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Customer Service: Your Social Media Tool Box

01/28/2013 by

Like BackgroundJameson Brown of SocialMediaToday.com put it best when he called social media the “game changer” for the customer service industry. Instead of cold-calling and remaining in a stuffy call center, social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram have put a mega phone into the consumers hands. While they are tweeting or posting about their joys and woes about the products they use day to day, customer service reps are listening and (hopefully) responding.

One key factor that makes social media work for customers is the connection between the companies’ agent and the consumer. Without that connection, big name companies are using the networking opportunity to leverage their marketing position, which is only a fragment of what social media can do for a company’s growth. Here are a few ways that you can use social media and various networking tactics to broaden your scope of connection with your customer base.

Think Bigger

Think of the social media networks, like Twitter and Facebook, as platforms that allow you to make special announcements regarding new products, deals for your fans and followers, cancelations and service interruptions. Posting pics is great too, but customers really want to relate and interact with their company through these networks. After all, it is a “social” network, which implies that the customer is communicating a message to the company and the company lets the customer know that he or she is heard.

The Power of Twitter Connections

One great example of a social media/customer service connection happened when I bought a 2010 Ford Fusion. I was so excited, because it was my first hybrid car, that I immediately posted the pic on my Twitter page. About an hour later, I noticed that the Chapman Ford AZ dealership, that had sold me the car, had replied to my tweet saying that they were so glad that I was enjoying my new car. This connection made me smile and definitely made a difference.

In a recent study, conducted by Software Advice, four of their employees took part in an experiment where they mentioned in their tweets several large corporations, in various industries. For four weeks these participants tweeted complaints, compliments and requests for help, using Twitter handles (@nameofcompany) and the name of the company, so that the company could know who was mentioning them and respond. The results to the study were pretty alarming and showed how little customer service agents are using this extremely useful tool. Brands like Starbucks, Walmart and Apple were surprisingly non-responders, and their competitors took their sweet time and hadn’t even responded to half of the participants. If a customer is complaining about their awful experience at Starbucks and telling all of her friends to boycott the cafe on Twitter and Facebook and Starbucks doesn’t respond, they didn’t just lose one unhappy customer, it’s possible that they lost hundreds thousands if the customer was a celebrity with fans.

Be Efficient

Brown’s article in SocialMediaToday.com was singing the praises of a company that knows how to do customer service on social media networks the right way: Zappos.com. They have a customer service Twitter account that responds to questions in a timely and efficient manner. When a customer tweets about their Zappos shoes, they know that they will get feedback, even if it is just a smile emoticon and a quick “thanks!” Forbes’ Jenna Goudreau says that Southwest Airlines has been known to update flight delays on their Twitter page.

Most importantly, don’t let your Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or even blog lay dormant. Content is king, even if it’s a gallery of images that is regularly updated or brief updates on products and services, staying current and present lets your fans know that you are present and available to field requests, questions, or praise at any time day or night.

Yasmin Rose
A real go-getter, Yasmin encourages others around her to shoot for the stars and be the best in the world of business. She loves sharing tips on how to build your own start up and make it into a success.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Simplify your Business Life with Simple Productivity Tools

12/28/2012 by
Time yourself for efficiency

Time yourself for efficiency

Many people tend not to refer to themselves as minimalists. We simply buy, use, and collect too many things to think otherwise. Yet with all our gadgets, trinkets, and supplies, we usually find the most value in minimalist tools and methods that help increase our productivity.

Despite the appeal of multi-featured products and multitasking, I’ve found that having fewer tasks and options to focus on at a time makes getting things done a whole lot faster and easier. Here we’ll talk about three incredible tools you can use to simplify your business life, home life, and possible even your social life.

They are simple tools that focus your attention on very little at a time, and yet make sure that you excel at the little you set out to do. You’ll be able to accomplish what you need to do first, finally making time to do what you enjoy as well.

