The importance of a good Crisis Communications Strategy

 

I received an email the other day from Tesco which was addressed from Phillip Clarke, Chief Executive at Tesco. The email subject line was ‘Food Concerns, Our Responsibility, Our Promise’. The email was a welcome example of how ‘PR should be done’.

The email was addressing the recent horse meat scandal that has affected Tesco and many other food retailers and supplier. Tesco have held their hands up and rather than hide and let it all blow over. They have decided to use it as an opportunity to engage with their customers and tell them what to expect. I can honestly say as a consumer, I feel more confident about shopping at Tesco for meat.

The email includes ‘what we are doing immediately’ and one of the things they are going to be launching is a dedicated website which will enable customers to see the progress they are making with their testing programme, and which products have been tested so you can be sure of where they are in the process.

I can not fault this approach. It is an exemplary way of turning around a situation that will be affecting consumer confidence and buying.

In stark contrast, Findus UK’s response has been extremely disappointing and slow following the discovery of horsemeat in their products, including some ‘beef’ lasagnas that were found to contain 100% horse.

Findus’ tactics seem to be to lay low and wait until it all blows over, which has and will continue to attract widespread criticism and low confidence from consumers.

Findus really need to take on board Tesco’s example of addressing the horse meat scandal that is likely to affect many more food retailers as each day it seems a new supermarket or food retailer is affected. The key to any crisis communications strategy is to engage with customers and other stakeholders, demonstrate concern and contrition, provide reassurances and begin to re-build public trust.

Tesco have set the standard, and one by which all Brands, Organisations and PR professionals should acknowledge.

Use Social Media To Enhance Your Customer Service

 

More and more brands are using social media to provide another tool and method of communicating with their customers and offering customer support.

By the end of the 2012 it is predicted that 80% of companies will be using or planning to use social media for customer service. On the consumer side, 62% of customers have already used social media for customer service issues. We would love to hear from you if you have?

Gartner predicts one billion users will be on social networks by the end of 2012.

London Midland is an excellent example of a service using Social Media to develop a leading customer service experience via their twitter account @LondonMidland. 

The service regularly updates customers on what to expect, explains why there are delays and often answers questions before they are asked. The twitter profile itself is another excellent example of ‘what to expect’ the bio explains what the twitter account is for, and puts the people behind the service, with names of who manages the account.

This service enhancement has led to substantial changes in the way the company is viewed by its customers. Do you follow London Midland?

Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, strongly believes customer service is one of the best forms of marketing and I would have to agree. The adoption of social media by services and brands to better engage customers is a great way to start down this path.

A great response strategy can convert angry and upset customers into loyal, raving fans. The rule of thumb is that while unhappy customers talk to 5 people, formerly unhappy customers you win back talk to 10.

Here are some tips for brands to better use social media as customer service tool.

1. Integrate it

Integrate social media into your existing customer service function. Allow social media to influence all business functions to become a more responsive customer-centric business.

2. Be Human

Create humanised response models to engender and build customer loyalty and build relationships. Create a voice your audience can relate to and don’t be afraid to change your voice if one way isn’t working.

Honesty is the best policy.

3. Monitor

Monitor social interaction to spot issues and solve problems before they become crises. Social customer service delivery involves dealing with criticism and complaints from your public, often in front of an audience of millions. Negative comments always hang around a lot longer than positive ones. There are also several forums for many brands which are full of dis-gruntled customers but don’t feel tempted to start getting defensive on such forums.

If you’re going to prevent a small problem growing into something worse, you need to have a detailed understanding of what you need to respond to, a path to response, and escalation policies for resolution.

4. Social Media is two-way.

Give your customers/ fans the opportunity to tell you what they think. Social media is two -way so interact.

5. Have a handover book

Have a team who interact well with each other and are kept up to date with any developments within any of your social accounts.  Always highlight anything that needs attention, so it isn’t missed.

6. Never Delete

Resolve the issue online for all to see, and only delete if the post is inappropriate. Deleting messages could cause an uproar with the customer and potentially a PR crisis – which we all want to avoid!

So, fancy getting started? We would love to help!

Sarah Michelle Willis MCIPR, PR & Social Media Consultant at 2Communicate offers a full service social media management for you and your business.

At 2Communicate our goal is to help your company reach your social media goals using our tested and proven social media services. Whether you are looking to increase your online presence, drive more traffic to your website, or increase brand recognition, we are here to help you do just that!

Let us develop a social media strategy customised to your company, industry, and brand and let us build fans & followers, share useful and shareable content, determine optimal posting times, develop viral social media content, run successful Facebook Ad campaigns, run successful Facebook contests, and more.

Email us for more details: info@2communicate.co.uk / Sarah@2Communicate.co.uk

Talk to us: 07958 490263 / 01905 356778

​

Related articles

• New Study Shows 20% of People Turn to Social Media for Customer Service Complaints (prweb.com)
• Why Social Media Makes Customer Service Better (mashable.com)
• Social Media and Customer Service: How They Work Together (findyourtippingpoint.com)
• Black Box Social Media Releases Twitter Customer Service Tips (prweb.com)
• The 3 main expectations customers have for social companies (socialfresh.com)
• How Customer Service and Social Media can cost you Clients and Money (assistsocialmedia.com)
• How is Social Media Affecting Your Business? (elocal.com)
• Does Your Customer Service Strategy Include Social Media? (openforum.com)
• Social Media Resources for Business: Humor, Sales, and Facebook (sproutsocial.com)
• The Need for Social Customer Services (socialcubix.com)

 

How has Social Media helped find Megan Stammers and could it have prevented her disappearance in the first place?

