Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

9 Mar

When will social media become the new email?

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , .

A post I wrote about the power of social media in relation to customer service (you can find it here) was recently tweeted and commented on by one of my Twitter followers @tomswift.  In that post I talk about the power of social media in affecting the reputation of companies with potential customers.  With social media, disgruntled customers now have huge megaphones with which to broadcast their discontent, so companies should beware, and be aware of their social media reputations.

Still, today when responding to @tomswift’s tweet, I found myself wondering aloud about how long social media will have such power.  Will there be a point at which there are so many people saying so much about a company that individual issues will go unserviced, perhaps even unheard–as now is often the case with overloaded email boxes? 

I know that today, if I were to send an email to the company I was wanting to address my customer service complaint (if I could even find an email address of a real person), the likelihood of someone actually having the power to address my concern and then actually doing something is very small…because there are too  many email and customer service agents are often unempowered. 

Right now, hiring social media managers is all the rage.  Right now, companies realize the importance of social media to their reputations…but at what point does one person’s broadcasted complaint via twitter stop getting the attention that it currently does?  At what point will it take a larger number of similar complaints before a company responds?  Is social media getting more attention because it is the newest form of customer communication?  While the email and phone complaints are not any less important, they often don’t garner the same level of attention…and one must consider the question: at what point will social media complaints become similar?

One could argue that the very medium of social technology changes the dynamic and therefore companies will continue to address social media comments and concerns.  After all, social media is about community and engaging with customers, having conversations with them, right?  But aren’t phones conducive to conversations?  Didn’t we used to have conversations (or sometimes still do) via email threads?    For all of those involved in social media, consider the question…and then, I would love to know your thoughts.  Or if you don’t want to comment, feel free to take the quickpoll: click poll.

1 Mar

Job Seekers Alert: Your Networking Scope is Greater Than You Think

Posted by Adrienne in Business, HR, Social Media, Uncategorized, Work & Career. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Over two years ago I started to really talk to people about social media and their job search. It’s funny how things change in two years. Then, people just looked at me like I was a bit daft. Now, people are finally ready to engage social media for job seeking. I know this in part because of my own experiences, but also from the “chatter” on the social web. Social media and human talent and job seeking are big topics now, and are growing as topics. (You can do your own twitter search if you don’t believe me: #HR, #socialmediaHR #tweetmyjobs #twitterjobs, etc.) I also know this because social media is being talked about now in conferences and career transition groups. I was at a conference this week for Ph.D.’s who will be entering the job market and there was a whole session on utilizing social media. (And for any of you who know academics, they are one of the least likely groups to use social media for job seeking.)

So, why is social media and job seeking finally getting it’s day in the sun? I think there are a couple of reasons: 1) the economy may be rebounding a bit, but job loss and unemployment continue and for those who have been unemployed for awhile, they really need to try something new; and 2) people finally “get” social media, at least more than they did two years ago. Twitter is commonplace and people are finally understanding that it isn’t about tweeting what you had for lunch, but networking. Yes, networking. And since job seeking is all about networking, social media tools like Twitter can have a real effect.

So, hear this, job seeker: you have a much larger networking scope than you thought! The social web is yours to dominate! Go ahead – tell the world about your skill sets and your expertise, the projects that you ROCKED throughout your career, the things that make you get up in the morning because you are really, really good at them! Tell the world through social media!

And in case you aren’t sure how to do that, I’ve got you covered. I put together a whole presentation with step by step instructions on how you can use social media for your job search. And I’ve posted it on Slideshare. And if you don’t know what Slideshare is, no worries. Here is a link to the presentation: Social Media & Your Job Search: Yes, Really.

If you take the time to walk through the steps to creating your professional online identity and then network with and through it, you will find doors that you didn’t know were there…and a few of them will begin opening for YOU.  Work the NEW system (social media) and Keep the Faith, Job Seeker.  Your new opportunity IS out there!

3 Jan

What Social Media/Social Business can learn from Marky Mark in 2011

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The tabula rasa of each New Year provides us with one more opportunity to try again, try something new, change what wasn’t working and capitalize on what was.  It’s our collective recognition that a clean slate is necessary, that it’s never too late to start again.

You might ask why, when social media is still in its infancy, would social media need a clean slate?  How do you start fresh with something that’s still barely out of the shoot?  Good question.   One thing I know from all of my years crafting something from nothing is that the best time to shape and form/reform something is often near the beginning, before it takes on too much of a life of its own and starts down an unexpected path.  For social media, the best time to shape and reshape is now: while the tools used by the majority are still few (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) and still gaining in both acceptance and functionality.  I have a few ideas about how this might happen, in general and more specifically.  And I have a nice role model we can use, too: Marky Mark (aka Mark Wahlberg).

