Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Category: business advice

  • The web’s big weakness

    The web’s big weakness

    There’s a fundamental flaw in the way the tech industry does business, that weakness could be what ultimately kills many of today’s new media, web and social media services.

    AirBnB, an online home share service, is one of the darlings of the booming Silicon Valley start up sector, having recently being valued at $1.2 billion after a successful capital raising.

    Like most Web 2.0 and social media businesses, AirBnB’s advantage is in the low operating costs where customer support is left to the service’s peer review and social media communities while AirBnB pockets a commission for simply making the connection between the landlord and tenant.

    The flaws in this “all care, no responsibility” model became apparent last month when a lady posted a description of her house being ransacked by an errant housesitter she found through AirBnB.

    AirBnB’s management responded to the article with assurances they were helping and working with their affected customer, claims which were promptly contradicted by the original victim.

    To make matters worse, certain prominent members of the Silicon Valley investment and blogging communities alluded she was lying or was “batshit crazy.” Now that other stories of bad AirBnB tenants are appearing, the view this is simply the untrustworthy word of a deranged customer affected by their first such incident is looking hollow.

    Failing to deal with customer problems is not unique to AirBnB, hiding behind impenetrable layers of “support” backed up by user hostile terms and conditions is familiar to anyone who has had to deal with an online service gone wrong.

    Last month Thomas Monopoly found he was locked out of his Google account and had it not been for the intervention of a senior Google employee, Thomas’ problem would probably still be stuck in an endless feedback loop.

    Exactly the same problem has been encountered thousands of times by other users of web mail, social media, online auction and matchmaking sites.

    Many of the people running these services retort their products are free so users get the support the support they pay for – an argument conveniently overlooking that most “free” web services are based around selling customer data – but even this does not justify delivering the basic services users have been lead to expect, regardless of what a 5,000 word user agreement states.

    Today’s tech startups, and many of their big established cousins in the IT industry, have the idea that customer support is an optional extra and an expense to minimised or outsourced.

    In this respect they are not too far removed from dinosaur car manufacturers or some of today’s less dynamic retailers offering little in the way of customer service or after sales support.

    That way of working has died as consumers have been able to go online to vent their dissatisfaction, strangely today’s hot tech start ups seem to have missed this aspect of the revolution they have helped start.

    Ignoring consumer problems is exactly what’s bringing traditional businesses unstuck in the online world. The funny thing is it might bring many of the online business undone as well.

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  • A question of respect

    A question of respect

    All too often a discussion of business leadership descends into a series of homilies and recycled stories equating corporate warriors to ancient Chinese generals.

    In a time where we’re obsessed with the shiny toys of technology, we often forget that all business is social and leadership and respect are the keys to growing a successful enterprise.

    Last week’s final session of the 2011 Let’s Talk Business series was refreshingly different with David James of Sydney’s Brasserie Bread, Mike Cannon-Brookes of software company Atlassian and business mentor Chris Witt telling their stories of leading growing enterprises.

    Mike and David showed how real business leadership is about entrenching values within in an organisation that fosters consistently good service and great products.

    David told how Brasserie Bread treat their retail partners with generous commissions and services that encourage cross selling illustrated the key difference between smaller businesses taking the long view and the short term views taken by corporate managers.

    The cross selling and commission models work well for Brasserie Bread’s retailers, the customer comes into a shop to pick up their bread order, buys a coffee while they are there and – as they discover more about the business – they become a regular.

    While there’s a great difference between a bakery and software company, Mike Cannon-Brookes had a similar view about values, telling how Atlassian has the “beer test” where they ask if a prospective employee would be interesting when talking over an after work drink.

    Atlassian’s main mantra though is “don’t f*** the customer”, which is notable in a business world largely dominated by the belief you give the customer the minimum you can get away with.

    Both Brasserie Bread’s and Atlassian’s philosophies can be boiled down to one word: Respect.

    Respecting customers, suppliers, staff and resellers is something that’s forgotten by many larger businesses obsessed with short term gains at the expense of anyone foolish or unfortunate enough to do business with them.

    The current problems of big retailers can be put down to that lack of respect; for suppliers as they screwed the last cent out of their supply chains, for staff as they crudely cut numbers to achieve their performance targets and for customers who found service had become a word with little meaning in their stores.

    It would be unfair to pick on the retailers though as most large organisations share that attitude of disrespecting everyone who doesn’t sit on the same floor as the CEO.

    Much of these beliefs on blindly cutting costs, outsourcing service and focusing on short term KPIs came out of 1980s thinking at consulting firms and management schools.

    Although the schools and consultants have updated their thinking, many business leaders are stuck in that short term model which worked well during the two decades of easy credit we’ve went through up to 2008.

