Functions in the workplace are converging. Social media is jumbling responsibilities at the enterprise at an alarming rate. Let’s take twitter for example.
You may know the online shoe retailer Zappos.com – they make a big deal out of using technology to give customers what they want and need 24 x 7. This is NOT because Zappos thinks that technology is cool. Their culture is totally built around superior customer service.Check it out here. Here’s an example of their twitter feed…
“Oh whoa! Truly sorry about that. We will try not to let that happen again. We had some slight hiccups in out Tweets today. ”
Check out Zappos employees communicating here. And they are not alone. Check out this tweet from a satisfied Southwest Airlines customer: “Southwest completed my name change within 2 hours of my faxing them the info! #customerservice #newlywedtweet”
What about when an employee goes on Glassdoor, Facebook or twitter to complain about your company, whose responsibility is it to monitor and follow up? HR? Marketing?
When things go wrong with a sale, who hears about it? The sales person? Customer service? Marketing? Maybe the IT department if it’s a web sale? Is response via social sites in your organization’s workflow?
Is a company’s Facebook or Twitter pages the responsibility of marketing, advertising, customer service or public relations? Smart companies are actually co-creating products with customers in real time. So now do the product development folks need to monitor twitter too?
What if I need to download a 3rd party app to my desktop and cell phone to monitor twitter for my job… Does IT support that? Across which platforms (Apple, Blackberry, Droid or tablets?)
If you manage marketing, sales, customer services, human resources, IT or finance; are you paying attention? The head in the sand thing isn’t going to work any more.
I talk to job seekers about the power of social in their search. Most people embrace it at some level. Others tell me how stupid it is. That’s cool, do it however you want!
The company is looking for publicly available information on site like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Craigslist. It isn’t looking for ‘dirt’ per se but to find out whether you, as a potential employee, would give the potential employer heartburn or worse. In other words, are you trustworthy?
If the company … “finds out you’re pregnant, or gay, or a Muslim, or newly married, or a newly gay married to a pregnant Muslim, it leaves that out of its report. All an employer sees is, basically, that you passed or failed.”
So how will this change how we post, rant or connect? The roller coaster ride just got a little bumpier. What do you think?
Photo credit: many thanks to Steve John, found via Escape into Life.com — from the iPhone of New Media Artist Steve John
Is social media good or evil? A boon to democracy or a complete invasion of our privacy? I can give you excellent examples of each.
Everyday, people tell me how wonderful/stupid Facebook and Twitter are. What’s interesting is that the people with the least knowledge are the ones with the strongest opinions. I ask my friends, colleagues, students, clients and anyone else who will listen to:
Understand that social media is about building relationships (just like in real life)
Know that if you act like an idiot (or a bigot or company that doesn’t care), people will find out about it much faster than ever before
People ask me if they should:
Connect to people they don’t know on Linked In
Combine their personal and professional Facebook accounts
Say yes to the offer to get 2,000 twitter followers in 3 days
Let’s see. In real life would you invite 2,000 strangers to your house for coffee? Probably not. Would you invite everyone from your office to your house for a barbeque? Hmm, no. So why would you do any of the above? Twitter isn’t stupid if you follow smart people. Facebook can be a wonderful way to connect to people you care about.
If you follow the simple idea that you are looking to build trust, then the decisions about who to follow, friend, fan, like, or connect to becomes clearer.
But let’s face it. Stupid is as stupid does. If you act like the people in the stories below, things probably will turn out badly for you and you know what… you deserve it.
Evesham Township PA posting photos of suspects on their Facebook page.
Functions in the workplace are converging. Social media is jumbling responsibilities at the enterprise at an alarming rate. Let’s take twitter for example.
Life Transitions, social media | Deborah | 
November 17, 2011 10:37 am | 
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I talk to job seekers about the power of social in their search. Most people embrace it at some level. Others tell me how stupid it is. That’s cool, do it however you want!
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