What were you thinking?

Well this is my last blog about the web innovation module at Glasgow Caledonian University.  Is it wrong to be feeling sad when I was so set against doing one to begin with?  

I honestly didn’t think that blogging would be my thing or that it would be useful.  I have to admit that I was wrong.  I’ve actually enjoyed writing down my thoughts and hunting for the most appropriate visual aids.  (Just for you Manpreet). 

Overall I’ve enjoyed the module.  I don’t necessarily feel that I learned much but the things that I did learn will be useful in the future.   I’ve been asked to write a blog, create and maintain a social networking page and Tweet for a company starting in September so it’s all been worthwhile.  

The things that I didn’t like are the things that everyone moans about............group work and the amount of time we had to spend on course work.   

There was lots of group work in this module which strangely the lecturers didn’t think there was.  As I’ve said before I totally accept that it’s a necessary evil but come on...........there must be another way???  Overall my groups have been great.  YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!   I’m not going to complain about it.  It’s over.  I’ve done it.  I’ve moved on.  When I was asked how much effort people put in, there was no point in being honest.  It’s about getting through the module as best you can not about upsetting people.   

One of the groups in the other lab put down that one of them did more work than the rest.  Why would you do that?  It’s about team work!!!  How well do you think they worked in a team?  Do you think that in the real world that would be acceptable?  Come on!  Get a grip and grow up!  You’re supposed to help each other through this not climb over them or drag them down! 

As per usual I took over in any group I was involved with.  I honestly try not to but if things aren’t being done, I can't help it!  I think some of the class would never have done it even under threat of death!  Thankfully not in any of my groups though.

People want to do well but don’t want to put in the effort.   For me the module was my best subject.  It’s more practical than anything else we do and that suited me perfectly. 

I just want to learn something that can make life easier for me.  I’m in my element farting about with a wiki but when all the rest of my modules are all expecting their pound of flesh from me it’s really hard to justify the time needed to do the practical work well.

For me, the amount of work that was expected from this module in relation to the rest was really high.  You only learn from doing with some things and I really think that less weighting should be given to the report.  The module was made up of practical aspects the whole way through and then the report, which is theoretical, was worth 60% of the overall mark???  Eh no.  That’s just not right!!!  

And another thing.  Why was this module in semester 2?  The GoogleDocs and wikis would have been so useful for the Strategic Management module in semester 1.  It’s so annoying that we could have used social media to help with that module in particular but didn’t know about it.     

Without doubt some of what we learned will be used by businesses.  Personally I think it’ll take a long time for it to filter through to most businesses in Scotland.  It seems to be mainly larger organisations that are using social media, not your average corner shop.  Businesses that have older leaders or under 20 staff have not really caught on to social media.  They don't seem to have the same concept of how much money they can make.

 

Alexis asked me early on if I wanted to change to the project management module and I’m glad I didn’t.  Even though I haven’t learned as much as I thought I would it has still been interesting.  For me the most interesting lectures were the ones at the end about how to implement, regulate social media and possibly most importantly how to use it for marketing. 

 

Businesses need to know what the tools of social media are and how to use them.  I’m confident that I can educate them so mission accomplished.  

So it’s goodbye to web innovation but that doesn’t mean the end of Crabbit Views just a change of topic.  

SORRY!!!!!

That's The Way To Do It

Maybe I’m a cynic but companies taking part in social media has become very calculated. 

Companies now have social media strategies, policies and plan meticulously how they will implement social media in their organisation.  The whole point of social media is that it’s social.  It’s not about making money.  It’s not about advertising.  It’s about sharing information, communicating,  collaborating and connecting with people.  

Companies only want to share information about their products and services.  They don’t want competitors to know what they’re doing but technology has forced them to face the fact that customers have a need to know.   Everyone and his dog now use technology to find information.  Who doesn’t surf the net from their phone?  Who doesn’t Facebook from their phone?  No one under the age of 30 anyway but have you ever looked for a company on Facebook and there’s nothing there?  It’s unusual for companies now not to have some sort of social media and different companies have varying levels of social media commitment.  

There are only 2 ways to introduce social media into an organisation.  Top down or bottom up.  Top down is when the company leaders use social media and then tell employees to do it.  You know the kind of thing.  The owner of the company starts blogging and wants you to read their blog and feedback comments.  You might read the blog the first time you see it and then every time you get an email to say there’s a new one you just delete it.  Why?  Because it’s forced on you.  Top down implementation of social media ensures that the company keeps control over what employee’s use and how they use them.  You’re not interacting.  You’re being forced to read something that you’re not really that interested in.   It could be the most interesting, witty, informative blog in the world but you still won’t be that interested because you didn’t find it on your own.  Fickle people!   

