Business Use

From HR departments using social media to evaluate candidate backgrounds to CEO Twitter feeds, social media is enmeshed in our business culture as well as our personal lives.

During the hiring and firing process, HR departments have the responsibility to acknowledge and consider the overall “brand” of a candidate, and whether we realize it or not, social media has created brands out of all of us. What policy do you have in place for your HR department to gather, interpret, and apply that information?

Legal Issues in the workforce

The above-mentioned HR situation could become a legal issue if an employee or candidate felt he was being discriminated against through social media research. In fact, any action a company takes based on social media information can be scrutinized. It can be almost crippling to think of all the ways social media can hurt you and your business. So where do you begin?

Talk to your lawyer. Many documents in your business may have to be revamped: non-disclosure agreements, company policy handbooks, and employee conduct expectations are all affected by social media. If you don’t have a clear plan in place, your employees can spend hours on Facebook, share sensitive information, even cause incredible backlash on your company within seconds of a poorly planned Tweet.

SEC disclosure is also an issue. As employees Twitter, update their Facebook status, or comment on blogs, they may be subtly disclosing information about their workplace, sometimes without realizing it. Employees with access to sensitive information also have to understand the responsibilities involved in handling that information- and protecting it from social media.

Should Facebook be banned?

As social media becomes more prevalent and employees feel the pressure not only to create social media accounts but also to maintain those accounts to build their own brand online. How do you monitor their social media time? Banning social media completely can be counter-productive not only to the employee’s growth in the company, but to their edge in the workplace. They can easily connect with a client on Facebook that will lead to a lasting relationship for your company.

When creating your social media plan, consider the following:

-Productivity. The amount of time your employees spend on all personal activities should be kept to a minimum, but tolerated within reasonable boundaries, just like personal phone calls. When Facebook or Twitter become their main focus, however, it’s important to let them know they’ve crossed an important boundary and the consequences that may result.

-Disclosure. As discussed above, employees should understand what they are allowed to disclose and what will not be tolerated, under any circumstance. Ensure they sign the appropriate legal forms making them liable for any damage caused to your company, and you’ll be sure they’ll watch what they say.

-Monitoring. Employees like to be trusted, and when given the benefit of the doubt, will often excel. However, good monitoring practices will help you keep your team honest and their productivity high. Have a procedure in place and make them aware of the rules.

-Penalties for misuse. Unfortunately, there will come a time when you’ll have to respond to misuse of social media- whether an employee simply can’t stop playing Farmville or your next merger was leaked on Twitter. Plan for this and make the penalties known to your employees to avoid surprises on either side.

The bottom line is: have a plan in place for dealing with social media. You’ll lessen your chances of being caught unaware and take a proactive step for your company.

User-generated content (UGC) online is quickly growing as the major reputation builder or destroyer for products, services and the companies that provide them. Some companies are already taking action by responding to blogs, posts, comments and tweets directly, curtailing the wildfire of negative feed back. When negative comments are posted online, health companies in particular don’t have the luxury of letting them go unanswered. However, in such a highly regulated industry most are struggling with how to engage.

Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the awareness, research and analysis of online content and it’s effect on your brand, and the preventative and reactive steps taken to control the outcome. While literally every company in business today needs an effective ORM plan, steps can be taken now to review and understand your current online reputation and help you analyze appropriate ways to influence it.

Ignoring UGC

In the pre-internet age some believed that “no news is good news” but today that belief can mean an irreparably tarnished reputation and a significant decrease in sales. Legitimate problems, slander, and unanswered questions can negatively impact your bottom line even if you’re not aware of its presence as user-generated content spreads across the web.

At the very least, you’re missing valuable opportunities to interact directly with consumers and reinforce a positive image. Without that presence, consumers will turn elsewhere.

Steps to Take

By monitoring social media regularly, analyzing threads that pertain to you and utilizing online avenues to influence the result, you can successfully manage external effects on your online image and lay the groundwork for a positive reputation.

