Posts Tagged ‘the unpanel’

Follow up to best practices for companies to build their audiences using Social Media

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

Strong opinions and passion. Those would be the underlying themes of the last Unpanel hosted by Scott Stratten. Why those two themes? Well the topic was what are the best practices for companies to build their audiences using Social Media and indeed there were some stong opinions and points of views.

The first question of  what was the process for companies to start creating an audience digitally got things started right away with opinions and comments that ranged from, “get right in front of them in their preferred channels”, to using personal social networks and to work out or expand from there. However, the trick might be to try and determine what channels or networks your audience prefers. The bottom line,  the consensus seemed to be that everyone had to listen first to find and locate the audience that you want to convert. But once they are located, listen passively then participate actively! Give them value above and beyond anything else!

The next question was  should companies automate some, all or none of the process probably generated the most heated and passionate responses. Some said no, need to keep it personal, while others said that if you grow quickly then you might need to automate. Though some were of the mindset that automation kills the process or purpose of connecting with people-which in a sense is the essence of social media. but…

What can large companies do to retain the essence of social media on an enterprise level? Perhaps that is worthy of it’s own blog post?

At the end of the day there needs to be a balance of quantity and quality but with a certain level of engagement. Large or small, you still need to engage, this isn’t about collecting names. Some may treat it like “name” farming but it’s the companies that develop relationships that will win. Suffice it with this, “auto anything on Twitter” for example defeats the purpose of social media and a company thats buying followers, isn’t gaining a sale.

Methods seemed to have been as much at issue here as was the type of engagement but it segued to the last question of the session which was where should a corporation build followers of current and potential customers, and why? a checklist was what were looking for. However the convo lingered on Q2 for a bit longer and that was because of the strong opinions that everyone had on the auto follow debate.

Right out of the blocks came this comment: Sometimes brands create their audience and don’t necessarily find them. Interesting point/observation. This comment came rolling in which someone said, “Define the key themes that resonate with the  brand and then use Social media search tools to discover where & who is discussing them. A great point! Followed by you  can’t be everywhere at one so,”fish where the  fish are swimming”, but have a ‘social home’, create action that drives people to you.

Scott though asked a great follow up in which he poses, If your market isn’t fully on Twitter (or FB), should you build a home on it before they and your competition come? I venture to say yes.

But if companies are going to engage consumers in Social Media, should they request your social media info? Twitter name, etc? Great follow up question by Scott. The answers ranged from; If they have it yes, why not? To,” there has to be a level of trust”.

Bottom line to this very engaging and frantic discussion is this…

As a company you have to be proactive in social media not reactive.

Next week’s host; David Alston of Radian 6

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Posted in Branding, Content, social media | Comments Off

Follow up to Unpanel #5: The Role of Social Media and PR in Crisis Communications

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Our moderator Danny Brown gives us his POV from this past Tuesdays, Unpanel #5.

 

Crisis Communications Takeaway

  • Every company should have a crisis communications team.

It seemed to be in agreement that every business should have a crisis communications team in place, regardless of size of the business itself. What was less obvious is who should the team be – internal or external?

Do you go for the internal approach because no one knows your company like you do, and your customers may not trust the word of a “stranger”? Or do you go external, because they won’t have rose colored specs on and will see the areas you need to look out for?

Compromise seemed to be external, with final decision resting on CEO internally.

  • Is social media helping or hindering crisis communications?

No one could pinpoint an example of a great social media response when it came to crisis communications. Motrin, Dominoes and Amazon were all late to the party. The feeling is if there’s no response within 24 hours, you’ve missed the control boat.

With social media, though, this time is lessened dramatically. In this way, social media is both the devil and the saviour – it can cause a crisis and it can also control it. The difficulty lies with how you monitor.

  • Should crisis communications be PR-led?

PR professionals can offer some of the best crisis communications control and advice, but does their place always belong with crisis communications? Look at the swine flu outbreak and media reaction – has this been dealt with efficiently?

Either way, should PR be stepping on news reporting shoes? It’s not always clear-cut who should be part of the crisis communications team make-up.

  • Should the CEO be the crisis communications face and figurehead?

You want a calm and respected voice of the company when a crisis happens. But does this instantly mean the CEO or another C-level exec? Isn’t this where an external source can really take charge and divert negativity away while showing that the business takes it seriously enough to hire outside experts for non-bias?

Overall, it’s agreed that crisis communications is needed – a crisis can happen at any time, and you need to be prepared to face it head on as opposed to burying your head in the sand and hoping it blows over.

