Social Media Cycle

Lately, I have debated with myself whether I should close down my Facebook account. I am finding myself getting really annoyed with it. I’m not sure if it is the all the new ‘spammy’ things like Farmville, Mafia Wars and who friended who. I mean really who cares about who friended who and how your ‘Farm’ is doing…remember when it was just good old witty status updates and fun pictures!? During my time at Webtrends I got the opportunity to work with the fabulous Justin Kistner. As the Senior Social Media Manager at Webtrends, Justin definitely knows his stuff about social media and the web 2.0 world in general. I remember him talking about different stages people go through with how they use social media. This totally sparked my curiosity, so I thought I would do a little bit of research on the topic. 

As it turns out there are 12 stages of how people use social media. From the blog 140 Characters I found just about every emotion, thought and action I’ve gone through from using social media. Currently, it looks like I’m stuck at #9 with Facebook. Yep, I am totally annoyed with Facebook! This is how the cycle works:

12 Stages of Social Media

  1. Curiosity
  2. Interest
  3. Novelty
  4. Excitement
  5. Inviting Everyone You Know
  6. Optional: Inviting the Wrong Person (skip to 9)
  7. Massive Use / Addiction
  8. Slight Abuse / Accidental Use
  9. Annoyance / Frustration
  10. Cutting Way Back
  11. “Going Dark” / “Taking a Break” / “Going Private”
  12. Acceptance / Renewed Curiosity

I’m not the only one who gets annoyed when people tweet about what song they’re listening to on Pandora or what they had for lunch…seriously, no one cares…they must be stuck at #7 or something! So, this made me wonder if companies have a cycle and where are majority of companies today in the social media cycle? It’s clear companies still worry about utilizing social media. Maybe they think they’ll lose control of their brand or simply that it will take too much time or they just have no idea where to start. Whatever it may be, companies know they need to get active in social media to engage their audience pronto. Clearly, there are companies that have embraced social media, like Comcast and Zappos. These two organizations are the poster children on how to use social media that works best for their audience and for the organizations values. Using the social media cycle above, I would say majority of companies, not all…not the innovators…are stuck anywhere between #1 and #4 in this social media cycle. Some companies are just curious wondering how to use social media, while other companies are building and running their social media strategy and programs. I’ve had many conversations with people who want to take their organization into the social media world, but just don’t know where to start and their main concern is that there are too many liabilities that come along with it.  

To me it’s simple, do your research. Get to know your audience, where are they at…is it Twitter, Facebook, blogging or all? Get to know the tools and channels that will work best for you and become an expert in them. And last, know what makes your audience tick…keep it interesting, engage them and create a relationship with them. Social media is about a dialogue, not a monologue, the point is to interact with your audience…so do it! We’re all out there because we want to be heard and want interaction with others and especially our favorite brands.

Using the cycle above, where do you think majority of companies are at in using social media? What do you think is the biggest challenge for companies and how can they overcome their concerns? Do you think this cycle is a way for companies to predict behaviors?

2010
03/31
CATEGORY
Social Media
Uncategorized
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My Waggener Edstrom Career Blog Post

Some may know I recently started a new position at Waggener Edstrom (WE) as a member on the Studio D Team-Insight & Analytics. Basically, what I do is social media monitoring and measurement and love, love it! I am a lover of social media and recognize the power it can bring to organizations. How awesome is it that we can now get information or feedback on people’s opinion in real time?! I believe organizations will really start to recognize how important social media monitoring & measurement is and I am very happy I get to do it for a living!  I was asked by WE’s fabulous HR team to write a post for their Career Blog (this is the original post) on my experience of the hiring process I had with them. Needless to say, I was more than happy to help! I copied and pasted what I wrote for the post…

With my fingers crossed and high hopes, I couldn’t stand the wait to hear whether the Influential Monitoring and Measurement (IMM) team at Waggener Edstrom decided to hire me as their newest addition. Luckily for me, the wait wasn’t long and I got great news that Waggener Edstrom would like to bring me on board! Here’s my story…

