Stitching it all together

How do you explain what you do?

When people hear that I work remotely from my home, they get that.

I generally say ‘online marketing’ & people nod their heads.

My dentist asked more questions so I explained it in terms of the importance of building word of mouth. He could relate to that with his own practice.

My parents have gotten a little concerned when they keep hearing that I’ve changed jobs/locations a few times. That happened last year as I was seeking a good fit. They’ll ask, “Who are you working for now? Where are they located at? Are you happy?”

But what about internally? How do you explain your role to your co-workers? At Techrigy we’ve been adding staff so I’ve needed to express what my role is & also help them embrace social media tools. I’m also challenged because I work remotely so I use the tools that I’m evangelizing for. A couple of weeks ago I flew out to the home offices for the first time & met my coworkers in person. But they were already very well aware of what I do. We’re B2B (business to business) so it’s been a new experience for me in working with sales people. I’ve learned a lot. And we’ve learned from each other! It’s a wonderful culture to work in!

In talking about how to express my role, Jim Reynolds told me that he sees me as a ‘stitcher’. It’s such a great analogy! Just the day before I had explained to another co worker that my role is to talk with the customers, gather feedback, route it back internally, then gather information there and send it back towards the customer again (and it’s a continual back & forth movement). I had hand gestures too.

When I was in an admin role I believed that the staff are customers too. So you have internal customers & external customers. As a community person it’s your obligation to provide resources, information, training & support to both the internal & external communities. In a previous post your comments established that you need executive support and it’s important to work closely with the managers of the various departments.

As our start up scales I’ve familiarized myself with the various departments & their needs as well as that of our customers. I’ve built relationships in all of those directions too. And I’ve provided training & resources on social media tools as needed. I took out my 3 favorite new media marketing books to leave with them (even my signed copy of Rohit Barghava’s Personality Not Included! as a previous librarian, I value my collection).

I like the idea of viewing my role as stitching together the various facets of our company. I don’t do the work, but I really try to facilitate communication. I have touchpoints in marketing, PR, sales, customer support, tech support, product development, quality assurance and contribute to our vision. I don’t think the size of the company matters in regard to my feeling that it’s important to be connected to the various departments. The community role is going to be the linking position that helps span departments that traditionally were separate entities.

Is this possible for you? Of course it is, but it will depend on the size of your organization and the culture. The first place to start is your job description. What are your goals? Talk with your leadership and find out how you can grow your position and provide more value? And you can always build relationships with the various departments in your organization. I love working cross functionally. I learn so much from my coworkers. And it also causes me to have great respect for what they do. (Have you ever been in an organization where people criticize people’s work from others departments? but the reality is that they don’t have a clue as to the skills required to do the job.) My philosophy is that the more questions that you ask & the more that you learn, then the ways that you can help become quite apparent.

So if you’re doing community building, are you stitching together the fabric of the organization along with the customer base? What more can you do to connect the various aspects of your external & internal community?