Are You Using the 80/20 Rule to Your Advantage?

December 5, 2011 2 Comments

Are you part of the 80%? I’m not talking about an occupy moment here. Instead, I’m referring to the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle. Anyone that’s served on a committee or worked on a team class project has seen this rule in action. It goes like this:

80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Or in business the distribution looks like this:

  • 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
  • 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
  • 80% of your sales are made by 20% of your sales staff
  • 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people

Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1906 after observing that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population, he developed the principle by also observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. Since that time the principal has been used in economic theory, optimization efforts and quality control measures. For example, Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most highly reported bugs, 80% of the errors would be eliminated (Wikipedia).

How this works with Social Media

Simple. You’ll get the best results and engagement from your efforts if 80% of what do you adds value to someone else, either by providing free information, sharing articles written by others, offering discounts, crowdsourcing ideas or pointing out others’ successes. The other 20% can be about you, your products and your ideas. In other words, talk about yourself only 20% of the time. That’s 2 tweets out of 10.

Do you see this principle at work in your social media efforts? Share your ideas with me here.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

Filed under Business, Marketing, social media, Twitter Tagged with , , , ,

How to Handle Negative Comments on your Social Media Spaces

July 7, 2011 1 Comment

I had the privilege of working with a group of young leaders recently on strategies for using social media for business. During our lively discussion they expressed a common concern they hear from new clients: the fear of negative posts on their pages.

In my work I’ve seen these fears keep businesses from entering the spaces altogether, which is a shame. I’ll be honest here. You can’t control what people post. Negativity happens. My experience is that these posts are rare, but it is still a good idea to arm yourself with a strategy for dealing with them in advance. Develop a policy for your pages and post it publicly. If you’re looking for ideas, the U.S. Army has a great example.

Courtesy of authoritydomains.com

If a negative comment doesn’t break the rules of engagement treat it as an opportunity. Yes, you’re going to feel hurt and angry. Focus. Here’s how to turn your unhappy customer into an advocate.

Listen

Listening for online conversations involves monitoring the keywords surrounding your brand name as well as your @mentions and your Facebook wall posts. Are you using keywords to search out conversations that mention your brand across the social spaces? If not, you might be missing out on some valuable feedback that’s occurring outside your social media walls. Remember people are more likely to complain among friends than reach out to the brand. Look for those conversations and then develop a strategy for reaching out and offering assistance.

Respond Quickly and Publicly

Negative posts require an immediate public response. Show how much you value the feedback by responding with a comment that says you hear what they’re saying and you plan to take action. A good rule of thumb is to offer to take the conversation offline if the situation requires customer service action. Tell them to check their inbox for a message from you and then send that message immediately.

Care

When you do connect, act like you care and mean it. Whether publicly or privately, introduce yourself as the person behind the brand and let them know you are concerned about their experiences and want to help. You’ll find most people respond positively to this. It’s easy to be angry at a faceless brand, but when confronted by an actual person with a name and a face my experience is they become very reasonable and willing to cooperate.

Take Action

Now that you’ve reached out to offer help follow up and take action. Involve customer service if necessary and do everything you can to exceed their expectations. If their comments revealed something you need to change, change it. If you made a mistake, fix it. If you can offer a discount or reward for their feedback, offer it. Then thank them for their help in improving your business. Leave them feeling cared for. 

Don’t let fear keep you from opportunities to improve your business! Instead, use the social nature of these spaces to develop real relationships with your customers. Careful though – you might just have a brand advocate on your hands now!

Do you have a complaint turned brand advocate story? Share it here with me.

Filed under Business, Facebook, social media, Twitter Tagged with , , , , ,

Have Social Media Analysts Gone Crazy?

June 22, 2011 5 Comments

Sometimes I think if I hear the word “engage” one more time I’m going to scream. Please understand. I’m in a unique position where I interact with social media “experts” selling their services daily. I’ve seen their bios and I’ve read their tweets. There’s a lot of excitement over “engagement” and sentiment analysis and there’s a “wild west” sort of mentality where self proclaimed experts are rushing in to fill the void.

In some ways we’re all guilty of it, we social media professionals. We use words like “engage” and “connect” and “brand relationship.”  There are legitimate firms out there taking good money for building Facebook pages and developing Twitter strategies and then reporting back to their clients on sentiment, number of followers and “engagement.”

There is some truth to these numbers so I don’t want to completely minimize their importance. These tools allow us to measure our fans’ and followers’ interaction or *wince* engagement with our brand. We can see, in granular detail, what people click on, what they comment on, when they visit, what they “like.”  Social media firms put together glossy reports on this stuff and tailor their strategies to it and it looks and feels like important information and in some ways it is. In a lot of ways though, it isn’t.

Snake Oil

Image courtesy of rankmagic.com

It’s snake oil.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Numbers of followers and sentiment can’t measure the success of your social media strategy. Clear through the hysteria and hype and remember that there is a person at the other end of that tweet or Facebook post. That person represents a potential or current customer or in a B2B environment, a representative for a business prospect. What do they care about? What can we do to help them? Of course, the most important question is, are they going to buy from you and then tell their friends about it? How do we get them to do that?

Businesses need social media analysts with a deep understanding of social media tools and how to use them to foster these relationships. They need people with a business background and an understanding of marketing principals, search engine optimization skills, good grammar and spelling (yes that matters) and a genuine passion for people and their profession. They need specialists that can measure how all this can and will translate into more business.

There are lots of talented social media professionals out there that can offer this to their clients. Whether it is training on the tools or a session on strategy, these professionals can help businesses succeed in this “wild west” environment. If you do decide to take the plunge, make sure you’re working with one of them. Make sure they’re offering you real bottom line value.

I’d love to hear your stories. What, as a business owner, are you looking for in a consultant? Comment here, or send me a tweet @suereynolds or leave me a post on my Facebook page.

Filed under Business, Facebook, Marketing, social media, Twitter Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

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