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| PBN University: Selling with Social Media | |
Selling is a Social Experience!
If you can’t engage your customers in a sociable conversation, you can’t sell them
anything. Look what’s happening in Social Media today:
Learn How to Use Social Media to Boost Sales:
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Wednesday, May 25th 12:00-1:00 pm, includes LIVE Q&A Cost: $25 Registration: www.PacificBusinessNews.com For more info call: 955-8074 |
 
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If you missed the official celebration last month of Administrative Professionals Day, don’t worry. It’s never too late to honor the ones who help us. In fact, every day should be Administrative Professionals Day. Make the time and show your appreciation. And don’t forget to schedule next year’s special day: 4/25/12. Put that event on your calendar yourself. (More info: http://www.iaap-hq.org/events/apw)
Now take a moment and rethink your assumptions about your company’s operations. How can you add more efficiency to your administrative layer? How can technology help your team do what they do even better? Can a new process or procedure boost efficiencies and help make your organization even more competitive?
Later this month I have the pleasure of speaking to the Hawaii Chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (http://www.iaap-hawaiichapter.org/). The topic of my presentation will focus on how to harness new technology to make the office faster, better, cheaper. Here are some ideas you may want to consider:
I tell my team, “Every phone call is worth $10,000. Learn to love the sound of that phone ringing.” But that’s easy for me to say. I’m not the one answering it all day long! Fortunately, there are a bunch of inexpensive tech tools to help make phone-based communications smarter and more effective.
If you’re still using conventional phone systems, ask your internet service provider about “voice over internet protocol” (VoIP). It’s just a fancy name for computer-based phone systems. VoIP will save you money and will offer lots of neat features. Be sure to take a look at Google Voice (https://www.google.com/voice). Google Voice will translate voicemail into email and send it directly to your inbox.
Also checkout RingCentral (http://www.ringcentral.com/). We’ve had good success with RingCentral, which enables us to seamlessly route calls easily between our service centers, home offices, and our SuperGeeks in the field.
I remember the days when the bookkeeper had to come onsite to do her magic and all paperwork had to be ferried back and forth to one central location. And it wasn’t that long ago.
If you’re still doing your finances the old fashioned way, i.e. from a dedicated workstation, consider web-based accounting solutions. Quickbooks Online (http://quickbooksonline.intuit.com/) is a winner. Freshbooks (http://www.freshbooks.com/) is also worthy candidate. Both come with their own ecosystem of partners. This gives you the ability to integrate additional providers so you can achieve a nicely customized solution for your company’s operations. You will like how web-based models offer more automation and more flexibility, like pushing accounting features directly into the hands of your front line staff, saving you both time and money.
There are lot of things your clients can do online from your website. In fact, they prefer the convenience of completing forms, scheduling appointments, requesting information, etc via the internet. One of my favorite tools is Wufoo (http://wufoo.com/). Their motto is: We make forms fast + easy + fun. And it’s true.
Think of the paperwork in your operational cycle. Brainstorm what kids of things can be collected and disseminated online. One advantage of online forms is databasing. By capturing data digitally and sending it to the right buckets, you can drill into that data more easily and leverage it more effectively. That’s good business.
Expense reporting is vital. It’s also labor intensive. Shoeboxed (http://www.shoeboxed.com/) is a neat online service that helps you keep track of your receipts. Like the other solutions mentioned above, Shoebox integrates with various service providers, including Freshbooks. Again, the more integration, the better.
Customer relationship management, called CRM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management) is the glue of your day-to-day business. Just like the old Rolodex gave us power and authority to get things done, managing your contacts wisely will help you build networks and close sales.
There are many providers in the CRM marketspace. Ultimately, you will want one that integrates well with your accounting solution. Batchbook (http://www.batchblue.com/) does everything a traditional CRM offers, as well as social media integration. This means you can view and curate each contact’s blog posts, tweets, photos and more.
Everyone knows Skype (http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home) is perfect for long distance calling. But did you know Skype is great for live chatting, too? We use Skype chat to message real-time between our service centers and our global software development teams. It even supports group chatting, so we can have several geeks participating in the same live chat.
In the business world, communication needs to be fast and frictionless. In fact, the sooner you get to the truth, whether it’s a client’s order or a staffing issue, for example, the more competitive your organization will become. Skype is a winner. It’s much better than Yahoo, Hotmail and Google chats. And it’s free!
