Thursday, May 7th, 2009
I was listening to Jaffe Juice #127 a couple of days ago, and it was an episode featuring Mitch Joel from Six Pixels of Separation, two of my favourite podcasters for the “price” of one!
Amidst the many things they talked about, what really caught my attention was how they’re both doing new things. Mitch with his book and Joseph with Jaffe Juice TV. And it really got me thinking about one point:
1) If you don’t experiment you’ll never know, and if you never know, you shouldn’t be in a position to talk about it
Joseph mentions that a prerequisite to work at Crayon (his agency) is that you have to blog. And awhile back , Pat Law asked “if you ran an agency, I would…” and my response was hire people who blog. I just think you really need to know about the medium before being able to advise anyone on what they’re doing.
And sometimes the point of experimenting is just to give it a go and figure out whether it’s an avenue you want to go ahead with or not. With The GennY Podcast, we don’t even have metrics or anything, but I think just us getting together and bouncing around ideas really at least gives us an understanding of what podcasting is, and if it would make sense to bring it to work, school, whatever.
Right now, giving that organisations and companies are so far behind the social media curve, it’s the best time to start “dabbling” in it, maybe just a few hours a week, because that’s the only way you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. Just because something has been working for the last five years, doesn’t mean it’ll continue to work as well as it has been for the next five.
I guess the same lesson goes to all the people jumping on the Twitter bandwagon and just using it as a broadcast medium. Because they never tried and experimented with it in the beginning, they’re late, catching up, and as a result, using it wrongly and plain wasting resources.
Tags: agency, crayon, dabbling in social media, genny, genny podcast, jaffe juice, jaffe juice tv, mitch joel, pat law, podcasters, Podcasts, six pixels of separation, twist image, twitter, twitter bandwagon, wasting resources
Posted in social media | No Comments »
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Responses to my posts over the last couple of weeks have really got me thinking about this issue. I’d think it’s always nicer to have someone from the company who can react quickly without having to check back with the client about details, but this isn’t always possible, especially with large organisations.
From the Starhub post, it seemed like most people felt like their Twitter efforts were still a small, isolated part of customer service, poised to be properly established when the timing is right, and perhaps when more training is done.
The possible problem with leaving things to agencies, is that, as Jonathan points out, for better or worse, they are now representing your company. So when bad PR happens, your brand is automatically tainted as well. Arguably this can happen even if the person engaging is in-house, but if the communication plan is discussed properly internally and placed in the hands of someone who knows how to engage, the risk might be slightly reduced.
Finally, there’s the issue of the agency taking advantage of clients. At this moment while social media is the shiny new object, clients are going to need training for everything from monitoring to engagement, which is fine and good. But again there’s the extra unnecessary step of back and forth between agency and client, and as Liana points out in the comments, when someone from the organisation itself is responding, it’s easier to maintain the “feel” and “culture” of the organisation compared to if someone was responding on the organisation’s behalf.
To close, I guess at this point while everyone is still finding their footing in social media, it doesn’t really matter because mistakes are going to be made anyway. The important thing is to really bring those learning experiences into the DNA of the company, and begin to empower people in-house who will truly understand the organisation to be your spokespersons, rather than the agency professional who may be better at it, but ultimately is probably juggling three different accounts.
And one way to get this moving a little faster, is to get someone with some rudimentary knowledge of social media on board now, so that when your organisation is finally ready to take on the responsibility fully, you’ll at least have someone ready.
Tags: agency, bad pr, client, company dna, company representatives, culture of company, dna of the organisation, feel of company, rudimentary knowledge of social media, shiny new object, starhub on twitter, who should engage in social media
Posted in social media | 5 Comments »
Friday, April 17th, 2009
Shill Alert
Awhile back I was talking to a friend who I went to school with, and she was telling me about a social media training session by an “expert” who was teaching them how to use social media to monitor their brand. This apparently covered the usual Google Alerts, as well as some of the more popular forums here in Singapore. So I asked the obvious question: “When’re you going to start participating?”
“Oh. We have to pay more for training for engagement.”
