A week or so, Mashable posted this Infographic with clearly shows us what industries are incorporating Social Media at work and what industries aren’t. Take a look > Do you agree? 
Tag Archives: branding
Have you Googled yourself lately?
With a record number of 273,067,546 (as of December 2011) internet users in North America alone – means there’s a crap load of information going across the world wide web.
Even if you think that the status update you posted on Facebook of the gang-banger you had when you were in college is not going beyond the walls of FB, you must be living under a rock. I try and tell these things to my daughter and her friends and give them advice about not posting things would perhaps might be detrimental to them at some point in their life, but they think I’m an old lady who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I suppose I used to think that when my parents or those older than me tried giving me advice when I was their age.
What does your digital footprint say about you or your brand? This could affect you getting a job, getting customers or the best employees at your company.
Social Monitoring Tools
There are so many cool tools out there to help us get an inkling when wondering what’s out there on either us or or brand. Have you tried Googling yourself lately to see what comes up? I know – the thought of that frightens the padooky out of you. Nevertheless, it’s a great thing to do on a regular basis. Or you could just stick your head in the sand.
Social Media Monitoring Tools not only helps you to check what people have to say about you or your brand but they also help you in analyzing the ROI (return on investment), and the steps you need to take to save your reputation. Here are a few awesome tools when searching online for what’s out there in regard to you personally, professionally or your brand:
Social Mention - It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Receive free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest on Lady Gaga, whatever floats your boat!
Who’s Talkin - Is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most and can also help you join in on these conversations about your brand and those already talking.
Steprep – This is more of a tool for businesses and in listening to what people are saying about your business online. Anytime your business is mentioned, anywhere on the web, you’ll hear about it immediately.
Twazzup – Operates a leading real-time news platform to make possible to filter the news out of live internet content. And, I simply love the name. Can’t you hear that drawn out “Twazzuuuuuuup?”
Google Alerts – Hopefully, I don’t have to explain Google’s search engine. Try googling yourself every couple of months just to keep watch! And Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Enter the topic you wish to monitor, then click preview to see what your results will look like.
FYI, other folks are Googling you to see what’s up. Why not get in on the action?
Dumb ways companies are using Social Media
I’m all about incorporating social media at work, and even having a policy in place before unleashing your yahoos on social media. If you don’t have a policy in place (according to your culture) you could wind up spending most of your time trying to put out fires that can be avoided.
Social Media can be a great tool for many uses in the workplace from customer service, to employee engagement, helping with your wellness initiatives and most of all company branding. IF.DONE.CORRECTLY.
In David Gewirtz’ article “Five Ways Companies Use Social Media and Look Like Jerks” he shares some great examples on a few companies that have made themselves look like complete utter fools:
1. Firing all 1,300 employees over a mass email – Recently, Aviva, the sixth largest insurance company in the world, accidentally fired all 1,300 employees in its investment unit via email. Instead of sending a pink-slip email to one employee, Bloomberg reports a “clerical error” resulted in an email informing everyone to “turn over company property as they left the building”. (Even if it was a clerical error, you just don’t fire folks through email. That’s as bad as breaking up with someone via text)
2. Demanding Employees Facebook Passwords - The jerk move is this: if you ask employees for their Facebook password, it will come back to haunt you. There will be lawsuits. After all, one of your less self-controlled employees might get ahold of the passwords you demanded and choose to post as if they were another employee. Hilarity would not ensue. Worse, Facebook now has email. Many people are using their Facebook email account as their primary email password reset account for — wait for it — things like bank accounts. (Do you really want the liability of having access to your employees’ bank accounts — and the liability of what happens when some teeny-bopper in your employ decides to go shopping for new shoes using the access you’ve accidentally granted because you were stupid enough to insist the Facebook password was on an employment application which was stored in an unlocked file cabinet with all the others? It’s a HUGE liability).
3. Not letting employees post their job status on LinkedIn - Some companies are now demanding employees practice good taste on social networks. But they don’t call it that. They insist that employees post disclaimers or avoid posting anything that shows their affiliation with their workplace. From a legal point of view this is derived from the concept of apparent authority, where messaging from an employee in certain circumstances can be considered a formal statement by the company. (Jerk move? Because LinkedIn is becoming not only the de facto resume of record, but it’s often how we all learn more about other people and their professional backgrounds. If an employee were to leave off their time at your company, that would be a gap in their resume)
4. Deleting comments and questions from your Facebook page - Many companies have figured out they can use Facebook for marketing/ So they put up a Facebook page, leave space for comments and questions, and then — when they actually get comments and questions — either don’t answer them or delete them. (Social Media engagement is meant to be a two-way conversation. Using these tools to talk to your customers as an additional customer support and even market research tool. So, if you put up a Facebook page and enable customers to post comments and questions, monitor them. If a customer asks a question, answer it)
5. Creating involvement devices and not expecting involvement - Creating a Twitter account (think McDonald’s and the Twitter #Hashtag they created #McStories hoping to involve their customers. And involve they did. They started getting a lot more than they bargained for. Consumers were talking about more than their bad Mickey D’s experience, they were down-right mean. (The dumb move this time was with customers who went above and beyond complaints, and moved into a place where some consumers said such awful things that no dialog could have helped)
Listening online, to see what folks are saying about your company or brand is key. And having a plan in place of how to respond is crucial in keeping that dialog open.
Or, I suppose we could just stick our head in the sand.
Mixing business and politics can be like shooting yourself in the foot
Yesterday I was driving to an appointment (okay, a friends house) and stopped next to an entrepreneur at the red light. His business was “Joe’s Painting” or something like that.
As I was reading his business name that was painted (not a magnetic sign) on the side and back of his truck I also noticed something. He had three bumper stickers that were bashing Obama like you wouldn’t believe. Now, I’m all about freedom of speech and to each his own in political viewpoints or anything else but this made me say to myself “This guy is shooting himself in the foot.”
It reminded me of our online behavior when trying to brand either our company or personal brand. We get all worked up about our political or religious viewpoints and blast it out to the world (to those who we are trying to connect with). When we do this and in my opinion and experience, we may gain respect from those with whom we have the same viewpoints, both religiously and politically, but we ostracize ourselves from anyone who is not of the same mind-set.
To me, this guy was not going to gain the lefties business and he was certainly limiting himself from gaining more customers. Does he care that his customers are of a different political party? He should.
Business is business. Money is money.
Personally, I don’t care who writes that check and what they believe. If they are hiring me to do a job I’m more than likely not going to mention politics or religion. That’s just smart business. Wouldn’t you agree?
Photo Credit: Heartstandards
