Thoughts from an 8pm Warrior

…or should they voluntarily make hiring decisions based on limited information?

Here’s a sampling of feedback I got since publishing my “Using Twitter to Screen Job Candidates” post yesterday:

• “Eeeeh bad idea. I am not my social media account. My talents aren’t the same as my tweets.”
• “The rules of the world we live in should be broken. Next, HR will be monitoring our grocery list…”
• “Sure, life needs to balanced but that’s not the same as companies making a decision based on something found on twitter.”
• “It’s intrusive. Online data, like a resume, doesn’t always paint an accurate picture.”
• “Nope! Let people have a life & interview them.”
• “Aaron is an idiot!”

Wow!

For better or worse, we live in a very different world compared to 5 years ago when jobs were plentiful, Facebook was for college, and Twitter wasn’t even around.

For some folks, they long for the days when they could go to work at their secure 9 to 5 job and then go home and say racist, sexist, stupid, or offensive things online. Others are not confident with their online personalities. Still others are hoping to get a position they aren’t truly qualified for.

Times have changed.

In an increasingly connected world, smart business leaders, sales reps, recruiters and other relationship driven positions will connect with clients and partner groups through social networking. We live in a transparent world now and if you do anything personal on behalf of a brand or company, your actions on public social media sites may harm your team.

So why shouldn’t I and other business leaders use Twitter to screen candidates that will be using Twitter to develop new business?  Candidates can learn about a modern company prior to making a career decision, why can’t companies learn about their candidates too?  Isn’t that how the best relationships form?  Mutual interest?

It’s just too risky to hire the wrong person.  It’s time that transparency goes both ways.

Please share your rational thoughts on this.

Have a great night,

Aaron@Biebert

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This is a different take on why Google+ matters.

To me, it’s not about the features, Facebook, or anything else out there.  It’s about you.

Since my initial Google+ introduction and invitation on Wednesday, I’ve been researching, discussing, and thinking about how it can be utilized by businesses and leaders.  My goal was to write a definitive post on why Google+ matters and why my fellow 8pm Warriors should get on it. 

Unfortunately, the more I researched, the more I realized it wasn’t the features that mattered.  There was a bigger reason to join…

There are many “Top Reasons to Try Google+” lists out there already, but given that both Facebook and Google have plans to continue changing things (Facebook adds Skype next week), these lists will be obsolete in a couple months, if not weeks.

For me, there is only one simple reason that you as a leader need to join Google+ and it goes to the heart of leadership itself:

Leaders must lead, not follow.

When there is a new frontier and a new opportunity to be a pioneer, leaders must lead.  They cannot wait for the rest of the world to decide if something is successful or not, they must beat the gold rush.  Being a first mover matters.  Slow leaders aren’t leaders at all in a modern era…they are followers.

I’m going to explain myself below.  However, if you’re still trying to figure out if Facebook is a fad, I don’t recommend reading any further.  I will be wasting your time.

Instead, I recommend reading this first:  Time for Sleeping Leaders to Awake

If you haven’t clicked off yet, I’ll assume you agree that the world has changed and social media isn’t a fad, but rather a fundamental and permanent shift in the way much of the world relates to the people and brands in their life.

I’m confident that social media isn’t going away, and neither is Google+.

Here’s why Google+ is here to stay:

I know that Google has screwed up several new attempts at social networking in the past (i.e. Buzz, Wave, Health, etc.), but this time it will be different.  If there is one thing that I’ve learned during my time reviewing the site and testing the features, it’s that they’ve finally figured out a way to bring all of their pieces of the social puzzle together.  Even though they aren’t all fully functional (i.e. Youtube for video and Picasa for pictures), it’s all but certain they will be soon.

Also, it’s going to be an effective alternative to Facebook.  Too many people dislike Facebook for whatever reason, and too many of us already use most of the pieces of the Google+ package (YouTube, Gmail, Picasa, Android, Google News, Google Chat, etc.).

Since we’re using most of it anyway, especially if you have an Android phone, it’ll be smart and easy to bring it all together into one social package, even if it isn’t your primary network.  That’s why Google+ will survive and may thrive.

You’re already using it!

Looking for more reasons why it’s a safe bet?  Read more here

Leaders need to try Google+ sooner, not later:

Let me start with my Facebook story.

Remember when most people thought Facebook was just a college kid thing?

I joined Facebook right when it opened to non-college students and immediately began building a network of healthcare people as part of the Clear Medical Network initiative.  Our goal was to prepare for a world of severe medical personnel shortages.

With that first-mover advantage, our team was able to build communities that served over 43,000 segmented groups of people.  Not only is that an asset for the future, but it helped us weather the job market crisis better than most of our competitors who are no longer in business.

