Category Archives: Insights

Should Companies Ban Social Media Among Employees?

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should companies ban social media?

Recently I’ve been noticing more and more companies here in Malaysia putting a barrier around their employees, preventing them from accessing social media tools within the premise. While some go about a complete ban, some left room for the marketing department to roam about freely.

Is that a good move?

It is fully understandable that social media tools especially Facebook, Twitter and blogging can be a huge time waster at work. Employees may be playing games, chatting away or busy updating their personal blogs instead of being ‘productive’ at the workplace. It’s no wonder why companies have to resort to a complete ban.

However, it is also interesting to note that some of these companies are supposedly customer centric, saying that they listen to their customers and etc but at the same time, staying out of social media. Strange indeed.

Blogs (social media) doesn’t get people fired, people get people fired. – Deb Schultz, Altimeter Group

To me, social media should not be banned in a company at all. Instead, companies should establish clear guidelines on how social media can be used. Companies such as Dell takes social media very seriously and goes to the extend of training their employees in this area and they have been utmost successful.

IBM takes a different approach by allowing their employees to write their social media policy for them. Sounds absurd? Not really, considering the fact that since the employees will be the ones using social media, they should be the ones setting the guidelines. In fact, they are more likely to keep to it if they formed it themselves. Plus giving your employees this liberty may cultivate an innovative culture in your company.

Some companies don’t even have rules to regulate social media usage. They simply let their employees do what they like, as long they perform in the end.

So.. What’s the Conclusion?

There is really no hard and fast rule in implementing / regulating social media in a company. I really do prefer both Dell and IBM’s way of doing it but it also depends on your comfort level as a business owner in the industry. Remember, social media can act as both an asset and a liability to your brand. Experiment with techniques and find out what’s best for your environment – social media only works when you try.

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 2)

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Now that you’ve understood why blogs are vital to your business instead of having a traditional website, you may have in mind to make full use of them to sell your products and services, perhaps even going to the extend of writing 1-page sales pitches that may have worked for you in the past.

Unfortunately, sales pitches does not work on blogs – especially when you’re just getting started.

Why Don’t Sales Pitches Work?

Blogging, or rather, social media is not about sales. It’s about customer engagement, it’s about relating and listening to your target audience and to have a human presence. Customers today do not want to be sold to – they want to be heard. Writing a full fledge sales pitch will only drive people away than to convert them.

Err.. But Isn’t It All About Making Sales?

That may be true for your business but on social media, I personally believe that sales is secondary. Yes, you would ultimately want to convert customers and make sales but upright sales pitches would do more harm than good. There are, after all, various ways and techniques of conversions on social media.

leading the pack with your blog

How to Make Sales With My Blog? Here are 3 Steps to Get You Started!

#1: Give and you shall receive

“What? I thought we’re talking about making sales!?”

Yes, we are – the long term yet effective way and blogs are just the right medium to do it. Provide value to your readers consistently to establish your own presence first. Write about what you do best, industry updates and share your experiences with past clients.

During this stage, you’re actually creating a platform for your business to reach out in the future – take time in doing this as it is your biggest asset!

#2: Create exposure

“Oh come on, get on with the sales already!”

Blogs can give your business an exposure beyond traditional means. With the amount of blog syndication tools out there and with search engine optimization (SEO), the amount of exposure is massive. Now, all you need to do is to create opportunities (or window opportunities) for sales to happen.

Some use exclusive offers, contests, VIP passes, weekend giveaways and more to gain more exposure AND create an opportunity for your audience to get to know you better through your products. In other words, you’re creating leads for sales!

#3: Promotion

“Are we there yet?”

There are various ways of promoting your products / services through your blog and one of the common ways of doing so is by producing an e-book. An e-book allows you to pack more of your expertise to your audience, benefiting them and at the same time, creates an opportunity for you to upsell your products. It can be a seminar, workshop, demo sessions, trials and more.

So, What About Sales?

