I heard on the radio this morning that “billions have been lost over the last year through people updating their statuses rather than working”. I’ve heard similar things before and frankly I don’t agree.

A couple of years ago I was asked by Melcrum Publishing to write something about the use social networking sites by employees and I suspect this debate will carry on for years. The simple and credible sounding argument is this: If people are spending time on social networks instead of working, the business is not getting any value from that employee for that time.

Strictly … empirically … it’s true. But it ignores the bigger picture of getting more long term value from your employees by creating more engaging working environments. The fact that jobs and even departments for employee engagement exist is testament to the need for engaging employees. Research shows that money doesn’t motivate in the long term. Being an engaged employee in an agreeable working environment does. Some years ago, studies showed that allowing access to evil employee-time-stealing sites like Hotmail and Yahoo! actually lead to a small increase in productivity in some areas. It was found that, on the understanding that access was only allowed during breaks, people did exactly that – and while they remained at their desks, checking on their evil productivity-leaching webmail, they actually continued to do more work.

Ok, maybe not scientific, but I think the real issue is a management issue: If your employees are spending too much time networking then either you should see their work suffer and this can be addressed, or they just haven’t got enough work.

I once worked at <a global brand that shall remain nameless> that had had all the DVD drives removed from the desktops that staff were issued with. When I asked to borrow the department’s DVD player (oh yes), it was explained to me that this was a security issue (even if staff were using USB sticks to take work home with them), but more importantly to prevent people watching films when they should be working. You’d think you’d notice someone spending two hours staring at their screen, earphones in, and smirking at the funny bits and generally not doing any work, but apparently not. It only made me wonder why my bag wasn’t checked for books in case I might be reading novels at my desk instead of working.

There are reasons (apart from basic human rights) why we no longer work in Dickensian penury, silently seated at desks, fearing the fines and corporal punishment meted out by our employees. Allow people their email, their quick bit of networking, their texts (that’s phones as well as books), their chats over the photocopier and expect them to do the work that needs to be done. If they’re wasting time sort them out or make sure they’ve got enough work to do.

If you employee adults, treat them like adults and you’ll get a grown up attitude to work.

The Long Dog.

PS – This doesn’t count as social networking … this is work.

“Expert opinion comes highly priced and chiefly ignored” – The Long Dog 2009

On and off, I’ve been freelancing for a decade. In that time I’ve had some great clients and recruiters … and some not so great. So here are some observations and tips from my world.

Getting the gig – standing out from the recruiting hopefuls crowd.
Recruiters see hundreds of CVs (résumés) a week, so why are you special? Sadly most recruiters don’t care if you live or die (unless you can make them money). They also copy/paste your details into a database and whoever’s CV meets whatever they’re searching for gets the gig. Just like Google. Best bit of job application advice I got was from Nick at Zebrapeople – apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to my CV. What are the words and phrases recruiters searching for? ‘Experienced and accomplished consultant’? Or ‘IA,  UXD, interaction designer with 5 years experience’ / “Internal communications professional specialising in intranet and online communications”?

I’ve also asked previous clients to provide recommendations on my Linked In profile. When I send my CV to new recruiter or client, I also send a separate document with these recommendations copy/pasted in. Know what? They read them ever time and don’t have to be bothered to click on links to websites.

Expectations: How much should you lie to your clients?
‘Not at all’ is the simple answer.  Get found out – you get fired and a bullet hole in your reputation. “Under promise and over achieve” is a maxim I’ve often heard. People are constantly surprised by your ability to cough up the goods faster than was imagined. It works fine. Until, that is, some smart arse promises more and still delivers. And yes, I’ve been that smart arse. What did it get me? Extensions to a contract that lasted nearly 18 months. Nice.

Just be realistic, make sure you can deliver what you promise, actually deliver it and when it’s needed put some extra work in. But make sure your client realises this. When I was 20 I worked in a department store, on the management training scheme *snore*. I was a little too modest (no, really) and my manager / mentor would say “When you’ve done something  good tell me! If you don’t tell me, someone else will show me what they’ve done and why should I think you’re any better?”. Doesn’t mean show off, just make sure people realise when you’ve done something good for them and they’ll appreciate it.

