So you’re not a consultant in the social media field, but you’re looking for work. You’ve finally landed the coveted interview after sending out more than thirty resumes and you’ve gotten past the phone chat. You’ve told them you read Mashable, TechCrunch, Social Media Daily and crunch numbers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and dream in terms of social media strategy. 

Now what?

As you step into the interview, consider the questions that you will be asked, but also the questions that you should ask your interviewer. In this series, we cover questions every aspiring social media superstar should ask before they get the offer. Read on today for our third question – How do you manage social media?

The wonderful thing about social media is that it’s a relatively new medium and has been around for business use for roughly three years. In terms of technology, that makes it the shiny new toy in the office that everyone wants to get his or her hands on and has an opinion with, but is unsure how to take apart the box in order to get the package.

Because it is a shiny toy, it’s also apt to breaking. Much like the childhood events where you are so excited to open a Christmas gift you break the item, social media is just the same way. Used on its own, and by an individual, its fine. Collaboratively works as well, but from a managerial standpoint, its important to understand how your manager views social media and plans to manage the execution. Will you get free reign to think? Or will you be at the mercy of your manager with every single tweet curated and made sure that its up to their likes? Make sure that when you ask this question, you know your personal likes and dislikes – that way when you are managed, you don’t feel cornered. 

What’s your opinion? Is this a valid question? Share your thoughts in the comments below or send me a tweet.

Link: The Science of Community Building

crystalsocialmedia:

fuckyeahsynesthesia:

Why is the reddit community so kind compared to 4chan or YouTube comments?!! Even Facebook comments aren’t often as compassionate as reddit comments.

I admit, though, I’m new to reddit, but the level of community in it is simply incredible.

Citing Michael Wesch, hatred as a public performance in internet dialogue is bred from anonymity, physical distance, and rare and ephemeral dialogue.

Like 4chan and YouTube, it’s anonymous and physically distant from everyone else, it’s a little less ephemeral, but not by much.

Maybe it’s the rankings. By making high ranking comments something desirable, people try to make their posts the best as possible. “Best” means… interesting? engaging? funny? Hmm… even 4chan’s biggest threads aren’t full of hate, but full of originality and passion.

 Something to think about when community building. reddit does have a completely different atmosphere to other communities. I think the ranking system is a large part of it. Why do you think this is?

Community building is no simple task. It involves careful attention o detail, empathy with members within the community and a very, very thick skin. Nowhere is this more present and needed than on communities such as 4Chan and Reddit, where erroneous or backhanded comments can leave a person grasping for their Internet lives.

Anonymous identities are partly to contribute for the tough nature of community management. Anyone can grab a photo from the Internet and pose as a tough person or a foxy vixen, carry a persona that makes them a millionaire or pose as a celebrity when they really aren’t. As we have embraced the concept of anonymity, we have also given rise to an entire culture built up around sitting behind a wall and being protected.

In community management, therefore, it is important to always be empathetic because you never know what may come out any specific incident. By showing that you care and even bowing down, you show that you want to keep things from getting out of hand. Pre-social media, we called this customer service and customer engagement. Post-social media rising, we call it community management.

What do you think? Send me a tweet or write in the comments below.

Much ridicule, debate and anger has been made about Amy Chua and the book she wrote earlier that was a reflection of her parenting experience, but expanded upon has led to an entire debate on the role of the Asian American in school, the workforce and the issues beyond the exams in college.

I went to a very high achieving high school, one where over ten percent of my graduating class ended up going to UC Berkeley. Taking two AP classes was almost considered procrastination and many friends went home to their parents fearing repercussions from coming home with anything less than an A-minus. Friends spent weekends taking classes for the SAT, attending speech and debate tournaments and stayed up to study until the wee hours of the morning on topics they could care less about but needed the grade so much for. 

I spent much of my time at that school in the top 25% of my class but if you felt the pulse of academics at that school, you would have thought I was in the bottom 25%. As an Asian, you weren’t just expected to be great at math, you were supposed to understand Calculus by the time you got out of your second year, be looking at an advanced college course by the time you began your senior year and grab A’s in almost every class. Not being able to do so didn’t ostracize you but was looked upon as not fitting in to your ethnic class. Even then too, you could see who cared and who was passionate about the work they did – the people who didn’t somehow got A’s anyway. 

I came out of high school thinking I would follow every other professional field that every other Asian was going to do – for pretty much everyone, the major of their choice fell into two or three categories – business, accounting, engineering and for the select few, a fourth – biological sciences. It seemed as if your path was anything different – English, theater or something else you were either never heard from or people thought you were downright weird. Such are the pitfalls and culture of a neighborhood that seemed so sheltered.

The first year of college I found myself in accounting – my major, or at least what I thought would be. After a few weeks, I found myself dreading what I was doing. Granted, it was numbers and I loved numbers but I couldn’t see myself budgeting, debiting and crediting for the rest of my life. I had talked about going into accounting prior as if I was passionate and cared, and people up until my senior year still asked, “are you still doing accounting?” and had me answer…

“No, I’m actually thinking of going into social media for my career…”

Its here where I’d like to state that my career is just that – social media geek. Rather, I’m Asian, and I’m a social media geek. Away from the hours and hours that Amy Chua describes of playing the piano until boredom, staying up until the wee hours like many of my peers I found myself immersed in the great things of understanding Twitter, managing a Facebook Page, looking at how businesses are affected by social media, among many other things and doing consulting. The closest I ever get to accounting is figuring out how much money I’m getting per client, and not even that. The closest I get to engineering, is, well, when I’m creating good relationships and bringing people together on social media. 

If you’re Asian, or any person part of the perceived “model minority”, take a look at yourself, especially if you’re that social media geek. Embrace it, love it, tackle it, and be proud of where you are. You’re doing great things – enjoy it. Amy Chua may have raised her kids one way and everyone else in your world might be doing engineering, accounting or some biomedical field but you’re following your passions. As they say, if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life. Follow that dream, and follow that passion – while your forefathers and ancestors may have hoped that you do what they do, the world is so much more than that.

Share your thoughts and experiences below, or tweet at me to let me know what you think. I want to hear about your social media story.

So you’re not a consultant in the social media field, but you’re looking for work. You’ve finally landed the coveted interview after sending out more than thirty resumes and you’ve gotten past the phone chat. You’ve told them you read Mashable, TechCrunch, Social Media Daily and crunch numbers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and dream in terms of social media strategy.

Now what?

As you step into the interview, consider the questions that you will be asked, but also the questions that you should ask your interviewer. In this series, we cover questions every aspiring social media superstar should ask before they get the offer. Read on today for our second question – How do you measure a successful social media effort?

Social media success is a huge issue, especially along the lines of return on investment. We covered the issue as a consultant, but it gets even more important when the questions involve you becoming a full time employee.

If the company in question asks if you can increase their follower count over night and that success is seen by the company grabbing 10,000 followers, then the first thing you ought to do is run. 

If they talk about Klout scores, engagement rates and monthly/daily active users on the other hand, you’re on much better ground. It shows that they care about a return and they want that investment to be well-defined and well understood. If they also ask for month-end charts and recommendations made upon the returns on investment, then you know that you’re in the right place. 

What do you think? Tweet at me or let me know in the comments. 

Random Thought: What was their goal in what they did, trying to plant stories about Google? Have the social media wars heated up to the next level?

What, if any impacts will come out of this?

Tweet at me or let me know in the comments below.