Monitor
First, you must have a plan in place to monitor and track mentions of your company, products and services online. Perform regular search audits on your brand. Social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube have built-in search options to help you find new mentions pertaining to your company. Google Alerts will send you an email every time your name is mentioned in a blog or website. Social Mention allows you to search across all social media platforms for the most relevant results. Use these and media-site specific search tools to stay abreast of online comments.

Analyze

Once you’ve established where users are talking about you and what you’re saying, you must determine what to respond to and how to respond effectively. Good mentions deserve your attention as well as negative press. People like to know they’re making a difference, so appreciate good comments, especially during waves of negativity. Analyze negative comments to determine if they’re legitimate, such as a bad product or experience, or if they’re simply slander. Problems should be addressed publicly and respectfully.

Slander should be addressed by politely requesting the poster to remove the comment or post your response as a follow-up. If the slanderer does not comply, turn the matter over to your legal team.

Influence

Create a plan for responding to UGC online. Have a clear system in place and make it known to all employees and vendors what they can expect from you in the event of negative press. Once you’ve identified the need to respond, simply hit-or-miss answers and inconsistent information will not benefit your company; it could in fact do more damage. Have clear roles defined for responders and hold them and yourself accountable for your reputation.

Your influence shouldn’t start nor end with responses to existing comments. Take control of your reputation by creating and regularly updating a blog, building brand awareness over social media outlets, and creating a community that you can control for consumers to discuss your products and services. Once a comment is made outside your own online sphere, you stand on the power of an established online presence and already have the forum in place for your response.

Your scope of influence should include your marketing team. A company that works together online and offline to create a strong brand will be recognized and respected by consumers. Ensure your marketing, legal, and customer service departments are aware and supportive of your online efforts.

Benefits

The risk involved in ignoring your company’s need for ORM is significant, and the benefits of ORM might surprise you:

• Build confidence and trust in your brand by delivering interesting, useful information, rewarding good feedback and building a strong customer-service team.
• Educate online users by posting follow-up information to negative press, publicize steps taken to rectify the situation and list positive results. If the follow-up steps aren’t made aware to the public, the assumption will be that your company did nothing. Take the time to inform them otherwise.
• Brand Awareness, which your marketing company works so hard to establish, can be worthless if not carried through online. By taking advantage of social media outlets and interacting with  consumers, you create a strong brand awareness in the medium that’s holding their attention in increasing quantities.

While it might not seem so important at first, user-generated content and it’s effect on your online reputation can be substantial enough to cripple even large corporations. By taking the time to plan and implement the above steps, you’ll successfully take the reigns of your online reputation back from the consumers.

Knowledge is defined as awareness or understanding gained through experience, observation, or study. The average consumer doesn’t need to have a great deal of knowledge to take advantage of the power of social media over businesses. All they need to know is ‘I state my case (whether it is valid or not) and if enough people hear or see it then businesses react and I win.’ This Power of Social Media is many voices (consumers) and the influence of one (business).

This formula works for consumers because it does not take much for a consumer to know what triggers a business to act. However, businesses on the other hand have to know the many triggers for the many individual consumers in order to influence them to act. For businesses there are many, many, many more data points to be collected and analyzed.

Knowledge is acquired through analyzing data. When it comes to Social Media this is called “listening”. In words that Marketing Execs and CEOs will understand, this is called Market Research, better put: Market Research on steroids. Instead of surveys or focus groups this is raw, uncensored potentially unsolicited viewpoints of real people. As you listen, you learn how to use Social Media to your advantage. Gaining power when you use what you have learned from listening.

What can you learn through listening to Social Media? Businesses can learn how to select profitable new markets to enter, create a “Blue Ocean.” Through Social Media, businesses can learn how to select and attract the customers who best match their organization. Businesses can also reduce the risk and severity of bad customer service claims. These are just a few of the many things that businesses can learn from listening to Social media. The next step is to put these learnings to use.

So to harness the power of Social Media you need to understand that many voices to become the influencer. For businesses this means that you have to get many voices to influence others that you feel are worth doing business with. To do this you must listen, learn and act. Contrary to popular belief, knowledge is not power. Power is the wise use of knowledge!

