Metrics Are So Yesterday! Wait, do I already hear the IT folks thumping away on their drums in protest? Understandable, because the technology that weaved social media into shape has always been sold based on metrics. From advertising banners to blog-space, it has always been a number game that determines the monetary value of most social media activities. As marketers and PR teams attempt to break away from the old conventional ways of connecting with customers, we seemed to be caught two steps back. Simply, the IT folks cannot bring themselves to look beyond metrics. As in social media, the core focus really isn’t about metrics but connection. However, just like how businesses are run traditionally, the management will always be looking for evidence to justify the adoption of social media. That’s inclusive of putting in manpower to blog, man-hours lost for other works, setting up the IT environment for the company and more. While some would argue that we shouldn’t dabble with anything that we cannot measure, I beg to look beyond what we can measure. For a matter of fact, social media IS new and let’s not even talk about industry standards that we can compare to. What defines a successful social media adoption? What defines a bad one as well? It’s all vague, and we can only barely use the best possible example. I said “best possible”, not best absolutely. Must we really be able to measure everything? Let’s just assume, that you have a bunch of brand ambassadors made up of bloggers. Or perhaps, users in your brand’s Facebook group. You walk into your boardroom proudly with a full page of statistics. The report read: - 237 new posts/notices - 534 replies arising out of the above - average of 7 new fans in Facebook group - 5,367 pageviews on all blogs What do the numbers above really tell you? To me, they tell nothing! Are all 237 new posts/notices related to your brand, or are they trivial chats? Are all 534 replies about enquiries on your brand and products, or sharing who they met over dinner? Is the daily average of 7 new fans translating into 7 new customers? Do 5,367 pageviews indicate that the readers trust your brand and product? You may have 10 seconds to ponder over my questions now. I wouldn’t say metrics can be overlooked. I do believe metrics, to a certain extend, help to define the usability of your website and what processes to change for the better to make viewers want to come back. Metrics can also be plucked off to further understand what are the various demographic groups we are looking at and should pay more attention to. To take it even further, metrics tell you the performance of a certain activity in a website. What I want you to take notice is that, the metrics are not going to help you engage your customers. Joining your Facebook group, subscribing to your RSS feeds or even to reply in any of those does not necessary mean they LIKE your brand. Not until you engage them, talk to them and find out more. It’s about time we recognize that certain values within social media are beyond measurement. You have read me using the word “values” many-a-time in this blog, and I admit that is truly what I am hunting for in social media. When you say readership, I speak quality conversations. When you say blogs publicity, I speak sharing of customers’ experiences. When you say click-throughs, I speak eventual purchases. When you say blogger events, I speak blog-pimping not. When you say bitch-slapping between brands, I speak stay away, for real. Let me offer you one example that I have been watching for the past week. As some friends and associates came to know, I have been looking at smart phones for a while and I am still undecided. I attended the iPhone private preview, but I am not too impressed other than looking sleek. Blame my big fat thumbs. Not until Samsung Innov8 caught my attention, not bad for a start. After throwing some suggestions to a fellow blogger, she put up one of the best blog reviews I have come across in Singapore’s blogosphere. (Compare with her 1st attempt) Easily 10 times better than 99% of the blog coverage regarding the same event and same product. There’s still room to improve of course, but that’s beside the point. I sat back quietly, watching as the coverages unfolded. One question crept up in my mind. Why do most customers still rely on Hardwarezone more than blogger’s coverage? Just take a look at Hardwarezone’s forum postings (which most of us consider an old technology platform) on Samsung Innov8 alone, if you have the time, browse through every single page. I assure you, it’s much more informative than any blogs I have read regarding the Innov8. Are bloggers providing the necessary information enticing enough for others to take notice? NO! Is Hardwarezone providing the necessary information to allow potential customers to understand the product, potential problems, trouble-shooting and winning factors over other smart phones? YES YES YES! See the problem here? These are factors you simply CANNOT measure with metrics. How do you measure rapport between customers who shared their knowledge and experiences? How do you measure the rapport between the brands and the customers? How do you measure if a specific reply or blog entry has resulted in a sale of your product? Or better still, a detractor from another brand? Quit thinking, you can’t! Perhaps businesses should start rethinking their social media strategies, at this point when the economy is down. Start first, by redefining your objectives. Is sales what you hope to achieve? Are you intending to re-brand your business? Are you attempting to form a core support group using your customers? The possibilities are endless in social media, if only you dare to think out of the box. It brings us back to the fundamental question, are metrics everything? Is Social Media Only About Technology? A recent discussion on the recruitment of potential members to an upcoming social media body raised further talks on IT professionals’ roles in social media. As usual, I raised my objections against anymore geeks being brought onboard. My concern laid not only in the possibility of social media being manipulated by the IT industry, I questioned the underlying values that all of us are adopting social media for. It’s no secret, that the IT industry has boosted social media by a milestone. When was the last time we talked about social media without any references to IT? Hardly! Without the web applications, networks and countless web tools, where will social media be? Evidently, IT is an integral segment of social media as the key facilitator for connections to be generated. Will we suffer from an overdose of IT? I think we’re already looking at it now. With three IT-based members in a team of 10, I objected to a further three more from being brought onboard. While I cannot disclose details of the confidential project any further, to have more than half the team dominated by IT professionals is definitely not a good sign. Just like what I pointed out above, is the internet itself capable of generating conversations and adding values to brands? I beg to differ to anyone who says yes. TOO MUCH. TOO SOON. TOO FAST. I preached endlessly how the true values of social media are in the activities and interaction involving humans. Without all these, a Web 2.0 website is nothing more than a piece of web art. Can you imagine a Facebook