The explosion of social media has put a lot of power in consumers hands. When a customer is unhappy with a product or service they can quite literally tell the world through platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Where previously they may have told tens of people about a negative experience, they can now tell hundreds and possibly thousands of other people.

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Social media has changed my life – this might sound sensationalist but it’s true. OK, so I still have the same family and the same job, but as I said in my last post I have connected with a lot of wonderful people and learned many things that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t use social media. And I’m not the only one. There are a lot of people who feel the same as me, but for a variety of different reasons and many of these reasons being far more interesting than mine.

Last month, as part of Plymouth Twestival, we asked over twenty Twitter users in Plymouth what benefits they’ve experienced from using Twitter, and how it has impacted their lives. We then put all of their responses into an e-book so we could share their stories, and we are really pleased with the results. Stories are incredibly powerful, so we wanted to use them to show people who are not on Twitter what they are missing.

In this e-book there are stories of how Twitter has helped people start businesses, relocate to a new city, find news stories to broadcast, meet new people, aid personal development, find customers, and much more. For anyone we manage to persuade to hop onto Twitter, we have also added some useful tips for new users.

If you are into social media, or are considering using social media, this would be a really good read for you, and the best part is its completely free! Please feel free to share it with friends you are encouraging to use Twitter too.

Anyway, enough of me telling you about it, download the stories here to see how brilliant they are…

Once you’ve finished, I’d also love to hear your social media stories, so tell me below…How has social media changed your lives?

(If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up to my RSS feed here, or subscribe by email on the left hand side of this page)

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I am usually one of the first to say that Twitter is great, and I love building friendships there. I can get to know, and share information with, people on the other side of the world in a way that I have never before been able to. But relationships on Twitter can only go so far. To build deeper personal or professional relationships you need to take it to other channels such as email or Skype, and then ultimately offline, which is where far deeper friendships are built. This is something I have been realising ever since my good friend (on and offline) Rob took me along to my first Devon Social Media Cafe and now, one of the things I take great enjoyment from is putting a face to an avatar.

One of the brilliant things about social media is that it allows you to meet like minded people that you wouldn’t necessarily meet elsewhere. This means that when it comes to taking online friendships offline, you already have something in common with them and that initial awkwardness isn’t there.

Ok, so where am I going with this? Some of you may have noticed a new addition to my left hand menu <<< This is the logo for Plymouth Twestival 2011, which I am involved in this year. You may have also noticed the #plymtwest hashtag appearing in my Twitter stream on a regular basis. If you are following me on Twitter and aren’t from Plymouth, please bear with me until PlymTwest has finished, I will do my best not to clog up your streams! Twestival is a global event with cities around the world simultaneously putting on events on the 24th March to raise money for local charities of their choosing.

The idea of working with people that I have met on Twitter is something that has appealed to me since I joined back in September 2009, as is the idea of working with them on a common purpose that is higher than any one of us individually. Through my day job I have long been a believer that workers are most engaged and motivated when there is a higher purpose than what they do. This is where PlymTwest comes in.

PlymTwest has given me the opportunity to get to know people I have met online, as well as meeting others who have extended my online network, whilst working towards a higher purpose of raising money and awareness for a worthy cause. This year we are raising money and awareness for Chestnut Appeal, a local charity that is doing a tremendous job raising awareness of Prostate cancer in Devon and Cornwall.

Meeting people offline for the first time can be awkward, but the common goal that Twestival gives you helps to break down those barriers. Twestival is the perfect opportunity to make more links in your local community, strengthen some online relationships and to use social media for social good. I thoroughly recommend finding and getting involved in your local Twestival, whether it be through volunteering your services or time, or just by enjoying the festivities on the day. You can find your local Twestival here.

If you’re in Plymouth, head over to the Plymouth Twestival website to keep up-to-date with our progress and the festivities that are planned, or tweet us at @twestivalplym if you would like to get involved – the more the merrier! For an idea of what might happen this year, check out the fun we had last year by watching this.

If you’re involved in a Twestival this year, why not say hi below and tell others why they should be getting involved!

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Inception is the art of planting small ideas into someone’s subconscious mind whilst they are in a dream state, so that those ideas can grow to form stronger ideas or beliefs. This is the plot behind the film Inception, starring Leonardo De Caprio, which is set in a world where technology exists to enter people’s dreams. Inside people’s dreams secrets can be stolen resulting in a world of corporate espionage and theft of dreams being rife. De Caprio’s team are tasked with the challenge of doing the opposite of stealing an idea and actually planting one in someone’s mind. Inception is a great film and I highly recommend watching it, to anyone that hasn’t yet. Like with many things, after watching, my mind quickly wandered to business, and whether there are any lessons to be learned from Inception.

