Online Community Compensation Study

The Online Community Report just released its Online Community Compensation Study.

Most of the study's key findings shouldn't come as a surprise to people working in this space: the community team employs more women than men, most team members are between 31 and 50 years old, and most have over five years of work experience. However the compensation figures are a little higher than I expected at an average of US$81k (approximately AU$95k).

I also wasn't expecting women to be earning 91% (on average) of what men are earning. Assuming that factors like experience, industry, average company salary, position in corporate hierarchy, department within the company, importance of community role for company, etc. have all been statistically removed from this analysis -- and they probably haven't all been removed -- then the lower salary for women is most disappointing.

Meanwhile, the most heartening result from the study is, of course, the job satisfaction rating which is an average of 4.2 on a scale of 1 to 5 :)

FYI: OCR's Key Resources blog post category is a great place to look if you want to start or further develop your online community.

Social Media in the Enterprise

Toby Ward writes on the Intranet Blog about a survey conducted by Robert Half Technology that found that over 70% of US CIOs don't plan to use social media tools -- such as blogs and wikis -- in the next five years.

That number might sound a little daunting but, really, it isn't.

Issues with the Survey Itself

Because these are aggregate numbers, they're too generalized and don't give us much information. In fact, they're pretty useless: so what if 70% of US CIOs don't plan to use social media in the next five years? What does that "70%" actually mean to you and me and to our company and its social media adoption decision? Not much.

A breakdown of the results by industry and company size would have been better...but even that wouldn't have been enough. Had each social media tool included a follow-up question that asked "Why will you not be using this particular tool?" the survey may have been somewhat useful.

Also, "next five years" in technology or Internet time is ages! How can CIOs realistically predict whether or not they will be using a particular tool or technology five years from now? The question should have asked for a one-year prediction and the survey should then be conducted annually. Which is why Forrester's surveys, or the annual Enterprise 2.0 survey conducted by McKinsey (which I wrote about earlier), are much more useful.

Issues with the Conclusion

That said, even the implicit conclusion -- that most CIOs don't see the benefits of social media in the enterprise -- isn't all that worrisome because true social media adoption rarely starts at the CIO level. More often that not, it's bottom-up instead of top-down.

That is, employees first start to use social media on their own and among each other. Over time, the business begins to benefit from this. Once usage crosses a particular threshold -- and the benefits become more obvious and more measurable -- management (finally) realizes what's going on and has social media (or just the particular tool in question) implemented across the entire organization.

This is pretty much the conclusion that Toby Ward reached as well. Read his complete post (with conclusion) on the Content Matters blog.

So What's My Point?

Surveys like this provide neat sound bytes and are used as justification by senior management for not looking into social media.

So be careful when you talk to senior managers about social media usage and adoption in the enterprise: they usually don't have a clue but, sometimes, they do have a little bit of knowledge (such as this survey) but turns out to be dangerous.

Chris Brogan on Social Media

Over the last couple of weeks, Chris Brogan has been writing a series of fantastic primer/best-advice blog posts about social media on his blog. Make sure you read them:

Oh, and here are a couple of more of his posts that are really good:

Awesome work, Chris! Thanks.

McKinsey's 2008 Social Media in the Enterprise Survey

McKinsey recently published the results of its second annual survey of social media [1] usage in the enterprise: 'Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results'. (You need to register with the McKinsey Quarterly website to read the article, though).

The results, in one sentence, are encouraging: "Companies have adopted more Web 2.0 tools this year than in 2007 and are using them for higher-value purposes". For a good overview of and commentary on the results, read Hadley Reynold's article on this topic on the FASTForward blog.

[1] The term 'Web 2.0' is just plain silly. It's like saying: "We now ship frozen food in refrigerated trucks via our road network so we should start calling it 'Road 2.0' because that's an extension of what the network was originally created for. Regular warehouses are 'Roads 1.0' while refrigerated warehouses are 'Roads 2.0'." And so on.

Standard Format for Online CVs in Australia

ITWire's Stan Beer reports that a number of Australian technology recruitment companies have signed on to make the iProfile their preferred CV template for candidates applying through them.

