Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Guest post by Danna Vetter, VP, Consumer Strategies, ARAMARK – Part 2 in a series

There are no stronger or truer words in the business world: your people are your product. It sounds so simple, yet time and time again, companies make decisions and take action without including the pieces that make them whole. You are the sum of your parts. With the support and influence of your people, you can accomplish anything at a company.

So at a large company like ARAMARK, we knew right away that the first step to successfully becoming a social business was through our people. We created a center-led Social Media team that, among other things, is responsible for developing tools, training, and resources to help our businesses accelerate their social media strategies. But above all else, they are tasked with championing the social media effort for the whole organization and leading a Center of Excellence that empowers our employees to leverage social media into the way they do business.

Unless our people integrate social media into their work lifestyle, we will never become a true social business. We had to work with others from around the company or socializing these concepts would be comparable to shouting in the Grand Canyon, an echo only heard by us.

ARAMARK’s multi-business structure makes for a natural hub-and-spoke model to spread the message and ideas of social media. We created a social delegate team, made up of individuals from each of our businesses and functional groups. Delegates were tabbed as the designated leader for social media in their business area, helping build the social media strategies and manage the communication and activity for the field. Early on in the build, we made sure the team had vertical depth by including functional area delegates, who brought perspectives from groups such as Legal, HR, and Communications.

Social Delegates

At first, we thought that the delegates should be of a certain role or position in the company. Having a certain clout, the thought was, would help drive influence to the late adopters. But what we found out was that it’s really about finding the right people, not level or title. Being a delegate wasn’t a full time job – it was a designation and we needed people to be a part of this beyond their regular roles. If it wasn’t the right people, they weren’t going to find the time to do something that could be considered additional.

Our delegates are a diverse mix of roles and responsibilities across our company – we have marketers that have decades of experience yet limited social exposure, we also have relatively young professionals with maybe five years in the working world that grew up with the explosion of social media. But the common thread among them all is this – an energy and passion for bringing social media to ARAMARK and a willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace change.

We meet live every six weeks, which has been a great forum for the delegates to communicate with peers and share ideas. While we give regular updates on what is happening socially across the organization, we also created teams within the delegates to present information back to everyone about new and relevant social media concepts and ideas. It has gotten people involved and active in the group and helped create the dialogue that breaks down walls in large organizations like ARAMARK. We are also active in trying to bring in external guest speakers to present for the team where applicable (such as Facebook, who recently came in to present to the team).

One of the roles of our team at the center is to make sure the delegates are prepared to manage social media for their business. As this industry evolves into something different each and every day, we don’t want to just get our delegates smart on what social media is – we need them to become subject matter experts that are able to constantly adapt along with this ever-changing field. When that happens, everyone wins. The delegates are able to create more influence and credibility in their role and add to their own professional skills. For us, we are able to drive support at all points across the company.

Collaboration

While our live meetings are tremendously effective, we can’t truly sustain social media without continuous dialogue with our delegates. To help develop this kind of communication with the team, we leveraged an internal collaboration tool, which is a social network of its own. Our team leads the site in sharing resources and tools, wikis on social media topics, and blogs on the latest news. The blog has been a great area to not just present information, but also create discussion on what new developments mean for the company, our businesses, and even our delegates.

Internal collaboration, like social media, is a whole new idea and business process that many companies struggle to get off the ground. We’re no different. Getting people to share and look for information internally is a cultural shift in itself. But when we do share knowledge and learn from each other, it brings people together and opens up doors into concepts and ideas people might not have even thought their company took part in. And it makes people think of new ideas they should be doing for their own business.

While internal collaboration is always a work in progress, our best moments are when we are able to sit back and watch conversation and ideas go back and forth with our delegates. Sometimes not everyone agrees with a stance someone takes, but that’s what great – everyone is exposed to both sides of a topic and can make decisions for themselves about what works best for them. Productive conflict and challenge makes us smarter as a group and delivers more comprehensive outcomes.

Social media is only going to be as successful at ARAMARK as our people are able to make it. Because, as we mentioned earlier, your people are your products. Which in our case makes for a very powerful opportunity.

ARAMARK is a private, $13 billion global company that provides managed services (food, facilities, uniforms, etc) for clients in several industries, including sport and entertainment, higher education, healthcare, as well as other general business and beyond. This is the second in a series of posts on how the large company is working to integrate social media into the way it does business.

