Events @ GTS Blog

Social Media Best Practices

wendym — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:00:58 GMT

With social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter being all the rage lately, there are bound to be questions about how these popular online tools should be deployed in a business environment. Some companies fully embrace social media, creating Facebook and MySpace profiles and pages, Twitter accounts, and using them to interact with customers, as well as advertise to potential customers, and manage their online reputation. Here are some best practices for implementing social media in your company.

DO use Social Media as a customer service tool. Your customers—and potential customers—are already talking about you online. To their Facebook friends, on their blog or via Twitter. Why not become a part of those conversations? If a customer has a gripe, they are much more likely to post something about it online, and social media is an increasingly popular place for online rants, especially about customer service. Social media is a great way to manage your online reputation. By engaging people who may have experienced a less than optimal situation with your company, you can greatly reduce the amount of negativity associated with your company and brand. Resolving issues in plain view of the general public goes miles towards building a reputation for transparency, as well as building trust in your company/brand. Comcast has been particularly successful at using Twitter to resolve customer issues.

DON’T use social media for recycling data or automated feed dumping. Nothing is worse than a company reposting the same thing that is on their website on their Facebook page or Twitter feed all the time. Linking to the website or blog post from your page/feed is great, but always save some unique information for social media. You want to engage your audience, not recycle information. One recommended use would be posting an online coupon just for your Facebook friends/fans, or Twitter followers. Make sure it is a ‘limited time only’ offer, to ensure the coupon isn’t abused. Some other potential uses would be “web only” deals or specials, free gifts, or complimentary services and perks.

DO be conversational. Monitor your pages and feeds (most social media sites offer email notification for this), and interact with your customers. With Twitter, use “@username” replies and “re-tweet” interesting and relevant posts as much as possible. On Facebook, respond to questions or requests for information on your company or its products. When someone has a gripe, respond publicly, and use the opportunity to show you are human, and willing to work with someone to resolve an issue.

DO have fun and be human. Give your customers some personality to enjoy. Being a social media automaton is not going to get you any fans or followers, and could even hurt your potential to gain new customers. Make social media fun and interesting to your fans and followers, and they will think of you first when they need your product or service.

DON’T be rude or condescending to people online, even if they are a troll or are trying to flame you. Most things posted online can remain there indefinitely. Having rude interactions with people online won’t win you new customers, and will just remind everyone that you didn’t handle a situation appropriately. If needed, you can always appeal to moderators or help staff of the social media platform for help with trolls and people who flame you online.

DON’T share sensitive information. If you are managing a social media presence for your company, you definitely don’t want to post things about layoffs, gossip, and other sensitive or potentially harmful information. Avoid things that could put your company in a negative light, or cause distrust among your potential customers. That’s just common business sense!

DON’T let your page, profile or Twitter stream go stagnant. Social media is all about engagement, and creating a profile or page, and then letting it sit there, is not going to do you any benefit. Post links to interesting articles in your industry. Ask questions, post surveys, contests and/or special offers…anything to engage your fans and get them thinking about your company and its offerings.

Use of social media is growing at an exponential rate. What are you doing to capitalize on these exciting new online tools? Are you doing enough?

Social Media to Help Your Business Thrive

kevinj — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:08:20 GMT

At first you might dismiss this. You might say, "Web 2.0, Social Media - These are all buzzwords that don't have anything to do with my business. I am not going to waste my time on this." But, then again, the economy is tough and ANYTHING that can help you is worth a look.

These companies may have thought the same thing - until they tried it...

CoffeeGroundz in Houston Texas almost doubled their clientele with a few simple steps.
Within 6 months, Ace Hardware saw a 500% increase in ROI through increased sales by connecting dispersed distributors. Ace got them 'talking' through discussions - something that geographically spread out stores were not able to easily do. Once they did, sales, cost savings and collaboration rose dramatically. Plus, new hires get up to speed much more quickly.
Home Depot uses video to quickly and simply explain how to perform some common DIY projects.
Each year, RehabCare looks for the best college grads to hire. To help them, they turned to social recruiting. Whereas their limited staff of five had only so much outreach, now they are in constant contact with thousands of students each day.

Each of these examples will not directly correlate to your business. No real example will. But they can give you some good ideas of how to use Web 2.0 - or Social Meda - to better help you collaborate better within your company, connect with your customers or reach new customers. Use these and other examples and then brainstorm how you can use it to increase your business and keep a solid foundation through these rough economic times.

Technically Speaking: Facebook? MySpace? What is Social Media and Why Should I Care?

kevinj — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:16:56 GMT

"Facebook? MySpace? Twitter? Aren't these just teenage fads?"

