Part 4 – Social Media for Business – When do I begin?

Did you make a resolution for the coming year or did you simply not bother because you felt it was just a waste of time and energy?

We have just started a new year and it is traditionally when we take some time away from our business. It is the time to reflect on what we have achieved over the past year and affirm what our expectations and goals are for the coming year. Most importantly though, and often overlooked, it is the time to set some achievable actions that will turn the goals into reality.

Few would claim last year was an easy one for business. Taking an optimistic point of view, it has forced us to look long and hard at our business models and come up with ways to improve on the bottom line. As a result, if you have made good decisions then ultimately you and your business will benefit as the economy improves.

No matter what business sector you represent you must have acknowledged that your relationship with the customer is an important factor to your sustainability. Foot traffic and frontage are no longer a primary solution, customers want to know they are not only getting value but they are themselves valued. To achieve this we must listen, we must communicate, engage and share our expertise in a way that was not only unattainable to previous generations but unimaginable.

Saying Social Media is not for me is just the same as those before you refusing to use the telephone, the fax, the mobile phone, email and websites as they became accessible. Sure your business may survive without some or all of these things but you will be a rare and probably much endangered exception to the rule. Social Media, like past advancements in technology, are marketing and communications channels that customers expect you to use, for their convenience not your own.

If you haven’t done so already, the time to incorporate Social Media into your customer communications and marketing strategy is now. It is not a quick fix, in fact quite the opposite. Building your networks, preparing your platforms to align with you brand and values and developing the resources to ensure you can maintain meaningful and ongoing interaction is extremely time consuming. Cheesy analogies of conquering huge obstacles by taking small steps may be appropriate but I will assume by reading this far you have got the point. The sooner you come to term with Social Media’s potential and your advantages and limitations the better off you will be in the long term.

So do start now, take small and careful steps. Get some advice, read, follow and friend those in the know. Do start to watch and listen to what is going on and only then you will begin to understand what the opportunities and risks that relate to you and your business are.

There is no one hat that fits all, thankfully that is what will continue to give us our uniqueness and our point of difference.

Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas and thanks for all you have done for us.

Merry Christmas and thank you from the team at MondayMorning.Biz for the part you have played in our past year.

Given this was our first year under the new brand MondayMorning we have been pleasantly surprised at how much engagement we have had from a diverse cross section of businesses despite the doom and gloom of the global financial recession.

A big part of our success was due to how many of you realised immediately that the online communication platforms and Social Media strategies we are presenting on in our webinars, traditional workshops, consultations and conference engagements were integral to the future of your own businesses.

We have had some notable achievements over the past months including becoming a Partner Patron of Business Mentors NZ, preferred supplier and associate of The Corporate Toolbox and webinar provider for their popular “Meet the Expert Series”. We are regular blog contributors to Business Blogs, been busy working alongside organisations like the Business Excellence Foundation NZ, The National Speakers Association of NZ and the Regional Tourism Organisations of NZ to name just a few.

We are very excited about moving into the New Year as we will be placing even greater emphasis on Social Media Strategies for business. If you know of anyone who needs guidance and hands on assistance in this area tell them to give us a call.

Again thank you for your part in making us a success and we look forward to working alongside you in 2010 and beyond.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from

Russell, Roger, Helen and Craig

P.S. Oh it wouldn’t be Christmas without a little gift. Kick your business New Year off with a FREE webinar from the MondayMorning and Corporate Toolbox Team in a 1 hour no charge “Meet the Expert” webinar on the topic of “How to make money online” (January 27th at 9am – book now we are limiting spaces)

More info and registration form here

The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations

As so often in life and certainly on the web wisdom comes from the insight of others. This is from the online marketing guru Seth Godin and sums up in just a few words what we need to understand when we start engaging in the Social Media space.

It's a process, not an event.

Dating is a process. So is losing weight, being a public company and building a brand.

On the other hand, putting up a trade show booth is an event. So are going public and having surgery.

Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul.

More of Seth’s wisdom can be found on his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Social Media Return on Investment Examples and Video

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) with Social Media is not an easy proposition given the complexity of what the medium potentially represents. What it is not is just another channel of advertising or promotion. Because of this we cannot compare with traditional mediums so how do we measure it?

Many of us are still learning ways to make it work, many are still watching from the sidelines and an alarming majority still haven’t even considered it as part of their business.

This video from the team at www.socialnomics.net has a few examples of the thought leaders that stuck out their necks and taken giant leaps forward (and a catchy tune to boot)

Part 3: Social Media for Business – What on earth is it?

