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Business is Social
2/4/2009 6:53:00 PM

One day I was telling a friend that he should make a zine about his company or at least a blog of some sort. To my surprise he told me he was forbidden to do anything online related to the company. So I asked, they let you talk to customers everyday, be the face of the company, fly you all around supervising hundreds of employees yet won’t let you talk to customers online? Are you allowed to talk to customers on the phone? He then quickly tried to change the subject; but I didn’t let him. I said he should look into that and if that really is the truth that he should petition to have that policy changed ASAP

My guess is that this is why Joel wrote this book. Crappy companies are getting ripped online, we all know that, but really good companies, companies that have happy customers are missing a HUGE opportunity! I’m not sure if its fear or lack of knowledge.

I’m not going to call him out other than say the company is in the retail business and he’s a V.P. in the company. I plan to recommend this book to him.
U-haul Sucks & Everyone knows it!
2/4/2009 4:54:00 PM

SocialCorp has a case study on U-Haul’s missed customer service opportunity online. Personally, every encounter I’ve had with U-haul has been unpleasant. It’s not a surprise to find out that the Internet is trashing U-haul. Joel mentions countless customers frustrations and disappointments with U-haul on Twitter.



Back when I was a teenager I worked at U-haul for a total of two days and never returned. I was so disgusted with the company’s lack of service that I never bothered to get my paycheck. They don’t care about their customers. How a company like this is still in business... I don’t understand.

U-haul is incompetent to customer service. Social Media can only help when your company cares. Online / Offline, if you suck, you suck.
Should you turn your company into a SocialCorp?
The Social Tools for a Thriving Business
2/4/2009 6:52:00 PM

It surprises me how often “business” is intimidated by the tools that will advance and grow their business. Social Media is unlike any tools ever used by business. This book does a phenomenal job at explaining what Social Media is and how your business can use it to help customer stay happy and turning problems into PR gold!

Money Will Follow
To have a successful business you need people to buy your products. To have a thriving business you need more than that. You need customer that use, recommend and more importantly defend your brand. Social Media enables this unlike any other form of communication.

The intimidation that usually come from embracing new tools, I can't say this enough, is explained beautifully in this book. The days of seeing IT as a separate non-important function in business is no more. Everyone understand that IT is a critical part of doing business. Social Media is the next front all businesses need to include in their strategy.

The book outlines many successes that businesses have had using Social Media.   Dell, HSBC and even GM. The CIA has implemented internal social tools to help analyst share information and help connect the dots.

Blah blah blah
SocialCorp turns the tech talk of social media and Web 2.0 into something that normal people can understand and implement. One chapter that covers a very hard part to embracing Social Media is Chapter 7, "Can You Count Everything That Counts?" How do you track and improve something that is hard or impossible to measure and analyze. The way I see it is this, being honest and open with your customer will always be good for business. You can use limited data and analyze every detail but at the end of the day doing right by your customer supersedes all else.

If you know of anyone who is afraid, intimidated or reluctant about Social Media I highly recommend you mention this book to them. Their customers will benefit and it will help prep potential customers to their brand.
PostmanSocialized
2/4/2009 6:52:00 PM

Joel Postman is Principal of Socialized, a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications, marketing and public relations; and former EVP of Emerging Media at Eastwick Communications.

You can find his book on Amazon or BN.com




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Ali - Feb 4 2009 8:15 PM
Sounds like a good read. I`ll have to check it out. I`m still a little intimidated by social media but you can`t ignore the impact it`s having on business.