To some degree, you are right. But it is MUCH more than that. They are examples of titles you may have heard before: Social Media and Social Networking. Are they valuable to you? Without a doubt. Let's review what these terms mean, how they have worked in the past and what you can do to take advantage of them.

SOCIAL MEDIA

In its essence, social media allows us to easily exchange information in many different formats without time or distance being a factor. One example of this is the Community Portal. Us GTS folk can create information and share it with you in an instant, no matter where you are. You, in turn, can create information and share it with us. It may be in the form of a discussion (forum), a blog post, a video or more.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social networking allows you to keep in touch with people you would normally lose track of. Because of that, you can keep in touch with many more people. In the past, to keep in touch with someone you would have to keep a rolodex, or use Outlook to manage contacts. But what if one of those contacts changed their email or phone. You might not ever know. Using social networking they change the information and you are always updated. You may use LinkedIn and get connected with many professionals you would not normally be able to keep in contact with. Sometimes you only want a casual connection and don't always want to send a Christmas card. This allows for those casual connections. It also helps you find people with the expertise you might be looking for - like our "People" section of the Community Portal. (In fact, if you are so inclined, sign up for LinkedIn and join the AUTO GLASS networking group and get connected with others in the industry.)

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Sure, social media and networking can be abused (and my opinion is that often it is). But within the tools out there are silver linings that can turn golden. Here are a couple examples of how social media has helped two companies.

COMCAST

A technician came to a customer's home to do some repair. Instead, the person ended up sleeping on the couch for over an hour while on hold with Comcast. The home owners took a video, quickly edited it and posted it to the Internet:

Thousands of people saw it. They passed it on to friends. Others (who had similar experiences) posted their videos. Soon, ComcastMustDie.com was born. Anyone who had a bad experience with Comcast could post their experience. It was a PR nightmare for Comcast. Then one Comcast person decided to use the very thing that created the mess to their advantage. They joined ComcastMustDie.com and started resolving customers' concerns. Another employee created @ComcastCares on Twitter and started servicing customers there as well. Instead of making the customer come to Comcast to voice concerns, the employees went to the customers.

As a result, Comcast's service has greatly improved and they turned a disaster into a an opportunity to deliver better customer service.

BLENDTEC

How do you make a food blender popular and stand out from all the others? That was the question the president of Blendtec was trying to answer. Think of it - nothing could be more generic than a food blender. But how to do you make the world take notice of YOUR blender? The answer was to do what blenders do best. Blend. Blend without reservation. Blend iPhones, garden hoses, Transformer toys, oh, and food (even if it is still in a can). Then video the blending and create WillitBlend.com and make it easy for people to share it with others.

The result? Thousands of people viewed it and passed it on to thousands more. The blender was featured on the Discovery Channel. The president of Blendtec is now on a speaking tour. There is a rumored 500% increase in sales.

And these are not the only two companies that have benefitted from Social Media. Dell. Zappos. McNeil Consumer Healthcare. Southwest Airlines. Companies of ALL sizes, shapes and products.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Don't think that people have been talking about your business? Think again. Do some research. I would not be surprised if people are already talking about you.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You can ignore the conversations and pretend they are not happening or you can go to your customers. You can use social media to increase your business, or you can let your competitor do it. It is up to you. But to ignore it is pure craziness.

If you need help, let us know. But don't ignore this so-called teenage fad. Sure, there are faddish elements, but there are other elements you and your business can really take benefit from.

UPDATE: POST SCRIPT

I mentioned Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Let me explain each very quickly in reverse order...

TWITTER - Say what you want to say, but you are limited to 140 characters. When you "tweet" (create a message on Twitter) everyone can see it. It is referred to as a micro-blogging platform. This basically means that you can post information out to the world and anyone can answer. Not that everyone's posts come to you. When you sign up you can follow certain people or companies and receive only their updates. For example, follow GTS.

MYSPACE - This was the first site that made it easy for anyone to customize their site and add anything they want to - videos, music, flash animation - anything. It also allowed you to connect to others very easily be 'friending' them. Teenagers are the largest group of users. This was the first attempt at any service like this. Since many people are on it, it is still a good place to sign up with to advertise your business. Since its creation this type of service has grown up and the most popular current one is...

FACEBOOK - Originally started for college students to stay connected with each other, this is often referred to as a 'grown up MySpace'. It is not nearly as busy and, in the end will allow users to keep in contact with each other. Where as LinkedIn is more for keeping in contact with other professionals, Facebook traditionally is more for keeping in contact with friends on a social level, although it is heavily used on a professional level as well. Join the AUTO GLASS group on Facebook. (I know not everyone is auto glass focused - more groups coming...)