SO WHAT HAS GOOGLE LEARNED THIS WEEK?...

Hopefully it's "Tech is great, but you still need to put people first!"

Social & Communications Networks begin & end with people, and so do the tools they rely on.

Rule#1: Whatever it is, you MUST make it User/Customer friendly! That includes the support.

If you launch a new service you must have a back-up plan, and people in place to support that service. Similarly, if you launch some new hardware, even if it looks, feels and works great, you still need PEOPLE to TALK to PEOPLE to sort out their difficulties.

With new systems & hardware, especially with both depending on working together, like a phone that only works with networks, and software, provided by a variety of 3rd parties, you are going to have difficulties.

Sorting those challenges must happen in what's now known as "real time" - people on Twitter, people on the phone, available to help NOW, not via email with a 3 day delay!

I have experienced this myself with my own network supplier, O2, here in the UK, just in the last few days, as my contract comes to an end. Reviewing the options is not easily done by email. Like most now, I like to do the research online, but I still want to buy local, or personal, if I want to sort something with the minimum of delay.

I love Google, even though Wave has let me down a bit thus far, and Chrome for Mac took a long time to arrive, and then needed an op system upgrade before you can use it!

It strikes me that the Big G has been catering a little too much towards techies in these launches, and not with real users, who need forethought, like "how are they going to use it" and "how are we going to support it". The debacle with Nexus One therefore seems just like a repeat of recent history.

I am one of the "potential buyers" they should be aiming at - I love my iPhone, but it's contract is about to end, so I'm open to options. I love HTC, and own a good many of their handsets, because they always seem to deliver on "Looks, Feels, and Needs", so I'd be very open to a handset sourced from them. And, having had the iPhone experience, I am very reluctant to return to Windows Mobile. Perfect combination, no?

Don't get me wrong - the iPhone is the best thing, ever, in my book, but that doesn't mean it can't be bested. Hardware reports suggest that Nexus One actually has bested the iPhone, but I am definitely NOT going to step over the barrier to something so new, for use as my primary personal communications tool (with a "get me anywhere, anytime" tag), when I see many reports of poor/non-existent support from an otherwise respected source.

I've been able to use the mobile phone - one of my own personal passions - as the example here, after reading an article from Glenn Chapman of Inquirer.net but how can YOU see this applying in YOUR business, where you are competing with many others, both online & offline?

Are you putting the User/Customer first? They can certainly tell the difference when you do!

PROVIDING they can find you, but that's for another blog.

What do you think?

Howard J Moorey

January 16th, 2010

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

http://L1RND.com

Social Media is SO last year!

Social Media has matured alot over the last 6 months, not least in the degree of measurability inherent in your online "presence"

With that measurability comes a level of credibility - you achieve that by ticking certain boxes, like filling in your social networking profiles properly, so people can "check you out" in their own terms.

If someone spends alot of time on Facebook, or it is simply their predominant route to their network of friends & acquaintances, then they will determine your "cred" by whether you post regularly, have a complete profile (some of which will overlap with their own life preferences), and basically show off the real you!

That measurability & credibility leads to Social Decorum, ie. "proper behaviour" online, such as interesting and/or helpful posts, not too much "me, me, me", responsive to approaches, conversational, basically a "participator". Everyone has their own standards that they judge you by - often boxed off and varying depending on the age sector you & they are in (as society goes, "twas ever thus"). If you tick their boxes, you "behave" to their standards, and they are then happy to include you in their world.

Key lesson to learn here is that we are talking about people, that's what “social” is all about!

People run, and work in, businesses, so we are simply talking about people approaching and connecting with one another, in a fashion that has never been available to us before. It's just networking, like we have done since the dawn of time, only today we use new tools - "Digital Media".

That networking is much more comfortable, on a human level, than "sales", "pitching" and "business development" but it still amounts to the same thing, if it is approached with a degree of Social Decorum.

As most of you will by now know, my primary thought leaders are Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Seth Godin & Jim Connolly, and one thing they all agree on is that business is just "people business". Connect with people properly - don't shout, talk down, or spread viruses - and they will respond properly. If you just try to sell at them in every opportunity you are given, they will simply give you the online equivalent of two fingers (digits?) and unfollow, unfriend, block or whatever else works for them.

Businesses are starting to learn the great advantage being offered to them on a plate through social networking, as evidenced by this superb post by @briansolis.

Just treating people as fellow human beings, and connecting with them properly, affords a level of "customer profiling" that has also never been available to them before. This enables them to serve us better AND develop the goods and services that we WANT (and often will pay for!) and we are happy for them to do that, and happy to offer our opinion to them to assist the process.

That surely is what a connected world should really be about, because, once you achieve Social Decorum, you are already well on the way to building Social Wealth, where everyone on the planet benefits, and gets a little closer together at the same time. FairTrade is but one example of this.

Am I making sense? What do you think?

Howard J Moorey
@hojomo
January 7th, 2010

Bio
Howard Moorey advises businesses, organisations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships and deliver value.
You can reach him at: howard at hojomo.com
or catch up on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
Home is where the heart is: Cotswold Hills, UK

The Blue Moon and the Hammer...

Change of Years, Change of Days, Change of Mindset...

That's what last night's Blue Moon means!

There have been three superb blogs in the last few days of the decade that served to focus my thoughts on B2B and why "large" companies have been struggling to "get it" in regards to digital media

Jim Connolly Jay Baer & Amber Nasland

(My other Master Thought Leaders are Chris Brogan Brian Solis & Seth Godin )


We have just finished a decade which brought us the tools & technology to connect people to people, business to people, and people to business around the planet (and beyond too, but that's for the next decade!)

We have just finished a year which defined the tools to use & the places to be found in order to refine & make best use of those connections.

But what good is a hammer, without a human being to hold it?

A computer can be programmed to both hold the hammer and make a defined set of movements with it, but it takes a person to hold that hammer and make a good job, or craft a work of art, with it.

The most fundamental consideration regarding the hammer is that it will always need human interaction to determine what need can be satisfied by using the hammer to create or craft a result.


In 2010, Communication finally comes of age!

The capacity for a Company to recognise that it must treat people as people - they are fellow human beings, not "Customers", "Users" or "Stakeholders" - will define it's ability to survive and thrive in the new debt-laden future.

That approach will require an element of humility, because no longer can business dictate & produce what it thinks people want - it must now consult, get feedback by asking people what they need, and deliver the solution to the best of it's ability.

To some, this already sounds like the norm - they are "doing it right" and growing year on year as a result of implementing this approach.

For many the time to change is now - take the first faltering steps on the new journey - the 1980's term "Business Process Re-engineering" seems particularly appropriate - lay down plans to talk with the people that buy from you, or that you intend will buy from you, when they are "out of the shop", ie. NOT in buying mode.


"Transaction size is no longer relevant"

How's that for a bold statement?
I say it to bang home the reality that the internet is now a place for all sizes of business to implement PRM - People Relationship Management. It does not matter whether you provide a cup of coffee, a brand new truck, or banking services around the world, people are what it's about, and they have become a lot more savvy in the last 12 months. Internet research has become the norm, even if you intend to buy locally.

The emphasis has shifted from Marketplace to Meeting & Talking Place, definitely NOT Pitching Place!

There's a Connected, Collaborative future out there for all of us.

What do you think? Have you made the move yet? Can you make it this year?

I look forward to meeting you,

Happy New Year!

Howard J Moorey
January 1st, 2010

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn