Welcome to My Tiny Universe

Welcome to my small space on the Internet. It’s not much, I know. It’s more of a studio apartment than a Pac Heights mansion. But this has more character.

I’ve re-vamped my site, so this is now my personal portfolio of some of my creative writing as well as my…

• Resume for general light bedtime reading
• Social media profile links so you can message me and set up a time to grab coffee or lunch (seriously)
• Writing samples just because
• Some reviews of my work from community members of my current workspace

It’s hard to update a personal blog these days when you’ve got work to tend to, pies to bake, books to read, new things to learn, and a few nights out here and there. Mostly here.

Nonetheless, I’ll be updating from time to time about: social media + community, travel, career goals, education tech, being a woman in tech, online and offline communities, and pretty/thought-provoking things.

If you need me, reach out at carrie.melissa.jones (at) gmail (dot) com or @carriemejones!

How Can Community Managers Break Down Silos?

Infographic via The Daily SEO Blog

At last month’s SF community manager UNconference, we finished off the day with guided discussions based on attendees’ questions. I had a question that had been burning in my mind for quite some time, and I finally had an excellent venue in which to ask it:

How do we, as community managers, most effectively work with the rest of our organization and within our own teams? 

I was immediately taken aback by how many other community managers struggled with this question day-to-day. It’s on our minds constantly.

I was sitting in a circle with about a dozen other community and social media professionals, and two of them (Ayelet Baron and Jure Klepic, both with really inspiring and motivating Twitter feeds, just sayin’) immediately prompted me with the following questions:

1. Who are your key advocates in the company? Who is already tuned in to you?
2. How is your team organized currently? How do you get information from other teams?

I knew the answer very clearly to the first question. My boss is one of my biggest advocates, as well as his boss. That has been a huge source of encouragement for me. But the answer to question two is more puzzling, and I suspect this is the case for many community managers. I know how I get information, and I’m not particularly thrilled about it. I usually get updates through:

• hearsay (the most annoying form of information gathering)
• my boss cascading down information (probably my preferred method given these options)
• running into someone in the hallway
• All Hands meetings in which I get general information

None of this is very formal. None of it is institutionalized (except the All Hands meetings). None of it is very effective either. I have a sense for the solution to this problem: I have to speak up. I have to ask for the information. I have to hold meetings and get input and ideas from all other parts of the company, as Chris Heur suggested. This is doable and will be done. But what about when I don’t even know what I’m missing? I can’t ask each and every time I need a piece of information, especially if I don’t even know that information is available.

So I know I need buy-in and participation from a couple key departments, including marketing, product, and legal. But what would be even better? Break down those silos completely, as Jure Klepic argued (well, I think his words were, “That is total bullshit.”) They don’t need to exist. They serve very little purpose except to boost people’s egos. They are antiquated and they are likely holding your entire organization back.  After all, the community is part of the product and the product is part of the community. Easier said than done, of course, especially in a growing company, but that’s the ultimate goal. Everyone should have access to information and should be empowered to use it. I told my boss this last week, and he agreed wholeheartedly. He’s struggling with it just as much as I am. People need to talk about this stuff. It needs to be out in the open so we can break it down.There’s no reason to stay in our little compartments and get frustrated with one another. We’ve got a community run. We’ve got a product to improve. We’ve got money to earn.

So I leave with this question, and I am really eager to hear others’ input:

Have any advice or anecdotes about how you work within your larger organizations? Or how you broke through the silos to get to the other side? When did you feel like you were finally in the right place?

What to Do When No One Tells You What to Do

Image via Riches for Rags

No one tells me what to do at work, which is probably 89% of the reason why I love my job (1% is the free lunch, 5% are my co-workers, and the last 5% is my standing desk). But it can be frightening to determine your own direction and to go down your own road. Each week, I try to push myself in new ways, and I don’t even know why. I suppose this is why I love start-up life, after all. But what is it that drives us start-uppers in our determined, un-centered approaches when no one is there to tell us we’re doing anything wrong? And how do you learn when no one is there in the office to teach you?

I feel each day I do have some sort of rough plan that I make up in my own head. I take risks, but I do so in well-informed ways.

I’ve been trying to figure out what these well-informed ways are so that I can continue to pursue them. It’s easy to become unfocused, so this is something I need to put in writing. So far, these are the 10 ways that I have devised to keep going when no one is telling you what to do:

1. Seek help elsewhere: Do this by connecting with people on Twitter, finding conferences in your area of interest, joining Twitter chats, and following blogs of industry leaders. 
2. Ask questions. Maybe you think it’s creepy to Tweet a random person with a question or maybe you think asking someone to coffee is odd. It is not weird. Do it.
3. Leave room in your day (preferably in the morning) to complete creative tasks. Don’t go straight for e-mail. Strategize in the morning.
4. Draw. Sketch out your plans visually to demonstrate how you go from point A to point B. Then you’ll know you’ve found success once you’ve reached those points you’ve drawn out.
5. Write. Always explore your ideas in writing, even if your writing is just messy notes you take on the train in the morning on the way to work. I had a professor once who told me, “Writing is how you know what you really think. Writing is the physical process of thought-making.” He has a PhD. Listen to him.
6. Measure. Measure everything. Measure how many hours you sleep and measure the costs of each and every thing.
7. Improve on those measurements. Find ways to automate them. Then find ways to get your costs down and returns up. I’m constantly doing things to get costs to zero or close to zero any way I can.
8. Sleep. Some people tell you that “you can sleep when you die.” They’re dumb. You’ll think better and like yourself more if you sleep enough
9. Make time to reflect on things that are not work-related.
10. Appreciate. Take time to thank those that help you and answer your questions. Take time to thank those that love you even though you’re totally crazy.