This sounds like an interesting idea and will probably make life easier for recruiters. I don't know how it'll work out for candidates, though. If candidates can retain their individuality despite the standard format -- as the 'The CV is Dead - Long Live the iProfile' video seems to indicate -- then it should be okay. If not, it'll commoditize them and that's not good.

Since I haven't actually seen the iProfile template -- you can't unless you sign up and they don't have any samples you can view -- I guess I'll just have to wait and see (or, of course, sign up and take a look).

That said, the good thing about the iProfile standard is that a whole bunch of recruitment companies have signed up to work with it. Without that, it'd be no better than your standard Seek, LinkMe, or SixFigures online profile: good but maybe not as widely available as you'd want it to be. Also, the privacy and viewing controls that this system seems to have are really nice too.

More generally, I like the fact that this announcement evangelises the use of online CVs to the Australian recruitment industry. So while all recruitment agencies won't be using the iProfile, maybe they'll start to pay more attention to things like LinkedIn profiles and other social media attributes of their candidate pool. Here's hoping.

2008 List of Forms of Web Marketing by Jeremiah Owyang

I meant to post this...well, months ago but I completely forgot. I found it in my Windows Live Writer's draft posts lists this afternoon and figured that, even though I'm late, its' still well worth posting.

Jeremiah Owyang maintains 'A Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing' which he updated for 2008:

This document catalogs the many tools and tactics available for corporate web strategy in 2008. Even if your strategy or resource limitations restrict you from entering all spaces, awareness of the changes in our digital landscape are critical. This document is intended for decision makers roles such as CMO/VP/Director of Web and Marketing.

It's an awesome and hugely important list of, well, everything you need (or could possible want) to think about for web marketing. You must take a look at it.

Online Reputation Management

Laurel Papworth wrote an excellent post a few days ago about reputation management in social networks. I highly recommend you read it.

I'd actually go a step further and say that most of what she said is also true for your reputation on the Internet in general -- though that's a little more scattered and is therefore a little harder to gauge. Still, if you've been online for even a short amount of time and have participated in almost anything, you will have left a trace.

People can (and do) search the web for your name, e-mail address, phone number, alias/handle/nickname, and so on. And the deeper they dig, the more they usually find. For example, you can search for me using the following queries and can learn a little more about me each time:

Cool, isn't it? Or scary...depending on how you look at it. And the best (or worst) part of all this is that, once your information is up there, it's pretty difficult (read: darned near impossible) to get down.

To quote an already oft-quoted quote, Sun Microsystem's CEO Scott McNealy way back in 1999 said: "You already have zero privacy (on the Internet). Get over it."  Yup. Get over it and, since it follows logically: manage your online reputation really well. Particularly since your online and offline reputations are increasingly crossing over -- that too in both directions.

I Can Has Senior Producer?

Very, very, very rarely do I wish that I had stuck with web programming for a little bit longer. This is one of those times. As posted on MyCareer.com:

Executive Producer (M5)

I'm looking for a Senior Project manager / Senior Producer to work with my outstanding client who is a well known and highly regarded organisation pioneering some of the most innovative and in-depth communications strategies in Australia.

Due to massive success the Production team requires the services of a Senior Producer to support the production team in online, print, marketing and digital media initiatives.

O'rly you say?

Ya'rly!

If you are a 733t project manager or senior producer, with mad skills (over 9000!) from the delivery of flawless web projects, as well as the Real Ultimate Power of performing under pressure and delivering spectacular results then this is the role for you.

For this senior level role you will be involved in:

  • Supporting and guiding business strategies
  • Manage Producers, Designers and Developers on significant projects
  • Deliver agreed outcomes throughout the Project lifecycle
  • Implement new developments throughout the business portfolio and ensure business agenda's are met
  • Engage with all facets of the production process.

