HR on blogs and Twitter
It is “technology in HR week” for me. “HR Bloggers: Who are these people and why should I care?” was a panel session at the SHRM annual conference (Society of Human Resources Management, for those of you not in HR), which I attended via web streaming. It was a good session and really has me thinking about HR blogs, tweets, and how to add the most value as an HR professional via my blog. You can see the replay and additional commentary on Fistful of Talent.
I’m usually an early-adopter when it comes to technology, but this session made me realize that there’s a lot left to learn. Fortunately, I had just received an invitation to “Tweet Twaining”, so I decided to round out the blogging topic by setting aside my doubts about Twitter and seeing what the experts are saying.
Here are the key things I learned that I want to share with you –
The “HR Bloggers” panel was moderated by China Gorman, COO of SHRM, and included these experts on HR Blogging: Kris Dunn from HR Capitalist, Jessica Lee from Fistful of Talent, Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR, and Lance Haun from Your HR Guy. Key points I took from the session:
· Just do it - Kris Dunn from HR Capitalist talked about how he started by committing to write a post every single day for a year, and recognize that in doing that, he’d have some good posts and some not-so-great posts, and that’s ok. You’ll get better at it, they’re not all going to be perfect. Lance Haun emphasized that you have to engage at a level that works for you and your other responsibilities, so he posts less frequently. Both of them are right.
· Join the community – I think it was Jessica Lee over at Fistful of Talent, who advised that the best way to get started is to engage in the community. Start by lurking, then commenting, and become part of the social media scene that way. Or do a guest blog as another way to get your message out, without starting your own blog.
· Seek help from others – the panelists encouraged the audience to learn from others, as that’s how they started out.
· I realized that a lot of this advice applies to traditional networking too, so I’ll draw some parallels in a future post.
From the “Tweet Twaining”, a good introductory session on Twitter from Geoff Peterson:
· Pay attention to your profile – carefully select your username, post a professional picture and write your profile with purpose.
· Twitter has value in business – frankly, I suspected this, but wasn’t convinced until the training. 32 million current users, according to Geoff. I still think business use is in the early stages and evolving, albeit very quickly.
· There are a lot of tools out there which can help you use it effectively – too many to highlight here, better to go straight to the source and follow Geoff.
So, here we go… follow me on Twitter and join me on my learning curve! (Thanks to my colleague, Shaazia, for the tips in HP’s blogger forum on how to add the Twitter link, and to Mumu over at another tech company who suggested that I might consider adding Twitter to my approach.)
I welcome your advice and tips on how to make the most of social media in helping you discover HP. Leave me comments with your advice and become part of the conversation.
