Monday 17 August 2015

Customer centric messaging is key to Social Media

I have had the opportunity to attend an array of  training seminars accompanied by lots of eager business people, anxious to learn the tools of marketing and social media for business.
After a short while and particularly in the Question and Answer sessions it becomes apparent that the zero minus one question has not been answered.
What do I mean by zero minus one?? Whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Blogs , even after all this time, there is still an assumption that if you get your story out there good things will happen.
I began designing marketing campaigns with brochures designed, developed and posted but no matter the methodology the purpose is the same .
This is about engagement with new or existing customers and social media has become an industry , sometimes using delusionary tactics, where clients are convinced that in and of itself Social media is key to success.
Horses for courses is my motto. If you know your target audience..not always!! if you have engaged with them about their issues...and if you have engaged that you have a solution to their problems social media starts to work.
I see blogs that are three years old, newsletters so out of date they are meaningless so why expect an audience to be interested if your own company isn't

Skills assessment : Fact or Fiction??

Organisational development and skills assessment has hit my to do list again. In the SME and Corporate world there is a need to ensure that the skills sets and business processes are in line with the needs of the business.
It never ceases to amaze me though, that the way in which this is done varies considerably between businesses, and the criteria for deciding what works can be arbitrary to say the least.
Applying 360 degree assessments to a lifestyle business where everyone built their skills around volunteering to do tasks and learning on the job leads to the inevitable missing link.The issue becomes the  lack of definition of what good looks like.
We start off judging and categorising people in terms of their usefulness but not what the business actually needs and therefore assessing all employees in a grading and pay structure that works both for the business and the individual is vital to make genuine productivity gains.
Repeatability of performance, Right First Time customer service and profit growth are the ultimate measures of how successful a business is, but leaving people development to chance can lead to significant problems