Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Ignore
Two days ago I posted about people being a big danger of social media marketing because of what they might say on various channels without thinking about the consequences.
But on a more personal (though it can be corporate) level, inaction is equally damning.
When someone adds you (the communication professional of the company) on, say, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, and you wait a week before replying – what does that say about you as an individual, and as a representative as a company?
They add you and you accept it two weeks later – they’re not important.
They ask a question and you never answer it - they’re beneath you.
You ask your community a question but then don’t respond to the answers – you’re disinterested and insincere.
In the above cases you’d be better off not being involved in the social space at all.
I have to admit this is something I struggle with personally. Sometimes people I meet once at conferences want to connect on Facebook and that might be a little too personal for me so I procrastinate and before long it’s a month and by then, accepting the invitation lets the other party know I metaphorically sat on it for a month, thus conveying the message they weren’t important enough to accept within a few days.
There’s no easy answer to this question. Some people will be comfortable accepting every invitation, others will be more selective. It’s not so much the style that matters, but being aware that whichever route you choose to take (or not take) communicates something to that person or group of people.
How do you deal with the many requests you get on social channels? Do you ignore some? Ask them to add you on a less personal channel like Twitter instead of Facebook? I’d love to hear from you.
[image from Spraytint]
Tags: communication, communication professional. twitter, company representative, danger of social media marketing, facebook, inaction, LinkedIn, social channels, social media
Posted in facebook, online identity, social media | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Assuming you’ve got your product sorted out and implementing a social media programme won’t be a one way ticket to exposing all your product’s weaknesses, the next thing you need to worry about is the people who will be engaging in the social space.
Early this month there was an article in the Straits Times titled “Social networking at the workplace” where 2,008 employees were interviewed. Here’s a scan of the paper (click for larger image, pardon the poor quality, newspaper doesn’t keep very well).
Dangers of Social Media Marketing: Social Network Research
A quick glance at the statistics shows a few alarming statistics:
22% of companies have formal policies that dictate how social networking can be used – This means about 3 in 4 companies will invariably have an employee saying something inappropriate online because there are no guidelines to guard against it.
Only 40% of people “always” considers what their bosses might think when posting something online – So about 1 in 2 employees will run their mouth on channels like Facebook and Twitter to other members of your staff, your clients and maybe even your competition.
And to round it all off, only 17% of companies have a monitoring programme to manage social networking risks – 4 in 5 companies are letting these conversations go on unnoticed, and more importantly, unchecked. By the time they realise this, it will be too late.
The social space is not the place for untrained staff to “play” in. If no one is monitoring internal chatter about your brand and no one is actively educating staff how to behave on social channels, your biggest threats may ironically come from within – your own staff.
What measures would you put in place to prevent something nasty from happening?
Tags: biggest threats, engaging in social space, formal social media policies, guidelines, implementing social media programme, manage social networking risks, monitoring program, monitoring programme, product, product weakness, product weaknesses, social channels, social media policy, social media program, social networking, social networking at the workdplace, social networking risks, straits times
Posted in Research, Social Networks, online identity, social media | 4 Comments »
