Tag:

Facebook is a social media channel, a giant window to communication with your friends, peers, customers and the unknown. This service is open 24 hrs. The majority of Awoque’s clients contact us to get help primarily with their current Facebook-page or to establish their own presence there. And could the page be ready tomorrow? (A quick fix.)

How often does that work? I had a great quote from a network collegue today in Göteborg. “My mom asks me how working with Facebook can be a job?” From the day I started my professional carrier working with online media in 1998, I have had to answer the same question. I have had to motivate my skills and the reasons any new invention is a paid service since there are ways to get it free by doing yourself or getting the help of family member. I wonder how many other business professionals in other fields feels the same way?

My answer to all is of course:
- It takes talent, skillful strategy and a little bit of luck to get it done professionally, to really stand the best of chances or at least increase the chances that the campaign, launch of service etc reaches the set business goals. On Facebook, you need to establish relationships and really listen before you act and start selling.

On Tuesday the Swedish newspaper Computer Sweden published an article on the subject with the name – build relationships on Facebook, stop direct sales on this topic.

What do you think?

The past few years Facebook (and other channels) for businesses, have more or less been the domain of marketing departments. However, customer support managers and their teams are also getting involved.

For companies looking to harness social media, channels such as Facebook and Twitter can serve as an alternate customer support channel, providing customers with access to customer cervices (Live Chat, Click to Call, etc), frequently asked questions,product reviews, customer groups, store locations, etc.

Today a number of companies around the world are using, or switching to social channels to provide better customer and after sales support/experiences. As we are based in Sweden, we’d like to acknowledge a few companies we think are doing a good job.

SEB
SEB is a Swedish based bank that uses Facebook to extend their customer support and they do it very well. They have a team of dedicated staff monitoring and answering customer queries. It is fast becoming the support channel of choice for their socially savvy customers.

SEB Facebook Support

Binero

Binero, is a web hotel company based in Kista that has extended their customer support to Twitter. Binero answer any question, no matter what it is. They are quick at responding, will call you back if you leave your number and the service is available 7 days week (open times are posted on their Twitter account). You can also see the people who answer your questions in the Tweetologer.

Binero Twitter Support

SJ
SJ is Sweden’s state run train company, which is using Facebook to imprrove their customer service.

O.k, if you live in Sweden you are probably shocked to see SJ in this list. True the company has had serious issues. However, I have placed them in the list as an example of a company facing their issues head on. Most companies are afraid of negative comments but SJ are using social media to answer customer complaints. Hopefully, SJ not only respond to complaints but act on them too.

SJ Facebook Support

On another note, it is also very important for companies to consider how social media support services integrates into their existing customer support processes, in order to avoid inefficiencies and increased costs.

If you want to understand how social media can be used to enhance your customer support services give us a call.

Finally Friday!

In this week’s Friday Fun we want to share an old IBM advert for social networking. The advert shows the importance of finding what you want, when you want it.

A big issue amongst many companies today is spending large amounts of time connecting with everyone and everything. Filtering and selection tools for social media and social networking have therefore become immensely important. These tools enable companies to be much more effective at locating valuable resources that fit their specific requirements, whilst providing a return on investment. Instead of wasting time finding irrelevant information.

We would like to send a high five to IBM who where amongst the first companies to realize the potential in using social networking from the get go.

If you are interested in “Why” your organisation should use social networking adjustable to your needs, gives us a call.

Social Media and web 2.0 for many organisations raise a lot of questions. Especially, as social networking and communities change the way we work, shop, socialise and share ideas and information. But how much of this translates into your day-to-day business?

Today, Awoque brought together a group of business leaders with experts in social media, social media analysis and search engine optimization, to help explore and answer their key social media questions.

Why is this a Friday Fun topic? Well because it was a fantastic, fun and informative event. Due to the fact that at Awoque, we understand people’s need to be social. We inject this into everything we do. Next time you or your organisation hosts an event, think about how you will engage with your audience, what you what you want them to experience, more importantly how you will follow up.

Today, we made a whole lot of fans. Not because we answered all their questions on social media but because we wanted them all to have a great experience. High 5 Friday!

How do you measure your results? Do you know from what sources your fans find their way to your page? How much time the fans spend looking around? These and many more features, can be measured and tracked with Google Analytics.

Most online activities can be measured and analysed in more detail than traditional offline media. This is why I love the online industry. I like the fact that we can prove a point, show where we have created traffic and interest for a various set of clients. We can tell them where their fans can be found, how they move around on the blog/site, find them around the globe, show points of interest etc. For clients with excisting sites, we can build and relaunch more social websites based on facts.

Driving and measuring traffic includes many various aspects. During the spring, we will continue sharing some of our thoughts on the matter and share customer cases. Please ask us questions.

Tonight I got a happy image when I saw this summary for one of our clients during the past week, the blog from World Transplant Games.

What can we do for you?

Time to sum up another “High Five-week” at Awoque. Each day, we learn new things and evolve with them. That is what an entrepreneurial company does. We try though, to stay focused on great people, gathering positive energy, to deliver fantastic results . Then we shorten the link between our client’s and their fans through appropriate communication channels, social media tools and technical devices. But sometimes, just sometimes, funny things happen.

If you use a smartphone, you will know what I mean, especially if you have auto correct on. Sometimes the function helps a lot but sometimes (or even most times) it creates fuzz and misunderstandings. I have been frustrated many times since I recieived my Iphone on this point. However, I finally got the hang of it – simply tripple check everything you write

Here are some stories that show my point, enjoy and happy weekend ; )!

Tonight, I am almost speechless. What a day?! “High Five” from from the breakfast meeting with intelligent people from Swerea to reading the last e-mail I got around 4 pm from a new client. It started with High Five ! Say no more. I need to sit down. Enjoy this YouTube video with me about defining innovation and taking your dream a bit further. What is your passion?

Tonight I am preparing for a morning session, workshop on “Why” for our online/social media project with Swerea. Not only, by researching and selecting great inspirational videos from YouTube but showing them a piece of me. We will discuss the powers of passion and how to create a lasting reason to keep the project going and increase interest from others than our group. I thought, I would trigger the morning dialogue with a taste of my evening and weekend hobby- baking bread.

For us at Awoque, we want our clients to feel like home, relax and and enjoy the adventure we initiated together. I look forward to our discussions, new insights and the result of course that we can show you here on our blog as well as the clients.

How do you work to welcome your clients?

When I market and try to describe Twitter to new and current clients, I usually say that it is an online application that adds extra spice and a new dimension of interaction to all your events, dailly activities and subjects that you like to follow. I do not agree with certain talk about Twitter not becoming a sustainable online tool here in Sweden. On the contrary, Twitter is here to stay! Even if 10 % tweet 80% of all content spread, stated in a survey by Intellecta. Some use their voices more and drive the conversations, others follow, listen and comment every once in a while.

Here is good example on how to drive traffic during a current event:

On Saturday, my favorite music show finally started, Melodifestivalen, Sweden´s try outs for Eurovision song contest. Again I am impressed with the various social media activities they do but mostly by the comments on Twitter. Most of us die-hard-core fans used (the hashtag) #mel2011 to bundle our thoughts in one place. During the contest we could discuss the songs, the clothes, the acts and the announcers. We – the fans- ask each other questions and make predictions for the next coming competion on Saturday. Some commentators are hillarious such as Annika Lantz, Ebba von Sydow, Jonas Gardell.Melodifestivalen keeps increasing in popularity each year. The first episode was seen by over 3 million (!).

If you want to know how Twitter works, check this great help manual. To join the conversation you have 140 characters at your disposal. If you want more help, do not hesitate to get in touch.