2 Words To Improve Your Social Customer Service

A strange thing just happened……………….

That’s a good opening line, straight out of “50 Great Opening Lines For Your Blog”.

Anyway, a strange thing did just happen. I started to write this blog and came across one written by Ian Anderson Gray entitled:-

Stop Saying Thank You on Social Media & Say Something Meaningful!

He had based this on a similar blog by Mark Schaefer who is probably the Social and Marketing expert I respect more than any other. However, on this subject I have to disagree with the great man.

Saying “Thank You” is easy, just two little words that take but a second to say and type but to the recipient can make all the difference.

I always say it has never been easier to provide gold-standard customer service using Social communication. Conversely you could argue it has never been easier to get it wrong, and business and organisations do, time and time again.

Part of a successful customer service strategy is some appreciation when a customer or stakeholder does something which benefits you as the service provider. One of the great parts of Social Marketing is the ability to turn customers, clients and supporters into “Brand Ambassadors”. Those people who will fly the flag for you on the Social web, extol your qualities and if you’ve really built a solid relationship with them, defend you when you’ve received negativity.

Think of saying “thank you” as a deposit into your “Goodwill” account. Each time you are appreciative of an act of Social interaction and engagement the account grows richer. The benefit here is that when you need to deal with a troublesome situation you can withdraw from this “Goodwill” account and hopefully resolve it to everyone’s satisfaction.

According to a 2014 study published in the “Emotion” publication thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing relationship. Isn’t that the whole premise of Social communication? To develop strong and long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships.

When I was managing a team of people in the radio business I tried to pass some of the customer service practices I had developed. One of these was taking time at the end of the day to respond to anyone who had engaged with me during the day if I hadn’t the chance to already do so. It took a matter of minutes but it kept the “Goodwill” account topped up. In my case it helped me become the most listened to commercial radio presenter in Wales for the best part of a decade.

Of course “Thank You” can be just that, two little words said in appreciation of an act or comment. It can also be more than that:

A positive comment on a blog

A comment or a share on another Social platform

An endorsement of your expertise on LinkedIn

A testimonial for your website or YouTube channel

A review of a product or service

And so it goes………..

I thoroughly recommend an excellent on this subject. It’s “The Thank You Economy” by Gary Vaynerchuck. It describes how social media has changed the way we do business and how consumers want to be appreciated for their business. By expressing your gratitude towards them online publicly shows that you do care.

It’s well worth a read.

And er….by the way……thank you for reading.

Do You Use Social In Your Recruitment Process?

This time we’re talking about using Social Media in the recruitment process and there are a number of aspects in the search for new staff that your digital channels can help with.

Let’s start with the use of Social platforms as a way to research background information on applicants, in my opinion a perfectly legitimate tactic. I have spoken to young people about how their digital footprint may affect employment opportunities in the future and in some instances find they feel it an imposition and an unfair practice. I think this is a modern mindset of a generation who deem it normal to publish their life online without the thought for protecting their privacy yet feel somehow hard done by when told that some aspects of their content could be detrimental to future prospects.

Using digital platforms to garner extra info on applicants is no different to what used to happen when businesses I’ve worked for discovered that a member of staff knew or had worked with an applicant for a current vacancy. You would ask their opinion of the person in question and would take that assessment of their positives and negatives into account.

Why wouldn’t you?

It should be noted however that employers be aware of context and time when carrying out checks on a candidate’s Social channels as both are important aspects to take into account. There is also the responsibility to follow legal guidelines on discriminating unfairly against a candidate after discovering information about them online.

It is worth noting the success that international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has achieved using their Social channels, primarily LinkedIn, for recruitment. This is despite not setting up a LinkedIn channel until 2014. The company reported that their first recruitment ad on that platform saved them £10,000 in recruitment fees followed by a further £200,000 saving over the next 6 months.

They saw a 400% increase in followers over the same time and now use LinkedIn as their primary recruitment channel. This the reward for focussing on a site where they knew the talent of the future was looking to make contacts for future reference and employment.