 

You will not have been able to avoid the recent media coverage and constant appeals to help find 15 year old Megan Stammers, who went missing with her 30 year old Maths teacher, Jeremy Forrest last week.

Above: Megan Stammers & Jeremy Forrest

Today, they were both found and her maths teacher has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction after they were tracked down in Bordeaux. Jeremy Forrest and Megan Stammers were both found  after a continent-wide appeal for information led to a string of sightings. This was done through both traditional media and via a number of social media networks.

Police stated that the information which led to them being located came as a direct result of media coverage in France. However it is not yet confirmed that this was through a social media network.

Megan’s step dad, Martin Stammers, has been using Twitter all week to help spread he word and he immediately took to the site to express his relief after hearing she had been found today.

Mr Stammers Tweeted:

“Thank you everyone for everything, massive relief and thrilled to bits, more to follow later. #meganstammersfoundsafeandwell”

So now Megan has been found safe and well, how much has the use of social media helped in finding her and bringing her safely home? A trending hashtag campaign was launched #HelpFindMeganStammers and singers from girl group The Saturdays tweeted, urging Megan to contact her family. Francesca Sandford, from the band, tweeted: “Megan, on behalf of myself, Mollie, Vanessa, Una and Roch, please come home or call your mum. Everyone is so worried about you! Lots of love x”

I am left wondering whether without the use of social media, would there have still been the same level of awareness that she was missing?

Another question that should be asked is whether social media could have ‘prevented’ her going missing in the first place. Should the authorities or her school identified an inappropriate pupil/ teacher relationship online. Some sort of relationship between pupil and teacher was evident via both of their tweets to each other. Could this identification  have avoided them both fleeing the country, and was their plans to flee also not frighteningly obvious via their regular tweets on Twitter?

It has been reported that Megan was exchanging messages with her teacher on Twitter for at least six months. Each posted cryptic messages and song lyrics about being in love and many messages were trivial but many pointed towards each other.

I would ask how the school were not alerted of the ‘tweeting’ that was taking place between the pair and should this raise the issue among teachers and pupils being ‘freinds’ on social media sites. Surely this is crossing the line among a professional and ‘friendly’ relationship.

An example of some of Megan’s tweets are:

“probably just infatuated” before adding two days later: “Age is overrated.”

Mr Forrests tweets included

“only ever tweeted for one person”.

“Some things are worth fighting for …”

“I’ve been trying to make sense. I’ve been shouting under my breath. How’s any of this in my interest?”

In a message sent to Mr Forrest in March, Megan, refers to him online as Jeremy, wrote:

“Too many things keep me awake!!! Are you not sleeping either?!”

On one occasion, she repeatedly apologised to Mr Forrest for her behaviour the previous evening, stating that she was embarrassed and had a terrible headache, asking him if her hated her.

She also made frequent references to her love of maths, describing how she had run to school when she thought maths was the first class.

Many of Megan’s messages concern the trials and tribulations of a complicated romance and several include coded references to her age.

In late-June, Megan tweeted:

“I just want to runaway forever,”

Mr Forrest wrote:

“Me & you. Let’s just run away.”

Looking over these tweets now, perhaps Megan’s disappearance could have been avoided altogether.

On the other side of the world the Social Media has also been used in trying to bring home missing young woman Jill Meagher amongst causing controversy now with people sending messages over social media networks about her accused, possibly risking the trial.

Above: Jill Meagher.

Jill Meagher’s case has had Australia talking, particularly on social media. Jill Meagher went missing 500 yeards from her home and a national appeal to find her was held. Tragically Jill’s body was found dead days later.

Upon finding Jills body the tragedy was mentioned on social media sites Twitter and Facebook, every 11 seconds after her body was found. The CCTV footage which showed her walking on Sydney Road on the morning she disappeared was shared on the same platforms about 7500 times within two hours.

Kristen Boschma, the Head of social media at a large communications agency in Australia said that the level of social media engagement with the Meagher case was “unprecedented other than natural disasters in Australia”.

“It’s something that people are taking to with enormous passion and also what’s interesting is that the vast majority of the mentions are really about sympathy and that people are upset,” she said. ”Overnight, the sentiment was very much of grief and sadness and now this morning, anger is starting creep into what is being shared and re-shared.”

So as sentiment changed so did the nature of the social media messages which have started to raise alarm bells on what ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ be said online.

Boschma goes on to say, “With that anger comes responsibility to social media users, who become content publishers when they post. That may require knowledge of media law.”

Victoria Police warns its Facebook audience of its legal responsibilities. 

Victoria Police in Australia, posted a message on a Facebook page about the accused, warning users of their legal responsibilities in posting and reminding that “it is inappropriate to post speculation or comments about matters before the courts”.

Thomas Meagher, Jill’s husband has urged people to consider what they post on Twitter and Facebook.

”While I appreciate all the support, I would just like to mention that negative comments on social media may hurt legal  proceedings so please be mindful of that.”

In a statement, Jill Meagher’s uncle, Michael McKeon, acknowledged the role social media had played in the search for his niece.

