ILSHRM12 Part 1

This post is the first of a few highlighting the upcoming Illinois State SHRM Conference. Folks ask me why would I go to a State Conference in another state.  After all, I live in Ohio. 

The first reason that I am going is to sample what other state SHRM conferences best practices are.  You see, I believe in collaboration not COMPETITION.  State Councils don't compete for members between other states (in most cases).  So, why wouldn't we share with each other best (and worst) practices? By the way...they have an app for that.  It's awesome. Thinking it may be something for OHSHRM13????

That leads me to the next reason why I am geeked to be going to this conference. My Twitter friend @DaveTheHRCzar (you can also find him here www.HROfficial.com)  invited me to ILSHRM12 after a Tweetchat called SHRMCHAT.   I get to meet so many Twitter friends IN REAL LIFE!!!  Here is a sampling of them - I encourage you to follow them either on their blogs, Twitter, or LinkedIn. 


@DaveTheHRCzar
@JKJHR
@SusanAvello
@DebAMaher
@new_resource (so geeked to be meeting a fellow Buckeye in IL...go figure)
@MeghanMBiro
@SabrinaLBaker
@DonnaRogersHR

And the list isn't finished.  So...if you are coming to ILSHRM12 - let me know.  I can't wait to meet you! If you aren't going, why not???  Visit their website at www.ilshrm.org
 
Next week, I'll post on the awesome conference sessions themselves.  I am going to meet some amazing HR peeps that I can learn so much from. 

Barriers to Innovation

I wrote this post several months ago, but am just now launching it.  You see, I wanted to give you a better insight into these "Tweetchats" I referred to last week.  One Tweetchat that I try to attend at least once a month is "TChat" better known as Talent Chat.  "TChat" is every Wednesday, from 7-8pm EST. If you aren't familiar with Meghan Biro and Kevin Grossman, you should be.  The Talent Culture blog can be found at www.talentculture.com. 

That particular night, a very diverse and multi-national group of folks were discussing innovation in the workplace.  There were three topics that left me thinking...

1.  Are we leaders or managers (and I don't mean your job title)?

             My honest answer: manager 

2.  Do we foster an environment of innovation in our workplaces?
             My honest answer: I don't foster an environment of innovation

3.  How do we remove barriers to innovation in our workplaces?

             My honest answer: I'm not sure

This Tweetchat left me thinking about my purpose in the workplace.  Sure, we are all paid to "do a job." However, what would we do if we let our team members stop managing and start leading.  By the way, I haven't completely figured this out yet.  I probably never will.  But the folks on that chat had some great ideas to get me started. 

So, I encourage you...start your Tweetchat lurking with "TChat" next week.  Let me know what you learn!

Have a great week!
Nicole



You can catch the recap of that chat on innovation on Talent Culture's website at: http://www.talentculture.com/culture/tchat-recap-innovation-is-the-heart-of-job-creation/

Tweetchat

What is a Tweetchat? Do I want to participate?  How do I participate?

There are two definitions for Tweetchat:
1.  A live Twitter discussion about a specific topic.
2.  A website that allows you to easily participate in a chat.

Let's start with the first one.  A Tweetchat on Twitter is a live discussion at a set time about a specific topic.  Usually, the chats last about an hour.  There is a moderator who will Tweet a question and then participants will answer that question.  When you are participating in the chat, you want to use the hashtag that the moderator has chosen.

For example, Tuesday evening, we had a Tweetchat we call "SHRMCHAT." The moderator of this chat is Joan Ginsberg (you can find her at http://justjoan.joanginsberg.com).  We have this chat the second Tuesday of every month at 8pm EST.  Joan will post the questions ahead of time on her blog.  This gives you the opportunity to decide if it's a chat you would like to join as well as prep answers to the questions. 

Our chat this past Tuesday was on Conferences.  Joan tweeted a question about every 10 minutes. When she tweeted a question, it would look like this:

Q5. What are the 2 or 3 most important attributes of a successful conference director? #SHRMCHAT

Then if you wanted to respond to that question, you would answer with:

A5: Personality, Personality, Personality #SHRMCHAT

Remember, if you are using Twitter to participate, you need to type that hash tag with your answer or folks won't see it in the thread.  When I first started attending tweetchats, I used Twitter and the search feature to watch the threads come through.  However, if I wanted to respond, then I had to go out of the search function, tweet my response, and then go back into the search function to watch all the responses.

Thus - my good friend Becky Robinson (you can find her at www.weavinginfluence.com) told me about Tweetchat.com.  There are several different websites you can use to participate in tweetchats.  I like Tweetchat.com, myself.  They explain very simply how it works.  When you tell the application what hashtag you are following, it will automatically type that for you when you tweet a reponse.  It saves time!

Ok HR Twitter Pros, what else should our new friends to Twitter know about Tweetchats OR What Tweetchats should they participate in?

Remember, #SHRMCHAT is the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 8pm EST.  Hope to see you there next month!

Are you being followed?

This next post in my Twitter lineup is on following and being followed.  We all know there are spammers out there.  If you didn't know that, you do now.  Twitter is no exception.  In fact, the latest spam I received from one of my Twitter Friends (that I have met IRL) said the following:

"Hello somebody is saying really bad things about you...http://t.co/rsWBZOF"

This came to me, from my friend's account (at least it sure looked like it) in the form of a direct message.  My first instinct is to click on the link.  Who could it be and what have I done to them?  Then that small voice in the back of my head (actually it's my husband's voice) reminds me not to click links that I can't be sure are legitimate.  I'll admit I have fallen for that before and it causes my husband hours of fixing my computer. 

Usually when this happens, someone has hacked into and sent that message via my friend's account.  If this happens to you, go in and change your password.  Not too much harm done.  If you have used that password for other non-Twitter accounts, my recommendation is to change the password on all those accounts too. 

What about when someone follows you and you know that they are a spammer?  This is usually because their tweets are nothing but links that are not legitimate, they have no info in their profile, and they have no avatar.  You have the option to block this account from following you again.  You can also report them to Twitter as a Spammer. This is done from the Profile section when you pull up your followers. 

It's important if you have a fully public account (meaning your Tweets are not private/protected & you allow anyone to follow you) that you review your followers periodically.  Obviously, you want to return the follow if it is someone you are interested in having contact with. 

Alright Twitter Pros...any other spammer tricks our new friends to Twitter should watch out for?