without users? Can you visualize a Youtube without videos? Can you imagine a Flickr without any photographs? Unimaginable, you are right. Strip away the fanciful marketing and PR talks, what does it take for such web facilities to get alive? USERSHIP! And, that’s us and our consumers at large. Each month, hundreds of applications and websites are being released into our virtual world. How many have we truly adopted and used extensively? Nothing more than necessary to converse, track and assess. It could be two. Or it could be five. Or even 10. That’s only so much we can get a foot in. Do we really need all the releases the IT industry poured into the virtual space? Definitely not. More than half of them will eventually end up as junks in the stump. Too much of such online “services” are being provided with little differences between them. The supply & demand equation tells us we are being overfed. With so many “services” launched every week, if we even considered them as services, all of us are suffering from information overload. Shortly after one service is launched, another similar service pops up on the social media radar. It really beckoned me to wonder, has the later launch spent enough resources to experience what’s truly missing before they throw another out on the streets? With IT companies trying to up one another in any way imaginable, identical services are just delivered too soon apart from one another. It always good to have choices, but now, we spoilt for choices. My IT friends, do you catch my drift? Not unless you have something truly unique and out-of-the-world that any other companies or services can’t provide, I suggest you might want to hang on to your launch and study your competitors a little more. That’s also establishing your competitive edge over them. Not forgetting, the amount of information and flow of human traffic in the virtual world. They’re constantly evolving and moving from places to places. Isn’t it a great idea to be able to keep track of every single one, leaving nothing behind? Unfortunately, we do have to concede to the fact that there is no way we can achieve that. Majority? Yes. Take social networking sites for instance, users have move on from Friendster to MySpace and subsequently Facebook leading the pack. That’s in a matter of years. Take into account the Dot Com Crash, it’s a relatively fast advancement within a short time. That’s how quickly internet users hop from one to another. Again, I point to the fact that we made it possible for them. Companies will eventually find it all too fast to follow up, and find themselves spending more time on the catching-up game than truly exploiting the potentials of these already-existing networks. It may sound demoralizing on the IT industry, in particular the Web 2.0 diehards. I’m not here to strip the IT professionals of the credit they deserve. All I am pointing out, is that what social media needs is more than just the IT infrastructure. The technological tools are incapable of generating anything until someone publish an article, a consumer puts up a review or a professional starts a discussion. So on so forth. Are we now able to see where the core contents that facilitate social media is coming from? Let’s imagine a time when we pitched a social media proposal lacking in content input, what kind of values are we adding to our clients branding? Or are we trying to sell an empty shell? I believe at this point, it is about time for the majority of IT professionals to take a back seat and allow the marketers or PR team to run the show. These are the people who are actively interacting with consumers, and what’s more? Would you be expecting an IT person from the company to answer your question regarding your car radiator when you post a question in your blog? Would you prefer an IT person from the company to answer your queries regarding your new cupboard you bought from Ikea in your Facebook Ikea group? Would you want an IT person from the company to answer your frustrations when your air con goes dead on you after purchasing it for three days? Using Social Media In Economic Downturn Todd Defren shared how social media may play a critical role in this economic downturn, and it’s a reasonable cause to be concerned about. How do you retain your current customers when times are bad? You do not want to remain stagnant, so how do you attract new ones? For many companies that reduce their marketing activities, are they securing their positions or will they suffer the unthinkable? The question of budget slashing and reduction in activities is debatable. I often point to the fact that customers are often spoilt for choices these days. Sitting back and waiting for them to come to you, is no longer an option. Let’s not discount the additional activities your competitors are working on to take over your market share. Hence, we’re looking to evolve from the conventional marketing mix. What should come in place is not a new mix, but rather, it’s the shift in methods in reaching out. You have switched more aggressively with a line-up of new products. So now, how are you going to deliver them? IS SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL? Todd questioned the same in his later comments. While he believes that it is a change in mindset and strategy, I am inclined to reveal social media as an interactive process. I have indicated in my previous post citing the engagement of bloggers, that internet is the tool in oppose to bloggers. This transfer of (helpful) information from one party to another is precisely the most valuable aspect of social media. Almost like a devil’s advocate, it represents your branding and lead with opinions, when done correctly. The part that companies should take note of, I feel, is that it doesn’t matter where these opinions are found. It could be a blogger network, otherwise it could be in social networking sites. It is the ultimate function of interaction with customers that will allow the principles of social media to flow. Valeria Maltoni wrote recently of how social media can be applied into customer service, something which I echoed a while ago. If you hadn’t had a good reason to apply multi-discipline social media, perhaps the economic downturn has provided you the best opportunity now. How it will be implemented, is entirely up to you where interaction matters. Afterall, the experiential marketing aspect will eventually reveal your strengths and weaknesses. Just a few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a fellow PR anchor on how important it is to advance ahead of the industry. Take for instance, many PR agencies and enthusiasts are still fiddling with bloggers and all that talks about going viral. Do these really matter at this point? We’re already looking at, instead, how communities can be better managed and the application of social media as an integral part of day-to-day operations. For one thing, social media is an ongoing process more than a one-off campaign. Cheap advertising space in blogs or social profiles is so yesterday. I said above it didn’t matter where the conversations are taking place. I will leave you to read Jason Falls recommendations how you can better your Facebook groups. That’s on top of other aspects like transparency. The groups will still be there, even if you’re not. The next worse thing you can do, is ignoring the noise instead