experience matters

See that person over at the desk next to you? Take a close look. Closer. Nothing looks out of the ordinary does it? They could be sitting at their computer—busily typing away. Their desk may not look any different from yours—there are pictures of family, friends, pets and photos from vacations. Maybe they’ve got a fresh cup of Starbucks sitting next to their screen. Nothing looks out of the ordinary—they’re just another corporate citizen making a living for themselves right? Well, not exactly.

Uber-connected And Amplified
When you think “social media” a few names and images come to mind. You might think of Robert Scoble who is essentially a “Weblebrity” or Jeff Jarvis who leveraged his blog to amplify his gripes with Dell’s customer service creating “Dell Hell”. But there’s a new reality that’s much less dramatic and becoming more pervasive if not mainstream in the modern day office. Some of your employees may be leading double lives which often blurs the lines between personal and career—they are “super-connecters” who leverage social media tools to amplify their communications and conversations with hundreds and possibly thousands of people across the globe…

Masters in the Art of Improvisation
If you find that you have one or more people like this in your organization, what you need to understand is that they are self-teaching themselves skills that are incredibly effective in a digital world. For one, it’s likely that an experienced office influential who communicates regularly through multiple social touch points has already become comfortable with the art of nimble, less formal conversations. This is something that Brands are just coming to terms with. Some Brands have gotten pretty used to it too—Southwest Airlines uses their blog to engage customers on a personal level often sharing the thoughts of employees as well as their stories. This kind of informal communications requires a very specific skill set that not all corporate employees have—the art of improvisation.

A Crash Course in Marketing, PR, Business And Design
Make no mistake, office influentials are self-educating themselves in ways that can be beneficial not only to themselves but to their organizations. Being an active participant in social media means you learn how to custom design web pages and profiles, manage your personal brand, network and communicate with people from all business and backgrounds. For example—the well-known research company Forrester has hired Jeremiah Owyang—a very influential individual within the Web Strategy space. For Forrester it’s a no-brainer as Jeremiah has already proven that he can offer up valuable analysis on subject matters that Forrester is interested in. So what does this do for Forrester? Well, for starters—it extends their reach and influence further. By hiring an individual like Jeremiah, they can harness his already proven strengths, while indirectly tapping his impressive network of thousands of people. Forrester is one of the few firms who has several employees actively participating in Social Media such as Peter Kim, Charline Li, Bruce Temkin, Josh Bernoff and Brian Haven to name a few. Speaking of Forrester, Peter Kim put together the “M20”—a list of top marketing blogs from people who work at companies (outside of the agency world)—and he’s doing profiles on what makes these office influentials tick.

Putting Office Influentials to Work for You
So all of this sounds beneficial to the influentials right? What about the company? Here are a few tips for how to make an “office influential work for you:

Social Media Evangelists
Office Influentials often have a good grasp on the nuances of social media—they can be great advisors or educators in this area and help your company leverage some of the tools and resources.

Recruiters
A highly visible office influential can help raise your own visability and attract talent. If the influential is perceived as authentic and genuine, then any endorsement of your organization will be taken seriously.

Connectors
Office influentials often times merge their work and personal networks acting as “connectors” between your organization and other individuals who you might benefit from having access to. Smart organizations can make the most of this if their office influentials are willing to share the wealth.

Experimenters
Office influentials are usually familiar with experimenting emerging technologies or grasping the potential of them early on. Organizations can harness these insights to “stay ahead of the curve”.

Risks + Rewards?
For many companies, the idea of office influencers can be a bit scary. Who are these people with unusually large networks and connections? In some ways, it can present new challenges as well as opportunities. What if confidential company information leaked? Wouldn’t that be amplified as well? The answer is yes. But in the end it all comes down to a basic human truth.

Trust.

We won’t be seeing fewer office influentials. We’ll only be seeing more. So we’d all better get used to the idea—as well as sharpening our instincts when judging character.