Are we listening to our Customers Online?

Statistics are great, they tell us about the past, but we have no statistics about the future and we never will.

Unfortunately when we are not involved in an area we have no statistics either, we could use business intelligence to find out what our competitors are doing and where they are failing.

When we don't play in a specific area, we not only need to use business intelligence to find out what our competitors are doing, but we need to ask ourselves the following question 'What is our business plan for not being involved?'

Yes you have to have a business plan if you are not involved, you cannot simply make emotional I don't care reactions or plead ignorance and use the excuse that you did not feel it would work - NO again I tell you, you need a business plan for not being involved in any specific area.

So what are the specific areas where you could be involved and could have been avoiding these in your general business.

The areas are as follows: Human Resources, Talent Management, Public Relations, Communications, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and even Sales & Marketing. Some of these are obvious and some like sales and marketing are not so obvious. You probably saying surely all companies have a sales and marketing department - no not necessarily often municipalities and smaller cities and related service companies have no sales and marketing departments.

The latest statistics out of the United States is that 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored. Remember that Twitter is always a good indication of what is happening on the rest of the social platforms. If the US ignores 56% of it's customers tweets, I would like to guess that South Africa would be higher than that.

Again what is the business case for not responding to our customers tweets? 
Is it because we don't consider that online feedback is valuable? 
Do we not think that our customers are online?

Just because your company is not online that in no way relates to if your customers are online or not. because they definitely are online. They just have not found your channel to engage with you because it is not there or you have not put enough effort into the promotion and management of your digital channels.

So lets improve our communications and interactions with our customers, they are wanting to communicate, compliment and interact with us, get your business plan together, get onto the social platforms and lets make South Africa more social. #MoreSocialZA

Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Improving Internal Communications and Collaboration

Have you been looking for ways to improve your internal communications? Perhaps you had a look at expensive enterprise options and you are not sure if you can justify the expense.

Well have you ever considered using the Social Media platforms that are freely available and most of your employees are using everyday?

Lets have a look at how we can possibly use the different platforms:

LinkedIn Forums
Forums are the best way to get communication going, be it with your internal people or the greater public, forums are generally closed and only those invited can see the posts by other members and participate. Keeping the topics to a minimum also encourages participation, when there are too many topics people are not sure what to engage with, so be strategic in the topics you create and ensure that the focus remains there until you have the results you expected.

FaceBook
Some of the late adopters are getting into FaceBook now, so don't knock it while most of us are wondering why we are still playing on this platform. FaceBook has secret groups which very few people know about and works well as a collaboration platform, but I would be cautious in relying on FaceBook as they often change their algorithms and soon you may find that half of your group cannot see what the rest of the group posts.

Blogs
Although Blogs are normally just published by one person, having many authors that are hand chosen from the thought leadership within an organisation can create an effective communication and collaboration channel  Leaders need to be open to discussions and would need a high level of emotional intelligence when ideas are challenged and sometimes criticized  Blogs platforms generally fail when the authors are too precious about their ideas and get on the defensive - collaboration works well between highly emotional intelligent people who have learnt to let go of their ego's.

Pinterest
We should never forget that people are visual, sharing graphics, pictures and diagrams often spark new ideas in others. Create a secret board in Pinterest and think of it as a notice board in the virtual office. The opportunities are endless, creative and this can be a catalyst for innovation.

Twitter
The BBM (Blackberry Messenger) group on a professional level is almost a thing of the past, as most professionals would prefer  other smartphones. So forcing people to use the BBM group would be limiting their creative thinking. 

Twitter offers quick and easy communication. Now you thinking ... what has Twitter got to do with internal communication, as Twitter is a public platform?

Indeed it is a public platform, but Twitter has a functionality of protecting your Tweets and effectively closing your account, so your form your own closed group and it is not device dependent as with your BBM group. You simply create new accounts for each member, follow each other and lock all the accounts and you have just created your own closed communication group. Simple and effective and just be sure that everybody follows the simple rules.

