Best Social Media and Networking Skills and Practices for Foundation Leaders

Editor's Notes

• #2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84263554@N00/184270268/ Best Social Media and Networking Skills and Practices for Foundation Leaders Sunday, May 17, 2015 - 2:00-6:00 p.m. Lummus Island Room, Ballroom Level, Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel Presented by Knight Digital Media Center USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism  
• #3: Best Social Media and Networking Skills and Practices for Foundation Leaders Sunday, May 17, 2015 - 2:00-6:00 p.m. Lummus Island Room, Ballroom Level, Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel Presented by Knight Digital Media Center USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism   PROGRAM AGENDA   2:00-2:20 p.m. Welcome & Introductions Vikki Porter, Director, Knight Digital Media Center at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Workshop agenda Beth Kanter, Master Trainer, blogger, author (The Networked Nonprofit), speaker   2:20-2:40 p.m. Understanding key social platforms Stephanie Rudat, Digital marketing consultant   2:40-4:00 p.m. Thought leadership on social platforms Beth Kanter   4:00-4:10 p.m. Break: Sign up for office hours on Monday   4:10-4:40 p.m. Engagement on social media Beth Kanter   4:40-5:50 p.m. Social media, mobile: Practical tips and exercises Stephanie Rudat Amy Gahran, KDMC mobile consultant and blogger   5:50–6:00 pm Wrap up, next steps Vikki Porter   Sign up for office hours on Monday  
• #6: My objectives
• #7: Standing image: NY Observer - https://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/gandeevasan_bulldogdreft.jpg Sitting image: Urdogs.com
• #9: Do you want to play roulette
• #10: You’ve got to know what they do to avoid getting stuck
• #11: Right image: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/74005/file-15479003-jpg/images/newsboy_megaphone.jpg
• #15: Mark – invisible people
• #16: 32/20 – front row seat Modem from a microwave Learn and teach other nonprofits how to leverage the technology in service of their mission This work has taken me around the world, honored to work with thousands of nonprofits on all continents of the world Wrote two books 2013 Terry McAdams Award, thought this was the highlight of my career
• #17: http://teamcoco.com/video/linkedin-11-07-2013
• #18: I offered him some advice. It isn’t about the number of followers you have or red hats It is about being present on social channels and being engaged as a leader ….
• #19: He ignored me. And I still have more followers than he does. But how and why is this possible that an individual like me has more influence that a national TV talk show host?
• #20: We all know the latest stats from Pew and American Internet Center …. There are three digital revolutions taking place that allow individuals and organizations working in networks to scale their impact 85% of Americans have access to broadband Internet 89% have a mobile phone 72% use a social network … And, Stephanie has covered the various platforms and demographics – we are living in an age of connectivity – where individuals and their networks have great influence
• #21: And that creates the conditions for .. Sir Stuffington – the cutest cat pirate you have ever seen The Facebook page was created by a teen in Oregon, to draw attention to donations, volunteering, and pet adoption after she found this cute kitty with its eye poked out in an alley in Portland, Oregon Thousands of people joined, main stream media got the story … donations, volunteers, and people seeking to adopt Sir Stuffington or other animals came to the Shelter But this campaign was not started by the shelter … agency embraced the “free agent” http://multcopets.org/news/sir-stuffingtons-story http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2013/09/sir-stuffington-pirate-cat-viral-photos-blazer-schaffer-interview She is a 34 year old mother of 3 and pole acrobat – popular in Portland with a large network of friends both online and offline She was volunteer Blaze
• #22: Nonprofits have worked like this – as lone institutions – since the dawn of industrialized management … But these three digital revolutions are changing institutions and the way they work .. The work place is becoming more fluid, organizational charts are becoming flatter, especially with the Millennial generation entering the workforce, and Gen Z is not far behind
• #23: The transition from working like this to this – doesn’t happen over night, can’t flip a switch Change is slow …
• #24: This is the power of these tools, but we know that nonprofits and maybe foundations change slowly How do you adapt your organization to a networked nonprofit? Agile, transparent --- organizations that allow outsiders in and insiders out – are masters at using social media tools for social change . Change happens slowly … So, in the many years I’ve been working with nonprofits on becoming networked nonprofits, I found that change happens slowly and incrementally So, I developed a framework for Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly – inspired by this Maritn Luther King quote…
• #25: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/becoming_a_networked_nonprofit http://www.flickr.com/photos/oreoqueen/3235090633/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathandesign/7031920221/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdfbrasil/2416260064/sizes/m/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/levymh/6891554365/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/
