Is it really necessary for companies to monitor social media in order to interact with their customers? Or is there a better way to observe and report on your client base?
Rick Mans believes this to be so in his blog post entitled, Why Companies Should Not Invest in Online Monitoring, featured on Social Media Today. He writes that “If companies really cared about what was going on, they would have invested in such a social infrastructure that complaints/news about their products and services would come to them in no time.”
He goes even further by stating “…monitoring tools are a poor man’s solution to engage with your audience… when you are in touch with your audience and your audience can find you and you have created a group of loyal people (brand ambassadors / evangelists) around your online presence, you won’t need monitoring tools to discover complaints.”
This runs counterpoint to a contention of the modern business age that all social media must be monitored in order to truly be in touch with all of your customer feedback.
However, I believe the point Mans attempts to make is that if the proper feedback infrastructure is created internally, then the monitoring of online media will only be redundant. Moreover, no news should be breaking in the world of social media that you shouldn’t have been made aware of and are already working towards either finding a solution or a way to profit from it.
In a perfect world this may be so. Even if companies create their own customer feedback rail network, they still must possess the ability to anticipate the response in the social media world in order to best deal directly with their client base. After all, if a customer truly cares enough, they will vent or praise in their preferred online outlet (be that Facebook, Twitter, or some other forum) regardless of whether a company maintains a presence there or not.
Thus, it is imperative that we do both – monitor online media and genuinely listen to and engage with constituents. That is why BurrellesLuce is working even harder to create even more tools to help you listen, manage, and respond to the activities taking place in both traditional and online news, social media, and broadcast. Stay tuned in the coming month(s) as we unveil new ways for you to effectively take charge of your WorkFlow.
In the meantime, what do you think? Is it critical to incorporate online monitoring into the larger engagement funnel or is it merely a show put on by companies? How are you using online monitoring in your public relations and marketing efforts? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of Fresh Ideas.
It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s public relations and marketing conference season. Peter Shankman’s latest blog post gives some great tips for surviving it. Although social media is not a new thing to conferences (Twitter debuted at SXSW a few years ago), it is really now just becoming “mainstream.” In my June 20, 2009 blog post, I first talked about how I use Twitter as my note-taking platform and as a way to encourage engagement. A year later, and it is amazing to see how much more of a role social media plays in event participation.
I recently spoke at the YNPNdc (Young Nonprofit Professionals Network) second annual social media conference. Rosetta Thurman gave a great presentation on basic social media tools you should be using to enhance participation in your conference. Some of my favorite tips include:
Make a hashtag and promote it early.
Make a Twitter list of attendees and follow it.
Don’t hire a videographer; use Flipcams and digital cameras.
Allow attendees to take pictures and share them.
Integrate social media into your event. It is a great way to get information to your attendees and allows for more contact points than any one person can manage.
“Building social media strategies into your event allows other people to speak and respond on your behalf. Sometimes the best answer to a question comes from a fellow attendee,” says John Chen, publications/project manager, International Society for Performance Improvement.
What tips do you have for BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers looking to increase engagement at conferences? What has worked best for your organization?
As if we aren’t already super connected with social media, smart phones and web cams – Facebook now wants to know, “Where are you right now?” And if you want everyone to know, then visit Facebook’s Places application and share. According to Facebook, “Places is a Facebook feature that allows you to see where your friends are and share your location in the real world. When you use places, you’ll be able to see if any of your friends are currently checked in nearby and connect with them easily.” With this new feature, you can find out which of your friends are in or around your location – creating opportunities for impromptu meetings with friends.
The “Places” application is creating a bridge between online and face to face communication (F2F). This is refreshing when F2F interpersonal communication seems to be lacking with the surging reliance on computer mediated communication. The new application encourages users to find each other and participate in dialogue outside of the Facebook community. Perhaps there is life outside of Facebook after all!
While Dennis Crowley, creator of location-based social media site Foursquare, has called Facebook Places “boring” and “unexciting,” the real issue surrounding the newest Facebook application is one of privacy (a concern Facebook is likely used to debating by now). All users must configure their own privacy settings for this application. According to Reuters, “Facebook says all Places check-ins are visible only to friends by default unless your master privacy control is set to ‘Everyone.’” However, it is important to note that there is no way to completely opt out of the Places app. Reuters notes, “If you use Places to check yourself in, then third-party check –ins [ability for your friends to check in your location] are turned on automatically unless you adjust your privacy settings.”