Part 1 – They all laughed

Image credit: Shutterstock

Photo: University of Maryland

One of the oldest prizes in aviation is one step closer to being claimed after a team from the University of Maryland flew a human-powered helicopter for 50 seconds yesterday. The students managed the tenuous indoor flight with the Gamera II, beating the team’s previous record of 11 seconds set last summer.

The flight came at the end of two action-filled days of flying, fixing and flying again with numerous hops above the University of Maryland’s basketball court heli-pad.

The prize is the Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Competition from the American Helicopter Society and a win earns $250,000. In order to claim the prize a human powered helicopter must lift off the ground, hover for at least 60 seconds, reach an altitude of 3 meters during the flight and stay within a 10-square-meter area.

Yesterday’s 50-second flight was one of more than a dozen over the past two days, including a 35-second flight on Wednesday and a 40-second flight earlier Thursday (video below).

The Gamera II is a far cry from its robust spinning terrapin namesake. Like its fixed wing, human powered cousins, the delicate helicopter is a rather large, yet extremely lightweight aircraft. The entire craft has a width of 105 feet and each of the four rotors has a span of just over 42 feet, 7 inches. But despite the size of the Gamera II, it weighs just 71 pounds. That’s more than 30 pounds lighter than the original Gamera that flew last year, thanks largely to redesigned rotors and an improved truss design.

The design is delicate and an incident on Wednesday had them making repairs and delaying further flights.

Photo: Univeristy of Maryland

Carbon fiber rods and thread are used to create small trusses that in turn make the four large trusses that spread from the cockpit. At the end of each truss is a rotor that is perched just above the ground. With the rotors located close to the ground, the team can take advantage of ground effect, an aerodynamic condition where there’s a reduction in induced drag from the lift generated by the rotors. With the rotors spinning at just 20 revolutions per minute, less than one horsepower is needed to hover at two feet above the ground.

Gamera II is piloted and powered by a pair of students at the University of Maryland. Unlike its predecessor, Gamera II uses both pedals to power with the legs, and a hand crank to add a bit of extra power. The team estimates they gain around 20 percent with the arms over using legs alone.

The University of Maryland team is one of only three groups that has ever achieved human powered helicopter flight. A Japanese team held the previous record with a 19 second flight back in 1994.

More flights are expected today and the team hopes to crack the 60 second barrier. A live stream of the Gamera II in action can be seen on the team’s website.

The future of TV is much more than social, it’s a multi-screen experience that takes design. Often, producers, broadcast and movie marketers and brands alike underestimate the role social media plays as consumers watch, share, and interact. Whether its watching movies, TV shows or listening to music, consumers will have at least one-to-two other devices in grasp or within reach. Depending on the device, each screen is used differently and with purpose. As a result, each screen requires the thoughtful development of an engaging or entertaining experience.

This is a topic that I have and will continue to explore. I believe the entertainment industry is uniquely positioned to introduce a connected, cross-platform experience layer that captivates and grows audiences while creating new opportunities for monetization.

In addition to sharing my thoughts, I will also feature the work of others who are experimenting beyond what we think we know to learn and share just what’s possible. I invited Gayle Weiswasser VP, Social Media Discovery Communications, to stop by for an in-depth interview. Here, she shares how her team is building a new infrastructure to unite programming, audiences, and talent to change how Discovery creates, markets, and supports new experiences.

What is the prevailing mission and purpose for Discovery’s social media strategy?

At Discovery, social media represents an individual, intimate touchpoint with our audiences. Our social accounts allow us to interact with fans in a manner that was previously impossible for large broadcasters: two-way, real-time conversation around our programming and talent. Our mission is to augment our fans’ experience with our networks through relevant content, access to talent, exclusives and other interactions that celebrate our fans and shine a spotlight on their passions.

We use social media primarily for four purposes: 1) engaging with fans and encouraging that two-way conversation; 2) driving tune-in to our programming; 3) driving traffic to our owned-and-operated fansites; and 4) gathering insights about fan preferences and reactions that we can share internally with our network marketing, communications and production partners.

What is the current size of the communities you manage and what has overall growth and size of your social media footprint evolved?