• #27: Let me tell you the story of one community foundation going from walking to jogging and maybe running – with both their organizational strategy as well as leading on social platforms. They started slowly – with a web site redesign to incorporate social sharing and a blog – that drove their content strategy They also focused on Facebook, coming up with a robust editorial calendar on FB and measuring results … As part of the planning for their strategy, they benchmarked all the nonprofit FB pages in their county – found that 80% were there- average 200 fans. This group was a key group they needed to reach so a lot of their content is intended to reach nonprofits they serve. The blog, web site, email newsletter, and FB form the basis of their strategy
• #28: They spent time coming up with a simple way to measure what works and what didn’t on FB – using the insights program They’re on other channels …too but http://www.cfscc.org/Philanthropy831Blog/tabid/114/PostID/146/You-Can-Buy-Likes-But-Is-It-Love.aspx
• #29: But one thing they noticed that whenever they got staff to comment on FB … or shared content that gave an inside peek of the fdn – their engagement went up …
• #30: http://measure-netnon.wikispaces.com/file/view/CFSCC_SocialMediaPolicy_08%2017%2011.pdf They wanted to formalize staff as champions and make it part of everyone’s job, especially their leadership -- Lance They needed a policy – so they could get everyone on staff to participate – first to make the work flow efficient – and to leverage networks and get out of the silo of communications department. This was easy … -Road shows with department -Addressing concerns – like privacy – Chuckie Cheese story – privacy workshops …
• #35: _ we often turn to outsides, external champions when think about champions Why build a thought leadership profile online:  Reach: Ability to reach a different audience than the organization’s profile Humanize: People trust individuals more than organizational brand Flexibility: Less formal or structured than organizational channels Less Risk: Staff are better champions for your organization than outsiders Reinforces Expertise: Makes knowledge more visible Amplify Existing Work: Social amplifies the work you are already doing in other ways For your organization, a leadership profile online for your executive director can help your organization reach a different audience that may not already be following your brand. Your CEO (and all employees for that matter) will be tapping in their professional networks.   Your logo alone is not enough to build trust for your organization’s brand, it requires a human face to humanize the brand, not a logo. CEOs are seen as experts on your brand and products, thus their opinions are extremely valuable and trusted by the people in their networks. Due to the more personal nature of professional networks, brand messages are shared more when they are shared by employees than when shared by the brand itself.   Your organization’s branded social channels will most likely have a formal and structured editorial calendar linked to your policy agenda and other communications objectives. Having your CEO use social in a separate channel gives you more flexibility, esp. with breaking news.   Your leader as a champion and personal brand for your organization is going to have less risk than external volunteers or champions. They understand the brand’s mission and value and they know your issues better than anyone else. Your CEO already understands your brand guidelines and will most likely operate within it.   Using social media isn’t just a distraction, it amplifies and enhances the work your CEO is already doing. Most nonprofit leaders have to keep up with their sector, field, or issues anyway – and openly sharing what they are reading – useful content and news with some analysis helps contributes to thought leadership – especially on social channels like Twitter where many reporters use it to source leaders for stories or policy makers (and their staff) are monitoring. If other leaders in your field are using social channels, easily connect for leadership conversations. --------- If your nonprofit’s executive director or CEO a thought leader? Thought leaders drive conversations – online and off, influence others, and shape perceptions in their field. They are the respected voices who others turn to understand sector social change issues.   