    Chris Witt summed this short term thinking up well with his closing comment; “Neanderthal man’s survival strategy was short term, it didn’t do him much good.”

    Respecting your business relationships is the key to long term survival in these uncertain times, we need to be insuring we show the respect to our staff, supplier, customers and partners we hope they would give us.

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  • Google+ explained

    Google+ explained

    The latest shiny thing in the online world is Google+, the search engine monolith’s latest attempt at a social networking service. What does it mean to the average user?

    Google+ differs from most social networks – particularly Facebook – in that you can segment your online connections into different groups called circles so when sharing information such as comments, updates or photos you can choose to only let certain circles or individuals see those posts.

    This addresses the biggest problem with social media; that what we share with our family is not necessarily what we want our friends or work colleagues to see, an issue identified by then Google designer Paul Adams, who has since moved onto Facebook.

    At the core of Google+ is the Google Profile which is shared with most Google services such as Gmail and Blogger which gives rise to quite a few privacy concerns as those you share with can get access to this information, although this is the same with most other social media services.

    Google+ has quite a few interesting features such as Hangouts which allow impromptu video conferences and Sparks which are random popups of things you might be interested based upon your search history and posts.

    As a consumer product, Google+ doesn’t have the gaming and the social features that Facebook offers however that’s expected to change as the product develops.

    For businesses, Google+ is off limits. Right now it is only open to individuals although we can expect that will change as Google integrate the product with their small business Places platform along with adwords and their online application service.

    Right now Google+ is for the geeks and that’s why the tech media is talking about it. For the average home or business users it’s not quite ready to replace or complement Facebook or other social media services although it’s worth keeping an eye on to see how it evolves.

    The stakes are quite high for Google with this product as the overwhelming amount of data at every Internet user’s fingertips is seeing people seeking out sources they trust for answers, recommendations and advice. The social aspect of the online world is going to define the web in this decade just as search did in the previous decade.

    For this reason, Google are going to be working hard on making sure Google+ is part of the social web, for the average user we’ll be choosing the tools we trust. It remains to be seen if Google+ is one of those tools.

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  • The quest for virility

    The quest for virility

    One of the common Internet traps is a mindless quest for numbers; when we first go online we’re obsessed with gathering Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections.

    For businesses, we get seduced by the prospect of big markets to sell to; which isn’t surprising when there’s nearly 700 million people on Facebook, over 50 million tweets sent every day and the group buying market is growing almost as quickly as the number of new entrants into the industry.

    The current holy grail for many businesses is the viral video; a troupe of dancers extolling your business to surprised commuters, a cool ex-football player giving advice from a shower or a tasteful video of your staff doing their jobs naked is seen as the way to get millions of ‘likes’ or ‘follows’ from eager web consumers.

    For the successful ones, creating an online clip seen by your mother and a million of her friends is an easy way to get a campaign to worldwide markets without spending massive marketing budgets. Not to mention the trip to Cannes and the accolades for any advertising agency associated with it.

    Sadly creating a video that goes viral is harder than it looks as we discussed at the Media 140 Conference in Perth last week; it has to be quirky, entertaining and attention catching which is pretty well the antithesis of the typical corporate video.

    To compound the budding viral videographer’s problems, there’s the corporate desire to control the message. Almost every high profile blogger or online editor has stories of struggling to get permission to use an organisation’s clip because of the managerial urge to control distribution.

    No doubt those managers have good reasons for controlling the use of their videos but we can be sure those same control obsessed administrators are constantly bugging their agencies to create something viral.

    Losing control is a great risk for managers and bureaucrats. Last year prolific wine blogger Gary Vaynerchuk visited Australia and gave the local wine industry some great publicity.

    Sadly, in reviewing the some wines from his visit he described a Yarra Valley wine as having “a taste of burned vomit” (at 4.25) probably put the Australian wine market in the US back a decade.

    Gary Vaynerchuk is probably the best case of someone who has grown a business through viral video, through adding interesting valuable content with a real character. An equivalent Australian success has been Natalie Tran’s Community Channel.

    One of the other points with these is many of the early successes have been because they were early entrants into a new market. Today, the marketplace is a lot more crowded and videos, like any other online content, are struggling to get heard.

    That’s not such a bad thing as it takes away the obsession with numbers and makes us focus on the quality of our online audience. Rather than obsessing about raw hits, we start considering where our customers are.

    Group buying is a good example of where well targeted campaigns work well. The successful group buying advertisers are thinking about where the offer, product and audience fit in their business plan rather than just fixating on the tens of thousands of potential customers for a quick sales boost.

