Tag Archive - Social Enterprise

Big names failing at social media

March 21, 2011 in Corporate, Policies, Social Media with 1 Comment

Recent report published in the Telegraph highlights, again, how many of the FTSE 100′s continue to  have a lack of planning when it comes to social media. Many of them are on different, popular platforms but with little linkage with their corporate sites. Why is this? Are they just so disconnected within their media planning that the T’s don’t get crossed? Or is it more that they are not yet sure if or how they should be involved in social? I believe it is the latter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting up a Facebook fan page can be done within an hour and a Twitter account in minutes. So, this is the easiest ‘I’ to dot for team members in marketing. I can see the task list from last week’s agenda; “get onto social platforms”. Well, that was quick to accomplish with little effort before heading out to the pub on Friday. Just in time.

“Getting into the social world is simple. Engaging in the social world requires planning”

But when you read from this report that only 16% of the FTSE 100 update their Facebook page on a weekly basis. And  missing the target completely, 22 of the 23 companies which Tweet regularly post only corporate tweets. Therefore missing their potential customer base completely. Obviously there is the need for a social media strategy here.

Companies need to sit down and have an informed discussion around what social means to them and their business. If they decide social media outlets are for them, they then need to develop a strategy which includes their objectives, understanding financial impact, what internal processes this will require to support all while focusing on what is the value to the customer. Once they have this in place, then they can approach their social media endeavors honestly. Without this, we will read the same reports coming out next year. Even worse, according to Richard Coope in this report, those larger companies risk losing their positions taken over by smaller ones.

Original article: Telegraph – Majority of FTSE 100 ‘fail’ at social media

 

Initial Tweetchat experience

March 10, 2011 in Social Media, Social Software with 4 Comments

I joined in to my first tweet chat this week and was not too sure what to expect from it.Tweet Chat

I had seen a tweet just 30 minutes before it was to begin which reminded me of one I had seen the day before. The subject was “Social Media and Customer Service – Working Together for a Better Bottom Line”. Amber Cleveland and her blog @Amber Cleveland WordPress explains a bit more.

The invitation was this:

“Join the social media tweetchat at 1pm ET, Wednesday, March 9th.  The hashtag for this conversation is #SMChat”

And the questions which were going to be asked:

  1. What is the best practice to develop customer service policy that includes social media?
  2. How do you train your team to provide customer service using social media?
  3. How do you take your customer service to the next level using social media?
  4. What are the competitive advantages that can be gained by providing customer service via social media?

So, I ignored the kids here at home (was 7pm start for me here) and cranked up my Hootsuite, added a feed filtering on the hashtag and immediately saw the first people “introducing” themselves to the  gathering crowd. People like @SourcePOV, @SMSJoe, @thehealthmaven, @blogbrevity and more sent their “hellos” all followed by the #smchat tagline so everyone could follow. Who are these people and what kind of funny event will this be? I had heard of twitter chats before, or better I had read people reports (like this) of their fun on a twitter chat but I really could not image what would follow.

Just after the hour started @ambercleveland posted the first question to the Twittersphere and the race began. It started a bit slow around the first question and I hesitated from my comfortable, observer role before making my first tweet with the said identifier. But once I did and the first RT (retweet) of my comment appeared a few seconds later I felt more at ease. The second question came and the chatter or better twittering increased in speed and I began wishing I could type faster. Adding ‘@’ and ‘#’ within my lines is not a regular exercise and I felt really slow, but that did not matter. Even when the second question was well underway others were still joining and commenting on the first. This did not seem to bother anyone.

By the time the third question came and went I saw a tweet I had to also RT

I have no idea who @eamcc but I could imagine they were sitting there with a cup of tea untouched for the entire hour. I tweeted about 24 times that hour, more than I have in most DAYS. I learned a few things during this exercise.

  • I don’t type fast enough
  • A good twitter tool is a must
  • Don’t worry that the stream doesn’t read like a book. I am back at it a day later to capture some of the raisins.
  • Be polite to the others but also be challenging. This really gets the conversation going.
  • Use retweeting or direct messaging to add importance or get a sidebar going.
  • Things may be crazy fast, reading, replying, retweeting but the tea can be remade.
  • New contacts will be made and who knows in the heat of it where that will lead to.

Will I do this again? You betcha I will.

Updated: added the transcript now that I know how. And now I know who is behind @eamcc.

Transcript for #smchat_20110309

End of the Contact Center

February 24, 2011 in Social Media with 2 Comments

Prediction by 2016,

Social Media will bring an end to the call center as we know it today within 5 years

The social customer is entering the array of networks available at lightening speed. Companies are beginning to rethink what a social enterprise may look like. Once the confusion settles we will see that employees across the enterprise will be interacting with customers, all servicing their needs. Social media will topple the pillars of many organizations, forcing them to change their structures to meet this new customer.

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The Social Enterprise is not just bringing it to the Contact Center

February 24, 2011 in Social Media with 0 Comments

I was just reading an article by Sheila McGee-Smith on NoJitter and tried to comment but that seems not to be working. Here is the link to the article.

http://www.nojitter.com/blog/229219122

I just spent some time in Berlin at the Call Center World. Yes, it is very Contact Center focused but what I am really missing in this discussion is that Social Media is just a medium, actually we are talking about the Social Customer and how THEY want to work with companies. Just bringing social media into the Contact Center is not equivalent with making it a Social Enterprise. As long as contact centers are not integrated into the larger processes of the enterprise this is just another channel. Real change will only happen when businesses learn that the customer wants to meet them at many levels, not have to pass through hoops at the Contact Center.

Yes, it is a hot topic but we need to broaden the conversation.