Win battles, don’t fight wars.
If you’re a freelancer or consultant, you’re not the Director in charge. You’re paid to provide expert knowledge and to argue the case if necessary. If your client chooses to ignore your advice because they know better (and a lot think they do), then you’ll have to decided whether to fight your corner or let them send in the Light Brigade and see what happens. I’ve had to present my feeling on a  real shocker of a project. I wrote a polite, but honest one page report which was presented to the board, considered and then ignored. I wasn’t happy, but there’s a point where your opinion becomes a problem. May I refer you to the recent sacking of drugs advisor to the UK government because of his unpopular opinion? Ok … so … find the balance between your integrity and your desire for the continuation of employment and don’t let pride get in the way.  Or move on – that’s the joy of freelancing.

Be nice: People like nice people … and re-employ them
I had an odd conversation with a colleague once who angrily complained that “it seems to be the people who are all smiles and ‘nicey nicey’ who get listened to round here”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that despite his academic qualifications and that he’d run his own 2 man agency, he was aggressive in meetings and no one was listening to what he said because they were too busy worrying about him.

We all like nice people so, without being fake, be nice. It’ll make it easier for you to communicate with your client and if something goes bad, they’ll see you as a human being, not just a resource. Being nice – much underrated. Just think: Who would you prefer to be working with?

The rest? Work it out for yourself – that’s why you get write “experienced” on your applciations.

The Long Dog

Social media frontierswoman, PR pro and MD of PR agency thebluedoor, Abigail Harrison gives us some solid practical advice from the pointy end of using social media in a business context. Just don’t call her Bernard.

LD: Abi? Abigail? What should I call you?
AH: Abigail or @AbigailH would be just fine
LD: You just can’t help yourself, can you.

LD: You work in PR – what are the top 3 three things individuals can get from using social media?
AH: (1) It facilitates conversations with ‘influencer’ audiences about things they care about, (2) Ensures individuals stay ahead of the curve as digital tools evolve and networks develop, (3) Helps test ideas and develop thinking – people sometimes forget social media is great at delivering excellent results, it’s a brilliant research tool.

LD: Tell us about your organisation and what you do – yup, this is the chance to plug your biz
AH: Ahh music to my ears! thebluedoor is a PR agency. Our ’sweet spot’ is understanding the relevant digital tools – what they do or don’t do, and how they can work for different companies, brands and campaigns. Digital hasn’t changed the nuts and bolts of what PR is.

LD: Continental or ‘Full English’?
AH: Neither really – I love a pink grapefruit or a bowl of porridge.

LD: What got you interested in online social networking?
AH: I’ve been involved in online for a while, and worked on the PR for one of the largest dotcom IPOs in 2000 – StepStone, the online recruitment site. It’s a fascinating world which allows us all to work creatively with some brilliant practitioners.

LD: Isn’t this all a bit … well … geeky?
AH: Well, yes and no. Part of the problem is language. We do ourselves no favours hiding behind walls of geek-speak. It’s vital we make digital approachable and normalised. That said, it is crucial we understand the geekiness behind it all – and once you start to understand it, there’s a beautiful, measurable logic about the digital world.

LD: What are your top social sites for work?
AH: It has to be Twitter – the digital rock-star of the PR and online world. I have a separate screen on my desk with TweetDeck running – through this Twitter application we discover breaking news, respond to requests for help and interact with the multiple social communities using it. [LD: That is sooo 'geek chic']

LD: And top sites for play?
AH: It isn’t strictly a social site, but I couldn’t live without BBC iPlayer. It’s wonderful – great for catching up on the world and business.

LD: Pint of beer or glass or wine?
AH: Glass of wine – it’s been a long time since I had a pint!

LD: Favourite online social success story?
AH: The work that we have recently done for SocialSafe has been a real high point for me. Key to cracking online is to identify the ‘influencer’ blogs and sites. We successfully pitched a story to Mashable, and the ensuing traffic (meaningful rather than drive-by) and knock-on pick-up was phenomenal!

LD: Favourite online social disaster story?
AH: Thankfully I don’t have one. But I did send a new business pitch, addressed to ‘Mike’ but was actually ‘Mark’. Naturally he was upset – but we agreed as penance I’d be ‘Bernard’ for time-immemorial.

