social media

Fistful of beans 08/24/2011

3 of things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Bored People Quit — Rands in Response blog People who quit say: “I don’t believe in this company.” Bored people quit. The author of this post is neither an HR professional nor an organization development/behavior professional, this author simply manages people. I say [...]

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Tagged as: bias, boss, engagement, human resources, manage, management, Mercer, motivation, New York Times, SlideShare, social media

Social metrics that matter to your boss

A business case usually relies on numbers. Numbers to justify the investment, numbers to project the return on investment, and numbers to compare against other investment opportunities. Numbers that matter, matter differently dependent on the view of the person you talk to. Certainly social media, or social software, numbers rely on us to know our [...]

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Tagged as: ChiefExecutive.net, Deloitte Consulting, executive, finance, John Hagel, John Seely Brown, risk, social, social media, software

Your company social media strategy reflects organization culture, part 1

If you want an idea of your organization’s culture there is no simpler place for this insight than your organization’s social media strategy. Companies who view social media only as a marketing vehicle miss far more than an opportunity to engage. It is as likely these companies have lost their employee’s motivation in similar fashion [...]

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Tagged as: communication, culture, marketing 2.0, organization development, policy, social media, strategy, web 2.0

Fistful of beans 04/27/2011

3 of things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Too Big to Succeed? — CFO Magazine Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase are the clear winners of the consolidation game. Each of these, individually, have more than 2 times the assets of 4th-place Wachovia. These 3 banks have bet cross-selling and their [...]

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Tagged as: bank, Bank of America, CFO, Citigroup, Facebook, fistful of beans, Girls Scouts, JPMorgan Chase, magazine, pr, public relations, social media, social media marketing, Talent Management, Wachovia

Marketing: trying to rekindle the old days

Though coming for a while, there was no sign of bitterness from the advertiser when his consumer finally walks out and abandons the clearly, lopsided relationship: Which side of the table is your seat? In a prior blog Marketing 2.0 — You Better Free Your Mind Instead I recapped: Lose control, provide content, make it easy [...]

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Tagged as: advertising, communication, consumer, marketing 2.0, social media, social media marketing

Fistful of beans 12/29/2010

5 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Speed to Market: Increasing Knowledge Velocity — Chief Learning Officer Magazine The most pressing strategic learning need facing business today is managing knowledge needed by front-line performers. There is a prevailing belief that management knows best and front-line employees just need to be told [...]

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Tagged as: CFO, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Learning Officer, CLO, Fast Company, fistful of beans, human capital assessment, Human Resource Executive, human resources, influence, learning, social media, strategy, The Atlantic

Quality communication in social media

As a professional statistician, I help doctoral students design quantitative research studies, and analyze and interpret their data, for their dissertation. It occurred to me that some aspects of a doctoral dissertation could be applied to social media communications to make information and conversations more rigorous and tractable. If all you have is a hammer, [...]

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Tagged as: project failure, project management, risk, social media, Statistically Significant Consulting, statistics, Steve Creech

Recap: Communication in the age of saturation

A recap on my series of blogs around communication in the age of saturation. Preamble: Marketing 2.0 – You better free your mind instead The printing press brought us Marketing 1.0. Marketing 1.0, however, did not bring information to all equally. Information really relied on distribution and distribution relied on money. Marketing 1.0 was owned [...]

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Tagged as: communication, marketing 2.0, social media, social media marketing, Twitter, viral marketing

A key to why so many companies blow it in social media?

Last week I posted Marketing interruption still trumps engagement, really? I quoted global brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin’s Advertising Age blog where he presents his case that brands have always had it correct: Brands always had conversations with consumers, whether via broadcast TV or chiseled on clay tablets. The rules have also been consistent over [...]

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Tagged as: advertising, communication saturation, Conversation Prism, engagement, Marketing, social media, strategy

Marketing interruption still trumps engagement, really?

Great post on Advertising Age website titled: Why Interruption Still Trumps Engagement [click for .pdf to avoid onerous login]. The key to the blog is the closing and I think it is worth your read because it gives yet another view of social media’s critics. The author, Mr. Jonathan Salem Baskin, states the social-media revolution [...]