Mark Wahlberg is the king of reinvention, of starting over, trying something new.  If you remember his days with The Funky Bunch, then you know what I mean.  Mark was once in prison and after he got out, he became Marky Mark of early white boy rapping fame.  But Marky Mark wanted more.  Or different.  He moved on to modeling.  Then acting.  Then directing.  And he started a family.  Now, the kid who was once eating three squares behind bars directs some of the hottest shows on television: Entourage and Boardwalk Empire among them.  So what can social media take from Marky Mark’s reinvention story in the new year?  Here are a few:

  • Risk It. What the heck does that mean?  Well, when things are new and being established, that is the best time to try something new.  What do you have to lose?  Mark was in prison, so he had nowhere to go but up.  Social media is still the wild west—the frontier as far as the virtual eye can see.  So you think you have an idea for an app or a tool to connect people virtually?  Build it! Test it!  I have a couple of friends who have done this in the past year and are gaining some recognition.  My friend Scott developed a social karaoke app…like karaoke meets foursquare called Bar Star (www.playbarstar.com).  My friends Axel and Marita developed an app for having all of your social media info in one place.  It’s called Xeesm.  It has some powerful business functionality to it as well.  www.xeesm.com.  Remember also the Field of Dreams: if you build it, they will come.  It isn’t always true, but don’t you wish you had thought of (and developed) Groupon??
  • Niche It. Marky Mark found a niche in the 90’s as a clean and sober white rapper with a pop vibe.  Now that was a niche in the grunge rock of the day, but it found broad appeal.  As social media become more pervasive, different apps will find different audiences.  Find your audience.  Love them.  Give them what they want and they will love you back.  One idea of this is focused twitter feeds.  Right now, it is one way to drink from the firehose that is Twitter.  What about some apps that will do that in and of themselves?  Radio used to be all kinds of music on one channel…but now we have specific types of channels for specific types of content. The same is true of TV.  I think the same will eventually be true of twitter or other types of social media apps and communities.
  • Level Up. Okay, so maybe you’ve developed a social media app – or a business built on social info or a strong social community.  Now it’s time to take it to the next level.  That doesn’t mean scrapping what you’ve got, but capitalizing on what’s good.  Make incremental moves – like Mark in his acting career.  He didn’t become an executive producer before he knew what it was to be an actor…but once he figured out what kind of film appealed to him and what he was good at, he took it to the next level.  Leveling up requires persistence and hard work because you want your move to the next level to be not only sustainable, but successful.  Like Mark.  Ask yourself: what does the next incremental level of my social media project look like?  How can I get there?  Then, get to work.
  • Remember Your Friends.  While Mark is now a superstar, he still hangs with friends he’s had since pre-fame days.  He still visits—and continues to invest—in his old neighborhood.  Mark knows the value of loyalty.  In the world of social media, friends are important—Facebook and Twitter can attest.  As you build, niche or level up with your social media work, interact with your social media community of friends—get their input, hear their critiques and their praise, listen to what they want, how they think things could be better, or different.  Your friends will be honest with you and will help you succeed—so when you do, go back and invest in them, too.  There’s nothing like having (and building and investing in) a (virtual) neighborhood full of people who know you.

While Mark Wahlberg has said he will never again tour with The Funky Bunch, the long tail of his career has left us with some encouragement for our own 2011 transformation: “Now the time has come for you to get up/The rest had you fed up, but ‘yo I won’t let up…/I wanna see motivation/come on now, feel the vibration” (Good Vibration, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch, 1991).  Risk it, Niche it, Level up and Remember your friends this year in your social media pursuits and you will make it a good year…one worthy of a Wahlberg.

23 Mar

Business Beware: A Social Media Cautionary Tale

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Social Media, Work & Career. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Ring bell for service

I recently returned from staying at a 4.5 star luxury resort in Orlando, Florida for a long weekend with my husband.  It was a much needed break for both of us. The facility is large and our room was well-appointed. The resort boasts one of the top golf academies in the country and has several gorgeous courses, pools and a lovely spa.  Unlike most hotels in the area during spring break, this hotel was not chock full of college students, but mostly business travelers and those attending conferences or meetings at the hotel.  From the sleeping late to the spa treatments, golf game and floating down the lazy river at the pool, our stay was great–until we tried to check out.  And this is where all good things up to that point began to fade quickly from our memories as our experience took a nosedive.

Most companies seek the “Good to Great” scenario–improving upon their current performance.  Still, sometimes things go wrong–and they become teachable moments, touch points for future excellence.  The following scenario should be one of them–a story of how things went awry and SNAP! Just like that, a business has someone ranting about them on a blog post.  And if the ranters are valued customers, that’s not good.  In my case, the customer service meltdown occurred at the heart of where hotels interface with customers: the front desk.

From Good to Horrific

Checkout is like the easiest part of travel, right?  You do express check out or head to the front desk for a quick review of the final bill.  Sometimes you need to change a few things or clarify a couple of charges, but within minutes you have your bill and you and your roller bag and are on your way.  That’s in a normal scenario.  In a high touch, service oriented, luxury resort, you might even expect things to be a bit smoother – an extra smile or courtesy, people to move with a bit more efficient grace than usual.

Nope.

That was NOT our experience.  Here’s what happened to us:

As we left our room, we called for the valet to pull our rental to the front.  While our bags were quickly loaded, my husband said he would just run inside to check the final bill and move some personal charges from his business card to his personal account.  I stayed in the car to use the few minutes to check email and voicemail.  After responding to email and voicemail, clearing out my email box completely, checking twitter and updating Facebook, I realized that my husband had not returned.  Was he lost?  Was there an emergency business call he had to take?  It had been 40 minutes.  FORTY MINUTES.  I texted my husband: “hungry…sitting in car…” just in case he forgot where I was and that we hadn’t had lunch yet.  “Still at desk.  Still no bill.  Incompetent staff.”  I decided to go inside.  I shut off the car, grabbed the keys and smiled nicely at the valet guy who really didn’t want me parked in the loading plaza.  “Your front desk has taken 40 minutes to check us out and is still not done.  I have to leave the car.”  The valet guy smiled, apologized and offered to keep the key in case they needed to move the car in an emergency.

