Every Thing That Happened is Happening Now

We’ve been talking about the social media changing the speed at which we do business.

I say that when you can get real time information, the value of aged information is greatly reduced. That’s why people like Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Now Google takes the next natural step with real time results from the social media above the older listings:

Now more than ever, we need to know what our customers, readers, friends, fans and foes are saying about our brand

Social Media Frustration: Are They Trying To Chase Me Away?

I’m told that the big corporations provide jobs for millions of people who like to believe they are secure there. That’s not been my experience, but what do I know? I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my life and never set policies for thousands of employees.

From my limited point of view, all employees of any sized company are people.. I do know a few things about people. 350 million of them are now on Facebook, with about a million per day joining. You got to figure that your employees, your customers and the public have found Facebook by now. I suspect that most employees with a computer know about it.

Yet today I’m reading Advertising Age (sorry no link.. I’ll explain below) and read that as many as 70% of companies surveyed are banning social media in the workplace. The article goes on to show how this is a dumb policy (duh) and suggests that “social media is like recess” and that happy employees will be more productive.

Recess?

To be fair, the lower ranking bullet points suggest that an employee may be able to keep up with information about their field and that maybe “brand evangilize” .. then concludes that we ought to consider letting folks use social media at work.

I was amused at the baby steps the author of this article was taking. I decided to leave a comment and suggest that “social media in the employee benefit package” is behind the times and that we should be pushing our people to use social media more to give better customer service, speed up communications and advance the goals of the company.

I wanted to leave a comment.. but Advertising Age still requires a login to participate.

I guess they think that commenting on their articles is recess and a privledge that I have to earn. No problem.. I’ll just log in and.. Wait! What’s this, you need me to confirm? … I can do that, Fire up the email window and click a link. DONE!

OK.. back to the article, scroll to the bottom, smile at the discussion about security issues and employees wasting time (so 2005).. there it is, the comment box. Typed in my 2 cents worth of added value and my user name and password and hit SUBMIT.

A new surprise.. another log in page. DRAT.. I’ve probalby lost my comment… no wonder I seldom comment on old media sites.. but I’m determined and log in for the 4th time.

That’s when I see this message:

This comment will cost you 1 credit. You have zero credits

That’s when I decided to put my comments here. No need to take on the old media, I’ll just bypass them… all I need is a link to that article. But first, let me reread it to make sure I’m quoting them right.

Oops. Can’t do that either. Seems my log in has alerted the system that I’m more engaged than a casual reader.

Access to this article is restricted to Advertising Age subscribers… click here to order

Advertising Age… the voice of the 20th Century Corporate Communications Paradigm (and quickly becoming irrelevant)

Is Your Social Media Strategy Hurting Your Reputation?

I’ve been hearing a lot from one of my favorite companies.

I purchased their product a couple of years back, used it, and been very happy with the outcome.

However, in the past few weeks, my email IN box has been flooded with special offers and announcements. Multiple items in each email with links to buy or give the product as a holiday gift. Special offers for new purchases but nothing that would enhance my use of the product or relationship with the company. Nothing to help me use the product better.

When I see nothing but “special sale” emails.. I begin to wonder “Is this company in trouble? Why are they so desperate?”

Today being Cyber Monday, I decided it was a good time to remove myself from a few of these mailing lists. I scrolled down to the bottom of today’s 23 offer email and found some fine print disclaimers and a few links.  I squinted to find the link that would unsubscribe me and noticed a button just above the fine print that invited me to become a fan on Facebook

Nothing for the fans who already bought?

Nothing for the fans who already bought?

Despite being there to drop my connection with this company, I must say I found it interesting that they were willing to pay $15 if I were to click on a button on Facebook.

I had to look.

I clicked through to the “fan page” and found 5 unanswered comments from customers using the product. All were politely asking for help with some small problem… no sign that anyone at the company saw them, let alone responded.

My first impression was that the company didn’t get social media (the professional way of saying “this sucks”).. so now I wanted to know: Is there any communication going on here?

Scrolling down, I found an ad for the $15 bribe and videos and photos posted by users, including an graphic with the word “PORN” .. but no comments on any of the wall posts.

Back to the email…

Preparing the post, I went back over a few emails to make sure I wasn’t missing anything that spoke to me as a user instead of just a person to help them get more sales… I had skipped to the bottom of today’s email and had missed this juicy headline:

we want to hear from you
review a product and help your fellow fans make the perfect choice

..followed by photos of their product line

(I’ve removed the product name before the word “fans”)

We have the tools today to segment our databases and provide a unique experience for our fans or customers.. speaking to each of them in a voice that makes sense and initiating a real conversation.

