Old-guard types tend to restrict it to out-of-office hours; others even want to confine it to a single computer so that it’s obvious who’s using it. But of course, Facebook can now be downloaded on to any garden-variety mobile and used anywhere, anytime! The real problem is that banning Facebook sends out the message that we don’t trust our staff to work responsibly and also that it has no possible value to the business. So, is social media an essential business tool?
The internet has changed everything. Communication used to be “one-to-many”, now it’s “many-to-many”. We can no longer respond to consumer reaction the way we did before, because we are no longer part of those conversations which have largely moved to “Web 2.0” websites. Consumers now talk about our businesses among themselves. We cannot rely anymore on creating an image that reflects our product or service. Reputation is now all important and yours will stand or fall on what other people tell each other about you. Even if you hate the idea of Tweeting, the important reason to open a Twitter account is to use it as a defensive mechanism. Be aware of what is being said about you or your product in Groups and Blogs. If you fail to monitor or respond to adverse criticism then your business will surely suffer! So by all means: Set up Alerts on Google and Twitter.
So how do we cope with this change? Well, there is nothing new under the sun! The little “Black Book” of contacts has become the LinkedIn list of connections. The gossip that used to float round the local pub is now the conversations taking place in the Discussion Groups on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Author: Christopher Jenkins, ECOVIS Wingrave Yeats, London, United Kingdom
The internet has changed everything. Communication used to be “one-to-many”, now it’s “many-to-many”. We can no longer respond to consumer reaction the way we did before, because we are no longer part of those conversations which have largely moved to “Web 2.0” websites. Consumers now talk about our businesses among themselves. We cannot rely anymore on creating an image that reflects our product or service. Reputation is now all important and yours will stand or fall on what other people tell each other about you. Even if you hate the idea of Tweeting, the important reason to open a Twitter account is to use it as a defensive mechanism. Be aware of what is being said about you or your product in Groups and Blogs. If you fail to monitor or respond to adverse criticism then your business will surely suffer! So by all means: Set up Alerts on Google and Twitter.
So how do we cope with this change? Well, there is nothing new under the sun! The little “Black Book” of contacts has become the LinkedIn list of connections. The gossip that used to float round the local pub is now the conversations taking place in the Discussion Groups on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Author: Christopher Jenkins, ECOVIS Wingrave Yeats, London, United Kingdom