After reading through the open positions on WE’s website, I found exactly what I was looking for… a spot on their Influential Monitoring & Measurement team! Being a natural lover of social media monitoring and monitoring in general, I knew I would be a great fit for this role. After submitting my carefully written cover letter and resume to HR, I was on pins and needles to hear back from them. I quickly received a response back from HR saying they would like to set up a phone interview with me the following day. Knowing I couldn’t let my dream job fall through the cracks, I spent hours preparing for the phone interview I had with Jodi Moore the next day. I was feeling confident and was really excited to talk with her. During my interview, Jodi was very welcoming, friendly and easy to talk with. Her ease helped me open up and I became more comfortable throughout the conversation. Once we got off the phone, I felt like I completely hit it off with Jodi and was hopeful I would hear back from her soon. Later that day, I sent Jodi a thank you email expressing my appreciation that WE has considered me for the position and how I am very excited to hear back from her…and of course how I’m the perfect person for the role! A couple of days later she responded telling me they would like to talk with me again and what the next steps were. I was ecstatic needless to say, so excited; I had made it through the first step! With a few emails back and forth and a phone call, 3 hours later HR had me scheduled to interview with members of the IMM team the next day! I was so impressed with the promptness of the HR team…wow, they were fast!

After a whole night of mock interviews, thinking about some of the biggest projects that I have worked on and coming up with specific examples, I was ready to rock! The big day was here for my big interview, literally big interview…6 different people, for 3 hours! Entering the Lake Oswego office was refreshing, as the atmosphere was clean and modern. I asked for Tera Hilton at the front desk, was offered bottled water and had a seat. A few minutes later two ladies with big welcoming smiles greeted me, took me to a conference room, and the interview process began. At the end of each interview, I was asked whether I had any questions. Knowing interviews are also a time to find out whether the position is a good fit for you I asked each person, “Why would someone want to be part of your team?” The responses I got from each team member were all consistent and positive, a very good sign. They said the IMM team was full of fantastic, hardworking, smart people who enjoy what they do. If you’re ever in a crunch or need help there is always someone happy to give a lending hand. I was told the synergy was strong and has created a happy team, full of individuals who value their work and co-workers. All this positive feedback made me want the job even more! But what really put the icing on the cake, was how friendly and welcoming each person I met was. This, once again, put me at ease and helped me open up to them to tell them who I am and what I’m made of. When the interviews were over I left the Lake Oswego office feeling like I didn’t want to leave; needless to say I really wanted this job! I was so excited, but tried hard not to get my hopes up just in case they decide not to go with me.

A couple of days later, I got an email from Jodi asking if I would be available to do one more interview over the phone in the next couple of days. With my response being “of course,” they got me all set up for one last shot to show them what I’ve got. I’m sure you know what I did next; I practiced and got myself ready for the interview! The last interview went great and I was feeling good once again. The next few days while I was waiting to hear back, I was seriously on some sharp pins and needles! What was just a few days felt like an eternity; I couldn’t stand the wait! And then I got an email from HR saying there were just a few last steps that we needed to take…I needed to complete a writing test and a pass a background check. Whoa, this actually might happen; now was the time I was allowing myself to get just a little excited. A few days later I completed the test and submitted my information for the background check.

A little bit of time had passed and I was hopeful I would be offered the position. (My friends and family were hopeful too because I wouldn’t stop talking about it!) After 5 interviews with 8 different people, a writing test and plenty of nerves, I was ready to start if they offered me the role. The phone call came early in the evening from Jodi one night. She had some very good news for me which was WE is offering the position to me! I was so excited I was speechless at first…which rarely happens. Over the phone Jodi went through what the offer consisted of—salary, benefits, etc—and when they wanted me to start. After she went through everything, I gave her a verbal YES and told her I felt like I had just won the lottery! After an extensive interview process, I have to say the hiring process was extremely seamless and the level of professionalism was first class.

I’m 6 weeks in now and I can confirm I have won the lottery! I love WE…the people are amazingly smart, innovative, fun and hard workers. Flooded with warm welcomes and constant support to “show me the ropes,” I know I am going to love my stay at WE. I feel extremely fortunate to be part of the team and look forward to growing and evolving into a better me…and I couldn’t think of a better place to do just that.

So, there ya’ have it. I enjoyed that fact that the process was intense and long because I know WE does not let anyone work there. They are selective with whom they hire…this is something I get to enjoy everyday because the people at WE are pretty awesome and extremely smart. I would highly encourage anyone who believes they would be a good fit at WE to go for it!

