How Your Manager Views Social Media in the Workplace

This morning, I had a lengthy conversation with a good friend of mine who is a higher up in the banking industry. We discussed the topic that seems to be ubiquitous these days: social media. 

Specifically, we spoke on how social media has affected his workplace...negatively and positively.

On the positive side, he pointed out how channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter have allowed him to create extremely productive relationships with clients and new accounts.

"LinkedIn provides different channels for networking and ultimately allows me to connect with people I otherwise could not have." (He chose not to disclose his name)

On the flipside, he pointed out how the potential for causing distractions at work has made him and other executives wary about social media usage. Their immediate response has been to block and filter websites, but more and more companies are beginning to realize that this causes a separation in networking opportunity.

"At the end of the day, I feel that if a company has enough trust to hire an employee, they should have enough trust in the employee to do the right thing. In other words, giving them the benefit of the doubt."

While I agree to an extent, I also find it interesting to note that evaluating your employees based on production is really the measurement of whether or not they can handle the freedom to be able to check their Twitter, and as social media is becoming more integrated with our overall internet usage, is their any real way for us to monitor these distractions? 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Image Courtesty of techinasia.com 

Tweeting Influence: Should You Share More Than You Consume?

What does every truly influential person have in common when it comes to, say, Twitter? If you just look at celebrities, one very obvious trait their profiles all share is that they have vastly more followers than people they follow.

What does that mean?

Well, they share more than they consume.

Sure, it’s their celebrity status that has elevated them to the point where people want to follow them because of their name, not their content, but that does not change the fact that the influential Tweeter in question is sharing content much more than they are consuming it.

In no way am I downplaying the importance of consuming content. That is how we gain the knowledge and insight that foster our creative, industrious minds. There is no reason why my retweeting an insightful article makes me any less influential, but the dirty secret is that retweets and reblogs alone do nothing to make you influential. They just make you a reference.

How else do bloggers, vloggers, and Tweeters rack up followers without being a household name? They’ve figured out how to create content that people like-that people have a demand for.

The next time you are looking for a way to bolster your own influence, whether it be online or even in the workplace, take a good look at how much you share and create, not just how much you consume.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.