The Blog of Hans Eisenman

How Your Competitors May Use Social Media to Leave You In The Dust

Social Media really IS turning the business-to-customer on its head and this process is only beginning.  The businesses which embrace this are going to stay ahead of this chaos as it happens.  But if, as a business,  you're afraid of change or too set in your ways, you're liable to regret it later when your competitors take a giant leap ahead by setting themselves apart.

Let's say you're a dentist (this is fresh on my mind because I just visited a great one here in town and am still convalescing a little from their excellent work).  The usual dental business model is like a lot of others: attract patients (customers), do the work, they leave, you follow-up at some point or schedule a follow-up right there.  That's the way it's been being done for years and years, with some slight variations.

What's missing from this equation?  It's the same thing missing from a lot of businesses out there: getting an honest answer from that customer on how they really felt about the service or product.  The customers truth about that service or product, if you will.

But can businesses "handle it"?
Does this idea make you feel a little uncomfortable?  It might and I'd be surprised if it didn't because businesses have not been all that good about bellying up to that particular bar.   When was the last time someone at a company really asked you for your honest opinion about a service they delivered to you, in a way that you were happy to tell them because you could see they handle the truth?  Ever?  (Note: I'm not talking about the constrained surveys that only let you numerically assign values to service or your likeliness to buy or recommend.  I'm talking about real, braindump, unedited type responses, because that's what people are able to dishout now, via their own media channels (blogs, Twitter, Facebooke, etc.), if they so choose.

Social media, if it's doing anything else in the market place is starting to tear down the walls between businesses and the minds of their customers.  Not only does the emperor not have any clothes on, but his subjects are willing to tell him and can with relative impunity.

As more and more people realize they have venues like UserVoice, Get Satisfaction and others like them (see article below), honest answers about your services and products will begin to flow out into the world, whether you like it or not.

The best thing businesses could do is embrace this fully and early as possible and build "get honest answers" mechanisms into their existing customer/patient management processes.  The sooner they do this the sooner they will also ensure that they are protecting their herd or tribe from poaching businesses.  (After all, the ease with which customers can now get information means they have so many more choices than ever before.)

Embrace this change before your competitors do and you'll give your cusotmers/patients one more reason to stick with you, in addition to your already excellent services and products.  Any business can do it.  It doesn't matter what you sell.

One more thing: there is a huge added advantage here, in addition to letting a customer know you hear what s/he has to say: the feedback will give you ideas for how to improve and, if you use them, will ensure that you stay on top of your game.  Nothing wows a customer like seeing one of his/her suggestions in place when s/he returns for the next visit.

Companies who don't embrace this are going to find themselves being talked about whether they like it or not (because anyone can publish these days).  Sooner or later that will happen and it's always harder to handle that sort of thing reactively.  Get proactive.  Start this process now.

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How Social Media is Upending the Enterprise | Fast Company.

The power of social media has empowered the consumer to reach literally hundreds or thousands of people in seconds. And because we know a consumer’s closest friends are three to five times more likely to share the same preferences for products and brands, this newfound power is not to be underestimated.  ...

The challenge for companies is figuring out how to manage this. A conversation could start with a tweet, be directed to a help forum, be responded to in email, updated in a blog post, and then broadcast on Facebook. How will this be tracked, measured and monitored? This market is ripe with opportunity for both brands and software platforms built to nurture the distributed web-wide conversation.

Social Media Influence and Staying Power

This morning I was considering whether Social Media will be here to stay, or is just a fad.  It's a prett common point of debate out there from pundits and commoners alike.

Statistically it is pretty hard to ignore social media's influence today.  We've gone from boring, static websites (Web 1.0 if you will) to blogs (less static, more updating more often--Web 1.5?) to what I have heard some describe as the Sharing Revolution, Web 2.0.  These are sites like Facebook with 300 million users now, Twitter's baffling (to some) popularity, etc. where you can share something at the click of a button with tens, hundreds, thousands of people and more, depending on how many are following you.

At first I was thinking that this social media influence is driven out of people's desire to share.  There is a lot of truth to this, of course.  You see a great (or even just good) movie, you want tell others about it.  Buy a car you're particularly happy with, same thing.  Tell your friends.  Have an idea, make a video and

There is, though, an impulse that runs deeper than merely sharing, however.  It's the need to HELP.  

Often I find that I want to share a link or a thought with others because I think it might help some of my friends and followers out there in the world.   If sharing is the What, helping is the Why.

To me, this means a couple of things, right off the bat:

1. Underneath it all people are basically good.  Just look at the numbers of people out there who are connecting and sharing and helping each other even if just in a small way.  Facebook's user stats alone are staggering. Granted, there are those who use social media for evil just like any other tool, but they are the minority.
2. Social media is here to stay, whether in its current form or some newer version (Web 2.5!) which evolves over the next few years (or minutes the way things go around here these days).

Increasing Social Media Influence
This also speaks, I think, a bit to how people should be using social media.  Share links and information with others because it would be helpful in some way, vs. spreading gossip or info that might be hurtful to others or have no real purpose at all (note: fun and comical things can even be helpful because they lighten the heart and give a person some lift).

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Maybe I'm just an idealist, but I really like the idea that social media and all this sharing could be fueled primarily on people's innate drive to help others and do good in the world. 

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.  I'd love to hear your input on this idea.

The Social Media Revolution

Social Media: Is There A Point...Really?

A fellow Bizniker (a bit like LinkedIN only more dynamic) emailed me and asked this question below.  She is probably right about these being common questions so I thought I'd make it the subject of my next article.

Her question:

"I think I'm like a lot of people: don't understand how social media helps me connect REALLY with people I can make relationships with. Chatting online is one thing...a relatiionship is quite another.

"Secondly...time. It's hard to find the time to socially network, when I can't see a direct benefit. For my two businesses...require that people actually try my stuff, and see if they like it. I know I should blog about cosmetic issues..but really...what's the point"  -G.A.

What's the Point?
This is a GREAT question because I think a lot of what we see on social media sites begs that question.

To help answer that, let me ask you first to forget social media for a moment.  Instead, let's look at a more "traditional" method of "getting business". What does it really mean to get business?

Facebook HowTo: Make New Friends and Maintain Security

Here's a video showing you how to get more out of Facebook by using your Privacy Settings and and a feature called "Lists".  By combining these two features you can a) connect with new people you don't yet know well (i.e., make new friends) and b) not put yourself at risk in doing so. 

If you have trouble seeing the screecast portion, you can try this link.