We want to again thank Danny Brown for a very thoughtful, energized and engaged Unpanel discussion. Want more thoughtful discussion? Look for Danny on Twitter

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Posted in corporate, Public Relations | 1 Comment »

Follow up to Unpanel session #4:Transparency in Job Search Efforts

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Michael Long, aka “The Red Recruiter”,  hosted a lively, and up to this point,  our most energetic and active Unpanel.  We asked Michael what his takeaway’s might have been from the 1 hour session:

The transparency issue is a big one and we are all trying to figure
out what we can and cannot do. From a candidate perspective, employers
range in the weight that they put on your social media presence. With that
said, the future looks bleak for those who want to hide their online
presence. Advancing tools and search savvy recruiters are quickly learning
how to dig in deeper. The buzz would indicate a future filled with both
your paper resume and an online characterization.

The second takeaway from our discussion on transparency was about being
yourself. If you have to pretend to be someone else in order to get that
perfect job, it probably isn’t the perfect job for you. With that said,
social media has created a platform for people where they can be themselves.

Generational judgments and differences aside, as a recruiter I have learned
that there is a perfect work-home for almost everyone. It’s a matter of
matching up with a culture that suits your desires and a company that
dedicates to something you are passionate about. Long-term, this is the
situation that works out best for all parties involved.

The final major takeaway about this topic… and the one that stuck with me
the most, was regarding the “issue” of transparency existing at all. One
comment specifically pointed out that the “issue” has remained a topic
simply because the X and Baby Boomer Generations make it one. Once their
voice has faded in the marketplace, the issue of transparency won’t be an
issue at all. At first (since I personally sit on the boarder of X & Y)
this comment caught me off guard. However, once I thought about it more, it brought up some good questions.

Do the Y Gen’s have any issue with being transparent? If not, then perhaps this issue is something that early generations have to deal with.

Perhaps we are staring change in the face and we are just having a hard time accepting it.

PERHAPS, that should be another UnPanel!

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Posted in Human Resources, social media | 3 Comments »

Review of Unpanel session #1

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

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My friend Beth Harte recently asked if I would write a guest post on her blog and as is always the case with me, I struggle with writing compelling, timely posts.

 

Lo and behold though something occurred on Tuesday that was somewhat memorable and very worthy to write about.. Tuesday was the first official Unpanel event on Twitter. A one hour, once a week, no holds barred, fast paced moderated twitchat. Or to quote Jason Breed, one of the founders, “an Unpanel is a purposeful interaction with individuals around their industry or business on Twitter….”

 

So this Unpanel was significant on a few levels and I want to highlight them for you so that you make a point of blocking off the time each week to participate in a truly engaging and elevated conversation about social media.

 

#1 We had a moderator that absolutely drew out of the 100, yes that’s right, 100 participants, more than just the cursory “social media is all about transparency” comments. Did I mention that Beth Harte was the moderator? We could not have had a better “first” moderator/host.

 

#2 Pre-set questions; but not your normal “what is social media” questions. Below are those questions..

Q1:  Where are the deficiencies in business around People, Interactions & Technology? In other words, where does social media make sense in a business setting when addressing those deficiencies?

Q2:  Play the “What if” game.  Addressing the above deficiencies, remove all barriers and let the imagination roll.  (For example, what if CRM systems were filled up by buyers not salespeople) Use the “In a perfect world” scenario when plugging in a social media solution. What does that world look like?

Q3:  Combine the identified needs in business with the “imagine if” comments and let’s create a high-level road map

#3 Incredible discussion. Powerful give and take. Amazing connection with people on social media issues that we can all relate to that get beyond the echo.

#4 A discussion on Twitter with actionable takeaways.

#5 Value. I harp all the time on the value of a tweet or the value of a persons tweets, and in the span of one hour, there was more value in what was being said than what might be gleaned from a week of following a so called social media expert..

#6 The website Hashtagsocialmedia, provided a forum to follow the tweets right on the site. It also provided Beth’s tweets on the side panel so that we could see Beth’s insights and followup questions. Key and critical to pushing the discussion to a higher level.

#7 People worth following AFTER you’ve had conversations with them, Not before and not based on who they are following, I cannot tell you how many times I said during the Unpanel, “Wow what a great point”…

#8 As awesome as Beth was, the Unpanel will have a different moderator/host with a different perspective every week and thats an important aspect. They don’t have to be rock stars to bring value to the discussion.

#9 A compilation in one place, of potentially the best minds in social media, that SOME people might not know. And we’re able to talk with them. Only through the power social media is this possible. How cool is that?

#10 It’s going to get better.

This wasn’t your typical blog post but neither was the Unpanel. Many thanks to Beth Harte, Jason Breed and Terry McKyton

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Posted in social media | 1 Comment »