A Rabbi Walks into a Social Media Stream

Sure there is a joke here, leaving that to some of my funnier fiends. This is about a different view of being social, so hang on while I explain. This post is somewhat different than the original one posted over here a few days ago.

What happens when you disagree with your Rabbi?
 No, you don't go to hell or get banned from synagogue, but in some places this is implausible. One should never go against their Rabbi's rulings! (For the record I never asked about the internet but the view is comparable to that of watching TV or a movie)

This is not about the side that wants to ban the internet or believes it is all bad. No, I am talking about a specific aspect of the internet which over the last few years has grown to take over our lives in a way only Fahrenheit 451 knew all too well with the parlor walls.

People like to gossip, social media is like a drug for the gossip monger crowd. The Torah reminds us to not speak poorly about anyone, not to tell tales, not to slander people. It is all about watching out for other people's feelings, which in turn watches out for your own.

How does it do this?

There is a, how do I say this, a superstition to some or perhaps a string thread of life, that there is an evil eye that watches you when you commit this gossip and slandering and returns it back to you. Boomerang effect. What goes around comes around and other metaphors.

On a personal level, I agree with the Rabbi. Posting about your trips, your new car, your kids winning the cross country bobsled race leads others to acts of depression, anger and baseless hatred against you or your family.

Recently I presented on this subject in Boston at the Social Connections 8 event, this does not encourage people to be better or think, "I should do that" nor does it reinforce the effort required to reach that lofty goal. How many months or years did you practice the bobsledding after all?

If we recall how social media started, an Israeli company created a product called ICQ (before many of you had a clue what the internet was or even a Blackbery) which was eventually bought by AOL and led to more interpersonal discussions than the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) ever could imagine. 20 years later or so and we have become Facebook drones.

There is a great part of social media which works really well and that is for family, and friends, to keep up with each other. The fact that at some point I decided to friend coworkers, employers, business associates is where the problem starts to begin with my digression from my Rabbi's opinion.

My view is from a professional level, people want to see, hear, read, listen to you to know if they should hire you, book you as a speaker or trust your opinion. In order to do that, it takes a bit of over the top extroversion which for many is hard. In the capitalistic society there is a ledger, just like the one God writes in on Yom Kippur. The difference is one is about our spiritual side, one is about our physical lives. Which one is more important to you?

Should we have accounts just for business and just for personal should be the question. Some people do, I have and gone back and forth over the last 15 years and I decided to maintain all as equal. The reason was it became too difficult to maintain separate lives virtually, in addition to my daily life. Changes in attitudes over the years allowed myself, and many business professionals, to became more open about our religious needs for holidays and early Friday due to shabbat but for some it is near impossible to do so.

My Twitter profile addresses professional and personal by saying in Hebrew that I observe Shabbat so those that know, will understand what I do, and how I do it. When limited on space, this was the easiest way to say it.

If I am at a conference, speaking at an event, or meeting someone in my professional world that is exciting, well to me at least, or for business purposes then I post it, or about it. It helps me because if all of us are responsible for  one another, or if you prefer the 6 degrees of separation theory, someone I know may need that connection or in turn may bring me to someone that needs my professional help.

Do I, and others, post things we should not? Hell yeah! But, no, we really shouldn't.

When you post items at work, how many post personal things? How about personal work things like your promotion? Your new sales deal? You see the problem is we now have multiple mind sets about what, where and when to post things that it becomes harder and harder for people to separate their social accounts.

The problems of what to post where and what should get posted need to be very clear and understood by the employee. What you do on your own time is up to you and maybe you will prefer to keep multiple accounts. Then again, what if this is just a fad and next year we all go back to our little silos and stop sharing in general? Not likely to happen, but are we swinging the pendulum back a little bit? Or is it too late and TMI has become the norm?

A Tale of 2 Companies Social Media

Both companies are large multinational entities, one is larger than the other but after a few 100 million what's a the difference right?

Corp A  recognizes they have a left hand doesn't talk to the right hand mentality and is doing something about it.
Corp B may recognize it but does little about it.

So when Corp A has sales people or support people drop the ball and someone posts about it on Facebook or Twitter or their blog or in Google + or as a comment on someone else's postings, there is someone on the other end of the company finding these comments and trying to right the wrong.

Corp B may not have time for this and believes they are too large too fail or have not thought of the idea that indeed one can have 2 or more sides to every line of business and function.

The better way would be to have the left and right hands compare notes on the clients or projects and look to clear those issues better next time. Also perhaps the problem lies in the statistics that are tracked which lead to incorrect presumptions and misdirections of blame.

What do you do to protect your entities name and customer service?
Who is trolling the internet looking for people ranting or praising your company?
Do you have people that can balance these issues and right the wrong? Have you given authority, as The Ritz Carlton does?
As a business owner, it is your job to apologize, if the escalation continues to your level.

Can you do it? Do you? I have apologized to clients over the years more times than I can remember. Sometimes over little things, sometimes big things, but own up to your mistakes and you will save a client and win them over or back to your side. New clients are very expensive to acquire, if you can at all.

A lost client is not just a revenue loss, it is an annuity that you will never get back.

Always On Social Media and Winning the Lottery

Do you ever feel like you live out of place or time?

Technology which was to make our lives easier, has enslaved us more to a point that any device gets us connected to people or things 24x7x365 or in my case 24x6x300+/-.

Do our clients, friends, children, spouses, pets now take second stage to someone or something else on a daily, if not hourly basis?

When will companies start paying you for the true hours you work? Or better, when will they start letting you work on your preferred hours to accomplish your tasks?

Me, I'd prefer to work from 5am till 1pm but reality of my kids and carpools makes my days start around 9 usually. But then I am up fixing things, editing, blogging, tweeting and just "working" all night so to speak.

This must stop, not just for me, but for civilization as we know it. Some of us are happy to be online always, others, like me, drop it all 1 day a week.

If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you still be on Twitter or Facebook or blogging? Personally, I wouldn't, but I am sure some of you would. Right now it all helps business, each in it's own way.

And if I didn't have the business I wouldn't bother.

This may be why the pickup in companies for social media is up and down, if you have no stake in your company, why would you do it? And if you do take part in it all, and have no stake, why bother? A chance to be "known"? A chance to stand out, perhaps for advancement? And for how long? Business is not just about Q4, but you got to play all year long, always.