Kevin J Dean

The pannelist were: Barry Nowak Director of Shared Intelligence for Metrics Reporting, Inc., Bill Oechsler, Founder and President of XLER | Marketing & Brand Communications,  Paul Ferrier, Co-Founder of Mindscape at Hanon McKendry and ME!

Here were the questions that we discussed and my notes.

For those of us who do not yet understand the concept of da Vinci Style Marketing, what does it mean in practical application to you?

Communication – Art – Science, Using technology to communicate effectively with real customers in a real manner.

Everything online can be measured. For some, that’s the best thing about interactive marketing. For others, it’s their worst nightmare. Where does one begin when looking at all the data?

• Start w/ Google
• Then SocialMention
• Then ManoByte

It has been said that we are data rich and analysis poor.  Ok, so now we can gather all sorts of data, what in reality are the three key metrics you think we need to be concerned with?

• What are the conversations are occuring
• What are the sentiments of these conversations
• Where are these conversations occuring

How do you go about using the information that you gather?  What do you recommend your clients do if the path they used is not producing results?

We have a similar platform to what Dell has done using Open Social platform. If what you are doing does not work Listen more!

Can you give us a real life example of da Vinci Style Marketing you have been involved in within the past 6 months and can you tell us about it?
We are working with a telecommunication company that Listens for individuals who are disatified with thier current vendor and then they on  a one-to-one manner begin building a relationship with that individual to gain a new customer.

How does the “Social Media” like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other like those fit in with da Vinci marketing?

It is the backbone!

ManoByte

Byte or get bitten!

You add it directly to your profile and it displays the results. It is also customizable allowing you to add whatever key terms you want to monitor.

I would rate this tool up there with google alerts. Great basic tools for Social Media monitoring. If you need more advanced tools. ManoByte can assist you with our Brand and Reputation monitoring services.

manobyte.com

Byte or get Bitten!

]]> http://kevinjdean.com/index.php/2008/10/company-buzz-on-linkedin/feed/ 0 http://kevinjdean.com/index.php/2008/10/bad-hotels/ http://kevinjdean.com/index.php/2008/10/bad-hotels/#comments Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:51:47 +0000 kjdean http://manobyte.wordpress.com/?p=155 Social Media can help your business if you are really good but it can hurt you if you are really bad. Check out these bad Hotels

Byte or get bitten!

Social Media Analytics

Social Media Marketing is not about conjuring up the coolest viral video

http://www.searchengineguide.com/mack-collier/i-want-a-viral-video.php

http://www.scottmonty.com/2008/07/why-i-wont-make-viral-video-for-you.html

Videos go viral because people want to share with their friend. Making “friends” or fans (Facebook) of your consumers gives you a better chance of spreading your message or video.

Byte or get bitten!

You have to be out there participating on conversations in order for Social Media to work. You have to be authentic.

Seth Godin’s book “Meatball Sundae” clearly points out that the traditional methods of marketing and advertising do not work with Social Media.

Listen, Share, Lead

Byte or get bitten!

Here are the 16 Rules:

• Increase your linkability
• Make tagging and bookmarking easy
• Reward inbound links
• Help your content travel
• Encourage the mashups
• Be a user resource
• Reward helpful and valuable users
• Participate
• Know how to target your audience
• Create content
• Be real
• Don’t forget your roots, be humble
• Don’t be afraid to try new things, stay fresh
• Develop a SMO strategy
• Choose your SMO tactics wisely
• Make SMO part of your process

Social Media Optimization

Byte or get bitten!

The Groups section in LinkedIn is a way to create online Business Networking Communities.

The new features in LinkedIn Groups will include:

• Discussion forums
• Enhanced rosters
• Searchable list of group members
• Daily or weekly digests of new discussion topics which your members may choose to receive.
• Group home page

Before these updates we would have create a group in Linked and then go to FaceBook or create another platform to have group discussions and updates. In Michigan there is a LinkedIn Group for those marketers, PR agencies, technologist, and others interested in Social Media and the power it can have to grow Michigan businesses. There are tons of other groups on Linked one which is right you.

Byte or get bitten!