PR Cogitations

Ironically enough, I’m here posting today because I’ve been struck down by a cold. Funny, how illness affects productivity. I definitely needed to update so here it goes. I had a recent job interview and in that interview I was asked, “How would you drive traffic to our blog?” I have to say I immediately knew that I had some work to do because I honestly never think about blogging in these terms. I’m surprised that I ran into this, maybe I shouldn’t be.

I gave them the old “build relationships not lists” background in my own words adapted from my buddy Zoe Siskos that I always like. It’s difficult to answer some of these types of questions being entry-level and all. I don’t always have the language to convey the idea or thought that I want to in a concrete, concise manner (on the spot no less). Being interviewed by several people at once also didn’t help matters. Finding my own voice (and being comfortable with it) has taken me longer than I anticipated.

If I had the opportunity to answer the question again, I’d come right out and say it: “Who CARES how many eyeballs you reach if they don’t do anything with the information you send them?” (That’s courtesy of KD Paine.) I need my own personal KD Paine I think!

If nothing else, I’ve learned that when talk gets to social media, often you’re going to be doing double duty: getting people to realize it’s not a numbers game *and* the old rules on metrics don’t apply, social media ROI just isn’t the same as traditional marketing or public relations.

I watched maybe like 5 minutes of a show on CNBC just the other day before the channel got changed (I didn’t have the remote) but I was so inspired I wanted to write - so there’s the m.o. for this post today.

The two key messages that I heard resounded strongly with me:

• Right now, in the middle of rising prices and economic uncertainty is the best time to be “aspirational” about whatever you’re passionate about
• Don’t let others define success for you

I personally needed to hear that in my situation. I’m unemployed, my least favourite condition probably in the world. Seriously, I’m probably a bear to deal with. I’m working on changing that situation but it takes, time, patience and the right combination of chemistry. You’ve probably noticed the increase in my blog activity and this is a key driver. I put my energy into blogging because it’s one of the things in my life I’m passionate about. I don’t blog for monetary gain, I blog because I get off on the information all of you send back to me.

Thinking back to school and guest speakers, this in-between work and school period was something most glossed over or just willfully chose to ignore. I guess they didn’t want to crap on our enthusiasm or something. It’s not a fun time for sure. I’m not going to sugar coat it for any future PR students out there who might read this. It’s difficult and I don’t have all the answers at this point (I’ll post hindsights when that time comes). What I will say is that it’s a time for intense introspection and personal growth on other fronts. Many graduates choose to travel or do some sort of service and I think that’s awesome. I personally am taking on some pro-bono tasks to add to my resume.

More that I think that for me, this time has forced me to delve into what I think of when I think of success for myself. I don’t have the answer, but the idea has been planted. I think success can start with an idea? What do you think?

Were you getting tired of the same-ol’ CRM? Were you also wondering what Doc Searls (read: click the link and check out the video) is up to these days post-Cluetrain Manifesto? Then, I highly recommend you explore Project VRM or follow VRM on Twitter to get the latest updates on the projects.

VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) is the customer’s answer to CRM. Why should companies have all the fun collecting data? Once someone comes up with a viable system, you too will be able to collect information on companies and send out your own version of an RFP to suit whatever need or want you desire to fulfill. Implications for the current model most people use for Social Media? You bet. Can your relationship with your public sustain the change when the customers are running around all free-range-like around the farm (that is the economy avec competitors) choosing with whom they share their data to the way they choose to do business with you?

In the future we may be able to say something like: “Have your CRM call my VRM and we’ll do lunch.”

¡Disculpame si hay algunas equivocaciónes grammaticas, el español no es mi idoma maternal! Gracias.

Yo quería saber mas de la situación de social media en español. Yo encontré que las idiomas son gran barreras porque los terminos de SM han escrito en ingles. ¿Como podemos conversar? Es posíble tener la misma significación? Pues, fíjate que no. Son conceptos en la idoma español y la cultura hispana que no tienen iguales en ingles. Es logico que hay personas que quieren cambiar la “conversación” para ellas mismas. Especialmente, si la conversación en question tiene mas significaciónes y los términos en ingles no tiene el mismo impacto. Somos comunicadores, es muy importante, no crees?

