It’s 5am on the Atlantic coast of Canada and I’ve basically been up all night.  Maybe it was the two espressos after dinner.  Or maybe I just have too many things on my mind for sleep to take hold.  Consuming my thoughts tonight and this morning has been social media and how I can leverage it in my world.

[Back story…]

In early 2007, I finally joined the Facebook band-wagon.  At the time, I did it as a lark to see how quickly I could amass 100 friends.  It didn’t take that long and it was kind of fun.  Today, I’m just shy of 400 friends (yes, they’re all people I know) and while I can’t say I use FB a lot, I do find it interesting to connect with people I’ve known but whom are now scattered around the globe.  And I’m not the only one… isn’t it the most popular social media venue on the planet?

Fast forward to mid-2008… one of my best friends joins a local firm called Radian6 (I know you’ve heard of them)… They’ve developed a tool that crawls through the web, mining data from social media sites for its clients (apologies for my lay explanation of your business, folks).  I think Radian6 has a lot of potential and I hope they do well.  Anyway, my friend (not a social media type at the time) says I need to get on Twitter.  My first question?  What the hell is Twitter.  He tries to explain but it’s no use.  I really don’t get it.  Who cares what I’m doing?

I continue to be intrigued by this Twitter thing…

Then, this summer (2009), I see a webcast featuring Guy Kawasaki, founder of Alltop.  He’s explaining how he uses Twitter as a means of sharing what he believes to be valuable or interesting information.  The lightbulb went on… I read a ton… I can use this…  I can become a purveyor of information too.  So, I started tweeting… Then, I decide to start this  blog.  Admittedly, I still haven’t found a comfort zone.  Neither have yet become part of my being… YET.  But I’m learning and I’m enjoying the learning so that’s good.

[End of back story]

So how can I use social media to help my clients?  Let’s start with what I do.  I can most simply be described as a management consultant.  Specifically, I’m an expert in leading change.  Change?  That’s a pretty generic term – what the hell does that mean?  Great question.  Here goes (proceed with caution – a consultant is about to describe what he does)…

Every day, organizations initiate change… it could be the introduction of a new product, the pursuit of a new market, the restructuring of roles and responsibilities, a merger or acquisition, the implementation of a new business process, or the deployment of a new system.  Just a few examples.

You may not know this (although intuitively you probably do)… Most organizations are horrible at implementing change because it is hard.  It’s hard on the people who have to change.  And the typical result is a lot of wasted time, money, and energy because the benefits do not come, the competitive advantage does not materialize, and the customer satisfaction does not improve.  These are why you set out on a path to change in the first place… So if you aren’t getting the payoff, why did you do it?

What I do is help clients get it right…  I see it as a piece of their investment management or risk management. I work with them to design strategies and tactics to properly deploy change and, most importantly, make it stick!

So back to my original question – how can I leverage social media in my world… to facilitate the “stickiness” of change?  While social networks are quickly transforming the way friends interact, they are and will continue to evolve the way colleagues interact as well.  While some people (even in “older” industries) are embracing social media, I think many (my gut says most actually) organizations and their leaders are lagging way behind their employees.  Traditional (or more aptly dated) forms of communication and engagement – emails, web sites, newsletters, face-to-face meetings for example – are becoming less effective with each passing day.

To try and get ahead of the curve… I’m trying to become more savvy about social media so I can help clients adapt their engagement practices in a way that captures their employees’ interest, imagination and enthusiasm.  Engagement is perhaps the most critical success factor not only for leading change but also for fostering and sustaining high performance.  And as we adapt our ways of interacting, we also need to adapt the way we engage each other.

Hmmm… it’s late (or rather early)… I hope I haven’t rambled too much.

If you have any advice, I’d welcome some thoughts on this… And thanks “Gus”, from Radian6, for pointing me toward Twitter… Although I’m still a novice, it has started me on the path to understanding social media, how it’s changing our world, and how I can leverage it to create value for my clients.