X-posted from custardether.co.uk

The concluding keynote for the day came from Jim Benson, who discussed how to get the most from your social media experience – given that small businesses do not need more stuff to do!

 

He used a flow diagram to demonstrate that if you want benefits out of a community, you have to put stuff in.  You can get good business advice from a system like Twitter, if you participate in the community, but you have to be clear what are you seeking from the community, whether it is a tangible or an intangibles benefit.  You also have to be aware that you cannot just be a leach – because people will pick that up and you will not get the benefit of the community, as it is not community behaviour.

 

Benson emphasised that it is important to know your limits in relation to social media.  He advised businesses to recognise which networks are appropriate to their needs and to experiment.  This was one of the most important messages of the day for many of the delegates – the idea that you do not have to be on and involved in everything going!  Benson explained that simple, “old fashioned” emailing lists are often the strongest social networks.  His advice was straight-forward: start small and work your way up… directing your use to your immediate needs, your business and your business’ personality.

 

The personality of a business is important.  All businesses rely on their proximity to clients and to information – the community involvement needed to get these things may be in different geographical areas and social networks can lower the costs in achieving these things.

 

This all lead to a discussion about over-hyped social networks, whether all of the tools are appropriate to every business’ needs and how businesses have adapted their use of these services to meet their own needs.

 

The key idea that I took away from this discussion was the view that social networks are a mechanism for saving money as well as a way of making money.  An idea that many of us loose sight of in our quest to monetize every second of time we spend working.  Later, Andrea Saveri would crystalise this for everyone by pointing out that plumbing is essential for all businesses, but you wouldn’t expect to make money out of it.  Social networking is exactly the same – essential, but not necessarily a means of directly generating income.

 

I went on to participate in Jim Benson’s workshop entitled “Dealing with the Negative: What to Do When Social Media Bites You”.  In my own business experience I have found that the mental barrier many people face is the idea that people can “say” bad things about your company online and it appears in print for the whole internet to see for all time.  One of the aspects of the Women, Business & Blogging conference that interested me most was how to deal with negativity, which can inevitably occur, and I didn’t feel that I was fully equipped to deal with this, despite extensive discussions – focussing mainly on cyberbullying.

 

In the workshop people discussed their own worries and business circumstances in relation to this issue and we were able to formulate some conclusions about good ways to mentally and actually handle negative comments made online.

 

1.            Monitor reviews – reach out the individuals when things go wrong and try to undo the damage by responding constructively.  Not only will this help to resolve the problem for the individual who has had a bad experience of your company, but will also look good to others – showing you care and will act if things go wrong.

 

2.            Search – the Americans use a website called “Yelp”, which collects reviews of businesses.  Make searching part of the process (an element of PR) to ensure that you stay on top of things and can therefore respond

 

3.            Be present and engage with people – I have observed quite horrific amounts of negative press against a company in one social network, the company response to which was nothing… nowt! They just ignored it and hoped it would go away.  However, part of the point of a social network is that people want to be engaged – they want the conversation!  They will certainly not think better of you if you are not prepared to enter into the discussion with them.

 

4.            Recognising that actually, negative criticism is useful because it is an untapped area of feedback – giving you the opportunity to respond and correct an issue.  If people say it online, you can generally find it.  If they say it on a bus or over dinner with friends or in the pub, you have no way of accessing that feedback and acting on it to improve your business.

 

 

5.            The Net appreciates openness.  Hands up if you get it wrong, and discussion all the way – it will help to build a relationship with your customers and foster trust.