Research carried out last year by Recruitment Box found that in 2010, 78% of recruiters were using LinkedIn to find candidates. 5 years later that percentage had risen to 95%. Similarly, 2010 saw just 14% of recruiters posting jobs on Twitter, it has also climbed to 95%. The potential for employee referrals on Twitter has also risen from 16% in 2010, to 93% in 2015.

This is an area that recruiters clearly see as very beneficial to finding the right candidate for their vacancies with 70% of them saying that they plan to increase their investment in social recruiting.

As with every aspect of Social interaction the base of it all is communication, a two way process. While you may be using your Social channels to advertise for and vet future employees, those people are also looking at your business and how your digital platforms represent you.

A company’s “talent brand” is being spoken of more and more of late. This is how their mission statement, vision and corporate culture are perceived on the social web. This plays a significant part in reducing a business’ hire costs and its ability to attract quality candidates. You can keep on top of this by ensuring that your Social channels portray a consistent business message in words, pictures or both.

You should make an effort to foster a workforce of “Brand Ambassadors”. Encourage your staff to talk about their positive experience of life at work on their own social channels, while also sharing the business’ content and success stories. According to a 2014 survey from Monster, 65% of respondents would consider an opportunity for a new job if they learned about it from a personal connection.

It has never been easier for businesses and organisations to build an exciting, vibrant image for themselves in the digital world and the more ways you can find to keep your Social platforms full of interesting, positive content the better when you are searching for new talent.

SOCIAL LISTENING – Sometimes it’s good to stop talking and start listening

Communication is as much about listening as it is talking and Social is no exception. The amount of content being created and published on a daily basis is huge, take a look a snapshot of daily life on the Social web.

Each minute there are:-

600,000 logins on Facebook

67,000 photos uploaded to Instagram

433,000 tweets posted

And that’s just a large tip of an enormous iceberg.

In 2015 the Content Marketing Institute reported that B2B marketers were publishing 70% more content than in the previous year and this is a trend that is only going in one direction.

US Marketing expert Mark Schaefer calls this phenomenon “Content Shock” and it can be overwhelming when you’re trying to be a part of the Social conversation.

This is why I say that:-

SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING.

Social listening can be hugely beneficial when you take a step back and focus on making sense of the content that is relevant to your business rather than constantly creating more content to throw into the pot. It is about searching the web and the social space to see what’s being said about your company, your competitors and other topics relevant and important to you and your business.

GENERATE NEW LEADS

Social listening enables you to monitor keywords associated with your business to find users who having problems and asking questions or perhaps experiencing difficulties with a competitor. You can make contact with them and ask how you can help. This also gives you the chance to pitch your business’ benefits and expertise.

FIND NEW CUSTOMERS

You can do this by setting up keyword searches that will constantly track across any Social channels or forums you are part of. Be careful to select the keywords that will give you the most beneficial search returns. You can then join the discussion and find out more information.

Hootsuite’s excellent geo-searching gives you the option to track not only on keywords but on location. If you only do business within a 25 mile radius of your base then you can use these parameters so there is no wastage in your results.

FIND WHERE YOUR COMMUNITY SPENDS THEIR SOCIAL TIME

Social listening enables you to find out where your potential and current customers and influencers are on the Social web. The number of businesses I talk to who don’t have the first idea where to find these people is very high indeed. Follow the conversation and join in when relevant and necessary.  It is also worth highlighting the need for being personal and genuine in the interactions and not see them as purely business pitches.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

This is one area in which Social listening is essential, enabling you to identify feedback of all descriptions. You can monitor your brand in a variety of different ways to get a complete picture of where you stand.

For example, monitor Twitter with and without the @ symbol, also track mis-spelling of your company or organisation’s name. This gives you the opportunity to show appreciation for positive comments or to find and respond to disappointed customers, turning potentially negative experiences into positive ones.

There are number of tools available to help you to carry out your Social listening. Click on the names to go their sites:-

HOOTSUITE – As a UK Ambassador for Hootsuite I can recommend their business dashboard highly.

HOWSOCIABLE – HowSociable is a handy tool for measuring yours and your competitors’ social media presence. It breaks down scores for different social media platforms, allowing you to see which social media platforms work best for you and which ones need further development.

SIMPLY MEASURED – Simply Measured makes it easy to analyse your paid, owned and earned activity. They provide insights such as Facebook content, competitor and fan page analysis, key customer service metrics measurement on Twitter, Instagram engagement, content and trends analysis and many others.

GOOGLE ALERTS – A little forgotten these days in my opinion and underused. You can monitor the web for interesting new content, mentions of your brand or even yourself, your competitors, industry leaders and so on. As they’re extremely easy to set up, this is probably a good place to start for beginners.

 

 

 

 

Facebook’s new “Reactions” are out but “Yay” doesn’t make it.

They have been released into the wild after a few months of testing and pre-promotion and have been commented about extensively on a plethora of Social platforms.

Yes of course it’s Facebook’s new set of “Reactions”.

There has been talk for quite a while that the simple Facebook “thumbs up” Like button wasn’t sufficient to convey a variety of emotions and feelings so after much brainstorming, strategizing and focus groups (I expect) at the Facebook factory in Cupertino the cast of the Social giant’s “Usual Suspects” was revealed.

The keen of eye will have noticed that when these first appeared a few months there were seven new options. Sadly “Yay” didn’t make the cut and has been axed from the new selection. It turns out that we thought “Yay” was too vague and didn’t really mean anything. “Yay”’s people say that it took the news well and is planning a solo career.

While it gives a handful of new variants it would be impossible to create a series of graphics that would cover all bases but this new initiative has seen Facebook at the forefront of Social discussion again.

Mark Zuckerberg recently wrote in a Facebook post :-

“Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People want to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions.”

Of course the new emoticons don’t give any more ammunition to those who merely want to abuse or troll other users. The nearest you get to negativity is Mr Angry who just looks like he’s been out in the sun for too long. You’d be angry too if you had a case of the raving sunburn.

The quest for more ways for users to express themselves was prompted by an argument to provide a “Dislike” button as a counter to the “Like”.

Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner Research says “the demand for a “dislike” button reflected frustration in not having more choices beyond “Like”. What these emojis do is give greater granularity in expressing what you are thinking and feeling about something that was posted on Facebook”.

And let’s face it, more “granularity” is what we all strive for.

Facebook say that there is data to be gained from measuring how we use these new reactions and one must assume that their introduction must have a tangible purpose. Once you call up your Facebook page the sole purpose from the provider’s point of view is to keep you there. They constantly update their algorithms to ensure that everything you see on your screen is relevant to you. Of course there will be a way of using the data from how we use the “Reactions” icons to tie in with Facebook’s advertising algorithms. Advertisers are always keen to know how people react to their ads; here is a way of giving the more information in that area.

As far as their series of “Reactions” is concerned whether this half dozen of options is the sum total of Facebook’s intentions in that regard is a question that only time will answer.

Taking A Chance With Your Content

One of the terrific things about Social communication is that, by and large, it’s live and in-the-moment. It’s a shared experience but 1-2-1 at the point of delivery which makes it personal and exciting. I love the immediacy of it and the ability to become part of a conversation or a debate within seconds, leading you to…..who knows where.

We sometimes get so wrapped up in making sure we’re on the most effective platforms, that our content is as creative and relevant as it can be, it’s planned and scheduled according to our content calendar that it’s easy to forget how interesting and rewarding in can be just to “try something”.

I know why this is, or at least I think I do.

When you read about, or listen to someone talk about Social communication and interaction it’s a reasonable assumption that they have come from a marketing background. It’s been a very natural progression for marketers to move into Social as it’s a perfect fit into any marketing strategy.

However, marketers, I would dare to suggest come with a different mindset to someone, oh I don’t know, like me. It’s simply down to where our communication experience has come from.

My three decades in broadcasting have enabled me to create enormous amounts of content, I like to think most of it worked for me, but the law of averages suggests that some of it didn’t. It sounded like a good idea in my head, seemed okay in rehearsal, but when the red light came on and it was released to the world something happened and it didn’t live up to expectations.

What did I think when this happened?

IT DOESN’T MATTER

Simple as that. That is not to say I didn’t care about what I was doing, of course I did. It was simply that in a “live” situation I knew that in a few moments time I could create another piece of content which might fly. That’s the mindset I don’t think those who have a traditional marketing background  have.

