Choosing The Right Social Media Partnership

Previously, I wrote about a very important aspect of social media which is transparency. We know many businesses are still apprehensive about revealing themselves to the public. Their reasons are not unheard of, and not unreasonable too. Especially in an environment that things can quickly turn against businesses, all the more they should be careful with where they’re treading and working with.

I am going to expand a little more on transparency, harnessing on the trust aspect of social media. Chris Brogan once used the term “Snake Oil in Social Media”. As some companies would have experienced by now, getting led by a blind is not exactly a pleasant experience. Therefore, as much as parties like bloggers choose the brands they would like to be associated with, marketers should also scrutinize the parties they are intending to partner up for any social media initiatives.

While most people referred social media as publicity or relationship building, I am looking at social media more closely related to experiential marketing than anything else. Some time back, I was just sharing how social media can be applied across various corporate functions and also shared three examples of how they’re being used. Now, what are readers factually digesting from bloggers who talk about the various brands? Their experiences! What else can it be, other than to gather the fundamental impression of a certain product or service. So before anything else, businesses should ask themselves if they’re embarking on another social media stunt or truly getting involved with the community.

If your answer is the latter, then these will be some points you may want to explore when determining if a certain partnership is worth the investment.

1. Is the blogger/group harnessing on your brand to raise his/her own profile, without realistic contribution to the community you are hoping to build? (It’s all about getting the target audience, not whack-all-and-wait.)

2. Is the blogger/group transparent with their agenda, as much as you’re being expected to do so? (You don’t want to be short-changed on transparency.)

3. Have you followed the blogger/group long enough to establish the true values behind the party? (You want to distant yourself from those who advocates social media but not practising it for real, surely.)

4. Have you tracked the blogger’s participation in other blogs? (The kind of comments they leave in other blogs give you a clear hint if someone’s talking social media, or doing social media.)

5. Metrics are just figures, without clear understanding. Is the blogger/group boasting about their numerical advantage too much? (Quantitative readership isn’t everything, qualitative is.)

6. Given the extremely small scene we have in Singapore, it is easily manipulated by just a small group of bloggers. Are you mentally prepared to allow your brand to be “controlled” by just a small group, sacrificing the bigger consumer community at large? (Be mindful of what’s a community, and what’s a mob. It will happen.)

What frustrate many of us, is being fully aware of such facades being promoted by individuals and driven by bloggers. With a reality check, there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them in their tracks before more businesses are “tricked” into their methodology.

As a blogger and social media junkie, it’s a sad truth to stomach. We see various products being published in blogs, lasting nothing more than one single post looking like a cheap advertising space. Which is why, I refused to do sponsored posts unless I have “tested” the products myself. Ask Daryl of BLOG2u or Paddy of BAK2u (sister companies), this point was communicated clearly to them. To up their social media efforts by two notches, they do not invite me to events unless it is relevant to me. Something, that I appreciate many times more than the invitation itself.

What’s worse, than having a bunch of bloggers or companies coming together to form the “Circle of Elites”. That certainly killed all the “social” in social media. What social media truly thrive on is a real voice, and not one that is laiden with hidden benefits & motives while still talking about transparency. Think of that as the voices of real customers and product enthusiasts, blog-traffic leechers not. (We just cannot forget the Microsoft-Edelman scandal, can we?) And the time comes when businesses have to convince a blogger/group why they should grant “entry” to them, alarm bells should start ringing. Remember, it works two-ways. If they’re sitting in their chairs waiting for you to come to them instead of them reaching out to you, the social media methodology is questionable and how much can they help you improve your strategies?

The other much untouched arena is how some of these bloggers begin to throw their focus on the personal benefits they can rip. When bloggers start to align themselves with some A-lister, it makes the job all the more easier. That’s for businesses to ring their second alarm bell when they are being taken for a ride in the name of social media. Trust me, even reputable PR agencies are working underground and getting caught red-handed like Walmart-Edelman in a much neglected Singapore is close to unthinkable.

Think - pause - think - stop - think - assess, they’re only interested in the freebies, NOT your brand. Again, it’s a two-way traffic so scrutinize and pick your cherries carefully.

Like what I shared with countless people in my private chats, don’t talk social media, do social media. At least for the handful of “gurus” we know of in Singapore, we still have not seen a concrete success in their forms of social media other than creating a mob.

For one thing that I’m sure, social media isn’t about mobbing.

By Ed | August 27, 2008

Filed Under Blogging, Social Media

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Bad After-Sales Service Turns Off Customers

The decision by Linksys (Singapore) to cease operation of their telephony support is still disappointing to me until today. Having been a customer for years, the telephony support is one of my most-used avenue to ask for assistance to my router or wireless adapter. I have since dropped any further purchases of Linksys products, and even though I have switched to Asus, the latter possess the same lack too.

What Linksys provides now, is online technical support. You can actually have a pretty cool conversation in their Live Chat facility when all is well. Then again, who will actually contact technical support when nothing’s wrong? Sure, there’s a line in US which you can dial but if you’re in Asia, would you?



Think router and wireless adapter, connectivity immediately comes to mind. At a time when either one is preventing you from getting online, you start to wonder how on earth can you even get online to use that cool Live Chat facility. Least of all, the FAQ and wiki. For the average customers, at least you wouldn’t know what’s the problem until you furnish the error codes and be guided from there. With other tech companies, this is pretty much a standard procedure to go through. Is that what Linksys had in mind when pulling their telephony support?

