An Interview with Rodrigo - A Brazilian HR Blogger

I had a chance to chat with Rodrigo Corra Leite (@Rodrigo1000K) in Sao Paolo during my Brazil trip in July. Here is the a summary of our conversation around Social Media.

1. Tell me a little bit more about yourself and your company.

Im Brazilian, 35, Professor and HR Manager. Today I'm responsible for the Corporate University in the 3Coraes Group, a company in the Brazilian coffee industry.

2. You are very active in social media, and have been using blogs and Twitter. Could you tell me how it is impacting your life?

I always believe that it is so important to share the knowledge. I've learned that the more you share, the more you learn. I began using e-mail groups. After that I started using Orkut, that here in Brazil used to be very popular. I use the social media to see what is happening with the research and issues of authors that I appreciate, share my posts in my three blogs, look for human capital potentials for our business, and also to learn another language. I'd like to write more if I had time, since I enjoy receiving opinions, comments and contribuitions of my followers and friends.

3. Is your company using any social media (blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) at work? If so, how's it working? Can you give me an example?

Yes, in our company social media is present. We have the intranet, internal and external blogs. In the internals, the departments can write messages explaining their process, orientations, sharing articles about important changes, receiving questions, doubts or suggestions. The externals, we have one blog for each product of our portfolio. This way, we can interact with customers, to know needs and they can follow us on Facebook or Twitter, for example, to receive tips about how to prepare drinks, foods, and how to enjoy the experiences with our products. Here is one of our blogs http://www.mexidodeideias.com.br/ where our customers can look for recipes, share experiences and follow our experts.

4. Social Media is a big trend in the U.S. now, do you think it is going to be popular in Brazil as well? Why?

Brazilian people like the interaction, our people are highly social. The social media now is present in our lives and jobs. For me that is like a great square where you can show your skills, products, to know people, to learn, to share, to collaborate. Today, recruitment, training, evaluations, are using social media. I believe that what goes around comes around. That is, if you collaborate to improve the knowledge of others, you get good chances to learn, to meet new friends like you, dear Wei. I've been a follower of ASTD for a long time on Twitter and I have been leaning a lot. I've been meeting people who believe that education can change the world and through knowledge we can make a difference.

Thanks so much to this opportunity. See you around the social media space!