Leaders starting now are way behind.  It’s so hard to build Facebook page communities now without expensive giveaways and advertising.  It’s a mature platform.

At the beginning, all it cost us was time.  Now with valuation of $100 per person, the network may be worth over $4,000,000 and growing as the demand for nurses and doctors moves towards a critical point.  All with no giveaways or advertising.

Why?  Because we were pioneers.

Lessons from the Pioneers

There are some things we can all learn from early adopters of tools like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google+

New platforms are like frontiers.  There are risks, hazards, a journey, and rewards.

Interactions with pioneers are closer, more intimate.  It’s easier to make meaningful connections as most early adopters help each other discover the new world.

Consequently, early adopters have the advantage of forming larger and tighter groups of people.  If you are in a people business, this is something you need to be thinking about.

Where’s the Return on Investment?

Assuming you’ve agreed with me up to this point, you are still probably wondering where does the return on investment come from if you’re not in the business of social media specifically.

Here is where I see the ROI:

Brand pages are coming soon (think Facebook pages)

We all know how valuable they are to a business now.  This will be similar.  The sooner you get on, the better.  I guarantee your competitors will be there.  I will.

It will help with Social Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Part of Google+ includes a social bookmarking module that tracks the use of the new Google +1 social search system.  I believe that it will encourage users to use the +1 system and that future upgrades of Google+ will tie this feature in with the business pages.  If you learn the system now, you’ll be in a much stronger position to benefit from these SEO benefits as they arrive.

Good old fashion networking

I think it’s safe to assume that there is a certain ROI in simply expanding one’s network and ability to reach new people.  This is a new tool for that.

Final Notes:

I’ve tried almost every social network out there, including Google’s other social platform called Orkut, and my gut is telling me this has real staying power.  Of course I could be wrong, but that shouldn’t be a reason not to follow my gut.

Nevertheless, this is a new frontier and I feel like a pioneer.

Join me.

Have a great night,

Aaron@Biebert
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If you still need an invite to Google+, I’m inviting fellow 8pm Warriors from the email subscriber list as I am able. Subscribe to “Thoughts from an 8pm Warrior” via email by clicking here.

I’m on my way home from an unplugged vacation at a ranch near Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.

What an experience!

There was no coverage for my iPad, iPhone, or MIFI connected laptop.  Not even one bar.  None!  Dark Ages part two.

The odd thing is that my brain continued to spin for a couple days like I was still getting multiple tweets, texts, and emails every minute.  It was as if my brain was running in place waiting for the onslaught of messages that never came.

Do you get ”Phantom Tweets” too?

It makes me wonder what is happening to our brains when 8pm Warriors spend all day and night checking emails, texts, tweets, and other messages while watching television, skyping, talking on the phone or chatting with family members.  Our brains must be adapting to this behavior.

Will humanity be changed forever?  Is this a good thing?

All I know is that my brain was acting like it was addicted to connection and I didn’t enjoy being unplugged.  I’m back now, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming decades.  Will future generations even want to escape from the connected world?  What’s your take?

Have a great night!

Aaron@Biebert

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In the social media frenzy of getting more friends, followers, Klout, etc. I think some have forgotten about people. I know I do sometimes.

However, aren’t people the whole point of the social web?

In March, I wrote about the 3 Behaviors that are Social Selfish and today I want to add #4:  Wasting time unhelping people who ask for help.

Today, someone with 260,000 followers retweeted my post about the Menards Website Hacking fiasco I discovered.  Very kind of Dave.  One of my other friends Jeremy Holmes thought it was too bad that he didn’t offer the mention with the retweet, so I messaged Dave to ask about it. After all, he had already found it interesting enough to retweet once and it couldn’t hurt to ask if he’d help out.

Here’s what I sent:

“Just a humble request. Can you retweet the Menards blog post with my tweet meme link http://bit.ly/mLYVmJ and @Biebert mention? Thanks!”

This is what I got:

“Apologies, can’t do it. Have to be consistent. We get a TON of special requests, can’t show favoritism. Sorry.”

I didn’t get how someone could call giving credit on a retweet a “special request.” I thought that was just the courteous thing to do.

The warrior side of me came out and I got irritated. Some good friends jumped in to defend the concept of giving credit and what proceeded was an hour long public debate as he lectured me on the standards of giving credit and everyone ganged up on the poor guy. Now we’re both writing blogs about our experience and what we learned.

Here’s my general take on the topic. For me, a simple “No” would have been fine.  I understand how valuable time is, especially to someone who has that many followers. I can only imagine how much contact he has to deal with.  However, what I didn’t understand was saying no to someone in order to save time and then wasting the extra time lecturing them. It’s so much easier just to help people, at least in my smaller world.

It only makes sense.