As you can see, social media is an excellent tool to drive sales and increase conversions, especially with blogs. If you’re STILL looking to make plain sales out of thin air for your business, then perhaps you may want to consider other alternatives :)

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 1)

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If I had to pick which social media tool is the most beneficial for businesses, I would say BLOGS will come first. Nevermind whether it is Blogger, WordPress or the likes – blogs, in general is perhaps one of the most important social media tool for businesses today.

Why Should Your Business Blog

Your business may have an active Facebook or Twitter page going but like it or not, Facebook and Twitter are great engagement tools and not necessarily the best tool in disseminating information and content, especially chunky ones to your customers.

3 Reasons on Why Your Business Should Blog:

1. It is your HOME BASE

Traditional websites are slowly moving into a blog environment because businesses see the value in providing consistent updates and additional value to their customers instead of having a well designed, static information website.

Having a blog (or in this case, the centre of content) can act as the primary place of information for your business where you can share what’s happening behind the scenes, updates on upcoming plans, interesting news and even insights in the industry your business is in – basically content that adds value to your prospects and customers.

Are you driving your customers home?

Combine this with your engagement tools such as Facebook and Twitter, now your fans and followers will be able to find out and benefit more from you. This can easily be done by including a link to your blog on tweets and status updates.

Find out more about having a home base here!

2. Expert in the field

Now you may think that you can also establish a home base with a traditional website. True, but one thing blogs triumphs is that through your sharing of content, you are able to change the perception of your prospects and customers towards your business.

How so? A traditional website focuses on designs to create an impression. A blog focuses on content to create an impression. Which lasts longer? Blogs. The more valuable content you put out, the more your target audience will be able to know you and that builds a relationship that your competitor may not have with them.

Everyone is an expert - all you need to do is shareIf you are in business, chances are, you have tons of knowledge and experience in you. If you’re able to share them, that alone will make you an expert in the field – especially in the eyes of your customers. Customers value valuable content and transparency as it also influences buying decisions.

For consumers that are new to your business, a blog will be able to reflect your knowledge and experience in a particular field and in some cases, how active your business is by looking at when was your last update.

3. Low Cost

Guess what, you may already have been blogging and you just do not know about it. You may have been ‘blogging’ on advertorials, press releases, media write ups, newspaper columns, magazine columns and etc to position yourself in the market.

If you’ve been there, you should know that chances like that do not come by very often and sometimes it may cost you. If you’ve haven’t been there, you should also know that such opportunities may not be easy to find and that it will also cost you.

By having a blog, you have these opportunities every single day, at no cost! The only evident cost is your time. Your time to put together your thoughts, research, pen it down and to publish it online. Other than that, it’s literally free!

So, Why Blog?

Given the benefits, why NOT blog? I strongly believe that every industry will be able to benefit from having their very own blog. After all, wherever there is knowledge to something, there is definitely something to share from it, and blogs are the place to share them.

Have blogging been beneficial to you or your business? Do share them by commenting below! :)

Doing Customer Service the Wrong Way

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are you doing customer service the wrong way

Recently I wrote a post on how beneficial social media can be when integrated into customer service operations and I have to share what happened to me –

Some time last week I was intending to purchase a new laptop to replace my old faithful and I landed on the Facebook page of one of Malaysia’s latest I.T. concept stores to drop them an enquiry, making sure that they have what I wanted at hand before I dropped by.

They replied within a couple of hours (11am) and was very helpful by indicating that they only have one particular model left (the one I wanted) and that I can drop by the store and their sales personnel will be able to assist me. I was very happy at this point and decided to head over to their store after lunch.

I arrived at the store at about 3pm and asked about the laptop:

Me: Hi, do you have this particular laptop in stock? (just to double check)
Sales: Yes we do but we are down to the last unit for this model (he pointed to the brochure without me asking – it was what I wanted)
Me: Okay, great, I’ll take it now then.
Sales: (paused for a while) This unit is already reserved by my friend a couple of days back.
Me: Oh? But you mentioned that there is stock. It’s also mentioned to me on Facebook this morning.
Sales: Facebook? I don’t know.. I never check the Facebook page.
Me: Is there anyone I can talk to regarding the post on Facebook?
Sales: I’ve got no idea.