Inside, I found my husband, irritated, having been standing at the front  desk for 45 minutes.  The front desk clerk was new and unable to get anyone to help her reverse charges and put them on a different card, he tells me.  Pretty simple, I say.  He nods.  Silently.  He is not one to make a fuss, and although I prefer no fuss, I believe in customer service.  For heaven’s sake, the man has been standing here for near on an hour.  And I was waiting in the car.  Clearly, someone needed to be communicating through this issue.  “What’s going on?” I ask the clerk.  She barely meets my eyes and says she is working on it.  “It’s been almost an hour, ” I say.  She doesn’t respond.  “Is there someone who can help you?” I ask.  No response.  There is one other clerk working but he has a constant line of people he is checking out.  It’s the busiest hour at the front desk,. the hour the hotel as deemed as the imperative check-out hour.  “She’s been back three times to find someone to help her,” my husband tells me, his tone controlled, signaling his irritation.  “Well, I’m going to the concierge desk,” I tell him.  “Perhaps they can move this thing along.”

I walk across the white marble floor to the concierge desk, where two concierges are standing at the ready.  “Are you a concierge?” I ask the woman behind the beautiful carved wooden desk.  “Yes, I am,” she assures me with a smile.  “And your job is to help people?” I ask.  “Yes it is,” she says confidently.  “Well, I need your help,” I tell her.  I explain that my husband has been “checking out” of the hotel for going on an hour and the clerk is new, unable to handle the minor bill changes and unable to get assistance.  The concierge looks at me, no longer smiling.  “We were in a bit of a hurry, and thought if someone could help out, perhaps it would be you?”  By this time, her colleague concierge was listening and without an additional word, picks up the phone to call the back office.  Two minutes of ringing, no answer.  The woman concierge goes to the other phone to call another office.  In the meantime, my husband walks over.  “She left, ” he says.  “What?”  Who left?” I ask.  “The clerk.  She just walked away.  She didn’t say where she was going, she just left.” “You’ve got to be kidding,” I say.  “I’m going to go sit over there,” he says, pointing to a comfortable looking chair across from the front desk area.  “Hopefully, she will return and we won’t be stuck here.”  The two concierges who have been on the phone without luck now both reconvene.  I ask what is going on.  “The managers are unavailable,  at lunch,” I’m told.  “All of them?” I ask, surprised.   “Let me go see if I can find someone in the back office,” the concierge says.  “Well, maybe you can find the clerk, too, as she has left the desk without a word to my husband as to where she went or why.” He hurries off.  I tell the woman concierge that I will be sitting next to my husband when they find out, but before I walk away, the other concierge returns, informing me that the clerk and an assistant manager are working on the bill in the back room.  I tell him where we will be sitting.  My husband asks me to find some sustenance, since we haven’t had breakfast or lunch.  I go in search of Starbuck’s and a muffin, anticipating that upon my return, all will be sorted.  Nope.  We sit.  We wait.  We drink coffee and share a muffin.  I am thinking that I really wanted a nice salad and some soup.  “How many charges did you have them change?” I ask.  “Three,” he says.  “Three single charges?” I clarify, thinking that maybe it was some huge transaction that might in some way garner an hour-long check out and a special backroom pow-wow.  My husband looks at me and nods quietly.  “She reversed them and credited them to a different card and then couldn’t figure out what to credit and debit to which cards.  She’s provided me with three different bills–all of them wrong.”

lunch is served?

At that moment, the young clerk, clearly flustered, walks over to my husband with the bills – one with his personal charges, one with his business charges.  While they clarify yet again, I check my watch.  It’s been an hour and a half.  Not completely satisfied that he won’t see crazy charges on his cards, my husband agrees that this will do. I tell the clerk I’m glad that it’s been figured out but perhaps the hotel might want to feed us, since we’ve waited an hour and a half during lunch?  The clerk laughs nervously and without a word, walks away.  My husband and I look at each other.  “Oh no, she di’int!” is what is running through my head.  I stand up and walk over to the concierge’s desk.    “It’s been sorted,” I say, “but it’s also taken an hour and a half of our time in the middle of our day.  I asked the clerk if the hotel might want to buy us lunch and she laughed and walked away–but I was serious.”  I stop and wait.  The concierge looks at me and says that they don’t have the authority to do that, but that he would ask a manager.  I wondered if he would have any better luck finding a manager for this task than that of sorting our bill.  I told him where I would be sitting.

After a few minutes, a young woman walks over and introduces herself as the assistant manager and tells us that she is not the manager–that the manager is at lunch.  She says she is glad they were able to help the clerk sort the bill.  I agreed (although was thinking that her tone was a bit self-congratulatory about a job that was expected the resort should do in the first place and which they turned into a bungled mess), but reminded her that we had waited for an hour and a half and thought that since it was lunch and we had waited, famished, perhaps the hotel could pick up our lunch?  “Sure,” she said, she thought they could do that.  She told us what we should tell the restaurant in order to comp our lunch.  As she started to walk away, I stopped her. “Do you have a card?”  I asked.  She went back to her office to get one.

