Just as those moms should keep putting broccoli on the table because they want to foster healthy eating habits, you need to examine your values and base your actions on them. Do you believe in what you’re doing and its value to the company or client? Them dish up the green stuff…er…new ideas regularly.

Being part of a revolution isn’t easy. If gazing at Dell, Coca-Cola and Southwest makes you feel like you’re not making any progress, engage in a little peer therapy, see that most everyone is facing the same challenges, and then do the only thing that’s going to make a difference: get back to work.

Photo credit: greenhem via Flickr

Having a Facebook presence is all well and good, but fan pages cannot post to other pages’ walls. Charging someone from the communcations staff to respond from his or her personal account isn’t too appealing, but registering a separate business account is against Facebook’s terms of use:

“Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.”

If the page owner’s contact information is visible, you could send an email requesting that they link to or post your information, but that’s a long shot and depends on contact info being available. If the conversation is happening on a public Facebook page, company engagement should happen there too. But how?

Photo credit: crystaljingsr via Flickr

What they could be, but aren’t:

1. Useful guides to online engagement

2. Effective navigation around social media pitfalls

3. Fun to read

4. Encouraging

So what’s a social media advocate to do? First, consider that trying to persuade the policy writers to change policy language is like trying to weave ropes from sand. HR folks and attorneys are charged with risk mitigation, and this is a valuable contribution to keeping your company in business (and your paychecks coming regularly). Accept it. And then get to work crafting social media guidelines.

Your guidelines are internal communication, not legal policy, and thus can be creative, fun and effective at doing all the things your policy doesn’t. Boil your policy down to the bare essentials and then spice them up and sprinkle them with sugar. Use simple language. Include “dos and don’ts” and images to illustrate. Make them – gasp – funny. Show employees why they don’t want to reveal company secrets on Facebook and tweet about their cubemates’ hygiene issues. Educate, enlighten and encourage.

Policies are scary. Guidelines are friendly. Vive la difference!

The truth is, I don’t know how you can get a job in social media, but I can tell you the steps I took to get my job as a social media specialist at Duke Energy, a challenging, rewarding job I really love. Here are the things I did:

Spent Lots of Time Reading, Listening and Learning

I’m a professional interrupter (read: not a great listener), but I squashed my garrulous tendencies long and often enough to spend plenty of time listening to what others ahead of me on the learning curve (and there are plenty) had to say. And I asked lots of questions, zipping my lip when people were gracious enough to answer.

Took on Clients Before I Thought I was Ready

Don’t call yourself an expert if you don’t want to, but go ahead and take on a client or two. You won’t be able to bill $150/hour, but you’ll take away at least that much in learnings. Social media for business use is far more challenging than it is for personal use. And the questions you get will surprise you, opening your eyes to how early we are in this evolution.

Networked Like Crazy

And I mean like crazy. My kids thought my hair had grown completely over my face because all they saw was the back of my head as I tapped away online, or walked away to a gathering or event. Online networking can open doors, but it doesn’t replace face-to-face meetings. Live it.

Put Myself Out There

This was the hardest part for me, because I rarely think I have anything earth-shattering enough to warrant sharing via formal presentation. But when people asked me to come talk to  a group – any group – about anything related to social media, I forced myself to say yes. Waging your own personal PR campaign will put you on the fast track.

Asked for Help

We “social media people” are good at offering help but not very good asking for it. If you’re looking for a job, now is the time to call in all that social capital you’ve built with your network. You are building capital, right?

Looked for a Job While I Still had a Job

If you’re lucky enough to have a job, keep it until you find a better fit. Conduct your job search while you’re still employed. It ’s not easy, but it is smart. Especially now. The bonus is that you’ll probably interview better without the specter of unpaid bills drifting around the room.

Recognized and Embraced the Unsexy Side of Social Media

Do not, under any circumstances, believe that social media is “all about the conversation.” As Jason Falls so adeptly pointed out at Social Fresh Nashville in his presentation “Move the Needle,” if you’re not using social media to meet concrete business objectives, then it’s just a hobby.* Not only is no one going to pay you to practice your hobby, you’ll look green and foolish suggesting that they do.

*Thanks to Eric Brown for the hit-it-on-the-head quote

We’ve lamented together over infant teething, toddler defiance, teacher troubles and teenage defiance.  Sipping Dr. Pepper (her) and coffee (me), we’ve sliced, diced and julienned family conflicts, work issues, successful child discipline and failed recipes. I now live three hours away from Dawn and we don’t see each other much, but when I call or email her I can almost begin in the middle of a sentence and know she’ll understand me.

We have history.

Dawn turned 40 last month and mutual friends planned a surprise party. It didn’t take me long to decide to go. I would have driven twice the distance for the look on her face when I stepped out of my hiding place.

As I clicked through the party photostream last night I thought that someone else looking at those photos would not recognize the depth of our friendship. Everyone was smiling. Everyone hugged her. Everyone sang and clapped and refilled her drinks and contributed to the delicious buffet of her favorite foods. What didn’t show in the pictures were how much it meant to her that I’d made the trip, the smiles of recognition we shared when she spotted two bottles of Dr. Pepper on the bar, the memories we laughed over long after we kicked our shoes off, the beautiful thank you card that arrived a few days after I returned home.

When you look at someone’s Facebook wall, twitter stream or blog comments, you’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. The real power of online networking rumbles just beneath the surface as private messages and emails criss cross and connect, leading to phone calls, coffee meetings, collaborations and partnerships.