I was shocked and left with no other options by the sales personnel – I left the store and decided to post on their wall again reiterating the situation just to see what will their response be. A reply came about 3 hours later that read, “…our remaining units were reserved moments before your arrival…Much apologies again for the inconvenience caused.”

Well, I could only come up with 3 reasons at that point of time:

1. I was out of luck, having the remaining unitS reserved within the span of 3-4 hours (when the sales personnel said that there was only 1 unit available all along)

2. The sales personnel reported falsely on the availability of stocks to the social media personnel (in which he mentioned that he does not know who manages the Facebook page)

3. Communication breakdown (clearly the case)

The Conclusion

Apart from the major disappointment I experienced, I managed to discover a potential flaw in social media integrations within companies.

“You may have the best social media managers on the job but without proper communication and information, they’re as good as none.”

Remember, social media is all about providing an experience to your customers.

Is It Possible to Hire a PR / Young Person to Manage Your Social Media Presence?

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I’ve been noticing this as a trend lately that’s happening in many companies and businesses within Malaysia. Young grads are being hired for a specific job to find that they are given an additional job description – to manage the company’s social media accounts.

Is this really a smart thing to do?

A young person usually spends their entire day on Facebook, Twitter and blogs therefore they are great candidates to manage the accounts, isn’t it? WRONG. Though it may be true that they are technologically savvy, this does not automatically makes him or her a social media expert with the required capabilities to take on your company’s social media presence.

Likewise for PR Managers, they may be really good at what they do but this does not automatically makes them a social butterfly online. Plus, PR Managers generally have extrovert personalities so keeping them behind a screen to socialize may not work as well as you think it would.

Insisting on using them?

I would not go down this path but if that’s the only choice you have, consider looking up their backgrounds or throwing them a test before adding it to their job description. Check out their Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts to see what they usually talk about (you may even find that they are active only on Facebook games).

If you find that they are actively participating in chats, sharing informative contents, retweeting, creating content and etc – Congratulations! You’ve found your man (or woman)!

If you find that they are actively chatting casually, sharing random contents, talking about the bits and pieces of their life, mostly participating in games and etc – You may not want to bestow them your company’s social media accounts.

What should be done then?

The best for the job is definitely a social media manager or consultant that specializes in social media. One that does not only have the knowledge, but also with the experience to generate ideas, execute and creatively engage with his / her network.

There are tons of articles out there listing the various areas to look for in a social media manager so I won’t go into the details but most of them concur that he / she must have some past experience in the field. It can be personal experiences, various projects / campaigns or past / present clients.

Also, do not hesitate to probe questions to test their knowledge in the field as knowing these can give you an ease of mind and somewhat gauge the potential results thus evaluating whether he or she is worth your money.

So, is it really a ‘no’ to hire a young person / PR to do the job for me?

Never :)

How to: Create Customer Loyalty with 10 cents

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“Do you believe that 10 cents is all it takes to lose a potential loyal customer over your competitor?“

10 cents

I can’t help but to realize how important 10 cent is to both the consumer and the business. No, I’m not talking about price wars between similar products but how far 10 cents can determine whether a customer returns to you.

Have you been into a situation in a restaurant and the bill summed up to say, RM12.10 and the thought comes – “can’t you even give a 10 cent discount?“

If you haven’t, great! But if you have, you’re probably one of the many out there like myself and I have been doing some observation and testing to see how people have been reacting in this situation.

Situation 1

Customer: It’s only 10 cents, do you have really have to charge that?
Business A: Nah, I’ll round it up to RM12 for you. Please come again!

Situation 2

Customer: It’s only 10 cents, do you have really have to charge that?
Business B: Of course! 10 cents go a long way. Please come again! (I actually received this response for word)

Situation 3

Business C: (brings the bill of RM12.10) Hi sir, that will be RM12.00
Customer: (surprised) Oh, here you go.
Business C: Thank you, Please come again!

Looking at these 3 situations, which situation would you like to be in? How would you like going back to the Business B in Situation 2? Sure, 10 cents isn’t a lot and it will indeed go a long way for a business but from the viewpoint of a customer, that is no customer service and creates a negative impression that may determine the buying behavior of that customer – to not come back to you again.