“We believe that it has helped us in the search, but it’s not the outcome that we had hoped and prayed for. We thank the people around the world who have helped support us,” he said.

Boschma said the CCTV footage of Jill Meagher had been viewed millions of times on social media. She said this was a good example of “action-oriented” information sharing.

Cases like Jills demonstrate just why social media is so important in instances like this. It offers a sense of connection and community, and people want to feel connected to others who feel the same as them. People also feel that they can help in some way, and during the plight to find Jill, people felt they could do so. Jill’s name had appeared in more than 35 million Twitter feeds in the early stages her case and a lot of the sharing came from Australia and Ireland, where Jill is originally from.

Social media however has started to cause problems with the Facebook page originally created to help find Jill Meagher will now have to be carefully moderated to avoid comments about the accused risking the trail.

So it would seem in the tragic case of Jill Meagher, social media has played a very significant part in the search for her. However now, it seems social media is working against the Jill Meagher case.

Both the Megan Stammers and Jill Meagher stories will raise some much needed questions as to what policies need to be in place to monitor social media sites for safety and protection issues but also restricting and making people aware of the very serious risks that exist, particularly in a legal case, such as Jill Meaghers and particularly with regards to the threat of a trial on what can and can’t be said.

With the growing use of social media perhaps a nationwide government education campaign should to be rolled out for greater media literacy and understanding of the do’s and don’ts online. We all have our right to ‘free speech’ but do people know what can or can’t be said online at the risk of a legal trial or risk a defamation case against them?

Related articles

• ‘Trial by social media’ worry in Meagher case (theage.com.au)
• Tributes flow across social media (dailytelegraph.com.au)
• Missing Megan family ‘in pieces’ (bbc.co.uk)
• Jill Meagher case: Bolt, Twitter users warned on comment (crikey.com.au)
• Social media helped the hunt for the murderer of Jill Meagher (leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com)
• Accused killer of Jill Meagher appears in court (abc.net.au)
• Police seek help on missing woman (theage.com.au)
• Man charged with rape, murder of Jill Meagher (abc.net.au)
• Man charged with rape and murder of Irish woman Jill Meagher (independent.ie)
• Meagher family, friends pay tribute to Jill (abc.net.au)

 

Why Social Media Can Improve Your Business

I am often asked by businesses both small, medium and large about the benefits and ROI of social media are. This article aims to identify why ‘every’ business should be either ‘considering’ using or ‘be’ using social media marketing. Taking part may be purely listening, researching or actively taking part with a few relevant identified networks to suit your business aiming at your target audience/ customer.

So how can social media marketing benefit business? 

-      It can build relationship and credibility with your prospects and customers

-      To monitor what people are talking about you and solve it. A great way to reduce customer support

-      It’s a cheap way to network with people and to get to know your customers better

-      To monitor what people are talking about you and solve it, great way to reduce customer support

-      To help you track the effectiveness of your campaign

-      To act as a customer service tool, answering people questions about your product and services in a social space

Feeling curious? Before anyone gets started with social media, I highly recommend that they begin by ‘listening’. This will in turn help you profile your audience/ customers.

Listen and Learn

Every business knows who their target audience/ customers are, and from that you can then determine what sort of social networks your target audience/ customers are ‘hanging out’. From this you can also identify ‘influencers’ of your brand.

Think of each social network as a community and begin by understanding who, what and where that community derive from. Listen in on conversations that take place within each of those communities. Think about how you might benefit that community by your own participation. Think about how you could strike a conversation with some of your customers in those communities. What could offer to that community that it might be missing?

It is also important to remember that many of your customers are more likely to have multiple social networking accounts which can help you to further profile your target audience/ customer. This is especially helpful if you use a CRM (Customer Relationships Management) system such as CRM SOS or Salesforce.

If your target audience are B2C (business-to-consumers) social consumers; these are people that are willing to share their personal information on social networks engaging in activities such as updating their Facebook status, displaying their locations on Foursquare, leaving travel reviews on TripAdvisor and leaving their product reviews on Amazon.

If you apply the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule, you can expect the power users represent 20% of the users that’s generating 80% of the activities.

A study by Chadwick Martin Bailey demonstrates how your target audience are more likely to buy if you are taking part in social media networks. “consumers who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to not only recommend, but they are also more likely to buy from those brands than they were before becoming fans/followers…The study also uncovered perceptions among consumers that those brands not engaging in social media are out of touch.”

Accountability and ROI

Now that you’ve got your audience/ customer profiles and social network/s identified, what’s next? For businesses serious about ROI (return on investment), it’s time to increase accountability of your marketing efforts.

You can do this by using existing data or the customer insights from your research (surveys, CRM, profiling) to create campaign projections and a realistic target or KPI that you can aim for.

Here are some simple questions to ask yourself to get your started on your social media marketing:

• Create a mix of financial and non-financial metrics that you need to measure, not what you can measure. This is to help you understand how your marketing activities impact the bottom line and how you can optimise them by doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
• Make sure you track your marketing cost as well as where the money is coming from to justify true ROI and conduct performance analysis.
• Can you compare the effectiveness of your marketing investments in direct marketing and affiliate marketing?
• Share Your Insights with the whole business. Share this valuable customer data with your customer service representatives, sales teams and anyone else that will benefit from them. If the sales team know what words or questions your target audience used most frequently when talking about your product, they can then tailor their sales pitch and answer customers questions before they even ask them.
• How much does it cost to run a local campaign vs. national campaign? Do you really need both?
• What results are you getting targeting men instead of women?
• Ultimately you want to have a holistic view of your customer data so not only do you know what they have purchased, but also what they think about your industry, how they talk about your brand, and why they react to your campaign a certain way.
• If you are unable to keep up then outsource part of your social media efforts to consultants or agencies.

