Are You Having Fun At Work?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, work is “a job or activity that you do regularly especially in order to earn money ”and the definition of fun is “someone or something that is amusing or enjoyable: an enjoyable experience or person.”  One would think that these two words would rarely be used in the same sentence together. I disagree.  If you have the right attitude, every job no matter how mundane, repetitive and boring can be fun if you make it fun.

When I was in high school, I had a part-time job working for my Dad as a janitor. It was my job to dump the garbage and vacuum the office carpet.  It sometimes got a bit tedious when the whole punch pieces were on the floor and the vacuum wouldn’t pick them up, so I had to get on my hands and knees and pick each piece individually. Often my dad would be working late while I was cleaning the office. It was easy for me to look beyond the work because I had an opportunity to watch my Dad work and learn what he did for a living. He would often buy me a Coke from the old-fashioned coke machine (glass bottles) down the hall and we would talk about different things. Although it was work, it was fun for me to spend time with my Dad.

I also had a job working for the city’s service department.  My job was to pull weeds at the city parks, cut grass and make sure all of the tools were clean and in their proper location.  Sometimes I would be dropped off at a park with a few garbage bags and needed to pull weeds all by myself for hours.  I made a conscience effort to have fun while I worked.  I sang songs, thought of funny movies I had seen, listened to the sounds of all of the different types of birds singing or spent time in prayer and meditation while I did my job.  I looked at it as an opportunity to be outside on a beautiful sunny summer day and I was getting paid for it.  Having fun at work all depends on your attitude and perspective.

The business world is the same way.  Do you have fun where you are working?  Do you dread coming to work every day or are you excited to come to work?  It is in the company’s best interest to have employees who love coming to work.  Enthusiasm is contagious.  A happy employee will often project that excitement to customers.  Unfortunately, bad managers can a great company unpleasant to work for.  Despite bad managers or poorly run companies, you can still have fun and make it fun for others.

Here are some suggestions of how you can make your workplace more fun for you and your employees.

• Lunch and Learn – Instead of everyone scattering at noon to run out to the local fast food place for lunch, have them bring their lunches to the lunch room and have a “lunch and learn” session. A different person can volunteer each week or monthly as the teacher and they can present whatever information they want to share with others.  It doesn’t have to be work or job related. It could be talking about a favorite hobby or great places to hike with your family in the area.  Everyone needs a break from work and this is a fun way to take a break.

• Holiday Events – I have worked for some companies that have a lot of fun during holiday events. For example, departments would compete for the best decorated work area during Halloween.  We would have everyone who dressed up parade through the entire company and prizes were awarded for the best costumes.  We would also have the children of employees come through the company visiting each department and collecting candy, apple cider and cookies.  Our Christmas / Holiday parties in December offered live entertainment, a delicious meal and door prizes.  The door prizes were a great way to build excitement and congratulate employees for a successful year.

• Fun Fridays – We also had a series of “Dress-up Fridays” that we called “Fun Fridays” where instead of just wearing jeans on Fridays, we would have “Pajama Parties” where employees come to work in their PJs. We also had “Ugly Sweater Friday”, and “Favorite Sports Team Friday”.  When I was working in Michigan, we would have a Michigan vs Michigan State chili cook-off where employees would bring in their best chili dishes and favorite desserts.  The company would provide chips and soft drinks.  Of course, the desserts were either maize and blue, or green and white to represent each team’s colors.  Employees would also wear their favorite U of M or MSU clothes.

• Lunch Cookouts – We would regularly have summer cookouts during lunchtime where the company would provide hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments, chips, cookies and soft drinks. The management team were the grill cooks and food servers.  It was a great example of servant leadership. It was a welcomed break from being inside all day.

• Sports for Charity – We also created a softball team that would compete with other local companies to raise money for local charities. Any professional sports team would be embarrassed to play as poorly as we did, but it didn’t matter.  It was fun and for a great cause. Oftentimes, other local companies will join in on the festivities by donating money for jerseys, ballpark rental, equipment, and refreshments for the games.  This is a great team building exercise outside of work.

Conclusion

If you are not having fun at work, make it fun.  You don’t have to be a VP of Human Resources to make suggestions and to organize entertaining activities.  They don’t have to be expensive, just enjoyable. Happy employees are your best evangelists of your company and its culture in the marketplace.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website, my twitter account and my blog. If you need marketing leadership assistance, let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Photo credit: Be-Younger.com via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Social Media – A Game of Strategy

Monopoly is a game of strategy.  When you play the game, you need to evaluate different options and understand that the choices that you make are critical to your success.  Social media is also a game of strategy.  The social networks that you use can help your company grow through brand awareness, promotions, and customer feedback.

When determining which social media networks work best for your company, there are a number of things to consider.  Before we go there, let’s make social media a bit easier to understand by categorizing the various types of networks. By doing so, we can more easily determine what social media networks work for your company and which ones you don’t really need to invest time in.  It’s time to play the game of social media to keep up with your competitors.