Even worst if that customer decides to use social media as his / her arsenal to vent – more like minded customers will catch the message and perhaps skip you altogether (ouch).

Now before you shove this away and think that it’s no big deal, you may have to think again as customers such of these are not rare. Be prepared for situations such as these and you may just win yourself a loyal customer.

What Can We Learn From 10 cents?

Every cent counts. Every deed you do for your customer counts – whether it is a personalized service, special discounts, freebies, a listening ear, priority service, engaging in small talks or even remembering their names.. it makes a difference and that difference may just be THAT differentiating factor that sets you apart from your competitor.

Have you been in similar situations? I would love to hear them! :)

How to: Integrate Social Media in Offline Operations

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“Is online / social media alone the way forward for your business?“

Being a huge believer of the importance of INTEGRATION instead of implementation, my answer to that is NO. Businesses today are too caught up with the ideology of social media but fail to realize the huge potential social media can bring when integrated into traditional marketing efforts.

It is important for businesses to realize that social media integration does not mean that by having social media presence everything will fall into place. If you take a look at same of these real life integrations of social media with Facebook and Twitter, you’ll find that these companies are successful online because they managed to integrate it into existing OFFLINE business operations.

Here are some integration ideas for you to maximize your marketing potential:

#1: EVENTS + SOCIAL MEDIA

5 Ideas on how to enhance your events with social media on MashableHave an event coming up soon? Whether it is an exhibition, launch or a regular meetup / happening, explore how you can spice up your event with available social media tools. You can use Facebook to share photos leading towards the event to build hype and organize giveaways; use Twitter to share real time updates on what’s happening on the scene and behind the scenes, facilitate tweetchats or setup a Twitter wall at the event with a contest mechanism to build followers; rewarding visitors that check in to your venue on Foursquare or even a treasure hunt!

There is a timely article written on Mashable yesterday on this very topic with 5 ideas on how you can enhance your events with social media. Click on the thumbnail to check it out!

#2: ADVERTISING / PROMO + SOCIAL MEDIA

promotion and advertising on social media

You have a new product or service and is wanting some follower / fan love? Facebook can be used to disseminate information regarding your product or to give out demo units; if you have an existing network, identify strong personas and request for them to review your product and service on blogs; use Twitter to it’s fullest potential by sharing exclusive deals or twouchers (vouchers) to start a string of retweets; perhaps the mayor on Foursquare entitled to a VIP-class treatment of your service?

#3: CUSTOMER SERVICE + SOCIAL MEDIA

customer service on twitterI can’t stress the importance and the effectiveness of customer service using social media. The more active channels you make available for your customers and prospects to approach you, the better.

The 2 common mediums are Facebook and Twitter. If you can capitalize on these 2 you should be in the run of something good. Do not leave questions unattended for days, reply to every enquiry within 1-2 hours consistently and your customers will find GREAT value in your service.

One thing to note is that you should never, ever give out inconsistent / inaccurate information on social media as you could cook up a storm in a matter of minutes, especially if you have a huge network.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even use Twitter to take orders for your business like Coffee Groundz did!

#4: ON-SITE INTERACTIVITY + SOCIAL MEDIA

Who says social media are only limited to virtual interactions? Coca Cola brought the ‘like’ feature on Facebook to life! Check out the video below to see how it happened:

I agree that this setup can be a little too complicated for some to take on but it sure triggers some simpler ideas. A giant photo tagging wall or a mini wall in front of each exhibitor for visitors to ‘post’ on, the only limit is your imagination :)

Have you come across any interesting social media integrations into real life (offline) operations?

Do share them here!

8 Grave Misconceptions About Social Media

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8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media#1 It’s a Fad

Many people still think that social media is just a ‘phase’ and sees social media as secondary – especially businesses. The truth is, social media is here to stay and businesses without a presence will eventually lose a competitive edge against their competitors who are actively on social media. Why?

“Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers. Bryan Weiner, CEO at Digital Agency 360i”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#2 It’s About Having Social Media Profiles Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

Having a profile is just the beginning. It takes time, dedication and commitment to truly harness the benefits of social media. It’s all about building a network online just like how it is traditionally such as through networking events. Attending networking events alone won’t work – you need to communicate, build relationships and engage.

“Social media is like building muscles or running a marathon – results don’t come popping up, it’s long-term but all worth it.”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#3 It’s a Numbers Game

Somehow we tend to take numbers too seriously. The number of followers / fans / friends do matter but the question really is: how engaged are you with your followers? Are they paying attention to what you have to say? What is your true reach? In social media, it’s quality over quantity for followers.

“Please Repeat: Influence is NOT Popularity! Brian Solis, briansolis.com”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#4 It Takes Too Much Time

It takes time, yes. Too much time? It depends on you. It can take as short as 30 minutes a day or the entire day and you are in control of it. The best part about social media is that it is flexible and accessible anywhere as long you’re connected to the web. If you carry a smartphone with you, you can even update on-the-go! I spend about 1 – 1.5 hours daily and random updates throughout the day.

I don’t know about you but to spend only 1 hour daily to stay in touch with your prospects and loyal customers sure sounds like a killer deal to me!

“How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable? Seth Godin, sethgodin.typepad.com”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#5 It Takes an Expert to Do It

If you can handle the computer, surf the web and create a Facebook / Twitter account without much trouble, congratulations, you’re made to be on social media! Too easy to be true? Well, the secret ingredient is PASSION – if you are passionate of your business, all you need to do is to KEEP IT REAL with your followers and fans. By doing so you’ll be putting a human face to your brand, a strong connection to build brand loyalty.

“Don’t worry; skills are cheap, passion is priceless. If you’re passionate about your content and you know it and do it better than anyone else, even with few formal business skills you have the potential to create a million-dollar business. Gary Vaynerchuck, garyvaynerchuk.com”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#6 Guaranteed Results

Do you really believe in guaranteed results? I don’t. Being on social media won’t bring in immediate sales. The same applies to blogging: you won’t make money out of it immediately. Again you’ll need to flex those muscles before you can experience results. Keep your eyes focused on the goal and run (or jog) towards it – just don’t give up!

“Remember this: social media is NOT about profitability. It is about constantly engaging and creating loyal customers that will create revenue for you in the long run.”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#7 There is no ROI to Social Media

Does it ring a bell? Most businesses just don’t see how social media can be measured hence taking it very lightly. ROI can be quantitative, using various metrics tools such as Google Analytics to identify bounce rates, demographics, length of visits, page views, unique visitors, number of followers, impressions and etc.

You can even take it further by comparing these metrics with the number of conversions on your sales, subscriptions and more! It can also be qualitative by comparing responses gathered through surveys and behaviors and converting them into metrics that matters to your business.

“Ultimately, social media creates conversations and involves human interactions – that can build your brand. How can you quantify that? Traditional media takes you no where near that. It’s priceless.”

8 Grave Misconceptions On Social Media

#8 It’s Not for Every Business

To date we’ve seen consultation firms, marketing agencies, F&B outlets, hospitals, lawyer firms, telecommunication companies and almost every other industry, both big and small, young and old, involved in social media. The social media is for everyone – including your business. Sure, the integration can be tricky for some but its definitely possible – it depends on how far you want it to go.

“You can’t tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there. Dave Saunders, madisonmain.com”

Have you came across any other misconceptions on social media? I would love to hear them, too!

Which Grills Faster? The Android, iPhone or the Windows Phone?

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Hello there! How’s your weekend coming along? Some weekend browsing allowed me to stumble across this and if you’ve always been wondering which of the 3 phones mentioned lasts longer on the grill, this video is made for you:

What’s interesting to note that this video is not made for sheer entertainment purposes – it is to promote a product called the EZGrill disposable grill. If you haven’t noticed, this video is going viral with about 9k views on YouTube since it was uploaded 24 hours ago. People all around the world are tuning in just to see 3 of the latest gadgets out there getting grilled helplessly.. and watching a live demonstration on how the EZGrill works!