I wish there were some way to automate the whole project management process. It’s amazing how quickly customer satisfaction rates can drop when updates are late and milestones are missed.
We use Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com/) to manage software development projects. We can setup milestones, store related files online, create reminders and even invite clients into some or all of the project management process so everyone is participating and well-informed.
Similar solutions include goplan (http://www.goplanapp.com/) and huddle (http://www.huddle.com/). All offer 30-day free trials.
Eventbrite (http://www.eventbrite.com/) is a very useful tool for organizing company events. The events could be anything, ranging from a seminar for your propsects to an employee appreciation BBQ for your team members. With Eventbrite, you can publish the event online, push invites via email and social media to boost registration, track response rates, generate name tags, create check-in lists, and collect money online.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think you can leverage Eventbrite to run a bootstrapped version Groupon or LivingSocial. You can imagine you have a hot product and a good contact list and you use Eventbrite to push out timely specials, treating each deal as a kind of event. Sounds promising. Let me test it. Will have more for you in my column next month…
Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply to your sites as soon as possible because it fixes a core security bug in our HTML sanitation library, called KSES. I would rate this release as “critical.”
Technology is like that for me. It’s my ocean. It pulls me closer to new horizons and at the same time eventually delivers me back where I began – kind of like something out of T.S. Elliot’s famous poem “The Waste Land.”
The metaphor works for just about anything. For in the end, we realize the only way to truly learn about life (or technology) is through constant exploration.
And so, as we wrap up this calendar year and look towards the next, with bellies full of hope and renewed enthusiasm, we should list our resolutions for self improvement. Here are my suggestions:
Get the next generation iPad. It’s due the first quarter of next year. You don’t have to like the iPad, but as a business person you do have to understand it. Consider the purchase small investment in your education. After you’ve played with the ‘natural interface’ for a while, install an app called Flipboard (flipboard.com) and play with a variety of content sources. The iPad and its competitors herald a new era in hardware and software. Now is the time to thoroughly grasp why the iPad is so popular and to figure out how your business can take advantage it.
Join the South By Southwest (sxsw.com) interactive conference in Austin, March 11-15. This yearly event brings the best and the brightest together for one long weekend of seminars, speeches, panel discussions and schmoozing. Think of it as Spring Break for nerds. Everyone is welcome. I highly recommend it. You will learn a lot about what’s happening in social media, e-commerce, search engine marketing, user experience and how your business can leverage those trends to boost profits. Let me know if you’re interested. We should go as an informal hui and serve as the geeky ambassadors from Hawaii.
Start using Plancast.com. As you might have guessed from the name, Plancast helps you plan what you intend to do. But equally importantly, it helps you meet the right people. Are you trying to break into a new market or industry? Want to deepen your network? Plancast is perfect for business. You can follow thought leaders and see which work-related seminars, conferences and events they are planning to attend and then map your own schedule accordingly. You can also see who else in your field is attending and make arrangements beforehand to meet. Plancast is free.
Ask questions, get answers and learn what you need to know at Quora.com. Social Q&A sites are nothing new. If you haven’t yet had a chance, check out LinkedIn Answers. I like LinkedIn Answers because I can help people and because in the process those people may eventually become my clients. Lately, though, I’ve been playing more with Quora. It’s a bit more social and a lot more fun. Create your Quora account during your lunch break today. It’s free and just takes a minute to get going. Follow topics and people relevant to your industry and start interacting with others. Use Quora to position your company as a leader in your field and start turning those prospects into leads.
Share your presentations using SlideRocket.com and SlideShare.net. The beauty of the internet is you can easily sell your product or service to anyone, anywhere and do it with relatively little start-up capital. Both SlideRocket and SlideShare are excellent tools to pitch clients globally. One solid presentation, coupled with strong distribution, could really boost your company’s sales. Both solutions will let you add analytics so you can you can measure your presentation’s effectiveness. You can even embed lead forms inside the presentation so viewers can easily contact you.
Access your files wherever you are with DropBox.com. It wasn’t that long ago when we stored all our files on our local hard drives or the office server and accessed those files while at work. Now, we find our working environments far more decentralized. We want to get to those files at all hours of the day, regardless of where we may be. DropBox is a terrific tool for making sure you have immediate access to the files you need. DropBox will automatically distribute and update the important stuff across all of your devices. Need the same set of files to be on your iPhone, your home computer, your office computer and your laptop while on the road? No problem. DropBox will do exactly that. And it will make sure its the most recent version of those files.