of using it to define your brand. Does that mean traditional methods should be abandoned? Not really. How can you integrate traditional methods while increasing the level of interaction to further enhance your brand? That’s what you should really be looking at now. Social Media MUST Become “Sincere” Media For a long time, I’ve been pondering over how bloggers are being gradually involved in more publicity works than ever. This new blend is different from that of what we have seen in marketing or PR for many years. But, are we really tuning ourselves to the same frequencies of bloggers? Or the customers at large, online and offline? Sure, customer service officers are put in place specifically for this reason. Most of them would have learn by now, an angry customer is more than one business loss. The ripel effect can reasonably cause a chain reaction beyond the scope of customer service. Ahem… stepping in are the folks from PR. Occasionally, you see marketers having a go at appeasing angry customers as well. Only, to no avail. Occasionally, I am amused by engagement whereby even outsiders could tell if there was a genuine relationship being established. What transpired at the end of the day is nothing more than cheap advertising space in our blogs. If you’re thinking only of today, perhaps you hit the right spot. If you’re considering social media as one of your long term strategies, I wonder who will outlast the other in years to come. And eventually, the golden question is popped. What’s next? How can we better engage bloggers? It’s a simple answer - SINCERITY. Over my course of blogging, I have gotten to know quite a handful of bloggers. Even though some of them knew how much a social media junkie I made myself out to be, or how passionate I am with marketing, these were never barriers from forming fruitful relationships with them. That’s despite the fact that I frequently discuss about work. The responses at times, can be overwhelming. For one thing though, I truly enjoyed their responses. It’s about time marketers or PR consultants learn to embrace bloggers, not just as bloggers. Just think, how respected and valued you will feel when you are being treated like a person more than a tool? Bloggers are not your tools, the internet is. Bloggers are your evangelists, bloggers are your customers, bloggers are your feedback-ers, bloggers are your R&D partners, bloggers are your new press, and so much more. With such a wide array, need bloggers observe brand loyalty? Obviously not. As the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. When you fail to develop this friendship with bloggers, there is always someone out there who is ready to step in. As the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. Your missed opportunity may well be your future biggest critic. What bloggers ask for, is basically a very simple thing. Very often, we hear of how little time we can spend on bloggers. C’mon!!! If each blogger is earning your company revenue of USD$10,000, I supposed you’ll be singing a different tune? We have the technologies now, so the next clear step to take is leveraging on these and focus on long term collaboration. Today and tomorrow is over. If this relationship can be measured, it will be priceless. For now, how far will you go? Finding The Missing Jigsaw Piece Paddy has always been a great person to be conversing with, for one who never fails to light up any discussion and share his opinions/ideas. We met over Sunday and while on the way home, we began a short topic regarding the low sustainability of new media in Singapore. It wasn’t comprehensive but if time permits, I am sure we are able to spot a lot more deficits in our small industry. We constantly saying how slow Singapore-based companies are adopting new media but we never quite got around to the root of the problem. Apart from being traditional largely, the lacks are mostly found in service providers than adopters. Indirectly, it also led us to question how sustainable it is for any company working into this particular arena. Sure, we see new companies springing up all the time but how many will eventually remain standing at the end of the day? Identity. Many companies have yet to establish a true identity for themselves. Are you an advertising agency? Are you a PR agency? Are you a marketing firm? Truth be told, many are still lost out at sea despite how much they are trying to define themselves. We are looking at Web 2.0 companies proclaiming to do PR. We are looking at banner-ad companies proclaiming to do marketing. They come in all shapes, sizes and formats. But, what truly are you? Is providing non-interactive banner-ads good enough to be known as a marketing solution provider? Is providing a platform for bloggers to congregate sufficient to sell yourself as a PR agency? Well, little guessing why potential adopters are being confused. The service providers are confusing themselves equally. Diversity. There is no way a company can survive solely on banner-ad or blog advertising. Diversity becomes the key to sustainability, not taking into account the providence of services that complement the core business. Yet, to diversify simply meant you need to bring on additional manpower with expertise beyond the usual hyped-up technology. For a simple fact, having the technology alone isn’t enough. You got to know how to maintain the technology. You got to know how to sell your technology. You got to know how to expand your technology. You got to know how to service your customers using your technology. The list goes on and on. Expertise. Your best capability is your best survival. Far too many new media entries are managed solely by technologists and not unless they are trained in (or at least exposed regularly to) marketing/PR, many of them are absolutely horrendous. Doing something that you’re not trained to do is definitely shooting yourselves in your own feet. That is something you cannot blame clients for. Climate. Know your environment well and don’t expect local market to adopt new media as quickly as other countries. You know your stuffs, but more than half the stuffs you know do not apply here. New media is still largely irregular, and in a way, that also fails to provide a definite direction on where it’s heading. It’s even more mocking when Web 2.0 companies hand out proposals citing to understand the local consumer trends when they have not done marketing/PR for all their lives. To arm yourself with only technological knowledge and proceeding in such manner, it’s liken to be wearing a XXXL shirt when you’re only 1.55m tall. There could be more lacking factors, feel free to share with us. Tentatively, the above are some common deficits that most companies are - apparently - not too willing to explore and define. With a wide array of services replicated from other sources, we are fast becoming another China that thrives on replicas. Singapore is definitely not big enough to substain so many companies too. The demand is low, while every other company is said to be attacking the same market. How sound is the prospect? It’s hard to tell for now. However, what I am pretty sure is most companies which we are looking at will eventually die of natural causes. The few companies which will survive will be those who are able to cater to the ever-growing needs of clients. Having said so, we are still waiting to see a rare