    While a Charlie Sheen tweet might drive page views, the real business objective of the web is about establishing our brand and attracting the customers we want, not just achieving big numbers.

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  • eBusiness Sample Chapter: Social Media Basics for Business

    eBusiness Sample Chapter: Social Media Basics for Business

    Nothing illustrates the difference between old media and new media than social networking platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

    Under the old model — newspapers, radio or television — someone owns the platform and publishes information through it. If the audience wants to respond, members send in a letter or call the talk back phone lines. In social media, the audience does the publishing, then members talk to each other about it.

    In many ways social media isn’t anything new: it’s the internet equivalent of hanging around the mall or gossiping in the tea room, and even using internet services like bulletin boards and newsgroups pre-date the world wide web.

    What the newer social media platforms have changed is how people share information. It’s now much easier for people with similar interests, backgrounds or family links to connect each other from anywhere in the world. By joining these networks you will be able to tap into passionate and motivated communities that might, if you show respect to them and their interests, be interested in your products.

    And just as you can establish or enhance your web presence using free online listings, you can extend that presence using the free social media sites.

    Talking, not shouting

    One of the big differences between the traditional media channels and social media is the way you attract attention. In the older media channels, you had to shout in the hope your product would be seen. This model suited big businesses that have the deep pockets needed to fund a traditional marketing campaign.

    For smaller business, the only way to compete with big business campaigns was to be as loud as possible — big billboards, garish print adverts and irritating late night TV commercials were typical ways of being seen. But even if you were big, you had to be big, loud and brassy.

    The social media channels operate more like a conversation, and using the shouting techniques of the traditional sectors will kill your site stone dead. Instead, communicating in social media is about cultivating online relationships by getting people, not always customers, to becoming supporters of your business. They may choose to support your business because they like you, they think the product’s funky, or because their friends like you or your products or for any other of a million possible reasons. In many ways this suits smaller businesses that operate on local reputations and word of mouth##—##especially because most of us don’t have the funds, or the brash personalities, to run loud, abrasive advertising campaigns on TV or radio.

    Facebook

    With more than 500 million users at the end of 2010, and looking at a potential stock market value of over $50 billion dollars, Facebook has become an internet force to be reckoned with. The Facebook platform has a number of quirks and features that make it unique on the internet.

    At the core of Facebook is your network of friends##—##not necessarily people you know in real life, but folk you have agreed to become Facebook friends with. Your friends can communicate with you, see information you have chosen to keep private from most of the world and invite you to join their games, groups and causes. Those friends can also post on your Wall, which is the first screen you see when you go into your Facebook account. The Wall keeps you up to date with everything your friends are doing, including what they Like.

    The ‘Like’ button appears on every page or update on Facebook: if you like something someone has said or done, you click the button and your likes will go onto all your friends’ Walls.

    Facebook does not allow businesses to set up personal profiles. Instead, businesses have to set up a Facebook Page, which is free and can be customised to suit your business.

    Probably the best thing about Facebook for the smaller business is that it’s a great channel for announcing events and products. However, the service also has the benefits of building up a base of friends and customers. Using it to track customer complaints and the performance of products shouldn’t be discounted, either, as unhappy clients will post messages to your Wall.

    To set up a Facebook Page go to <www.facebook.com/pages> and click the ‘Create page’ button in the top left hand corner. This will take you to the ‘Create a Page’ screen, which gives you the choice of the type of page you prefer.

    For most business owners, the choice is between ‘Local business’ or ‘Place of interest’ and ‘Company, organisation or institution’ although ‘Product or brand’ can be appropriate if you are launching an individual product.

    When you choose one of the Page options, a sub-screen will appear asking for your basic details, such as location and phone number. Once those questions are answered, you will have your basic Facebook Page set up.

    From there, you can upload your logo and any other pictures, videos and links to your or other people’s interesting websites in a similar way to that described for local business directories (see chapter 2). Try to keep your information consistent across the different platforms.

    Even if you don’t take social media or Facebook seriously, it’s worthwhile checking the page at least every week, just to see what people are saying. If you have something useful to add, such as a special offer or a new product, make sure it goes onto the page.

    You can customise your pages with backgrounds and landing pages, which can be complex to set up but effective. More detailed Facebook stategies are discussed later (see chapter 16), but a basic Facebook Page with regular updates is usually enough to get many businesses started.

    LinkedIn

    Facebook is the general community site, while LinkedIn is more focused on business and recruitment. At its most basic, LinkedIn is like an online CV, where people post their work experience and make connections with people they have worked and dealt with.

    LinkedIn also allows you to set up a company page, and that’s worthwhile, particularly if you stage business-oriented events or if you’re recruiting. A company page gives current and previous employees, suppliers or contractors the opportunity to link to your business and follow your news.