Use Evernote.com as a business tool. Evernote’s goal is to be your online brain. I use a Moleskin for quick notes, phone numbers, passwords and messages. But I use Evernote for everything else, including shopping lists, reading lists and daily action items. It’s great for capturing content on the fly and then referencing it later. But Evernote is also good for work. For example, you can snap a photo of a printed doc, store it in Evernote, and then review it during the commute home. Using its character recognition capability, you can use your cellphone to take pics of things like of business cards and expense receipts, and then file them accordingly. Evernote works across all your devices, from your cell phone to workstation, and syncs all your data so you get what you want, when you want it.
Curiosity is the key to knowledge and knowledge is the key to success. This is especially true in business, where trends and the changes in trends can bring great opportunity. The tech world is moving at warp speed. What worked 5 years ago for your business may not offer as much value today. To stay competitive, we must be competitive. That means we must maximize our exposure to new things. And given the significant return on investment it offers, harnessing the power of new technology should be one of our top priorities. Just jump into the sea. You can figure out how to swim along the way.
You can watch the famous scene here: http://bit.ly/9tx34G
I think social media is like that. We’ve been staring so much at the finger, we’ve forgotten that we’re supposed to be getting stuff done. Well, the party’s over. It’s time to get over the shock and awe of social media and start using it for work. Yes, social media is the greatest thing since sliced bread. My point is let’s stop looking at the bread and start making some sandwiches.
One company here in Hawaii is being very smart about it. They have some pretty interesting plans for social media and have asked us to develop a winning solution.
The challenge? They have 10 locations across the Hawaiian islands and about 100 employees. Like all companies, they need to ensure everyone is plugged in and happy. That means corporate needs an effective way to keep all employees well informed of what’s happening inside the company. Yes, email works. So does texting or even faxing. But all that seems so old school now.
The solution? Social media. Imagine a password-protected space on the internet, where employees could login and get company news. Imagine a place where each employee can create his/her profile, post pictures, a brief description about themselves, and maybe something about their hobbies and interests. Imagine the ability to create groups around organizational functions. Maybe there’s a marketing group, an accounting group, and an IT group. There could even be groups for extracurricular activities, like community service projects and company volleyball after work. Imagine calendars, chats, training videos and blog posts. Imagine frictionless ways to send messages and share content and to push those messages to the desktop and to smart phones. Imagine a living, breathing, media-rich communication platform inside the company, allowing employees to share ideas and mentor each other in real-time, while working both on the business and in the business.
Interested? You can do the same for your business. Here’s what you need to know.
Something like Facebook would be perfect. It has the features you need. The only problem is employees need sufficient distance between work and play. The last thing anyone wants is the boss poking around all those private status updates. So using Facebook is – at least for the time being – not going to work.
Fortunately, there are two off-the-shelf solutions that will do everything need: SocialCast.com and SocialText. I have been playing with both and a like them very much. There are hosted options and solutions for doing everything yourself in-house. Costs range from $1-5 per user per month, depending on how many features you want. Start up costs are nominal.
My biggest concern, though, with SocialCast.com and SocialText.com is on-going cost. They can really add up over time. So if you want to use social media but don’t want to subscribe to a service, take a look at existing blogging solutions and simply customize them for your company’s needs. Most will do exactly what you need them to do, including profiles, groups, video, text/email notifications, etc. You can even password protect your hui. Consider these platforms: Posterous.com, Tumblr.com, LiveJournal.com, WordPress.org and Blogger.com. Each can be easily customized and password protected. You can even put your solution behind your website, where only authorized users can have access.
Now, when choosing a solution, make sure it offers genuine utility for your employees. In other words, if you opt for a sexy solution with all the bells and whistles, it may just be overwhelming for everyone and ultimately lead to poor adoption rates. Engineering is good. But over engineering is bad.
To get everyone on board, it’s best to keep it simple and let the solution grow organically. In the end, the solution must work well for most of the people on your team. And for those employees who are reluctant to do anything new, this may be the perfect opportunity to offer much appreciated staff training and development.
Lastly, be sure to harness the decentralizing aspect of social media. Give your employees the freedom to access the platform and supply updates anytime, anywhere. To get the biggest bang, be willing to cede some control. As I’ve discovered in my business, one idea from the least likely person on your team could be worth a million dollars.
Let me know if I can help with anything.