LD: So … Bernard … advice for someone starting out with social networking?
AH: Get your hands dirty and jump in.  It’s the only way to learn. Follow people on Twitter who use practice – it’s a great way to understand what and how people are using the tools. A key challenges is staying on top of developments, so keep reading. And of course don’t lose sight of the world outside the digital bubble.  

LD: Let’s say I’m a business who’s ’social curious’ – what are the top benefits and risks?
AH: Benefits:

• just taking a step towards understanding the digital world opens up a world of opportunity and possibility
• digital is a real-time barometer about how your audience, customers, stakeholders feel about you – not knowing is a bit like sticking your fingers in your ears and not looking, because it is happening anyway and isn’t going away anytime soon
• engaging online is a great way of qualifying leads and researching potential customers

Risks:

•  the major risk is letting the excitement of online get in the way of rational objective consideration – just because it’s shiny and powerful, it’s vital to understand the medium to ensure it fits in your overall business strategy
• also if you haven’t conducted the due diligence of understanding your current online footprint before you start experimenting you risk tripping over quite quickly and publically

LD: Thanks, Abigail. Want to come to my free social media event in London? Go on – it’s going to combine theatre, art and business skills and there’s a glass of wine in it for you?
AH: Go on then.

• More on Abigail / @AbigailH / Bernard (so many profiles, so little time) on thebluedoor website.

 All I have to say on the matter is…

Must convey offering + personality + everything U know <= 140 chars. #I’veGotSoMuchMoreToTell_Ireallyhave

 That’s it.

Well – apart from saying that I was trying and failing to write and upload a much longer post, from a moving train, on an intermittent mobile connection that properly summed up the need for short bursts of clarity – ‘Needs must when the Devil drives’ (Oh … and this is a metaphor – he wasn’t really driving the train I was on … probably).

Summary: Keep it short and clear, but project your ’self’

The Long Dog

In which an artist, a farmer, a she-geek and an editor show how differently people use social media tools and how their lives really depend on them.

It’s easy to pigeonhole social media users as feckless, hormonal teenagers on the pull, or rabidly blogging armchair iconoclasts (hmmm … now I’ve written it, maybe I’ll use these as personas one day). In preparation for a recent presentation on social media I asked friends and contacts what and why they used social media. Not the most scientific method, but it did reveal four very different uses and attitudes to social media, which again reminded me that it’s not the tool (Facebook, Twitter etc), but the purpose that’s the real deal. With social media, you can’t just build it and they will come, but need to think about the intended audiences and their needs.

What’s really interesting is the different purposes people have: recreation, religion, work, education and life skills.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent – but otherwise, these profiles haven’t been edited. I’m not sure what conclusions one can draw, but I was surprised that the first four people I asked had such different uses:

Name: Jamie
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Relationships: Married, one child
Location: Surrey, southern England
Occupation: Editor
Tools used: Facebook, Linked In, Flickr, Yahoo! Groups, Twitter
Quote: “I access Social Media mostly when I’m at work, a quick glance at Facebook or Twitter every hour makes me feel like I’m at an informal friendly gathering rather than the reality of chipping away at the coal face”

Name: Hilda
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Relationships: Married with 2 children
Location: Southern England
Occupation: Homeschooling mum, veg grower, part time farm hand, peasant
Tools used: Facebook, blogs & forums (www.homesteadblogger.com, www.homechoolblogger.com, http://christianhomesteadwomen.wordpress.com, http://unltdworld.com, http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com, http://creativeliving.10.forumer.com )
Quote: ““Homeschooling, especially Christian homeschooling, is a far flung thing. To organise social events, educational events etc, I don’t think we could do it without the net.”

Name: David
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Relationships: Living with girlfriend and their 2 children
Location: Northern Ireland
Occupation: Artist and writer
Tools used: Facebook, multiple blogs
Quote: “ My blog is a kind of calling card, cv [résumé – US English] and portfolio that in a sense presents me to a marketplace. It also exists as an archive for posterity.

“I use FaceBook as a means for disseminating images which I consider to be within the real [sic] of my ‘art’ images and it also provides a platform for a certain kind of play with ideas. It offers material on which to ‘riff’ (improvise) and collaborators available to play.”