breed of individuals who are able to think big and deliver more than any current players we have. That is where they are still ailing in, anyway. Choosing The Right Social Media Partnership Previously, I wrote about a very important aspect of social media which is transparency. We know many businesses are still apprehensive about revealing themselves to the public. Their reasons are not unheard of, and not unreasonable too. Especially in an environment that things can quickly turn against businesses, all the more they should be careful with where they’re treading and working with. I am going to expand a little more on transparency, harnessing on the trust aspect of social media. Chris Brogan once used the term “Snake Oil in Social Media”. As some companies would have experienced by now, getting led by a blind is not exactly a pleasant experience. Therefore, as much as parties like bloggers choose the brands they would like to be associated with, marketers should also scrutinize the parties they are intending to partner up for any social media initiatives. While most people referred social media as publicity or relationship building, I am looking at social media more closely related to experiential marketing than anything else. Some time back, I was just sharing how social media can be applied across various corporate functions and also shared three examples of how they’re being used. Now, what are readers factually digesting from bloggers who talk about the various brands? Their experiences! What else can it be, other than to gather the fundamental impression of a certain product or service. So before anything else, businesses should ask themselves if they’re embarking on another social media stunt or truly getting involved with the community. If your answer is the latter, then these will be some points you may want to explore when determining if a certain partnership is worth the investment. 1. Is the blogger/group harnessing on your brand to raise his/her own profile, without realistic contribution to the community you are hoping to build? (It’s all about getting the target audience, not whack-all-and-wait.) 2. Is the blogger/group transparent with their agenda, as much as you’re being expected to do so? (You don’t want to be short-changed on transparency.) 3. Have you followed the blogger/group long enough to establish the true values behind the party? (You want to distant yourself from those who advocates social media but not practising it for real, surely.) 4. Have you tracked the blogger’s participation in other blogs? (The kind of comments they leave in other blogs give you a clear hint if someone’s talking social media, or doing social media.) 5. Metrics are just figures, without clear understanding. Is the blogger/group boasting about their numerical advantage too much? (Quantitative readership isn’t everything, qualitative is.) 6. Given the extremely small scene we have in Singapore, it is easily manipulated by just a small group of bloggers. Are you mentally prepared to allow your brand to be “controlled” by just a small group, sacrificing the bigger consumer community at large? (Be mindful of what’s a community, and what’s a mob. It will happen.) What frustrate many of us, is being fully aware of such facades being promoted by individuals and driven by bloggers. With a reality check, there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them in their tracks before more businesses are “tricked” into their methodology. As a blogger and social media junkie, it’s a sad truth to stomach. We see various products being published in blogs, lasting nothing more than one single post looking like a cheap advertising space. Which is why, I refused to do sponsored posts unless I have “tested” the products myself. Ask Daryl of BLOG2u or Paddy of BAK2u (sister companies), this point was communicated clearly to them. To up their social media efforts by two notches, they do not invite me to events unless it is relevant to me. Something, that I appreciate many times more than the invitation itself. What’s worse, than having a bunch of bloggers or companies coming together to form the “Circle of Elites”. That certainly killed all the “social” in social media. What social media truly thrive on is a real voice, and not one that is laiden with hidden benefits & motives while still talking about transparency. Think of that as the voices of real customers and product enthusiasts, blog-traffic leechers not. (We just cannot forget the Microsoft-Edelman scandal, can we?) And the time comes when businesses have to convince a blogger/group why they should grant “entry” to them, alarm bells should start ringing. Remember, it works two-ways. If they’re sitting in their chairs waiting for you to come to them instead of them reaching out to you, the social media methodology is questionable and how much can they help you improve your strategies? The other much untouched arena is how some of these bloggers begin to throw their focus on the personal benefits they can rip. When bloggers start to align themselves with some A-lister, it makes the job all the more easier. That’s for businesses to ring their second alarm bell when they are being taken for a ride in the name of social media. Trust me, even reputable PR agencies are working underground and getting caught red-handed like Walmart-Edelman in a much neglected Singapore is close to unthinkable. Think - pause - think - stop - think - assess, they’re only interested in the freebies, NOT your brand. Again, it’s a two-way traffic so scrutinize and pick your cherries carefully. Like what I shared with countless people in my private chats, don’t talk social media, do social media. At least for the handful of “gurus” we know of in Singapore, we still have not seen a concrete success in their forms of social media other than creating a mob. For one thing that I’m sure, social media isn’t about mobbing. Bad After-Sales Service Turns Off Customers The decision by Linksys (Singapore) to cease operation of their telephony support is still disappointing to me until today. Having been a customer for years, the telephony support is one of my most-used avenue to ask for assistance to my router or wireless adapter. I have since dropped any further purchases of Linksys products, and even though I have switched to Asus, the latter possess the same lack too. What Linksys provides now, is online technical support. You can actually have a pretty cool conversation in their Live Chat facility when all is well. Then again, who will actually contact technical support when nothing’s wrong? Sure, there’s a line in US which you can dial but if you’re in Asia, would you? Think router and wireless adapter, connectivity immediately comes to mind. At a time when either one is preventing you from getting online, you start to wonder how on earth can you even get online to use that cool Live Chat facility. Least of all, the FAQ and wiki. For the average customers, at least you wouldn’t know what’s the problem until you furnish the error codes and be guided from there. With other tech companies, this is pretty much a standard procedure to go through. Is that what Linksys had in mind when pulling their telephony support? Strangely, as the world gets more competitive and emphasized a great deal on communications with customers, we seemed to fail at that miserably. Instead of finding solutions to