Evernote

Evernote has grown significantly since it was launched back in 2008. Reaching more than 11 million users last year, it has easily become one of the most popular productivity tools of our time.
Evernote is an organization tool for iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices. The application can also run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and various Internet browsers. On your computer Evernote can copy selected windows on the screen, including web pages if your browser supports it. You can then mark these copies with titles and organize them into notebook, archiving them in a number of ways.

On mobile devices, items you’ve copied can be synced directly to the Evernote cloud service, so you’ll never lose any of the information that you’re organizing. You can also take pictures from your smartphone or tablet and save them directly onto your Evernote account. You can also add GPS tagging and audio comments to each of the pictures you save.

There are hundreds of ways you can use this tool to your advantage. Many companies have switched to Evernote as their central filing system, abandoning physical paperwork altogether. Students use it as a great way to take written notes and keep track of their school work. Families use it as a cheap way to store their photos through a cloud service, versus an unsecure hard drive.
As you begin to use it, you’ll notice other little ways you can be more productive with this tool. For example, let’s say you’re going to a major mall, airport or other commercial area. Before you leave the parking lot, take a picture of your car, GPS tag it, and then you can use the GPS on your mobile device to walk right back to it later.

Evernote can be a valuable productivity tool if used correctly and consistently. Give it a try for a week and see how it works. There’s no downside and its basic service is completely free.

Pomodoro Technique

Developed back in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro technique is an incredible time management system that involves working in short focused waves. The basic idea is to use a timer and work on a single task for 25 minutes without any interruption, and then take a short break for 5 minutes. This takes a lot of pressure off a particular task while discouraging unnecessary multitasking.
The Pomodoro technique allows you to make calculated progress on all of your tasks by encouraging deep concentration without distractions instead of tackling it all at once and feeling overwhelmed. It’s simple, but very effective, and keeps you focused on what’s most important.

Steps:

  • Select a take you need to accomplish today.
  • Set a timer for 25 minutes and begin working on that task.
  • When time is up, take a short 5 minute break.
  • Repeat.

Every 4 cycles, take a 25 minute break.

You’ll notice after trying it that the Pomodoro technique is very easy to remember and follow. It doesn’t require any special software, lists, or other medium. You can practice it with anything.

Zendone

Zendone is complementary software to Evernote. It further explores the organization and productivity features that Evernote offers by creating a task management system for you.
When you connect Zendone to Evernote, you’ll choose one of your Evernote folders as your main task inbox. In the future, anything that you upload to that Evernote folder will also pop up in your Zendone inbox as a task. So with Evernote you have a fantastic way to collect and organize vast amounts of content on one digital interface using text, pictures, and audio recordings.

With Zendone, you can now designate what you want to do with this information and prioritize it in the form of daily tasks. If it’s just information for the file then you can archive it for reference, but if it something you need to get done at a later date, like paying a bill or taxes, then you can title it and organize it as a task in your Zendone inbox.

Try utilizing each of these three productivity tools to your advantage. Collect and store information on Evernote while using Zendone to organize it into tasks. Then use the Pomodoro technique to accomplish those tasks. Rinse and repeat. It’s a simple way to maximize your productivity while lowering your stress. Give it a try and let us know how it worked for you in the comments below.

blogVincent H. Clarke is a Marketing Analyst for USB Memory Direct, a wholesaler of promotional USB drives. While he mostly writes about marketing and branding, he also enjoys writing about personal improvement, productivity, and start-up culture.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Success Tagged With: , ,

How to Create a Business Model

11/19/2012 by

Think of your business model as a football playbook, as a way to implement
and execute your plan of success. The touchdown is your revenue. As the coach
(or small business owner), your job is to sift through the variety of ways
that will show how you are going to achieve your ultimate goal. By “drawing out”
your plan of action, you are simply showing how you will implement your
plans and what outcome is anticipated.
The purpose of a business model is to let others know about your product, the
value it brings to your target market, who that target market is, how you will
compete with similar companies in the same market, and how you will make money
using all of these components. Once you know the components of your business model,
structuring it will be easier to do, but first you need to know what type of
business model you should be looking at. This will be completely dependent on the
product or service you are providing and what you ultimately decide to do with the business

Though there are many different business models to consider, a basic structure
of a business model is a good place to start. Knowing how you will get your product
or service to the end user or customer will give you an idea how to choose the model
best suited for you. For small business owners in this day of technology, creating
a business model that will include social media is a key point for any market.