Now that you have realised the benefit and ROI of social media for your business, the question is about whether or not this should be done by yourself or by using social media marketing services.

Why social media marketing services?

- social media take a lot of time and many businesses don’t have time to focus on that aspects effectively

- it’s less time consuming to leave an expert that know what their are doing to manage your brand

- it will increase in the long term your brand awareness and reputation if done in a well manner

- it’s the most cheaper and the most effective strategy for your marketing budget

Related articles

• 7 Ways to Save Time on Your Social Media Efforts (openforum.com)
• How is Social Media Affecting Your Business? (elocal.com)
• How Data Hype is Destroying Your Social Media ROI (socialmediaexplorer.com)
• ROI Remains a Tough Challenge for CRM, Social Enterprise (servicesangle.com)
• How to drive social media customer service within your company (usefulsocialmedia.com)
• Social Media – Road Map It! (damienschulze.com)
• Twitter Marketing Strategies: How Your Competitors Do It (aboutsocialmedia.com)
• Metrics That Matter in Social (digiday.com)
• Increasing the ROI of Social Media Marketing (sloanreview.mit.edu)
• 10 Reasons Why Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Aren’t Working–And What You Can Do About It (forbes.com)

Say I’m sorry

I was inspired to write this post following the recent problems customers with the o2 phone network have been experiencing. I am also a 02 customer, however fortunate to be out of the country, so currently in the hand of another foreign network.

I have however been closely following the 02-network problem via both my personal Facebook account and Twitter. Both display angry and frustrated customers who are affected both personally, being unable to connect with friends and family and also financially due to their businesses being affected.  All seem completely in the dark and unaware of when they might expect ‘normal service’ top resume. I have also noticed a number of comments suggesting customers with o2 should be able to cancel their contract due to the current difficulties faced.

This is what pushed me to write this post. I am not completely au fait with the legal and contractual constraints. However one thing I do know is that O2, so far seem to have failed miserably in communicating and updating their customers. This will not have helped customer satisfaction and loyalty. Within the contract we are contractually obliged to ensure payment each month in exchange for the use of the network and service so I do not know what this means when it is unavailable.

In regards to customers being given the opportunity to cancel their contract early? I am not sure this is fair on O2. I understand the inconvenience it causes to customers, however I have no doubt that O2 are doing everything within their power to deal with the problem. We rely so heavily upon IT today that such problems are going to become evermore an occurrence. Another recent example is the NatWest Bank saga. However it would seem that services need to start adapting and being more prepared for such occurrences. Expect the unexpected.

So how can services and brands deal with such problems and be more prepared for such occurrences in the future?

 Communication is key; a crisis communication strategy.

In this day and age, processes are heavily automated and there is precious little human involvement between consumers and companies both generally and when something goes wrong. Why is it then, that so many companies discourage the words “I’m sorry”.

If a company said sorry and updated its customers on what was going on (even if they didn’t know, be honest) it will help build a stronger customer relationship. I am a strong advocate of taking advantage of these “moments of truth”. This is when a company truly demonstrates the value it possesses to its customers. It is the formula for creating longer-lasting customers and more delighted ones as well.

Use complaints as an opportunity to improve

Develop a new way of thinking, and identify any complaint as a very important piece of feedback and treat it as such by your company.

Top tips for complaint handling

1. Establish a philosophy or ethos for the operation. An example of this is: “We believe that each customer that complains is giving us an opportunity to make things better. We also take the attitude that customers are giving us feedback on our product or service that we may have overlooked. If we incorporate this feedback into our approach, we will be better able to meet their needs and thereby be more successful in the future.”

3. Thank the customer for the complaint and qualify it by saying something about how hearing the complaint will allow you to better address the problem. “Thank you for letting us know, we value our customers feedback both positive and negative so that we can continue to deliver the best service we can.” Explain to the customer why you appreciate the complaint and you could offer to update the customer on what different approach you have taken following their compliant. Show it has not fallen on deaf ears.

4. Do not make excuses or use the words “but” and “however” in your conversation with the customer. Do not appear defensive.

5. Ask the customer what it will take to meet their needs or to satisfy them. They may be so dissatisfied that they will not chose your service again, however if there was something you could offer them to ensure they did come back what might that be? (within reason of course.) Sometimes they only want to let you know something happened; they don’t necessarily want anything from you.

6. Do not say “I need to check that with my manager”. Your customer is already angry or inconvenienced so will not want to be left waiting or passed onto someone else. Try to deal with it there an then (if you can.)

7. Correct the mistake as quickly as possible. Research has proven that the sooner a complaint is resolved with the customer the greater the satisfaction and the more likely the customer will remain buying from you.

8. Promise to do something about it quickly. Always offer your name and telephone number (this gives the customer a feeling of control). Give an air of urgency to the call. Rapid responses say you are serious about service recovery to the customer.

9. Check customer satisfaction. This can take the form of a very short customer satisfaction survey. Survey Monkey is a very useful resource and is completely free.

