Click to View

A wonderful description of the values we place upon certain colours. It’s interesting to see how different shades can alter our perceptions of the people and the world. Does this mean that the completely colour blind are more reliable in their acumen because they are not swayed by the psychology of colours? At least we now understand why corporate blue is so popular on business websites and logos.

Some practical advice from Graham Clark on how to become and remain customer focused in your business. I am particular heartened by his point that customer unfocused businesses are placing too much emphasis on outputs rather than outcomes, something I touched upon with relation to the public relations industry.

I very much like the concept that excellent customer service needs to be system wide, not just point of contact, and that customer focused businesses are relationships based, not looking to slash costs in the name of efficiency. In all, some excellent food for thought.

What do you think? Is your organisation customer focused? How do you do it?

After determining that you need someone to handle your online presence (and you do), the next biggest issue you’re likely to face is how to find a social media manager that is right for your organisation. While it may be tempting to call the least busy Gen-Y member of your staff into your office to inform them that social media community management is now their responsibility it’s important that you establish a clear digital and social media strategy.

Social media marketing is more than just being a digital rockstar. It takes careful crafting by a trained professional. After all, you’d never let your intern handle your traditional marketing strategy, right? (*shiver*).

Here are few quick pointers on what to look for in order to find the best person to assist you establish and maintain a strong and consistent online presence.

No Experts Allowed

The first thing you need to do is when you’re writing your employment opportunity copy is avoid using the words: guru, expert, rockstar, ninja or similar. Straight off the bat these terms will attract the wrong sort of people.

Social media is all about relationships. There are no experts. Those who claim to be are either lying or severely deluded. A social media manager should know this. They should cringe every time they’re called a guru or expert. After all, if you needed relationship advice would you go to someone that called themselves a ninja psychologist?

Once you start receiving CVs have your HR people check their online credentials. How long have they been sharing thought leadership on their blog? Do they have community management experience? When you search for their name (real or online name) do they at least appear on the first page? How many times?

The people that you’re looking for have a long established history of thought leadership and have maintained a strong and visible online presence for years. Don’t be swayed by the number of followers or fans, remember it is relationships that are important. Who are they talking to and how are they talking? Are they even in contact with other thought leaders and social influencers? If your research shows the top Power Influencers joking with and linking to them then they’re the ideal people you want. It means that they’ve managed to establish a relationship with the most innovative of social media thinkers. That their ideas are valuable to even the most thoughtful of thought leaders.

Understanding the Basics

Examine what they’re saying online. Look at their work history. During interviews. Do you see an understanding of:

• Monitoring:

  Do they have a history of establishing and maintaining monitoring regimes? If you’re not monitoring for conversations beyond your usual area of influence how can you know what people are saying about you? Sometimes the conversation comes to you. Sometimes you must go to the conversation.

• Listening:

  Does your prospective social media strategist understand the difference between listening and monitoring? It is not just enough to find the conversations you must understand what is being said. As with any relationship communication is the key. Listening is essential. Without listening how can you form the correct response? A social marketing manager needs to understand the difference.

• ROI:

  Do they understand how to measure a social media return on investment (ROI)? It should never be measured in fans or followers. Ideally they should be able to express it in revenues generated or decreased expenses. They should at least understand how to determine a baseline and to extrapolate a monetary ROI. What is the ROI of their past successes?

Finding a social marketing manager that is able to generate and cultivate an digital strategy for your organisation is not difficult. However, you and they need to understand that as with all relationships they take a significant amount of time to germinate and bear fruit. Quick fixes are rarely long-lasting or satisfying for any concerned. Your social media manger needs to understand that social media is like a marriage: a relationship that strengthens over time. One built upon trust, integrity and fidelity.

Slider image courtesy of SocialisBetter.

If you’re wondering why you were redirected during your visit to this site today, then the video above covers some of the important facts about the SOPA and PIPA legislation. These bills are clear and present dangers to not just to social media and the internet, but to all enterprise. There are very few businesses that do not have some sort of net presence, whether that be a web page, a social network account or an email address. These have become intricate business tools, but they are now under threat. A simple mistake, a malicious competitor or organised crime could all hijack these tools from your business’ control with a simple accusation and with little or no recourse. It has already happened.

Educate yourself about this threat and please fight against it.

Another example of a company that is out of step with many of their customer’s views regarding corporate responsibility. However the failure here is not just their CC&R misstep, but that they have fallen into the traditional crisis management methods: ignoring the problem and hoping that it will go away.

