Social media – is it for you?

Many people are talking about social media these days. It’s becoming a new ‘buzz’ word. So what does it really mean for you and your business? Should you bother using it? Hopefully this article written by Jacob Morgan can define a few things for you.

 

If you are an individual or a company looking to get involved in social media then you need to be prepared to receive positive feedback and negative feedback.  In my opinion the negative feedback is more important and in fact I would argue that all the feedback you receive is actually positive.  I call it negative feedback because it is portrayed in a critical light, meaning that instead of someone saying how great and amazing you are, someone will tell you that you suck, but the important thing is to find out why.

Positive feedback is easy to give.  Let’s say you release a new widget, next thing you know people are praising you saying your widget is the greatest thing since sliced bread…ya…so?  Sure positive feedback is great, it let’s you know that you are onto something, that you are doing something right.  The positive feedback you get is a good indication that your product or service is satisfying customer needs or wants.  However, you are never going to get 100% positive feedback.  Some of (if not a lot of) the feedback you receive is actually going to be negative, what matters is how you deal with the negative feedback.  Make your negative feedback actionable and turn it into something positive.

Negative feedback is actually positive feedback, stay with me on this one.  Let’s say you create a widget and release it, now instead of praise, people are making voodoo dolls out of you and telling you that your product sucks (ok if they are making voodoo dolls then you probably have a serious problem).  Instead of going into defensive mode, listen to what your users are telling you and make the changes they are requesting.  Look at negative feedback as constructive criticism because that is what it is (minus the voodoo doll).  If people tell you they don’t like something about your product then you know what you need to fix.  If someone tells you that your product or service is buggy, doesn’t work, looks bad, etc. then you know what you need to improve upon, this information is priceless as it shapes your product or service into what it is.    Collectively, your feedback is a giant focus group comprised of users who want to tell you what they think about your product (or you, your brand, your company).  No focus groups is always going to have 100% of the people say they liked the product.

The reason I wanted to address this is because a lot of people are scared to use social media because of the negative feedback they may receive.  I’ll share a little story with you about some negative feedback I received when I first started writing.  During the first month of my blogging I was chastised by a reader who called me out for not editing my posts for grammatical errors.  The criticisms were rather harsh and at first I felt a little upset and defensive, but then I realized that the reader just told me what I needed to fix.  I thanked the reader for his comments and have since tried to be more vigilant of my grammar.  This is just one of the many ways to take a seemingly negative piece of feedback and turn into positive feedback.  I receive comments and emails from readers all the time critiquing my posts or asking me to remove certain aesthetic things, and guess what, I listen and respond to all of them.  Every piece of feedback I receive I consider positive.  The fact that someone is taking the time to interact with me and share their opinion is humbling and I am grateful for every comment or e-mail I get.

How do you respond to the feedback you get?  How have you been able to take a seemingly negative piece of feedback and turn into something positive?

Social Media and your business

There has been much talk about Social Media recently and how fraudsters are honing in on places such as FaceBook and MySpace etc.

How can you protect your identity and that of your business when moving into this marketing medium?

1) Always be suspicious! Before giving away some personal details, ask yourself why they need it. Do some more digging.

2) Always remember your password! Don’t write it down online anywhere, or keep it near any other related documents. Make your password something you can remember and always destroy emails containing passwords – or change them asap.

3) Don’t put personal information on the web. Simple really. What is the first question a business will ask you if you have lost your password? You can bet it’s one of: Mothers maiden name, birthday, street address, dogs name. If you have this info anywhere online, all a fraudster needs to do is click on one of those “Forgotten your password?” links.

4) Don’t put anything up that you wouldn’t want your grandmother seeing. I remember a story about a teacher who put a photo up of her drinking. This action got her fired from her job. Why? Because her employer saw it, and she was only a student teacher at the time, and underage. A prospective business owner will more than likely check out to see if you have a facebook or myspace profile before working with you, so keep it professional.

5) Remember this golden rule – if someone walked up to you in the street and asked you for your street address, would you give it? If someone asked you to walk behind a building because they have some fantastic wares selling cheaply, would you go? Use this same commensense when it comes to online networks.

6) Don’t put it up, thinking you can always take it down. Search engines cache a page, and someone might have already seen it, and pasted it around the net for others. Best bet – just don’t put it up.

Have fun venturing into the world of Social Media, and just remember to use your commonsense!!

PR & Publicity

I’ve recently been looking around for some information products on PR and Publicity. One website I stumbled across is The Publicity Hound. Although they are in the USA, plenty of the advice and information in her ebooks are still relevant to us here in Australia.

Joan Stewart is the Publicity Hound, and is now the resident PR expert on Entrepreneur.com. She also a former newspaper editor and a small business owner, so she knows her stuff!

How to create a Media Plan is an 8 part course that will teach you all about a 12 month media plan, blogging, podcasting, how to manipulate story ideas, using social media to spread your message, targeting TV & Radio, how to follow up plus the most amazing tips on what to do and what not to do!

If you are really serious about doing your own PR and publicity – then this course is just what you have been waiting for – plus, you can do it from your own home!! Check out the rave reviews!

Plus, there are so many other ebooks on the Publicity Hound – take the time to read through the tips and sign up for the weekly publicity tips.

Diva Promotions- not just advertising.