10. Remember, the customer is always right.

Related articles

• O2 network crash: 3G network down – switch to 2G and your phone will work! (standard.co.uk)
• O2 Customers Suffer Lengthy Network Outage (news.sky.com)
• Anger As O2 Mobile Outage Enters Second Day (news.sky.com)
• O2 customers suffer nationwide network failure (telegraph.co.uk)
• O2′s network nightmare: how not to handle a brand melt-down (wheresthesausage.typepad.com)
• Thousands of O2 mobile phone customers hit by network problems (scotsman.com)
• O2 network crash leaves mobile users without service (guardian.co.uk)
• O2 customers affected by mobile service problems (itv.com)
• O2 outage: customers told to turn off 3G data to get service (guardian.co.uk)
• Pretty Good Practice: Track Service Recovery (customerthink.com)
• The Death of Customer Satisfaction (customerthink.com)
• Seven Ways to Take Advantage of the Social Power of Your Satisfied (and Not-So-Satisfied) Customers (customerthink.com)
• Hearing More Through the Grapevine (demandmetric.com)
• 5 Ideas to Balance Business and Customer Experience Objectives (avaya.com)
• 3 Tips to Transform a Complaining Customer Into a Loyal Customer (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Turn Your Customers Into Brand Advocates

Today, customers expect much more. Customers are more demanding and much more vocal. It is clear that the customer is fast becoming the ones in the driving seat. Social change is taking place in the way customers listen to and engage with brands and companies. For businesses to continue to provide what their customers want, they must be aware and open to this. The customers are also the most powerful mouthpiece for any brand.

Attracting and retaining customers can be done through the engagement and two-way communication with customers, no matter what channel, from print to online, mobile and social media platforms. They must tailor their communications to individual need, respond rapidly and accurately track and reference what has been said and when.

Businesses must find ways to identify with individual customers and their experience and build a strong sense of community between the brand and its audiences, customers, employees and key stakeholders. Reinforce the brand experience and reward brand engagement.

Businesses need to ensure that their communication strategies align with the information they have about their customers, and that their communications have multi-channel capabilities. But information alone doesn’t build relationships; understanding ‘what to do’ with that information is the key. Knowing when and how to use that information enables a business to really engage with its customers and take each individual customer on a journey that builds loyalty and goodwill and in turn creates brand advocates.

Here are some simple steps to get you started at working towards building your brand advocates:

1. Build the relationship first

Consumers don’t just fall in love with your brand; they fall in love with your high quality product, excellent customer service, and a consistently enjoyable experience. Think of a customer as you would ‘building your own’ relationships. It’s just the same.

2. Maintain engagement

In order to build your Brand Advocates engagement with your customers must be ongoing.  One off purchasers are just that, however, create your marketing strategies with a focus on engaging with your purchasers over time in a variety of different ways through competitions, news and special offers and you will greatly increase your chances of turning your one-off purchasers into long-term consumers who will go on to recommend your products/services to freinds and family.

Social Media is no different. A one off Tweet or an email here and there is an announcement, not engagement.  Real, true, effective engagement takes time, attention, and overall effort. Effort that will pay off over time, creating brand advocates for your business.

3. Do unto others, as you’d have other do unto you….

I pretty much live by this rule, and you should too. Everything I tweet is for and on behalf of my audience in mind. This way of thinking should be a requirement of every business especially now in this social media age.  As marketers, we want our brand to be heard, valued and paid attention to. So what we need to do for our Brand Advocates is give them our attention, and make sure they know we value them. Treat them as you would want to be treated. Acknowledge followers, retweets and recognise.

4. Listen

Customers want to be heard. After you ask, make sure you listen.  What are your consumers saying? But also as important, what are they not saying?  True listening requires a willingness to place consumers’ opinions above the brand’s own view of itself.

5. Ask your Brand Advocates what they want

With social media, we have unprecedented ways of finding out information from our consumers.  Ask them what they think of your product, and how it does or does not meet their expectation and needs.  Ask them what recommendations they have for product improvements. It is also important to show you have listened though too, as sort of ‘you said, we did’ exercise.

6. Empower and Reward

Empower your Advocates, do what it takes to help them get heard.  They are, after all, spreading the word about your products and services, so it only makes sense to make sure their voices are heard. Offer them recognition with incentives; they will then go on to be even more powerful brand advocates. Don’t ignore them.

Advocates want, and deserve to be recognized, so you should be their voice; re-tweet their comments, post their insights on your websites, share their brightest ideas throughout your social networks and make sure to give them credit for all of their work.

7. Use social media to help you, not just to sell

Ask your consumers, “How can we help you?” and put actual customer service processes into place using social media for instant and ongoing engagement with your customers.  Pay attention to them and address their needs early, often and publicly.  The beauty of Social Media is that it allows customers another way of contacting businesses, so it’s your chance to demonstrate your customer service. Make sure your social team and customer service team are on the same page and communicate regularly and easily.

When you Integrate Customer Service with your social presence, you give your Brand Advocates the chance to have even more experiences to share with their own networks.

Related articles

• The Next Frontiers in Social Media (grasshopper.com)
• 18m UK consumers have used social media for customer service (econsultancy.com)
• Executives are investing more in social media, but are they taking the right approach? (business.financialpost.com)
• Social Business for the CEO (superhypeblog.com)
• Why Just Service Customers When You Can Engage Them? (community.constantcontact.com)
• Using Pinterest to Fuel Small Businesses (prweb.com)

LinkedIn for business

Social Media is a powerful tool. LinkedIn is just one of many Social Media tools out there that you can use to build and extend your professional network.