As of April 2012, we have 59 million likes across approximately 75 active Facebook pages; on Twitter, we have 3.5 million followers across 21 accounts. Our Facebook footprint grows by about two million likes a month, and in 2011, our fan counts on both platforms doubled. That growth has come almost entirely organically, with very few targeted spends or buys aimed at building our social audience.

How does strategy come to life in the organization?

Social media strategy is developed by a centralized team that works in lockstep with our communications, marketing, digital media and many other teams. It is truly a joint, multi-disciplinary effort. Our social media team works hard to ensure that each of our plans is executed in line with the other teams’ strategies, and we engage in early cross-functional brainstorming and strategy meetings to ensure that we are maximizing the potential of social media to support network initiatives.

On average how many social media presences does Discovery host at any one time?

We currently have 75 active Facebook pages and 21 Twitter accounts (U.S. network and show-related), and also have several network Pinterest accounts. We’ve also done some experimentation on Tumblr and Google+, and work with several social TV players, like GetGlue, Miso and Viggle.

How do you distribute presences, for example, which shows get Facebook pages vs. Google + vs. Twitter vs. YouTube, etc.

For now, we’re focusing on where our largest and most engaged audiences are: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Every network has a Facebook and Twitter account, and most of our popular programs have their own Facebook pages as well. We have a set of factors that we balance before launching a new social media account – everything from whether the show has been greenlit for more than one season to how much related content we will have to share with fans year-round. Given our large social footprint, we are often able to support new series through network pages and cross promotion, which may give way to a new Facebook page as the audience builds.

What are some of the prime metrics that you use to define success?

Engagement metrics are the ones we focus on the most: are people reacting to, and being inspired by, our content? Are they liking, commenting, clicking, and sharing? Those are the numbers we’re most focused on, as they tell us whether we’re doing a good job of building that important relationship with our audiences. The footprint number is meaningless if we’re not actually connecting with those fans.

Are you using social media to drive tune-in and what are your observations on what’s possible here?

Yes, that’s one of our main goals for social media. We have a lot of anecdotal evidence that our social media activity – particularly real-time activity around premieres – drives buzz and, in turn, increases the likelihood that existing and new viewers will tune in. And, of course, we follow the social TV studies that have been published lately, such as Nielsen’s conclusion that pre-show social activity drives ratings increases and TVGuide.com’s report that people are watching more live TV to avoid spoilers. We think that there is a world of possibility here – with at least 40-45% of people using smart devices/laptops while they are watching TV. This year, we will be doing more with live, on-air streaming of social integrations, which we expect will only strengthen the social media-tune-in connection.

How have you organized around social media to manage an extensive and engaged network?

We have a centralized social media team that acts as an in-house social media agency, with the networks as our clients. Within the team, we have members dedicated to each network, and they attend all of the network meetings that touch social media (marketing/communications/digital/production) so that they are entirely engaged in all of the network plans. The centralized structure allows the team to share best practices, do cross-network promotions, test emerging platforms, and develop social media guidelines that extend across networks.

Any special practices for internal coordination?
– Social CMS?
– Style Guide?
– Best practices?
– Training?

These types of practices are done within our centralized team, which is another benefit to the structure. We have a social media style guide, and we meet three times a week as a team to brainstorm and develop best practices.

How do you decide when it’s time to retire an account?

We retire accounts when we no longer have regular, relevant content to share with their audiences. This may happen when a show finishes its run, although we have several active social communities that are still going strong even though the shows they were built around are no longer in premieres. If we can’t provide the community with good content, then we will shut down the account, after ensuring that fans have notice and the opportunity to join similar social communities we manage, if available.

Any final advice, tips, or cautionary tales to leave us with as we put your experiences into action?

Don’t underfund or understaff your social media teams – the purpose they serve is too important to give it short shrift. And be sure that your team isn’t silo-ed. The key to an effective social media strategy is integrating social across your business by keeping the lines of communication open.

Via Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com

I’m a self-confessed entrepreneur with all the trappings of bootstrapping, scaling grand ideas, and being an early adopter. And I am also a big believer–in interns.

Internship programs have gotten a lot of flack of late. They are not free labor. They shouldn’t be treated as such, and quite frankly, they aren’t anyway. Management is time, which equals money. ”Returns” (people seeking second careers) and interns can be an amazing, long-term asset to your company. They can save you thousands or even millions of dollars.

