Women’s Toolbox Conference: Giving women the tools to excel in the workplace!
I’m so thrilled to be speaking at the Women’s Toolbox Conference on Friday, Oct. 18th!
What is the Women’s Toolbox Conference? Exactly what it sounds like! It will deliver thought leadership, resources, and networking—all the tools that can help women create a lasting impact in the workplace, marketplace, and community.
Now what does making an impact mean for women? Well, not only can it translate to making more money, but also getting more clients, finding a better job, and being known for your expertise and what you bring to the table. All these things can set you on the course to living a more balanced and happy life!
I love initiatives that champion women in the workplace so I’m excited to be sharing some of my experiences and knowledge at this conference, specifically around social. I’ll be discussing how to become essential to your customers with social business by building your social presence, knowing your prospects and customers and their influencers, engaging and responding with speed, and celebrating your customers!
Interested in attending this wonderful event and hearing from business superstars and thought leaders?
Register http://womenstoolbox.com/annualconference/registration/ for the event, which will take place Oct. 16-18th in Beverly, MA!
Social Networks Help me Survive! 6 Degrees of Separation goes to 0!
It began as a normal day. I flew to Brazil and when I landed, I Foursquared, Tweeted and Facebooked as I headed off to meet my partners and clients. And when I finished, I would fly off to meet the CEO of one of my top clients! This was going to be a superb day!
But then a life-changing event occurred. With a bit of water, cobblestones and bad luck, I fell while heading up a ramp. When I saw people running toward me, I knew something was not right. I could not move my left side and was panicked because all I heard was Brazilian Portuguese. Employees at my hotel called for a doctor. IBMers and others tried to assist and get me to the right hospital, but after four hours I was in intense pain with massive blood loss.
I was afraid and alone. I was scared, very scared. I have had few accidents in my life but before this, they all happened around my family.
But that was about to change.
My new family emerged...and rose up out of social networks, both online and in the real world. First, a colleague of mine came to ride with me to the hospital. I called my parents and husband. When I arrived at the hospital, I was greeted by three local IBM colleagues who gladly helped interpret and relay my needs, including the biggest at the time -- pain killer, please!!!!
I broke two toes, my left rib, and my femur -- the biggest bone in the body. I also lost about 1.5 liters of blood. (They say shock sets in at 2L.) The surgery occurred the next day and went amazingly well. And yes, I do have a long recovery of about three months ahead of me (with no travel -- ouch!). But enough about the blood and gore...
This amazing story is about the people!
Let me start with the surgeon. strong>His name is Dr Jose Sergio Franco. He is a top-rated surgeon in Brazil and was a miracle worker for me. He did emergency surgery the day after the accident and did an amazing job. My doctor in New York said it was one of the best jobs he had ever seen -- better than 95% of the surgeries for like injuries in the U.S. But Jose was more. He was my cheerleader, my comforter, and my hero.
He came to see me daily and encouraged me to hang in there (said of course in the Brazilian way) even though my family wasn't nearby. I would not be where I am without him.
The IBM Nurse Dottie Robinson, who is based in New York, immediately jumped on the phone with me time and time again to advise, reassure and ensure that I was being taken care of. With bravery and compassion, she saw to it that I was cared for in the best possible way in a foreign land. She helped me get from Brazil back home. 
(This part was fun: medical evac plane to San Paulo to 10-hour flight through ambulances -- and bigger cars to ensure my health at every step of the way!). She more than did her job. She extended her heart to me like I was her very own family.
Our IBM Brazil Team was amazing. Fabio Pinto de Britto rode with me to the airport and got me that much-needed pain killer. His brother Djlama flew in from Mexico to make sure I was okay and worked through getting my husband a visa in four hours (a record!). Isabella Costa argued on my behalf to get me an English-speaking nurse, and offered to stay with me through the night. And Flavio de Figueiredo Mendes rushed over to the hospital immediately after returning from 40 days in China. The heart of this team, their care and their compassion moved me beyond belief. They came to visit every day while I was there -- they were transparent, helpful, thoughtful ... and as I learned, truly Brazilian in their actions. I can never repay them!
Back in the States, IBM HR Executive Leader Yara Saad was also amazing. As many of you know, I was recently placed in a new role as General Manager and new HR support. But since I had bragged so much about the support Yara had provided to me in my previous role, my husband called Yara when I was injured. Despite this "not being her job," she worked my services, my flights, and my recovery as if it was her own. She is such an incredible and talented woman with so much on her plate. I was honored and deeply touched with the time and heart she spent helping me.
My husband Todd was of course his normal self. His giving personality came through and he was in Brazil within 48 hours. I could not have done any of this without him. No questions asked. He is a keeper!
My IBM Assistant Megan Mennonna has always been a blessing to me -- but on this occasion, she went above and beyond. She and Becky Michel covered the meetings, and handled the top items that we needed covered. She is such a great friend and colleague.
Also, I have to say that I already knew IBM was a great company but this experience made me realize that it is a SUPERB company that cares and shows it!
Now, combine these in-person friends that I know with my blogosphere friends. From Facebook, I received messages from Africa, Turkey, U.S., Australia, India and more. More than 10 bouquets of flowers came to my hospital room. Candies and teas from around the world were also delivered. I had hundreds of check-up posts as well as calls that crossed the social bridge from the blogosphere to the real world. These friends crossed global boundaries, and included partners, clients, IBMers and more.
It made me realize that I never could have survived without my social networks. Six degrees of separation became closer than a family. I will always remember the kindness of all my friends!
