Category Archives: Ask a Question

Ask a Question, Generate, work connexions

Answer: What Can Social Media Do For Me As A Director?

October 15, 2008 Editor 1 Comment

This is the last blog in a series of questions that I asked back in August here:

You can choose to ignore social media, many people do. Old networks are still in place. If you are university professor or an expert in a particular field than why bother. If you have more than enough work too, you could argue that you have no need. While it is true very few deals are closed on the internet. There is one problem, with more and more people using the internet for locating information. They may well ask the queastion, where are you?

The world is changing and ways of doing business are changing too. Already we are starting to see the disappearance of regular telephone lines as more and more information gets assimilate into internet protocols. Media is is not the same anymore, TV and Newspapers are all seeking to do more business online. One thing is clear while the message may be the same, the medium is different.

Social media is quicker, more intense, and direct. Like any company that trains and prepares it staff there are advantages to be had. You can choose to ignore and ban the use of Social Media in the work place or you can train your staff in how to make the best use of it.

Some ideas worth considering are:

Ask your staff what sites they use/like? – These could be the places where you should be advertising, or maybe have an online presence.

Encourage participation after having set guidelines –Your Company is as good as its employees, if they interact online than it can be used as effectively as free publicity.

Encourage employees to share their experiences – Gives insight into the company.

Managers as bloggers – Open up a different form of communication in managing departments. Want to find out more. Here is the fictional account of what Social Media manager does, read it here:

Here is a good example of how social media has helped one business in the travel industry Mark Hayward sums up his answer to how social media has helped business by the following below:

How do I think social media can help (really) small businesses? Pretty much the same way social media can assist large business and mega-corporations:

promotion
networking
branding
as catalyst for collaboration

What other ones would you include here?

Ask a Question, Finance, money, Relationship

Borrowing Money

September 25, 2008 Editor

Why do politicians think that spending more money is going to save the economy? Does George Bush or any other world leader think that they can remotely buck/control the economy.

If your economy is already broken and by that I mean that is it has stopped making money. Why borrow? The current trend in the world is than to spend more money to solve it.

Let me see if I understand it correctly?

You do not have any money,

the companies are not making any money but you want to borrow money to supposedly solve it.
I can understand the theory about borrowing money to grow a business, but borrowing money to prop up badly run companies does not sound like a business plan to me. Especially when it is Tax payer’s money. I know which way I will vote.

What would be your advice to the government?

Ask a Question

Answer: What can Social Media do for my company?

September 22, 2008 Editor 2 Comments

The short answer is anything that you want and there are not any other media forms that you can say that of in this day and age where companies are considering hiring a social media manager. To look after conversations within and outside the company, you know are starting to hit home. Most multi national companies? invest serious amounts of money into influencing conversations online. As an example Dell employs a number of people to keep tabs on what is happening in their forums and related ones on the internet.

Social media is subtle though. You cannot write big headlines saying:- buy this computer at half price, it is much more about managing the relationship in a world where traditional advertising is losing it impact. How and why? We have seen so much advertising before that we just do not buy it. It is about being genuine. So people form relationships with people who have the time. That is expensive. Time is money. That is social media. I am not suggesting that companies try to sell one to one on the internet. But they do need to think about how they a can influence the conversation. An example of this is a ferry company in the Isle of Man who runs a blog written by its MD. At first glance this might seem like a step in the right direction. But there are already mutterings in private and public places online and “off” about the fact that this is corporate gloss, unless he truly engages people in two way conversation. They will talk and complain about him elsewhere, in their own private forums and communications (email).

So what is the point?

People are going to talk about your company weather you want them to or not and in the future those conversation are going to take place more and more on the internet

What can you do?

Participate.

It is better to have that conversation on your website where you can influence it.

Allowing for user and customer interaction on your site will reduce the threat it may pose.

Manage you social media profile by hiring a expert or a third party.

What are your thoughts?

Ask a Question, Quality

The Story With No Moral Featuring Persistence and Microsoft

September 19, 2008 Editor

An interesting incident happened today when I tried to delete a printer driver from my xp computer. For some reason or the other it gave a fault and said that it could not delete the HP LJ 5550 driver. This caused all sorts of problem as I needed to print a booklet. Now a colleague of mine managed to delete the printer by clicking delete another 20 times.

To actually solve the problem we had to install a driver for the previous model HP LJ 5500 so it would then print the booklet. I can see how they wrote the installation guide. “Please install driver from another printer etc….”

I am not sure what the morale of this story is…what do you think?

Ask a Question, business, Consultancy, sales

If You Are Thinking Of Getting Into Blogging

September 15, 2008 Editor

I was out about this weekend and was asked on more than one occasion why I blog. I blog for a number reasons. Some personal and some professional.

On the professional side:

1. It demonstrates expertise knowledge and expertise in chosen skill year.

2. Increases Google page ranking and key words with relevant fresh content.

3. As a sales marketing tool, to build references through comments and the online community for consultancy work.

4. Generate income through paid advertising.

On the Personal side:

1. As a personal development log

2. to give help and give something back to people trying to understand and use this technology

3. For personal enjoyment of developing writing and pr skills

Chris Brogan is highly accomplished writer and blogger he had this advice to say about blogging in different media spheres.

If your goal is to be an entertainment or news blog, be very clear that it’s that and not a “fun” blog. Consider splitting off your personal or fun blog.
If your blog is to be your business, treat it like that. Get into stats. Get into building audience. Get into delivering something unique. Don’t straddle back and forth on this.
If the goal is to be a great community resource, mix your blogging time with time spent reaching out to the community you propose to serve. If that’s an offline opportunity, like something local, be there. Be active. Be a connector.
If you’re going to be a professional about your blog, carve out the time to do it right. Never, ever, ever post a “sorry I haven’t posted lately” blog post again. Ever.
Up the ante on delivering original material. Get outside the echo chamber. Writing a me-too blog isn’t the way to build your blog to the levels you seek to attain.
It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.
If you are attempting to do real business via your blog, look for ways to convert readers into customers.
If it’s just an ad revenue business, compete, and be honest about that. Compete with others in your space for audience, value, and better deals. My point in this regard is that going halfway into the water doesn’t make you less wet.
If your blog is the premier source of information for nonprofits, for photographers, for whatever, then be sure you’re scouring news feeds and finding information outside the blogosphere to keep that relationship informed.
Make a point of engaging your community often in the comments section, on their blogs, on the other social networks where you cross paths.

chrisbrogan, 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level, Sep 2008

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Category Archives: Ask a Question

Borrowing Money

The Story With No Moral Featuring Persistence and Microsoft

Investing in the future