Maybe all of this seems obvious or incredibly simple, but I have noticed that most people don’t do these things. Hell, I lose track of these things. They sit and wait for someone to tell them what to do. Stop doing that. It’s boring and leads to burn-out. Get moving and start calling the shots on your days for yourself.

Say “Thank You”, Motivate Your Community and Team

Image Via Redcap Cards

When I first started managing people and communities, I was hesitant about showing gratitude for people’s achievements. I didn’t want to say “Thank you” because I was worried that showing my gratitude would somehow make people complacent. I learned the hard way that it has the opposite affect.

I stopped ignoring people’s achievements long ago, but lately, I’ve been hearing some of my friends complain that their managers never recognize them for their achievements either. These managers tend to be untrained and young, with just a hint of job insecurity to keep them on their toes. But refusing to give other people credit makes your team/community complacent and convinces them not to put emotional weight on their work. I can’t think of a worse fate for a managerial relationship.

I started thinking more about sharing the importance of saying “Thank you” in large and tiny ways when I posted a comment on the 99u piece, “The 5 Most Dangerous Creativity Killers”. I said in my comment:

“Not being recognized for a huge achievement (in reference to reason #5) is a HUGE creativity killer. That person will immediately think, why bother? Then they’ll dedicate their creative energy to something else entirely. And if they don’t think it immediately, it’ll still slowly start to seep in over time. Recognize good work, even in small ways like sending a quick ‘You’re awesome’ or ‘Thank you!’ email, tweet, LinkedIn note, etc.”

I didn’t realize until a week ago that this ended up becoming the most upvoted comment on the post, and I think that fact says a lot about the importance that employees and community members place on appreciation. It’s hard to be inspired when you’re not recognized — even the best of us experience moments of crushing self-doubt. Our inner selves are constantly playing devil’s advocate. So we need an outside push every so often to say that we’re doing better than we imagine.

So I propose that all managers (and all community managers especially) say thank you constantly for reasons others would probably never think of. Say it with swag, say it with an e-mail, say it with a Tweet. Just say thank you. Here are some ways to thank your employees and community members. Believe me, everyone wants to feel appreciated. Share the love.

When someone accomplishes a small task, pitches in to the community you’re nurturing, or does something for the first time (i.e. when my associate ran a VLOOKUP for the first time or wrote his first blog post):

• Write them a LinkedIn recommendation (endorsements are for the birds) that is thoughtful and specific based on that experience
• Follow them on Twitter. Mention them and just shout out a quick, “Can’t believe how quickly you finished writing that newsletter! You’re awesome!”
• Write them an endorsement that they can use on their website or in their portfolio (if they have one). If you don’t know if they have one, ask!
• Shoot them a quick e-mail to tell them how amazing they did and just to say you appreciated their work.
• Give them concrete metrics to stand behind (i.e. “Your post garnered 1,030 views and generated a discussion of 100+ comments that directly and indirectly related to our brand. You, my friend, are a superstar.”)
• Recognize firsts, especially if you watched this person struggled to get to that point. Knowing that you appreciate that work will encourage them to continue that type of work/behavior in the future.
• Handwritten notes are always nice. Even a post-it note may turn into a cubicle decoration. At my last job, I kept all of the post-its my co-workers left me and would look at them when I was doubting myself.
• If the person doesn’t work with you, send them swag! Everyone loves swag, but, more than that, everyone loves to feel like they’re part of something. Swag does that. Make it easy and cheap like stickers or notebooks.

There are so many ways to say “thank you”. Find your own way to say thank you that fits your style. It’s not that important how you say it. It’s just important that you say it. 

Then watch your team’s motivation and morale skyrocket.

Looking for more ideas? Read some other enlightening articles on the topic:

• “What to do when recognition never comes” via Savvy Intern
• “How to Show Appreciation at Work” via Kommboutique
• “Showing Appreciation at the Office? No Thanks” via Wall Street Journal
• “Innovative Ways to Show Customer Appreciation” via B2C

Playing Small Does Not Serve the World

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant…?” Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. And, as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberates from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

Four Keys to Becoming an Expert

Sheryl Sandberg is an expert in monetizing content, and now she’s also an expert on women at work. Photo via The Daily Beast.

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review about the importance of becoming an expert at work in whatever it is that drives you the most. The article touches on a couple of important points and meanders over way too many pages. So I’ll boil down the 4 key ideas I took away from this article, and how I look at them at my own work in tech. I think these 4 ideas are largely influenced by being a woman in a male-dominated company, but perhaps that makes my 4 rules all the more relevant for young women right here, right now. 