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Tagged as: advertising, brand, engagement, interruption, Marketing, social media

This social media fad will ruin organization development

What does the social media fad have to do with business? How is this social media fad related to organizational development (organization development)? Are you asking yourself if you really need to bother learning about social media? I’ve heard it all too often and continue to cringe hearing about the lack of effort OD and [...]

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Tagged as: collaboration, communication, involvement, listening, marketing 2.0, od, organization development, organization performance, organizational development, social media, social media marketing

Stephen Cummings, Owner, Insights

“Toby exemplifies the next generational leadership that is shaping the future. He has an amazing ability to get to the crux of the matter quickly. When you combine this with his ability to astutely understand the needs of each client you will understand how he has become a trusted partner to senior leaders. He works [...]

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Tagged as: consulting, growth, leadership, learning, organization change, small business, social media, start-up, startup, Stephen Cummings, transformation, trusted partner

Embrace geolocation, Foursquare, and social media sensory overload

This article, Tech Edge: Hollow Point | Fast Company, offers a view on the latest, greatest–stop me if you’ve heard this before–social media phenomenon around “checking in” through Foursquare. I have to agree with this article that “checking in can be fun, useful, and even indispensable, but only in certain contexts”. However, I’m not sure checkin in [...]

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Tagged as: Fast Company, Foursquare, geolocation, marketing 2.0, sensory overload, social media, social media marketing

Jane Stachowiak, Director, Student Wellness & Health Promotion-LiveWell, Berklee College of Music

Working with Toby Elwin in 2009 I was fortunate to reverse the role of mentor/mentee. The mentor (me) received great advice and help from someone I have been mentoring over the past two decades. Toby Elwin played a major role at Berklee College of Music in transforming its student 8-page print newspaper into an electronic [...]

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Tagged as: Berklee College of Music, facilitate, Jane Stachowiak, Marketing, mentor, project management, reference, social media, strategy

How to launch and manage your social media identity – the slides

Last Thursday night I gave a presentation to the Massachusetts Bay Organization Development Learning Group on how to grab hold of the marketing world that’s spinning around us and get a tangible handle on how to launch and manage a social media identity. Both the deck presentation and some recommended resources are available above and below. However, [...]

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Tagged as: blog, communications, customer, marketing 2.0, social media, tweet, Twitter

8 steps to better decision-making

It starts with an executive need: a new market evaluation; improve operating margins; a game-changing technology; your competition is eating your lunch. Whatever the reason, a project is how an organization translates an executive strategy. The ability to scope and deliver a project is a competitive advantage. The best organizations realize project management capability as [...]

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Tagged as: communication, communication saturation, data, decision, information, knowledge, social media, strategy

High 5, the wisdom of Twitter crowds

I have not heard a more savaged social media tool than the negative comments I hear about Twitter. What do I hear time and again about Twitter? “I don’t want to hear that someone is waiting in line for coffee. I don’t care”. My response: if you have boring friends, you have boring conversations. Twitter [...]

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Tagged as: Facebook, linkedin, network, social media, Twitter

Twitter is a waste of time

Twitter has changed the way people communicate. The marketing world, as it was known, has been carpet bombed. The rules have changed. The roles have changed. In a series of earlier blogs I talk about communication in the age of saturation, so I won’t repeat those points. However, I will revisit one reality: people don’t [...]

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Tagged as: communication, goals, return on influence, roi, social media, strategy, Twitter, web 2.0

Communication in the age of saturation, part 2

Is your communication effort designed to interrupt people? Think of the filters you put up around your world to manage the saturation of information and decisions you have to make. What percentage of today’s decisions do you make from a telemarketer, billboard, or yellow pages? Conversely, what decisions do you make from a friend’s recommendation, [...]

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Tagged as: buy in, communication, feedback, recommendation, rss, social media, strategy, web 2.0

Quick Bio

Toby Elwin has lived around the world and worked globally with, and for, some of the most highly-respected leaders and organizations in their fields.

This site, and thoughts, are rooted in the role leadership and talent have on an organization's motivation to influence, achieve, and sustain.

Toby's work combines systems theory, organization development, marketing, and portfolio and project management from more than 15 years in post-merger integration.
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