Where’s the Beef?

If this were a business class in college, we might now ask the class where the hotel went wrong and what they could have changed, given the service failure taking place.  If this was a one or two star hotel, we might expect the class to offer maybe a couple of ideas on how to make it right.  But we would remind the class that this is a 4.5 star resort that touts itself as a luxury product for high-end customers.  Service is key to their competitive advantage in a city that houses hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms.  Service is their “beef”: along with beautiful amenities and a world-class golf course, service is the meat of what they offer their customers.  And in the end, the class should also be reminded that the story is real and not at all academic–as should be the remedies.  Here are a few of my ideas:

  1. When the clerk realized she was over her head, she should have clearly communicated that to my husband.  Transparency breeds trust.
  2. After he had been standing there for over a half an hour, she should have apologized profusely and asked if he wanted to sit down, since this was going to take much longer than she expected.  He should have been offered a coffee or a drink. Ask if his wife would like one, too  (oh yeah, and if she’s in the car, perhaps get the valet to communicate the issue and escort her inside to share a coffee with her husband.  The customer’s needs should be paramount.
  3. AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE, turn your attention to your customers comfort and needs and after your customer is comfortable, THEN go back to solving the problem
  4. As a general rule, if checkout is one of the busiest times at the hotel front desk on a weekend, the manager should not take lunch during that time.  And if lunch is taken, someone with authority and know-how should be available to help front desk staff.
  5. Why would you ever leave your NEW clerk to handle a weekend check out rush on her own without supervision or back up?  This is a recipe for disaster. Was there no pager?  No manager cell phone?  No other managers who could step in?  This is a resort, people–I know there was more than one manager at the resort that day.
  6. The assistant manager should have come out to communicate her apologies at the point she took over.  Um, in this story, the manager wouldn’t have come out to communicate anything at all if the customer hadn’t requested a free lunch.  The assistant manager should have proactively apologized and offered some consideration for the service failure. Frankly, I think lunch was the least they could do.  They should have comped the spa charges, offered a free nights stay, something that recognized the value of the customer and specifically, the value of the customer’s time they had wasted.
  7. The customer should never have to ask for an apology or compensation for a service failure.  At the point the customer is asking for such things, an apology is too little and too late.
  8. Finally, knowing the customer was still dubious about the final charges, the assistant manager should have offered to call him and follow up on the charges the following week and them put it on her calendar to review and to call, ensuring follow-through.
  9. The assistant manager should have offered her card and contact information without ever being asked.

I am sure there are more examples, but these were a few that my husband and I came up with as we mulled over the incident over our free (albeit forced) lunch.  I told him I would be writing a letter.  He said we should bill them for our hourly rates for our time (since we are both professionals, this would have set them back much more than lunch or a spa treatment).  I said I would be tweeting about it first.  And I did.

Business Beware!

You’ve heard the phrase “buyer beware”, where a buyer is basically buying a product “as is”, with all defects and problems.  Even in the age of social media, the buyer may have to stomach an “as is” situation (like we did), but because of social media we have an amplified voice.  I remember seeing a tweet from @michaelhyatt about a local restaurant that we often frequented.  He had tweeted that he had gotten a bad meal there and would not be returning.  To this day, we have not been back to that restaurant.  I know several others who did the same thing, based solely on the credibility of one person tweeting.  (Considering the source is an important note here–and I would call both my husband and myself  credible sources for assessing customer experiences based both on our own extensive personal experiences coupled with our extensive professional backgrounds.)  Social media truly gives all buyers megaphones (to paraphrase Chris Anderson).

can you hear me now?

While I sat at lunch, I tweeted the following messages to the resort:

Will be writing a letter to @omnihotels for our 1.5 hour checkout disaster at #omnihotels orlando at championsgate. Wow. 2:03 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

And then I thought there were a few service lessons that perhaps I could pass along to the resort via twitter–and see if they were listening.  Following are 5 specifics that service companies should not only consider but should incorporate into their operating procedures.

A few things service oriented companies should consider: 1-unhappy customers have a voice beyond letter writing (Twitter) #omnihotels 2:13 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

A few things service oriented companies should consider 2- making things right is often as easy as accepting accountability #omnihotels 2:17 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 3-lifetime value of the customer is critical. Repairing yr service reputation key. #omnihotels 2:27 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 4-Repairing yr service rep after bad customer experience may b as easy as an apology #omnihotels 2:31 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 5-customers shouldn’t have to ask for an apology. Be proactive to repair svc issues #omnihotels 2:33 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

I will report that I did get a tweet back from @omnihotels, and this was our exchange:

@AdrienneCorn Please feel free to email tweetme@omnihotels.com and we will be sure to get your letter to the appropriate people. Sorry! 7:33 AM Mar 22nd via HootSuite in reply to AdrienneCorn

@OmniHotels you might want to check out my other tweets with #omnihotels from yesterday. Preview of my letter. 10:48 AM Mar 22nd via Twitterrific

@AdrienneCorn Thanks. I did see them and shared w/ the hotel mgmt team first thing this morning. We look forward to receiving your letter. 12:34 PM Mar 22nd via HootSuite in reply to AdrienneCorn

I am not sure what type of response a letter will get (since it will look quite a bit like my blog post!) but note to all readers: my social media activity got instant response.  It may not be instant satisfaction, but it’s at least communication and, in the service industry, that’s at least moving back in the right direction.