2010
02/05
CATEGORY
Social Media
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Questions for Frank Eliason answered by Frank Eliason

Scouring about 10,000 blogs, hundreds of forums, thousands of tweets and responding to them all in a full days work, the busy Comcast Digital Care team of 10 is making a huge impact how companies view customer service.  From a finance guy, to the guy in the spotlight Frank Eliason and his team have changed the way companies are using social media.

It all began in September 2007, when Frank reached out to a blogger who was a Comcast customer. Frank would seek information on the blogger, find their number and personally call them to help out in any way he could. During our interview he stated this, “Why do people blog? There’s a key reason people blog and it’s because they want to be heard. And when you actually respond to them, they love it.” So, Frank changed his tactic and started responding to posts instead of calling. As Frank responded to bloggers, people loved it and Comcast loved it…soon after that the hiring process of the Digital Care team began. He started looking into spaces like Facebook and Twitter and began listening. He quoted, “One of the key things for businesses is you have to listen to engage, you have to know the space. So, we started listening in those spaces. At the same time I was doing a daily newsletter to share the stories. I’m a firm believer,  one of the best ways to improve is to tell the customer story in their own words. Facebook, which is not very searchable, although they have changed a bit, it’s the status updates that show people’s true feelings, but if they don’t make it public you can’t see it. Twitter on the other hand you can search everything, so Twitter ended up being extraordinarily useful. Kind of like how we reached out to people on blogs through the phone, we did the same thing on Twitter”

I next asked him what his thoughts were on Best Buy’s Twelpforce. He responded, “I like their approach a lot. In fact, one of the things I say a lot is no matter what your employees are going to be using social media, so teach them how to use it and encourage them to be out there. I think any new way of doing things and thinking outside the box is a great thing to be doing.” After I asked this question, I wondered if he has a specific person or company that he believes uses social media in an innovative way that he learns from. “You basically hear 3 companies when you hear social media which are Comcast, Ford and Zappos. I love what Scott Monty has done with Ford. He is doing a much more marketing side to it and he is doing a really nice job of finding ways to use the space and doing it in way that is engaging conversation. Zappos is really the ideal in my opinion. They teach all their employees how to use social media and they offer the tools to help them. I find that model so important because your employees are already out there. They are in social media, look at the sheer numbers. If you help your employees, they can make it a better experience and Zappos has done a great job of doing just that.”

Frank also talked about the main topic all companies are interested in…ROI! Which he said, “ROI is definitely something you hear a lot, especially from marketers. PR asks a different question which is ‘What has this done for our sentiment?’ Sentiment is a key measurement and there is also ROI involved, it just depends on how you measure it. It could be sales if that’s your goal, but you could easily look at customer satisfaction. As you engage these customers they get to know you and it creates a comfort level. Most companies survey their customers, you can easily add a yes or no question like, “Are you involved in social media like Facebook?” And now, easily you can track customer satisfaction for people in social media versus those that are not in social media. Just with that simple question, not only are you impacting the people you are reaching out to, but truthfully you’re impacting everyone who knows about you. We actually gain a lot of feedback which has helped change Comcast, so as we strive to improve service we get this feedback and we are able to make concrete changes that are measurable just from feedback from social media and this is how we measure it.”

I asked him what he thought of people who say social media is a trend and won’t last. He responded, “Remember when email first came out in the business world? Companies did not embrace it. In fact many, companies did not have it for internal usage let alone external. They looked at email very much like people look at social media today. At this point, I don’t think there’s a company around or a person around that can really go on without having email.  Social media could be for everybody, but there are going to be different types of comfort levels. You’ll have some people who say, “I like it to share with people I know, but no one else” which are places that can be set to private. Then you’ll have the larger group who thinks, “Hey, I want to put it out there because I want to be able to communicate with people because it is a little easier than email”. When we talk social media we always think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. but, think about how you buy products. One of the things you most likely do, if you’re like me, is you visit review sites and read what other people are saying, that is also social media. People I know that aren’t involved in social media, still do that whether it is just reading them or writing the actual review. I think that social media is around to stay, but how you touch and feel it, that may be a little different.”