Social Networks

Social networking sites fueled the rise of social media. These networks were designed as a platform for online social interaction and means of sharing similar interests, connecting with artistic groups, and personalizing Internet space. Facebook, Google +, MySpace, and MeetUp are a few examples of these networks. Social networks are an effective channel for business to build credibility, and company and product awareness. Here are some examples of successful business Facebook pages. Zappos uses discussion posts, wall updates and Fan of the Week contests to engage with their customers. Burt’s Bees uses spotlight videos to build product awareness and allows customers to buy products from their Facebook page. Skullcandy leverages music, videos, and blogs to encourage customers to purchase their products.

Professional Social Networks

Unlike the original social networks, professional social networks are focused more on business-related networking and information sharing.  LinkedIn, SlideShare, Xing and Viadeo fit into this category.  You typically wouldn’t share family photos at the zoo on these sites, but would instead reach out to expand business relationships. Businesses create LinkedIn pages to build brand awareness, share corporate information and announcements such as Coca-Cola, Mashable and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.  Like many social networks, the lifespan of professional social networks is sometimes short, so be sure to pick a reputable and established networking site.

Private Social Networks

Although the name sounds like an oxymoron, private social networks – or private enterprise networks – are a useful tool that an increasing number of companies are utilizing.   Private social networks operate like normal social networks but can only be accessed behind the firewall within companies – hence the term “private”.  Yammer, Salesforce Chatter and Ning are examples of these networks. These networks enable companies located in numerous domestic and international locations to share sensitive information and collaborate on projects more effectively.

International Social Networks

Similar to other social networks, international social networks have originated outside of the US.  These sites offer networking platforms in multiple languages and are customizable to the user.  These networks include QZone (China), Netlog (Belgium), Vkontakte (Russia) and Sonico (Japan).

Social Media Monitoring, Management and Tracking

Social media monitoring is a method of tracking what is being said on social media about an individual, product or company.  These networks or software have become very popular to help companies dispel rumors, bad press and incorrect information.  Some of these networks are Tracx, BuzzBundle, HootSuite, Postling and Lithium.

Content Discovery and Curation

Content delivery and curation networks offer interesting and entertaining content for the purpose of sharing information and providing news content outside of traditional news networks. Sites include BuzzFeed, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg and HubPages.  Often users will forward these stories to their networks via other social networking sites, facilitating the quick dissemination of information through multiple Internet platforms. Use these networks to reach younger demographics (millennials) by creating funny and entertaining content that can go viral, which can become an effective branding tool for your company.

Blogging

Blogging sites allow their users to write and post articles and share information relevant to specific topics.  Some networks like LinkedIn have incorporated blogging within their site to allow users to share opinions, new trends, and current affairs in the business and professional world.  There are several blogging sites on the internet, but the most well-known are WordPress, Posthaven, and Blogger.  Even though I post articles on LinkedIn, I also use my blog on WordPress to share my information on different platforms including Facebook, Google + and Twitter.  These articles can contain links to your products driving traffic and sales to your website.

Microblogging

The only difference between blogging and microblogging is the limitation of content.  Microblogging involves sending short messages, announcements and links instead of paragraph-long posts. Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous and Disqus are best known for these applications.  Three companies that use Twitter very effectively are McDonalds, Delta Airlines and Nike.  McDonalds promotes new items on the menu and have giveaways when followers tweet about what they love about McDonalds.  Delta Airlines introduces their latest offers and special packages.  Nike doesn’t use Twitter for sales.  They send out tweets that motivate and inspire their followers, which strengthen the Nike brand.

Photo Sharing

It is said that “A picture is worth a thousand words.”   Photo sharing networks allow individuals or companies post photos including images of products, family, personal interests, hobbies, and so forth.  Instragram, Pinterest and Flickr connect communities of various interests and allow them to post images.  SnapChat is a similar platform for photo sharing and also allows you to post short videos. Photo sharing networks are an important tool for improving branding and marketing images of your company. By connecting with influencers and innovators, sharing their posts, using hashtags, tag names, comments and links in your posts, you can expand your brand visibility quickly.

Video Sharing

YouTube has put video sharing networks on the social media map.  Since its inception, YouTube has transformed into a global repository of videos that are searched like Google.  Other video sharing sites that have grown in popularity include Vimeo, DailyMotion and Vine.  Businesses use this network to show corporate, product and how-to videos.  According to Wired.com, YouTube is one of Google’s biggest successes outside of search and YouTube now reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any single US cable network.

Which Social Media Network Should You Use For Your Company?

Determining which social media network to use for your company is important for your marketing and branding strategy. Choosing only one network is not sufficient for your company to get noticed.  I believe that every company should be, at the very least, on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or Instagram and HootSuite.  These networks or their competitors will provide you with networking and blogging opportunities (LinkedIn); microblogging (Twitter) to announce new products and company updates; social networking (Facebook), which expands your audience to a wider variety of  potential new customers; video sharing (YouTube) to post product and corporate videos, including community service; photo sharing (Pinterest) to expand your brand by providing images targeted to the appropriate communities that buy your products and services; and social management and tracking (HootSuite) to monitor what your customers, prospects and competitors are saying about you on social media.  Even if your business is more service-oriented, you can still take advantage of these networks.

Conclusion

Like Monopoly, social media is a strategy game. You need to decide what social media networks are right for your business.  Research options, see what your competitors are using and make sure that you have dedicated resources (internal or external) to respond to the market conversations that are happening on social media about your company and industry.  This is a strategy game that your company cannot afford to lose.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit:  Emilie Ogez via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND