Business Beware: A Social Media Cautionary Tale

Ring bell for service

I recently returned from staying at a 4.5 star luxury resort in Orlando, Florida for a long weekend with my husband.  It was a much needed break for both of us. The facility is large and our room was well-appointed. The resort boasts one of the top golf academies in the country and has several gorgeous courses, pools and a lovely spa.  Unlike most hotels in the area during spring break, this hotel was not chock full of college students, but mostly business travelers and those attending conferences or meetings at the hotel.  From the sleeping late to the spa treatments, golf game and floating down the lazy river at the pool, our stay was great–until we tried to check out.  And this is where all good things up to that point began to fade quickly from our memories as our experience took a nosedive.

Most companies seek the “Good to Great” scenario–improving upon their current performance.  Still, sometimes things go wrong–and they become teachable moments, touch points for future excellence.  The following scenario should be one of them–a story of how things went awry and SNAP! Just like that, a business has someone ranting about them on a blog post.  And if the ranters are valued customers, that’s not good.  In my case, the customer service meltdown occurred at the heart of where hotels interface with customers: the front desk.

From Good to Horrific

Checkout is like the easiest part of travel, right?  You do express check out or head to the front desk for a quick review of the final bill.  Sometimes you need to change a few things or clarify a couple of charges, but within minutes you have your bill and you and your roller bag and are on your way.  That’s in a normal scenario.  In a high touch, service oriented, luxury resort, you might even expect things to be a bit smoother – an extra smile or courtesy, people to move with a bit more efficient grace than usual.

Nope.

That was NOT our experience.  Here’s what happened to us:

As we left our room, we called for the valet to pull our rental to the front.  While our bags were quickly loaded, my husband said he would just run inside to check the final bill and move some personal charges from his business card to his personal account.  I stayed in the car to use the few minutes to check email and voicemail.  After responding to email and voicemail, clearing out my email box completely, checking twitter and updating Facebook, I realized that my husband had not returned.  Was he lost?  Was there an emergency business call he had to take?  It had been 40 minutes.  FORTY MINUTES.  I texted my husband: “hungry…sitting in car…” just in case he forgot where I was and that we hadn’t had lunch yet.  “Still at desk.  Still no bill.  Incompetent staff.”  I decided to go inside.  I shut off the car, grabbed the keys and smiled nicely at the valet guy who really didn’t want me parked in the loading plaza.  “Your front desk has taken 40 minutes to check us out and is still not done.  I have to leave the car.”  The valet guy smiled, apologized and offered to keep the key in case they needed to move the car in an emergency.

Inside, I found my husband, irritated, having been standing at the front  desk for 45 minutes.  The front desk clerk was new and unable to get anyone to help her reverse charges and put them on a different card, he tells me.  Pretty simple, I say.  He nods.  Silently.  He is not one to make a fuss, and although I prefer no fuss, I believe in customer service.  For heaven’s sake, the man has been standing here for near on an hour.  And I was waiting in the car.  Clearly, someone needed to be communicating through this issue.  “What’s going on?” I ask the clerk.  She barely meets my eyes and says she is working on it.  “It’s been almost an hour, ” I say.  She doesn’t respond.  “Is there someone who can help you?” I ask.  No response.  There is one other clerk working but he has a constant line of people he is checking out.  It’s the busiest hour at the front desk,. the hour the hotel as deemed as the imperative check-out hour.  “She’s been back three times to find someone to help her,” my husband tells me, his tone controlled, signaling his irritation.  “Well, I’m going to the concierge desk,” I tell him.  “Perhaps they can move this thing along.”

I walk across the white marble floor to the concierge desk, where two concierges are standing at the ready.  “Are you a concierge?” I ask the woman behind the beautiful carved wooden desk.  “Yes, I am,” she assures me with a smile.  “And your job is to help people?” I ask.  “Yes it is,” she says confidently.  “Well, I need your help,” I tell her.  I explain that my husband has been “checking out” of the hotel for going on an hour and the clerk is new, unable to handle the minor bill changes and unable to get assistance.  The concierge looks at me, no longer smiling.  “We were in a bit of a hurry, and thought if someone could help out, perhaps it would be you?”  By this time, her colleague concierge was listening and without an additional word, picks up the phone to call the back office.  Two minutes of ringing, no answer.  The woman concierge goes to the other phone to call another office.  In the meantime, my husband walks over.  “She left, ” he says.  “What?”  Who left?” I ask.  “The clerk.  She just walked away.  She didn’t say where she was going, she just left.” “You’ve got to be kidding,” I say.  “I’m going to go sit over there,” he says, pointing to a comfortable looking chair across from the front desk area.  “Hopefully, she will return and we won’t be stuck here.”  The two concierges who have been on the phone without luck now both reconvene.  I ask what is going on.  “The managers are unavailable,  at lunch,” I’m told.  “All of them?” I ask, surprised.   “Let me go see if I can find someone in the back office,” the concierge says.  “Well, maybe you can find the clerk, too, as she has left the desk without a word to my husband as to where she went or why.” He hurries off.  I tell the woman concierge that I will be sitting next to my husband when they find out, but before I walk away, the other concierge returns, informing me that the clerk and an assistant manager are working on the bill in the back room.  I tell him where we will be sitting.  My husband asks me to find some sustenance, since we haven’t had breakfast or lunch.  I go in search of Starbuck’s and a muffin, anticipating that upon my return, all will be sorted.  Nope.  We sit.  We wait.  We drink coffee and share a muffin.  I am thinking that I really wanted a nice salad and some soup.  “How many charges did you have them change?” I ask.  “Three,” he says.  “Three single charges?” I clarify, thinking that maybe it was some huge transaction that might in some way garner an hour-long check out and a special backroom pow-wow.  My husband looks at me and nods quietly.  “She reversed them and credited them to a different card and then couldn’t figure out what to credit and debit to which cards.  She’s provided me with three different bills–all of them wrong.”

lunch is served?

At that moment, the young clerk, clearly flustered, walks over to my husband with the bills – one with his personal charges, one with his business charges.  While they clarify yet again, I check my watch.  It’s been an hour and a half.  Not completely satisfied that he won’t see crazy charges on his cards, my husband agrees that this will do. I tell the clerk I’m glad that it’s been figured out but perhaps the hotel might want to feed us, since we’ve waited an hour and a half during lunch?  The clerk laughs nervously and without a word, walks away.  My husband and I look at each other.  “Oh no, she di’int!” is what is running through my head.  I stand up and walk over to the concierge’s desk.    “It’s been sorted,” I say, “but it’s also taken an hour and a half of our time in the middle of our day.  I asked the clerk if the hotel might want to buy us lunch and she laughed and walked away–but I was serious.”  I stop and wait.  The concierge looks at me and says that they don’t have the authority to do that, but that he would ask a manager.  I wondered if he would have any better luck finding a manager for this task than that of sorting our bill.  I told him where I would be sitting.

After a few minutes, a young woman walks over and introduces herself as the assistant manager and tells us that she is not the manager–that the manager is at lunch.  She says she is glad they were able to help the clerk sort the bill.  I agreed (although was thinking that her tone was a bit self-congratulatory about a job that was expected the resort should do in the first place and which they turned into a bungled mess), but reminded her that we had waited for an hour and a half and thought that since it was lunch and we had waited, famished, perhaps the hotel could pick up our lunch?  “Sure,” she said, she thought they could do that.  She told us what we should tell the restaurant in order to comp our lunch.  As she started to walk away, I stopped her. “Do you have a card?”  I asked.  She went back to her office to get one.

Where’s the Beef?

If this were a business class in college, we might now ask the class where the hotel went wrong and what they could have changed, given the service failure taking place.  If this was a one or two star hotel, we might expect the class to offer maybe a couple of ideas on how to make it right.  But we would remind the class that this is a 4.5 star resort that touts itself as a luxury product for high-end customers.  Service is key to their competitive advantage in a city that houses hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms.  Service is their “beef”: along with beautiful amenities and a world-class golf course, service is the meat of what they offer their customers.  And in the end, the class should also be reminded that the story is real and not at all academic–as should be the remedies.  Here are a few of my ideas:

1. When the clerk realized she was over her head, she should have clearly communicated that to my husband.  Transparency breeds trust.
2. After he had been standing there for over a half an hour, she should have apologized profusely and asked if he wanted to sit down, since this was going to take much longer than she expected.  He should have been offered a coffee or a drink. Ask if his wife would like one, too  (oh yeah, and if she’s in the car, perhaps get the valet to communicate the issue and escort her inside to share a coffee with her husband.  The customer’s needs should be paramount.
3. AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE, turn your attention to your customers comfort and needs and after your customer is comfortable, THEN go back to solving the problem
4. As a general rule, if checkout is one of the busiest times at the hotel front desk on a weekend, the manager should not take lunch during that time.  And if lunch is taken, someone with authority and know-how should be available to help front desk staff.
5. Why would you ever leave your NEW clerk to handle a weekend check out rush on her own without supervision or back up?  This is a recipe for disaster. Was there no pager?  No manager cell phone?  No other managers who could step in?  This is a resort, people–I know there was more than one manager at the resort that day.
6. The assistant manager should have come out to communicate her apologies at the point she took over.  Um, in this story, the manager wouldn’t have come out to communicate anything at all if the customer hadn’t requested a free lunch.  The assistant manager should have proactively apologized and offered some consideration for the service failure. Frankly, I think lunch was the least they could do.  They should have comped the spa charges, offered a free nights stay, something that recognized the value of the customer and specifically, the value of the customer’s time they had wasted.
7. The customer should never have to ask for an apology or compensation for a service failure.  At the point the customer is asking for such things, an apology is too little and too late.
8. Finally, knowing the customer was still dubious about the final charges, the assistant manager should have offered to call him and follow up on the charges the following week and them put it on her calendar to review and to call, ensuring follow-through.
9. The assistant manager should have offered her card and contact information without ever being asked.

I am sure there are more examples, but these were a few that my husband and I came up with as we mulled over the incident over our free (albeit forced) lunch.  I told him I would be writing a letter.  He said we should bill them for our hourly rates for our time (since we are both professionals, this would have set them back much more than lunch or a spa treatment).  I said I would be tweeting about it first.  And I did.

Business Beware!

You’ve heard the phrase “buyer beware”, where a buyer is basically buying a product “as is”, with all defects and problems.  Even in the age of social media, the buyer may have to stomach an “as is” situation (like we did), but because of social media we have an amplified voice.  I remember seeing a tweet from @michaelhyatt about a local restaurant that we often frequented.  He had tweeted that he had gotten a bad meal there and would not be returning.  To this day, we have not been back to that restaurant.  I know several others who did the same thing, based solely on the credibility of one person tweeting.  (Considering the source is an important note here–and I would call both my husband and myself  credible sources for assessing customer experiences based both on our own extensive personal experiences coupled with our extensive professional backgrounds.)  Social media truly gives all buyers megaphones (to paraphrase Chris Anderson).

can you hear me now?

While I sat at lunch, I tweeted the following messages to the resort:

Will be writing a letter to @omnihotels for our 1.5 hour checkout disaster at #omnihotels orlando at championsgate. Wow. 2:03 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

And then I thought there were a few service lessons that perhaps I could pass along to the resort via twitter–and see if they were listening.  Following are 5 specifics that service companies should not only consider but should incorporate into their operating procedures.

A few things service oriented companies should consider: 1-unhappy customers have a voice beyond letter writing (Twitter) #omnihotels 2:13 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

A few things service oriented companies should consider 2- making things right is often as easy as accepting accountability #omnihotels 2:17 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 3-lifetime value of the customer is critical. Repairing yr service reputation key. #omnihotels 2:27 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 4-Repairing yr service rep after bad customer experience may b as easy as an apology #omnihotels 2:31 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

Service oriented companies should consider: 5-customers shouldn’t have to ask for an apology. Be proactive to repair svc issues #omnihotels 2:33 PM Mar 21st via Twitterrific

I will report that I did get a tweet back from @omnihotels, and this was our exchange:

@AdrienneCorn Please feel free to email tweetme@omnihotels.com and we will be sure to get your letter to the appropriate people. Sorry! 7:33 AM Mar 22nd via HootSuite in reply to AdrienneCorn

@OmniHotels you might want to check out my other tweets with #omnihotels from yesterday. Preview of my letter. 10:48 AM Mar 22nd via Twitterrific

@AdrienneCorn Thanks. I did see them and shared w/ the hotel mgmt team first thing this morning. We look forward to receiving your letter. 12:34 PM Mar 22nd via HootSuite in reply to AdrienneCorn

I am not sure what type of response a letter will get (since it will look quite a bit like my blog post!) but note to all readers: my social media activity got instant response.  It may not be instant satisfaction, but it’s at least communication and, in the service industry, that’s at least moving back in the right direction.

That said, businesses beware – consumers have instant power with the most powerful form of marketing: word of mouth.  You might want to consider the kinds of words about your company that you want coming out of your customers’ mouths–and then do your best to make that a reality.

Where’s the Beef? Finding & Providing Value in a Digital Age

Last night on the Grammy’s, the president of the Recording Institute made a public plea for the consumers of music to pay for it.  Literally.  He posed this question (paraphrased),” if someone said they like the work you do, but then told you they didn’t want to pay for it, what would you do?”

Well, what would you do?

Most of us can’t imagine that scenario. Truly, if our bosses decided they weren’t going to pay us for the daily grind then most of us would find another job.  If we loved what we were doing, we might consider doing it for free, but on the side, in our off hours.  Many people consider those things hobbies, since they love to do something but know that doing that thing won’t financially support them.  So, how is that different for music?  Well, it probably isn’t.  Most musicians DO work at their music in off hours, after a job or between shifts–trying to make a go of it.  Then, once they “make it”–they get a recording contract, start touring, sell their songs and start making money, they quit their day jobs.   So, why the plea to Grammy watchers to keep paying for the music?  Clearly we are paying for peeps like Beyonce, since she’s making $80 Million this year alone.  It seems to me that what we have here is a failure to communicate about VALUE.

This problem really cropped up because of the shift in how music is provided.  The medium for music changed from something tangible that cost money to produce and which could then be controlled through its physical distribution and thus priced and sold based on that control.  Now, music can be created on your Mac, uploaded and within an hour distributed to thousands of people because of the ability to digitize it.  If music hadn’t gone digital, I swear to you I wouldn’t be writing this. The recording industry –not musicians–is dying.  The record execs  have failed to communicate THEIR value in the digital era.  You can beg people for money because you need to survive, but most people want to know where the value resides.  It isn’t enough that I pay you to survive–the question is Darwinian: why should you survive? What value do you bring? Until the recording industry can articulate the value they bring in a way that the public understands it (given the digital shift which is here to stay), the recording industry will continue to become irrelevant because people won’t pay to feed the machine that no longer controls their content.

Here’s my thought on it:  Service providers have been facing this very issue from the get-go. A service is intangible.  It is only seen once the service is provided.  And often, the service being provided is a back office function of some sort.  So how are service providers able to sell their services?  Do they whine about it and tell the public they MUST pay?  Not the good ones.  The good ones offer potential customers a solid value proposition, so the customer doesn’t just see blue smoke and mirrors, but can clearly understand how the service will impact their bottom line.  The value proposition–a good one–becomes the tangible in an economy of intangibles.  And what we all know is this: people will pay for value.

So, how does this apply to social media? Well, social media is a medium.  How it gets used and why is just now being defined by corporations the world over.  If you are consulting in social media or doing social media work within an organization, you need to tie what you are doing to something people can relate to–like dollars.  Social media tools have come a LOOONG way in a very short time and the tools to measure social activity–what people are doing in a digital sphere–are everywhere, and becoming smarter and more user friendly every day.    So, when offering suggestions for a social media plan for a company, don’t whine and expect them to pay you because you need the money to survive (like the recording industry), show them what you are going to measure and how those measurables tie back to the company’s bottom line.  Be clear about the value your proposal  bring to the table.  Make it beefy–because everyone wants something real to chew on, especially  in a digital economy.

Here are a 5 suggestions for proposing value in Social Media:

1. Determine what the company values and tie your plan into those things.  If the corporate culture is about innovation or their vision is based on customer loyalty, tie your social media proposal into those values.

2. Measure it. Show how each suggestion in your proposal can be measured–the how and the why.  If you aren’t familiar with the tools to measure social media, get familiar with them.  Radian6, Techrigy, ScoutLabs–these are only 3 of the companies that measure social media.

3. Show solid ROI. Specifically, tie measures back to dollars to company will save or make.  Don’t fudge this – be sure your ROI (return on investment) is a solid number that you can jump up and down on.  Will they save money in marketing or advertising?  Will they create revenue streams via social media exposure, interactive sites or some other thing you are proposing?

4. Show comparables. People don’t typically like to be first–so show your customer who else, like them, is doing what you are suggesting.  Show the benefits those example companies are reaping and how.  This will create a comfort level with your customer that what you are proposing really is valuable industrywide and not just in their instance.  Comparables (or comps) will validate your proposal.

5. Get paid for your value. In the end, if you show value, you should reap value – in dollars and in reputation.  Both are important!  Be sure your price makes sense and then stand by it.  If you have done your homework and created a true value proposition, you won’t have to worry about lowering your fees.  People pay for real value.

We should all take a lesson from the recording industry: if you wanna remain relevant, don’t whine about survival–create and offer real value to your customers in a way that THEY recognize.

Twitter Primer 2: Amping Your Tweetcred & Becoming Tweetsmart

So, you tweet.  And you have a few followers.

But, even now, you’re just not feelin’ the twitter love…should you keep tweeting? And why do people quit following you? And how do you get rid of all those annoying bots and porn followers? Where do I get to the good info that other tweeters rave about? Can twitter really work for me, much less my business?

Nielsen reports that 60% of twitter users quit after the first month.
Does this describe you?  Were you hoping for more but stopped using twitter because of unfulfilled je ne sais quoi? If so, read on. This post is for those who are beyond the basics of sign up and want to become more “tweetsmart” (If you haven’t really gotten on board yet, you should read the initial Twitter Primer here: http://bit.ly/lPtke)

In order to get the most out of your twitter experience, I’m going to lay out some key points:

1. What’s Your Purpose?
   

   Why the heck do you want to be on Twitter anyway? I ask because being on Twitter can be like—let’s say—walking into an airport. Everyone is there for a reason, but most people’s reasons differ from yours—meaning there are only a planeful of people going to the exact location you are at the exact time. And even then, those people probably aren’t going there for the same reason you are. Still, you share a seat next to someone and you have a conversation and turns out you have a few things in common. So you exchange business cards and perhaps you get in touch at a later time. Now, let’s apply that analogy to Twitter. You need a reason to be on Twitter – otherwise it’s just a big exchange terminal for information you probably won’t find useful. Perhaps your reason is related to your career or your expertise. For example: I am on Twitter to connect with people in HR and Social Media and Education. This is my reason for being on Twitter. It doesn’t have to be super specific, but a general reason. For the sake of this post, let’s say your reason to be on Twitter is to connect with people in Marketing and Sales, because you are in marketing and sales. And let’s say that you sell tractors (it’s okay—I don’t know anything about tractors, either. It’s just our little example for the sake of learning.) So, you now have a reason to be on Twitter. You want to connect with key people in marketing and sales and even more specifically those who work with tractors, sell them, manufacture them, tweet good information about them that you can use.
   

2. Who Do You Follow?
   

   Following people is tricky. You should only follow people that are giving you the kind of information you genuinely value and/or you feel you want to develop a twitter relationship with. Following people for the sake of having them follow you is useless, because people can be fickle and decide one day to follow you and the next day to drop you—and you’ll waste all your time managing follows and unfollows instead of interacting with solid colleagues you’ve found on Twitter and exchanging good info on sales and tractors. So, once again, DO NOT FOLLOW PEOPLE FOR THE SAKE OF GETTING THEM TO FOLLOW YOU.
   

   Think of building who you follow like building your very own business. What kind of colleagues do you want to interact with? What do they bring to the table? Can you learn something from them? Can they contribute to your world of marketing and sales or tractors (it’s our example again, remember?)? Not everyone you follow will follow you. That’s okay. The value proposition of Twitter IS NOT that it’s a popularity contest (although for some people, it is—but most of those are people who peaked in high school), but that it is a place to build a community of valued colleagues and exchange information.
   

   How do you find those people to follow? Try using hashtags. If you haven’t used hashtags (#), then you should. They are the greatest way of keeping track of stuff on Twitter, and thus researching stuff on Twitter. So, if we want to follow people who know lots about sales and tractors, we might type #tractor into the search space on twitter. And there are all sorts of people tweeting about tractors. You will need to sort through, pick and choose among people who you think to be valuable tweeters on the subject of tractors, but then you follow them.
   

3. Why Should People Follow You?
   

   There are a few things to consider here. 1) How you’ve branded yourself and 2) Whether you are a solid Twitter citizen. Both of these matter if you want to build a solid, interactive Twitter community. Let’s start with how you’ve branded yourself. What does your profile say about you? What does your photo or avatar say to people? Be sure you include in your profile why you are on Twitter—in the case of our example, you might say: Marketer/Sales of Tractors. Then, because we know you must be more than that, you should tell people something interesting about you that makes you human. Maybe you like Skittles. Or have 2 kids in high school. Or white water raft on the weekends. Don’t be snotty and elitist. No one likes that. Not even snots and elitists.
   

   Now that you are sure your brand is authentic and interesting, let’s examine the kinds of things you tweet about. I suggest that you break out your tweets so that about 30% of them are retweets of other people’s good info, 30% is info YOU find and tweet about (so you are adding to the conversation, not just regurgitating what others say), 30% is conversation with other tweeters—where you are responding to their tweets, etc. and 10% is you thanking people for their retweets, recommending them for #followfriday and acknowledging their mentions of you in their tweets. You don’t have to be exact with this breakout, but it is a nice way to ensure you are mixing it up, being a good citizen in your Twitter community. If you have a good brand (interesting/professional) and are a solid tweeter (at least 5-10 quality tweets a day), then people will likely follow you. I’m sure there’s a ton of research out there on how to get good followers and retain them, but sans the research, this is what works for me.
   

4. 
   Managing your Tweeple (aka Followers)
   

   Okay, here is where you are really empowered. If you have been somewhat hurt or felt slighted when someone doesn’t follow you back OR follows you for awhile and then UNfollows you, then you need to get familiar with the tools that help you manage your twitter followers. Personally, I like refollow (www.refollow.com) because it allows me to see who I follow that doesn’t follow me and then I can decide whether to keep following them or not. Others include Social Too and Twitter Karma. Basically, these tools allow you to monitor your growing Twitter community and make sure it’s remains a quality place for you. Check out these tools and just play with them a bit to get used to them. Generally, I get rid of people who don’t add value to my world—and tend to block all bots and porngirls (after you block a ton of them they tend not to follow you anymore).
   

5. Nope, That’s it.
   

   I don’t have a fifth point. If you do the above, you should find that Twitter is really helpful. There’s more research out there that shows people who have a solid community of tweeters in their chosen areas of interest (and you CAN have more than one reason to be on Twitter—and thus follow people from various strains—and manage them all in lists on Twitter—but more on lists later) actually spend LESS time randomly searching the web for info. This is definitely true for me. But more importantly, I get critical information about my industry and my interests faster than anyone else. I do have an iPhone twitter client (Twitterific) which helps with the fast part…
   

So, now that you have a few more tips on how to use Twitter, try them out and let me know how it goes! And be sure to follow me on Twitter if you think I can add value to your world!

Twitter Killed the Mad Men: Thoughts on Social Media, Advertising Agencies and Brand Management

If you are on Twitter then you know that there is a bit of a race to gain followers, since followers determine (to some extent) your influence on Twitter…aka “twinfluence”. Without a larger context, such a race makes Twitter seem more of an arbitrary popularity contest than a legitimate business tool, with tweeters clamoring for followers despite who those followers may be.  There is an unspoken idea that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers are the “thought leaders” and those with hundreds of thousands of followers who only follow a few people are the thought leaders of the thought leaders–garnering much Twitter prestige.

But how does one use such prestige?  To sell one’s product?  To tweet about other people’s products?  To influence?

Although my philosophy is that Twitter shouldn’t be about random followings in either direction (I believe in a functional, community oriented use of twitter – on which I will elaborate in another post), what is of interest with the number of followers is the very power of people–random and not so random–to be influential in a quick, broadcasted way to hundreds of thousands of other people.   Let’s be clear: The bulk of social media isn’t about telling people what you ate for dinner last night, and Twitter is one example of the power of social media as word of mouth influence on large numbers of people about products, services and brands.

Legitimate business tweeters are recognizing the power of Twitter to get their message out…not through spamming ads but by tweeting with resources in their areas of expertise such as links to solid blogs, community sites, research, etc.   There is an awareness among companies that social media might have some relationship to brand awareness and loyalty, but the dots haven’t all been connected yet–and believe it or not, there are quite a lot of brank marketers and ad agencies that are still reticent to help connect those dots for their clients.

One tweeter, understanding the power of social media for word of mouth and viral marketing, asked why anyone, given twitter, would invest in traditional media outlets for communicating their message.   My husband was doing a presentation for a potential client on shifting their marketing dollars to online media (one step closer to social media!) and showed me a table that listed barriers to entry into social media adoption by brand marketers and ad agencies (eMarketer, 2009).

What was interesting to me about these statistics was the seeming skepticism and lack of knowledge about social media by ad agencies and brand marketers.

How about the reticence signaled by brand marketer and agency answers to these questions:  “Social Media is not a proven/tested strategy” (granted, this question could have been better worded) in which 31% of ad agencies surveyed feel social media  isn’t proven, 28% “don’t think there is an established way to measure the effectiveness of social media”, while 31%  claim they really “don’t know enough about it to know where to begin” and don’t have the time to figure it out (17%)! And based on the follow up questions,  the reticence to adopt social media isn’t because they are worried about the legalities or that there are barriers to social media use for brand management.

What’s the Issue?

We’ve all heard the song “video killed the radio star” by The Buggles.  (If you haven’t, you can see the video here: http://bit.ly/7Kkl )Released in 1979, the song pays homage to what was deemed a game changer for music: the advent of the music video.  (If they had only known about the digital revolution that would really kill radio and TV as we used to know it! )  In a similar vein, social media is doing much the same thing to brand marketers and ad agencies–shifting the conversation–and if the research is any indication, it doesn’t seem that they like the shift.

As someone really on board with social media I had to ask “Why not?”  Don’t agencies and marketers GAIN by ensuring their future contracts with clients who DO recognize the shifting conversation about their brand and want an agency that can guide them into that future?  Wouldn’t agencies want to be the thought leaders around a new and powerful medium for brand recognition for their clients?

The truth is that this is about the democratization of  what ad agencies want to hold onto–the management, the message, the conversation about brands.  Ad agencies make money on brand management.  Twitter is free.  And there’s the rub.

Gonna Wash that (Ad) Man Right out of Your Hair?

Still, the smart agencies are recognizing that social media is here to stay and are getting on board – beginning to use the analysis tools that have been developed to help companies understand how their brands are being talked about, what people like or don’t like and using that real time information to help their clients truly manage their brand also in real time.  Many of these tools are free, such as Techrigy, but there are hundreds of them currently available and more of them being developed every day.

For those that embrace these tools, there is money to be made because there is real data on which to base recommendations for how to position a brand, which conversations to be a part of, how to get into the social media space as a brand.  The money is still there to be made–but now, its made on smart, real time information rather than reliance solely on surveys and focus groups.

The question is whether the old school mad men are going to get on board or risk losing their clients to the new school agencies that understand the power of social media for the brand management–for now and in the future.

If you want to know what tools are out there, how to use them and why, be sure to sign up  ”Tools Week” presented by the Social Media Academy in November.  You can lean all about it here: http://bit.ly/179bs7

Survey Says: Does Social Media Info Reflect Identity?

As social media is adopted within the corporate context, questions arise about the validity of the information:

• Is all this social media stuff just more internet noise?
• Is there anything of value in social media?

In February, I conducted a survey on attitudes and utilization of social media in relation to its use in finding jobs, its use by HR departments, and perhaps most interestingly, whether social media information reflects people’s identity.

This is some of the first quantitative research available that examines social media and identity.

The full survey report can be found here: http://xeeurl.com/A01825

As a quantitative researcher, I study identity and occupations.  As a business person, I have a company that focuses on career pathing, development, organizational fit and persistence, so this survey was of great interest to me personally.  I am finding it is also of interest to many of my colleagues in business–whether in marketing or HR.  So, I asked the questions in the survey which was a random sample of 100 respondents from a panel.  The entirety of the survey results are interesting–but only the results for the area of  identity in social media–or “virtual authenticity” as I call it– will be covered in this blogpost.

“Virtual Authenticity”

Does your online identity truthfully reflect your physical identity?

An important area of interest is whether social media gathers useful information about people: does the social media information reflect the actual person using the social media tools? How do people represent themselves online, specifically in the social media spaces of interest?

If the information people use on social media sites is fictitious, then it cannot serve corporate purposes in either sales and marketing or HR.

However, if people engage in social media’s virtual spaces in an authentic way that reflects who they are and their personal values and preferences, access to personal social media information becomes valuable. To validate whether people’s interaction in social media spaces contains what I will term “virtual authenticity”, respondents were asked to rate how accurately the social media information available about them actually reflects a) who they are, b) what they value, c) their communication style and d) the types of people with whom they normally associate.

Identity: Who I Am

One of the key issues with using social media information within an organization, and specifically in an area such as HR is knowing whether the information in the social media arena accurately represents the persons who may be of HR interest.  If the information in that space does not accurately reflect actual people, then there is little reason for HR to delve into the social media arena.  And in fact, the issue of true identity is a common reason offered for why social media information is not more readily utilized within organizations.

A person’s identity is complex, and depending on which discipline is defining it (psychology, sociology, etc.) is a culmination of multiple variables, some of which may include written representations of self, conversation or dialogue, photos, actions, values preferences, family, economic and educational history and the like.

Rather than define identity for the respondents in the survey, the respondents were asked simply whether the social media information found on the websites they use is an accurate portrayal of who they think they are.  If so, then the social media information one could gather would provide HR with either initial or validating information on persons of HR interest.

We have authentic info!

73% of respondents agree that social media info accurately reflects who they are.

Almost one-third of respondents strongly agreed that the information they provide online is an accurate portrayal of self.

Taken together with the percentage of those that agreed (41%) the total of people who agreed that social media information accurately reflects their identity is a significant 73%.

Out of the 27% remaining, only 9% of respondents disagreed that their information is a reflection of their identity. The remaining 18% neither agreed nor disagreed, which could be attributed to, among other things, not providing a definition of “who I am” for the respondent to agree or disagree with.

Given this information, companies can begin using social media with the knowledge that the people interacting within the social media spaces are doing so as themselves.

Additional, more detailed information on the extent to which social media information reflects specific areas of identity such as communication style, networks and associations and values, please visit the following site for the full report:  http://xeeurl.com/A01825

Download a complimentary copy of the survey report’s executive summary here: http://xeeurl.com/A01826

Social Media Research: What YOU NEED to know

In February, I conducted a survey with a sample of over 100 respondents from a panel.  In working on a research Ph.D., I have found that I truly value the data–and with social media, real data is necessary but difficult to find.  So, I have made my findings available to those who may be interested.

If you are in marketing, the findings on identity will be important to you. If you are in HR, the attitudes and utilization regarding job searches and HR will be key to your future work.  If you are in social media, the entirety of the report will be of interest as you consult and work with clients.

This is one of the only quantitative surveys available that highlights KEY ISSUES in social media in relation to:

• Identity (these are a few of the questions)
  

  • does social media information reflect people’s true identity?

  • To what extent?

  • In what areas? (values, personal communication style, networks/associations)

• Attitudes and Use of social media for job seeking

  • which age groups are most comfortable with the use of social media for job seeking?

  • why?

• Attitudes about Use of social media in HR

  • how do people view HR using social media for finding candidates?

  • does it differ by age group?

  • how can companies use this information effectively?
    

For a preview of the results, a free download of the report’s executive summary can be found here:

http://xeeurl.com/A01826

You can purchase the full 40+ page white paper, with in depth analysis, implications and recommendations here:

http://xeeurl.com/A01825

The New Resume: If you want the job, your social media presence matters

I was part of a webinar panel this morning hosted by the Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia_academy.com) called the Career & Knowledge Series.  Although  it is perhaps a  bit self serving to say so (since I’m on faculty there), it was a great webinar with solid information/tips/expert advice on how to approach careers and HR within the 21st century social media environment. (And hey, I was only a minor speaker this morning!)

A couple of key points: 

• No one cares about your Resume and CV anymore.  This is a bit of a shocking statement, but think about it:  your resume is a static version of what you’ve done.  Why would an HR recruiter or manager care about that when they can just go to the web and see actively who you are and what you’re doing?  Yes, your experience still matters, but instead of generalizing and putting it on a piece of paper, create a social profile so that HR people can find YOU!  (One guest speaker Phil Rosenberg, quoted the HR stat that 80% of jobs are NOT advertised–so you need to be out there on the social web so the people with the jobs can come your way.)

 

• A social media presence can help you get the job.  With a social media presence, you can tell people who you are and what your expertise is via blogging, dialoguing with others, creating slide presentations and sharing them, tweeting about you, your interests and being a resource for others, etc.  All of these tools help you build and reinforce your online identity.  Now, someone who has one of those unadvertised jobs (or hoepfully many someone’s) are going to be falling over themselves to get to you because they feel they know you and you are a great fit for their company and their job opening.

 

• You avoid social media at your own (job/career) peril.  Face it, with the cultural shift in work that is taking place  and the generational shift that is bringing new technology, new values and new ideas into the workplace with the new generation of workers–you will quickly become irrelevant to HR people who are seeking workers from the social web.  Social media is a social reality for young people.  Even some of them don’t like it , but they know that just like we don’t always enjoy “working for the man”, it is what it is.  And since they are the up and coming workforce, their reality becomes our cultural and business reality as well – so social reality is THE reality.  A few notes on the changing work culture that we have seen at play in our lives:  only 35% of workers actually work in an office or a cubicle anymore; people are working from home, on the road, etc…we have outsourcing, homeshoring, freelancing and every permutation in between, we use technology (email) and can’t imagine life without it.  These are real changes, people.  Adapt and adopt, don’t abdicate!

 

• How you build your presence is important.  A few tips include:
  • Get on linked in and don’t just post a resume, join groups of people in your area of expertise, whether that’s basketweaving or IT. Start talking about what you know–and yes, people care!
  • Be yourself!  If you fake it, people will find out and call you on it–or not.  Either way, it can kill your credibility.  Be truthful about your experiences, your expertise, your values, etc.
  • Join Twitter and follow people in your area.  There’s a lot of junk in the world, so keep the junk out of your twitter life by following people relevant to you, people who can be a resource for you, people who can expand your network and your scope of the world.  Then, be a resource for them, too.  Send them good stuff, tweet about important things happening.  Retweet important stuff.  If you need some help setting up on twitter, visit my Twitter Primer (http://is.gd/n6uO).
  • Use the same photo wherever you are – but please, not too stuffy!  We know you clean up well, but just a photo of you, not your suit and tie, okay?  Having the same photo everywhere helps consistency–like having a personal brand of sorts. 
  • Create a slide show about yourself or some of the work you’ve done and share it with the world so they can see it.  Point to this when people (aka recruiters) want to know more about you.

Okay, so these are just a few of the things discussed.  If you want to find out more, check out the following resources:

http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/html/us-knowledgeseries_career_0828.cfm 

http://www.recareered.blogspot.com (great for people changing careers)

http://www.linkedin.com (it’s okay – just update your profile now and join some relevant groups!)

http://www.twitter.com (it isn’t a fad. if you want the job, just do it…)

http://www.slideshare.com (check it out.  you know you want to.)

Bottom Line:  a social presence is the New Resume. IF YOU WANT THE JOB, BUILD ONE!

Love & Loss: The iPhone Dilemma

Dear Verizon,

I have wanted an iPhone since they came out, so when they released the 32G, I ordered mine.  And had to switch from Verizon to AT&T. Now I’m on the beach and I have 1.5 bars–which is pretty good (she says sarcastically) considering that even on major roadways there are times I have NO service.  (My husband, who has Verizon, NEVER loses service.  And I didn’t used to either.  O Verizon, I am sad without you…)

This is the reason I’m writing to you:  the MINUTE you get the iPhone, I will switch back to your service. THE MINUTE.

AT&T may be gaining market share because of their exclusivity on the iPhone, but unless they up their game in the service department, they will lose that market share again when customers realize they can have the cool phone AND the best service network.  And the 3G thing?  Yeah, its great if you can get it, but 3G isn’t available in all of their coverage areas. (And they better not even try to blame me, the customer, for not consulting the coverage map before purchase…THEY are the WIRELESS  phone company! THEY are supposed to have the great service!)

The clock on their iPhone exclusivity is running and, although I hope they are using the time to be competitive with you on the service side, I am doubtful…my husband gives AT&T even less credit than I do.  He said it was smart of them to pick the iPhone, since most iphone users are in major metro areas and not likely to have coverage issues. (Um, I live in a amjor metro area and I still have spotty coverage…) His point is that there probably aren’t lots of complaints and thus not a big push to improve their network. So, the AT&T CEO can see big profits and then leave at the high point, giving the market share mess to the next guy.

Such cynicism, but can you blame us?  Is AT&T even considering that the demographics of their iPhone is changing?  Every kid who lives ANYWHERE likes cool new toys and the iPhone is one of them, so the iPhone users of today are not the same as the iPhone users of tomorrow –and if AT&T isn’t paying attention and is just sitting around on their iPhone laurels during their exclusive contract time, they are going to be kicking themselves when YOU get the iPhone because they will lose out. Big time.  “Cuz all those kids are gonna want the best phone with the best coverage (they are part of the entitlement generation y’know, so they feel entitled to the best…).

So, Verizon, thanks for focusing on the fundamentals – like the network…so that when you get access to the iPhone to offer your clients, they can actually USE IT.  (Hey AT&T, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW??)

XOXO,

Adrienne

One of your old customers that will be a new customer again when you get the iPhone.

Human Resources and Social Media Part 2: Time to Join the Conversation

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T GOING AWAY & WHY HR MUST GET ONBOARD

In the last post, I talked about how HR needs to be where the people are…and these days, that is in the social media spaces – online communities, etc.

“But WHHHHYYYY?” ask all the non-techy HR people.

Here are 3 Key Reasons Why:

1.  MASSIVE CULTURE CHANGE. Unlike other innovations that are driven by corporate desires for efficiency, productivity, etc, social media is being driven by a CULTURE CHANGE.  Everyone you want to hire under the age of 30 from here on out will LIVE & BREATHE social media.  Social media will be how they think, how they interact, how they DO BUSINESS.

Gen Y and Beyond: The new generations of employees

2.  ACTIVE RECRUITMENT REQUIRED! New generations of employees are not going to comb the newspaper want-ads for jobs.  (Heck, they don’t even watch TV anymore – they get TV content via the internet!  Hulu, anyone?)  They are online.  If you want the best people in your company (and don’t you?) then you have to ACTIVELY RECRUIT THEM…and that means being where the new potential employees are:  online communities, online social spaces.  Also, they have different values and priorities than previosu generations of employees.

Live to Work? Not the New Generations!

This generation does NOT live to work – they work to LIVE.  And they view authority differently:  they don’t care if you’re older and wiser, hey, they are young and energetic and smart. Again, if you want to reach them, you are going to have to be WHERE THEY ARE and be enticing…which brings me to point #3…

3. COMPLEX WORK ENVIRONS MEANS JOB FIT IS KEY! So, the new stat is that only 35% of people work in a traditonal office for the traditional 9-5 job anymore.  The other 65% either work from home, or work partly from home, partly on the road and maybe partly in the office.  And there ain’t no way you, as HR, are going to shove all of those people back into a traditional setting.  So, you might as well accept it and work with it.

This isn't your parents' 20th century work culture!

Complexity means that more than ever, you must get the RIGHT PERSON for the job to keep your turnover low and your productivity hight.  To get the right person means ACTIVE recruiting in the right places.  Being in the right places means that you are, yep, ENGAGED IN SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING!

Here are the benefits to you:

FLEXIBILITY – Being engaged in social media spaces give you flexibility with where and how you actively recruit.

GREAT FIT – Being the the social media spaces where the potentially great employees hang out means you have a statistically better chance of finding those people

RETENTION & PRODUCTIVY – It stands to reason that if you have a good fit, your retention rates and productivity will be better than if you don’t have a good employee-to-job fit.  Both of these go directly to the company’s bottom line – and makes your boss and your CEO VERY HAPPY PEOPLE.

STAY TUNED TO FUTURE POSTS:  Tools for using Web 2.0 for ALL FUNCTIONS OF HR.

Social Media and Human Resources Part 1: Time to Join the Conversation

For the next few posts I’m going to focus on social media and HR, since that is an area of core expertise for me.  I’ll be covering some research on social media and HR, recommendations for how to move from traditional HR into HR in the Web 2.0 world and just some basic ideas on why and how HR needs to move into the social media space.

Today, I’d like to start off with a visual of why HR needs to be in the social media space by asking :

How is HR in the Web 2.0 world similar to graffiti?

If you want someone to get the message, put the message where someone will see it!

I guess the graffiti “artist” (and I use the term artist very loosely) felt that the best way to get Ronnie’s attention was to put the message in a place he would see it – perhaps his regular parking spot.  (this photo was taken in the parking lot of a rural tennessee DQ… and Ronnie, you might think about parking elsewhere for a bit…)

The same principle is applicable to HR:    If you want your HR to be effective, HR has to be where the HUMANS are… and that is smack dab in the social media space.

In my next blog post I’ll talk more about WHY people are and will continue to be in the social media space and how HR benefits from being there, too…this was just to get you thinking!  So, keep checking back…