Name: Alice
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Relationships: Cohabiting with boyrfriend
Location: London, England
Occupation: Web front end developer
Tools used: Facebook, Twitter (2 accounts), Flickr, iTunes ( podcasts as well as music), RSS, Googlemail, calendars, addresses, World of Warcraft, Evernote, Things [sic], Dropbox
Quote: “People are tribal by nature. Now our tribe is global, we need better ways of storytelling”

Funny old world, innit?
The Long Dog

“Since the start of Facebook real conversations are down 10% and real poking is down 40%” Mark Watson, comedian

Comedy aside, it’s understandable to think that expertise is enough to get and hold onto a job or contract, but sadly it ain’t necessarily so.

Someone recently said to my friend “You’re just as good at your job as [your colleague], the difference is no one knows who you are”. And while the buzz words du jour are social media, making sure you don’t underestimate your online social capital is only half the story. Employers and clients are looking for individuals who can communicate their expertise and change hearts and minds in organisations, using their inherent real-life social skills.

Trouble with being a professional specialist is you’re often far down the food chain or at least brought in late in decision processes, to ‘make it happen’. I often find myself in positions where clients ask me for something I know is fundamentally wrong. I either have to grin and produce unworkable rubbish, wasting their money and tarnishing my reputation, or find ways to politely tell them they’ve got it wrong while not embarrassing them and giving compelling arguments for why my way is better and reassurances it’ll all be alright in the end.

Nick Cochrane is MD of digital recruitment agency Zebra People , has found that as well as professional knowledge, his clients are increasingly demanding candidates with ‘influencing’ abilities, following this very real trend for real-space social skills. To be able to show our professional peacock feathers or communicate our potentially controversial opinions, we have to consistently communicate and engage a variety of audiences.

“When you present, you’ll be trying to persuade someone to alter their behaviour, or attitude. ‘Influence’ is a pretty constant feature of everyday life and work. We’re more emotionally aware than we used to be, and as people become more aware, the dark arts of persuasion need to keep up, like an arms race.” Rob Archer, Bloom Psychology.

The moral of the story is, keep Tweeting, blogging and interacting online for a wide reach, maintain distant connections and build personal brand, but also do the other social things we hairless monkeys are so good at …

- Make sure your interpersonal skills are up to scratch (remember, “Presentation is a skill not a human right”)
-  Capitalise on your strong points and improve your weak points in social interaction – you might want to do one of the many personality profiling tests to help you identify these
- Remember that everyone you deal with is firstly human, then many things after: parent / sibling / carer / manager / director / customer
- Collaborate and share to engender good will, showcase your knowledge and create new relationships
- Stand up and be counted, or the blabber mouthed numpties will climb over you and stupidity will prevail
- Be natural and treat everyone with the same level of respect from the CEO to the cleaner

Be Human.

Er … The Long Dog

Working out where we’re stacked in the great deck of life’s Top Trumps is difficult, and exploiting our strengths and shoring up our weaknesses (I refuse to say ‘areas for improvement’) is only easy if you’re sure of what these are.

Socially extravert people often seem to get along easily in life, whereas those less forthcoming can sometimes be overlooked. But … to get along in life as an extravert means you also have to be interesting. Just putting yourself about and getting in people’s faces isn’t enough, there has to be some value for the other person – fun, attraction, gaining new knowledge, personal advancement, whatever – otherwise you’re just a party bore with too much to say for yourself.

I heard recently (sorry – no source to reference) that the young people who were most sociable on Facebook were also the most sociable in real-life. To gain followers on Twitter or new friends on Facebook you have to have something to offer. Twitter’s definitely about quality, not quantity. Along with many others, I can’t stand the messages from allegedly interested followers who tell me they know the secret to $10000/day earnings (not to mention offers by Amlene242 and her ‘hot housemate’) – it’s an obvious scam. Sure there’ll be numpties out there who’ll go for it, but for us norms it’s just more spam.

Then why bother mixing in this world of get-rich-quick, appendage enlargement, tedious old school friends (there’s a reason we’ve not been in contact for the past two decades) and other social fluff?

For me two: playtime and work.