see how best customers can be served, we decide to corner customers for the benefit of our convenience or cost-cutting measures. Especially at a time where online interaction is exploding, keeping connected is probably one of the most important aspects. Ask Apple about their experience of failing to meet up with advertised capabilities, I am sure they have plenty to share. After-sales service also plays a significant role in retaining customers. Given that customers have a wide variety of choices nowadays, switching your brand off the purchase radar is not a difficult thing to do at all. Be everywhere, do everything and never fail to astonish the customer. - Macy’s motto Adapted from More Loyal Customers by Kevin Stirtz Internet is a great tool, but all of us shouldn’t forget about providing alternatives to customers. It is also providing ourselves with an extra edge in sweeping our customers’ off their feet. Which customer doesn’t enjoy excellent customer service, pre-sales & post-sales? Have Linksys provided the solution? No, I found mine. My solution is as easy as taking a 5-minute walk to the mall and getting myself a new product from another manufacturer. It doesn’t hurt me a single bit even though I knew I was overcharged for the item, typical in small independent IT shops compared to the price-war in popular places like Sim Lim Square or Funan IT Mall. Bad resolution, for Linksys at least. We Can Do Better Than This… Surely? We hear that buzzword - transparency - in social media so many times, but I wonder how many of those who practise social media actually abide by it. I have been reading so many parties whom have been redefining the boundaries of social media in words. At the end of the day, I feel we are looking at more rules and less actions. Take for example the HR company that I worked for many years ago, my manager was also the main decision maker. When my manager and I started another sub-company, I was also taught to do the same. Therefore, all clients and associates got to see was our managerial title and all decisions were left to a non-existent “senior management”. The fact was, we WERE the senior management. Little wonder why we fell out eventually. Making known to the clients that I was one of the decision makers and was able to service them with a little more, did more good for the company than restricting the amount of work we can do for clients. As the days went, resentments grew when I determined that this was just another tactic to “deceive clients”. As I came to know more and more Web 2.0 services, this scene seems to be replaying itself again and again. Precisely why, there are some like me whom have grown wary of Web 2.0 companies or anyone known to be operating these services. Just like how recently, I decided to turn my back on someone who often invited me to her employer’s gatherings on a “friend” basis. To my disappointment, someone spilled the beans to me about her shareholdings in the company. Effectively, she is more than just an “employee” which she had presented herself as. Unfortunately, there are more people talking about transparency than actually practising transparency. This is something I feel must be changed, and fast! This spiralling effect is also potentially the one to slow down the adoption of social media here, apart from stale ideas we copied conveniently from our overseas counterparts. Take the practice of private engagement for example, it works at times and it doesn’t for some other times. More and more companies are taking their engagement underground, which leave little in the open for a clear tranparent mode of communication. For another matter of fact, private conversations revealed to me by my peers with certain high-profile blog advertising companies painted a very different picture from what was declared in the open. Remember, you don’t want to be begging for sympathies from bloggers in private. Is private engagement defeating the whole purpose of transparency in social media? Yes, it does when you look at it this way. In that sense, companies are using private communication modes to say things which otherwise, they wouldn’t on the open platform. Experience has tell some of us that, the more a certain business is insisting on private engagement - the more we should be wary of what transpires at the end of it. Treat it as, the inability to be held accountable for public statements. Here’s some suggestions on how you can change for a more transparent practice; Consolidation of opinions When you have several parties voicing the same concern simultaneously, address all the problems in one related publication. It can be a press release, it can be a blog entry or even a circulation email. It beats having to answer to various parties individually with contradicting responses. It can also serve as a good guide to others whom have the same concerns but did not voice out. Declare your status Making known your identity isn’t enough. Your face-shot and name tell us nothing about your credibility. You don’t want to be caught lying with your pants down that you have more commercial interests in a certain entity than you have indicated. It just turns you into a gigantic target board in a small 50m firing range. Honesty is still the best policy. And yes, marketers have our ways to find out. A full-blown exposure is hazardous to any company. Do a search for Edelman - Walmart, nothing more I can say. Avoid unverified contents You shouldn’t be afraid of being held accountable for the contents or correspondences you put up. You earn more trust when you are willing to be held accountable, and that’s a big commitment to live with. If you’re not ready to answer for your statements and contents, you’re not ready for social media. Encourage feedbacks without prejudice Good or bad, embrace it with grace. This is exactly the part that companies find hardest to achieve. Many companies discourage their customers against negative feedbacks when at the same time they are preaching of how social media can be used with a balance. Clearly, you are not adapting to social media if you find it difficult to manage negative feedbacks. Like how I wrote some time back, social media isn’t something that you can apply the old marketing/PR rules to. The game has changed, so have the rules. So far, there are very little examples who can truly put into practice all of the above, most of which derived from my encounters with various parties. My eventual verdict is anything but convincing. When businesses cannot perform these traits consistently throughout their social media involvement, they can only slowly fade away like most local blog aggregators we see. Hype fades… doesn’t it? Related Read: Be Real or Remarkable (Not Both) Policies, biases and conflicts The Olympic Games “PR Nightmare” It ain’t a nightmare, I exaggerated it to highlight the massive efforts to keep the Olympic Games going smoothly. While managing the Olympic Games is a dream to most, some will be thankful they have nothing to do with it. It’s, nevertheless, an honor should anyone get that far. To have the words “Olympic Games” flashed across your portfolio, you can almost be sure your future is secured. If you don’t mess it up post-games that is. I wonder when does the PR begin for the various hosts over the years. From the time they decide to throw in their bid? From the day they are officiated to host the