The best part is the part you can’t see. It’s people building history.

Photo credit: Creativity + Timothy Hamilton via Flickr

I’m here to tell you, Mr. and Ms. Small Business, the ship is just coming into sight for you.

Stay focused on your goals and strategy, and spend time delivering value and encouraging communication with your customers. If it’s working (don’t waste your time in social media if you’re not measuring your results), you’re doing fine.

It takes time to establish a niche, find your voice and build a community. If you’re always trying to balance on the bleeding edge of new technology, you’re going to get hurt.

Photo credit: jamelah via Flickr

He took a deep breath as he backed slowly down the driveway. I felt my shoulders tighten and my brake foot tense (what if he hits the mailbox? what if he forgets to look both ways? what if he takes a curve too fast?), but realized that my approach on that very first outing with him behind the wheel would determine whether he tuned in or out the next time. Envisioning him a year later driving around without me to diligently depress my imaginary brake pedal when he needed to slow down, I knew that I really wanted him to hear me.

So when I wanted to say, “Slow down!” I made myself say, “Lift your foot off the gas.”
Instead of, “Can’t you see that kid on his bike!?” I said, “Make sure you give him some room so he knows you see him.”
And rather than gasping and blurting, “Don’t get too close!” I asked, “How many car lengths of space did your driver’s ed. teacher recommend?”

With teenagers – with anyone – effective communication relies on considering their point of view and saying things so that they’ll listen with interest. That means thinking about culture, expectations, environment and mood. So if you’re going to network online or try to encourage two-way communication with your customers (or your client’s customers), consider who you’re talking to, what they expect to read, where they’re spending their time and the general mood.

The challenge here is determining these things in a situation where you can’t see the people you’re trying to communicate with. The only way to understand what those people might appreciate and respond to is to sit back, be an observer and think before you speak. If you shoot from the hip, you might shoot down your chances to connect.

When my son drove me to the pet store the other day, I went to the passenger’s side without hesitancy. As he put the key in the ignition he said, “I thought you were going to be nervous and critical and I wouldn’t want to drive with you. But you’re cool, Mom.”

Just what I needed to hear.

Photo credit: baking_in_pearls via flickr

I had spent tons of time on a paper that was returned to me with a pulsating “C” on it. “What gives?!” I thought and marched up to her desk, requesting an explanation for why she panned my 18-year-old brilliance. “This is nothing but a regurgitation,” she said simply. “A summary is not an analysis. Next time, put some thought into it.”

Filled with righteousness indignation, I spent the rest of the day seething about how unreasonable she was. I was just too immature to accept the gift she was handing me, and it took a few more thudding grades to “get it.”

To get the traffic and attention you want for your blog, listen to my freshman English professor. Although she’d never use the term “thought leader,” that’s exactly what she was encouraging us bright-eyed freshman to be. To take your blog posts, traffic and comments skyward, and break the “me-too” blogger habit, try this:

Observe
“Live in the moment” is important guidance for a writer. Pay attention to everything that happens around you. If you’re an overthinker like me, it’s easy to get lost inside your own head. The trouble with that is that you miss out on plenty of juicy ideas and stories. If you’re dismissing this concept, yet you find yourself at a loss for blog post ideas, just give it a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover what you’re missing out there.

Think
When you make an interesting observation, latch onto it. Look at it carefully from all sides before you toss it into your memory dumpster. If it’s not clearly a post topic, it may be a colorful story you can twist into a post. If it’s something you read somewhere else, and you think it’s worth writing about yourself, have at it – but not before you take the next step.

Lift Off!
This is where you “use the brains God gave you,” as my gruff (but loveable) Italian grandpa used to say. So far, you’ve got “C” material. Now you need to make it an “A.” Foodie that I am, I like to think of this as the taffy pull. When you make taffy you start with a pot full of hot sugar syrup. It’s not until you knead and pull it that it becomes a delectably chewy confection. So give that idea a good pull and see what you can make of it. For example, the fact that more people have camera phones is an observation. Concluding that digital camera sales may fall takes some brain power. Outlining ways small businesses can invite customers to post pictures of themselves buying or using their products while they’re out and about – now that’s taking it up a notch.

Photo credit: Howzey via Flickr

If you’re a blogger, you won’t be able to get blogging off your mind. Blog post ideas will pop into your mind as you choose the best peaches, walk the dog and get your car inspected. You’ll obsess over missed opportunities to share ideas and insights, and conversations you wished you’d started but didn’t.

How do I know? Check the dates on my last few posts. Yeah, I’m a blogger.

If you’re a blogger too, but have trouble finding time to indulge your passion (or you’re a business blogger who needs to get it together) check out these links:

Ten Ways to Find More Time to Write

The Most Powerful Way to Get Unstuck

How to Get More Time to Blog

I plan to use all these suggestions and more to get back on the blogging track. How do you stay focused on what matters?

Photo credit: Ben and Gillian via Flickr

Best practices will emerge and benefits will become clearer as time goes on, but there’s one thing that time can’t give you – the appeal of doing something new, unexpected and even a little risky.

According to a recent AdAge article, a New Orleans pizza shop is generating quite a buzz with twitter, just because it’s a fresh, new approach. So by waiting for the newness to wear off social media you may be passing up the simplest route to getting some publicity – daring to go where no dry cleaner, landscaper or grocery store has gone before.

More good news from the AdAge article: Naked Pizza is also measuring the results and proving the ROI of using twitter. Music to a social media enthusiast’s ears.

Hurry! This opportunity won’t last long.