Traditional business models for example would include:1) direct marketing to customer
(think Dell), 2) retailers or sell to distributor and allow them to sell it for you,
3) exclusivity (rights to certain distributors only, such as music), 4) franchise and
5) advertisers (that sell ads for others). New business models are emerging with the
expanding technology of online. You will do well to utilize the social media platforms,
blogs, websites, content marketing, email blasts, and SEO.

 

Companies like Amazon, EBay, and Dell have captured the online
market with their business model. Some of their components allow the customer freedom
to shop whenever they please and have their items shipped straight to their home.
However, brick and mortar companies, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy have amended their
business models to give customers the convenience of online shopping capabilities
combined with the ability to same day pick up.

 

So how do you draw out the business model once you’ve finalized your final draft?
Consider using PowerPoint or Google Docs for creating your model. Both
provide the tools you need to create professional looking business model designs.

 

An example of a simple business model created in PowerPoint:

 

 

As you can see, a business model can be as simple or as complex as you like.
Just keep in mind that the most important points of your business model should
be included. If your business is going to place the focus online, include that
as a point. Do not confuse a business model and a business plan. A business
plan is far more detailed and complicated than your basic model. Remember, your
business model is only to represent your plan of action, a visual of your ideas
and the ultimate goal in a simpler way.


Ryan Franklin is a guest blogger who writes about small business issues and technology on behalf of Ordoro.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Strategy & Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Social Message For My Children (And You)!

11/13/2012 by

My husband often jokes that growing up he made a fool of himself too many times, but “thank goodness it wasn’t on Facebook or a reality TV show watched by millions.” While he is being humorous he is also being insightful. Today’s generation is growing up in a time when mistakes can be damaging and publicized to the world for infinity. It may have been fun for my husband dancing with a Sake bottle on his head in the late 70’s, but that was then and this is the day of social media when the photo would be sent worldwide and possibly misunderstood in corporate America.


According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, 37% of employers use social media sights to research job applicants. “Because social media is a dominant form of communication today, you can certainly learn a lot about a person by viewing their public, online personas,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “However, hiring managers and human resources departments have to make a careful, determined decision as to whether information found online is relevant to the candidates’ qualifications for the job.”

If you are a teen or young adult (like my children) the choices you make today may end up posted on someone’s Facebook or web sight for eternity. As your career sky rockets one of your teen friends may become jealous and decide to pull out those old, destructive, image destroying photos and post them online. We have all seen it before with celebrities, but it is a real concern for those of us who are unknowns as well. Your friend in high school or college may become jealous with your success later in life and decide to show the world events you would prefer to remain in the preverbal closet.

While social media can destroy a career it can also enhance your chances of being hired. According to CareerBuilder, “employers are also looking for information that could potentially give a job seeker an advantage. Three in ten hiring managers (29 percent) said they have found something that has caused them to hire a candidate…”

CareerBuilder’s Haefner says the company’s research reiterates the value of controlling your online persona at all times. “Job seekers should be mindful of what potential employers can learn about them online,” she said. “If you choose to leave social media content public, tailor the message to your advantage. Filter out anything that can tarnish your professional reputation and post communications, links and photos that portray you in the best possible light.”

The solution of not being on Facebook isn’t a solution for the younger generation. According to Forbes magazine writer Kashmire Hill, “I’m seeing the suggestion more and more often that a missing Facebook account raises red flags.”