Strangely, as the world gets more competitive and emphasized a great deal on communications with customers, we seemed to fail at that miserably. Instead of finding solutions to see how best customers can be served, we decide to corner customers for the benefit of our convenience or cost-cutting measures. Especially at a time where online interaction is exploding, keeping connected is probably one of the most important aspects. Ask Apple about their experience of failing to meet up with advertised capabilities, I am sure they have plenty to share.

After-sales service also plays a significant role in retaining customers. Given that customers have a wide variety of choices nowadays, switching your brand off the purchase radar is not a difficult thing to do at all.

Be everywhere, do everything and never fail to astonish the customer.
- Macy’s motto

Adapted from More Loyal Customers by Kevin Stirtz

Internet is a great tool, but all of us shouldn’t forget about providing alternatives to customers. It is also providing ourselves with an extra edge in sweeping our customers’ off their feet. Which customer doesn’t enjoy excellent customer service, pre-sales & post-sales?

Have Linksys provided the solution? No, I found mine. My solution is as easy as taking a 5-minute walk to the mall and getting myself a new product from another manufacturer. It doesn’t hurt me a single bit even though I knew I was overcharged for the item, typical in small independent IT shops compared to the price-war in popular places like Sim Lim Square or Funan IT Mall.

Bad resolution, for Linksys at least.

By Ed | August 26, 2008

Filed Under Customer Service

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We Can Do Better Than This… Surely?

We hear that buzzword - transparency - in social media so many times, but I wonder how many of those who practise social media actually abide by it. I have been reading so many parties whom have been redefining the boundaries of social media in words. At the end of the day, I feel we are looking at more rules and less actions.

Take for example the HR company that I worked for many years ago, my manager was also the main decision maker. When my manager and I started another sub-company, I was also taught to do the same. Therefore, all clients and associates got to see was our managerial title and all decisions were left to a non-existent “senior management”. The fact was, we WERE the senior management.

Little wonder why we fell out eventually. Making known to the clients that I was one of the decision makers and was able to service them with a little more, did more good for the company than restricting the amount of work we can do for clients. As the days went, resentments grew when I determined that this was just another tactic to “deceive clients”.

As I came to know more and more Web 2.0 services, this scene seems to be replaying itself again and again. Precisely why, there are some like me whom have grown wary of Web 2.0 companies or anyone known to be operating these services. Just like how recently, I decided to turn my back on someone who often invited me to her employer’s gatherings on a “friend” basis. To my disappointment, someone spilled the beans to me about her shareholdings in the company. Effectively, she is more than just an “employee” which she had presented herself as.

Unfortunately, there are more people talking about transparency than actually practising transparency. This is something I feel must be changed, and fast! This spiralling effect is also potentially the one to slow down the adoption of social media here, apart from stale ideas we copied conveniently from our overseas counterparts.

Take the practice of private engagement for example, it works at times and it doesn’t for some other times. More and more companies are taking their engagement underground, which leave little in the open for a clear tranparent mode of communication. For another matter of fact, private conversations revealed to me by my peers with certain high-profile blog advertising companies painted a very different picture from what was declared in the open. Remember, you don’t want to be begging for sympathies from bloggers in private.

Is private engagement defeating the whole purpose of transparency in social media? Yes, it does when you look at it this way. In that sense, companies are using private communication modes to say things which otherwise, they wouldn’t on the open platform. Experience has tell some of us that, the more a certain business is insisting on private engagement - the more we should be wary of what transpires at the end of it. Treat it as, the inability to be held accountable for public statements.

Here’s some suggestions on how you can change for a more transparent practice;

Consolidation of opinions
When you have several parties voicing the same concern simultaneously, address all the problems in one related publication. It can be a press release, it can be a blog entry or even a circulation email. It beats having to answer to various parties individually with contradicting responses. It can also serve as a good guide to others whom have the same concerns but did not voice out.

Declare your status
Making known your identity isn’t enough. Your face-shot and name tell us nothing about your credibility. You don’t want to be caught lying with your pants down that you have more commercial interests in a certain entity than you have indicated. It just turns you into a gigantic target board in a small 50m firing range. Honesty is still the best policy. And yes, marketers have our ways to find out. A full-blown exposure is hazardous to any company. Do a search for Edelman - Walmart, nothing more I can say.

Avoid unverified contents
You shouldn’t be afraid of being held accountable for the contents or correspondences you put up. You earn more trust when you are willing to be held accountable, and that’s a big commitment to live with. If you’re not ready to answer for your statements and contents, you’re not ready for social media.

Encourage feedbacks without prejudice
Good or bad, embrace it with grace. This is exactly the part that companies find hardest to achieve. Many companies discourage their customers against negative feedbacks when at the same time they are preaching of how social media can be used with a balance. Clearly, you are not adapting to social media if you find it difficult to manage negative feedbacks. Like how I wrote some time back, social media isn’t something that you can apply the old marketing/PR rules to. The game has changed, so have the rules.

So far, there are very little examples who can truly put into practice all of the above, most of which derived from my encounters with various parties. My eventual verdict is anything but convincing. When businesses cannot perform these traits consistently throughout their social media involvement, they can only slowly fade away like most local blog aggregators we see. Hype fades… doesn’t it?

Related Read:
Be Real or Remarkable (Not Both)
Policies, biases and conflicts

By Ed | August 25, 2008

Filed Under Marketing, Social Media

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