I won’t bother you with why and what I like to waste my time doing with online chums (though I do have a surprisingly large zombie army on Facebook), but I do want to talk about work…

Once upon a time there was a freelance web, digital and communications professional (‘Me’, for those slower on the uptake) who went to an interview for a short contract. The brave professional donned his suit and buckled on his A3 portfolio of valiant previous work and journeyed to the Big City to seek his fortune. When he arrived at the Palace of Digital Marketing, the person he met took one glance at the still valiant portfolio case and said “Oh, you won’t be needing that, I just want to know if you think this project is feasible and if you want to do it”.

It turns out that the nice man at the digital recruitment agency had given me a glowing reference. The client had checked out my profile on the business networking site Linked In. They called over a colleague who’d worked at somewhere I’d worked at a few weeks earlier and that colleague made a call to his old work buddies and asked “This Jason Buck, he any good?”. Thankfully, I’d done a good job and been nice enough to work with, so … unless I’d turned up drunk or naked, I’d already got the contract before I’d walked through the door, all on the basis of social networks, online and real-life and making myself a sociable enough person.

Story number two – and trying to avoid self adulation – is about a remark made by a respected comms professional who referred to my participation on a forum as being valued by people who felt they had quality information when they had a ‘Jason Buck answer’. It seemed I’d built a reputation just by contributing to something that I found interesting.

This isn’t about me blowing my own trumpet (if I could do that, I’d be in a circus – ba-boom-tish), but more to demonstrate why I really do value les enfants terribles Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and this li’l ole blog. Gossip and tittle-tattle maybe, but it puts food on my table.

This week’s advice is simple: In a time of economic uncertainty, budget cuts and redundancies go out and mingle with your species.

- Make friends and enjoy yourself. If you’re doing good work, that’ll be remembered, but so will you as an individual
- Offer value for your professional friendships
- Treat online relationships in the same ways of sensibility and playfulness as real-life
- Be gregarious, but be yourself
- Check out my article I just don’t get Twitter (and the comments!)
- Enjoy … life is not a dress rehearsal.

The Long Dog

If you build an interactive social service like a forum, wiki, network, Twitter account, blog (etc) there’s a good chance that it might not work as well as you’d hoped.

A recent conversation with a colleague was about the lack of engagement with some forums she’d launched. I sent her the following potential diagnoses and suggested cures and here they are again for public consumption.

Personal confidence
Problem – The fear of ‘doing it wrong’ or ’saying the wrong thing’ is very human and why most people conform in societies. For those not used to using social tools, it can like asking them to stand up in a crowded room and give their opinion. Some will love it – most will be scared.
Cure – Find or incentivise champions who are willing to spend time contributing, and selling the ideas to others. Keep topics open and encourage champions to support newbies (see my personal rant “Antisocial networking behaviour – a case study“).

Culture
Problem – Forums, intranets, social networks and a whole lot of other services are often perceived as non essential. If people believe they should be working, or that their leaders will be judging if they working or not, this might not be conducive to voluntary engagement.
Cure – Make it possible to Integrate the social tools in people’s day-to-day work and make their benefit easy to see and articulate to others. For internal channels get seniors or respected figures to post, but also to respond ‘as equals’ to people at all levels and lead the way.

Visibility
Problem – I saw a site once that had a social tool that was dead in the water and one of the reasons was that it wasn’t accessible from the home page and there was no way to see posts or responses, other than by taking time out to go and have a look.
Cure – Raise the visibility. Make it part of a wider service, put a ‘latest’ feed on the home page, feature interesting topics or responses in other channels or areas, don’t forget a link on the homepage.

Technofear
Problem – People simply don’t know how to make the system work. What do I have to do to make or reply to a post? Will it go wrong if I press this? Remember, a lot of people still think the web is all about IT
Cure: Make the system as easy to use as possible. Showcase the forums in road shows or big meetings, and demonstrate how they work. Find ways of presenting the forums familiar to your audience.

Relevance
Problem – Is the service or tool really interesting to the general audience? Finding the balance between weighty problems that are stratospherically distant or irritatingly mundane chatter is difficult.
Cure: Allow all topics to be posted (within the usual bounds of decency, privacy etc) but nurture your champions to post relevant topics that people can then feel confident in engaging with. Use your own professional skills to identify and craft interesting topics with a call to action, so people are encouraged to respond and not just read and move on.