That said, businesses beware – consumers have instant power with the most powerful form of marketing: word of mouth.  You might want to consider the kinds of words about your company that you want coming out of your customers’ mouths–and then do your best to make that a reality.

15 Sep

Twitter Killed the Mad Men: Thoughts on Social Media, Advertising Agencies and Brand Management

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

If you are on Twitter then you know that there is a bit of a race to gain followers, since followers determine (to some extent) your influence on Twitter…aka “twinfluence”. Without a larger context, such a race makes Twitter seem more of an arbitrary popularity contest than a legitimate business tool, with tweeters clamoring for followers despite who those followers may be.  There is an unspoken idea that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers are the “thought leaders” and those with hundreds of thousands of followers who only follow a few people are the thought leaders of the thought leaders–garnering much Twitter prestige.

But how does one use such prestige?  To sell one’s product?  To tweet about other people’s products?  To influence?

Although my philosophy is that Twitter shouldn’t be about random followings in either direction (I believe in a functional, community oriented use of twitter – on which I will elaborate in another post), what is of interest with the number of followers is the very power of people–random and not so random–to be influential in a quick, broadcasted way to hundreds of thousands of other people.   Let’s be clear: The bulk of social media isn’t about telling people what you ate for dinner last night, and Twitter is one example of the power of social media as word of mouth influence on large numbers of people about products, services and brands.

Legitimate business tweeters are recognizing the power of Twitter to get their message out…not through spamming ads but by tweeting with resources in their areas of expertise such as links to solid blogs, community sites, research, etc.   There is an awareness among companies that social media might have some relationship to brand awareness and loyalty, but the dots haven’t all been connected yet–and believe it or not, there are quite a lot of brank marketers and ad agencies that are still reticent to help connect those dots for their clients.

One tweeter, understanding the power of social media for word of mouth and viral marketing, asked why anyone, given twitter, would invest in traditional media outlets for communicating their message.   My husband was doing a presentation for a potential client on shifting their marketing dollars to online media (one step closer to social media!) and showed me a table that listed barriers to entry into social media adoption by brand marketers and ad agencies (eMarketer, 2009).

Barriers to Social Media Adoption

What was interesting to me about these statistics was the seeming skepticism and lack of knowledge about social media by ad agencies and brand marketers.

How about the reticence signaled by brand marketer and agency answers to these questions:  “Social Media is not a proven/tested strategy” (granted, this question could have been better worded) in which 31% of ad agencies surveyed feel social media  isn’t proven, 28% “don’t think there is an established way to measure the effectiveness of social media”, while 31%  claim they really “don’t know enough about it to know where to begin” and don’t have the time to figure it out (17%)! And based on the follow up questions,  the reticence to adopt social media isn’t because they are worried about the legalities or that there are barriers to social media use for brand management.

What’s the Issue?

We’ve all heard the song “video killed the radio star” by The Buggles.  (If you haven’t, you can see the video here: http://bit.ly/7Kkl )Released in 1979, the song pays homage to what was deemed a game changer for music: the advent of the music video.  (If they had only known about the digital revolution that would really kill radio and TV as we used to know it! )  In a similar vein, social media is doing much the same thing to brand marketers and ad agencies–shifting the conversation–and if the research is any indication, it doesn’t seem that they like the shift.

As someone really on board with social media I had to ask “Why not?”  Don’t agencies and marketers GAIN by ensuring their future contracts with clients who DO recognize the shifting conversation about their brand and want an agency that can guide them into that future?  Wouldn’t agencies want to be the thought leaders around a new and powerful medium for brand recognition for their clients?

The truth is that this is about the democratization of  what ad agencies want to hold onto–the management, the message, the conversation about brands.  Ad agencies make money on brand management.  Twitter is free.  And there’s the rub.

Gonna Wash that (Ad) Man Right out of Your Hair?

Still, the smart agencies are recognizing that social media is here to stay and are getting on board – beginning to use the analysis tools that have been developed to help companies understand how their brands are being talked about, what people like or don’t like and using that real time information to help their clients truly manage their brand also in real time.  Many of these tools are free, such as Techrigy, but there are hundreds of them currently available and more of them being developed every day.

For those that embrace these tools, there is money to be made because there is real data on which to base recommendations for how to position a brand, which conversations to be a part of, how to get into the social media space as a brand.  The money is still there to be made–but now, its made on smart, real time information rather than reliance solely on surveys and focus groups.

The question is whether the old school mad men are going to get on board or risk losing their clients to the new school agencies that understand the power of social media for the brand management–for now and in the future.