It is no longer enough for your organization’s brand to lead through social media channels. Your organization’s CEO also needs to be connected on social to be effective as a thought leader. There are significant benefits to both the organization and the leaders themselves by building a leadership profile on social. For the organization … Reach different audience The CEO and all employees for that matter will likely be reaching a different audience through their social channels – tapping their professional networks. Humanize and build trust for organization brand In a recent Gartner study, only 15 percent of people said that trust posts by companies or brands on social networking sites – a startling statistic when compared to the fact that the same study found 70 percent trust brand or product recommendations from friends and family. Employees are seen as experts on your brand and products, thus their opinions are extremely valuable and trusted by the people in their networks. Due to the more personal nature of employee networks, brand messages are shared eight times more by employees are than when shared by the brand. Flexibility in communications style Your organization’s branded social channels will most likely have a formal and structured editorial calendar linked to your policy agenda and other communications objectives. Having your CEO use social in a separate channel gives you more flexibility, esp. with breaking news. Less Risk Your leader as a champion and personal brand for your organization is going to have less risk than external volunteers or champions. They understand the brand’s mission and value and they know your issues better than anyone else. Your CEO already understands your brand guidelines and will most likely operate within it. Learning: Make Expertise More Visible Most nonprofit leaders have to keep up with their sector, field, or issues anyway – and openly sharing what you’re reading – useful content and news with some analysis helps builds thought leadership – especially on social channels like Twitter where many reporters use it to source leaders for stories or policy makers (and their staff) are monitoring. If other leaders in your field are using social channels, easily connect for leadership conversations. Enhance work already doing Leaders are doing press conferences, keeping up with their field of practice, making public appearances and giving presentations, etc – social channels provide a way to amplify and enhance this work. Professional learning Using social channels to follow the news, especially when many news organizations have a “Twitter first” policy
• #36: https://twitter.com/kanter/status/555868668140089344 http://www.cooperationinternationalegeneve.ch/twitter-and-unhcr We have our institutional handle - @refugees with 1.3 million followers. That is obviously an astounding number of people to direct access to. But in addition, we encourage our spokespeople and public information colleagues to tweet under their own handle and about the work they are doing. As UNHCR's Chief Spokesperson, I try to lead by example by actively tweeting on@melissarfleming. For our @refugees account, we aim to reach a broad spectrum of the socially engaged public, from "mommy bloggers' to political activists, to humanitarians to celebrities. I aim to reach journalists and diplomats and other influencers on my@melissarfleming feed.
• #44: But to reap the benefits, you have to understand how to navigate boundaries and your online reputation … Before social networks and the Internet, it was fairly easy to put clear boundaries between work and personal lives – it was pretty black and white Public/Private and Personal/Professional. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/29407740/sizes/o/ But in today’s world, those boundaries are pretty blurred. As employees of nonprofits increasingly interact with their professional contacts in online social networks that favor individual participation, such as Facebook or Twitter, they are likely to experience a collision of their professional and personal identities. It’s one of the realities of living in a networked world – and as much as it makes feel uncomfortable – we have to accept it. However, it doesn’t mean it has to be all bad. Nonprofit CEOs (nd their employees) that develop expertise with boundary management and identity negotiation can experience many benefits but also challenges. On one hand, as an individual you can now reach many new audiences – but the problem is that you don’t get the same physical and social cues that have guided out human interaction for centuries. On social channels, people don’t have to interact with you to develop an opinion of you as a person based on reading your social stream. But, don’t let that scare you away, there are ways to manage it … -Social media policy in place that clearly spells out who “owns” the personal brand
• #45: There are basically three ways to react .. You can be a turtle … You can be a jelly fish Or a Chameleon If you truly want to establish an effective leadership profile online that supports your organization’s work, you need to be a chameleon. It takes more time, savvy, comfort – but you can start with small steps which I’ll take about in minute .. But first you need a strategy for your leadership profile that is complementary to your organization’s strategy .
• #46: Let’s look at how Chameleon’s manage their leader profiles on social .. First, they know the audience they want to reach on different channels and where it overlaps with their organizations. Maybe your organization wants to cultivate media and using Twitter might be a natural choice because so many reporters use it as a tool for research. Maybe it is the policy makers you want to reach and many use Twitter .. Next, what’s your purpose? How does social media enhance the work you are already doing? Engage with peers?Educate influencers?Amplify organization’s messaging? Authenticity Persona – what is the image you want to convey? ProfessorialInspiringAuthoritative What tone is needed? Tone HumbleScientificInsiderSerious How does this complement your organization’s social strategy?