Population density
Problem – Someone whose name I forget did some research into forums and communities of practice and found that something like out of the 100% of people who engage, 1% are people who post, 10% are people who frequently reply, another 10% occasionally reply and the rest are ‘lurkers’ – those who read, but almost never reply or engage.
Cure – While it’s a question of ‘how long is a piece of string?’, consider if you have a critical mass of audience who will provide a healthy, interactive community.

All this can be summed up in one simple principle – If it’s going to work, it needs to usable and useful.

Before launching a social tool, consider some of these ahead of time, but don’t forget to understand why you’re doing it in the first place. What’s the purpose? What do you want the outcome to be? What will be the process or vehicle for reaching those outcomes?

Have you seen a social tool that was either particularly good or bad in engaging you?

The Long Dog

…was what a friend said recently. A debate started about whether Twitter was a fabulous burgeoning social networking tool … or just another excuse to waste time instead of doing real work.

For the uninitiated, Twitter, describing itself as a microblogging tool (whatever that means), is an online social network, allowing Tweeple (yes … people who indulge) to post up 140 characters’ worth of news, questions, social trivia or just about anything that takes your fancy, as often as they like. Unlike Facebook you don’t need permission to ‘follow’ anyone’s updates, unless they’ve created a hidden profile which, to be honest, instantly makes Twitter a social eunuch and reasonably pointless – go back to Facebook! The more people you follow, the more updates you’ll see – you just have to remember to follow interesting people – friends, colleagues or celebs.

The updates (‘Tweets’) range from banal to more work-minded collaboration. A quick glance at the Tweets I’m following shows me these two:

“Ugh I just spilled water all over my chair – it was my bad thoughts about the salad place!!! ACK!”
“Social Media’s History And Trajectory – Notes From Danah Boyd (BoingBoing): http://bit.ly/eNwjr [We like Danah - alot]”

Like all online social networks, Twitter is only worth using if it’s useful. If it’s not – forget it and go and do something more productive instead. So – make it work for you, or leave it alone.

But. Like real life social networks, you get what you put in and you have to put in before others put out. When I asked the Twitter community what would you say to someone who says ‘I just don’t get Twitter’, one of the best answers was “You don’t have to … you’re not the target audience”.

Just because you’ve got a telephone doesn’t mean that lots of people will pick you out of the phone book to be their friend. If you want to get maximum value, mimic what you’d do at any networking event, or social situation:

1 – Associate with interesting people: ‘Follow’ as many interesting or potentially interesting people you can find , either by contacting them, or looking at your friends’ and colleagues’ feeds and seeing who looks good (you can always remove them later).

2 – Engage: Tweet to your heart’s content. Just remember that if you want to become one of those interesting people, pose questions, post links and yes … tell us about the personal stuff as well.

Ok, so why bother? Here are some of the reasons others have given:

- Building informal relationships with a global community, at great speed and zero expense
- Feedback on new products
- Following news as it happens and before the newsfeeds have had a chance to publish anything
- Access to high profile individuals (remember, you can follow ‘anyone’)
- “I get my news from BBC World’s Tweets, 24/7”
- Being contacted, without requesting, by the customer service department of a company, when someone was having real problems with a product (see “100 days of Twitter”)
- “It’s the water cooler, it’s the people you turn to, it’s the parish pump, it’s the pub, it’s the club, it’s just always there.”

Still need convincing? Ok – a couple of good articles on benefits and experience and the Twitter and links to the profiles of those who wrote them:

- “100 days of Twitter: The Twuth is out there” by Jennifer Frahm
- “Twitter Tips for Newbies” by Barbara Gibson (Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators)
- “Is Twitter the new list?” by Martin Malden, blogger and internet marketer
- “How Twitter’s spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses” video with Twitter’s CEO Evan Williams

Don’t forget to look me and my Tweets up on my profile.

… and thanks to @JM71 for inventing a word for those who don’t do Twitter … “Twuddites”

The Long Dog

In a previous post I referred to being told off by a colleague for my defence of the use of the term ‘audience’ on a communications company’s forum. Even before I’d had a chance to read that post, I received phone calls and emails from other subscribers, shocked by his behaviour so I contacted the moderator, only to be even more surprised by their response.

