July 27th, 2010 — 6:06am
I had an enjoyable chat over coffee with Anol and Josh from B2Bento last evening. Among other topics, we spoke and debated about how ‘social media’ can be an organisational tool to encourage employees to be advocates of their employer’s brand. I got stumped over a few tough questions, but nothing is more enjoyable than intellectual stimulation.
Among Anol’s many questions, one particularly touched the very foundation of my arguments for enhancing social connectivity in the workplace. Here it is, paraphrased.
| What then is the winning formula to encourage employees to speak openly and favourably of their employers’ brand? How do you create employee brand ambassadors? |
Continue reading »
2 comments » | Management & Leadership, Marketing 2.0
July 25th, 2010 — 10:24am
Ever wonder what’s the fuss about social media? Why is it important to understand social media’s impact on how we communicate and share information? And the fact that, just like the internet and email, the social and technological changes brought about by social media are irreversible?
Look Who’s Back
For the second year running, the folks from Six Degrees are back to present Social Media World Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore. This year’s event promises to be bigger than last year’s and will present a host of speakers from many sides of the social media story.
Continue reading »
Comment » | Social Media
July 25th, 2010 — 12:01am
| This post first appeared in an internal employee ‘email-cast’ by yours truly. Adapted for general reading. |
Singaporeans like to complain, right?
We complain about everything! Why is it flooding in Orchard Road? Why are MRT fares expensive? Why watching World Cup on cable is so expensive? Why is the weather so hot/cold? Okay lah, let’s say we call these: ‘feedback‘.
Now look at the photo on the right. This is the message from the video display screens around Gatwick Airport in London:
Continue reading »
Comment » | Customer Service, People Development
July 22nd, 2010 — 11:31am
Daniel Pink has a big compelling statement to make:
There’s a mismatch between what science knows
and what business does. |
Pink is the author of the best-selling book ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us’, a study that argues long-held conventional beliefs in human motivation are actually hampering effective, high performance.
This is a continuation on my series of posts that discusses the intrinsic needs of employees in a new social environment that is increasingly connected through digital means and how businesses can relook its stance on employees’ engagement in social media and derive positive branding opportunities along the way. Pink’s works and ideas have been a huge recent inspiration and motivation for me to continue discussing the need of social engagement through digital means, especially within organisations, in achieving business objectives.
Now what exactly does science knows and business is doing wrong?
Continue reading »
Comment » | Business, Management & Leadership, People Development
July 19th, 2010 — 5:23pm
After letting the previous post run happy (
Happy Employees = Best Brand Ambassadors), I received a tweet question from
@thangdynasty thrown into the mix:
| What about monetary incentives? Do you think these will taint or complement the positive effects of the rise in social currency? |
The Short Answer
The Beatles said it best. Money can’t buy you love.
That is my sole conviction. Just as the practice of paying bloggers in dollars to endorse products is a thorny and questionable issue, providing employees with monetary incentives to engage on the social web comes with considerable risks to reputations, both employer’s and employees’. The integrity of the corporate and personal brands will be questioned. Don’t forget, we are dealing with social media, everyone is ready to pounce on you at the whiff of a questionable practice or the slightest mistake (see Google search results on ‘I Hate Tiger Airways’).
Furthermore, to quote Daryl Tay:
‘Will paying get the same kind of emotions and authenticity? Will your paid post even be remembered a week from today?’
But I know you will still ask, why would employees openly and willingly talk about their employers on social media when they are not compensated for it?
Continue reading »
4 comments » | Management & Leadership, Social Media
July 12th, 2010 — 12:00pm
Brenda Neckvatal asked on LinkedIn Answers:
‘Can treating employees like customers increase job satisfaction?’
The Satisfied Employee
Here’s my initial response to Brenda’s question (with edits):
| It is crucial that we treat employees as ‘internal customers‘. Making that differentiation can make a lot of difference to how they perceive their jobs/roles and contribution to the company. Job satisfaction will equate to retaining of talents and knowledge assets, which is something a lot of managers are grappling with (especially in a positive economy). |
Peter Drucker said ‘management’s duty is to preserve the assets of the institution in its care’*. In that respect, all employees must be equally treated with the same care typically reserved for customers. In today’s information-producing workplaces, even more importance and care must be given to increasingly-mobile employees. Unlike the manual worker (who peddles his strength and energy), today’s information-driven employees retain their practice’s knowledge and developed skills and sought to bring them along to the next employer (and, in some cases, including knowledge of the ex-employer’s strategic and operational secrets).
Continue reading »
1 comment » | Branding, Management & Leadership, Social Media
July 8th, 2010 — 7:04am
Rakesh Ojha asked this Twitter question on LinkedIn Answers recently:
How to Increase Twitter followers?
Which of the two is a good strategy to increase Twitter followers for business purpose and not play number game?
1) Follow large number of members who will follow you in return to increase your followers.
2) Tweet interesting topics, value insights so that others automatically follow you.
I understand initially you need to follow people to allow for others to follow you but in the long run which strategy you will adopt to increase your followers. I mean real followers who can actually be beneficial to your business later on or you can benefit from them.
Will you follow twit(s) (Somebody who uses twitter) who will never follow you?
A fair number of people on LinkedIn mentioned ‘Buy your Twitter followers on eBay’ and I totally agree with that. It is fairly easy to increase your followers count if you are really keen on doing that and there are published methodologies on how to go about doing it. An example, certain keywords that you tweet on will somehow automatically get you followers, for instance, ‘social media’, ‘holidays’ and the very popular ‘sex’.
Continue reading »
Comment » | Social Media
July 5th, 2010 — 11:07am
Sometime in 2006, I started to frequent a Malay barber guy in Race Course Road, close to where I used to live on Petain Road. Operating out of a shop underneath a HDB block, the joint has probably seen better days; it is now sparse and functional. Three of them (all in their 50s) worked out of the same premises and it took me a while to get comfortable with one particular guy. Other than being cheap (SG$8 per trim), a haircut at the barber gets the job done quickly and efficiently, none of the fussiness of the salon and its army of stylists.
My Malay barber’s a quiet man. Apart from pleasantries, Vespa stories and the weather, we hardly got personal. But all the same, my sessions with this guy had been very pleasant. We had a well-established, mutually-beneficial relationship. His colleagues knew that and respected this relationship well to never court me to sit in their chairs, even if the place was swarmed. I was this guy’s regular and loyal customer.
Continue reading »
6 comments » | Business, Customer Service, Marketing 2.0