I predict that in a dozen years from now people will be proud to have invisible sightings online. Companies will develop that not only help manage an online presence, but also helps create a stealth mode of social media that is as private and hidden as it is visible today. In the 70’s and 80’s some American families paid for an unlisted phone number for privacy. In 2024 American’s may once again be paying to keep all their online information private. The world doesn’t need to know how much money you paid for your house or your salary if you’re a public school teacher. Privacy will come with a price, but it will come.

Today, however, Hill expresses a growing concern, “But it does seem that increasingly, it’s expected that everyone is on Facebook in some capacity, and that a negative assumption is starting to arise about those who reject the Big Blue Giant’s siren call. Continuing to navigate life without having this digital form of identification may be like trying to get into a bar without a driver’s license.”

According to Reppler, a firm dedicated to managing people’s internet visibility, the Top 5 reasons hiring managers hired a candidate based on social presence include:

1.The candidate gave a positive impression of their personality and organizational fit.

2.The profile supported their professional qualifications.

3.The profile showed that the candidate was creative.

4.The candidate demonstrated solid communication skills.

5.The profile showed that the candidate was well-rounded.

Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar, professor at the Darden School of Business, may have sage advice when he states, “Before posting information and photographs on Facebook, remember that in the virtual world, our houses are made of glass. Every piece of data is permanent and stored in a digital archive. More than half of employers cite provocative photographs as the biggest factor in the decision not to hire.”

My message for my children (and you) is to make wise choices that you are always happy and comfortable having the world view. While you aren’t on a reality TV program being seen by millions, you’re on social media being seen by a select few that may matter more to you than all the millions watching an invasive, destructive show. Be yourself, but don’t risk your reputation on a moment of insanity. And, finally, if you want to make a fortune, develop a program that people can buy that will keep their personal life private and
invisible.

Sheri Staak has served in many Vice Presidential roles at both large privately held and publicly traded global companies. She’s a corporate powerhouse and has been the recipient of numerous sales awards and recognitions. In addition to her key position in a highly aggressive, extremely competitive industry, Sheri is a regular contributor to a travel newsletter, lending her expertise by writing articles that provide tips and advice for business travelers. She also shares her wisdom and business perspectives with regular postings at her leadership-focused blog, The Staak Report.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Guest Bloggers, Social Media

Cost of a Voter [Infographic]

11/07/2012 by


Article first published as Social Media: What’s a Voter Worth? on Technorati.

Filed Under: Featured, Politics, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Value of a Voter

11/04/2012 by

It has been a matter of discussion for a long time. What is your follow worth on social media? As business owners we are constantly trying to tabulate what a followers monetary value is. But what about the value of a voter?

PC Magazine answered some of these questions for us and assigned the monetary value we so desperately crave.

Twitter Follower: $2.05 Facebook Like (Fan): $8

Tweet: $5 Facebook Share: $14

Cost per Follower: $2.50-$4.00 Cost per Like: $1.07

Cost per Engagement: $0.75-$2.50 Can’t proactively engage

However, these numbers drastically change when you look at the value of a vote. A new tool is out that can tabulate the value of your social media presence to the Presidential nominee’s.
Read more at Business 2 Commuity

Filed Under: Featured, Politics, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Language Translation Services in Social Media

10/24/2012 by

Social Media has taken the world by storm. More than a fad, social media has become a wholly new way to communicate – more immediate than old-fashioned letters, more passive than telephonic communication, persistent and durable. Whether you’re an individual or a business, being a part of a social network is essential to being a part of the world.

Of course, as an individual you can always choose to wall yourself off and refuse to take part in social networks, either for a ‘vacation’ or permanently. As a business, today, you have little choice; there are a billion people with Facebook accounts. Your customers are on social networks – and very likely in another country.

No Borders

It might seem to the casual English-speaking Internet user that the world speaks English, and that might give the impression that you can conduct your social media marketing in that language and be effective. To an extent, you can – the English-speaking market is very large, and even outside of it a number of people understand English well enough. But if you exclude other languages, you are leaving a huge number of potential customers on the table. Not only do you need to investigate translating your social marketing, you need to investigate which social networks people are using in your target countries.

