the organisation cross the chasm from early adopters to majority of employees participating – the most critical point in the life of a community.”  - Dennis Pearce. People are at different stages in their journey to become socially engaged, from those who are happy to give it a go, to those who are anxious about working in a fundamentally different way. Community managers address this by providing training, coaching and support catering for different stages of social adoption – and the different learning preferences of people – in their organisation. 

7.    Trouble shooter and technician

Being able to identify, mitigate and manage risks and put out the occasional fire featured on the list of top tasks. Unsurprisingly (for me anyway), working with IT and vendors to ensure your enterprise social platform is fed and watered regularly received but a brief mention. This demonstrates the further we go into the digital age, the more we realise we’re dealing with people’s mindsets first and technology second.

Who’s right for the job?

A great community manager is patient, persistent and resilient. A good networker, strategist and tactician. Curious, open-minded, empathetic and a good listener. They are slow to judge and quick to help.

Clearly, community management is not for the faint-hearted. But it's a rewarding job leading organisations and people to take up an open, networked way of working.