If you want to know what tools are out there, how to use them and why, be sure to sign up  ”Tools Week” presented by the Social Media Academy in November.  You can lean all about it here: http://bit.ly/179bs7

28 Aug

The New Resume: If you want the job, your social media presence matters

Posted by Adrienne in Business, HR, Social Media, Work & Career. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

I was part of a webinar panel this morning hosted by the Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia_academy.com) called the Career & Knowledge Series.  Although  it is perhaps a  bit self serving to say so (since I’m on faculty there), it was a great webinar with solid information/tips/expert advice on how to approach careers and HR within the 21st century social media environment. (And hey, I was only a minor speaker this morning!)

A couple of key points: 

  • No one cares about your Resume and CV anymore.  This is a bit of a shocking statement, but think about it:  your resume is a static version of what you’ve done.  Why would an HR recruiter or manager care about that when they can just go to the web and see actively who you are and what you’re doing?  Yes, your experience still matters, but instead of generalizing and putting it on a piece of paper, create a social profile so that HR people can find YOU!  (One guest speaker Phil Rosenberg, quoted the HR stat that 80% of jobs are NOT advertised–so you need to be out there on the social web so the people with the jobs can come your way.)

 

  • A social media presence can help you get the job.  With a social media presence, you can tell people who you are and what your expertise is via blogging, dialoguing with others, creating slide presentations and sharing them, tweeting about you, your interests and being a resource for others, etc.  All of these tools help you build and reinforce your online identity.  Now, someone who has one of those unadvertised jobs (or hoepfully many someone’s) are going to be falling over themselves to get to you because they feel they know you and you are a great fit for their company and their job opening.

 

  • You avoid social media at your own (job/career) peril.  Face it, with the cultural shift in work that is taking place  and the generational shift that is bringing new technology, new values and new ideas into the workplace with the new generation of workers–you will quickly become irrelevant to HR people who are seeking workers from the social web.  Social media is a social reality for young people.  Even some of them don’t like it , but they know that just like we don’t always enjoy “working for the man”, it is what it is.  And since they are the up and coming workforce, their reality becomes our cultural and business reality as well – so social reality is THE reality.  A few notes on the changing work culture that we have seen at play in our lives:  only 35% of workers actually work in an office or a cubicle anymore; people are working from home, on the road, etc…we have outsourcing, homeshoring, freelancing and every permutation in between, we use technology (email) and can’t imagine life without it.  These are real changes, people.  Adapt and adopt, don’t abdicate!

 

  • How you build your presence is important.  A few tips include:
    • Get on linked in and don’t just post a resume, join groups of people in your area of expertise, whether that’s basketweaving or IT. Start talking about what you know–and yes, people care!
    • Be yourself!  If you fake it, people will find out and call you on it–or not.  Either way, it can kill your credibility.  Be truthful about your experiences, your expertise, your values, etc.
    • Join Twitter and follow people in your area.  There’s a lot of junk in the world, so keep the junk out of your twitter life by following people relevant to you, people who can be a resource for you, people who can expand your network and your scope of the world.  Then, be a resource for them, too.  Send them good stuff, tweet about important things happening.  Retweet important stuff.  If you need some help setting up on twitter, visit my Twitter Primer (http://is.gd/n6uO).
    • Use the same photo wherever you are – but please, not too stuffy!  We know you clean up well, but just a photo of you, not your suit and tie, okay?  Having the same photo everywhere helps consistency–like having a personal brand of sorts. 
    • Create a slide show about yourself or some of the work you’ve done and share it with the world so they can see it.  Point to this when people (aka recruiters) want to know more about you.

Okay, so these are just a few of the things discussed.  If you want to find out more, check out the following resources:

http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/html/us-knowledgeseries_career_0828.cfm 

http://www.recareered.blogspot.com (great for people changing careers)

http://www.linkedin.com (it’s okay – just update your profile now and join some relevant groups!)

http://www.twitter.com (it isn’t a fad. if you want the job, just do it…)

http://www.slideshare.com (check it out.  you know you want to.)

Bottom Line:  a social presence is the New Resume. IF YOU WANT THE JOB, BUILD ONE!

8 May

Social Media from a Functional Perspective

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Community, Life, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , .

SO, you wanna be my friend on Facebook because we met virtually on Linkedin and we follow each other on Twitter?  More than likely, I’ll “ignore” your request.  No hesitation required.

“Gasp!  That is SO RUDE!  How can you IGNORE people!”

Glad you asked.  Here’s the deal: I use social media tools functionally.  This means that I use Facebook for friends and some closer acquaintances, Linkedin for business connections and Twitter for research/social broadcasting to the masses that may care.  In essence, I put boundaries around my use of these spaces.  Yes, I put them in a box!

Why?  Because I’m a realist. We all have personas and roles/different hats that we wear – employee, customer, friend, spouse, parent, child, neighbor, board member, etc, etc.  How many of us can really be all things to all people all the time and feel comfortable?  The research says very few of us.  We need to be able to let down our hair with friends and not worry about colleagues who might use the facebook info for alterior purposes.  We need to show a professional side when networking.  It’s healthy to have boundaries.  And it’s okay to say NO to those who want to (wittingly or unwittingly) breach those boundaries.  (You can even say it nicely.) 

I like my social interactions to be relatively clear.  That said, here’s a few bullet points as to the advantages of using social media functionally as opposed to all mashed together.