• #47: In the end, why are you here? Are you working to educate your audience, inspire action, or amplify messages? This should be identified in your social media support plan …. But you should own it. Make it your own. Your personal brand will topple if it sits on a foundation that’s not based in truth or perceived as genuine. And you’ll be worn out too. Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said “The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.”  Being someone you’re not is hard work. It takes effort to play a role. Just ask the actors on Broadway who play their part 8 times a week. Because branding is based in authenticity, you need to understand who you are and what makes you compelling to your target audience – the people who are making decisions about you. As you think about what makes you YOU, ponder these questions:
• #48: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bearpark/3098298722/sizes/l 
• #49: Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhw/254986081/sizes/l http://www.bethkanter.org/leader-profile/ http://pixgood.com/people-talking-in-elevator.html Your Twitter elevator speech is what goes in your bio A strong bio can lead to more followers, and is an ideal way to introduce you to others. It helps others know what to expect if they follow you. You have 160 characters to present a concise summary about yourself that may include your title @foundation handle, and keywords if you have a crisp, compelling purpose around the content you share and your areas of interest. What’s Twitter Elevator Speech, Your Twitter Elevator Speech http://www.bethkanter.org/1-step-01/   An elevator speech is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value. The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes and is widely credited the editors at Vanity Fair. The term itself comes from a scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in the elevator. If the conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and value adding, the conversation will continue after the elevator ride or end in exchange of business card or meeting. Some communications training has you commonly rehearse and use elevator pitches to get your point across quickly. Your profile on Twitter is your elevator speech.
• #51: Image Source: Creative Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/foshydog/5019323386/ http://www.bethkanter.org/leader-profile/ Your Twitter elevator speech is what goes in your bio A strong bio can lead to more followers, and is an ideal way to introduce you to others. It helps others know what to expect if they follow you. You have 160 characters to present a concise summary about yourself that may include your title @foundation handle, and keywords if you have a crisp, compelling purpose around the content you share and your areas of interest. What’s Twitter Elevator Speech, Your Twitter Elevator Speech http://www.bethkanter.org/1-step-01/   An elevator speech is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value. The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes and is widely credited the editors at Vanity Fair. The term itself comes from a scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in the elevator. If the conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and value adding, the conversation will continue after the elevator ride or end in exchange of business card or meeting. Some communications training has you commonly rehearse and use elevator pitches to get your point across quickly. Your profile on Twitter is your elevator speech.
• #52: Your Twitter elevator speech is what goes in your bio A strong bio can lead to more followers, and is an ideal way to introduce you to others. It helps others know what to expect if they follow you. You have 160 characters to present a concise summary about yourself that may include your title @foundation handle, and keywords if you have a crisp, compelling purpose around the content you share and your areas of interest.
• #53: Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhw/254986081/sizes/l http://www.bethkanter.org/leader-profile/ Your Twitter elevator speech is what goes in your bio A strong bio can lead to more followers, and is an ideal way to introduce you to others. It helps others know what to expect if they follow you. You have 160 characters to present a concise summary about yourself that may include your title @foundation handle, and keywords if you have a crisp, compelling purpose around the content you share and your areas of interest. What’s Twitter Elevator Speech, Your Twitter Elevator Speech http://www.bethkanter.org/1-step-01/   An elevator speech is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value. The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes and is widely credited the editors at Vanity Fair. The term itself comes from a scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in the elevator. If the conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and value adding, the conversation will continue after the elevator ride or end in exchange of business card or meeting. Some communications training has you commonly rehearse and use elevator pitches to get your point across quickly. Your profile on Twitter is your elevator speech.
• #54: Writer: Write concise Tweets Curator: Find, listen, and learn from relevant sourcesSharer: Share links and resources that are relevant, your expertise, or link to your authentic personal brandNetworker: Build relationships
• #55: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tudor/520997901/sizes/o/