A costly idea? EZGrill will need to sell more than 200 units to recoup the cost spent on the phones for this ad.
Will it be possible? At the rate it is going, very much so.
Should EZGrill give the phones away rather than grilling them? Nah.. The grilling cooked up a huge opportunity for consumers to see their product in action the fun (for some) and dreadful (for some) way. The hype builds faster this way, too!

So, what does it take to go viral?

Looking at EZGrill’s ad, I managed to pick up 2 simple points:

1. Pick something that’s current: EZGrill used the 3 most talked about gadgets – the Android G2, iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 as the main catch. They did not say “See how my EZGrill works and how awesome it is” but to use current topics to capture the attention of the consumers, then show them what the product is all about.

2. Do something unusual / drastic: They pulled something drastic as opposed to IKEA that went for the unusual route. EZGrill used 3 current items, did something drastic and that captured major attention and interest (and shock). Grilled phones? We don’t see that coming everyday.

There are definitely more ways to go about viral videos but usually the above two does it just right. I am personally interested to see how far this video will travel.

Did I miss out something from EZGrill’s video? I would love to hear them :)

Till then, fancy a barbecue, anyone?

5 Simple Tips on How to Get Yourself Noticed

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Recently I’ve managed to talk to a number of business owners and it would seem that each of them have a common situation – they do not know how to get themselves noticed by the consumers. The common solutions discussed often revolves around advertising, advertorials, and social media in general.

Get yourself noticed!

Bear in mind that these are business owners that have been in business for years and yet in the quest of finding (effective) ways to get themselves noticed. Sometimes, getting noticed isn’t even about being unconventional – it’s just about getting yourself seen or heard.

#1: Focus on a Niche

A: What do you do?
B: I provide IT solutions and services
A: Oh, what kind of solutions do you offer?
B: We specialize in every aspect of IT. We are a one-stop solutions centre.

Does the conversation above sound familiar? The lack of a focus often confuse customers on what are you offering in the first place and it puts you in a situation where you cannot afford to spend time highlighting your brand strengths. It’s always easier being a big fish in a small pond and eventually hop into another pond – not otherwise.

#2: Get Involved in Contests

Interesting contests has it’s way among consumers. You can either create one yourself or even sponsor one if that’s too much of a hassle. Social media tools such as Facebook allows contests to be set up rather easily and has the potential to rally up huge responses when done properly. Putting up your products / services as prizes will draw attention to your brand, too! Click here to learn how to setup a Facebook contest the right way.

#3: Get Involved in Events

Participating in events often draw attention to a brand – especially huge ones. Hosting your own event can bring about many advantages since you’re the highlight but it can take up a lot of resources including time and money. Alternatively, you can choose to hop upon events that has similar interests as your brand.

For example, an IT company may participate in a Technology Expo or even to become a sponsor to gain additional millage from the event. Try to explore various opportunities to see how you can tie up closely with the event (e.g. workshops, seminars, etc) to take full advantage of the expected crowd – it’s the least you can do.

#4: Write a Book

If you have interesting thoughts, experiences or techniques to share, this is for you! Most authors do not write to make millions out of it but to receive the exposure and credibility to their brand. With the help of technology, authors are also moving towards producing e-books due to the low production cost involved as compared to a physical book. In fact, this is something I would want to do, too!

To start it off, you may also want to consider starting your own blog as a stepping stone before publishing your own book! Starting up a blog brings great value to your brand especially in this digital age.

#5: Share

Givers gain! Give publicity to others. Take up the opportunity and initiative to spread the good word about other companies, partners and affiliates. Take an additional step by getting close to industry influencers and help them solve their problems by sharing your contacts with them. Many will repay you by sharing YOU with their contacts and to put you in front of their customers as well.

Is That All?

There are tons of other ways to get yourself noticed and the above is just the tip of the iceberg! In a nutshell, to get noticed is all about you being able to look out for opportunities to shine and not so much of the right technique or the right avenue. The more you’re out there grabbing those opportunities, the more you’ll be noticed.