Say what?
I’m definitely not against having training for engagement. It’s way too easy to do the wrong thing when commenting on a blog, using Twitter, using Facebook or just replying on a forum. Not to mention there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for participation, and it’ll have to be customised to fit your company’s needs, which will differ from industry to industry, and even within industries, between companies.
Here’s the thing though. If I were an agency or a self-proclaimed “expert” (a term I really don’t like), I’d love it if a company contacts me and doesn’t include a request for engagement in the “training package”. Great for greed, great for money.
It’s like going to an agency and asking for something “viral” just because it’s the latest buzzword, but not having an inkling what it’s actually about, and when the agency comes back to you with an idea which is far from viral, you won’t know any better and have to take their word for it. Do you really want to take that kind of risk with your money these days?
So I think as a client, do yourself a favour and do some research on what your agency should be offering you and what you should be asking for. And if you don’t know enough and don’t have the time to know about, at least bring someone on board in your company who can tell you when your agency or “expert” is obviously shilling you.
Tags: agency, brand monitoring, buzzword, clients, engagement training, facebook, forums, google alerts, inline engagement, monitoring your brand, one size fits all, participating on forums, participation online, risk, shill, Singapore, social media expert, social media monitoring, twitter, viral
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore, social media, social media business | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
I suppose this isn’t news, but Starhub (one of the three telcos here in Singapore) has brought its presence to the social media scene in the form of a Twitter account, @StarHubCares.
During the first few weeks, there were a few issues like @StarHubCares replying other Twitter users, asking them to direct message (dm) @StarHubCares directly, but because @StarHubCares wasn’t following them on Twitter in the first place, there was no way for a dm to get through.
Thankfully, with some help from the community, this was quickly sorted out and @StarHubCares quickly followed these people (myself included) back, and got down to replying their issues.
Here are a few questions that I do have about the initiative:
1) Should it be more transparent that the person behind @StarHubCares is not actually someone from Starhub, but their agency? Some online feel yes, I’m slightly on the fence.
2) Is Twitter the best (or even a right) channel for them to be on?
3) @StarHubCares seems to do a good job of listening in and replying to questions/problems, but are there actual accounts from them or from the general public about cases being closed, problems being solved?
4) Do regular Starhub employees know about this service, so that maybe when they close a sale at a retail outlet, they can tell customers about this service in addition to the customer helpline?
What do you think? When should a company be on Twitter? Does it fit Starhub? Should they be doing more with it? Less?
Tags: @starhubcares, agency, direct message, dm, is twitter the best channel, is twitter the right channel, Singapore, social media, starhub, twitter
Posted in Singapore, case studies, social media | 6 Comments »
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
It’s not often I get annoyed to the point of blogging, but this takes the cake. I’m going to post a few emails I got in the span of one day, and you can draw your own conclusions. I’ve chosen not to reveal the name of the PR person (though i will say his/her job title is senior account executive), the event or any such details this time round.
First mail, 12:45pm (click to view larger image):
Bad PR First Email
By the way, the event is tomorrow at 10:30am. So I’m given 22 hours notice.
So I can’t make it because I have a major presentation tomorrow, here’s my reply:
My Reply
The next email I get is at 4:12pm, asking me to invite friends/bloggers on their behalf:
Bad PR Second Email
Okay. I’m in class so I don’t reply instantly. Nice to see that they would like to get the message out to “as many people as possible” but they do that at 4pm the day before.
Third mail, 6:18pm, asking if I would like to write about their event even without attending it:
Bad PR Third Email
That’s the kicker. I don’t have a relationship with this person, I’ve never been contacted by this agency before, what makes them think this is an appropriate way to approach me?
One thing for everyone entering the social media scene to keep in mind: not all bloggers are going to be like me and choose not to disclose the identity. There are many others who will plaster your name, agency, client’s name and event and get it all the bad press you need before the event even gets off the ground.
Comments?
Tags: agency, bad pitching, bad pr, bad press, client, event, poor practises, relationships, social media
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore | 12 Comments »
