The Institute curates and shares relevant articles, books and events, as well as disseminates information on its research and training offers via different channels, one of them through relevant social media services. The objectives are:
- to spread the word to all organizations about issues and opportunities to improve management via training, services and publications
- to get closer to our audience, get their feedback and exchange about augmented-management in the world of work. However, “discussions” are only encouraged for topics of real importance. Most of our members and followers are senior executive and their limited time and attention span has to be respected
Overall our choice is clearly not to be on the quantity side of messages and forum, but on privileging the quality and relevance of exchanges.
Furthermore we strongly believe that “urgent” or “immediate” are too important words for accepting to betray them. Most of our messages intend to be important but are very rarely urgent. In those rare cases when a immediate notification is needed we “push” messages via a forced broadcast but we try to avoid this as much as possible.
SOCIAL MEDIA USED
The Boostzone Institute uses the following social media services.
WEBSITE
Our website is obviously our first social media because it hosts our blog (in French and English) where the Institute fellows publish their ideas. However we do not encourage discussions on the website, we prefer to see it as an idea- communication tool. We like to be tweeted or relayed but we are not trying to maximize it.
Le Cercle is hosted on a private social media platform (Etheryl). This platform is strictly secured and enables conversations, document sharing and distribution, wikis, directory search, etc. It is the original platform of the Institute and its first version was launched in 2004. Access is strictly reserved to members. The members can easily and securely get connected to the information/ collective curation flow of the Institute. No spam or any sort of advertising is allowed. A special charter has to be signed by all members when they join.
Boostzone Institute’s profile page in LinkedIn is available in French and English, presenting its activities, videos of experts and members, events, and training services.
The Institute has also created two LinkedIn groups: Le Cercle (closed group) and The Future of Augmented Management (open group). These groups are bilingual (using English and French). Members can contribute in the language of preference.
- Le Cercle Boostzone Institute is a Linkedin Group, parallel to the privately hosted “Le Cercle”. It has been opened in order to take care of the request of several members who preferred to have all their discussions on the same platform. Every other week we provide a summary (BoostInfo) of all discussions that have taken place on both services. This summary is provided on both platforms. This way, our members will not miss any conversation even if all of their alerts are disabled. We try to have only a limited number of conversations/communications on the Linkedin closed-group in order to avoid spamming our members’ mailboxes. TIPS FOR MEMBERS OF LE CERCLE GROUP IN LINKEDIN: set your email alert to ‘weekly’.
- The Future of ”Augmented Management ” in the new world of work is the LinkedIn group that is open to public, created and managed by the Institute. Every member of LinkedIn who is interested in the subject can join the group and invite others. TIPS FOR LE CERCLE MEMBERS WHO ARE ALSO MEMBERS OF THIS OPEN GROUP IN LINKEDIN: do not put systematic alerts on this group. However, use it extensively if you consider that the discussion you’d like to initiate is less relevant for Le Cercle members. Remember that in any case interesting discussions or communications in Le Cercle will be brought to your attention via BoostInfo, as you are a member.
The Institute uses Scribd service as a tool to present publicly its Web Review and some of our BestOf publications in quality slide format. These publications can be viewed, downloaded, and commented by general public.
Other Scribd users can also subscribe to our Scribd page in order to receive an instant alert every time there is a newly uploaded Boostzone Institute publication.
For us, Scribd is a decent channel to identify, engage and get feedback from all those who are interested in our publications. Scribd service gives possibility to easily embed our publication in a blog post or a website.
We use Twitter for its effectiveness in broadcasting information about the Institute and other information and knowledge that we curate and that seems relevant for our members and followers. It is also a great tool for us to keep informed about the latest buzz related to the future of the management and the world of work. We have two accounts on Twitter, one for the Institute @boostzone, mostly dedicated to a constant curation, and one for our founder Dominique Turcq @dorcq, with scarce and highly selected inputs on issues that Dominique considers as particularly relevant.
Boostzone Institute has produced a number of videos that feature some experts and members of Le Cercle, who discuss and share insights on the future of the world of work. By providing these videos for public view, the Institute communicates to professionals, corporations, academics and general publics on experiences of their peers and expert advices on issues such as collaborative approach in management and the impact of future technologies in the world of work.
We have a Youtube page where one can subscribe to our videos
We are experimenting with this service, which is kind of a crossbreed between Facebook and Twitter, to broadcast information about Boostzone Institute to our intended audience and the general public. We are closely monitoring the progress of the service for having a first hand experience and getting the lessons learnt in order to be able to competently advice our members about using such service for professionals and corporations.
If you are a Google+ user, you can add Boostzone Institute in your circle. We will be happy to receive information that you broadcast, and to share relevant information back to you.
Our members generally consider Facebook as a private networking service, which is less effective for professional activities. While we tend to agree with them, we still have one foot inside, in order to have a first hand experience, monitor how it evolves and whether or not it will be truly effective for professional purpose. For the moment, the Institute has a Facebook page that functions as a broadcasting tool (similar to what we do via Google+ and Twitter) and an “information desk” in case any Facebook users wish to connect with us via the service.
If you wish to receive our news on your Facebook’s newsfeed, you just have to “Like” our page and you’ll be updated with all the latest information!.
We constantly monitor other social medias and will change our presence according to the evolution of this landscape.
CONCLUSION
In short, if you are interested in our activities and messages:
AS A MEMBER: favor the private platform of “Le Cercle”. You can also use “Le Cercle Boostzone” on Linkedin. You can also follow Dominique Turcq on Twitter @dorcq
AS A NON-MEMBER: follow us on Twitter @boostzone, put a RSS on our public website’s blog – either on the bilingual blog or the English-only blog. You are also welcome to contribute/share with us on the Linkedin group ”The Future of Augmented Management”.
Members and non-members are welcomed to contact us via any of the social media services or via email or even with a good old telephone as we insist on bringing personal contact and service to our members thanks to our community manager (Yves de la Serre – yves.delaserre@boostzone.fr).