Can Social Media SAVE MONEY and keep jobs from going overseas?

Some people think that keeping customer service representatives in the United States is way too high and that they should out-source overseas. Is adding social media program to a company an alternative that can help?

Hometown Customer Service

It seems as if every time I need to contact a company, over the phone at least, I reach a customer service from somewhere other than right here in our own back yard.  In fact every time I speak with “Bill” from India or “Susan” from Dubai, I remind myself that I really don’t think it saves anyone money and I am confident that more often than not, it makes a frustrated customer instead of a happy customer.

I recently had these same feelings when I called Citi, my credit card company, over something very simple.  Unfortunately I really needed the answer and wasn’t able to find it on line, because if I didn’t I surely wouldn’t have stayed on the phone as long as I did.  Well, after nearly an hour of unbearable language barrier, 3 different customer service, 1 supervisor, being told what I wanted to do was not possible, I was finally forwarded to, “Ashley” from Atlanta, Georgia and I felt now we’re getting somewhere. Literally, after a 3 or 4 minute conversation she understood what I was looking for and handled the situation.  By the way, I am confident that lack of language barrier played a huge role in the expediting the call too. 

Is someone stealing our jobs or are we giving them away?

A few days after the call I stumbled over an article written by Rhea Drysdale is the Chief Operations Officer of Outspoken Media called, ”Why Social Media is Not Customer Service”.  Part of me agrees, if you don’t take care of the client initially in person or on the phone, why do you think you will on a social network?  Social media, like Twitter, are about being a platform where people not only learn to go when they need you, a place to INFORM and also a place to see the good that your company does and isn’t that also about how you take care of your customer or resolve a problem.  Hey wait, that’s customer service, in fact that’s great customer service.  Those are the things your company can use when looking for a ROE (Return on Engagement).  That’s right today’s investment is really all about the engagement you have with your clients. So when a Gartner study showed 5 Reasons Why Offshore Deals Go Bust, witten by Computerworld, business should have looked at what else they could have done to improve what they already have.  Imagine the cost of training when initially setting up the overseas solution and then again when bringing it back to the states, do you think they took that into consideration when looking at the old fashioned ROI (Return on Engagement), probably not.

The Gartner study was back in 2007 and I know that social media wasn’t as prevalent as it is today, but now it’s today and we really need to be looking at tomorrow.  I can say that today your customers are on social networks and as tomorrow comes platforms may change, however, the fact that they will be there will not so utilize the tools you have.  Who knows, maybe if you have enough dialog with your customers through social media programs upfront, some of the other issues will not be as big of a deal.  Remember, when you need to BRAID Your Brand it is about tying all of your efforts together to strengthen your BRAND, so utilize social media to help. 

A business is about a relationship and the stronger the relationship is, the easier it is to rectify things as the happen instead of waiting until it is a big problem.  Do you think sending customer service overseas is the solution to a stronger relationship with your clients?  What about the comsumers out there, how do you feel when you and “Bill” can’t understand each other? Does that make you feel like you matter to a company or they are paying you the RESPECT you deserve? 

Brian

Does God love Twitter and is it OK to Tweet during church?

Does someone’s evil eye really mean you shouldn’t be Tweeting in Church? Even if it’s the President of the United States, I think not, what do you think?

St. Peters Cathedral Marquette, MI

I recently saw a video blog Church Tweet by Sugar Jones from Sugar IN THE RAW about sending Tweets in church, if it was OK and it made me think a bit about what I had been doing.  For some time now I have been doing something similar.  For over a year now if I heard something in church or saw a passage from the Bible and I felt that they were worth sharing, I would actually type myself an email with what was said and/or the passage until I later in the day where I would then Post it on Twitter and Facebook.  Well, whether it’s that or checking into Foursquare or typing the email, it seems to bring on many crazy looks (at least a look that I’m nuts and or rude) and often time controversial comments.

Sugar’s post and comments by Patty a NY Girl at Heart, Star Forbis (@star4laughs), Paul Kortman (@namtrok) and a few others, made me realize that it’s ok and that I am pretty sure God is happy when I touch someone’s life.  As the majority of the world doesn’t attend any type of service I figure this one of my ways to spread the word of God.  It is about spreading the word and there are a variety of ways to do so and if the masses are on-line then we should throw out a line and see who grabs on.  Ironically, the positive comments definitely out way the snarls, so I think it is great and I’ll continue. 

Twitter Scowl

Continue, better yet someone mentioned that #churchtweet should be added to the post, awesome idea, however after looking at the things that are posted with #churchtweet we may consider a different hash tag because most of the ones I saw were probably the reason I receive so many scowl’s.

The question is; in church, To Tweet or Not To Tweet, what do you think?

Brian 

Is the original social media network really on its way out?

That’s right Ma Bell, phone service; the original social media network is on its way out.

From Old to New an Ever Changing Phone

From hieroglyphics to one of the original curriers Paul Revere and then eventually what we call today, snail mail, all forms of social media change and yes that even means the telephone.  Well at least phone service as we know it is on its way out and it is not what I predict because the future is now because, “phone numbers are dead, they just don’t know it yet“.   It’s already happening; applications like Skype and Google Voice are setting the tone for a whole new future.

Who would have thought that one day 91% of ALL American’s would have a cell phone?  In fact the number of people who have substituted their home phone for their cell phone is staggering and still growing rapidly.  Even more amazing is the growth of business using phone service online.  Virtual engagement through video conferencing tools like Skype have brought personal and business relationships to a whole new level and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Skype

Ma Bell

Have you maximized what these new tools bring to the table? Have you found ways to use tools like Google Voice and Skype in order to BRAID Your Brand?  And how do you see yourself embracing these new social media benefits?

Brian

Face in Places…is Facebook Places putting your face in the wrong place?

“No one is allowed to know the location of somebody else unless he will be given permission by that person” claims a Facebook spokesperson.

Are Location Based Apps. putting your Face in the Wrong Place?

 With the scare of geo location applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla, being a security risk when your not home, now people worry about Facebook Places bringing out the Stalker’s in full force.  Well, even though Facebook states the Privacy Default checkin to be visible to friends only.  As seen in a recent TechCrunch post, Facebook says you can dial it down and restrict to a few specific people and can remove any checkin from your phone or on the web. In the here now section, only there after you agree to an opt in. Remember, it is defaulted to “Friends Only” and if automatically throwing your pictures out there for everyone to see isn’t enough, there are a lot of friends that you may not want to know where your at, so make sure you manage your settings right off the start because you never know who’s watching, you may be letting everyone on that application your connected to but Facebook and Twitter as well.

Facebook Places

Whether you’re trying to BRAID Your Brand or simply have fun, you need to be safe.  One safety tip may be to checkin as you checkout of a location instead.  Heck, not installing the app at all may be the safest thing but if your going to, it may be better to let someone know where you have been instead of where you’re at, don’t you think?

If you have any safety tips for geo location applications, feel free to share, you never know who you may help.

Brian 

Are you Driving Traffic to your website with Social Media, diverting it or just causing a traffic jam?

The Web Can Cause A Huge Traffic Jam

Push, Push, Push…are you pushing people away from your website or are you luring them in?If it’s that you’re luring them in today, great, remember what you’re doing. The last thing you want is to become stagnant or feel that your efforts are for nothing.  If you’re new to Internet Marketing, specifically social media outlets like Twitter or Facebook, you may say to your self, that there is a great deal of buzz happening with you or your service.  Yet as time goes on, your opinion may seem to change a bit because all to often I see companies  hit a bit of a wall in the social media curve.  If that happens your excited and optimistic feeling may flee to “What the heck am I doing here, nothing I do or say seems to be helping!”  So before that happens, there are several things you must consider. 

1. Are you still new or fresh?  When you first start, you were knew on the scene and people wanted to check you and there was interest.  If you continue putting out the same old information who will continue to look at the same old thing. Have the Respect for you audience to keep it fresh so your audience or “followers” will be interested.  
2. Are you providing people what they want? Not only is it important to provide information they want but do you have the Discipline to be present for them on a consistent basis because the more inconsistent you are people will tend to forget about you or more importantly, you may not be there when they need you
3. Are people engaging with you? If people are not reaching out to you, you need to look and see if you are providing them what they want.  As much as people want you to Inform them they also want to be acknowledged, so acknowledge them.
4. Are YOU engaging with others? It is not about just pushing information but interacting with others too.  Have dialog with people, find out what they like, don’t like. What successes with things they have hade or what frustrations they have and could you a solution.
   

   Direct people where you want them

5. Are you telling people where to go? There are a couple of different thought processes here and often times they both work.  One, if you’re having dialog electronically with people and provide them with the information they want and have a product of service that can help provide a solution for them, you should occasionally give them links back your website so they can get a hold of such solutions. Two, often times just by providing information and solutions to problems will inspire people to ask you how you can help them.   

The more you follow these steps, the more visibility you will have.  The more visibility you have with things that people want and when they want it, the more traffic you will receive.  If more visibility of good information results into more traffic and the solutions you offer where that traffic goes, then the more that traffic will convert to dollars.  That’s why regardless if you are a large or small organization, if you are trying to strengthen your brand, you need to BRAID Your Brand and social media is a great tool to interact with your other marketing efforts. 

Share some of the successes you have had with social media and if you have questions…ask away. 

Brian

The Myth of Social Media

In many areas access to the internet is FREE, is Social Media Marketing too?

So you think FREE WiFi is all you need?

If you think you can maintain a social media program yourself because it’s free, think again because a company’s most valuable assets are their PMT (People, Time & Money).  You’re a person and your time equals money so treat it like any other investment.  When you invest into something, you should either research what you want to invest in, to insure you make an educated decision, or make sure you hire a professional do it for you.  Shouldn’t you do the same thing with viral marketing too?  The answer is yes, so invest wisely.

Recently I spoke with Jeff Cousins, President of Kraft Business Systems and he mentioned how he notices that too many people are focusing too much of their time on social media and forgetting the reason they are in business.  As he understands the value of viral marketing, he also understands you still need to sell your product or service and social media isn’t going to do that for you all by itself.  He’s right; it takes a balance of the two. 

Drop those Social Media Training Wheels Behind

The best hint I can give if you’re new into social media, is to actually use social media. Just like learning to ride a bike, you learn how with training wheels.  Take some time to understand it because social media is not just about pushing a message on people.  First it’s about having people to push the information to and that is a BIG challenge in itself.  Once you find the people you need to give them information they want so they will listen to your message.  In order to do these things with out pulling away from the rest of your business you need to pull out the social media training wheels.  Those training wheels are a professional and after that professional helps you to master some of the basics you may consider, pulling the training wheels off, leaving them behind and maintaining the program internally.  As I think it is valuable to be an active part of a social media plan, I think it is more important to do it the right way and remember, don’t forget about selling your products and services.

So is it free, no, and you need to realize that viral marketing is still marketing, just one that you may be use to. As it may be part of the communications, operations and some other internal budgets, Social Media “Marketing” is about generating revenue for your organization and that’s the purpose of a marketing budget.  So once again, invest wisely. 

That’s why if you are unable to afford an designated Social Media Employee to run your campaign, it’s definitely best to outsource it completely.  The truth is if your looking for a solid ROE (Return on Engagement)…..you can’t afford not to!  Once you’ve accepted that, you need to start looking for that professional so you can do what you do best, run your company and sell your products or services.

When looking to BRAID Your Brand, social media can make up several of the strands that can be added to the BRAID.  Just make sure you look to the pros to make them worthy while.

Brian

The government and its social media grassroots efforts to pass on valuable information

Whether it’s internet marketing, sharing personal stories, or passing on the news and information, Virtual Engagement is being used by almost everyone.  Does that stand true for our government too?  

The History Channel's Day After Disaster

I recently watched the Day After Disaster on The History Channel and they discussed what plans are in place in the case of a nuclear attack and yes virtual engagement or social media play a role in their communications.  

There are 37 pre-selected radio stations in place to broadcast official emergency messages across the nation, these stations are known as Primary Entry Points or PEP Stations to spread the word on what plans the community must take to be safe.  Surely their will be no power you say?  Your right, however, every PEP station is equipped with emergency generators by FEMA, unfortunately only people w/ hand cranked radios will here the dire warnings.  Fortunately, that is not the only form of information push that will be used so hopefully there will be power because we’ll need all the help we can get. With power, that help will take the form of social media or in the form of virtual engagement as Assoc. Chief Medical Officer, US Dept. of Homeland Security, Dr. B. Tilman Jolly explained, “We’re frankly being more creative about the way we can push information out to the public through things like Facebook and Twitter and other technologies”.   Lawrence Schultz, Assistant Chief of Operations, DC Fire and EMS Department added, “DC Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency has Twitter capabilities to be able to provide that information.”, while FEMA National Preparedness Director, Donald Lumpkins added “If you have no way to receive the message, then you will never hear the message”.  For this reason Schultz added, “But at the end of the day when those things aren’t working having somebody go door-to-door knocked on the door, havin a police patrol car go through the neighborhood with a PA speaker are all the things that are gonna have to be utilized.” 

I hope and assume that these are not the only ways but when technology’s “Grassroots” methods are not viable any longer, they mentioned being scheduled to do it a little different and for lack of a better term, go “Old School”.  Those old style grassroots methods include spreading the word by knocking on doors and making announcements while driving up and down the streets from within patrol cars. 

I think what is important to realize in this show was that in order to reach your audience, you have to take all available measures to do so and a few of them were mentioned, such as; radio, Twitter and Facebook.  To me Twitter and Facebook are the most important mentioned concidering grassroots movements were started so the could be done at the local level, so many volunteers in the community could assist in spreading the word.  Even when it comes to the government, they too are trying to BRAID it! and strengthen their BRAND, so when it comes to sharing information with the public there are things to consider:  

1. Have the RESPECT to be where your audience is because they can help
2. Be AUTHENTIC when you INFORM them
3. Providing the information in a format that can easily be passed onto others
4. Have the DISCIPLINE to exhaust all means to reach everyone

Just like preparing to spread the word in case of a disaster, your company needs to take the same measures of preparation to spread its word and utilizing a variety of medium is crucial when trying to BRAID Your Brand. 

Have you tried to BRAID Your Brand and how has it worked? 

Brian