Lee Stacey - Musician / Geek / Thinker
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February 18, 2010

The Social Media Disconnect

Businesses STILL don't seem to get it, do they?  More often than not, the corporate world leave the management of their social media up to the marketing department or simply outsource to to an external marketing agency.  Nothing wrong with this but if a company has a social media presence, they really need to be social.  It's not about broadcast, broadcast, broadcast.  That's just spamming.  There are also many cases where an external agent is used to manage a community for a brand.  Again, nothing wrong with that either but when that brand is a product that requires genuine end user support, it would be nice if the "social" arm of these companies were actually able to do this.

If I have a problem with a product and require support, is it too much to expect to be able to talk to the person/team representing them on Twitter about it?  Apparently so.

The problem is that as a company grows it tends to divide its self up into departments.  This department deals with this and that department deals with that.  If you're not careful this can create disparate silos within a business.  Where this is evident on the social web is marketing and customer support.  Why are companies marketing on the social web but not supporting their customers on the social web?  I'm going to use the word "social" as many times as possible here because I'm trying to drop a rather unsubtle hint.

I really began to notice this problem when I was having problems with my O2 phone.  I don't have a land line and my mobile phone wasn't working so I couldn't phone their helpline.  I went to their support page on the web, went through their FAQ/troubleshooter thing and still didn't find an answer so I used their online support form... Which didn't work.  After getting a little pissy about it someone reminded me that O2 had a twitter stream so I contacted them.  Their initial responses were to contact the support number or use the web support.  Not very useful.  In the end (after several days of to and fro because it takes them a whole day to respond when there's actually a problem) they said they had contacted support and I would get an email from them explaining what the problem was and how I could go about sorting it.  That email never came.  I did eventually sort the problem out but I did it on my own, completely in the dark and with no help from O2's customer support.

The problem with O2 is that (as it says on their twitter profile) their twitter stream is maintained by their press team.  They just don't have the information or tools to hand to deal with customer support problems.  This begs the question: Why are they trying to support customers if they aren't equipped to do so?

I'm not blaming O2's press team because I believe they did the best they could within their mandate.  I'm not certain but I expect their press team is an external entity.  Most likely a PR/marketing agency.

The problem is a corporate one, not any one department's fault.  The problem IS the departmental structure.  On the social web, the very least you need to be able to do is support those to whom you are preaching and selling to.  If your brand is something that requires support, you need to be doing this on the social web as well as selling.

How you go about this depends on the product you're trying to support but there are so many ways and with a decent bit of community management you can get the community to do a lot of the hard work for you at little to no cost at all.

Imagine going into a shop and buying a TV.  It goes wrong so you take it back to the shop.  If that shop told you they couldn't help you because they only sell the stuff, how happy would you be?  This is exactly the same scenario.  It's unacceptable, don't you think?

Good customer support is one of the best marketing tools available.  If you want people talking about your brand positively online, give them an experience worth talking about. Where social media is concerned, it's all about their communication and what they are talking about.  It's not about your press releases.

Anyway, you get the point.  I'm done with this now.  I need a cup of tea.

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Filed under  //   agency   business   community management   corporate   customer support   disconnect   marketing   mobile   o2   operator   outsourcing   phone   public relations   silo   social media   social web   telco   telefonica   twitter  

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February 8, 2010

SEO Is Dead!

Oooh, that's a controversial title, isn't it?  I suppose I'd better substantiate this wild claim...

What is SEO?

From Wikipedia: "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web sitefrom search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence."

Surely search is still important?

It is.  Saying "SEO is dead" is a bit of an overstatement really.  It's still important as people still use search engines but it's not as important as it used to be because the realtime web and and viral propagation are taking over.  This means that when you do search for something on Google (or whatever) the realtime search results will come up before those with high page ranks.  Also, which is better: A search engine listing or a recommendation from a friend or trusted source?

So what is more important than SEO?

Anyone that regularly reads my my posts will probably already know that my answer for this question is social media!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this does not mean banging your press releases out over Twitter and leaving it at that.  It's much more than that.  You've got to engage and above all else, you have to listen!  Only with real engagement will you be able to build a community of evangelists.  You need to build a relationship with your target demographic.  Engagement leads to trust, trust leads to evangelism, evangelism leads to virality, virality leads to WIN.

So should we forget about SEO?

Definitely not.  You still need it because there are always those special deep searches for finding out the stuff that not a lot of people know.  Also there are always niche applications where you may not easily build a community (although I'm yet to find one).  There is also the added bonus that someone might find you via Google and enter your community via the back door.

The back door

So SEO isn't dead, it's just that since building the extension, what was your front door has now become your back door.  Social media is the new front door!

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Filed under  //   marketing   search   seo   social media   techforce   twitter   viral   virality   web  

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November 20, 2009

Marketing On Twitter... So Many Still Getting It Wrong

So you've got a business, you're on Twitter and you're auto adding people based on keyword searches in the hope that they will follow back.  Some do, some don't.  When they follow back you hit their DM inbox with a link to your product/service and you can tweet all day about your awesome things, right into their stream.  Perfect, right?

WRONG

Sure it's very low cost and due to low cost if it only works occasionally that's fine and dandy but you could and should be doing much better.  I'll ask you one simple question: What happens to spam if it ends up in your inbox?  You delete it, am I right?  I know I'm right.  The same thing happens with tweets but users are also blocking these days and enough bocks can lead to exclusion from search and in some cases an account suspension.  Great plan.  How's that working out for you?

