What I do now
Analogman Consulting
url: www.analogman.org
phone: 253.three-eight-one.7502
email: ken@analogman’dot’org
tweet: analogmanorg
I am consulting in Wide and Local area network design, installation, and support as ‘Analogman Consulting’.
I am also helping companies integrate ‘Social Media’ tools (twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.) into their local network environments for in-house use and for what I like to call “Digital Word of Mouth”. Some people might want to call this advertising but it is entirely different from most all other current forms of advertising due to the fact that it is two way, an active conversation, not one way with a passive recipient. It is not a good idea to approach social media as advertising because by its very nature, the proper use social media requires an entirely different mind set than the one used to produce advertisements.
If facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world.
This use of digital social media is more like being at a convention and talking to people face to face. This is a much more delicate situation than publishing in print media,T.V., radio or even on a web site. When people are talking in a comfortable, personal environment they don’t want to talk to a t.v. – but they do like to get involved with someone that is knowledgeable, an easygoing expert, in a field that interests them. That way they can gather information or ask questions and if they have problems that can get help solving those problems, they can get involved with the conversation. They want to talk to people that are ‘real’, people that are friendly, people that want to really help them. And when they find that person that they can really talk with they will not only develop a relationship for them selves but they will go out and tell their friends and for that matter, anyone that might ask, about that friendly expert. You want your company to be that person, that friendly expert, when you are online using social media to further your company.
One of the most important aspects of a conversation is to listen – we need to listen to what our customers are saying about us and to us so we can respond carefully and meaningfully.
96% of GenY has joined a social network.
So, the first goal is to have conversations with existing customers that are already using these social media tools, taking the time to listen, to help these customers with support problems, to help meet their product education needs, to answer their questions and complaints calmly and quickly, to be engaged, to engage the customer, and to develop all of these actions into good relationships that will last a long time.
It is generally easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one and this is such a great opportunity to cement those kinds of bonds with existing customers. As part of the plan to do that you will want to attract as many of your existing customers to these communities as you can. The more the merrier, the more the louder and far reaching the Digital Word of Mouth reaches.
Twitter had over 44.5 million visitors in June of 2009.
Making the jump to joining in a digital community in a positive, helpful way will not just benefit your existing customer base because at the same time, through the good exposure that your company name is getting, you will be introduced to many more potential new customers. Not only through your good online actions but through the even stronger radiating signal of positive comments being made by third parties about you. This is a very powerful tool because studies repeatedly show that people put a great deal more faith in positive comments by their friends or strangers than any kind of advertising.
According to Forrester Research 4 out of 5 online adults use Social Media at least once a month
I want to help companies choose the best software for their social media goals, install and configure that software, and help define realistic written ‘acceptable use/best practice’ policies along with training employees in these policies/practices to make the best possible use of the companies presence in the social media community.
Dell has used twitter to sell 3 million dollars worth of computers directly through their use of Twitter in the last couple of years.
To me this is an exciting and growing use of digital technology to help meet one of our oldest needs, community.
If you would like to know more about what I have been doing recently – read the ‘About’ page.
ken