You will demonstrate:

  • Experience working within the internet, media and print industries
  • Exposure to formal Project Management and methodologies such as Agile and or Prince2
  • Articulate, concise communication skills with the ability to assert a point with empathy
  • The ability to work from both a strategic angle and a creative one
  • Good technical understanding of web design and development as well as print production and media environment skills and knowledge
  • Strong time management skills

Communication and interpersonal skills will be just as important as having the following experience and education:

  • Tertiary qualifications
  • An absolute minimum of 5 years experience in a Project Management or producers role in a web based environment utilising Flash, .Net, ActionScript and Adobe products. Seriously, save the Internet some bandwidth by not applying if you don't have a significant web background.
  • Previous experience managing the code grinders and the colouring in types.
  • Strong scope management
  • Excellent judgement on best action to take
  • Excellent documentation skills
  • Best practise knowledge in Project Management practices
  • Excellent time management skills

Put on your robe and wizard hat if you have knowledge of:

  • Developing solutions in .NET and 3D modelling
  • Games development
  • Managing Production Shoots

A passion for the web is essential, my client represents the best in Melbourne and we are only looking for the crème de la crème of the marketplace. You MUST attach a compelling cover letter to your application for this role. 

*sigh*

MBS MBA FAQs: Career Prospects

Every couple of weeks I get an e-mail from someone looking to do an MBA from Melbourne Business School. I get asked lots of different questions in these e-mails but the ones I get most often cover admissions advice, post-MBA career prospects and the MBS careers office, and what my impression of MBS is now that I'm in the job market.

I've been meaning to blog about my replies to those e-mails for a while now but have only just gotten around to doing so. Here then is the first of those blog posts, this one covering career prospects and questions about MBS' Career Services Centre.

Q. What is the Career Services Centre at MBS like?

A. It's pretty good and it's getting better. To give you an example: Back in 2006, when I started my MBA, the concept of an "MBA internship" was relatively new in Melbourne (and maybe even in Australia where internships and apprenticeships are generally 6-12 months long and are often something you do after your undergraduate degree). My MBA intake was the first to have an internship built into its program and, of the 30 or so people who wanted to do an internship, only 12 managed to get one. Things have improved drastically since then: of the 50 or so people who wanted to do an internship this year, over 45 got one. Most of that is thanks to the Career Services Centre's efforts of the last couple of years.

The Career Services team is pretty impressive, too: they have a general careers consultant who can help you figure out what you want to do with your life and a bunch of industry specialists who really know what they're talking about. The industry specialists also have great relationships with all the big companies in their designated industries. They also have a coordinator and general manager, both of whom know pretty much everything that's going on and are a valuable resource in themselves.

The Centre also runs weekly career-related workshops (which are invaluable), holds a two-day residential careers/leadership training session (which is awesome), and manages the relationships with all of the companies that recruit from MBS (see next question).

Q. What kinds of companies recruit from MBS?

A. All kinds, including some of the biggest, most successful, and most well-known companies in Australia and the world. There are on-campus recruitment sessions/presentations held throughout the year and here is a list of some of the companies that held one during my last term there:

Q. How do MBS students get/find their jobs? What kinds of jobs do they get, how much do they get paid, and which countries do they get these jobs in?

A. For details on all of this, read MBS' graduating class survey for 2007. The data for the 2008 survey hasn't been collected year (that should happen next month) and I'll blog about that once the results are in.

Keep in mind, though, that 2007's "average" starting salary of AU$105,211 doesn't actually tell you much because it doesn't capture the massive difference between graduates starting in, for example, C-suite positions and earning over 150k per year and graduates working in non-profits and earning under 70k per year. This is problem with averages.

What you can do to supplement this data is to look at industry-specific salary ranges as reported via salary surveys conducted by these four recruitment firms:

Notice how salary averages change across cities and industries and how they vary among the surveys themselves.

Q. What are the chances of using the MBA to switch industries?

A. It's never easy to switch industries but the MBA is a great degree to switch with. That said, unless you work really hard, are incredibly persistent, and get a little lucky, you are unlikely to get your dream job in your target industry right after you graduate (particularly if you want to get into something like investment banking!). Instead, you'll probably start at a lower-than-expected position in your new industry and will then work your way up to your dream job. This, by the way, is compared to the position someone from that industry would start at if they went and did an MBA and then came back. However, once you do make the switch, you're likely to move up the corporate ladder (i.e. to your dream job) quicker than someone who doesn't have an MBA.