This is why Social is so great, you are in that situation. It’s live broadcasting and you get the chance to just “try stuff”. If it doesn’t work then you just create another piece of content and fire that out.

As a business or organisation you will have a Social plan or strategy, you will know which platforms represent what you do best and which ones fit the content you have to offer. You will have looked at your analytics to see when and where you content gets most traction and engagement. I should say at this point if none of the above apply to you, you need to contact me we can put it right.

Having a cohesive Social plan is vital but there is no reason why from time to time you can experiment with your content. You will obviously know the style risks you can take but just having the freedom to have an idea and put it out there in seconds is very exciting.

When you think “I’d love to try that”………..TRY IT.

A Look Back at Digital 2015

I spent the first two days of last week at the excellent Digital 2015 conference held at the magnificent Celtic Manor Resort. It was a well organised, attractively staged event with a plethora of speakers and sessions on a variety of digital topics. The good thing about events like these is that you can spend some of the time seeking out content that is not directly connected with one’s own speciality.

The main areas of discussion were Digital Skills, Digital Entrepreneurs, Digital Innovation and Digital Showcase. I had the great pleasure of delivering a morning of Master Classes on the use of Twitter for Business under the Digital Skills banner.

A couple of the stand-out moments for me were both days’ keynote speakers. On the first day Ian Livingstone, co-founder of the Games Workshop spoke with huge passion about the need for youngsters to be equipped with the skills to operate in the digital age. He talked about the value of “play in learning” and the fact that “collaborating is not cheating”, if only my Geography teacher had appreciated that in 1976. It was an eye-opener to realise that the modern education system is lagging a long way behind digital trends and innovations and that the curriculum as it stands needs to be changed urgently if the digital skills shortage is to be addressed.

On the second day, Anthony Vanky from MIT showcased some of the work his “senseable” Lab at the University is doing to understand how the proliferation of digital devices and telecommunication networks are impacting urban living and how we manage our cities accordingly. It was fascinating looking at studies showing real-time examples of how digital innovation is being used to study the relationship between cities, people and technologies.

The Cyber Security sessions I attended showed how it’s possible for Governmental websites to be taken down from an android mobile device and how many websites at any given time are being “defaced” by web activists. It’s extraordinary to realise that any site at any time can be damaged beyond repair or recognition with a few lines of code from a device as small as a mobile phone.

There were terrific sessions too by the people from Google, Nudjed, S4C and BBC Wales.

I thoroughly enjoyed my part of the event as well and should thank everyone who came along to my Master Classes. I covered “Twitter for Business”, why it’s a good platform to use, the benefits of using it, how to craft an effective profile, in fact I wrote a blog on that very subject “It’s All In The Profile” just a few weeks ago, and a few examples of when it’s all gone a bit wrong. Everyone went away with some “Top Twitter Take-Aways” (that’s the radio person in me, we love alliteration).

It was good to talk to a few who had come along afterwards and I truly appreciate the kind comments at the event and on Twitter afterwards.

Those which especially pleased me were the ones which noted a “common sense” approach to using the platform. I like to think that I talk about Social Media communication is a straight-forward way without resorting to some of the unnecessary buzzwords and “science” that others purvey.

As I wrote in another blog “They Blinded Me With Science”, in the first instance it’s about communication, through effective communication you can inform, entertain, showcase, impress and yes of course, market.

A thoroughly enjoyable two days full of terrific content and interesting people. Let’s hope Digital 2016 is an even bigger and better event.

Winning the Digital Battle

Last week I shared on Twitter an excellent piece by Jim White from The Telegraph about the way in which Kevin Pietersen single-handedly won the digital battle with the ECB Media team over his continued absence from the England Test team. Long gone are the days when we had to wait for the official press release to know the details of a story, we now expect information on demand and Social Media has made this possible.

Pietersen is one of the modern-day sportsmen who understands the power of Social for building brands and releasing information, he had also amassed a large and vocal community who fight his corner at every opportunity, none more so than in the last few days.

He has been ferocious user of Twitter for some time and has recently taken to the relatively new Periscope platform to broadcast some excellent content.