Inception is relevant to our business leaders and managers, who should always be looking to take in the ideas of their customers and their employees. Successful business leaders should always be asking themselves what ideas their customers and employees would plant in their minds if they had the opportunity. For many businesses the answers may be basic things such as “a smile from the person on the checkout at my local supermarket”, or for “my manager to say thank you once in a while and tell me I have done a good job”, but they may also unlock more creative ideas such as a change in business process or a new product or service.

In a theoretical sense Inception is possible for businesses, but unfortunately not in a literal sense (at least not until Steve Jobs and Apple have designed this dream-entering technology). By putting the following three things in place businesses will be more open to their customer’s ideas:

1) Putting processes and platforms in place for customers to give their ideas

It has never been easier for customers to tell a business what they think of it. Having a presence on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter allows a business to gain feedback in real time. In conjunction with traditional research methods like customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups and businesses have a wide range of techniques available to hear their customer’s views.

2) Motivating customers to share their ideas

Having an online presence and being involved in conversations about the business online with their customers will motivate customers to share their ideas and experiences of that business. Whilst monitoring mentions of a business on social networks allows a level of feedback to be obtained, it is being active and forming communities around the business that will really motivate customers to share their ideas. Furthermore, co-creation techniques such as competitions for customers to create their own versions of products or adverts and so on can motivate customers and pass the creativity on to them.

3) Being open mind to accept and try new ideas

It is absolutely vital that managers and business leaders have an open mind to accept and try new ideas, and points 1) and 2) are pointless without this. In the film, Inception is possible by entering low levels of the subconscious mind, where the mind is more open to new ideas. The subconscious mind is where beliefs are formed and it is free from the day-to-day noise. Operating at the conscious level, business leaders encounter a whole manner of noise, distractions and excuses against implementing new ideas or making change. Managers should set aside specific time to listen to the views of their customers and their employees. By creating a mindset and organisational culture that accepts and actively seeks out change, business leaders are more likely to listen to, and try out new ideas.

Do you have any examples of businesses that are open to Inception? If Inception was possible, which businesses would you change? I would love to hear your views.

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As I have posted before, one of the main reasons I use social media (such as Twitter and blogs) is as part of my own personal development. Along with many other people using these platforms, I follow experts in my areas of interest and monitor their blogs in the hope that I can learn from them – and so far I have learnt an enormous amount.

This is a great way to learn and keep up-to-date in your fields of interest, but one of the challenges is how to retain some of the great information you learn, so that you can apply it as and when you need to. With other forms of learning there are ways to instantly implement newly gained knowledge, or coursework, tests or exams to help retain information. With social media there is a danger of reading something, retweeting it and then forgetting it forever. I have lost count of the amount of times I have vaguely recalled reading something and then spent ages trying to find it again on search.twitter.com, or going way back through my timeline!

For 6 months or so I have tried to keep a paper-based learning log, only to recently flick through it and see days and days (or more like weeks and weeks) of empty pages! Surely there must be a better way?

I recently stumbled across a neat website that goes some way towards solving this problem. Although not its primary function, www.ohlife.com sends me a daily email to remind me to make a diary entry and all I have to do to maintain my learning log is to reply to the email with something I have learnt that day. This could be something I read in a blog post, a conversation I had on Twitter, or an experience I had at work that I want to reflect and learn from. I can then go back through all of my entries, or read a random entry, such as this entry that I posted after reading the book “The Art of Being Brilliant” by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker.

If you are reading this, then maybe you are also on the knowledge quest. If so, I would love to hear how you ensure the knowledge you gain online sticks in your memory… and, if you have come across any other neat website or apps that aid with this, I would love for you to share them below…:

Happy learning

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Passion, hard work and hustle

These are some of the lessons that are packed in to the superb Gary Vaynerchuk book “Crush It!”

In “Crush It!” Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) reveals that we can all cash in and make a living by building a business around our greatest passion or hobby. He enthusiastically explains that the rising power of the Internet has enabled anyone to build a highly profitable business if they are truly passionate about it. For those with enough hustle and determination, there is also the opportunity to go beyond making a living and really “Crush It!”

It is a book full of bitesize, practical business and social media guidance which really shows how ones dreams can become a reality. Gary Vaynerchuk did it himself in turning a $4 million dollar a year wine retailer into a $60 million dollar a year retailer, predominantly by utilising the Internet and social media tools and a whole lot of passion and hustle.