Social Media, Listening and Open Networking

A recent report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in London stated that the biggest barriers to companies embracing social media as:

• a lack of understanding of how social media works
• a lack of awareness of the data it can generate
• a fear of a more open approach

Jonny Gifford, research adviser at the CIPD, said “employers should also be thinking hard about the opportunity social media gives them to simultaneously collect opinions and facilitate discussion about genuine opinions and ideas, and to analyse the data in rich and meaningful ways.”

So let us look at these three barriers as questions, I will try to answer them as simply as possible and perhaps we can all gain a little more understanding:

How does Social Media work?

Social media is just a form of communication and we use various platforms (some people see this as technology) to communicate e.g. Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and various others. 

What we should understand is that these platforms have not forced or made us communicate, but it is actually what we needed so that we could connect with like minded individuals all over the world. The different social media platforms unable us to share our interests so that people can relate to us and we can have conversations about the things we like and the things we do.

Importantly social media is about being social and it is about about building real relationships, relationships that will develop and which will lead us to new connections, new customers and ultimately increased sales and more revenue streams.

What data can be generated from Social Media?

The simple answer is every bit of data and information you could possibly imagine, how you use this data is more important, as it is literally everywhere, just ask the right questions and every answer you ever wanted is answered in no time.

Even if you don't ask the specific questions, social listening enables us to track trends, get feedback on products and even find out what people are saying about us and the companies we work for.

Why are companies and individuals not adopting a more open approach?

Being open or being authentically social is who we actually like to be, no I am not saying be an extrovert. In fact you will be exactly as you are on the social media platforms as you are in life: Introverts remain introverts and extroverts, well they never change.

Being more open is about realising you that actually have something valuable to say and that someone is actually wanting to listen, social media has enabled normal people to find their voice. Knowing that someone out there is actually listening and will actually respond to what you have to say is wonderful recognition.

Open is about sharing, selfish is the easy way and it takes courage to share, but in the brave new world it is the approach we need to take, never take the safe option, it will prove to be extremely risky in the very near future.

In short if you not out there interacting on the platforms, listening and having the conversations you will never know what is being said, but your competitors may just be doing what you are thinking of doing and that will give them the competitive edge. 

Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do you agree with these barriers to Social Media adoption? Do you have other areas that you feel need discussion?

How could your business use it as a way of improving internal communications?

Meetings and Respect - A Social Media Definition

Last week I made a statement ... If you attend a meeting or a conference and they ask you to switch off your cellphone, it's simple you are either in the wrong meeting and you are definitely in the wrong decade.

I had a few comments and I would like to respond on them:

Comment One
It is out of respect that we need to switch our phones off!

Yes indeed it is out of respect that you switch your phone off, but that is entirely your choice whether you would like to pay that much respect or not.

Let me put this into context for you, if I was meeting someone important and I choose to switch off my phone so that I can give my full attention to that person, that is indeed respect.

But when I attend a meeting, I often put my phone on silent and I will not be rude enough to take a call during the meeting, that is why we have voicemail after all.

When you ask me to switch off my phone because you think you are important that is simply just rude and you have no idea of the connected world around you, I will probably Tweet the things that I find relevant and important to the rest of the world, thus amplifying the interesting things said to my followers and that allows the message to reach the world. Powerful leverage in my eyes and by no means rude.

Comment Two
What if I am in a meeting on a plane in the air?

This was a knee jerk reaction of note ... And made by a follower who clearly thought he was very important. 

I am not saying be ridiculous, but if you need to leave the plane don't forget safety first - please use a parachute!

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Are Businesses in SA as social as they could be? (Video)

Businesses in South Africa may have adopted Social Media relatively late. However that is no excuse not to be social, as late adopters we need to realise the urgency in becoming social so that we are not left behind by the rest of the world.

My Top 10 Instagram Photos

Initially when I first started out in photography it was with a 35mm Film SLR and although I still like my Nikon I must say it lives a lot more at home these days.

10 Years ago I would never have believed that we could have achieved the effects that an iPhone and Instagram have afforded us as photographers.

Today I am sharing my Top 10 Instagram images with you. 

If you would like to follow me on Instagram my Instagram name is RICHSIMMONDSZA.

I do hope you enjoy my photos.

This was my first ever Instagram photo, inspired by my good friend Jodene Sher (@JodeneCoZA) just after we left a Miss Earth SA function one saturday morning.