Olympic Games? Truth be told, even when events are unleashed amid the games, the PR team behind Olympics Beijing must be suppressing their nerves. For, the PR required now is even tighter than it was needed before the games opened. First, the blue screen of death (I didn’t know this term until a friend shared the story with me) appeared during the opening ceremony of Olympic Games. While this remained primarily a tech issue, to have such a technical glitch before the eyes of the world is still going to create a negative talking point. Obviously, it has sparked off the conversation in the prominent sites I linked, isn’t it? How will it impact Windows as the world’s most widely used operating system? Will this incident pose an indirect hit on Lenovo’s image, even if the crippled CPU isn’t from Lenovo but some other manufacturers? Another story was quickly shared, of how Olympic screensavers may potentially contain malwares. Thankfully, I am usually not a big fan of screensavers. However, the eventual “investigation” reduced greatly the possibility and I am sure many of those who downloaded will go phewwwwwww. Again, negative stories with intentions more malicious than trojans themselves. As a fair shot, this negativity has already begun before the opening. Latest in the internet, Youtube has pulled out a video upon the notice of IOC. Ironically, it made its way into Vimeo and now I wonder what can IOC do about that. The video featured Free Tibet propaganda and was beamed onto the wall of the Chinese Consulate in NYC. This article is not here to discuss if China’s policy towards Tibet is right or wrong, but this latest incident added on to the various factors surrounding Olympic Beijing. Heck, which Olympic Games in history has not been clouded with controversies? If only my dear friend Kloudiia can have her message across… You can’t insert just anyone to manage all these negavities even if you boast your professorship accreditation. The choice of people in this team can potentially become a talking point whipping back at the IOC as much. Too many commercial PR practitioners will eventually lead the Olympic Games into a battle of the brands. At this point, I am glad to see commercial PR practitioners being sidelined to manage their own clients and the respective events of commercial interest. That’s about it, and I hope it stays this way. Considering the nature of the Olympic Games, the last thing we hope to see is a commercialized Olympic. The millions of dollars involved in broadcast and advertising is already paving the way towards that direction. Having said that, political PR practitioners should be kept faraway. I meant, those who represent, monitor and manage PR activities for government agencies and political figures. Try putting a whole bulk of these people in, I bet the first question would be - is Olympic Beijing a (political) propaganda machine? Will China’s flag still fly high after the games have ended? That remains to be seen. Where do you draw the line? This incident has become a talking point over the internet, spiralling into social conversations even on Friendfeed. The two camps made their points, and all are equally valid. Quite a classic incident I must say, for several reasons. 1. Simon Blint, was just doing his job. He’s not wrong for wanting to protect his employees. 2. Simon Blint was not professional in his job. It’s just plain wrong, need we say more? Especially when he had been given countless opportunities to right what was wrong. If you wondering if that is all, you could be wrong. It led me further to emphasize the devastating effect by the third reason below. 3. Again, blogs and social networks ensured that news travelled fast and far. Granted, “asshole” isn’t a word suitable to be used over blogs when criticizing a certain party or individual. Thomas Hawk had since acknowledged his mistake of allowing emotions to get the better out of him, by changing the word to “jerk” now instead. It just tells us how sensitive certain words can be, and bloggers should avoid committing this sin totally. Jeremiah Owyang’s FF conversation and blog post seemed to be the loudest critic of Thomas Hawk. He made a lot of sense, but I feel there is a major difference between criticizing online and airing of displeasure on an open platform. Such that, if customers are frowned upon for online negativities, does that mean bloggers can only write about positive feedbacks? Will that not be a manufactured reputation, casted far from what truthful opinions are? What I feel online critics (truly) are: Persistent downplaying of credits where it should be given, either for sensationalism or for hidden popularity/publicity purposes. What I feel online regressors (truly) are: Expression of opinions from true experiences - good or bad - and attribute these experiences into their opinions. For too long, we have been discouraged from speaking out against undesirable conducts. At times, I had to second-guess what’s the correct definition of a “unbiased review” of a service or product. It seemed to me that this is a term that we can conveniently tweak to suit our required images we hope to present to the public. That’s also beside the point of companies or individuals who actually believe that they can get away with it. In fact, I had an experience of how another blogger commented in my previous blog to oppose my views but subsequently contacted me privately over IM to share a slightly opposite stand from what she had expressed. Why? They (she and the criticized party) needed each other for their own agenda. And that is precisely why I always preferred readers to either converse with me through comments or via their blogs. Openly, that is. The idea of “private settlement” had become too shady for my liking. (FYI, I am still holding on to the conversation log until today. I decided not to publish any of it because it will be too damaging towards both professional standings and individual characters. I’m a very careful person, some of you knows it.) Coming to online reputation though, Jeremiah isn’t wrong about how it can affect you in the long run except for the part that sounded like he was “discouraging negative feedbacks”. Come a time, will bloggers actually hold themselves back when their legitimate criticism can actually help others from being… say… duped into a certain unethical service? It really depend on where they’re coming from. I agree as well, that high profile bloggers should be extremely cautious with criticism - especially over the choice of words. I meant to say, criticism isn’t always bad. If you take it positively, that is. Related Read: Thomas Hawk’s first post Thomas Hawk’s incident revisited (with his evidence) Three CONs of Social Media “Social Media” is the IN word these days. Still in its infancy, there are plenty of ideas to explore (and loopholes to exploit). How will social media pan out in future, it’s practically unknown even though we know of a fair share of analysis (or speculations if you’d like) from various sources. These reasons could be why decision makers are still looking in other directions. I often asked myself and others, how can we further define the role social media plays? At some point, I suggested how social media can be applied across multiple disciplines in a typical corporate environment. I have also appended three examples separately. Off my head, I know social