Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Warning! Social Media Challenges Ahead

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A recent survey by Proofpoint revealed that 8% of organizations in the US have fired their employees for their use of social media. One of the reasons for the firing was the sharing of sensitive information across multiple social networks. While the statistics isn’t surprising, it highlighted the upcoming challenges nearly every organization have to face in terms of people, technology and processes as social media fuel the ever changing landscape. Here are some of the challenges we believe businesses must start preparing for right now. If your competitors have not, you better be.

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10 Ways PR Can Be As Powerful As Trusted Peers

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If your reading was just restricted to social media, you might think that PR had no more role to play in the marketing arena, that the rise of ”trusted peers’ has so marginalized the communication professions that most agencies are now folding their tents and encouraging all their staff to learn a new trade. (more…)

3 Golden Rules For Hiring Social Media Candidates

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Companies are starting to fill ‘new media’ or ‘social media’ positions in their company. However, they need to remember that social media technologies are secondary to meeting business and customer needs.

I have spoken to several people trying to hire ‘experts’ to develop strategies and manage their ongoing social programs for their brand as well as recruiters who said that they have a very hard time trying to hire the right candidates for the job. The common problem I realize in these conversations were: Candidates are wrongly positioning themselves. Therefore, I have put together 3 golden rules when it comes to hiring social media executives. (more…)

If Local Chinese Restaurant Can Gets 1,000 fans on Facebook in 3 Weeks, So Can You

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It has been proven once again that social media have the reach and power to launch new brands and create awareness. Newly opened Chinese restaurant Chinese Box recently jump into the social media bandwagon by launching it’s own Facebook page. (more…)

You don’t own your brand, your customer does

It is a common knowledge among big boys and the branding circle. Once your brand becomes popular and you have a loyal consumer base, you don’t own your brand anymore. After all the effort you have put into building a strong perception for your brand, it would be entrenched in the minds of your consumers, especially the loyal ones. Then if you want to change it, you better seek their advise, or else the backlash might be bad. And as business owners, we can’t afford it.

Here’s an example of a not so small company who changed the look of a well liked product and was met with very unhappy customers.

Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice thought it was time for them to get an updated sleek look on their packaging in early January. But interestingly, their customers were not ready for that and they were not quiet about it either. 

…consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look. Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.” Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

 

Technology has made it possible for consumers to make their opinions known quickly, loudly and direct to the companies. If we as business owners don’t respond then we are in for trouble. Remember True Yoga debacle?

But does that mean we have to listen to every complain, comment and criticism? Because it might just hamper innovation. What do you think? Add a comment.

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YouTube becoming a powerful PR tool

I was having a discussion with one of my client, a learning programmes business owner. I told him he neededto record a video of his best classes and upload it to YouTube. And his response was, “You Tube is for entertainment, not for real business”. I was speechless!

I wish he knew that even world leaders are using You Tube to get votes. World-class trainers and speakers are using it to promote their programmes. Chefs are using it to promote their recipes and books.

If you don’t know it yet, You Tube is becoming a major How To resource centre. I myself have gone onto the portal to check on how to do this and that, especially new exercise routine. Here’s a article on Straits Times to proof my point (Sunday 18 Jan).

If you are a consultant, then you need to seriously consider making a presence on You Tube. Here’s how you can do it in 3 easy steps…

1. Get a video recorder of some sort. It need not be super high quality

2. Record something you already know well but might be of interesting to somebody. Your video need not be polished, as long as it has good info. Keep it within 5 min. You might want to add your website link onto the video to encourage viewers to go to your site.

3. Upload, add the correct tags.

4. Sit back, feel proud of the work you’ve done, no matter how poor the quality of your video. You can improve it the next time around.

Many business owners hold back on doing this simply because they are waiting for a time when they can produce a high quality, polished, corporate video. The problem is, that time may never come. And what they dont understand is, the You Tube community dont care for high quality, polished, corporate video. They want reliable, interesting content. It needs to be authentic more than polished.

It is a good way (read low risk way) for your consumers to sample a little bit of you before they commit to a proper programme, product etc.

So what are you waiting for?

What is Social Media? Here, in plain english…