The best part: you have tonnes of resources to help you make the switch. This includes not only books, elective courses, and industry clubs, but also your classmates, faculty members, Career Services staff, and alumni.

The most powerful industry-switching tool available to you, however, is your MBA internship. Assuming you manage to get one in your target industry, you'll not only get some industry experience on your resume, you'll also get networking contacts, lots of news and information about that industry, and maybe even direct contacts in companies that you might want to apply to for a job.

Q. What does it take to get a job in management consulting?

A. Lots of hard work, a love of numbers, the ability to see the big picture and the interconnections between elements, and the right (i.e. management consulting) attitude. The advantages you'll have

in being an MBS student include:

  • You'll get taught how to do all of this
  • If you like it, there are numerous electives you can take that will teach you how to do it even better
  • MBS has great relations with all of the top management consulting firms in Australia. Indeed, many of its lecturers have worked in those firms in the past.

That said, there are two things you have to be ready for.

  1. Consulting firms will only hire you if your grades are really high (i.e. top 20% of your graduating class high) and, even then, only if you do really well on their case interviews (which are never easy).
  2. Only one or two people get into any of those firms in a given year and there are lots of smart people at MBS who want to get into management consulting so there's plenty of competition.

In other words: the prospects are great if you work really hard, do lots of preparation, and get really good grades. If not, your prospects are still good but it might take longer and may be harder to get in.

Finally, the Career Services Centre and the student-run MBS Consulting Interest Group will guide you in all of this.

On to other topics...

Those are the most popular career-prospect questions I tend to get. I'll move on to other topics next time but if there are any other specific questions you want me to answer on this topic, please let me know and I'll cover them in a subsequent blog post.

MBA Skills at Work: Part 1

I've been working at Linfox for almost two months now and I've hardly even noticed. Time really does fly when you're having fun and working your butt off, doesn't it?

Now that my major project at Linfox is complete -- we re-launched Linfox.com last week -- I thought it would be a good time to do a quick recap of how things have been at work and how the Melbourne Business School MBA is helping me do my job really well.

But before I get to that...

Actually, funnily enough, the thing I found most immediately useful at my new job was not something I learnt during the MBA but is something related to the work I did in MBS' Information Technology Solutions department earlier this year. That is: I knew how to use SharePoint really well.

In May, MBS launched its new intranet (called 'MBS Direct') based on Microsoft's SharePoint technology. Just a month before that Linfox launched its own intranet (called the 'Lintranet') also based on that technology. Having learnt a great deal about SharePoint at MBS -- and many SharePoint tips and best practices from our vendor, Bullseye -- taking over from the previous Online Coordinator was incredibly straightforward and hassle-free.

E-Commerce and Information Management

As you would imagine, stuff learnt in Pat Auger's E-Commerce and Information Management courses is coming in really handy in my new job. Here are two lessons I'm finding most useful at this time.

1. Making a business case: My boss understands how important both the intranet and public website are to the business; she is, after all, Linfox's Group Communications Manager. People in top management, however, are more focused (as they should be) on running a logistics company, a couple of airports, and a few other Linfox Group businesses. My boss and I therefore need to demonstrate -- in almost everything that we do -- the business benefits of maintaining these two sites (which I am in charge of and she is the champion for).

This is where something like Google Analytics comes in. My boss can now tell her boss that, just last week, over 1,000 unique visitors got to Linfox.com via a search engine (we also know the keywords they used to get there) and that, by far, the most popular section on the site is the 'Working at Linfox' one. Now the site's only been up for ten days so there's more data to collect before we take things to the next level (like further developing the recruitment section) but already it's clear what one of the major benefits of having a good website is: you can communicate directly with potential employees in order to get the best and most suitable candidates to apply for jobs that you advertise.

2. Internal communications: Having spent years in IT -- which in many companies is the one of the least communicative, least understood, and possibly least-liked departments -- I know how important it is to communicate internally the benefits of the work you're doing. Things are a little different in the Communications department but internal communications is still an important task for me.