media is gradually changing. Plenty have been said, so I am not going to repeat them. There are cultural differences to be considered, there are brand perceptions to fix, and not forgetting WOM to incorporate. The only thing I am rather peeved about social media is, the constant force-feeding to change companies into something else which they are not. In my ideal world, I would prefer social media to complement operations but not adversely perform a plastic surgery on businesses. Instead of tweaking proven principles, perhaps a better option is to identify and spot factors that have contributed well. Later then, apply those to your social media initiatives. Pretty much, what works and what don’t. CONTINUATION. I have long observed how companies are engaging bloggers on a regular basis. With a flurry of events, I begin to co-relate the similarities between these coverage and PayPerPost advertising. In most examples that we can spot visibly, they are nothing more than one-off publicity exposures. Some industry leaders suggested the removal of the word “campaign”, I’m taking it one step further by advocating the erasure of the “campaign mindset” for a simple reason. When you are able to view and plan your initiatives beyond the campaign mindset, you have removed “The End” factor and allows your activities to flow longer. That will, in turn, make room for the continuation of discussions and sharing of experiences long after the program is launched. CONCENTRATION. Slightly deviated from my pet topic of ethical conducts, I am not heading that way though. With a lack of control over social media activities, some Web 2.0 companies have figured their ways around approaches that are deemed as misleading in the physical corporate world. I would like to give the benefit of doubt that they are more misguided than genuinely out here to scam. It’s easy to build a Web 2.0 website or blog these days, with programmers killing each other with price wars. Before you do so, you might want to re-look into your original business plan. When you pluck out the key roles of the business, you can derive why social media is beneficial to your business. You can then communicate that vision through your social media initiative. No misleading there for your participants. Why are you adopting social media? How does it benefit your participants? What do you want to achieve from this connection? Much like how I was advocating a social platform for a pal in the machinery industry, by stream-lining the flow of information and procedures which are being shared among the various vendors and clients. This is already a popular practice in industrial-driven Japan, but if implemented here, it’s potentially first of its kind among machinery dealers in Singapore. CONTACT. We have heard long enough about building relationships through social media, but realistically, how many are? The first thing that can cripple your social media initiative, is staying out of touch with the very people you are wanting to engage. By my definition of staying in touch, I mean more than just a monthly newsletter. If you’re hoping to build a fruitful relationship, you will want to keep yourself contactable at all times. This is a very plain mistake committed by, without regrets, from the top of the pecking order all the way to the men on the ground. Why would you publish your email when you never seem to respond? Why would you want interested parties to be kept waiting in agony for two weeks before they get answers to their simple enquiries on your blog? In the blogosphere especially, “too many enquiries” is not an acceptable answer. You will be surprised how bad some social media experts can be with a simple thing like staying in touch. Face it, these constants apply in all environments, social media or not. The adoption of social media should not erase the classroom basics. You do not want to lose that human touch, and having prospects feel like they’re dealing with dead machines more than living humans. Social media is partly about humanizing online interaction afterall. There are hardly any social media tools that can move on its own, without you moving it. So we have the infrastructures now, where are our players? Related Read: On Hiring Social Media Twits The Many Challenges of Social Media Industry Singapore Real Estate Opportunities I thought I could send another shout on an upcoming event, if you’re interested in finding out about Singapore’s real estate opportunities. I will just re-publish the mailer and sign up if it interests you. Singapore is turning into the Switzerland of the East, a global city attracting the talented and the wealthy from around the world. With over US$43 billion of real estate and infrastructure investment committed from now till 2011, Singapore is projected to enjoy economic growth of between 4 to 6 percent this year despite global uncertainties. Reputed as one of the most secured, quality and attractive property investment options in the market today, Singapore offers good potential as it develops in importance as a hub benefiting from the high-growth economies of China and India. Investing in real estate in Singapore is leveraging on Singapore’s transformation and growth. Ms Lim Bee Imm, Senior Manager of Property Sales, will share with the audience Far East Organization’s perspective on the transformation of Singapore and the real estate market outlook. She will also touch on the main drivers of the property market and Far East Organization’s portfolio of properties – current and in the pipeline. Register now as seats are limited to only 35 people per session and on a first come basis. We are organizing a tour to our selected properties after the presentation for interested parties. Transportation will be provided. Please indicate the session you wish to attend and also if you are interested in joining the tour. Thank you. DATE & TIME Session 1 Friday, 15th August - 4pm to 7pm Tour to Orchard Scotts & Vida Session 2 Saturday, 16th August - 4pm to 7pm Tour to Water Place & Dunman View Session 3 Sunday, 17th August - 4pm to 7pm Tour to Jardin & Floridian VENUE Huang Ting Restaurant 6 Eu Tong Sen Street #04-63 The Central, Singapore 059817 (Above Clark Quay MRT Station) Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP by Tuesday, 12th August 2008 Call Chen Kuen Yi at 6428 8597 or Email Charmaine at charmainelui@fareast.com.sg Please leave your contact number and email so that we can send you the confirmation notice. Three Shouts For The Week I am putting out three things I would like to spread words on this week and the first two come from much respected Kevin Stirtz - The Amazing Service Guy. He sent me his book which I wrote here, and his sharing doesn’t stop at that. I’m not quite done with the book, though. Hence, I am leading you to two of his resources that he emailed me just two days back. 1. Best Customer Service Quotes Kevin has taken time to compile a whole list of lovely quotes usable customer service. It’s a long list, from famous personalities to even anonymous authors. God knows how long he took. I managed to spot some personal favorites, like Zig Ziglar, Henry Ford, Ghandi etc. The thing I love about quotes is, they satisfy the idealism in me and serve as a realistic motivation. Kevin has generously made it free for all to copy, re-print or re-distribute in your publications. This later part is not included, but I am going to suggest some ways you can used these quotes. i. Insert a quote in the email signature. Rotate to other quotes if you’d like. ii. Insert a quote in your customer satisfaction survey form. iii. Pick a quote and a relevant case study to be shared with your customer service department each month and have them practise it intensively. iv. Use relevant quotes for insertion into presentation slides. v. If you’re working in a service company, even better. Include any of these quotes in your collateral. 