We have more than 10 returnships and internships at UniversalGiving, and we’ve found it to be a very positive experience. It’s our goal to provide them a great work environment, ownership, management guidance and a positive atmosphere. We also achieve many of our goals through them. It turns out to be very productive for both.

First, interns are not about age or recent grads. These days, people are soul-searching. We’re talking about forty- and fiftysomethings wanting to find a way to contribute with impact, and ideally meaning, at your company. We call these “returnships.” Some are not sure what they want to do and would like to try out a new skill. Others are trying out our industry. Some simply need a kind, structured, productive environment while seeking employment. Some just need a break.

Our solution: We give them all great experience and put them right to work. Even if they eventually decide it is not for them, they have learned a lot, and we have benefited. We organize the tasks so that they build to our goals. Those who move past “Level 1″ of marketing research, for example, might be advanced to handling marketing partnerships. In essence, whether it is employees, interns, or volunteers, good management and proper delegation per each skill level is essential.

Yet what’s really critical is that often our interns are a feeder to employment: They might “graduate” to consultant and then to employee. We see this often, and it’s mutually determining the following: Is this a good “professional marriage”?

It allows both parties to see if the skills fit, and if the values fit. Someone could be talented yet not enjoy our culture, or we might not feel alignment. Rather than try to determine a good fit by interviews (and some people are great at interviewing, but not necessarily great for the job), we both get practical experience working together.

If you aren’t convinced interns are the way to go, or you think they are too much time, you might want to rethink. The cost of a wrong hire can be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. You’ve spent the time training, then there is a vacuum in your organization when they go. You’ve spent 3, 4, 6 months of your employees’ time (= expensive) getting someone up to speed. Then your employees need to get someone new up to speed. But first, they have to begin the rehiring process, again. More money. More time. More weight on the organization.

And don’t forget the morale cost. This is where it is most heavy on the team, and we have to be considerate of our people. We should respect the energy and investment of their time.

To spell it out, the typical costs of recruiting and hiring, according to GradStaff, are:

$5,700 – $8,900: Average amount to recruit for an entry-level position

$1,000 – $1,500: Average amount to train a new employee

$5,700 – $8,900: Cost of second recruitment round

$1,000 – $1,500: Cost of second training round

The total morale cost depends on how many people were affected, but suffice it to say it’s significant.

So contribute to the bottom line by cultivating returnships and internships as part of your team. Grow these contributors, embrace them, and help them succeed. Within a matter of weeks, they can be inspired and reach their goals, while also making a measurable impact on your work. For proof’s sake, our top two leaders started out in “returnships.” They were seasoned executives returning to a new career path, and are now fully on staff.

Statistics Source: GradStaff

Image: Flickr user Blip ou Bruno Veloso

Everybody likes to be liked. And unless you’re the type of boss who revels in tyranny, it’s only natural to seek the favor of your underlings. But there’s a big difference between engaging with employees and fawning over them.

In an era when the virtues of a collegial and collaborative environment are widely espoused, there’s guilt associated with being a strong-handed boss. Managers are often afraid to pull rank for fear they’ll fall out of grace with their reports and spoil team camaraderie if they’re not nice. “So many leaders, supervisors, and bosses suffer from a nice-guy conflict,” says Bruce Tulgand, author of It’s Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need. “Managers are afraid that people will think they’re a jerk.”

Quite frankly, being nice is overrated. In fact, a 2011 study, “Do Nice Guys–and Gals–Really Finish Last?” posits that disagreeable people are more successful. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that disagreeable people (especially men) earn more money and are perceived as better leaders. The research has too often been used to draw the conclusion that being mean is a good thing, says study co-author Beth A. Livingston of Cornell University. Which isn’t necessarily the case. Rather, the lesson here is that some people could stand to be less nice.

“Disagreeableness is a multifaceted trait,” says Livingston. Less agreeable people are generally “people who don’t really care what you think.” Unconcerned with stepping on toes or being unpopular, they cut a clear path to the brass ring and make more decisive leaders–which is especially important because building consensus often doesn’t translate to success.

Let the performance be the arbiter—unless you’re running a commune.