LinkedIn is a dedicated online network for professionals and an extremely resourceful tool for job hunters, recruiters, professionals and business owners. Users create profiles (essentially your own personal website, within the site) and connect with other users. Inviting them to be a contact. A contact who accepts is called a ‘connection’. They can communicate through messages, create groups and company profiles, and ask other members of the community questions.

Quick Facts

• As of August 2, 2012, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network  with more than 175 million members in over 200  countries.
• 62% of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States
• LinkedIn members did nearly 4.2 billion professionally-oriented searches
• Typically users are aged 30 upwards
• Professionals of any industry and entrepreneurs use LinkedIn as a powerful resource for both information and business.

I have put together a list of Top Tips for you to utilise LinkedIn more effectively, enhance your profile, increase your profile optimisation and increase your business.

How LinkedIn Can Help You as a professional

LinkedIn allows you to:

• Get online recommendations for your professional abilities and your character
• Get introductions to potential clients, employers, partners or colleagues in your field
• Post and search available job postings placed on the LinkedIn website by members.
• Join various groups that align with your interests and participate in discussions. Having a group in common with another LinkedIn user is one way you can invite others into your network.
• Create an online resume that can work for you all the time. LinkedIn will help promote you as a professional in your field and sector.
• Act as a CRM tool where you can tailor your communications according to your audience. Sending specific information to specified connections accroding to how you choose to ‘tag’ them.

Top Tips 

1. Always use a photograph, it puts a face to a name.
2. Use a persuasive headline. Something that captures who you are in a short sentence using key words so you show up in key word searches. Don’t just use your latest job title.
3. Fill out your profile completely to earn trust and offer as much information about yourself as you can
4. Get recommendations. This will also increase your chances of being found as well as give people more reasons to chose you.
5. Use widgets to integrate other tools, such as importing your blog entries or Twitter stream into your profile.
6. Do market research and gain knowledge with Polls.
7. Share survey and poll results with your contacts.
8. Answer questions in Questions and Answers: show expertise
9. Ask questions in Questions and Answers to get a feel for what customers and prospects want or think.
10. Be sure to list ALL of your experience and skills.
11. Publish your LinkedIn URL on all your marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects learn more about you.
12. Grow your network by joining industry and alumni groups related to your business.
13. Update your status examples of recent work.
14. Link your status updates with your other social media accounts.
15. Combine your social media approach: when someone asks a question in Twitter, respond in detail on LinkedIn and link to it from Twitter.
16. Use the search feature to find people by company, industry and city.
17. Start and manage a group or fan page for your product, brand or business.
18. Research your prospects before meeting or contacting them.
19. Share useful articles and resources that will be of interest to customers and prospects.
20. Always introduce yourself when making new connections, don’t just use the standard template. You wouldn’t just hand someone a buisness card and walk off. Use the same principle as you would if you were meeting them in person.
21. Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts..
22. Post your presentations on your profile using a presentation application.
23. Check connections’ locations before traveling so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
24. Use the notes section on each of your connections profiles. You can’t possibly be expected to remember every detail about all of your connections and this provides you with a way to remember why you are connected and prompt you to follow up with them. These are totally private and only you can see these notes.
25. Ask your first-level contacts for introductions to their first-level contacts.
26. Interact with LinkedIn on a regular basis to reach those who may not see you on other social media sites.
27. Set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so you can respond right away.
28. Link to articles and content posted elsewhere, with a summary of why it’s valuable to add to your credibility.
29. List your newsletter subscription information and archives.
30. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
31. Post discounts and package deals.
32. Need a hard copy of all of your connections contact details? Use the import connections tab and produce a CSV file. You will never have anyone’s contact details out of date.
33. Import vCards and contacts from other applications to find more connections.
34. Export your contacts into other applications.
35. Buy a LinkedIn direct ad that only your target market will see.
36. Post job listings to find qualified talent.
37. Look for connections related to a job you want.
38. Generate sales, find vendors, develop partnerships and grown your business through connections.
39. Tag your connections accroding to their sector, skills or industry eg. estate agents, press or accountants.
40. Stay active. Your profile should not sit still.
41. Oh and stay safe… change your password on a regular basis and avoid security breaches!

When joining networking sites such as LinkedIn, you have to take the time to create productive profiles and pages. Put the time and effort into all the above enhancements and your LinkedIn profile will be much more effective.

Staying connected with the outside world isn’t the only benefit LinkedIn has to offer. Learn how to use LinkedIn and you might find yourself more connected than you could have ever imagined.

Let us know how you get on!