The energy and enthusiasm that comes across in Gary’s writing is truly inspiring and I have no doubt that if you have a passion that you have a dream of turning into a business, this book will push you beyond your nagging doubts and lead you on the path to accomplish it.

Despite the motivational lessons in building a business around your passion, there are other, more relevant lessons that have had an impact on me as well. I am fortunate that I work in a job that I love and for a company that I am passionate about. Above all else, right now, I want to make a difference in my job. I have dreams of building and running my own business in the future, but that isn’t for me right now.

The main lesson I have personally taken from “Crush It!” is the importance of finding the one area you are really passionate about and focussing on it, so you can reach the top of the game and become the most knowledgeable in that area. Even though I don’t use this blog as a platform for monetizing or building a business, I agree that having a narrower focus could be beneficial.

Up to now I have used this blog to air some thoughts on a variety of subjects and have learnt a lot along the way. A lot of the enjoyment has come from being able to talk about a variety of subjects at varying levels of expertise. I have found this a brilliant way to learn because putting ideas out there has allowed others to add their expertise and being either corrected or validated can be very enlightening. However, from now on I am going to narrow the focus and spend more time on an area that I am passionate about and which really fascinates me: issues relating to the customer experience and how it impacts on long term business sustainability. My next post will explain why I have chosen this are of focus, but for now thinking about all of this has left one question playing over in my mind:

Is it ok to be a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none blogger?

Bloggers – I would love to hear your views on this question.

To summarise, “Crush It!” really is a book for everyone, whether you have a passion that you want to cash in on, or simply for a lesson in the power of passion, commitment, belief and hustle. Whatever you want to use your blog, Facebook or Twitter accounts for I really recommend that you read it, and check out Gary Vee’s blog at http://garyvaynerchuk.com.

To get an idea of the passion with which Gary speaks in his book, check out this Ted talk:

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Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a big advocate of social media. I was disappointed to read a few weeks ago that ACAS released a warning to employers that employees could turn to social media sites such as Facebook to take “unofficial action” against them. HRReview reported on this and published the following poll, which with only two options could be somewhat misleading:

As an advocate of social media, this seems like needless scaremongering and it is not surprising that companies are scared of the negative effects social media could have on them and are quick to ban the use of Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites at work. Banning social media in the workplace is a negative thing to do and companies should think hard before doing so.

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A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine had a complaint to make about a pair of trainers he had bought from the website of a major UK sports retailer. After visiting their website again and finding an email address he emailed them his compaint, to which he received an automatic reply stating that they would respond within five working days. Not content with this he also discovered that they have a Twitter account, so tweeted them to see if he would receive a faster response.

This sports retailer isn’t known for it’s terrific customer service and operates a low cost-low service strategy, so nobody would expect any miracles. In fact, this isn’t a post about bad after sales service because within a week or so my friend had received a response via email offering him some of his money back. The situation had reached a satisfactory conclusion and my friend was happy. There was still no sign of a response on Twitter though, despite public tweets by my friend about his trainers and their lack of response.

The fact that this retailer has a Twitter account suggests that they are making some sort of attempt to build and maintain a relationship with their customers, even if they aren’t fully embracing social CRM. However, on inspection their account I discovered this description of their Twitter account:

“xxxxxx is the UK’s largest Sports Store! Follow us on Twitter to get all the latest deals and discounts and exclusive Twitter voucher codes”

This description and further investigation of the 29 tweets they have amassed since their first in April 2009 revealed that they use Twitter solely as a marketing channel. It also revealed that they see it as a one-way communcations tool, used to push messages to potential customers and nothing else. The fact that they only have 71 followers shows us that their marketing efforts aren’t particularly inspiring either.

In my eyes there are many things wrong with this companies Twitter presence, all of which could reflect badly on their brand:

- By viewing twitter as a one-way comms channel, the retailer is missing an opportunity to engage and build a relationship with their customers. In today’s social world customers expect to have more of a relationship with companies they buy from. Furthermore, not responding to customers who openly make an effort to communicate with you in full view of other customers, will not only damage your relationship with that customer but also any others who are watching the conversation.

- When a customer finds a company on Twitter they expect to be able to discuss customer service issues through this channel and they expect fast an efficient response (possibly even faster than with email). By restricting their use of Twitter to marketing, customers will become irritated when they attempt to discuss customer service matters with them.

