A humorous reminder on the importance of making sure your audience understands your message:
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Women “uninfluenced” by social media. Australians are.
Is brand participation in social networking really making a difference with customers? Two studies on consumer reactions to social networking were released on Wednesday that both tried to answer this question.
The first study, from Q Interactive and released at ad:tech Chicago, surveyed 1,000 women and found that they are “overwhelmingly uninfluenced” by a brand’s presence in social media. It found that 54 percent of women are likely to friend or fan a brand via a social network but that 75 percent said social networking sites don’t influence what they buy.
The second study was conducted in Australia and found that conversations on social networks about poor customer experiences are “severely harming” the reputations of organizations who are called out on these sites. The research indicated that 25 percent of respondents boycotted a particular organization after reading a negative review or comment about it on a social networking site, and of that quarter, 42 percent had been previous customers of the particular organization.
At first glance, the studies appear to be at odds with each other. I realize that it’s a fallacy to make a direct comparison here, but look at the broader picture. In the first example, the women are being asked about the brand’s activity on social networks and whether it influences them. In the second, the respondents are being asked about whether information posted by other users of the network influences them. Big difference.
People trust people more than brands. People will even trust people they don’t know when it comes to online opinions. A negative review or account of a poor customer service experience on Facebook or Twitter will carry more heft than a brand sharing its “story” on a Facebook fan page or campaign microsite.
Where the two concepts cross is the conclusion in the second part of the Australian study: Of social network users who claimed to have posted a negative review, 60 percent of them would welcome interaction from the organization to address the issue.
I may not be influenced to buy any/more of a product because I follow them on Twitter or are a fan of them and receive their updates on Facebook. But if I notice a friend’s blog post, Yelp review, or tweet about a terrible experience with the company, I’m likely to be turned off and choose to do business elsewhere. I give credence to my friends’ opinions. That’s still a case of being “influenced” by social media networks — just not in the positive way that the first study sought to measure. However, if I refer to that negative review and see that the company in question took the time to craft a thoughtful response and address the issue, I’m likely to give them a shot and may even respect them more for doing so.
Man, woman, American, Australian — it comes down to which side of the conversation is more effective for brands: talking or listening. Taken together, these two studies show that listening is clearly the winner.
Image via Flickr user kpishdadi
Six ways to add social sizzle to internal communication
So much of the hullabaloo about social media is focused on the way brands engage with consumers that we often forget that these new Web technologies are great for internal communication, too. Having spent a good chunk of my career in employee communications, it’s an area that I know could benefit from a little more social sizzle.
Here are 6 ways to spice up an internal program:
- Video. How many employees actually read those 1,500-word missives that the CEO sends out each week or month (even if they’re craftily ghost-written by a communicator)? Probably not too many. Try recording the message with a Web cam instead. Execs will love it because it takes less time than the back-and-forth editing of a written piece, and employees will connect more with a real person talking to them than stiffly-written corporate updates. Embed the video on the company intranet and allow employees to rate or comment on it.
- Wikis. Version control on a document has been the downfall of many a project. When you have a dozen people working across continents and time zones, e-mailing around a document for review can result in a mishmash of comments and input. Set up an internal wiki for a project that allows team members to edit, review, comment and approve aspects of a project so that everyone’s on the same page.
- Internal networks and directories. A great feature of the Web is it’s ability to exploit the “weak ties” among people. A product developer in India may be struggling with a problem that a technologist in Brazil has expertise in. Create an employee skills database that’s internally searchable and allows them to fill out a profile with their interests, expertise and qualifications and post requests. Don’t have the resources to build out your own system? Try creating a private LinkedIn Group for your employees (just make sure they’re not sharing information that’s company-sensitive).
Gather Feedback. Think of what Ford is doing with the Fiesta Movement: allowing a select group of people the opportunity to test a product, provide feedback, and share their experiences. Why not do this with employees? If you’re thinking of implementing a new system or policy, pilot it at a single location first, but allow the employees there to publicly express their thoughts about it via an internal microsite. Most importantly, listen. Take their feedback to heart and make changes to the program before it’s rolled out company-wide.- Develop knowledge communities. Create forums for a particular function, process, location or project and allow employees to ask and asnwer questions. Incentivize them for participating — not necessarily with money or reward — it can be as simple as giving them points or a ranking based on their answers (think Yahoo! Answers). Make it easy for employees to draw on their coworkers’ knowledge and show off their own.
- Mobile messaging. Create a short-code system for employees to get messages on their mobile phones. Inclement weather? Let them know the parking lot won’t be plowed and they can work from home (score!). Alert them of urgent, time-sensitive news. Use this platform sparingly (text message still cost many users money, so make sure it is opt-in). For a distributed workforce that may not be at a computer very much (like a field sales team or line manufacturers), text messaging can be a good way to reach employees with must-read news.
What else have you got? How have you seen Web 2.0 concepts used innovatively for internal communication?
Image via Flickr user ..Lodi