Here’s why:

• People still matter. Even though he has a Klout score of 84 and 260,000 followers, people still matter.  Great things happen when you help people.
• Time matters. If you don’t have time to help someone, don’t lecture them.  It is disengenuous.  In the time it takes to argue, you could seriously make someone’s day.
• Content matters. If you like the content enough to share it, make sure you help people find the author in a helpful way.  A simple @mention takes 3 seconds.

At the end of the day, social media is still about people.  Sometimes we forget that. I know I do.

Some of the best relationships I have through social media are with regular people that have fewer than 5,000 connections.  I have laughed with them, learned from them, and even cried with them.  Yet I’ve never met them.

People are the magic of social media!

Never forget that.

Have a generous night,

Aaron@Biebert

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Home Decor?

My wife woke me up this morning asking if the marketing team at Menards chose the picture below on purpose.  I don’t think so (see for yourself).  

I was going to privately email or tweet it to them, but they don’t have twitter or a public email address on their “Contact Us” section of their website.

Menards, click here

I figure this is a great teachable point of view for any big companies that are ignoring social media as a way to communicate with their customers.  Menards does around $8 Billion in sales each year, so they should probably be interested in this “new technology” called Social Media.  

(Menards, if you’re listening, email me at Menards@8pmWarrior.com if you’d like some free consulting on using social media to engage, listen, and respond to situations like this one…it’s for more than just marketing. If you’re really feeling adventurous, tweet @Biebert)

Here’s what I tweeted, let’s see how long it takes for them to respond. http://twitpic.com/56c05n

If you wonder if I’m making it up, feel free to check it for yourself on Internet Explorer.  I tried it a couple times, still there:

1. Go to Menards.com
2. Click on the “More…” link on the grey menu (far right)
3. The picture in question is under “Home Decor”

What’s your take?  Is it time for big companies to get on Twitter?

Have a great night,

Aaron@Biebert

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Ready or not, the world is getting more transparent.

For people with wrong motives, high prices, or a bad attitude, this could be a very bad thing.  The rest of us should embrace it, even those who love their privacy.

Hear me out.

There was a time when great artists, thinkers, and leaders were stuck in fields of war or the family farm.  How many Leonardo da Vincis have been wasted on the plow or army?

For most of history, talented people had no blog, twitter account, or global community to advance their ideas.  There was no internet, media, or bloggers to highlight their brilliance.

Where would the world be if there had been a way to see, share, and embrace the best?

A transparent world gives wings to the brilliant ones and helps them find the pieces needed to create the world’s next great masterpiece.   The rest of us now have a chance to discover and enjoy the best, not just the best connected.

We all benefit in some way.

This is why we need to embrace transparency, not run from it.

Right about now, I can hear the privacy advocates screaming.  I hear their concerns. Yes, we are all human and we make mistakes.  Who wants their dirty laundry out in public?

However, people are becoming more and more comfortable with humanity and all of it’s flaws.  Being “human” is now the hip way to be.  We like transparency when searching for our next great leader, inventor, company, or artist.  It’s the dawn of a new era and we need to embrace it for ourselves.

• Effective leaders should discuss their reasoning.
• Amazing artists should share their process.
• Innovative companies should provide easy access to their prices, people, and profit motives.

The truly remarkable people out there have nothing to hide, and everything to gain. The better you are, the more transparent you should be.

Have a transparent night,

Aaron@Biebert

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• “I didn’t know that people don’t use phone books anymore.”
• “I didn’t know that direct mail was a waste of money.”
• “I didn’t know that spammers get 1 response to every 12 million emails they send.”

In the Post-Information Age (Attention Age), I am convinced that the “I didn’t know” excuse is obsolete.  With all the information out there, it’s hard for me to accept it anymore.  If you don’t know something, search it on Bing, ask on Quora, or poll your social network.

So why do so many still use that excuse?

Because they don’t care enough.  They may care, but not enough to spend their evenings reading, learning, and getting with the times.

During my years of leadership and consulting, I can’t believe how many times I had to beg people to follow the advice they paid me for.  I would provide reports, research, 3rd party support, and on and on and on and on….all to motivate them to make a change for the better.

You’ve probably had similar experiences.

The funny thing is that most of what I know anymore I learned from people like you, online, for free.  I don’t generally preach things that aren’t backed up.  I’m just not smart enough to be the first one to think of anything.

So why do people ignore good advice and then claim they “didn’t know” it was wrong?

In some cases, I think it’s easier to “not know” than it is to face the reality of an ever changing world.  It’s a lot of work to be the best. However, instead of saying “I didn’t know”, they should just say “I didn’t care”.

It’s much more accurate these days.

If you’re reading this blog (or any blog), I doubt you’re one of the “don’t knowers” I’m referring to.  If you have any ideas for the group on helping people “know”, please leave your thoughts below.

Have a learning night,

Aaron@Biebert
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