The Ostrich approach only results in in worsening the crisis, as Nestle found out in 2010. It’s disappointing to see a company that has received so many benefits from social media exposure, in the form of the most watched online video of 2011, now choosing to ignore it.

A conversation is two-way. Consumers want to be active participants in your brand. Ignore them at your own peril.

Here’s a really good overview about how using social media as part of your customer service programs can benefit other departments within your company. It’s not just a resource to deal with unhappy customers, but it is an avenue to receive insightful R&D feedback, hold focus groups and to track your competitor’s frailties. Social media has become an indispensable business tool.

I love this video from TEDx Puget Sound. Simon Sinek completely turns business thinking and marketing on its head.

In late December 2011 it was discovered that one of the key supporters of the US SOPA legislation was the world’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy. This was curious given that nearly every other major tech company considered SOPA and PIPA to be a clear and present threat to not only their business activities but also to the internet itself. Many people were outraged by this support and a boycott of GoDaddy was organised, beginning on the social aggregator Reddit but soon spreading through Facebook, Twiiter and other social networks. The result wasn’t just social activism, it sent major shockwaves throughout the corporate world and underlined just why every business needs to be listening to its customers.

In the face of a consumer boycott most companies would at least release a carefully worded statement explaining their views. They might even open up a dialogue with their opponents and some in the company might begin to re-evaluate their own position. However GoDaddy just seemed to shrug off the threat. They refused to comment and closed down their support forums. Some time later they eventually released the following statement to Ars Technica:

Go Daddy has received some emails that appear to stem from the boycott prompt, but we have not seen any impact to our business. We understand there are many differing opinions on the SOPA regulations

This callous dismissal of the boycott outraged its supporters. They began not only removing their own domains and those owned by their companies from GoDaddy, but also started targeting other GoDaddy registered sites and pleading with them to withdraw their domains from GoDaddy as well. Amongst those targetted was Wikipedia, which coincidently is a major opponent of the SOPA bill.

The boycott quickly gained momentum, and GoDaddy soon paid for their poor communication skills. In just one day alone they lost over 21000 domain names. Within 12 hours GoDaddy were forced to make an embarrassing backdown and released a statement claiming that they were dropping support for SOPA.

However, it soon emerged that this was not true. They continued to support the bill in private, they had even worked on the legislation to ensure that they were immune to its effects. Clearly they not only weren’t listening to their customers they were telling them to fuck off. Other registrars, who opposed SOPA, took advantage of the situation by welcoming the refugees, offering them discount vouchers.

Social media allows consumers to not only be very vocal about their displeasure at a global level, but also to produce well-organised activism campaigns extremely quickly. GoDaddy were either arrogant or naive to not only ignore their consumers during the crisis but to actively dismiss them as powerless. They only needed to look at of what happened during the Arab Spring to see what happens when social activism gets a full head of steam.

Supporters of the boycott plan to decimate GoDaddy: to send them out of business. This is not only as a punishment, in retribution for SOPA support, but also as a warning to other corporations who are considering being out-of-step with their customer’s moral and ethical values.

There are some that might call this virtual vigilantism, or even cyber terrorism, but really it’s a major schism between some in the corporate world and consumers. It stems from the financial collapses in 2008 where many people lost everything due to the excesses of corporate cowboys. This is the world in which we now live in. Consumers have rediscovered the power they feel was ripped from them and they’re not afraid to use it. That’s something that every business needs to be aware of and prepare for.

No business is entitled to its customers. It has to work for and with them constantly. And when you’re at war with your own customers then there is only ever going to be one loser: you.

Simon Sinek’s brilliant words of wisdom on how to not only just to build a better business, but to build a better world. Inspiring stuff!

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have announced that starting in the new year passengers will be given the opportunity to choose who they are seated with on flights by using Facebook and Linkedin profiles. While the video by the Taiwanese group Next Media Animation ridicules the concept as a way to join the Mile High Club the program does pose some pretty interesting considerations for business.

Can it be used for targeted marketing? While the thought of being stuck on a flight alongside a salesmen hocking their wares is one right out of a Hollywood nightmare, a more diplomatic use of deliberately targeting high value prospects using subtle marketing techniques could have merit. Popular CRMs are already integrating social networks into their engines to provide sales and marketing additional research tools.

Seatmates could become a valuable sales tool in the near future especially as other airlines (Malaysia Airlines launched its MHbuddy service in February) roll out similar systems. If it did become widely available can you see your business using this for your marketing?