Related articles

• 9 Hot Skills That Are Trending on LinkedIn (socialtimes.com)
• How LinkedIn Can Help You Find Your Next Great Employee (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• LinkedIn Apologises For Password Breach (techweekeurope.co.uk)
• The 30 Most Popular Passwords Stolen From LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)
• 9 Tips for Building A Powerful LinkedIn Profile (upandrunning.bplans.com)
• Poor LinkedIn, the ugly stepsister of social networking | Bim Adewunmi (guardian.co.uk)
• LinkedIn confirms password breach in limited statement (bizjournals.com)
• Frustrated? Why You’re Wasting Your Time With Facebook & Twitter (jimkukral.com)
• LinkedIn Passwords Compromised – What You Should Do NOW (spaatzassociation.wordpress.com)
• Millions of LinkedIn passwords reportedly leaked – take action NOW (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
• LinkedIn for business (2communicateblog.wordpress.com)
• 8 Killer Tactics to Grow Your Blog with LinkedIn (problogger.net)
• LinkedIn: So far, no user accounts breached (technolog.msnbc.msn.com)

Congratulations to our 2012 Competition winner!

Congratulations to our competition winner Annie Vickerstaff who will be in receipt of her fantastic Compassionate Tee of her choice in the next few days, thanks to her wonderful farm animal rescue story.

Our winner rehomed 3 hens from an enriched environment who were being cared for by the RSPCA centre at Brent Knoll, Somerset.

Here is Annie’s story:

After Mrs Fox helped herself to a chicken takeaway, we were left with no hens. So off to the RSPCA centre at Brent Knoll, Somerset we went, clutching an empty cat basket. We were awarded three hens fresh from an “enriched environment” farm – and if that was an enriched environment, I hardly dare imagine what must have gone before. Our three girls had completely featherless bottoms and heads, great long claws, clipped beaks and no education. When we put them into our ark they stood bemused, staring around them with unblinking eyes. They had never seen sky, grass, trees, earth, robins, worms or any of the other things now surrounding them. Over the next few days they learned to peck up insects and worms, scratch the ground, enjoy a dust bath (a dust bath – oh bliss!), use a perch, and walk around. Nest boxes were a bit of a challenge: we had several smashed eggs at first but they got the hang of it in the end. Known as the Three Baldybum Sisters, they were scantily feathered from the front, but oven-ready from the back: three parsons’ noses bobbing in a row as they pecked about. Now, after just two weeks of freedom, our hens are happily settled into their new home, providing us with lovely fresh eggs, have learned to come when called, and are even talking to us (they were silent for the first few days). New pin feathers are coming through and they’ll soon be three proper little red hens, with their first 18 months of caged life just a bad memory.

What is an ‘enriched’ environment?

An enriched environment is an environment that allows chicken to carry out their natural behaviours, as they would do in their natural environment such as perching and investigation. A more stimulating, enriched environment encourages birds to be more active, which can help reduce leg problems. Chickens provided with an enriched environment (for example, containing straw bales, perches and objects to peck at) walk and run more and sit down less than those kept without any form of enrichment.

If you want to find out more about caring for hens check out the The British Hen Welfare Trusts (BHWT) website to find out more about re-homing and caring for hens.

 

Related articles

• Chicken Retirement (urbanchickenconsultant.wordpress.com)
• The ‘good food’ stamp barely worth the label it’s printed on (independent.co.uk)
• Give a Hen a Home (2communicateblog.wordpress.com)
• Free range eggs outsell those from caged hens for first time (dailymail.co.uk)
• 12 EU nations risk court action for cruelty to hens (mnn.com)

What makes a story newsworthy?

Reporters and readers all want a good story. Your story should be interesting and relevant to the audience, and it must be written clearly enough that it can be quickly and easily understood. What makes a story interesting is often a combination of the interests of the audience, the interests and abilities of the reporter, and a long history of journalistic tradition.

The question “What is news?” is a primary philosophical issue in media relations. Many of us are indifferent to sports, yet it makes up a large part of mainstream news. Both TV and Radio set aside a lot of time for the weather, even though it is usually pretty straightforward and it all comes from the same place. Without getting into this debate at length we will look at the key fundamentals of what constitutes a ‘newsworthy’ story.

One key element to any story is an image. Images accompanying your story are a real asset to increasing its appeal. Children and animals are always encouraged, as long as it fits with the story. For example, you are submitting a story about a large donation of money raised and select an image of individuals presenting the cheque. This will not make front page news. If however you submit an image demonstrating where the money is being used, such as for new facilities to benefit children at a foster home or a previously run down area that has been completely renovated from recognition, then this will be much more appealing.

When an editor needs to decide whether to run with a particular story, he/she will ask how well the story meets what they will determine as newsworthy criteria, and below are some of those crucial elements your story should contain:

Topical/ Timing

The word news means exactly what it says on the tin; things which are new. We are all used to receiving the latest news on whats going on, and there is so much going on that old news is quickly discarded and will become ‘old’ very quickly.

A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it’s news. If the same thing happened last week, it’s no longer interesting.

When you are looking to get your story in the news, you must consider topicality and timeliness.

Relevance to Audience/ Significance

The number of people affected by the story is important. An earthquake killing thousands will be very relevant news.

Although many stories are run because they are completely random and something that will be a conversation starter, however this is less likely on a channel such as the BBC or via the Financial Times which more often than not will remain factual and significant. Being sensitive to the market you are trying to reach, and demonstrating that your story idea is relevant to that audience will increase your chances of getting coverage. Research your target audience and make sure your story fits with them.

Proximity/ Local Angle

Stories, which happen near to us, have more significance. The closer the story to home, the more newsworthy it is.

It is important to note that proximity does not have to mean geographical distance. Stories from countries with which we have a particular bond or similarity have the same effect.

Prominence

Famous people get more coverage just because they are famous. If you become seriously ill it is unlikely to become news, but if Cheryl Cole becomes ill for example, it will be big news.