Bottom up implementation is when the operational staff, the people who do the job, use social media and tell others about it.  You know how it goes.  You’re doing your job and then discover a much easier way to do it.  You tell people about it.  Show them how to do it and before you know it everyone is doing it that way.  The boss is usually the last to know.  With social media you might be able to identify tools that are useful but you’ll still need the boss’s permission to use them.  It has to do with how your actions reflect on the company.  If you want to create a social networking page the boss has to know that you won’t do anything to damage the company reputation.  

Social media has to be implemented in a way that aligns strategic objectives of the company with personal goals.  At the end of the day for social media to succeed the culture has to encourage technology utilisation in an intuitive manner.  Social media can make life easier but it can also cause problems too.   There’s always someone out there who will bad mouth the company or try and get through security to post inappropriately or steal personal information.  

It’s not as easy as it sounds to use social media well and that’s probably why not every company does it.   Some companies just don’t understand social media at all.  They are completely unaware of how they could use it and they don’t want to learn.  It has to be said that these organisations are usually ran by people who are more mature and all this new fangled stuff is beyond them.  Like the TV remote.  They don’t have the ability to change so will remain outside and in the modern world are seriously under threat.  

Other companies could understand what social media is but are too scared to try using it.  Social media is not easy.  You can get it really wrong.  Chrysler had an incident when one of their employees made an inappropriate remark on Twitter.  They didn’t have the same opinion as their employee and ultimately they fired the individual but their name was sullied by the mention.  

Some companies look for opportunities to use social media and some know what the tools are and use them to great effect.  The Comic Relief campaign in 2011 raised over half of their funds through social media.   They are probably one of the best examples of social media engagement.  

Comic Relief created a virtual community to raise awareness of the charity.  They use lots of different kinds of social media such as social networking, blogging, pod casting, RSS feeds and mashups.  If you want to know how to use social media in business look no further.   It’s not forced.  It’s not advertising.  It is truly how it’s meant to be used.  Part of everyday life.   

Keeping Up or Moving Ahead?

As you now know......I’ve been telling you for weeks now.......businesses are tapping in to social media to engage with customers.   

The use of the various types of social media applications is increasing at a huge rate, which is great, but how can businesses find out what they’re gaining from it?  It’s not all about playing about with the look of their social networking page and tweeting it’s about sales figures and satisfaction levels.  

There are lots of examples of companies that use social media so they should be measuring the benefits somehow right?  Well believe it or not .......not all of them do.  I find it strange that all businesses that use social media don’t measure what it costs or gains them.  Businesses are all about making money so surely it’s important to know if social media is worth all the hassle.  Why are they using social media if not to make money?  For some of them is it to keep up with the Jones’s?  Come on!  You need to catch up and measure what social media brings to the table!  

So what kind of things should businesses measure?  Well they could get a figure for increased communication with customers through email, comments on pages, etc and see if they could prove that this has increased sales.  If you have an advertising campaign you would measure the sales so surely social media activity should be treated the same?  

Increased employee collaboration through wikis could generate more ideas for products than traditional meetings.  Brainstorming events are not what they used to be.  Being able to colloborate with colleagues through social media takes the pain out of being forced to come up with an idea instantly. 

Money could be saved on training as social media tools are easy to use or they could measure the cost saving on not needing software at all.   

You should all know by now that Google Docs is free! 

But it’s not all about benefits as there are costs involved too.  New hardware with better network connections is clearly a cost.  Installation and maintenance of equipment is not cheap but you could argue that any equipment they use will cost them money to maintain.  You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.  

So maybe we should be asking why do businesses decide they want to use social media in the first place?  What do they want to achieve?  And how will they know when they’ve done it?  

So if they’re not just keeping up with the Jones’s then they need to define how they can use social media effectively.  Believe it or not there are frameworks they can use.  It’s serious business!  

Businesses use a framework to try and get more people involved with the company as they can learn from the conversations their customers have.  They can see who’s talking about them.  They want influential people to talk about them possibly bloggers or people with large amounts of “friends” and the whole point of this is that they’ll try and use this to get you, the customer, to go to their website to buy their products.  It’s like stalking in reverse!

Different analytical tools are available for businesses to measure their social media.  Facebook has “insights” that show amongst other things who’s looked at the page, where they are geographically, what else they like and who their friends are.  People who use Facebook are forever trying to find out who’s looked at their profile.   Why do you want to know who’s looked at your page?  Because it lets you know that people find you interesting?  Because it makes you feel as if you’re being heard?  Or because you’re just too nosey?    

Businesses get to see who’s been looking at their page so they can see who their message is getting to and the amount of times they’re mentioned.  They can see who’s talking about them.  Jealous aren’t you?  

Why should businesses use this information?  

So they can see what the topics of conversation are and the sentiments.  If they’re good they can keep doing what they’re doing and if they’re bad they can step in and counteract them.  Is it just me or is this not something that should be central to the social media usage for businesses?  

Businesses need to know if customers are going to the company website from social media leads and possibly more importantly are the people from social media leads buying anything?  

If they’re not is there really any point in using social media? 

The figures involved in social media are impressive so instead of me you boring you with them, check out this video and be prepared to be astounded.