- It is clear that this company have launched their Twitter account without any real thought or commitment as to how they are going to maintain their online presence. Any social media expert (which I am not) will tell you that before launching into any SM channels, take some time to understand the communication channel and what your stakeholders will expect of you, set yourself clear goals and objectives and formulate a strategy accordingly. It is clear this company has not followed any of these steps and the sporadic nature of their tweets highlights their lack of commitment.

It seems that there are still companies limping into using Twitter, probably hearing about it and thinking it will damage their brand not to have a presence. In my opinion this is what has happened in this case and the reality is that a social media presence with no clear strategy and which hasn’t been thought through properly is far more damaging to a brand.

The fortunate thing for this particular retailer is that because of their low cost-low service position in the market, this probably won’t hurt them significantly.

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A few months ago I signed up for the Geo-location service Gowalla and downloaded their iPhone app. A month or two later I did the same and signed up for Foursquare. I signed up for these because I had heard that they were going to be “the next big thing” on the social web. Indeed Foursquare was recently listed in the 5 Emerging Social Media Sites to Watch in 2010 on the Social Media Examiner website. For those that have never heard of Gowalla or Foursquare,  this article will tell you more.

Foursquare was only launched in the UK in October 2009, but I was surprised to find that amongst my friends I was an early adopter and today of my 400 friends on Facebook only myself and one other person have signed up for Foursquare or Gowalla. Even amongst my Twitter network only a few people have signed up with either of these services.

There is no doubting the massive potential these services have, both for marketers and for consumers themselves. For marketers they can help create relationships and brand ambassadors who can pass on recommendations to their friends and social networks and create a buzz around their brand. Also, by offering deals and offers to customers who regularly check in to a spot, businesses can create incentives to drive repeat business. For consumers, benefits include sharing tips and advice about what to do and where, keeping up to date with what your friends are doing, arranging meet ups with people who are in the same area and even finding activities to do when you are bored. There is also the gaming element of being able to collect badges and mayorship’s which add to the appeal for some.

The problem I am finding, and it may be due to where I live, is that wherever I go I need to create new spots before checking in. On the rare occasion that someone else may have created a spot, there are only ever one or two other people that have checked in there. On Foursquare, there have only been 5 tips created by people in Plymouth. These factors combined suggest to me that the use of Foursquare and Gowalla hasn’t particularly ‘taken off’ in this area. I would be interested to know whether this is the case in other parts of the UK, or whether we are just particularly slow adopters in the South West? According to a recent article on Mashable there are now 500,000 active users of Foursquare in the US and 100,00 active users of Gowalla. These figures surprised me and I had expected them to be far higher.

According to the list that is published on the Foursquare website, there are only 17 places in the UK that so far offer “mayor specials” (special offers or discounts to the person that has checked in to that place most often). As far as I am aware there are no companies in the South West of the UK that have embraced Foursquare so far.

I would love to hear any views or opinions on this. Have apps like Foursquare or Gowalla “taken-off” in your local area? If not, do you think they will? Do you or your friends use them regularly and if not, what could be changed to make you use them?

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3rd November 2006: This was the date I joined Facebook and for the next three years it catered for my every need. You see, at this time I was half way through University life, which was the time for socialising, spending time with friends, having fun and for losing night after night to an alcohol induced black hole. At this point in time, Facebook helped with all of these things. I had event invitations to take care of my social diary, game applications to procrastinate during boring afternoons in the library, friends walls to banter on and most importantly, tagged photographs to help piece the previous nights forgotten frollicks together, memories that would otherwise have been lost forever.

Roll forward three years to the 23rd September 2009, the date I joined Twitter. My life had changed in many ways since graduating from University and I was now in full time employment and joined the real world. With this, my social media needs had changed too. I now had a craving for knowledge, to learn new things, share ideas and ultimately begin a quest to get ahead. This is where Twitter comes in and for me, offers completely different things to Facebook. I can follow experts in the subjects I am interested in, meet like-minded people to share ideas and experiences with and ultimately satisfy my urge to gain knowledge and to learn, in real-time.

Don’t get my wrong, I still have a lot of affection for Facebook, but it no longer meets my needs in the same way that Twitter does. So how about you? Are you a Facebook socialite? Or are you a knowledge seeking Twit? I would love to hear how each of these cater for your different needs…

RELATED POST - This great post by Robert Pickstone, titled, ”Are you an intelligent social media addict?” perfectly describes my transition from Facebook to Twitter. Where I used to waste hours of time playing around on Facebook, I now spend my time far more productively using Twitter, because I am learning all the time. I highly recommend you read it!

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