4 Key Ideas Behind Becoming an Expert:

1. You need specialized knowledge. Justifications for liberal arts educations aside, you need to claim something and make it yours. If you don’t, you’ll hit a ceiling in your career. 
2. You have to go out and accumulate the knowledge yourself. No one is going to hold your hand and tell you what to do. No one is going to walk up to you as you exit the bathroom one afternoon and say, “Hey, I feel an aura coming from you. You want to build and execute a social media strategy for our XYZ product. I’m going to show you a project I’ve done that’s just like it and then you’ll learn everything from me and and we’ll meet constantly as mentor to mentee and we’ll frolic off into the sunset together.” No one. You have to seek out these projects/mentors yourself. Despite what everyone tells you, your future mentor/role model likely doesn’t already work with you. I’ve learned this firsthand. It’s a myth that you’ll always find a mentor at work. You need to put yourself out there further in the world. Join a group. Tweet a stranger. Make a coffee date with someone you look up to but are intimidated by.
3. Oftentimes, your company doesn’t even know how valuable your expertise is. You have to show people the value in it. Document everything. Quantify everything. So you felt like that campaign went well? Prove it. Can’t prove it? Well, it didn’t go well; your failure to gather data made the campaign a failure.
4. Once you gain this expertise, share it. People will silently look up to you for it. Make yourself available. Be friendly.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how you often need to carve your own niche at work. Many times, your company doesn’t even see the need for this niche until you’re already in it and they realize they couldn’t go on without you. I’ve watched so many people do this for themselves, and I’m continually impressed. This is what we should all aspire to. Don’t be mediocre. Be an expert.

San Francisco Days, Savannah Daydreams

Getting ready to leave on a trip to Savannah, Georgia, and I have piles of dresses and shoes lying around my room. I’ve been watching re-runs of Real Housewives of Atlanta, drinking tons of bedtime tea in the vain hope that I’ll settle down soon, and reading blogs like mad. So I thought I’d update my own while I was out there reading everyone else’s amazing content. Here’s a quick rundown of two key aspects of my life right now — personal development goals and travel.

Personal Development: I set a new goal for myself this week, based loosely on the title of that book I’ve never actually read, Never Eat Alone, because the title sums up the entirety of the book. The goal is: when I work from home, I will not eat alone. Or, at the very least, I will not have coffee on my own. Instead, I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I’m going to set up some sort of fun coffee/lunch/breakfast/meetup plans with a new person or group each time I work from home. I usually work from home once a week, so I like that this goal is attainable without being too much pressure on myself to do something each and every day. I think this will do wonders for my inspiration and my perspective. I always enjoy hearing what other people do and why they love what they do, whether it be similar to what I do or not.

Travel: I am hitting the road again next week! I grow restless when I’m in one place sometimes, not because I’m bored in the place I’m in (San Francisco literally never bores me), but because being connected 24/7 constantly reminds me that there is so much else out there to see and do. So Savannah it is. I was born in Atlanta, but I have long been infatuated with Savannah. I mean, look at this photograph. Heck, look at the entire gallery by Harwell Photography that this photo is borrowed from. It’s stunning:

Image via Style Me Pretty

Savannah sounds like the perfect break from all the non-boredom of San Francisco right now. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my world of work, close friends, Joshua, my cats, and 3 online classes at once that I forget to take a break and enjoy walking and watching things happen around me. Sometimes it isn’t necessary to partake. Sometimes you don’t need to Tweet about it (okay, okay, that’s not true…). Sometimes it’s okay to take things in. I once lived that philosophy, so I plan to go back south from whence I came and live it again, even if it’s just for one week.

Do I Dare Eat A Peach?

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question . . .
Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’
Let us go and make our visit.

- T.S. Eliot

 

♥ that poem

 

Hello, Half Marathon

This is how running makes me feel.

My race has finally arrived. Tomorrow morning at 6:22 AM, I will set out and run 13.1 miles, across the piers, over the Golden Gate Bridge and back, by the Presidio and Baker Beach, and end at Golden Gate Park. Then I’ll get a medal, put my jacket back on to stay warm in the San Francisco summer fog, and I’ll head back home. That will be it. I have been preparing for this mentally for a year, and that will be it.

I have realized, however, that running has changed me. I feel differently about myself, I feel I am capable of things I was never before capable of. Running has become the lens through which I view the world. It is my reprieve, my reality, my above-reality. It is how I understand my body and my surroundings, and it is how I measure my day. No matter what emotions I have felt throughout the afternoon, I channel them through my legs and arms, and they clear away with the wind.

Once a runner, always a runner, as they say. And so I do believe I will be signing up for a full marathon next spring. In the interim, I am going to try out rock climbing, lots more yoga, biking through the city, and anything else that comes my way. I’ll always love my afternoon runs though. I don’t think I can live without them anymore. I run away my cares, and those runs have made me who I am.

Photo © Metaphor

Pecan Pies Taking Over My Life

Time disappears. This time, in more productive ways. I’ve thrown myself into my newest side project, my Georgia/California fusion baking endeavor. Above is one of the fruits of my labor.

I’m tired.