I came across a really interesting interview today with Reputation management expert Andy Beal which summed up simply how to make the most of online social media. I do not think I could say it better. It has so many benefits establishing a social media policy.
“When a company creates an interactive online profile, it’s effectively telling its stakeholders -customers, investors, employees, etc- that it cares about the community and wants to be a part of the conversation. When an online reputation crisis hits, companies that have an social media profile are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt and more likely to be able to respond quickly, within that channel.
I advise my clients to look for the “centres of influence.” Where are their stakeholders hanging-out online? When you understand the types of social media your stakeholders are using -maybe they prefer blogs over forums -you’ll increase your chances of successfully engaging them.”
Social media channels that you may find useful for establishing a thriving social network, depending on your market and your niche, include:
FaceBook
MySpace
Twitter
Plurk
FriendFeed
Linkedkin
What networks would you add to this? Which ones do you enjoy the most?
Do you feel guilty if you are not regular reading of other users Blog? With all the pressures of modern day life who do you pick and choose to read? If I am totally honest I do not do as much reading as I would like. When the day eventually ends there are still things that need doing and reading when you are tired is not effective. I guess quick scan in the morning is the best bet. I tend my self to take a look around lunch time. There are couple topics or writers that I have been following recently when that has run it’s course I will then move on. Of course this question has been topically asked yesterday by Shoemoney, The most amount of comments for the least amount of work http://tinyurl.com/5h58yc It does demonstrate just how relevant blogging is or not in the wider picture.
Interesting too how collectively similar topics will be discussed in blogsphere
A couple of years ago I was applying for a job by a company in the UK. After the usual first get to know you meeting. They asked me to write a report about their website and what I thought about it.
I knew that this was a part of the job interview process so I wrote as honestly and as diplomatically as I could. Back then, I did not blog at all. Writing is not an obvious choice for me, I am much better orally speaking. I know why that is so, having kept a blog for over a year now. I am beginning to understand why writing is entirely different from speaking. It uses different parts of the brain. Which parts I am not entirely sure, but the more you activate a brain center the better it will perform. It is not as easy as it looks, but then again neither is it that hard. Without doubt, it does wonders for any plan to be able to take the effort to set it out on paper before you take any steps to put a plan into action. In fact I would even go so far to say that if we to do that with all important decisions in our life we would probably have a very different view point and live very different and probably richer lives, qualitatively speaking. If you are going to assess your employees on their writing skills you will have to create the right atmosphere. A free mind can develop very quickly (in children) unfortunately somewhat slower as an adult. So it is important that the employees do not feel that they have to write in certain way. Indeed that would be against the very essence of blogging. Forget having brain storming sessions, ask each employee to write something for you instead, that is a least the ones that cannot justify a better use of there of time than picking their nose. You will be amazed what you find…. this of course assuming that you have the more or less total confidence of your staff.
There is a very interesting post on Shoemoney about 1938media who are going to start a subscription service. He accepts thatt 99 percent of his visitors will not pay for the content. I think he is on to something. At least 75 percent of my reading material comes from blogs on the Internet. I do not buy a newspaper because I find bloggers more interesting and better content. I would be interested in paying a dollar per a day to read my favourite bloggers.
I was surfing the internet this evening and it struck me how bloggers can give an entirely different image about themselves than what they really are. For example just recently a couple of blogs have been sold for $10,000. While it is nice pocket money, you are not going to be able to retire on it. Is the buyer buying a page rank or the personality. The other side of the coin is there are bloggers out there who have photos of themselves in big expensive cars on their blog with the promise of blog like me and you too can live like me. While the reality is they are probably scratching a living. Still it is better than mugging old ladies.
There is of course another kind of blogger who is totally nuts but their blog is very plain. I do wonder about interacting in this way what are the benefits and what are the pitfalls? If we keep it all in perspective I would not do business with somebody solely on their blog. Which is why executives still travel the globe. Face to face is the still the most trusted way to get business done. As I search the internet I wonder what blogs are telling us about their owners? and what are their reasons for blogging. For me personally it is a development tool.
