Good Salary News For Women...if You Don't Ever Get Married or Have Kids

Don't get too excited about Time.com's triumphant headline "Workplace Salaries: At Last, Women on Top" unless you know of a way to freeze your age at 29 and are willing to forsake marriage and kids. Forever.

First they say that according to a new analysis of 2,000 communities by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time salaries of young women are 8% higher than those of the guys in their peer group. Great, right?

Well, then comes the "slightly deflating caveat": this new trend applies only to unmarried, childless women under 30 who live in cities. The rest of working women — even those of the same age, but who are married or don't live in a major metropolitan area — are still making less than men, just like usual.

Great, so on the low-income side of the career spectrum (pre-30s)--and for a very finite time period--some women are making more than men. Halle-freakin-lujah. I guess those of us who are in our 40s, have kids and are married better not hold our breath on the equal pay front.

What Free Costs Me

This post isn't just about me, but about the royal "me" as in us. Plus it rhymed. But it is about free, and what free for companies costs those of us doing the free contributing.

What inspired this post was two things: yesterday's association Twitter chat (#assnchat) and a tweet by SmartBrief. The topic of #assnchat yesterday was annual meetings, and as part of that we were discussing speakers, speaker fees, and speaking for free. Maddie Grant said:

@maggielmcg we're trying hard not to speak for free anymore. provide tons of free content in other ways. #assnchatless than a minute ago via TweetChatMaddie Grant
maddiegrant

Her point was in the context of a conversation about highly-paid general session speakers who are horrible and the fact that the most valuable speakers at ASAE are volunteers who still have to pay (reduced) registration as well as travel expenses. ASAE has members who are association staff (like me) and who are vendors or consultants (like Maddie). If you're a vendor or consultant, the presumed "what's in it for me?" (WIIFM) for speaking at their events is potential new business leads. If you're association staff, the WIIFM is reduced registration, resume fodder, potential future job leads, and, of course, the ego stroke.

On to the Smartbrief post:

Team @SmartBrief wants you: http://ow.ly/2xP4aless than a minute ago via HootSuiteSmartBrief on SocMed
SBoSM

Cool, I thought, when I saw the post: they're hiring. Well, not exactly: they're looking for someone to pen a weekly column and become a member of their advisory board. I was all set to reply--because who wouldn't want to be on their advisory board--when it dawned on me: a WEEKLY column? That's a ton of work. Or it is if you already have a full-time job, have your own blog (or two), already volunteer in various capacities (as I do; I recently became a proud member of the Social Media Club--DC's Leadership Team, in addition to various other volunteer activities and guest blogging gigs)--then have the rest of your life to swing--which in my case includes 2 kids, a husband, some attempt at an IRL social life, a house to take care of, dinner every night...you know--stuff. Life.

Now obviously I'm not the only one with a life--we all have one. And to some of us writing a weekly post would be no big deal, and well worth it in exchange for a coveted spot on a highly visible advisory committee. But the thing is that it's not just Smart Brief looking for contributors: user-generated content is a huge part of so many companies' weekly and even daily offerings. Look at Social Media Today: all their content is written by unpaid bloggers. Even newspapers now are capitalizing on the hyperlocal trend by including citizen journalists as part of their daily offerings. Webinars--there are tons of them out there, and most content is provided by uncompensated volunteers. Blogs--tons of them rely on guest bloggers for content. And so on.

Content provided by uncompensated volunteers is a great model for businesses: they don't have to pay someone to write/provide it and it's what people want to read/watch/hear: the equivalent of reality TV (sort of). I'm talking about what Chris Brogan called "Everyman": average Joe who will tell it to you straight (presumably) and who we all trust more than we trust ad guys or paid copywriters.

But what happens when "Everman" decides he/she wants to get paid? Or that he/she's tired of companies making a buck off his/her free efforts? Hopefully that's starting to happen more in the mom blogging world, where expecting mom bloggers to blog, tweet and promote for a pack of diapers or a link is starting to get really old.

Is this making any sense at all? Am I the only one who's feeling stretched too thin and wondering whether, in the end, ego strokes are worth tipping the work/life balance cart? At some point will people start deciding they don't want to write or do webinars or speak for free anymore? Or is this nothing new and there's always someone willing to do it?

Community Moderation Reality: Nobody is Minding the Store

First read/listen to this post/discussion about the recent Dunkin Donuts "fail" when their Facebook page was spammed and nobody responded for 12 hours. I commented on the original blog post that this is Facebook's fault for not providing any kind of tool for admins to alert them when new comments or wall posts are posted, and I was glad to see others agree with me.

There seems to be an expectation that every brand engaging in social media has a dedicated community manager (if not a team of them). However, as Olivier Blanchard points out, this, sadly/scarily, is not the case at all. He points to a recent study by King Fish Media that reports while 72% of all companies surveyed claim to currently have a social media strategy, only 9% of those have full-time positions dedicated to managing social media responsibilities. Olivier points out the reality: "A full 6 out of 7 out of the companies with Social Media programs don’t fund a full time role for that program?"

Now overlay that with the Dunkin Donuts flap and why is anyone surprised? Our expectations--"our" being those of us involved in the social media space as well as consumers following brands on Facebook, Twitter, etc--assume that there are staff dedicated to managing the accounts we follow; in reality, this simply is not the case.

Why I Will Never, Ever Use Facebook Places

It's simple: because I hate how much of my life Facebook already owns and has control over. Facebook is now worth $33 BILLION--all because chumps like me are willing to share their lives with the world and Facebook gets to sell us out. Why the hell am I going to give them one more piece of myself to monetize for their own gain?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. It makes it easy for me to see what's going on with friends, family, plus hundreds of people I don't know and/or don't care about on a daily basis--I'll grant it that. It's also a nice business tool (if you don't mind having to monitor your pages 24/7 and sleuth out changes on your own since Facebook doesn't communicate with nonprofit Page admins AT ALL). But I hate how little control we have over Facebook--privacy stuff, the way they constantly change the way information is displayed, the total dearth of features for Page admins, the fact that the "like" button interface sucks...I'll spare you the rest of that rant.