Two Simple Rules

Here are two basic rules for your social media, whether you use it as a marketing tool or simply as a way to stay in touch with your customers and potential customers:

 

It’s Personal. Social media is all about making a connection. People are looking for a real, human personality to interact with, not a machine spitting out advertising slogans, or an auto response script. It’s best to have someone actually managing your social media, responding to things in a personal way. On the same note, if you opt to conduct social media campaigns in different languages, do not, under any circumstances, simply run your tweets and posts through an automated translation service. Everyone will know at a glance that the stilted, personality-free posts were machined, and will ignore them.

 

It’s Local. Don’t assume you can have a single Facebook and Twitter account and be done with it. Not only do people use their local language versions of these tools in their home countries – meaning you should have separate accounts for different locations, using the appropriate languages – but they often use region-specific services. They may not use Facebook at all! Do some research and make sure you know which social media service actually reaches the populations you’re trying to connect with. Then hire a professional translator or translation service to make sure your posts will find a warm reception.

 

If you keep these two basic rules in mind, your social media efforts will not be in vain. Remember, social media is about people connecting with people: Don’t try to use a machine for your end of that connection!

Philip is a guest blogger who blogs on behalf of One Hour Translation, a professional translation firm that specialises in website translation services. To know more please visit their website.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Uncategorized

A Guide for Facebook Etiquette: The Awkward Unfriending

10/17/2012 by

Do you remember the good old days? Do you remember the friendships you had before the juggernaut of social media? Come on, it wasn’t that long go, a different decade, sure, but the same millennium. Facebook only launched in February, 2004. Pre-Facebook, if a friend annoyed you with their endless chatter, gossip and updates (Oh my… God, can you believe Jane and Tom are dating?) you simply didn’t pick up the phone when they called.

No biggie, right? However, if so-and-so stole your teal with chrome custom Kitchen-Aid, that was something else; if you found out they stole your super-secret lemon-bar recipe and shared it with everyone on Saturday night when you weren’t there, well, you unfriended them for life. Dignity, grace and etiquette were out the window. You ignored them, talked trash about them and banished them from your circle of friends.

Things are different now.

Champagne to All My Real Friends, Real Pain to all My Sham Friends

With so much friending, liking and posting, chances are your Facebook portfolio has swollen to epic proportions. The friends are not really friends, but more like self-perpetuating weeds; Eventually, you’ll need to do some gardening. In the end, you never know who is going to turn out to be a hacker. While Facebook has privacy guidelines and safeguards, a lot of your personal information is still accessible. When you visit Lifelock on Facebook, you can learn more about identify theft and how it applies to your social-media account.

With This Many Facebook Friends, Someone is Bound to get Hurt

In the Facebook universe, being unfriended is like being slapped across the face, Victorian style, with a pair of gloves. Honestly, it might sting a bit if you’re the one being unfriended, aka slapped, but the person doing it isn’t even getting their hands dirty. They’re clicking a button on a computer. If you have 2.1 million friends on Facebook, is unfriending someone or being unfriended really the end of the world? With this many friends, someone is bound to get cyber-slapped once in a while.

Restrictions and Hiding Friends

While your Facebook sham friends are easy to erase, what about those peripheral people in your life? What do you do about your boss, who’s not really a friend, or that nice woman who cuts your hair but also wants to be BFFs?

There are a couple of options:

A.) You can friend these people, then hide their posts from your news feed.

B.) You can hide your post from these friends by putting them on a restricted list, in which they will only see your public info.

Choice B is better. These people are part of your public sector (not your private), so access to public information seems fair. Of course, there’s a third choice, and that’s to consider what you would do if you were still living in a world before social media. Chances are you’re not going to friend a boss who just denied you a raise.

Finally, if you’re feeling guilty about unfriending someone you have been close to for 20 years, just remember they stole your Kitchen-Aid and probably still have it.

Pete Phelps Pete writes about the entertainment scene on the West Coast. As an LA native, he’s equally frustrated with and thrilled by the growth he sees in LA.