Then Jodene and myself needed to get our coffee fix and celebrate the fact that I had published my first Instagram photo.

Instagram allows these nostalgic effects in an instant - this photo was taken at a Pretoria Boys High Rugby Day.

Lovely black & white effect of a feather on the Langebaan beach.

Said to be the most photographed boat in South Africa "JAN" on Langebaan beach.

Instagram has the ability to make anything look exciting, this mural from a Wimpy wall.

This lovely saying was originally on a white fridge, Instagram will transform it to art in seconds.

On my many trips down the @N3Route I encountered this unusual Teddy Bear 'Big Ears' at the Little Church coffee shop at Van Reenen's.

My son Rory (@RorySimmondsZA) art, he has talent!

Instagram takes the interesting and makes it more interesting!

Thanks for taking the time to allow me to share these images with you.

Have a wonderful day.

10 Tips for making more effective Videos

Here are 10 tips to making more effective online videos.

1. Think about your story and the message you wish to convey before starting to film.
2. Script your story, either by using live commentary as you film or by means of a VoiceOver in post production.
3. Capture footage that is clear and has enough variation and angles to effectively illustrate your story.
4. Remember you need a lot of short clips that will hold the attention of your viewer. Clips in general are never more than 5 - 10 seconds.
5. Don't make your videos long, the YouTube average is 58 seconds, remember an advert on TV is generally 20 seconds long.
6. As clips are 5-10 seconds long your commentary or VoiceOver must make a point and the clip should clearly illustrate the point.
7. Don't be boring and make your videos as professional as you can.
8. Keep all commentary and VoiceOvers conversational.
9. Think about your viewer and what they would like to know, what can you tell them and what information can you share with them.
10. Remember news is only newsworthy if it reaches the audience quickly, post production time must not have a negative impact on the message reaching the world.

Don't forget to have fun in the process and share this fun with your viewers. 

I look forward to seeing your videos.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Making videos for YouTube

Over the past few years we have seen video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo grow significantly, with YouTube having a following only second to Facebook and becoming the second biggest search engine in the world.

Yes in South Africa and Africa video has not yet taken off, but I will emphasize that I use the word yet very cautiously, as the bandwidth issue in South Africa will more than likely change within the next 6 months and if South Africa does not see a 4 times increase in speed some of the developing countries in Africa certainly will.

Let us look at the communication medium of video and how we can utilise this and communicate more effectively.

The common error with video is that most people believe the old saying that a picture tells a thousand words and therefore a moving picture will tell you everything.

Unfortunately this is not entirely true because we have grown up with television where we are spoonfed and actually brainwashed in a way, so that we listen and see. Instead of observing and understanding through a series of questions we should be asking, even if those questions are simply asking ourselves how do we interpret this, even better if we discuss this with others.

However this is not how it works; the way it works in reality is you look, you are told what to look at and what you should be thinking whilst watching the moving images.

I am not talking about propaganda here, I am simply stating the way the programming is done so that you may better understand the way in which to communicate so that you may effectively reach your target audience.

Image courtesy of winnond at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here are 10 Tips for making more effective Videos

1. Think about your story and the message you wish to convey before starting to film.

2. Script your story, either by using live commentary as you film or by means of a VoiceOver in post production.

3. Capture footage that is clear and has enough variation and angles to effectively illustrate your story.

4. Remember you need a lot of short clips that will hold the attention of your viewer. Clips in general are never more than 5 - 10 seconds.

5. Don't make your videos long, the YouTube average is 58 seconds, remember an advert on TV is generally 20 seconds long.

6. As clips are 5-10 seconds long your commentary or VoiceOver must make a point and the clip should clearly illustrate the point.

7. Don't be boring and make your videos as professional as you can.

8. Keep all commentary and VoiceOvers conversational.

9. Think about your viewer and what they would like to know, what can you tell them and what information can you share with them.

10. Remember news is only newsworthy if it reaches the audience quickly, post production time must not have a negative impact on the message reaching the world.

Effective videos are about thinking on your feet, clear concise stories and giving people information they need.

Don't forget to have fun in the process and share this fun with your viewers. 

I look forward to seeing your videos.