Strategies to Handle Customer Service over Twitter

Now that businesses are starting to embrace Twitter, there have been some fascinating examples of great customer service.  Ford Motor Company is helping customers find parts, solving problems with accessories, and escalating customer service requests.  Comcast appears to be the Gold Standard with their Comcast Cares account which is solving customer problems with equipment, answering [...]

Is Social Media a Management Breakthrough or Fad? Part 4

BusinessWeek’s March 23-30, 2009 issue focuses on Smart Ideas for Tough Times which describes how managers are trying new things to weather the downturn.  The most interesting part of the series covers 11 management ideas that are the basics of any business education, but were quite revolutionary at the time. This 4 part series (See [...]

Is Social Media a Management Breakthrough or Fad? Part 3

BusinessWeek’s March 23-30, 2009 issue focuses on Smart Ideas for Tough Times which describes how managers are trying new things to weather the downturn.  The most interesting part of the series covers 11 management ideas that are the basics of any business education, but were quite revolutionary at the time. This 4 part series (See [...]

Is Social Media a Management Breakthrough or Fad? Part 2

BusinessWeek’s March 23-30, 2009 issue focuses on Smart Ideas for Tough Times which describes how managers are trying new things to weather the downturn.  The most interesting part of the series covers 11 management ideas that are the basics of any business education, but were quite revolutionary at the time. This 4 part series (See [...]

No Forbes, CEOs should not “Facebook” or “Twitter”

Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta write an ambiguous, bland, and wrong piece on Forbes.com about the need for CEOs to use Social Networking technologies.  Their seemingly decent argument cites Web 2.0 Evangelists (no one particular, just the “evangelists” in general) who apparently claim the following: Web 2.0 evangelists, on the other hand, argue that social [...]

Matrix for Staffing a Social Media Initiative

Download Slides Here Diversity of skills and experience is key to making a Social Media Initiative stick.  Many companies rush to staff a social media initiative by assembling a diverse team across functions, experience, and interests.  However, companies need a balance of skills to succeed and often sway to the extremes by staffing either ALL [...]

3 Reasons to Recognize Your Employees Over Twitter

I’ve seen a couple tweets pop up from managers recognizing employees for a great job. Rochelle Grayson started some thoughts back in May of last year, that I thought should be built upon. First and Foremost, It SHOULD NEVER replace the handwritten note made famous by Jack Welch, but for quick “atta-boys” or “atta-girls”, it can go a long way.

3 Org Chart Structures for Social Media

I’ve heard of Social Media being aligned in a bunch of different functions across the organization.  In a perfect world, Social Media is its own function with the leader reporting directly to the CEO.  But…we’re not quite there yet.  TheSocialOrganization.com had a great post about corporate initiatives being staffed in its own “function”, but until [...]

6 Questions to Ask a Social Media Team

What are 6 questions to ask your organization’s Social Media team. In other words, if you were tapped to help a group organize a social media strategy, what questions should you ask “at a general level” to learn more about the group. Here are some ideas I came up with…ask them, and you’ll be surprised at the answers you hear if you ask these questions.

2 Corporate Initiatives that offer Lessons to Social Media

Social Media is a hot topic in the corporate world, but many employees are skeptical of the value it can add to their business.  By viewing Social Media in the context of two recent corporate initiatives (Six Sigma and Innovation ), leaders can learn from a historical management perspective of how to implement the radical [...]