Stories that affect, or have the potential to affect everyone though ARE newsworthy. A story about a child with a rare disease is interesting because it is unusual. But it is also effective because all parents worry about the health of their children and are interested in children’s health generally. Reporters like stories that their audience can relate to, no matter how unusual the topic may be. Universality is closely related to relevance to the audience.

Human Interest

News is about people. Human interest stories are a bit of a special case. They often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don’t date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where in the world the story takes place.

Human interest stories appeal to emotion. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. Television news programs often place a humorous or quirky story at the end of the show to finish on a feel-good note. Newspapers often have a dedicated area for offbeat or interesting items.

If there are a lot of newsworthy stories on a particular day then some stories will be dropped, sometimes this just can not be helped. Should this be the case, it is worth not ‘dating’ your story so that it can be picked up at a later date, but then this is the benefit of human interest stories that more often than not, will not be ‘deated’. Many stories can and will be delayed until a new slot becomes available, time-sensitive news will often be dropped permanently.

Conflict. Disagreement is generally more newsworthy than agreement. This is why politics and sports make easy news: it is easy to find disagreement. Because the reporter wants a balanced story, he or she will often look for someone to disagree with the point of view you express, or at least to offer a different perspective so be prepared for this.

Monitoring your brand

Media Monitoring… what is it all about? Do we really need it? In short, the answer is yes you most certainly do need it.

Media Monitoring ‘… provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial opinion, specifically or widely. These services tend to specialize their coverage by subject, industry, size, geography, publication, journalist, or editor. The printed sources which could be readily monitored greatly expanded with the advent of telegraphy and submarine cables in the mid- to late-19th century; the various types of media now available proliferated in the 20th century, with the development of radio, television, the copier and the internet. Though media monitoring is generally used for capturing content or editorial opinion, it also may be used to capture advertising content.’ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you a serious about managing your brand, delivering something your customers want and talking in the right language then media monitoring/ monitoring your brand can help you tailor your messages, your brand and ensure you are accurate, efficient and timely in everything you say and do and crucially what your customers want.

It is so important to know what is being said about your brand, industry, competitors, stakeholders and most importantly what your customers might be saying about them. We are in a New Media age where anyone can have their say quite publicly via twitter and Facebook et al. Customers can complain, comment or praise their new pair of trainers and tell everyone about the experience they had with a named travel agents. This sort of ‘real life’, customer experience and feedback, if not handled in the right way can be detrimental to a brand/ service. Why would you go and buy a product that had received 90% negative reviews?

Here are 4 key benefits of monitoring your brand/ service:

1. Building Relationships with both the Media and Customers

Social Media is now a growing tool for both journalists and customers. Journalists will utilise Social Media to stay on top of the news, get leads and build relationships and their community. This is a first hand opportunity for brands to target key journalists who are following their brand and approach them for a face to face meeting and build a relationship with them. This in turn may then lay down the foundations for future coverage of campaigns and stories as that relationship has been created. In future, journalists may call you if they need a story.

Customers will utilise Social Media to stay in touch with their favorite brand and keep up to date with latest news. This allows brands to monitor and manage discussions, content and how their approach is resonating with their target audience.

Social Media is an opportunity for brands to constantly improve their customer service as they can find out what conversations people are having about their brand, identify any positive or negative comments and address them.

2. Identifying key influencers

Identifying key influencers to your specific brand will be unique each and every time. There may be mentions of your brand in forums, via tweets or blogs and by looking through those post mentions, commenter count and post volume will prove invaluable in determining what people are saying about your brand. There may be one particular key influencer and it may be worth identifying them, targeting them and even getting in touch. They could act as very powerful consumer ambassadors for your brand.

Influencers can also change dependent on the situation and type of audience they attract. Grading influencers in terms of their level of influence is also useful, reflecting them as a high, mid or lowpriority. A lowpriority might move to a high priority if a blog post attracts a lot of commentary. The key to tapping influencers is being flexible and knowing they can change constantly and of course this is where monitoring comes in.

3. Crisis Management

Crisis communications strategies are largely a big part of what a PR professional will offer as part of their service. However, it is not very often that a PR will have to execute a crisis communications plan. In the traditional space, it was few and far between, but social media gives customers instant access to a real-time complaint channel.

Creating a presence on social media networks won’t stop this type of conversation from happening, but will enable brands to make the conversation a two-way street. So, what type of metrics can you measure in a crisis? You can look at conversation at the start, middle and end for benchmark comparison, and evaluate response on a cause-and-effect spectrum.

4. Competitive Monitoring

It is important for brands to know how they are measuring up to the competition. Adidas will always know what Nike is doing and vice versa. Monitoring industry conversation is the first step in identifying who the competition is and ensuring you are on top the game.

It isn’t common for someone who you may have initially ‘thought’ was your competitor to then realise you have others you may not have previously identified. Media monitoring can help you identify these key competitors and further define what is successful and what’s failing. Knowing competitor efforts can affect not only what a brand does in the future, but current efforts. You can see where the consumer is, and what efforts they react positively and negatively to. Brands like to see competitor efforts for consumer validation, trends and market research.

So if you would like to build a relationship with the media and your customers, identify your key influencers, ensure you have a crisis communications plan in place and stay on top of what your competitors are doing, maybe you should think about Media Monitoring.