Book Proposal for:
Social Leadership
Leading people, teams and companies in the social media generation
Submitted by:
Ben Lichtenwalner
610.390.4003
Submitted:
2013.03.15
Contents
Content 3
Premise 3
Unique Selling Position 3
Book Overview 3
Manuscript 4
Market 5
Demographics 5
Motivations 5
Birds of a Feather (“Affinity Groups”) 5
Competitive Overview 6
About Me (the Author) 7
Background 7
Platform / Previous Writing 7
Public Speaking 7
Guest Posts & Articles 7
Potential Endorsements 7
Existing Platform 8
Sample Chapters 9
Too Late on the Debate 9
S.O.C.I.A.L. Leadership Principles 12
Content
Premise
The social media revolution enables, empowers and demands greater leadership. The principles of great leadership persist, but how we practice these principles must evolve. This book demonstrates how to practice great leadership that is consistent with great historic leaders, while evolving the execution for the present.
Unique Selling Position
Consumers who read Social Leadership will:
· Recognize the influence of social media technology on contemporary leaders
· Understand the key principles of leadership in the social media revolution
· Be empowered with principles, tools and examples for successful leadership in social media
Because the book will:
· Explain why social media is important for leaders today
· Deliver acronyms, tools and processes to empower modern leaders
· Provide an overview of historic leadership principles as the foundation for leaders in this revolution
Book Overview
Section 1: Why You Should Care About Social Media
After a short story introducing my background, we begin with an overview of the social media scene today. I address how technology advances in communication are shaping the way people work, play and live. This section explains why leaders should concern themselves with social media and its influence on their stakeholders.
Section 2: Welcome to the Revolution
Next, we expand on the implications of the social media changes by recognizing this era constitutes a revolution. Not a revolution of bullets and bloodshed but of likes, tweets and influence. This section is a transition from recognizing the magnitude of social media technology influence to the principles and practices of leaders aware of this fundamental shift in influence.
Section 3: S.O.C.I.A.L. Leadership Principles
This section provides the core principles needed by leaders in the social media revolution. A simple acronym (SOCIAL: Serve, be Open, Connect, practice Integrity, be Action-oriented and Listen) is used to summarize these principles. Although simple in terms, the power of these principles is evident through examples of leadership success and failures. For each principle, we reflect on examples from the American Revolution and contemporaries from the Social Media Revolution.
Section 4: Servant Leadership
The most critical and underlying principle – that of service – is expanded on in this section. Here the reader learns of the core concepts of Servant Leadership. We provide a summary of the concept, specific examples from history and contemporary business success for the leader to interpret and leverage in their own work.
Section 5: Servant or Empiric Leader?
To close out the book, we leave the reader with a challenge: will they continue the empiric leadership style of leaders past or achieve success through service? The social media revolution demands great leadership like any revolution before it. The difference here is that the power has finally shifted from the few to the masses. They now have the principles, tools and examples to succeed. The choice is theirs…
Manuscript
Overall Status
I’ve written about 27,000 words so far. I expect the completed book to be about 50,000 words.
Special Features
The final copy will include graphics, like images of relevant leaders (several already provided permission) as well as custom charts.
Completion Date
I will complete the draft manuscript by May 1, 2013.
Market
Demographics
The target audience for this book is middle and upper class professionals with a college degree. The message will resonate particularly well with Christians. Professionals in business, religion and non-profit fields will also be strong targets. A niche market that could transcend these guidelines is the large and growing network of “Mommy Bloggers”.
Motivations
You will purchase this book because you want to excel in leading your stakeholders, tribe, corporation or organization in this evolving world of social media. Whether you sense the opportunity and influence yourself or you’re guided here by those in the know, you want to be the best leader you can and sense there’s something new about social media that can help or hurt you in this regard. You want it to help.
Birds of a Feather (“Affinity Groups”)
The following blogs, books, websites and other existing audiences likely share some common interest in the content of this book and would make excellent marketing targets.
Blogs
ChrisBrogan.com
GaryVaynerchuck.com
AmyJoMartin.com
MichaelHyatt.com
ModernServantLeader.com (shocker, I know)
Books
Renegades Write the Rules
Crush It!
Renegades Write the Rules
Thank You Economy
Trust Agents
Impact Equation
Periodicals
Leadership Magazine
Most Business Magazines (especially Fast Company and Inc.)