Social Selling! Tip #4 "Learning" Your Clients Through Social Networks
Happy Monday!
We are continuing our Monday series on Social Selling -- today focused on our Tip #4! I am to start the discussion on how you know your prospects and clients.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPtyzXUblD8&feature=youtu.be]
Sunday night! Yes, ready for Monday but your weekend should be SOCIAL!
What do I do on Sunday night besides relax ? I ready for the great week ahead with my Social plans but don't neglect Sunday like I have done for so long!
Did you know that the third best day to post is Sunday? (this is research from Buffer - Beth Cooper)
And from the same research , the best tweets on done on weekends!!! So don't take the weekend off !
Social enables stronger ways to network - an important career progression task!
According to IBM Tech Trends Report, there are more companies today doing internal Social, than external use of social with clients. Why is that trend progressing?
Creating an inclusive work environment should be a strategic priority for all companies. It can help your company build a distinctive and compelling reputation as a worldclass employer and foster women’s leadership talent. Such a culture provides the social infrastructure that gives women access to the same career support as men. A Social Infrastructure enables collaboration and networking across an organization.
Networking is very important in career progression. In fact, in every leadership book that I have read, networking in always in the top 3 items that help to drive someone to success. So in leadership, being an active and politically-skilled networker is important.
Our study shows that working long hours is not directly linked to career progression. We can therefore debunk the myth that presenteeism leads to promotion. However, working more hours is related to important careerenabling factors. When you work longer hours, whether you’re male or female, you’re more likely to focus on networking.
Social can enable you to network more effectively. Networking really is as important as everyone makes it out to be. Find ways of building one-to-one relationships with people who are important to your career and keep them up-to-date on your progress. And make time to Social Network -- it really is important and effective.
Women Rock Social !
Tonight I was doing a little reading on woman and men in the Social World.
Did you know that:
- 74% of women were users of social networking sites, compared with 62% of men. (Source: Pew Research Center)
- 25% of online US women use Pinterest, compared to 5% for men. (Source: Pew Research Center)
- Moms are 16% more likely than other women to visit Facebook daily (85% vs. 73%). (Source: Performics)
The biggest difference in engagement that I found to date was about the type of tools that are used. What do you think ? Are there other differences?
Social Business can save lives! Check out the Boston's Children's Hospital
Yesterday, n partnership with IBM, The Boston Children's Hospital launched OPENPediatrics!
What is OPENPediatrics? It is a Social Learning platform that enables medical personnel to gain expertise, make better decisions, and even share knowledge to save the lives of children.
The hospital has just started using it, but already there are over 1000 nurses and doctors in over 74 countries.
This use of Social Business will completely transform the healthcare industry! What can it do for your industry?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKQ7lEmPyWY&feature=youtu.be]
Are you a Social Showroomer?
What is a social showroomer? With 70% of people trusting reviews by their "friends" than a company's own site, a social showroomer is one who leverages social before they purchase. But they do it in a uniqure way. They come into a real store with their smartphone and scan a product's barcode to see the reviews, and lowest prices for the item. Then they search both online retailers to compare with those of brick and mortar.
First a factoid, 1/3 of showroomers bought from an online-only retailer, the other two-thirds from a multi-channel retailer.
Who are these new social shoppers?
Showroomers are more often male than female with the largest gender gap being in consumer electronics but women are still quite capable of showrooming. In fact,women still constitute 80% of Pinterest users. (Search Engine Journal)
On age & income dimensions, this is not an older group but not particularly young. Most likely to be 26 to 34, however in some categories like consumer electronics, home decor and healthcare, showrooming skews as high as 35 to 44.
The showroomers are also more affluent on average but has quite a contribution from the middle-income group as well.
And the final point, this group is very vocal. 57%, had written a positive review of their online retailer. They are a dynamic group having positive experiences and wanting to share them with their peers.
Are you a showroomer? Tell me about it. What do you think about showrooming? Is it fair to local merchants?
Social selling: Tip #5 Build your social graph!
Happy Monday!
We are continuing our social selling series and today will focus on one of the top 5 pieces of advice for strong selling in the blogosphere!
The Blogosphere is a connected community of all blogs and their interconnections, including micro-blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, and so on. Essentially all social tools online.
Have fun building your social graph!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR7NOuZ0OO0&feature=youtu.be]
Mixed Audiences into today's Social Business World
Today, I was chatting with a client who proclaimed that he wished everyone was using social! The world would be so simple!
Yes, it would but we don't live in that world --- and won't for a few years.
Today, I see us having 3 types of people.
- Digital Natives. These are people who grew up online and in social networks. They work in a collaborative fashion -- they grew up this way. They do not do email or even answer phones. (Note: The post-millennial "digital native" was a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky.
- Digital Immigrants. These are people who have not grown up digitally but have taken to the new social world and use the tools like a native. They have a foot in each world... being able to leverage email, and traditional forms of collaboration, with the new world.
- Non Digitals or affectionately called The Analogs. Yes we all know they and they are in very significant places of influence today. They email, they dictate, and they don't use Facebook. These are some of your best clients, so you cannot leave them behind.
Yes, and today there are digital outcasts. These are folks who would grow up digitally but globally have not been blessed with the resources to do so. Many companies are working on these issues which I believe must be fixed before we do see people across the globe plugged into the "AORTA," which is Always On RealTime Access, a term coined by Mark Anderson, the chief of the Strategic News Service.
What do you see? How long before the Natives overtake enough influential positions?