Me imaginaría que es como una catchetada cuando no puedes comunicar en una forma familiar o en la site mas caliente no puedes selecciónar el español. Tambien, puede ser una barrera de adoptacion mundial, una equivocación estrategica. Pienso que puedes convertar mas personas si la media es mas accesible para todas personas, bilingües o no. Para me, aprendí un nuevo concepto, en lugar de social media, puedes usar los terminos “medios comunitarios” o “medios sociales”.

Me gusto mucho de tus opinones, cuentamelas..en español o ingles.

English

I wanted to more about the social media situation in the Spanish speaking world. I found there are large barriers between the languages because the social media terms are written in English. How are we going to converse like that? Do the words have the same meanings? Well, I don’t think so. There are concepts in Spanish and Hispanic culture that have no equals in English. It’s logical that there are people that want to change the conversation to suit themselves. Especially, if the conversations have more meanings than the English words can convey, they don’t have the same impact. We’re communicators. It’s very important, right?

I would imagine it’s a slap when you cannot communicate in a familiar fashion or you cannot select Spanish in the new hot site. Also, it may be a barrier to global adoption [of SM], a strategic mistake. I think you can convert more people if the medium is more accessible for everyone, bilingual or not. For me, I learned something new, instead of social media, you can use “medios comunitarios” or “medios sociales.”

I really like your opinions so tell me them. In English or Spanish.

I initially had some reservations about twitter. However, some encouragement by Rayanne Langdon changed my mind and I signed on and have been a faithful twit ever since.

Recently, I’ve had some random people following me and that cool (really it is). Normally, I go through and check to see if there would be any reason why someone would follow me (industry, proximity, etc) and 9 times out of 10, I get it and I’m cool with it. Sometimes, I get someone though who’s following like 70,000 people (seriously). Now, I’m all for being up in the “conversation” but seriously that’s a bit crazy. There is no way on God’s Green Earth that you can manage relationships with 70,000 people.

This is how I figure out if I’m going to follow someone on Twitter:

• Large # of Followers > Small # Following = probable influencer (probably will follow back)

• Large # Following < Small # of Followers = probable twammage (probably not)

• Relatively even numbers of both = investigate and decide

To me, social media and networking in general is more than a numbers game. It’s quality over quantity though I want to be as open as I can before I decide on anything.

Agree/disagree? I’d love to hear some thoughts.

I had a very interesting experience with XM Radio Canada today. I’ve come away more bewildered than anything. The dialogue with the rep went something like this:

Him: “Thank you for calling XM Radio Canada, how can I help you?”
Me: “Yes, hello. I’d like to disconnect my service.”
Him: “Is it financial?”
Me: “Um, what?”
Him: “Is it a financial reason that you want to cancel your account?”
Me: “No, no. I’m just finding I’m not using as much as I thought I would.”
Him:”Well, I might be able to change the amount your paying.”
Me: “Oh, um. I don’t know..”
Him:”Well, how are you paying now? Quarterly?”
Me: “I’m not sure, I don’t remember. I just got a charge for 47.xx? Is that quarterly?”
Him:”Yep, that’s quarterly.”
Me: “Oh ok.”
Him:”You know when we talk money, funny how most people come around.”
Me: (shocked/offended): “Oh, really?”
Him: “Ok so what’s your phone number?”
Me: (gave current phone number)
Him: “Nope, I don’t find anything under that.”
Me: “Ok, well (give old phone number).
Him: “I found you. I’ll change your information to your current phone number.”
Me: “Oh, well I’m moving again so I’ll just give you another number.”
Him: (sing-songy) “Shall we dance? Shall we dance?”
Me: “Sorry?!”
Him: “Shall we dance?” “Ok, I’ll go ahead and change it to that other number.”
Me: “Ok, thank you.”
Him:(rapid fire): “Ok, so what I’ve done is I’ve lowered your amount to $15 and you’ll be charged $15 again for the next quarter sometime in August.”
Me: “Great, so um, you’re charging me $15 in August?”
Him: (continued rapid fire) “Yep, and we’re giving back $30 to your credit card for this quarter and you’ll be charged $15 in August and you’ll be able to renegotiate again after that time for the following quarter.”
Me: “Ok, I’ll just write that down”
Him: (cutting me off) “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Me: “No, thank you. You’ve been very helpful”.
Him: “Great, I’m glad I’ve beeen verry helpful, sir. Thank you for calling XM Radio.”
Me: “Thank you. Buh-bye”
Him: (sing-songy) “Bye bye”