For those of you who don’t know what a listserv is, it’s an email distribution list, restricted to a group of subscribers who can read and reply to posts which are then visible to all the subscribers. The listserv in question is hosted and moderated by a respected, global communications organisation (not the IABC in case you’re wondering). A question posted about measuring the value of organisations’ internal news was met with a quick and florid rebuttal concerning the terms the person had used.

My reply that I thought ‘audience’ was still a valid term found the same, rebutting, non-UK subscriber (non-UK is important, you’ll see) replying with a self-righteous 600 word diatribe referring me, with interminable quotes, to “the world’s leading PR/ Communication scholar”. This stultifyingly self-important follow-up to his original flounce was finished with this flourish…

“Allow me to put my tongue firmly in my cheek, but after more than 10 years following [the comms company’s] publications, conferences and chatter, it seems to me that the only ones who would defend the terms “audience” and “communicator” today in 2009 would be those employed in communication who live in the British Isles. Certainly, my sense is that Europe, NA, Australia see a larger role for communication professionals. Is it something to do with the old class system?”

Now, isn’t “tongue firmly in my cheek” a similar platitude to “I’m not racist, but …”? It appears that’s what this listserv’s (dare I say it) audience thought. I felt I couldn’t reply to the post without either trading insults, or needing to defend myself – neither of which would have been appropriate or productive. Here are some of the remarks I received from people, both known and unknown to me:

- “Those guys were just patronising”
- “Offensive and basically racist”
- “One if his recent posts was also a bit close to the bone”
- “What’s [he] trying to do, start a US-UK communicators’ war?!”
   (NB: [He] isn’t from the US)
- “He actually had the nerve to email me directly and – at length – patronise the socks off me! Who does this bloke think he is?”
   (after replying to the original question, but unfortunately also after
   [his] post)
- “I had to sit on my hands and see if you were going to reply, because if you didn’t, I was going to”
- “I’m still with you on this one”
   (interesting why they felt they couldn’t add their voice publicly
- “Sounded like he was just trying to sound intelligent when actually he sounded just, well testiculatory!”
   (probably best she didn’t post this one publicly)

So there you have it – the voice of the people. So what do you do when someone bullies you? You go tell the teacher – or the moderator in this case. But this is what I got…

“Thank you for your comments. We know [him] quite well (he’s been a very long-term contributor) so read this in the way it was hopefully intended, namely, playful and provocative rather than insulting and offensive. I would suspect he’d be mortified to think that he’d caused any offence to you and other network users.”

Doesn’t this boil down to “Sorry – he’s already in our gang. Anyway can’t you take a joke”?

Apparently not. Nor could all the customers (yes, that’s right … the comms company’s ‘customers’) who contacted me, or who were silent either by choice or because they DIDN’T know [him] so didn’t feel comfortable taking him on.

Oddly enough, I found this reply more aggravating than the original post, coming from ‘the powers that be’ and all. So, not worried about mortifying [him], I replied, asking whether this post should have slipped past the moderators, only to find my complaint escalated because the moderator was “a little concerned that her moderating duties may have fallen into question”. Hang on … why am I the one fielding complaints and comments of support from the public, while the company in question is defending its sleeping gate keepers, its friends who profess professionalism while practising vainglorious condescension, and kindly telling me to get a life?

One articulate reply to the offending post summed up well…

“There is a danger that the person who is heard the most is the one who shouts the loudest. Is perhaps one of our roles to moderate/mediate messages with honest appraisals [and] with an eye on those who do not join in for whatever reason?”

There is a part of me, however, that hopes that if [he] reads this, he isn’t “mortified” because the comms company never contacted him. Still – I hope they all take this post in the spirit of ‘playful’ and ‘provocative’ healthy debate and discovery with which it is meant. So there.

Ok … normally I’d end a post with practical ideas on the topic I’ve just been ranting about, but this time I want to ask questions instead:

- On what basis should moderators screen, reject or at least ask for modification of subscribers’ posts?
- How should moderators of a social network reply to individuals who feel they have a genuine grievance?
- Can you gauge the full impact of an issue by only seeing the tip of the iceberg?
- Are there or should there be ASBOs for repeat or particularly objectionable offenders in social networks?
- In an incident like this how do you share responsibility and accountability between host and post?

Grrrrrrrr!

The Long Dog