Social media at work
Paphitis: is the tide turning?
04/09/09 17:37
An eloquent piece in the Daily Mail yesterday by
Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis argued that Facebook, Twitter and other social
networks. Called 'Why ALL bosses should copy me and
ban Facebook from the Workpace' it's well
written and persuasive.
And the headline is wrong, but I've been a hack long enough to know there's no way Paphitis himself wrote that. No, he's not banning Facebook from the workplace completely, if the sub had only read the thing, he's banning it during working hours. If people want to Facebook or whatever during their lunch break he has no problem with that, he just objects to people watching the site when he's spending his children's investment paying them to work.
I'm still not sure he's right. The other day I had an issue with a set of headphones - turned out it was a problem with the phone rather than the phones, if you follow, but it was frustrating. So I moaned about it on Twitter and within minutes - no, really - I had a message from the manufacturer, Jabra, asking whether they could help. My social media book, aimed at business users, is out in a few weeks and in it I talk to a number of businesspeople who've done well by understanding what they're doing with this newfangled means of communication. ITV.com using it for damage limitation when someone went to a commercial break during a penalty shoot-out. Carphone Warehouse finding and dealing with customer complaints, turning complainers into brand advocates through social media (and they'd be trumpeting the brand just as loudly as they'd have been denigrating it before).
I'd certainly agree that undirected social media use is likely to harm a business. But shutting it all off during working hours is a bit like cutting out the telephone during those hours - by all means there will be people who'll become more productive but you can miss so much in terms of passing trade.
I've promised to send Mr. Paphitis a copy of my book. I'll let you know if he comments.
And the headline is wrong, but I've been a hack long enough to know there's no way Paphitis himself wrote that. No, he's not banning Facebook from the workplace completely, if the sub had only read the thing, he's banning it during working hours. If people want to Facebook or whatever during their lunch break he has no problem with that, he just objects to people watching the site when he's spending his children's investment paying them to work.
I'm still not sure he's right. The other day I had an issue with a set of headphones - turned out it was a problem with the phone rather than the phones, if you follow, but it was frustrating. So I moaned about it on Twitter and within minutes - no, really - I had a message from the manufacturer, Jabra, asking whether they could help. My social media book, aimed at business users, is out in a few weeks and in it I talk to a number of businesspeople who've done well by understanding what they're doing with this newfangled means of communication. ITV.com using it for damage limitation when someone went to a commercial break during a penalty shoot-out. Carphone Warehouse finding and dealing with customer complaints, turning complainers into brand advocates through social media (and they'd be trumpeting the brand just as loudly as they'd have been denigrating it before).
I'd certainly agree that undirected social media use is likely to harm a business. But shutting it all off during working hours is a bit like cutting out the telephone during those hours - by all means there will be people who'll become more productive but you can miss so much in terms of passing trade.
I've promised to send Mr. Paphitis a copy of my book. I'll let you know if he comments.
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Social Media Seminars: Book Now
22/07/09 12:54
I have a book on social media coming out in September
(called 'This Is Social Media, order it from my book page) and I've
been a media trainer since 2002.
A number of PR people have asked whether I could talk to them about social media so I put a note on a forum seeking to set up a seminar on the subject. I was hoping for about 5 responses if I was lucky. I've actually had 15. So I'm setting up at least 2 dates, 10th and 17th August, both in the morning.
Since it's been less than 48 hours since I put the first note out I thought it might be worth telling people a bit more and putting it on this site in case there's any more interest.
Topics I'd be seeking to cover during the mornings will include:
The basics: who's who in social networking and which suits you/your client
Customer engagement
Journalist engagement
Your website, your client's website - what should go on them?
Corporate blogging: why, who should do it - and who shouldn't
Corporate Twitter - ditto
Managing reputations and brands through social media
Marketing social media
Evaluating social media performance and tracking your success (and that of your client)
That ought to keep us going for a morning or so. The charge will be £150 per head excluding VAT.
So if anyone's interested and hasn't let me know a date they'd prefer yet, (10th Aug, 17 Aug or 'a later date please') do drop me an email or fill in the form below and I'll book you in.
A number of PR people have asked whether I could talk to them about social media so I put a note on a forum seeking to set up a seminar on the subject. I was hoping for about 5 responses if I was lucky. I've actually had 15. So I'm setting up at least 2 dates, 10th and 17th August, both in the morning.
Since it's been less than 48 hours since I put the first note out I thought it might be worth telling people a bit more and putting it on this site in case there's any more interest.
Topics I'd be seeking to cover during the mornings will include:
The basics: who's who in social networking and which suits you/your client
Customer engagement
Journalist engagement
Your website, your client's website - what should go on them?
Corporate blogging: why, who should do it - and who shouldn't
Corporate Twitter - ditto
Managing reputations and brands through social media
Marketing social media
Evaluating social media performance and tracking your success (and that of your client)
That ought to keep us going for a morning or so. The charge will be £150 per head excluding VAT.
So if anyone's interested and hasn't let me know a date they'd prefer yet, (10th Aug, 17 Aug or 'a later date please') do drop me an email or fill in the form below and I'll book you in.
Lose your job online
06/07/09 13:32
Primark has joined the many organisations that has
had to look into people using social networks - in
this case Facebook - to insult their
customers. The full story is on the BrandRepublic blog, and
it’s worth clicking the links to read the
site’s previous coverage on Waitrose and
other brands whose staff have committed the same
errors.
In my book, out in October in case I hadn’t mentioned it at least 100 times, I advise readers to put some sort of clause in the contract about social networking; nothing as draconian as I’ve reported here but something that states people should be sensible. The only thing that bothers me about this is that employers should already be covered; any sensible contract of employment will have clauses about not bringing the organisation into disrepute, and that would include not calling the customers pikeys or twats. I’d have thought.
In fact this should be down to common sense. Nobody who insults retail customers in this way should expect to work for long in retail. Maybe the overriding rule should be not to employ anyone who’s clearly too stupid to be let loose in public with the English Language at their disposal.
That might take care of it.
In my book, out in October in case I hadn’t mentioned it at least 100 times, I advise readers to put some sort of clause in the contract about social networking; nothing as draconian as I’ve reported here but something that states people should be sensible. The only thing that bothers me about this is that employers should already be covered; any sensible contract of employment will have clauses about not bringing the organisation into disrepute, and that would include not calling the customers pikeys or twats. I’d have thought.
In fact this should be down to common sense. Nobody who insults retail customers in this way should expect to work for long in retail. Maybe the overriding rule should be not to employ anyone who’s clearly too stupid to be let loose in public with the English Language at their disposal.
That might take care of it.