I have approached this series first looking at “Why bother with Social Media”, now we move to “What it is”. Social Media is not a single product nor is it a one size fits all process. Social Media is less of a thing and more of a “way” of engaging with your stakeholders.

To appreciate the full benefit of this medium you need to take a step back and review the way that you approach your business communication at every level. There are plenty of reasons why Social Media and Social Networking need to be considered with some urgency for your business but there is one that stands out and should be reason enough;

“The way your customers are talking and listening has changed so if you don’t want to loose them to a savvier competitor you’d better keep up.”

There has been a paradigm shift in the way we access information and make our purchasing decisions both domestically and commercially. This has been the result of our relatively recent access to the internet at high speed (broadband), access to reliable sources of up to the minute information (Social Media) and real time collaborative discussion with our peers (Social Networking).

No longer are we at the whim of the PR and advertising executives who traditionally influenced our spending by coming up with clever slogans, catchy jingles or by dominating the premium media spots on TV, magazines and newsprint. In today’s highly competitive consumer society, when we want to purchase, to engage professional services, to travel or to be entertained we will ask our friends online and consult with our virtual networks as to what they would recommend and suggest. The key point here is if you are not part of that conversation you cannot be an influence to its direction and relevance to your own business.

There are many definitions of Social Media; here are a couple that I think are adequate for this conversation:

Social Media: are collections of data and information that is developed collaboratively and/or shared interactively amongst individuals or groups. Examples include Blogs, Wikis, and shared Bookmarks.

Social Networking: is the use of process and technology to support the discovery, formation and maintenance of personal and professional relationships. Examples include Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.

From a business perspective Social Media is a double edged sword. The majority of platforms are free and yet to get the best out of them there is a significant time investment required which comes at a cost to internal resourcing. There is a good argument for external outsourcing of this service but that will have to wait for a later post.

There are a few don’ts that have to be considered from the outset to avoid a very costly mistake made by many before you. Your brand and its values have been built up over many years so do not hand your most precious communications opportunity to the office junior just because he/she has a thousand Facebook friends and “knows all about it”. Your brand image must be maintained and communication made to a standard that reflects your goals, this can be undone and turned against you with poor judgement and business inexperience.

Don’t be too hasty to engage but engage you must. First watch and listen, in time you will be in a position to contribute and ultimately benefit. This needs to be approached as a long term strategy that takes planning and sound business advice that aligns directly with the existing goals of your organisation.

Here we expose the essential key to success, “strategy” and “planning” are fundamental to an effective social media campaign. The sad reality for many businesses is they have done little, and sometimes nothing in the way of formal planning making its application confusing, ineffective and potentially demoralising to all involved.

The best approach to any strategy session is to engage someone external who knows how to facilitate the entire procedure, to guide the conversation and bring out the most in every rank and personality that has anything to do with your operation.

Engagement and participation of the entire team is important, they all have something different to offer and if engaged in the process will take ownership and be a valuable contributor and active participant in the organisations future.

What does this have to do with Social Media you may ask, have we steered off subject? If you think we have then you are not in this for the long haul and will become quickly disillusioned with Social Media as a serious communications and promotional platform. Once you have a clear direction on what it is you want to achieve for your business only then can look to what products will suit your needs best.

Part 2: Social Media for Business – Why Bother?

You want to make more money don’t you? No matter what business you are in or what industry you represent the majority of us have one goal - to provide a product or service to a customer in exchange financial remuneration. It may be an over simplification but the fundamental exchange of goods for cash is what makes our collective survival and sustainability possible – both as a business and as individuals.

Business can be difficult even in the best of times, there are few of us, especially during a global financial recession, who can say that things are easy and life is a breeze right now. When times are good there is a tendency for corners to be cut, product quality and service levels to be not so closely monitored and staff or management not always being expected to perform to their greatest potential. Worst of all is customer service is way down on the list of priorities. Its times like now we start to comprehend the impact this is having on our business.

Taking any existing customer or potential client for granted is a big mistake.

Human nature and to some extent situational circumstances creates customer loyalty and with it desirable repeat business and referral. Look to your own purchasing habits to validate this. Where do you buy your bread and milk? Where do you fuel your car? Where do you get your hair cut? Now ask yourself, why?

Is it the quality of the service, the product, the price, or is it that you are made to feel valued when you give them your custom? What would it take for this purchasing habit to be changed? Would it be the result of their poor performance, bad service, a betrayal of the trust or would it be that someone else has made you feel more valued or offered you a better deal?