This example shows that there are still organisations, big and small, who see Social Media outlets as the last link in the digital food chain. There seems to be a perception that these platforms are in some way frivolous as they are used for recreational and entertainment purposes as well as for business and commerce. It is a perception that is very wrong, as I wrote in my recent blog “10 Social Media Myths De-Bunked”, some businesses feel they are above entering the digital arena.

While it has always been said that having a presence on Social channels doesn’t constitute a marketing plan, it forms a very important part of a business strategy. It is a way of getting your content in front of someone who has made a deliberate decision to receive it, or is receiving by way of someone they like and trust. That’s why your social message can be more personal and effective than a newspaper ad or a radio commercial.

Seeing the way in which the media department of an international sporting body were out-thought and out-paced by an individual shows the immense power of social communication. It demonstrates too that a digital presence is now absolutely vital in any form of business.

Why be happy with coming second, especially if the person who came in first totally embarrassed you along the way.

Last week The Telegraph Business of Sport conference took place in London. Among the attendees were representatives of everyone from Uefa, through the Union Cycliste International to the Rugby Football Union, plus many of the corporations which sponsor their sports, including O2, BT and Barclays.

Those governing bodies and their financial benefactors understand the way that Social communication and engagement gives their sports and businesses the chance to get closer to the people who support the teams, love the sport and, the sponsors hope, buy their products. They know that the sporting future is digital.

It will come as no surprise, given the fact that they were still putting their shorts on when Kevin Pietersen had won the race that the ECB were not among those present at the event.

Are We Still Engaged?

One of my favourite podcasts is the always excellent “Marketing Companion” by Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster, a weekly broadcast about the worlds of marketing and social media. On the most recent edition they talked about the subject of engagement and how there seems to be less and less taking place in the social space.

Social media usage is ever-increasing, social platforms and mobile applications are seemingly appearing on a daily basis, we are becoming more and more reliant on social sources for information and entertainment yet, Mark and Tom argued, the engagement factor is on the decline.

They argued that though streaming video, infographics and podcasts are rising in popularity the engagement is not there as it once was. Top bloggers have eliminated their comment sections and Mark claimed that it was now hard to start a conversation on Twitter.

This may be a little exaggerated to encourage discussion but there may be solid reasons for these claims. It is plain to see that Social Media is becoming more and more visual, hence the increasing popularity of Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr. Podcasting is becoming an easy way to share content and build a listener base of your own and in the last few weeks streaming video has received a boost with the arrival of Meerkat and Periscope.

Although it’s the latter which appears to have captured the imagination of the masses.

Maybe there is now an acceptance of content being delivered to our various devices merely for our own reference and interest, without the need to engage with it by way of comment and opinion. We may be happy some of the time to be entertained by someone or something.

I have enjoyed spending time with Periscope in the last couple of weeks, watching some behind the scenes feeds from radio stations (once a radio geek, always a radio geek) including some from the legendary Tony Blackburn, I took a car ride from the Swalec Stadium to a Cardiff hotel with Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakarra, rode the monorail at Disney World in Orlando and watched some guy try and eat 8 MacDonald’s’ cheeseburgers in an hour. Not a vigorous challenge I’ll grant you, but it made me stay with it because the guy was really engaging. He was re-enacting an initiation from a firm of London share traders (I thought they were more creative than that). I watched for a couple of minutes and really liked him, so much so I went back late to see if he’d managed to complete the challenge. He had of course but he probably suffered for it later on.

However, during all the time spent with my Periscope chums I never felt the urge to comment once, I just enjoyed what I was watching. Maybe that gives Mark and Tom’s argument some weight.

We always talk about how you can increase the engagement your social content receives by using visuals and moving images and in my opinion that still is very much the case.

I think we will always have opinions and thoughts that we want to share with our communities, it may be the case that we are becoming more selective in the amount of participation we carry out.

Will there be a time when we will have to develop new ways of measuring how our Social Media activity is working for us?

Maybe – but one of the fascinating parts of thinking about Mark and Tom’s podcast is the way in which social communication is ever changing. While the main roads of digital interaction stay the same, the side roads are developing new twists and turns and on occasions the inevitable road works (usually on a Bank Holiday weekend).

A Social Media – motoring analogy. Come on, that’s worth a comment in itself, isn’t it?