So, I’m happy that I got the rate lowered although I didn’t set out to do that. I was kind of offended that he automatically went there with money when I was really not using the service as much as I thought I was. I’m a bit pissed that they just don’t give you the best rate regardless, I don’t want to dicker around to be honest. $47 vs. $15 per quarter is a big difference. Why not just provide the service for that cost?

I was put off by the informality of his tone. I’m not confident that he did everything he said he was going to do for me. I want friendly too, but this was greasy friendly. Like, “I’m doing you a favour because your broke ass cannot afford XM” kind of favour. I’m not sure where he got that from. Maybe most young people use that excuse when calling to cancel. Come to think of it, why should you have to use an excuse to cancel service? Being friendly and telling me about services that might fit me better for a better deal would work better as a strategy, I get where they’re going but insinuating I’m having financial troubles - not a good tactic to support that strategy.

I won’t even go there about the maze of 1s and 2s I had to get to talk to a human being.

In the end, I was happy that they empowered their staff to resolve a problem on the first call and no transfers (Bell Canada could use a lesson there) but I didn’t like the manner in which they went about it. Every contact is a story - I’m not sure I like this story. I wonder if they’ve ever heard of post-deal remorse and to close the deal means taking the time to reassure a customer they’ve done the right thing and the right thing will be done by them. I didn’t get that warm feeling this time. Maybe if I had, I would not have felt this experience was post-worthy.

(Also, I just realized after writing all this that my address wasn’t up-to-date either. I will probably go online and fix that myself.)

As promised, I wanted to give an update on NotchUp. I was indeed accepted to Notch Up, a social networking site for job seekers and prospective employers. I still find it hard that someone will be willing to pay $200 (my chosen dollar amount) to interview me, but we’ll see. I’m thinking it’s heavily US-based so being in Canada might be a bit of a disadvantage in testing its efficacy.

It was pretty easy to set up and it feels a lot like LinkedIn. I tried to see if they were related but couldn’t make a complete connection. In any case, I ported the PDF file of my LinkedIn resume and imported it into NotchUp. I definitely had to do some tweaking and I’m still not happy with the profile because it doesn’t allow for proper spacing to make the visual “feel” right. Also, they didn’t have my school Niagara College listed, I had to manually put it in, a somewhat cumbersome process. It’s still in “beta” as most things are these days but if you fiddle around with it you can get it to work. It’s definitely not a seamless import process. Note: you can also import other file versions of your resume: .doc, .pdf, among others

What I do like about this site is that they don’t disclose your name to potential interviewers. Instead, they use a blind process and give you a number (like 893323 - not my real number) and that’s put in places where your name would normally be when you see your own logged in view. Definitely useful to reduce the potential for discriminatory hiring.

If you’re an acquaintance or friend (I do have some ya know) and you’re curious about using the site, drop me an email to josephwilburn at gmail dot com and I’ll send you an invite. You get to go around the application process and are automatically accepted and I get 10% of your asking price if you get an interview. Fun!

I’ve been officially unemployed for a week now that my internship ended. I’m cool with it. I haven’t had much time off in the last several…years..and so the break is well-received. Apart from recession anxiety, I’m keeping things low key and just seeing what is out there.