Customer loyalty is primarily about the relationship you have with the person who you exchange your hard earned cash with, you may even pay a premium price for your milk when you know the shopkeeper welcomes you by name, takes the time to listen or does something out of the blue that makes you or your family feel special or important. It may be as simple as stocking your favourite ice-cream, giving the kids a sweet free of charge once in a blue moon or remembering something you told him in passing like the date of your birthday.

I don’t have to convince you this is true, you know it is. So why do we fail to apply this simple logic to our own businesses and how we manage our own customer base.

The way we buy, the way we communicate has recently changed dramatically as a result of Social Media because we have a global communication network that never existed even a few years ago at our disposal. This change in the way we use the internet and the World-Wide-Web is why we now collectively refer to it as Web 2.0. Accessing this information and the live and interactive opinion of others is easilier, increasingly affordable, ubiquitous and portable. The size of this customer market - the digitally aware and proactive - is now too large to ignore and growing at an exponential rate. To put some perspective on this, if Facebook were a country it would be the 4th most populated in the world.

The question proposed here is, why should you bother with Social Media for your business?

Put simply, ignore it at your peril because leaving it to later may just be to late.

Your existing and potential customers are seeking the opinion and getting feedback from each other on many, if not most of their buying decisions right now. They are doing this via Facebook, in Twitter on YouTube and in their own blogs.

Paradoxically it’s the old fashioned values of maintaining conversations, keeping customers updated and informed, making them feel valued and allowing your advocates tell others about your great service is what makes the emerging social media communications strategies a success in both PR and financial return for businesses of all sizes.

The number one rule to remember is that social media are above all, a social tool. Our usual social norms apply just as well in the offline world, and this means treating customers with respect, being open and transparent, and being interesting and engaging.

Sure its going to take time, there are learning curves to be experienced and some tough decisions to be made - but the only thing you can’t afford to do is wait. Social Media is a long game, not a quick fix. If you are not participating, like the corner store who doesn’t understand the value of good service, your customers will simply drive on by and spend their money elsewhere.

Part 1: Social Media for Business - why, what, when, who, and how?

It’s not surprising business people are confused by Social Media. It’s been thrust upon us and heralded by some as the only way to communicate and the demise of traditional media. Yet do any of us really understand why we should bother, let alone what we are dealing with or how this will make a difference to our business?

I have been engaged in online marketing for many years; I have seen what can be done with good online marketing campaigns and witnessed plenty of failures. Websites are fundamentally easy to understand; they are a system and a product, more aligned with traditional media than this emerging new media landscape.

Websites have been part of the business toolkit since the first one was published some 18 years ago and since then they have essentially remained the same - structured information portals with a set of predetermined outcomes, “See Me”, “Try Me”, “Buy Me” … me, me, me.

The fundamental change as a result of Social Media is you. You are no longer an observer, you are a participant, you have a voice and your voice can make quite a difference to the conversation that is taking place … you, you, you.

Because Social Media and the endless array of applications that support it are so new there are few trusted, let alone tested best practice methodologies in place for us to apply to our businesses with any degree of confidence.

We are starting to see conflicting messages adding the fuel of uncertainty about “is this for me” with stories of damaged reputations and brands pouring water on the initial fires of enthusiasm we may have experienced.

Yet the unprecedented growth in the global use of Social Media is hard to ignore for any opportunity hungry entrepreneur and commercially savvy business person. In essence this is why many of us are struggling with the concept of Social Media engagement from a business perspective; it seems we are damned if we do and more damned if we don’t. Perhaps the answer eludes us because we haven’t yet determined what the question is.

One question we do have to ask ourselves right now is - what will be the short and long term impact on my business if I do nothing?

The greatest burden to most business people is their lack of spare time. We are so busy creating new products or dealing with customer demands that adding something new to the business model invariably won’t be on anyone’s top priority list. To be attractive in the short term existing problems need to be eliminated or improved cash flow achieved and is Social Media able to deliver on either of these demands?

I have been experimenting with blogs, managed several twitter accounts for myself and clients, I have experimented with social networks ranging from LinkedIn to Facebook, hosted webinars, dabbled with video and podcasts, listened to the experts and spoken to the uninitiated. The outcome of this is I still have more questions than answers.

To create some clarity for myself, and I hope for you too I am going to approach this as series of questions related to Social Media and how it applies to business over the coming weeks. Why, what, when, who, and last but by no means least, how?

Being a series on Social Media and its impact on our businesses your involvement is not only important but essential. Please do not hesitating in giving me your thoughts, ideas and opinions so we can share and learn together.