Month: July 2011

I was sent this article from e-consultancy by the very clever Rosalind Johnson at A Different View and whilst it works, I think they could have gone a stage further.

So what can’t social media do for you and your brand?

1. Make you cool
Everyone is on social media platforms, but few have a properly joined up strategy as to why they’re doing it. There’s more chance of you getting it wrong and being caught ‘dad dancing‘ by the very people you are trying to win over. If in doubt, don’t do it at all.

2. Create great products & services
Great products comes from a balance f inspiration, striving for quality and listening to what your customers needs, wants and dreams. You can listen to what they are telling you if you’re any good on these social channels, but As Henry Ford said, ‘If we’d asked our customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse’.

3. Quash criticism
People are talking about you already, good or bad. Social media allows you to listen and respond (if you do it well), but if you’re crap at everything else, you’ll still get criticism – rest assured if you pretend you’re listenibg and do nothing, it only gets worse (doesn’t it National Rail!)

4. Provide free marketing
This is a total myth, it costs time and money to do it well. Again, if you can’t do it right, you’re better off not doing it at all. My figures proved that here.

5. Improve your customer service
You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. The more you advertise a bad product, the faster it will fail and all the other ways of describing a disguise for bad products or service ring true. Customers have access to all the information in the world and are not afraid to tell people. If you get caught telling lies on a social media platform, your life will get worse and worse. The only way to solve it is to ‘fess up and sort the problem.