June 4, 2008 74 Comments

Will Companies Value Your Personal Network

social graph Your job resume tells people what you’ve done in the past and where you’ve done it. Is that the sum of your capabilities? What about your resourcefulness? What’s the value of the people you can reach in your various networks, online or otherwise? And how should companies value this facet of your professional experience? Do companies need to consider how this might impact their departments?

With Sales, it’s a No-Brainer

Sales is a relationships game. The more folks you know, the deeper your Rolodex, the better your chances of finding the right hinge to close the sale. Building networks of value, where you can be helpful is made far simpler with these tools. They don’t do the work for you, but they give you new ways to reach out and establish connections, and stay just a little more in touch with other people’s environments. A salesperson who’s not exploring tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and yes, even Twitter, is missing some potential opportunities.

How does your organization stack up in this regard?

For Other Departments, It’s Still Pretty Good

Imagine the difference of employing seven software engineers versus having access to thousands of engineers. How powerful is your internal marketing team when they are aligned with social networking tools and the ability to listen to your customers via these tools? What does your HR team miss by not having their listening powers tuned into the robust stream of human capital that roams Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn?

Customer Service is Trickier

In this time of economic downturn, customer service is often viewed as a cost center. Reducing average handling time, and reducing representative headcount are the realities, and no matter what the mission statement says, except for the amazing companies, you’ll find that customer service is more of a “must have” requirement than an empowering strategy. And yet, there’s gold in these hills. It’s just harder to do. For thoughts on how to advance customer service, see Lionel Menchaca and Frank from Comcast for a few simple examples. My take? There can be MUCH more going on here.

And YOUR Personal Network?

When I look at the networks people have built around them, there’s value there. Tangible value. Consider someone like Liz Strauss. She reaches out deeply into her community to build events like her popular and successful SOBCon. She gives and gives, and then when she needs something back, Liz has a strong network of multi-layered contacts to reach into for her needs.

It’s amazing, really. Liz alone is a powerhouse to hire, but if you really did give credit for her extended network, which reaches into the largest companies in the US, UK, and for all I know, the rest of the world.

How do you place a value on that? What does it mean when you can reach deeply into your network for nonprofit fundraisers, or job placement, or contact to land business deals? If you are an employer, or someone involved in the hiring of talent, how much is this influencing your thoughts?

I think this is something that goes into the consideration and metrics of hiring practices in the next handful of years (at least for some sectors). What do you think?

Photo credit, Jurvetson


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  • http://www.jivesoftware.com/community/blogs/jivetalks/2008/06/03/the-dixie-chicks-can-make-people-more-innovative Gia Lyons

    This is what makes the DataPortability Project viable for the enterprise. Just being able to see an employee’s network – both inside and outside the firewall – would be a great start. I wonder what kind of metrics and visualization tools might help describe the type of relationships we have with one another?

    Anyway, If you’re interested, you can read more thoughts by clicking my name above at your leisure.

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  • http://managetochange.typepad.com ann michael

    Chris -

    This is brilliant.

    I recently took a job and asked my employer to change my ‘non-compete’ to account for the fact that I bring a strong network of contacts (and quite frankly, friends!) to my position and that they will always be mine.

    If he were paying for me and exclusivity to my “connections” (I really do hate to refer to relationships that way), then I would cost him A LOT more money.

    In reality – there is no price one can put on that – it’s not for sale, just rent for approved and mutually beneficial uses.

    Ann

  • http://managetochange.typepad.com ann michael

    Chris -

    This is brilliant.

    I recently took a job and asked my employer to change my ‘non-compete’ to account for the fact that I bring a strong network of contacts (and quite frankly, friends!) to my position and that they will always be mine.

    If he were paying for me and exclusivity to my “connections” (I really do hate to refer to relationships that way), then I would cost him A LOT more money.

    In reality – there is no price one can put on that – it’s not for sale, just rent for approved and mutually beneficial uses.

    Ann

  • Polly Pearson

    Chris, great work.

    I am a VP at a big company. I work in HR and have worked directly for CEOs and EVPs for the last 15 years. I think I get the value of social media, at least in comparison to my peer group! Why don’t they know about this and use it in hiring practices, compensation reviews and more? I think “they” — the people in charge of deploying new systems and setting the example for the rest of the company — haven’t had enough passionate pitches by people who can display the business value and show them the return exceeds the risk, yet. Three key words here: Passionate, Pitches and Results. It takes more than a memo and it takes more than one pitch. The thing that will really get their attention is business results that provide leverage.

    Social Media is new learning. Imagine you worked at a little known company and wanted to break into a big account. It takes creativity and several sales calls speaking in “what is in it for the target audience” terms to many people in the chain of command. It isn’t that they don’t want it, they just haven’t had the right sales person with the right pitch to come see them often enough.

    All — I suggest you keep at it. Show them the magic. The people and the companies who love to ‘lead’ will be among the first. Heck, use that as a hook. Everyone hates it if a competitor gets there first (or is that just my company?) Taking this mission on, btw, is an amazing personal branding opportunity.

    Polly

  • Polly Pearson

    Chris, great work.

    I am a VP at a big company. I work in HR and have worked directly for CEOs and EVPs for the last 15 years. I think I get the value of social media, at least in comparison to my peer group! Why don’t they know about this and use it in hiring practices, compensation reviews and more? I think “they” — the people in charge of deploying new systems and setting the example for the rest of the company — haven’t had enough passionate pitches by people who can display the business value and show them the return exceeds the risk, yet. Three key words here: Passionate, Pitches and Results. It takes more than a memo and it takes more than one pitch. The thing that will really get their attention is business results that provide leverage.

    Social Media is new learning. Imagine you worked at a little known company and wanted to break into a big account. It takes creativity and several sales calls speaking in “what is in it for the target audience” terms to many people in the chain of command. It isn’t that they don’t want it, they just haven’t had the right sales person with the right pitch to come see them often enough.

    All — I suggest you keep at it. Show them the magic. The people and the companies who love to ‘lead’ will be among the first. Heck, use that as a hook. Everyone hates it if a competitor gets there first (or is that just my company?) Taking this mission on, btw, is an amazing personal branding opportunity.

    Polly

  • http://chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Polly- thanks for your comments, and for your recommendations. I’m glad this resonated, and that you’ve got some suggestions for how we can use this for the future.

    Ann- That’s a really great point about non-competes. What else, I wonder, will we have to change in future contract negotiations related to our social media proclivities.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Polly- thanks for your comments, and for your recommendations. I’m glad this resonated, and that you’ve got some suggestions for how we can use this for the future.

    Ann- That’s a really great point about non-competes. What else, I wonder, will we have to change in future contract negotiations related to our social media proclivities.

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  • http://www.papersnet.com Tom

    Well, it’s worth reading and thinking!
    Thanks

  • http://www.papersnet.com Tom

    Well, it’s worth reading and thinking!
    Thanks

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  • raquel

    hello, my name is raquel, and i would like to know if you konw companies that actually had implemnt social network within the company..

    it would be great if you could halp me with that because is for my final work in my university..thanks

  • raquel

    hello, my name is raquel, and i would like to know if you konw companies that actually had implemnt social network within the company..

    it would be great if you could halp me with that because is for my final work in my university..thanks

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  • http://www.savetubevideo.com youtube downloader

    It’s amazing, really. Liz alone is a powerhouse to hire, but if you really did give credit for her extended network, which reaches into the largest companies in the US, UK, and for all I know, the rest of the world.

  • http://www.123contracting.co.uk Accountants

    Only if your personal networks bring in money for the company – otherwise what use are they?

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