Listening implies an active process of paying attention to what someone else is saying. According to Fast Company magazine, most companies don’t do nearly as much of that as they should, primarily because it’s more complicated to do.

Companies often believe they are listening because they are engaging in extensive online monitoring of digital communications and social media, and are aware of the conversations happening about their brand. However, listening requires more. Listening necessitates an active process of paying attention to what is being said, and developing an understanding of the people you’re communicating with.

As Sam Ford, coauthor of the new book Spreadable Media, writes:

Companies that hear and don’t listen often:

• know that a shift in perception has happened but have no strong idea as to why
• realize that there’s been a rise of interest in the company but little about what larger trends are driving that new interest
• can track what happened with a crisis after the fact but have little chance of seeing a crisis coming
• miss out on new business opportunities because they are tracking only what people are saying about the company and not understanding patterns in the lives of their customers beyond mentions of their brand

For more, click here to read the full article.

So what does this mean for you in HR and talent management?
Read the full article here >

That’s our take … what’s yours? We want to hear from you – especially if you are a member of Gen X or a Millennial. Send us your comments, and we will continue the dialogue.

A recent poll on LinkedIn asked users a simple question: “What is the most important new platform for brands to master? Twitter, Facebook, the iPhone, Digg, or LinkedIn?”

The results may not be what you’d expect. Even though the poll was performed on LinkedIn, with more than 3,600 respondents so far, Twitter was deemed the most important new platform for brands to master.

Specifically, the results of this poll revealed that LinkedIn users view Twitter as of primary importance (30%), followed closely by Facebook (26%). LinkedIn came in third (22%), followed closely by the iPhone (18%). Digg was far behind the pack: it garnered a paltry 1% of the votes.

Twitter’s popularity make sense given the rapid growth it has been experiencing. The National Business Review reports that Twitter is currently gaining 10 million users per month. However, ReadWriteWeb breaks down the results further to show that:

Most appreciative of Twitter: Business owners, C-Level or VPs. People at large- or medium-sized companies. People doing business development, marketing or creative work.

Least appreciative of Twitter: Non-managers. People at very large or small businesses. Consultants, Salespeople and Engineers.

Most appreciative of LinkedIn: C-level and non-managers. At small- or medium-sized businesses. Doing consulting or sales.

Least appreciative of LinkedIn: Owners and managers. At large or enterprise companies. In creative or marketing departments.

This poll has clear implications For HR/Learning professionals. Ask yourself three questions:

1. Are you experimenting how to use Twitter as a personal learning tool–to enhance your creativity and keep up with current happenings/thoughts in your industry?
2. Are you exploring how to create a “Twitter-Like” application behind your firewall? If Twitter has become so addictive, why not leverage this “inside your company?” One to consider is Yammer
3. Are you sharing the power of suing social media for learning with your teams?
   Share how using social media can improve your personal learning and your HR/learning department.

To continue the dialog, come follow me on Twitter!

[tags]Social Media, Social Networking, Media Shift, Web 2.0[/tags]

Well, the CEO as a Blogger talked about how forward thinking CEO’s are blogging and the role HR and Learning senior executives must have to ensure the CEO as a Blogger is a success. Details are described in the post.

So when I watched NBC nightly news interview with Bill Marriott, the CEO of Marriott International, I was very interested as he described his process for blogging and then I was really amazed when he shared that his blog called Marriott on the Move has been responsible for over $4 million in incremental bookings to a Marriott property since the inception of Bill’s blog in January, 2007. There are now 60 CEO’s among the Fortune 500 who are blogging. Is your CEO one of those? IF not should he/she be?

The NBC story featured 2 CEO blogs, Marriott and Coca-Cola’s, as examples of how CEO’s are establishing these blogs to communicate openly and honestly with customers and key stakeholders.

But the story gets better because in the case of Bill Marriott, it turns out he either writes his blog posts in long hand, or dictates them and they are then transcribed and entered onto the blog. In Bill’s own blog he shares in detail how he partners with his communications specialist to create the blog which is posted on an Awareness platform and how he reads customer comments and stays in touch…

But here is a question for our Human Resources and Learning readers: If your CEO is blogging, are you involved in this along with your Head of communications? I see the lines blurring between enterprise learning initiatives and corporate communications initiatives, and all too often the HR and Learning executives are not being proactive enough to partner with other internal stakeholders. It should not be just the Head of Corporate Communications identifying and helping to launch new initiatives like the CEO as Chief Blogger. By being involved in these type of initiatives, you can:

1. learn first hand what your CEO is thinking
2. learn about what your customers want more of in terms of new products and services
3. be associated with a leading edge initiative that in the case of Marriott, has led to adding $4 million in new bookings.

Share your first hand experiences here for many to learn from…

[tags]CEO as Blogger, CLO, Marriott, Awareness[/tags]

This is a “Zero billion dollar market today” Director of Product Management Matthew Glotzbach said in a briefing about the product. But we will change this and Google Video For Business will be easy to use.

These videos will basically have the same features and limitations as YouTube, including upload size and file type limits. Videos have access control, even if they are embedded outside of the intranet or Google Apps, and can be tagged and commented on just like YouTube. As the video below states, these videos are quick and easy to create and can be uploaded and shared in a number of ways: for training, to communicate end of quarter results, to showcase famous people who visit Google headquarters like Obama and Bloomberg and finally just for some laughs and fun during a stressful overworked the day.

So, what do you think as head of training or Human Resources at your firm? How will you use this? Will this replace your in-house video production crew? Will you use video more in video sharing sites to describe a new service or for quick updates?

[tags]Google, Human Resources, Video Sharing, HR[/tags]