• #57: How Nonprofits Get Significant Value from Content Curation http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-2/ Harold Jarche’s “Seek, Sense, Share” model for self-directed professional learning (http://www.jarche.com/2010/10/network-learning-working-smarter/) using your online networks. The framework works well for content curation. -The process of content curation is broken down into a three-part work flow that once all your systems are set up and you’ve internalized the skills – can be done in 1 or 2 15-minute daily segments on Twitter   -Seek: Discovering and filtering your sources – experts, publications, and keywords. This is the fire hose, but if you learn to filter your Twitter stream it can be very manageable. On Twitter, there are two simple techniques that we’ll practice in a minute – setting up Twitter lists and monitoring hashtags. You don’t have to follow everyone or every organization, but after spending a little time monitoring lists/hashtags, you will find reliable sources. This is the listening style of Tweeting in Jeremy’s framework. -Sense: This is the process of making sense of the content – summarizing, synthesizing, adding insight, verifying, organizing, etc. It is like taking some water from the firehouse that you’ve tamed and pouring a class of water. This is what you do already to build your expertise – and you’ll be doing this via Twitter. You will no doubt scan or browse many more resources or articles than you will read deeply and analyze and share. We can’t possibly analyze everything as there is so much content, but because of your expertise, you will quickly pick out what is important and share what is relevant. And of course, it will link to your support plan objective or professional learning goal. -Sharing: Sharing the links and your insights with your professional network - it is also a way to engage. This is the water cooler conversation around the content. You will lead conversations. When sharing links and resources as a content curator, you will give credit to your source (where you found the link), mention other Twitter who might find the content relevant, add relevant hashtag, revise the title, pick a quote from the article, ask questions, point out what is missing in the article, etc. Applied in the Nonprofit Sector: Example - Bruce Lesley
• #58: Bruce Lesley is the CEO of FirstFocus. He uses content curation on Twitter to build his personal brand and thought leadership.  He uses Twitter to curate information related to his organization’s mission and work as a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.   He also uses content curation for sources for his guest blogging at the Huffington Post      His use of Twitter (and his organization’s use of Twitter and all communications channels for that matter) to serve his organization’s goals: “First Focus is working to change the dialogue around children’s issues by taking a cross-cutting and broad based approach to federal policy making. In all of our work, we seek to raise awareness regarding public policies impacting children and ensure that related programs have the resources necessary to help them grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment.” Content curation also provides a method for professional learning for Bruce to keep on top of the issues that his organization’s is stewarding. He has always been an avid reader and consumer of news stories, journal articles, and other resources related to his field. He used to send out a weekly email with summaries of articles that he had read, but when he discovered Twitter, he realized that it would make it much easier for him to share his expertise. What has happened over time – with consistent sharing of high quality content curation - is that his expertise is now more transparent, and journalists and aligned partners come to him as the go to person. His highly curated feed is followed and tweets are retweeted by many in his network because of the expertise in the topic he has developed.
• #59: Here’s Bruce’s work flow broken down in Seek, Sense, and Share Keep in mind that Bruce is doing deep content curation and that it has taken a years to build up to this .. We are not expecting that you will do content curation at the same level as Bruce, but we build up over time starting with some simple techniques in the “seeking” part … Let’s look at the best practices that Bruce puts to use a content curator on Twitter to support thought leadership …
• #61: “You are not ever a ge Your professional network is your greatest asset no matter what stage you are in your nonprofit career, whether you are an emerging leader or an acknowledged thought leader in your industry or somewhere in between. When you intentionally build your professional network in the right way, you create a circle of individuals who are all rooting for your success and happy to help you.   An effective professional network can be a valuable asset to your nonprofit’s goals if you are leveraging your network in service your organization’s mission. - See more at: http://www.bethkanter.org/networking/#sthash.8aDc365u.dpufnius all by yourself. Your ideas are a function of the people you are connected with…” – Carol Dweck, Author, Mindset
• #62: Odi Ufer, he took over the positoin of CEO of the ACLU of NJ When came on board, his staff said, you should have your own Twitter account – you giving press conferences, this is another channel where you can do the same He had never tweeted before! So, his staff gave him a tweetorial .. And he was up in running – with “Ask me Anything” His job as CEO is to advocate for policies that ACLUNJ is working on – and Twitter helps him reach policy makers and the press .. He answer queries from reporters .. He educates policy makers. When makes a visit with a legilstator, they already know the issue because they have connected on Twitter. For CEOs in the room, think about what you already do that can be amplified by social … It’s not that you don’t think it is a good idea.   But you are probably, like most who work in the social change sector, incredibly busy.   Maybe you are muttering to yourself  ”Who can find the time to do social media?”    It isn’t a matter of finding the time, it is a matter of making the time and starting with some steps.    Have a conversation with your social media team and ask these questions: What do you spend time doing now that you could do better via social? What other executive directors in your field that you respect, follow or and feel inspired by are using social creatively? What are your strengths and preferences and what is the best match in terms of social channels? How will social improve things you already KNOW and value? The executive director for the ACLU-NJ, Udi Ofer, had that exact conversation with his staff when he was started last February and set up a Twitter account @UdiACLU and started using Instagramand YouTube to answer questions about marriage equality, DOMA, police misconduct, and other issues on the organization’s docket.    