For example, two phrases that I've found to be really useful are "it's on the Lintranet" and "search for it". These are important because the last iteration of Linfox's intranet took the usual route to uselessness: it had too much stuff on it (it had become a bloated file archival dump) most of which was irrelevant (no versioning, lots of replication) and hard to find (limited search functionality). This new iteration is lean, well-organized, and has versioning, no duplication, and excellent search functionality. However, not everyone knows this.

My job, then, is to (a) keep the intranet in great shape and (b) to tell everyone how great the intranet is. My aim is to make this a virtuous cycle: if people expect it to be great, they'll make sure it stays great -- with a little poking, prodding, and policing from me, of course! So when someone asks me for something, I usually say "it's on the Lintranet" (since it usually is) and, most of the time, they're able to find what they're looking for quickly and easily. If not, a simple search does the trick.

One thing that really helps me here is the direct support I get from my team. This mostly comes in the form of a line in every bit of internal communication that we do that goes something like "you can find (more information about this) on the Lintranet".

More in Part 2

There's much more I want to write so I'm going to split this into two, or maybe three, posts. I have yet to talk about:

  • Applying people skills learnt in the Managing People for High Performance, Negotiations, and Leadership courses.
  • Applying marketing skills learnt in the Brand Management and Consumer Behaviour courses.
  • General skills learnt while doing the MBA; such as how to handle multiple projects, deadlines, and priorities without breaking a sweat.
  • Observing how things are working at a more strategic level within the company; such how business and corporate strategy are playing-out, what leadership is being exhibited by senior management, what the company's environmental strategy is, and how intellectual property is being managed.

But more about all this next time.

Mark Ritson: Prolific Blogger!

I've mentioned earlier on this blog that Mark Ritson, my Brand Management professor at Melbourne Business School, contributes to the Branding Strategy Insider blog. Of course, "contributing" is a mild word considering the number of blog posts he writes!

Here are some of my favourites:

Impressive, isn't he?

Links: Marketing, Web 2.0, Management Blogs

I don't usually do link posts but I've been so busy these last couple of weeks I haven't had time to write about the following useful links in any detail:

  1. Samuel Dean from Web Worker Daily wrote a post called 'VTC: Killer Online Tutorials, Mostly Free'

  2. HR World wrote about the 'The Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs That All Managers Should Bookmark' [via Trevor Cook]

  3. Jeremiah Owyang presented 'A Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing for 2008'

  4. Ross Dawson, writing in BRW Magazine, listed the 'Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications'

I Have a Job!

So I haven't been posting much recently. Why? Because I have a job! Indeed, as of last Wednesday, I am the Online Coordinator (OC) at Linfox.

Linfox, for those of you who don't know, is Australia's second-largest logistics and supply chain company, earning over AU$2bn in revenues last year. It employs over 16,000 people, owns over 5,000 vehicles, has over 1.8 million square meters of warehousing space, runs 2 airports, and operates out of 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Yes, it's big. Not quite as big as Deutsche Post, of course, but it's getting there. Oh, and it privately owned. (More fun trivia on Linfox in a future blog post, perhaps...like how it transported eight elephants last year and how, every year, it does all the logistics for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.)

Based in the Communications department, the OC's role has two main components:

  • Project management: maintaining the new intranet portal and soon-to-be-re-launched Internet site
  • Internal consulting: helping departments use online communications more effectively

This job is also an excellent next step for my career: it puts me well on my way to becoming a more senior level web strategist/consultant and the Linfox brand is great for my CV.

Why am I concerned about how this job will look on my CV when I've only just started it? Because I'm on a three month contract so, two months from now, I'll be back to looking for another job and preferably a permanent one. Why, then, did I take a three month contract job? Because Linfox and the OC role were not to be missed. Opportunities like this do not come along often and I'm really happy to have been selected for this one.

Of course, what this means for me in a practical sense is that I have a great deal to do in the short time that I'm here. Fortunately, having come off the MBA program at Melbourne Business School, I should be able to handle the speed, pressure, and volume of work quite well. (Thanks, MBS!)  Meanwhile, the role will also give me the opportunity to apply all that I learnt from courses like E-Commerce, Information Strategy, Brand Management, Managing People for High Performance, Negotiations, and Leadership.

So here I am. Let the, er, online coordinating begin!