Anyway, to the point of this post. I found a site called Notch Up. It’s a social networking site that purports to bring recruiters and job seekers together and the bonus is the job seeker gets paid what normally would have been the “finders fee.” Cool. I’m game. Apparently, things like how prestigious your employers and education were, etc. make a difference in whether you are approved or not. Well, I graduated from a top 50 US National University um..a few years ago..and I’ve been in the workforce a bit. In any case, it takes 3 business days to see if your application has been “approved.”

Meh, I’m not expecting much but I figure..nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’m not usually in need of “approval” in fact I’m kind of anti-approval. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to post about this topic. But, I think it’s pertinent and maybe someone will find value or empowerment from it. Here goes: I’ve found a recurring reaction lately when I tell people who I am, where I’ve come from, and what I’m about. I’m surprised at this reaction because these are people who work in PR and should, by definition, understand the “public” part of PR. The reaction? Oh..fear, disgust, and bewilderment at the fact that I have come from the call centre and trying to make it in PR. Ok, I might exaggerate a bit — but not much. Maybe people don’t find it to be relevant experience, but in actual fact, it is.

Most people in marketing and public relations are personally afraid of making a bad impression. Of course, that makes sense. We’re in the business of impression-making and if you cannot practice what you preach on a personal level then it’s hard to demonstrate to a client we can do better by them than we can by our own selves. I’d also argue we are also afraid of discovering a bad impression being made by our organizations as well.

It take guts to confront a bad impression and skill to turn it into a positive one. It’s easy to hide behind silos and not deal with things and keep the “public” at arm’s length outside while we stay safe behind security doors. I’m not sure where the fear exactly comes from. For me, the fear of having someone try to completely rip you to shreds doesn’t really faze me (if that’s one issue). Your public will ask the hard questions. They will be blunt and they will require honesty and transparency. Think about it: Isn’t it frustrating to get a “non-answer” when you call in for assistance? Sure it is. Call centre workers understand your frustration. Believe me, the good ones are frustrated for you when they cannot complete your transaction or provide you want you want or need - because “rules and procedures” leave our hands tied. I’ve worked in negative customer service environments and positive ones. I can tell you unequivocally that the people on the phones are more than their average handle times, more than their quality scores based on meaningless metrics, more than the amount of “upsales” they capture, and your customers probably care more that you actually helped them solve their issue in a timely manner than any sort of subliminal attempt at coercion scripting might accomplish.

If customer service is the new marketing then we need to remember that the “new marketing” consists no longer of inanimate tools - rather it consists of humans communicating to humans. They are the ambassadors, advocates and often times the only “human face and/or voice” for an organization. They should be treated as investments because they will treat the customer as investors just like the organization they work for. This is true for the simple fact that, as the saying goes, “crap rolls down hill.”

I strongly advocate for the “Zappos Model” of call centre management (ie. customer service is an investment, not an expense). I’ve worked in centres with modified forms of their model and they are usually the best, most positive places to work. An anomoly in an industry where you can find yourself in soul-crushing repetition, a time loop of the Groundhog Day variety. Maybe too, the call centre industry will wake up on its “Feburary 3rd of redemption.”

I challenge anyone in a position of authority in a call centre who reads this post to monitor calls, and really ask yourself about the story you tell your customers when they call. Is it really the story you want to market? Survey your workers. Do they know the story and buy into it? If not, time to reevaluate.

“That’s been our history,” Norma Trimble, who is Native American, said during the question-and-answer session this month. “They take all you’ve got. They take your land. Now they want your stories.” (New York Times)

When you start conversations with people, you don’t always get the response you anticipated. This is especially ture if you’re job is to facilitate a conversation between the gentrifiers and the unwillingly gentrifed such as that of the Restorative Listening Project, a community involvement conversation launched by the City of Portland (Oregon).

The lesson in this story essentially says that it’s easy to say the words, “I’m listening” but your constituents/clients/audience may demand you think about it further. Are you really listening? I’ve done a self imposed experiment over the past few weeks and I realized that though I hear the words I was frequently missing other indicators and meanings. Try it, you may be surprised at what you hear and you may find yourself acting in ways you wouldn’t have before.