Filed Under: Contributors, Facebook, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Where are You Registered?…Facebook! -Collections the New Facebook Shopping

10/16/2012 by

Getting married? Having a baby? Having a birthday? Updating your wish list? Have you registered on Facebook?  Ok, so there is no official Facebook registry for shopping, but a new feature  is being tested that might change that. Taking their lead from Pinterest, which is currently the 4th largest traffic driver on the web, Facebook is creating a pin style photo display designed to drive sales for retailers. This new feature they are testing is called “Collections“.

Originally posted at Business 2 Community…continue reading.

Lauren MacEwen Business to Consumer Logo

Filed Under: Facebook, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

War of the Words: How to be a WOW Blogger

10/15/2012 by

When radio was young, Orson Welles held the world in frightened captivity when he narrated an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ fictional tale, The War of the Worlds. Since the first hour of the radio program was structured as a series of news reports, many tuning in to the broadcast heard frantic, panicked descriptions of an alien attack on our planet, and, trusting what they heard coming through the box, believed it to be true.

But that was 1938. Surely, that could never happen today, right? Well, probably not to that degree. But the power of words, once they are transmitted, is still undeniable.

Nowadays, with technologies that have gone beyond the one-way messaging of radio and TV, such as texting and Internet communications like emailing, social media, chat rooms, forums, and blogging, we are sending and receiving information to such a degree that our ideas can make an instantaneous impact. At the same time, however, our choice of words is more important than ever, and our message needs to stand out among the seemingly endless stream of sound bites we are bombarded with each day.

The most impactful leaders of our generation utilize the latest avenues of mass communication and social media to impart their ideas and share their knowledge. But what a leader says, and how she says it, is critical to her success. Words are indeed powerful, but their strength is intrinsically linked to the way they are communicated.

Blogging is an ideal format for a WOW leader to convey her message to a broad spectrum of followers. As a leadership journal of sorts, a blog provides a venue through which ideas can be shared, opinions can be voiced, problems can be discussed, and solutions can be offered.

So, how do you make your business blog a success? How do you turn your WOW ideas into a WOW leadership blog?

1. Keep it short. Whatever you say, say it fast. You are competing for the attention of busy, information-overloaded professionals. (Admittedly, keeping my blogs short, succinct, and to the point, is one of my greatest challenges.)

2. Make it relevant. Know your target audience. With a leadership blog, keep your topics related to the challenges faced by those in the business arena. Don’t stray off topic with irrelevant posts and offhanded observations.

3. Find your voice. Be confident in your own opinions, and then use your voice in a consistent and truthful manner. Remember that your words do have power, and can be helpful, thought-provoking, and inspirational to the right group of individuals. Through an open, honest exchange of thoughts, you can lead as well as learn, reinforcing your own leadership abilities and honing the skills that make you successful.

4. Stay positive. Although there may be times when your topic refers to negative subject matter, don’t always be the bearer of bad news. Keep your tone positive in nature with a solutions-based approach to realistic problems.

5. Think big. Unless Donald Trump is writing a blog, readership is anything but guaranteed. Once you start blogging, your following will likely be relatively small. But a great leader keeps her goals focused on continuous growth and steady progress. She is always thinking big, aiming towards expanding her viewer profile and reaching more potential leaders.

Blogging can be an invaluable tool for up-and-coming or established leaders. A blogger’s message may not have the effect that Orson Welles’ broadcast had on the public nearly 75 years ago, but through the latest technologies, the power of words can be just as impactful.

Sheri Staak has served in many Vice Presidential roles at both large privately held and publicly traded global companies. She’s a corporate powerhouse and has been the recipient of numerous sales awards and recognitions. In addition to her key position in a highly aggressive, extremely competitive industry, Sheri is a regular contributor to a travel newsletter, lending her expertise by writing articles that provide tips and advice for business travelers. She also shares her wisdom and business perspectives with regular postings at her leadership-focused blog, The Staak Report.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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