Archive for Twitter
Blogging as the Centerpiece of a Company’s Social Media Strategy
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been blogging about twice a week for well over a year now. I gave my first update last summer about why I blog. Write Speak Sell would become the focal point of my thoughts about communicating ideas, which is at the heart of what I have done professionally for over 30 years. It’s liberating to say what you really think and believe, while always being authentic.
A blog is the centerpiece of a company's social media strategy
Since then I’ve also come to believe that a blog is the centerpiece a company’s social media strategy, both internally and externally. The CEO is where it all starts. Wise leaders are using social media because that’s where their employees and customers are.
The CEO needs to be talking directly to the company’s stakeholders regularly with quick takes on new developments. A blog is the perfect vehicle because the nature of a blog is to be informal and for it to express the personality and communicate the authentic convictions of the writer.
A blog liberates the CEO from his ivory tower and into conversations with employees and customers in the social media communities they populate. This is a big culture change for most companies.
With a keystroke, the CEO can distribute her blog to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites where people are getting their information now days. She can be out there first with the news, before the rumors and misinformation start flying around the Internet. There isn’t time for a press release vetted by a dozen lawyers before it’s distributed. Everything is transparent now.
Employee Engagement
The CEO can profoundly influence the company’s future success when employees to buy into his vision. But employees can’t march in step with a CEO who doesn’t engage them in a two-way conversation about his goals for them and the company. If he does that, they can become the company’s most important brand advocates and commit to providing superior customer service.
Once again, I cite Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh as the pioneer. In his blog last year he wrote a piece, “Your Culture” In it he said, “It’s a very different world today. With the Internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent whether they like it or not. An unhappy customer or a disgruntled employee can blog about bad experience with a company, and the story can spread like wildfire by email or with tools like Twitter. The good news is that the reverse is true as well. A great experience with a company can be read by millions of people almost instantaneously as well.”
Good advice and a good example to follow.
Why I’ve Come to Love Blogging
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve really come to love blogging and bloggers. I started to blog this past spring — almost six months ago. A friend encouraged me to try it — I’d like it! So, I created a simple WordPress blog and started out on an unforeseen, but incredible journey. By a stroke of luck I was introduced to Bea Fields, who facilitates the course “Become a Blogging Maniac.” That was in April and I must say the first couple of weeks I felt I was in a class where Russian was spoken and I don’t speak Russian. My fear of technology often got in the way.
But a funny thing happened. I became incredibly energized and felt my brain was firing on all cylinders. All of a sudden I was a certified member of the social media world — blogging, Twittering, connecting on LinkedIn. I had passed through a door and would never look back at the “old me,” who scoffed at people who wrote blogs (or blobs, as my husband still calls them). Soon I abandoned my old website in favor of a blog where everything about my business would be housed.
But most of all, Write Speak Sell would become the focal point of my thoughts about communicating ideas, which is at the heart of what I have done professionally for over 30 years. It’s liberating to say what you really think and believe.
I’ve written a longer piece, “Why I Blog and What it Stands For,” which Bea Fields kindly published on her blog this week, that expands on my thoughts about blogging and truth and authenticity in communication. I didn’t set out to change the world when I started blogging, but I hope I can play a small role in making things better.
Twitter Fatigue
Posted by: | CommentsAre you tired of tweeting? I find a fatigue factor is setting in. I have fewer than 200 people I’m following (carefully chosen) and their posts are just whizzing by. It doesn’t help that Twitter has been moving at the speed of a pig stuck in mud when I try to catch up with them.
I also find – to my surprise and dismay – that some of the most famous social media gurus write really dull tweets. Do I need to get a blow-by-blow account of who is winning the NBA semi-final? If I am a rabid fan it’s likely that I’m actually watching the game on TV or following it online.
This brings up the point of why we Tweet. Is it to pass the time of day by recounting your every meal and when you went to bed? Or is there a more serious purpose of sharing information about social media and reporting breaking news about a new company product – or product recall. I’m guilty myself of some pretty lame tweets. A good friend reported she had returned from the evening ballet performance and I one-upped her by saying I had already been to the afternoon performance.
As the King of Siam said in the musical “The King and I” — is a puzzlement. Write to http://twitter.com/jepaladino if you’d like to express your thoughts, or add a comment below.
Why do you Tweet?