  • Allows for Authentic Communication.  Let’s be real for a minute, here.  Are you really gonna say what you think of work on Facebook if some of your not-really-friends-but-I-work-with-them colleagues are able to see it?  Probably not.  There’s too much to risk, whether from misinterpretation or dissemination of that info beyond Facebook or that it offends one of your colleagues for whatever reason.  So, if you don’t have any colleagues as friends, and only your friends are your Facebook friends, you can communicate authentically with reduced risk.  The same logic goes for people who have never really been your friends but now want to add you to their Facebook lists.  Maybe they are being nosey and just want more info on you.  Maybe they just want to add to their own army of friends for popularity sake.  Maybe they are secret stalkers.  Who knows?  But more importantly, who cares?  They are not really friends and may hamper your inclination to be real with those who really do care about you–which robs you of authentic socializing within your own circle!  Bottom line:  Only add real friends and then be real with them.

 

  • You Save Face.  What does that mean?  Well, how many of your colleagues really care what you ate for dinner or that you are potty training your youngest or that you have a leak in your basement?  These are a few of the mundane status updates that you might put into Facebook because your real friends will care–either because they are far away and it helps them keep up with you on a more daily basis or because they do keep up with you on a daily basis and these are the things you talk about.  Your colleagues on the other hand, might think less of you–your larger than life work persona may shrink a bit in the translation from work to Facebook.  The alternative?  Keep connected with colleagues  in environments that foster business type interactions such as networking and project development, brainstorming and the like.  Add them to your Linkedin network and chatting with them via Twitter or another business community will allow you to still be SOCIAL with them, but not at the risk of  TMI (too much information).

 

  • Boundaries Keep You Healthy.  All the social juggling that we are only beginning to do in this new social web of ours is only going to increase as the tools increase–and it’s mind frazzling!  By using these tools functionally, you can keep your sanity, have real conversations, maintain your personas within your roles as employee/friend/spouse, etc, and enjoy yourself!  And that, my friend, goes a long way toward maintaining mental health in a twitterspeed world.

A few people have criticized my Functional Social Media perspective, accusing me of being less authentic or less social and kind of a control freak, since you can’t really control who shows what to whom and why.  To my critics, I say reread my benefits above, know that I am NOT advocating less social activity - I AM ADVOCATING FOR DIRECTED SOCIAL ACTIVITY,  and that if this approach doesn’t appeal to you, don’t do it.

I will offer this prediction:  more and more “niche” social media tools will debut in the next 3-5 years and I’m betting that they will be more functionally oriented…business style social media communities for project management collaboration, neighborhood and PTA type social media sites will pop up to help foster engagement in those areas and provide tools to assist, etc etc.  There will be entertainment/reality show type social media tools and gameshow types of tools…all of this will allow us to be more social, but in niche oriented, directed ways.  Just a prediction.

Final word: the next time you feel compelled to add a not-really-a-friend to your FRIEND list – stay strong, hold fast to those healthy boundaries and dare to say no to them.  But hey,  if they will increase your social capital at work,  invite them to connect with you on LinkedIn or follow you on Twitter. Keep it social, Keep it real, Keep it all FUNCTIONAL.

21 Apr

How is Twitter like Crack? Let me count the ways…

Posted by Adrienne in Business, Community, Life, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Since Oprah deemed Twitter mainstream this week , it seems everyone has now joined up.  Super.  Now we can have a whole nation addicted to twitter. 

“I’m not addicted to Twitter,” you say.  Uh huh.  Then clearly you don’t know how to use it.

For those on twitter who use it, twitter provides instant access to relevant (and irrelevant) information.  You want to know how to use it?  Type “twitter primer” into twitter search and all sorts of instant info on how to use twitter will come up.  You follow people who are HR professionals?  Then you’re already getting a live stream of all you can digest info on HR, social media and HR, Jobs, how to find jobs, how to hire, how to fire, etc, etc, etc.   

That said, I kinda hate twitter’s question, “what are you doing right now?” because it’s pretty obvious: I’M TWEETING.  I think the question should be, “what value can you add to the conversation?”  because most people are talking about the information, the links to info, the blogs, the news and the trends.  And while what you had for dinner last night may get posted and read, it is very unlikely that unless you are Oprah, Ashton Kutcher or Larry King, that anyone will ReTweet this information–or become your follower because of it.

But I digress: back to comparing twitter to crack.  Here are my top 3 reasons why Twitter is like Crack:

 1.  The “Follower” High.  Yep.  This thing is a crazy, incessant game.  You want to be influential?  You want people to care what you tweet?  Then you want followers–and that, my friend, is a game.  It requires constant tweeting.  It requires the right kind of tweeting.  It requires you to follow the right people and the right people to follow you.  But once you get your game on, you’re hooked.  After all, who doesn’t love the idea of people following them?  It’s a huge boost to the ego–and the more followers, the bigger the ego boost.  “I just want 500 followers,” you’ll tell yourself.  Until you reach that.  And then you’ll just want 1,000.  Or 5,000.  One woman I follow wants 4,000 followers by this Friday. Really.  She tweeted it.  And once you reach your number, it isn’t enough.  You’ll want more.  You’ll crave more.  You’re ego will tell you that you need more…

2. The Adrenaline Overload.  Stuff flies through twitter so fast that you can’t catch it all.  And it isn’t always pretty because it is SO FAST.  How long does it take to type 140 characters?  Shorten a long URL?  Retweet that tiny url? Send a #followfriday shout out?    About 3 seconds.  Maybe 5.  And you don’t want to miss your window to respond, to retweet the good stuff, to influence a new follower or a high impact follower–after all, you’re ego wants more followers.  So you send stuff fast, as fast as you can and the adrenaline is flowing and you keep tweeting and tweeting and twee—If you like fast things, be sure you can handle this. You don’t want to turn into the cautionary tale of the twit who died of adrenaline overdose from speedy tweeting.