Wall Street Journal
Associations
CEO Networks
Greenleaf, Thrive and other Servant Leadership networks
Marketing Organizations
Social Media Networks
Competitive Overview
The key differentiator for this book is the dual focus on leadership and social media. To date, there are some great books on each topic, separately. For example, books on leadership rarely, if ever, address social media-specific topics. On the other hand, social media books often touch on leadership, but focus more on individual success or corporate programs than leadership principles.
Leadership
The topic of leadership, alone, is well covered. Specific books on leadership that helped form my own perspectives and could therefore be considered “competition” (I prefer to consider my work complimentary to these) include the late Robert Greenleaf’s work and those published by the center bearing his name. Furthermore, I find my perspectives closely aligned to Max De Pree, author of great leadership books including “Leadership is an Art” and “Leadership Jazz”.
Social Media
A relatively new field, there is a growing number of books and experts on social media. These include Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s “Trust Agents” and “The Impact Equation” as well as Gary Vaynerchuck’s books “Thank You Economy” and “Crush It!”.
The closest competition for both leadership and social media in a book is likely Charlene Li’s work, “Open Leadership” or Amy Jo Martin’s “Renegades Write the Rules”.
Open Leadership
I’ve read the book several times and found the title a bit misleading. In referring to leadership, most of her content is focused on the organization as a leader, not the individual leader. This is where “Social Leadership” differentiates itself.
Renegades Write the Rules
Amy’s work is fantastic and covers some similar material. Differentiation rests in Amy’s emphasis predominantly on professional sports leaders and an emphasis on the interaction with the evolving mediums. My book will focus more on the individual and how their leadership principles apply both on and off the social network grid.
About Me (the Author)
Background
I run ModernServantLeader.com, a blog focused on promoting Servant Leadership, with an emphasis on business and technology trends – especially social media. I’m also the Senior Manager of Internet and eCommerce for Whirlpool Corporation (brands include Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, Jenn-Air and more).
My personal mission in life is to spread great leadership awareness, adoption and action. Social media helps me do that and empowers great leaders. As such, I’ve spent the past several years developing an audience perfectly suited for this message.
My B.S. in Management Science and Information Systems, is from Penn State University. My MBA concentrated in Corporate Entrepreneurship, is from Lehigh University.
Platform / Previous Writing
My blog is the source of most writing to date. I’ve published over 240 posts and average about 1.75 posts / week. In addition, I contributed a chapter to “Business Driven PMO Setup”, entitled “Executive Insight: Servant Leadership for the I.T. Project Manager”.
Public Speaking
I am extremely motivated to spread this message. As such, I developed a presentation on the same topic (available on Youtube at http://youtu.be/gUgs9gpm0nM) and welcome public speaking opportunities. As I am employed full-time, I can currently commit to about 2 speaking engagements / month and am open to options enabling me to speak more.
Guest Posts & Articles
I’ve also written a handful of guest posts and been referenced by other authors. I would be willing and interested in writing several guest posts and articles (approximately one every other week) to promote the book.
Potential Endorsements
I have existing relationships with the following individuals who may contribute an endorsement:
Larry Spears (SpearsCenter.org)
Larry is the former CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership for 17 years. He is now CEO of the Spears Center for Servant Leadership. Larry has offered several times to edit, contribute and / or endorse a book for me.
Mark Sanborn (MarkSanborn.com)
Mark is the author of eight books including the best selling (1.6 Million) “The Fred Factor” and his most recent, “Up, Down or Sideways: How to Succeed when Times are Good, Bad or In Between”. I’ve interviewed Mark and built a good relationship with him. He would likely consider endorsing my book.
Dr. Tony Baron (Servant Leadership Institute)
Tony is the author of six books, including “The Art of Servant Leadership: Designing Your Organization for the Sake of Others”. Dr. Baron was the President of The Servant Leadership Institute in California. I’ve interviewed and communicated with Dr. Baron on the topic of servant leadership several times. Our views are closely aligned.
Others
Other authors / industry experts I have existing relationships with that may consider endorsements include: Michael Hyatt (MichaelHyatt.com), Ron Edmondson (RonEdmondson.com), Max DePree (author of “Leadership is an Art” & “Leadership Jazz”), Joe Iarocci (current CEO of Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership) and Paul Gillin (Social Media and Open Enterprise author and consultant).