While the communications department has suggested the idea, he was on board from the start.  He does his own all of his own tweeting and as his communications staff reports, “enthusiastically at that!” Udi was not on Twitter before he started tweeting for his organization and was a Twitter novice, but he was opened to sitting down with his communications staff for a half hour tutorial where they showed him the basics of using Twitter and how to do it from his mobile phone.  What did the trick was a “How To Tweet” cheat sheet that not only included the simple mechanics, but also sample tweets from other ACLU leaders around the country, subtle form of peer pressure. Says Eliza Stram, ACLU-NJ Communications Associate, “I was able to make the sometimes intimidating prospect of tweeting approachable and very doable. In other words, if your peer at another ACLU Affiliate can do it, then so can you!” Stram also says that her new boss was very open and enthusiastic in trying out this new way of communication with reporters, civil liberties activists, and their supporters.  Says Stram, “Without that openness, I don’t believe he would be having nearly as much fun with Twitter as he is now.” By using twitter, the ACLU-NJ’s is not just sharing what ate for breakfast, Udi provides quotes on his organization’s most important cases and issues to reporters, in addition to their traditional press release or emailed statement.  He is also publicly debating civil liberties issues with reporters, lawyers and followers.   As Eliza notes, “Something that would have been impossible to do unless you were sitting with him in his office. ”  There is the occasional personal tweet, but these serve to make him seem approachable and human. While Udi is the face of the ACLU-NJ in the organization’s “official” communications such as press releases or in newspaper articles or sound bytes on the evening news,  Twitter has become the place where he injects warmth into the organization.     Says Eliza, “This is accomplished through the “Ask Udi Anything” project, which asked ACLU-NJ’s followers to pose questions about his goals for the organization and even what his favorite karaoke song is! By answering the public’s questions in a video Udi became an accessible, humorous, and more personal face for the ACLU-NJ.” Udi is just one example of nonprofit CEOs and leaders who use Twitter and other social media platforms.   Take for exampleRobert Falls who is the artistic director of the Goodman Theater he not only uses his personal Twitter account to highlight the Goodman’s shows, but also to share creative ideas, connect with peers, and discuss the art of theatre. Getting Past the Learning Curve Don’t let the learning curve get in the way of adopting social media as a personal and organizational leadership tool for your organization as Alexandra Samuel advises in this recent post on the WSJ.   While learning any new skill or tool will feel daunting when you start, if you can get started with small steps and practice it daily for a short amount of time, like Udi you’ll be a whiz in a matter of weeks.     Samuel also offers some ways to approach social media as a personal leadership tool.  This include: Create a Leadership Dashboard:  Using a tool like Mention or Feedly, you can put together a small list of leadership blogs or publications and set aside 15 minutes a day to read. Stay Focused:  Use online visualize tools to mindmap ideas Amplify Your Voice:   If you are sharing articles suggested your staff or colleagues “read this,”  switch the channel to something like Twitter. Social Media Golf Course:   Find a tool or channel that is simply fun and have some play time. If you are a nonprofit CEO, how did you get comfortable with incorporating social media into your personal and organizational leadership tool kit?   What support and encouragement did your staff provide?   Do you have an “ah ha” moment from social media a leadership tool that convinced you it wasn’t a waste of time?
• #63: In “Managing Yourself: A Smarter Way To Network” by Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas, they offer a more nuanced way to network based on the old adage, “It isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.”   It isn’t about having a lot of connections or only connecting with influential people.   Before they offer up their framework, they ask, “Are you networking impaired?”    Professional networking gone wrong includes a mismanagement of structure, relationships, and behavior. But what really matters is structure: Core connections must bridge smaller, more-diverse kinds of groups and cross hierarchical, organizational, functional, and geographic lines. Core relationships should result in more learning, less bias in decision making, and greater personal growth and balance. The people in your inner circle should also model positive behaviors, because if those around you are enthusiastic, authentic, and generous, you will be, too. The authors have analyzed many professionals professional networks and found that high performers have the following types of people in their core network or inner circle: 1. People who offer them new information or expertise, who share best practices; and contacts in other industries 2. People who are influential and who provide mentoring, sense-making, political support, and resources 3. People who provide developmental feedback, challenge their decisions, and push them to be better.
• #64: Heidi Roizen personally, and many people do, you might know her from the popular 2000 Harvard Business School case  http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/heidi-roizen-today-everything-relationship-driven
• #65: http://www.bethkanter.org/afpcon/
• #67: http://bit.ly/network-leadership