I was in a family gathering last week…the one where the extended family arrives, mostly from Chennai (Madras!) and we all indulge in small talk about happening eating joints in India; advertising, marketing and PR updates (considering most of the family is into something to do with one of the three) and the usual family gossip.
This time, it was a bit different! I was asked about social media and I was actually giving my elevator pitch to someone in the family who wanted to try something for the school he’s associated with. Another family member overheard what I was talking about and joined the discussion with precisely this statement – “These days, if you’re not active online you’re out of circulation. So let me listen to what you’re saying!”
That IS interesting.
More so because of a recent piece by Mark Fidelman titled, ‘Does Every Company Need a Robert Scoble?‘ that asks, in the end, “Every company needs a Robert Scoble. Why doesnâ??t yours have one?”
I even noted on Twitter that there are mini-Scobles around already, but they haven’t been hired for being that. One example is Ashu Mittal of Adobe India, as I had noted in a tweet.
Ashu responded that Adobe also has a dedicated social media engagement team. The difference however is that for the team, it is their main job, while for Ashu, it is over and above her day job at Adobe. That, to me, is far more authentic and trust-worthy. The fact that an employee goes beyond the call of regular duty and promotes Adobe within context through a social media channel is a very powerful statement!
There are a few relevant observations here.
Is this a new trend?
I wouldn’t say so. Organizations always had employees who had an alternate avatar. They were usually featured in the employee newsletter and were seen with some extra respect in employee gatherings. The scene changes when you bring social media into the picture. Regardless of the kind of activity the employee is known for, online or offline, if that person has found a way to build a following online based on that work, it acquires a new dimension. Whereas earlier it remained strictly in the realm of word-of-mouth, social media’s permanence gives the new age employee with an alternate avatar a very different star status. His following is built over a period of time and his above-the-job prowess helps his organization by sheer association.
Full-time vs moonlighting
The role of a social media team in organizations cannot be undermined at any point, but, for them, it is a full time job to engage with audiences and keep them happy/updated. For an otherwise non-social media team normal employee to do the same, in a lesser level/degree…means that the employee is inherently passionate about the brand/space. In Ashu’s case, it is photography and she blends it appropriately with Adobe, where relevant. Who knows…a Canon or a Nikon may find Ashu a good enough fit in the future regardless of what her actual job is, at Adobe India!
This would be like a customer support team doing customer support vs. a finance guy also doing customer support, when he can. Yes, there is a silo, for operational purposes, but the finance guy doing it will be seen with so much more respect because that is not what he’s traditionally scheduled to do. But again, not all employees will have the time or patience to be persistently online, engaging with people for personal or professional reasons. But a couple of people doing it consistently could make a big difference to the brand!
Who gains from whom?
Again, there is a difference between an employee getting active online using his position/designation within the organization as his calling card and an employee getting popular online based on something on his own. The former is merely part of the person’s job 2.0 and he gains more from his employer. The latter is the opposite – the employer gains from the employee’s online status.
Hired vs nurtured
Could such people be gained, inorganically, instead of them nurtured from inside? This could be akin to hiring a brand ambassador, but the difference is that such a person would be a micro-influencer, not a mainstream media dependent mass influencer. The organization needs to consider the appropriateness of the person too, with their line of business, to make sure that there is a fit.
Getting such people from the existing employee base is indeed a good bet, but, in the absence of one, a specific hire for this purpose could help in two ways – it could give visibility to the brand, depending on how apt that person is with its target audience and two, it could help inspire others internally to grow their online reputation.
Going forward, this could be one of the reasons why organizations hire, more than simply looking at a job-fit. The fact that a business-relevant micro-influencer is with the organization could be a great win, work wise and image wise.
You may have heard about famous sportspersons employed by big organizations. I’ve always wondered if they go to work like normal folks. Hiring social media stars could be like the best of both worlds – you get a known person to do your contextual PR online and the person knows a thing or two about the actual job at hand! This is an opportunity for otherwise-normal employees to build their reputation online in a particular space and win social currency.
Some examples
That said, there are folks that do not meet at least one of the two criteria – appropriateness with the job and social media influence. Tinu Cherian is an example – he’s a software engineer at Juniper Networks and is also a social media star, with his Wikipedia India association [Update: Tinu wrote in to say that he used his social media status to benefit Wikipedia and that his star status did not start with the Wikipedia association. That’s even better, since he has put his online status to great use!]. In his case, Juniper could perhaps gain by association – wherever Tinu is mentioned, there is a likelihood of Juniper being mentioned too – the organization’s image becomes that of something that helps/nurtures employees’ passion beyond work.
Other examples include Vipul Kasera of CommuteEasy and LifeIsOutside, who was a ThoughtWorks employee when he started the former and people like Pranav Jha, co-founder of Praja.in and was an employee of MphasiS earlier.
The choice before organizations
Given that such moonlighting may perhaps get the better of a day job at some point, organizations should proactively think of ways to retain such powerful internal stars. They are stars not only because they (perhaps) shine at their actual work, but also because they go beyond the work and do something of significance, with or without relevance to the company’s line of work. If there is relevance, that gives the organization a solid reason to ensure their prolonged stay. If there is no relevance, the organization could think creatively and offer an entrepreneurial avenue for the person to continue doing the off-work part of it.
Stock image courtesy, SXC.