One HR exec at a tech company tells the story of acquiring a startup with a culture that was so consensus-driven that they couldn’t decide on which features to cut in order to keep projects on schedule and budget. “Products were delayed, but according to them they had the ‘best culture’ in the world,” he says.

Less-agreeable people are also more likely to advocate for themselves and for others–a huge part of being a leader. A moderately disagreeable person might have the attitude, “I’m not going to step on people willy nilly, but I’m not going to let people step on me, either,” says Livingston.

Nice people tend to be too considerate and afraid to initiate structure, which can be trouble for a startup trying to establish itself as a legitimate business. Livingston cited Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg as a good example of someone who realized that if he wanted to continue as the creative, likable boss in flip flops, he needed to have a bad cop around to bust some heads. “He hired Sheryl Sandberg from Google, and she whipped everybody into shape. They were pretty chaotic before that.”

Even in these kindler, more collaborative times, someone has to set priorities, pull the plug on an unprofitable project, or fire someone who’s not pulling his weight. If the reins lay in your hands, here are some tips to help you tighten your hold without being labeled a meanie.

Don’t Be Weak
Many bosses are reluctant managers because they’re afraid to come off as jerks, says Tulgan. “Really, if employees think a boss is a jerk, it’s when they’re too weak.” Weakling managers don’t take the time to manage on a daily basis. They let small problems build up into big problems. They pretend to be friends, but when things go south they show their true colors. And the only time they own their authority is when they’re angry with someone. “Be brave enough to own your authority before things go wrong,” says Tulgan.

Work it Out
“Don’t fall for the myth of the natural leader,” says Tulgan. “If you want to be in good shape, you have to train every day.” Talk to people one-on-one, understand what their problems are, and remind them of how their role fits into the greater mission at hand. The big mistake that managers make, says Tulgan, is waiting until they have to give bad news or make a hard decision to start managing. They haven’t laid the groundwork. “If the only time you manage is when you have bad news, then every time they see you coming they’ll say ‘Oh no, here he comes.’”

Build Structure
Structure is not a dirty word to employees. In many cases, they crave it. Philadelphia-based knowledge network startup, Quewey, recently brought on a CEO and the organizational changes have been welcomed by the group. “We realized that we needed a pointed decision maker,” says Michael Magill, of Quewey’s business development and finance. “A lot of day-to-day decisions come up that don’t seem like big decisions, but they really mold your strategy. At a certain point, younger workers will begin to wonder who is responsible for managing the overall direction, message, and strategy of a business.” Magill says that having a defined leader has helped people understand their roles, set the founder’s vision in sight, streamline processes, and increase delegation. And projects that would have otherwise remained in the brainstorming stage actually see action.

Monitor Performance
Managers sometimes struggle with rewarding employees, fearing that others will feel passed over, like when giving out raises or offering a better office space. “Let the performance be the arbiter–unless you’re running a commune,” says Tulgan.  If you keep close track of each person’s performance and what’s going on with the team, decisions will be respected. Tulgan says that leaders need to also show employees that they will help them earn promotions and find success.

Separate Wheat From The Chaff
The same goes for firing someone who’s dragging down the team. If you’re talking with your team every day and making clear what takes priority and what should be back-burnered, reports will have a clear sense of what needs to be done and you’ll know who’s delivering and who’s not. And don’t assume chopping a few heads will be received poorly by the high-performers. Says Tulgan: “Usually what managers find is that employees say, ‘What took you so long?’” Low performers take up money that might otherwise be available for a raise, they undermine teamwork. Good workers recognize this.

Share Information
Some managers try to keep too much information too close to their chest. Then when the axe comes down, folks are shocked and angered–and you come off as mean and callous. By explaining the facts up front, you’ll save a lot of heartache. For example, “If we delay this project, none of us will see our annual bonus.” Employees will respond to your transparency and know what lays ahead.

Hold Yourself Responsible
Take ownership for bad news. If the news is a result of your own poor business decisions, take the blame, says Tulgan. “I’m gonna take a bullet, but we’re all gonna suffer.” If the news is based on a decision from above, don’t just blame it on the guys at corporate. “That undermines everybody’s confidence in the organization and the chain of command. Because that’s your source of authority, it weakens you.” Explain the business decisions that were made, and how it will affect the company.

Image: Flickr user Tambako The Jaguar