Existing Platform
My engagement online around this topic for the past several years established the following platform:
Blog
Visits / Month 12,600
Page Views / Month 18,300
Subscribers 1,053
Followers 1,399
Following 377
Follower Ratio 1:4
Other
LinkedIn Connections 514
Facebook Friends 358
Facebook Fans 27 (Fan Page is new and not yet promoted)
Unfiltered Connections 3,351 (Subscribers + Followers + Connections + Friends + Fans)
Sample Chapters
Too Late on the Debate
It’s Tuesday October 3, 2012. There’s a presidential debate in the United States tonight. In one of the closest presidential elections in history, there’s bound to be a lot of people paying close attention – and a lot of discussion on Twitter. It’s business as usual at my office, but that is about to change…
As a senior eCommerce manager at the leading global appliance manufacturer, I have plenty on my plate. But one issue has perplexed me for a long time: our lack of investment and planning around social media.
In fact, I’d been building the case for months, even running a rogue (dare I say, “renegade”) team of social media advocates we lovingly call the “Social Media Mavens”. This rogue effort earned me the courtesy of a formal meeting with our Director of Digital Media and I had my pitch ready.
Like us all, she seems well intentioned but overburdened and understaffed. Still, I proceed with my pitch, which includes several recommendations, including:
Expanding the Reactive Monitoring Team
“The reactive monitoring team has been doing a good job”, I say, “but they could do a lot more. Right now, many of the comments they address are identified and shared with them by other employees. There are still several posts a day going unaddressed. A more comprehensive tool, integrated with our Customer Relationship (CRM) software will help avoid future misses and avoid costs or brand impact.”
Implementing a Proactive Monitoring Team
“Today, we have no proactive monitoring team. When someone shares great news or positive reviews about one of our brands, we rarely encourage, share or reinforce that message. Similar to the reactive monitoring space, we should have a team of proactive advocates to build brand awareness, loyalty and positive sentiment online” I plead.
Defining Standards for Third Parties
“We have a lot of creative agencies running our social media accounts. There needs to be guidelines and standards for these third parties. For example, when something goes wrong, who do they contact? How do they escalate issues? What sort of expectations around fail safes do we have?” I go on to provide a very specific example that will be shockingly appropriate that very night. “For example, do we require agency partners to separate personal and professional social media applications? I would suggest they do not access our accounts from personal devices.”
I go on making suggestions. She nods in agreement, implying her approval and support. She seems interested, but lacks a sense of urgency. So I push more – explaining the risks we run as an organization through our inaction. I point out some recent social media blunders by our brands that could have been avoided. She says, “yep”, “uh-huh” and “I agree”. What I see in her eyes though is, “my hands are tied” and “we don’t have the people or the budget”. Perhaps more frustrating, we both heard that a senior executive recently dismissed social media as “a fad”. Yes, this was in 2012.
Before leaving, I underscore how we may keep costs low – especially in hard expense vs. the passion of people we already employ. She agrees again. No commitment though. So I suggest we follow up again in a couple weeks. She agrees.
Obama’s Dead Grandmother
That night, I’m watching the presidential debate. In front of me on the coffee table is my laptop, open to HootsuiteTM where I have my usual social media streams. These streams are columns of relevant social content, enabling me to see what people are saying about topics that interest me, across several social media platforms. The categories include:
Friends and family
Mentions of our brands or products
Mentions of competitor products, brands and our industry
Mentions of the term “servant leadership” – another topic I am passionate about and, as you will see, aligns well with social media.
As I glance down at the streams, I notice the mentions of our brands spike suddenly. So I read the comments. My heart sinks as I see horrifying evidence that one of our official brand Twitter accounts just sent a shocking message:
@StandMixersUSA: “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics”
I pause to pinch myself. Nope, this isn’t a dream – or more to the point, a nightmare. Clearly an agency representative, thinking they were tweeting from their personal account, has sent a very inappropriate post from our brand account. That account currently has 31k+ followers. The NBC Politics “hash tag” ensures it is seen by thousands more, who follow that topic. The retweets and replies are capturing the eyes of likely tens of thousands more. No, that’s not an exaggeration.
Amazing – if the author had separate applications – one for personal and one for professional, this may not have happened. That is exactly what I’d suggested earlier that very same day.