Just a couple of years back, a sales flyer from a company was expected.. and I believe still useful as one form of communication. However, when you decide to get into social media, and use terminology like you want to have a conversation.. you best be ready to have that conversation.

When you do engage your customers you will be adding real value and reap the benefits.

Some Positive Thoughts on Customer Service

I’ve been biting my fingers for the past couple of weeks.  I’ve had a memorably bad experience with my ISP.. they have yet to clear things up.

My notes will help with a chapter on the future of customer service that I plan to include in my next book, so I’m holding off writing one of “those posts” .. not quite ready to take on these guys with publicity I’m looking for right now. (you can figure out who I’m talking about by following my Twitter thread if you really must know).

Instead, let’s talk about what customer service should be:

  1. It IS your department. There’s one phrase that always means trouble from any sizes company “I’m sorry, that’s not my department.” My prediction is that this will be ground for dismissal in companies of the future.  If you pick up the phone, catch the tweet, or handle and email from a customer, they expect that you won’t give up on them.
  2. I’d rather talk to a friend. By now, every company of any size has at least one person on Twitter, someone using Facebook or a attending some venue where they want to meet up with customers. We want to be treated like we are friends. Every employee is a customer service agent and the reputation of the company is on the line (see item #1).
  3. If I matter, keep track of me. I smile when the automated voice system reminds me that I can find some answers on the web.. I wouldnt be calling if the web had what I needed. And while I’m waiting, I don’t mind putting in my account number or making a few selections until they get their technology working well enough to recognize my caller ID. I do draw the line at providing my number a 3rd or 4th time to the people answering the call. Don’t ask me for my account number until I have someone on the phone that can help me.

Three easy steps to help people feel like they are dealing with a company that likes customers. (boy it’s hard to write about this without going into complete rant mode).

Here’s some hope for us all. Google Wave intagrated with Salesforce.com show us that a customer service issue can be taken care of in a way a customer might actually enjoy.

Do you have examples of companies using social media and technology to give their customers a better experience. Share on a comment below and my co-authors and I will follow up for more details that we can include in our book.

Revolution Has a Long Way to Go

commented on BrianSolis.com

Numbers don’t show how many people are actually using Twitter to carry on a conversation.

As we learn to use Twitter, we spend lest time gawking the web site and just put it into our daily routines. Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm comes to mind.. suggesting that we are still at the beginning of the acceptance curve.

SMS is 3 trillion messages a year and growing. The revolution has a long way to go.

A Short Message Makes a Difference

The Postman sends a messageI just finished watching The Postman, a post-apocalyptic film based on the novel by David Brin.

I won’t say much about the film.. movie reviews abound for this type of Costner saga and frankly, they are not usually my first choice

What did strike me was the central theme of the film… In a screwed up world, people get hope from the simpliest of messages.. a found letter from a long lost relative or a few words from a man with a mission. I suppose Kevin Costner is somewhat like The Postman.. I’m told he gets a vision for a project and never lets go, inspiration to us all to keep at it and share our gifts.

Just a couple of years ago, I might have dismissed this as nothing more than theatrical license. Today, I know what happens when I listen to my online network and feedback a very short message of hope and love. Sometimes this message rings out louder than any bullhorn or 50,000 watt transmitter and touches the hearts of someone.

We really don’t know what all is going on in the life of those we come in contact with. Out of the thousands that see my tweets on Twitter there are bound to be a few that resonate with just about anything I say. Once they reply, it only takes a moment to acknowledge them and who knows.. maybe make their day. 🙂

For me, this started on Twitter. Like everyone, I wondered if it was going to take too much time.. fortunately I had the excuse of counting some of it a research for my book.. but the more I got to think of it, I knew I had to make it my goal to answer every tweet that was directed to me.

Doing this with the idea that each tweet reply was addressing at least one real human being that had connected to me soon wasn’t a chore, it became a passion. Further it actually improved my connections off Twitter as well. I find I write more from the heart, have an easier time getting past the “empty paper” stage of starting a project and always have a lot more fun.

When a dark day occurs, I think of the the lives changed when one person stops to smile or share a kind word, rededicate myself to giving more and look for a few tweets in the stream where I can add value to the conversation.

Do you have a story of a short message, tweet, text or idea that changed your world? Please share in the comments.