But the other key issue goes back to the days when Mom would leave you home alone and say, “If anyone comes to the door, don’t tell them that I’m not at home.” With Places users are parading the fact that, not only are they not at home, but they are having a nice dinner, in this city, on this street and probably won’t be home for awhile… giving someone ample opportunity to find them or their home.
The debate will continue as users begin to delve further into Places. Do you think Places is a privacy risk or another way to connect with contacts? How do you plan to incorporate Places into your public relations or marketing mix? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
***
*Bio:Soon after graduating from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, in 2006 with a B.A. in communication and a B.S. in business/marketing, I joined the BurrellesLuce client services team. In 2008, I completed my master’s degree in corporate and organizational communications and now work as the supervisor of BurrellesLuce Express client services. I am passionate about researching and understanding the role of email in shaping relationships from a client relation/service standpoint as well as how miscommunication occurs within email, which was the topic of my thesis. Through my posts on Fresh Ideas, I hope to educate and stimulate thoughtful discussions about corporate communications and client relations, further my own knowledge on this subject area, as well as continue to hone my skills as a communicator. Twitter: @_LaurenShapiro_ LinkedIn: laurenrshapiro Facebook: BurrellesLuce
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the Bulldog Media Relations Summit. I’m joined by Sally.
Sally, will you please introduce yourself?
SALLY FALKOW: Hi, I’m Sally Falkow from Press Feed, the social media newsroom.
BURKE: And, Sally, you’re doing a session tomorrow about social media strategy. Can you please share the two big things that whenever anybody is trying to develop their social media strategy for their communications and their public relations – what are the two core things that they absolutely have to keep in consideration?
FALKOW: Only two? We’re only allowed two?
BURKE: Only two for the purpose of this quick video.
FALKOW: OK. Well, first and foremost, I think you have to listen. Before you even start doing anything else, you have to listen to the conversations. We heard a lot this morning in the first session from people saying how much conversation and discussion there is out there, and that the role of PR people is changing from managing news and getting our news out and working just with mainstream media to actually participating in and shaping and directing what was discussion or conversation. So you need to know what is being said, you need to listen.
And the second thing, I think, is you need to really understand how you fit into the business and what the business goals are. And you can’t measure if you haven’t set a measurable goal. So you need to know what it is you’re aiming for, and then you can figure out how to get there.
BURKE: Sally, always great insights from you. Where can people find you in social media?
FALKOW: On Twitter, sallyfalkow. I’m pretty much just sallyfalkow, all together, one word, lower case. If you search that, you’ll find me pretty much all over.
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the Bulldog Media Relations Conference. I’m joined by Maggie.
Maggie, will you please introduce yourself?
MAGGIE FOX: Sure. My name is Maggie Fox. I’m the founder and CEO of a company called Social Media Group, and we are one of the world’s biggest independent social media agencies.
BURKE: Now, Maggie, you just did a panel, and I was just wondering, you know, so many people are talking about social media. For those people, perhaps, that haven’t quite started or don’t have a lot of traction yet, can you please share your couple of tips on how PR professionals and communicators can get going in social media?
FOX: Sure. Well, I think we have to recognize that social PR, that reaching out to people of influence and connecting with them in the hopes of getting them to tell your story for you is no different than traditional media relations. It is not brain surgery, the approach is very similar. The only thing that is different is the language. It is, you know, what they’re going to want from you, the way they’re going to want you to approach them, and kind of that human relationship piece, I think, is a lot stronger. The other part of it is, you know, that the reality is if you want people to tell your story, you want people to talk about you, you want them to share your content, it has to be good. So the notion that you are becoming a broadcaster, you’re starting to produce content of entertainment quality or asking other people to experience something that is really special is what’s always going to break through to us.
BURKE: Great. And where can people find you in social media, Maggie?
FOX: They can find me on Twitter @maggiefox, all one word, or on the Web at socialmediagroup.com.
Is it really necessary for companies to monitor social media in order to interact with their customers? Or is there a better way to observe and report on your client base?
It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s public relations and marketing conference season. 