So what's the right way?

Successful marketing is about communication so that's what you have to do.  Keyword searching is still a good place to start and with tools like Twitterfall you can even refine your search to a geographic location.  So let's say you fix thingies in London and you've set up a search that will highlight people with broken thingies in the London area, that's a perfect start but what next?  Simple, when someone in London has a broken thingy you can respond by letting them know who you are and how you can help.  It's always good to strike up a little bit of a conversation and show that a) you're human and b) that you have the knowledge to help them out.  Once you've done that they will probably ask you for more details on your service.  That's the trick, making them ask you!

So you've made a new customer and they are happy with what you've done.  They will probably now follow you on Twitter and because you made them happy they are going to tell other people.  By engaging with that person you have just extended your potential reach to everyone they know too.

Building a fanbase

So you're getting followers and making new business left right and centre.  Good work but you can still do more and expand further on this.  Now that you're building a fanbase you can start publishing information to your feed that they will find useful and informative...  No, I don't mean spamming them with links to your products but you can inform them of any special offers and/or promotions and depending on your demographic link them to things they will want to see or read.  Now would also be a good time to start a blog if you don't have one.  If you're a local business, people like to know how and what you're doing.  If you're investing into their community or taking part in something fun in the area, that's exactly the sort of thing they will want to read about.  Publishing your blog posts (once is usually enough) to your Twitter feed keeps them in touch with you on a more personal level.

Blogging is easy these days and with sites like Posterous (what I'm using right now) it's as simple as sending an email.

Just the basics

Those are just a few basic tips on how to push your business or service on Twitter but there is still more that you can do but that all comes down to your own entrepreneurial spirit and creative mind.  There are many more social media tools out there that can help you out and Twitter is a good place to be looking for them.  The most important part (and I've said this so many times before) is engagement.  Make friends with people and talk to them!  One human being to another... Just like we used to do but digitally.

Of course there are automation tools out there that can make your life easier but you're talking to human beings (mostly) and they like to know that you are one too.  If your information stream is purely robotic people will soon lose interest.

If you're looking into promoting your business on Twitter, I hope this information is of some use to me.  Feel free to comment on the post or shout at me on Twitter ( @LStacey ), I'm always happy to help if there's anything you don't quite understand or if you're struggling to make it work.

Happy Tweeting!

Lee Stacey

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Filed under  //   blog   blogging   business   engage   engagement   fanbase   lee stacey   lstacey   marketing   posterous   pr   promote   promotion   spam   tweet   tweeting   twitter   twitterfall  

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November 9, 2009

Lee Needs A Job

Now that we're firmly planted in November I can officially announce that after two good years working as an IT Manager for a prestigious property development/investment firm based in London's Mayfair district I too have become victim to the dreaded economic downturn and find myself seeking employment.  Usual story, the company needed to downscale considerably and that meant downscaling IT also; so here I am, looking for work!

I'm unemployed but not unhappy

I could get rather upset and wallow in misery but that's not how I roll.  I see this as an opportunity to find a nice new challenge to sink my teeth into and I'm rather keen on finding a role in digital marketing and/or community management as these are things I've actually been doing for a number of years but more as a hobby or a bolt on to previous employment roles.

Social media maven (tongue in cheek :p)

I think it's fair to say that I have a rather good understanding of social media and it's associated tools and techniques.  Amongst other things, I have over 12,000 followers on Twitter, a very well read blog and I'm not a spammer so that's got to mean something, right?

Are you looking for a job too?

This blog post actually has a dual purpose.  Obviously my main objective here is to promote myself and find some work; preferably something I WANT to do.  The other purpose is that I firmly believe that in the current climate anyone in my position (and there are quite a few) needs to stand head and shoulders above the rest so now is a good time for polishing that personal brand!  If like me you're looking for work, get out there and shout about it!  Get blogging, get tweeting and get engaging (does that work in that context?).  Of course if you do nothing but shout about needing a job you won't get much of a following so you'll need to do a bit of work.  You've probably got some time on your hands now so start creating content that interests you and I can guarantee that it will interest others too.  If you're writing about things you enjoy, it's actually pretty easy.  Try it.  Out of that your personal brand will be born, you will gain a following and opportunities to network.  Don't go follower crazy either.  There are various techniques for gaining followers quickly and I advise against all of them.  The best thing you can do by far is be yourself and engage with other people sharing your interests.

Hire me... Please...

At the moment I'm collaborating with a professional copy writer on my CV (resume) using Google Wave, which in it's self is pretty exciting but I can send you a draft version if you're desperate to employ me right now. (I'm being positive here, OK?) 

If you know of any positions currently vacant that might fit someone like me, please contact me by one of the means listed below:

Email: me@leeneedsajob.com
Twitter: @LStacey
MSN: msn@leestacey.com
Skype: pilchardmusic
GWave: lee.a.stacey@googlewave.com

Thanks for reading and...

Giz a job!  :D

Lee Stacey - Musician / Geek / Thinker

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Filed under  //   brand   branding   community   digital   google   it   lee stacey   leeneedsajob   lstacey   management   manager   marketing   personal   redundancy   social media   twitter   unumployment   wave   web  

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