 3. The Need for Stream (aka the constant craving).  If you’re a twitter addict, you have tweetdeck or seesmic.  With these tools, you see everyone of your friends tweets instantly and retweet so fast it will make your head spin (as previously discussed).  A little box pops up and tells you when someone has tweeted, or even better, has retweeted your tweet!  And since you know that there’s a chance some good info is coming your way any second, you can’t pull yourself away from the tweet stream even for a second in case you miss something good.  Really, just one more.  Okay, one more.  No, the next one will be a RT, you know it will be…  and just like that, you’re unemployed because you didn’t get any work done for all the twitter time…and your butt got a bit bigger, too, from sitting in front of that screen all day and night and not moving around for fear of missing something.  True addicts be warned! This could happen to you!

People, this is bound to get ugly. Twitter isn’t like the blog you haven’t updated for three years because you can’t think of what to say for three paragraphs.  It isn’t like youtube that takes you from the targeted to the inane via slow loading videos.  It isn’t like your shopping websites that lure you in but take your money.  Twitter is fast, relevant, ego-satiating and probably most addicting of all:  it’s FREEEEEEE!  

Uh-oh.  With a value proposition like that, there better be some twitter rehab business models in the works!

9 Apr

Great is the Enemy of Good (aka Getting It Done!)

Posted by Adrienne in Life, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Like so many of us, I like things done right. But sometimes that translates into not getting things done at all because doing it right turns into some monumental, earth eclipsing plan that would take more hours, manpower, and money than recreating NASA. Why? “Because this thing is NEW, it’s innovative, it’s gotta be done RIGHT!” I say to myself. “I can’t just schlep through this…it will take time…”

Or I’ve just given myself an excuse not to do it at all.

There are days I worry about missing something so much that it paralyzes my ability to produce anything. I worry about my audience – who will read what I’m writing? Who will critique my research? What if everyone laughs and points? What if?? Those are not good days. My grandmother had a saying on her wall which I attribute to some of my foundational thinking on perfectionism: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest; until your good is better and your better, best.” Wow. I wonder if the guy who wrote that even bothered getting up in the morning. Like Sisyphus, that daily rock of perfectionism is bound to get heavy…and keep us from really getting things done.

And then enters Social Media – blogging, twitter, facebook, online access to what we said yesterday because nothing ever, ever gets erased once it is put online–where pretty much anything we do in our lives in any sort of public space is open for others to see, analyze, critique, point to and laugh at. And they will. And they do. And then I realize something-something a bit profound for me, but probably talked about a lot in those “worst case scenario” books. I realize that having the world as a stage is in some ways a huge relief.

Social Media gives us all (or most all in this land of ours) an even playing field to be criticized or cheered. When we are all on stage together, there is a transparency that relieves this burden of “what will they think” because we are all thinking the same thing: “hey, I hope I don’t get too much ridicule up here.” And because we all are thinking that, we are more real with each other, and probably kinder. And through being transparent over time I’ve gotten a tougher skin…I can handle a bit more than I could before-because I don’t feel like I’m so alone in not being perfect. You aren’t either, and I know that on this social media stage.

Which brings me to my title: Great is the Enemy of Good. Yes, yes, Jim Collins, Good to Great and blah, blah, blah. I agree with Collins on many counts, but my point is not to counter his point – it is to say that with greater transparency and speed via social media, we are going to make mistakes-all of us-and we shouldn’t fear the mistakes. We should make them and JUST KEEP MOVING FORWARD. We should, at the expense of the immense Perfect Plan, just get things done. Doing a good job beats getting nothing done any day. I have a friend who is wonderfully creative, disciplined and productive. I asked her one time how she did things and she said, “You know, stuff gets done with a lot of daily plodding along.” Really? You plod along, too? You don’t do things perfectly in a flash of genius on a daily basis? Add wisdom to that list of her attributes. Plodding isn’t greatness-but it’s good enough to get things done.  And hey, those things may turn out to be great-but even if they don’t, they are done.

At 12:06 pm each day I listen to The Writer’s Almanac on the radio. Garrison Keillor talks about what happened on this day in history, gives a bit of biographical info on people and reads a poem. It’s a short radio segment, but one that marks the time for me each day. He ends each segment with the phrase,” Be well, Do good work, and Keep in touch.” Did you hear that? He didn’t exalt us to great work but GOOD work. His phrase is a daily reminder to strive not for greatness or perfection, but for goodness-and for getting things done.

So, we’re going to misspell a few words on our blog posts. We’ll probably use bad grammar, too, at some point. We might get misinterpreted and have to say things over again in case our point gets missed or skewed. We might get laughed at. To this I say: so what? At least we’re doing things-GOOD things.

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