    Like Facebook, setting up a LinkedIn company page is a straight forward process of filling in key details about your business. As LinkedIn is checked by Google it’s a good opportunity to improve the business’ search engine visibility. Typing in similar details to those you entered for Google Local and True Local in the previous chapter is the best way to use LinkedIn well.

    If your business mainly deals with other big commercial organisations, government departments or professional groups, then you will find LinkedIn is a particularly powerful tool. Having a comprehensive, up-to-date profile is an indicator to big clients that you are serious in the online space.

    Flickr

    The main purpose of Flickr is photo sharing. Over time,it has also become a powerful social media platform as like-minded people gather online to share photos and interests. Photos posted on Flickr often aren’t directly related to the business, but one landscape gardener actually gets business from his wildlife photos. It’s more typical that a reception hall might have photos of weddings, and an entertainer will have photos of their performances.

    Naturally photographers and artists use the photo sharing sites to display their portfolios. There’s nothing to stop you posting pictures of work you’re proud of as a concreter, hairdresser or caterer — just remember to get permission from your client if they can be identified from a photo.

    Flickr, and the other photo-sharing sites, can be a very good way to build a community and fan base around your organisation. If you like taking photos, your hobby can become a useful part of your business.

    For business, it’s straightforward to set up a Flickr profile by visiting the www.flickr.com , setting up a new account and then posting photos relating to your business. With a link to your website in the profile page you’re creating an online profile that is going to attract the interests of the search engines while spreading the word about your business.

    YouTube

    Another surprising social media platform is YouTube, the video-sharing service. Many businesses are shooting videos to post on YouTube to promote their products.

    Like other social media channels, loud advertisements for the business don’t work on this platform, while instructional and informational videos do well while also promoting the business.

    A great example of this is Jim the Realtor, a San Diego–based real estate agent who has become famous for taking videos of his inspections and travels around southern California. As well as being entertaining, he gives many good hints on what to watch for in badly constructed homes, overhanging powerlines and various vendor tricks.

    Often successful businesses on YouTube, like Jim’s, don’t spend a lot of money on production — though if you have the budget, skills and equipment to do a high quality video it won’t hurt. However, the experience seems to be that online viewers aren’t fussed about picture quality when watching videos on a computer or smart phone

    Twitter

    Probably the most hyped social media tool through 2009 and 2010, Twitter has become the darling of the media industry, with marketers, public relations firms and journalists flocking to the service. Twitter allows people to send messages from their computers or mobile phones that are no longer than 140 characters, forcing senders, known as tweeps, or twits, to be witty and concise.

    Twitter’s attractions are that it’s a good way to tune into what people you find interesting think, and share their thoughts, ideas and news. As a communication tool, Twitter is as much about listening as talking, so it’s a great news delivery tool.

    For businesses, Twitter can be an awkward tool to use, as it’s probably the biggest time sink on the internet. If you do find really interesting people to follow, you can easily find yourself immersed for the entire day reading fascinating, but totally irrelevant, websites.

    For startup businesses, it’s usually best to sign up to Twitter as a marketing tool, then check in regularly to check what customers are saying about you and what important people are saying about your industry. As you begin to understand how Twitter works and what your circles are like, you can then start posting product announcements, communicating with customers and contributing to the conversations you find interesting.

    Setting up a Twitter account is extremely easy. Click on the yellow Signup button at the top of the Twitter webpage to set the page up; choose a user name##—##preferably your business name or something very close to it; and put in your email address.

    Once you have set up a page in Twitter, you can choose to customise the look and feel of your page using the same techniques described for the other social media platforms (see chapter 2). You can also set up your website to automatically feed new information into Twitter as it’s posted.

    Conclusion

    Social media tools are a good way of getting online for free, as well as being an adequate substitute for smaller or cash-strapped businesses that don’t want their own website##—##although I recommend that every business spends a bit of time setting up a site.

    To have a successful presence in social media requires having something useful to say, so you need to have the platform to say something, and that’s a basic website, which can be created using free website blogging tools (see chapter 4).

    Checklist for social media

    • Have you chosen a user name close to your business name?
    • Have you included unique pictures and videos in your profile?
    • Have you linked your social media sites to your other web presences, particularly if you have a website?
    • Remember to use social media to listen: your fans and your critics will be there so social media provides a valuable listening post.
    • Remember to take care not to be sucked into spending too much time online.
    • Remember to try to avoid mixing personal and business in your online presence.
    • Remember not to use social media when you’re angry, upset or drunk.
    Like to learn more? eBu$iness is available at all good book sellers and online through the John Wiley website.

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