2. The Amazing Customer Service Toolkit My suggestion is, print this out and keep it handy around your desk. From senior management to frontline customer service officers, it will be helpful either as a tip box or can even serve as a customer service checklist. In this, Kevin has broken down the parts and elaborated on each of them. As per usual, they are worded in very simple language which should not be difficult to understand. There are sections displayed in point form, and also a self checking tool towards the later half. I hope this will benefit you and your departments. Customer service is a RESPONSIBILITY. 3. Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Social Media Guidelines I came across this while serving and it was in-sync with my principles and beliefs in social media. There are plenty others, but I picked this to be shared here because CIPR’s guidelines are closely advocated alongside ethical and fair practices. That’s to say, good practices that yield fantastic results need not necessary be ethical. Again, I would like you to read the full guidelines for yourself. However, I would like to bring to your attention on certain parts of the guidelines, but not in full. I hold great admiration for any company or individuals who are able to put this into their practices. INTEGRITY Integrity is key to the ethical treatment of social media, as indeed it is key to all elements of professionalism. It requires that members are honest and open in their use of social media. Members should have regard for the public interest. They should be accurate when disseminating information. They should never use social media knowingly to mislead clients, employees, employers, colleagues or fellow professionals. The issue of authorship is clearly relevant here, and is touched on further in this document. DEFAMATION A company may be held responsible for something an employee has written or said if it is on behalf of the company or on a company-sanctioned space Action can also be taken against you for repeating libelous information from another source, so you must check carefully before quoting statements from other blogs or websites. This can also apply to linking to defamatory information You should consider whether a statement can be proved before writing or using it – in the UK law, the onus is on the person making the statement to establish its truth. ASTROTURFING ‘Astroturfing’ is the practice of falsely creating the impression of independent, popular support by means of an orchestrated and disguised public relations exercise. The underlying idea of faking grassroots support gives rise to the term, which was coined from the word AstroTurf (artificial grass). Astroturfing is not a new concept in principle, but social media has provided a host of methods for conducting this type of campaign. For example, in the context of social media, astroturfing techniques could include the creation of a dedicated blog, posting comments on others’ blogs or on message boards, submitting supposedly amateur videos to YouTube – all of which would be designed to give the impression of spontaneous support for an idea/product/company/service. Do take note though, CIPR is UK-based. Hence, certain definitions may differ due to geographical variations. The other reason why I have chosen CIPR’s guidelines is due to the fact that Singapore’s law is greatly derived from UK’s since her colonial occupation. Due diligence is required on your part to see how you can fit these into your practices. I hope the above resources will help you along the way, in all forms. 4 steps to a better social media effort Kat French of Social Media Explorer was kind enough to put up a four-part series written for the social media practitioners last month. Yes, you may think that since so many have written on social media it isn’t necessary to read the same old stuffs anymore. True, there are rules of the trade that remained the same but application of social media is pretty much another thing as I learn more each day. If there’s anything that I like about this series, it’s just the simplicity without the technical jargons you commonly read elsewhere. That’s to say, Kat had made this series application-ready. You can almost pin the points and questions raised on a board and get your team working in a think-tank right away. That’s something you don’t actually get a lot from elsewhere. I am just going to summarize in my own understanding on the four parts for two good reasons. First, I want you to read. It is meaningless when I have to parrot every single point mentioned. Secondly, our perceptions are different. Likewise, our customer base are essentially diverse too. What works for me, need not necessarly work for you. Part 1: Getting Ready to Get Social What turns me off a lot of time is looking at (corporate) blogs that springs up all over, but yet readers who left comments are not being engaged. It puzzled me on the intention of these blogs. Therefore, you should penetrate the corporate layers and run yourself through some legitimate questions before you embark as quickly as others shut down. The most important question of all, are you or your company ready? Part 2: Creating an Effective RFP The second part of this series touched on how to go about seeking external help. It is advisable that you are specific with your requirements and spots the services that fit well in your plan. But not just anyone. You will need to do a lot of homework on your end, looking into their working styles, their methodologies and more. Be ready to disclose your objectives, and not blindly requests for proposals when external parties hardly know anything about you. Part 3: Working with Partners and Vendors I love this part the most. In social media, I often looked at how PR agencies or marketers adopt social media but slumbered back into traditional mindsets that they have been using in their entire lives. It’s easy to spot where I am because the circuit isn’t really that big, and inside information gets around fast. But if you’re looking at the bigger picture, then you will have to forsake some old practices and habits which are defined by Kat. Part 4: Determining Success or Failure This last part is subjective in my opinion. Long ago, I used to cite some examples as failures and very quickly some of the participants opposed. What I am pointing out is, social media isn’t just about gathering a bunch of bloggers for a gathering or doing one-off blog publicity. Social media is an ongoing activity and therefore you will need to highlight and measure specific targets. Can you relate this back to the initial objectives of getting into social media? Absolutely. It’s enlightening to read social media from another angle, and I hope you can benefit by going through Kat’s efforts. Hopefully, you will be able to put some of those to the tests and give it a run.