As for the whole checkin thing, I'm still on the fence about it: it's bad enough I spend time doing Foursquare, which so far has been of little or no use to me; there is no way in HELL I'm going to go to even more effort and trouble to check in using Facebook Places. I'll be interested to see if Places takes off or falls flat on its face.

How about you--have you tried Places yet? Or are you intentionally steering clear of it like I am?

Use of Social Media by Older Adults Doubles

According to a newly-released study by Pew Internet Research, social media use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled in the past year: from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010. During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%--from 13% to 26%. You can read the full report here.

What does this mean? If your organization has been resisting expanding its communication strategy to include social networks because only younger people use them, it's time to reconsider. The study noted that while email use among older adults still remains strong, many of them are beginning to "rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications." The study also mentions that 1 in 10 adults ages 50-64 use Twitter now, up significantly from last year.

Social Media Success is More Than Skin Deep

Augie Ray from Forrester wrote an awesome post about the difference between social media success and social media marketing success. He makes the great example of three retailers whose stores he recently visited, two of which were horribly staffed and maintained--yet those same two stores boast "successful" social media campaigns. Social media marketing-wise they're doing everything right: engaging fans, enabling social sharing features in their online stores, doing special promotions for fans, etc. I have no doubt their marketers are gloating about the million Facebook fans they have attracted, or the authentic way in which they are engaging customers. But who cares if the fitting rooms look like pigstys and the registers are inadequately staffed?

I see this a lot. Social media is the shiny thing and there's lots of acclaim for those who do it. I hear stories every day of social media doers who write their tickets to the big-time: book deals, big raises, big-name job hops. Yes, there are downsides to social media jobs--lots of them--but there are also many benefits, not the least of which is some measure of job security. In a crap economy and job market, if you have experience doing social media marketing or community management, you're definitely in a better position than many other job seekers. It is, after all, the year of the community manager, right?

The thing is that, while the recent trend of social media and community management jobs being super hot is great from the employee perspective, as far as it translating into making every company the next Zappos, forget it. Look at Comcast, at Pepco...and, in the spirit of ASAE's annual meeting that's wrapping up today, look at associations who are "embracing" social media. Just how deep does this commitment to putting the customer (or member) first and being transparent and open go?

In the cases of Pepco and Comcast, both are companies who are doing a great job with their social media stuff--especially Twitter. But does that mean the rest of the company scales with that commitment to the customer, to a great product and experience all the way through? And how about associations? ASAE is a good example. They've got their mobile apps, their online community platform, their blog (which rocks), great use of video, bases covered with incorporating social elements into their magazine, etc. They've got some super smart awesome employees who are truly committed to optimizing social media use. But then they have senior leaders who don't actually believe what they're selling at every event: that associations MUST embrace social media. Because they're not embracing it. Their culture is still about stuffy politics and committees; they still ignore the dozens of blog posts about stuff members wish they'd change or address; and they still operate like a old-guard association mired in hierarchy and "we've always done it this way."

Not to call out just ASAE--an organization which, despite the things I don't like I still have respect for; associations, for all their talk about how the importance of social media, are almost uniformly only scratching the surface when it comes to social media. As Augie Ray puts it "The difference is not found on Facebook or Twitter but in the ways companies are led." So an association is "embracing" social media and has the fans and followers to prove it; does that mean anything else about the organization's operations has changed? Are org charts being recallibrated to reflect the nature of open communication and transparency? Are silos disolving? Are outmoded ways of doing things being discontinued? In short, is this about embracing social media because it's one of the ways to make the organization, through and through, the best it can be for members, or is it so associations can check off the "we're using social media!" checkbox?

If it's the latter, do everyone a favor and just skip it.

Top 5 Things That Make Me Wish I Were at #ASAE10

As I blogged about in my guest post on the SocialFish blog, I didn't go to ASAE's annual meeting, which is going on right now in LA, and I'm plenty bummed about it. All my (imaginary, per my kids, who think the people I "know" from Twitter are mere figaments of my imagination) friends are there, plus people I'd love to meet IRL (that's "in real life" for those of you who don't speak nerd). But alas, here I sit, in Maryland, not in LA.

Lucky for me, though, I almost feel like I'm there, thanks to Twitter and the many blog posts coming from LA.

Sadly, though, as much as social media rocks, there are some things it just can't do. These are top 5 "IRL" things that make me wish I were there:

1. Technology Booth Crawl. I'm always looking for stuff to rationalize the fact that I use Foursquare on almost a daily basis, despite the almost total lack of any type of benefit. I think the technology booth crawl is an awesome idea and would have loved to have been there to see who was participating, what people were saying about it--and possibly win an actual prize.
2. Flashmob. Even though I would have sooner died of embarrassment than participated, I would have loved to see my braver-than-me YAP friends do this dance live...as well as the faces of the majority of attendees who undoubtedly had no idea what was going on.
3. Swag. I love swag and it physically pains me knowing that I'm missing out on free pens, cookies, post-its, and who knows what else. Last year my friends from the California Dental Association heard my plea for swag and sent me one of my faves: magnetic clips.
   
   They're still gracing my cubicle.
4. Jeff Hurt. Jeff Hurt is like a legend to those of us in the DC-area association community. His blog is incredible; he is super smart and a great writer and doesn't shy away from calling a spade a spade.
5. Kindle. I want to win a Kindle and I just know I would have won one if I'd been in LA.