Now that social media is here to stay and companies are now realizing they need to tap into the space, I asked Frank what he thought companies will be doing. “I think that they know they need to do something, they just don’t know what to do. I think there are a few things going on, you have marketers who just want to go into the space and sell, when really this space is about a conversation. Sometimes what I will do when I am speaking to marketing or at a function I will ask the question, “Who in the room owns social media?”, marketing and PR raise their hands, but very few put it up for customer service. I follow the question answering, “None of these departments own social media, the customer owns social media.” And that is something that has to be understood, put the control and the power aside.”

As a customer of Comcast, and a happy customer, I often use social media to communicate with Comcast customer service when I need to talk to someone. I love it! If you have ever Tweeted Comcast, then you know the response will come in no less than 5 minutes. With over 34,000 followers on Twitter that’s pretty impressive! Thanks Frank for the great interview, I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me!

2009
12/03
CATEGORY
Social Media
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4 comments

Stay Tuned!

As I promised, I am bringing you one of the top social media guru’s in the world. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Frank Eliason from Comcast! If you know anything about social media than you’re fimiliar with how Frank revolutionized the way companies interact with customers by using social media in a smart, effective way. Known as the “How Can I Help You Man?” or “Comcast’s Twitter Man” Frank’s use of Twitter has made him the poster child of innovative thinking.

Here’s a quick bio of Frank, courtesy of Comcast:

Frank Eliason Director of Digital Care for Comcast
“Frank is the senior director of Digital Care for Comcast and has been involved in Customer Service in one way or another for the past 20 years. What started as a simple idea – talking to customers in real time on Twitter – has become well known as an innovative use of social media for Customer Service. Taking the approach of asking “Can we help” has created new communication channels for Customers and an improved Customer experience, and Frank’s work has been recognized by ABC News, New York Times, Business Week, and many others. Frank and his team monitor and respond to Customer posts on a variety of online channels, and spend each day reviewing 6,000 blog posts and more than 1,000 Tweets. Franks model of interacting with customers online has become a case study for corporations worldwide.”

So, stay tuned!

2009
11/04
CATEGORY
Social Media
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What to expect

I’ve been thinking about how I can most utilize this blog to learn and share information. We live in a new era where just about everyone wants their voice heard. Where communication is too easy, we expect instant gratification and if we don’t get it frustration sets in. Finding information is freakishly easy, we can Google whoever and whatever, whenever we want. A.K.A. cyber stalking! But this is nothing new. What is new is Social Media. It could be considered the “New wild, wild west” or the “New Frontier”.  It is constantly evolving and keeping all of us on our toes. There are so many different variations of social media. There’s the obvious ones like Facebook and Twitter, but don’t forget about sites with reviews written by consumers on products or services because these are also social media. Anywhere there is interaction and discussions among individuals, is definitely social media. While many people know it and love it, there are still a ton of people who have never used it. This is especially true for businesses. Sure, there are many people who could be considered experts in social media, but because it is fairly new I believe it’s anyone’s game. We’re learning and experiencing the power of what this new medium can bring to companies. Although Social Media is definitely not the answer to all problems for businesses, it can provide extra support.

I have been thinking lately about companies that use social media in new innovative ways and ways that compliment their company culture. A few companies that come to mind when I think of good social media usage are Comcast, Best Buy and Ford. My goal for the next few months is to talk with the people who are innovators in this space. I will personally contact them and interview them for this blog. I will pick their brains and share my findings with you. Stay tuned!

2009
10/26
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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Yee Haw, Cowgirl!

Welcome, welcome…this is officially my first blog post on Brain Drops! A place for creativity, insightful information, humor and  good conversation. Seeking out the latest and greatest in marketing and advertising news will be the main focus here and of course  random topics that I find cool or funny.  We are in a era where we all want to be heard by others, so I’m joining the party…let the fun begin! 

But first, let me introduce myself. I am entergetic about working hard and doing the best I can. I compete with myself . I don’t cave into pressure, I let it evalvate me. I believe the harder you work, the luckier you become. I enjoy making others happy. I love meeting new people and hearing their stories, I find it inspirational. I especially love meeting people who are funny and real. I am a cat lover, human lover, prefer snakes over spiders, a little scared of elevators, and I love chocolate anything! I can find humor in just about any situation and can laugh at myself. People always tell me their secrets and they’re safe with me because I’m a sealed vault. I live by the Golden Rule. I’m passionate about marketing and advertising because you bring things to life!   

Hopefully, you’ll find my post enjoyable!

2009
10/17
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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