Is anyone out there? Does social media really work?
Okay, I’ll come clean. I’m not a Gen X and I’m certainly not a Gen Y – one look at my craggy face in the photo that accompanies my weekly blog will quickly dispel any rumours that I’m on the right side of er, um, 50, far less a much younger person. I’ve actually figured that getting older is okay as in most cases wisdom and confidence accompanies the wrinkles and grey hairs (not that you’ll find a grey hair in my head – my three-weekly visits to the hairdresser ensure I stay a ‘natural’ red head, but I digress).
Earlier this year I succumbed to the pressure of adopting social media and social networking as an added strategy for HRINZ to reach its members and the HR community, and if you knew me you’d know I don’t do anything by halves, so as soon as the decision was made I embraced the whole blog, twitter, facebook scenario with a great passion – I’d been a member of Linkedin for years but that didn’t really count as something ‘out there’ as I could get my head around the concept so I didn’t think that was very tricky really. Being long-winded in my general communication style I quickly off-loaded tweeting on Twitter to my off-sider, Keri. I mean really, what can you say in 140 characters when you’re used to speaking in volumes? Facebook seemed to be more the domain of the young ones in our office (who did exciting stuff on the weekends and could actually still remember what they did by Monday morning), so that just left blogging.
I went to school to write stories, unlike some of my friends who went mainly just to eat their lunch or socialise with the cute boys on the top field. Writing stories at school was the thing I loved the most and I’d planned to make writing a career when I finished my studies but I never quite got there. I’ve written one book – well a training manual really which probably doesn’t count – and I’ve nearly finished my second epic – a business book that’s six chapters short of being ready for publishing (watch this space!) so when our social media strategy was being created I was happy to be tasked with writing a blog post every week, as it goes some way towards fulfilling my dream of writing for a living. I even get to come up with the topics that interest me – how cool is that?
So this is about my 16th or 17th blog post and I’m still enjoying being creative and most weeks I can find something that interests me enough to tap away on my lap top, often through into the middle of the night. But being the type of person that I am, I have a fear that I may be writing rubbish. My generation needs feedback too – I need to know that I’m not alone in my observations or opinions, and even better I’d love someone to challenge me on the stuff I write as I love a good scrap every so often. I know from the traffic logs that we keep that a few people do read my blog posts and occasionally one will be picked up in someone’s Tweet or on another blog or news site somewhere. This is really exciting for me as it reassures me that my HR blog posts are not just going into some big black hole somewhere, never to see the light of day. It also provides the proof I need that social media or social networking is actually a legitimate means of communication with a wider audience and is therefore worth investing in.
In early September HRINZ will be holding its annual conference (themed ‘Restoring the Trust’) and as part of our strategy to engage our membership we’re going to use various forms of this new media to reach them, and one of the ways we plan to do this is to add a new statement to our website each day starting with the words “Trust us…” and finishing with some words that might be true or might not be, a little like the Tui ‘yeah right’ billboards. We’ll be using a poll to see if our website visitors agree or disagree with our statement. Maybe then I’ll get the reassurance I seek that there is someone out there. Or not. And if the results show that no-one is interested in reading what I’ve got to say, far less responding to it, then I’ll know that blogging is not for me and I’ll quietly retreat to lick my wounds and find another outlet for my creative streak. Macramé maybe?
Am I alone in my deep seated fear that new technology uptake for those in my generation might have ended with fax machines and microwaves? Please tell me I’m wrong. Anyone?
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HRINZ Conference 2010
HRINZ HR Expo
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” From Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Clearly, Bev, the good doctor was wrong, given the explosion of writing in social media, and all for no pay. But is anyone out there, really? It’s a good point you raise. Sometimes it must seem like shouting into the ether. But stick at it – I’m enjoying your writing!
Thanks Peter – it’s good to know at least one person is out there reading my blogs – I’ll keep them coming then, okay?
And I have a quote for you “Half a dinare for me bloody life story?” From Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Maybe the question of any payment or the amount of payment is relative to what’s being written and where it’s appearing, if you get my drift?
Make that two (although Peter is my boss, does that count?)!
The secret to getting traffic for a blog is blatant, but genuine (there’s nothing worse than random spamming of forums), self-promotion and networking on the internet.
So, put the url to your blog in your signature on your emails, on your business cards, on your letterheads. Join in relevant forums (whether they be NZ or international) and have the url in your signature. Offer to write a ‘guest blog’, on a subject de jour – preferably controversial, for a high-traffic website, like Stuff or the NZ Herald, so long as you can include a link to your blog. Post pertinent comments on other HR blogs and include the url in your signature (or in the Website field). Get to know other bloggers in the field and suggest posting reciprocal links (they link to you and you link to them) or write a blog post on something interesting you read in their blog post.
It’s just like networking in the real world, without the cup of tea or glass of wine (which is a bit of a shame).