This is a common question among many organizations and associations.  Should you become involved in Social Media as a company or not? The biggest challenge faced by associations is time and staff.  Everyone has had to cut staff and/or take on multiple responsibilities over the past year or so and no one  has the time to add another responsibility.  Social Media involvement does take a commitment whether from one or multiple staff members.

There are a few ways that involvement can be addressed that may fit into your company strategy and profile.

Should you become involved in Social Media – YES.  According to the Nielsen 2010 Media Fact Sheet, Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%; The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office; Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user; Twitter grew 500% over a year; and 32% of all mobile web users visit social network sites.

Due to these statistics, it would definitely be in your best interest to become involved in social meeting as a company and marketing strategy.  Now, to what extent do you become involved?

This will really depend on your staff and time allotment.  Adding a blog to your site and providing content and resources to your viewing audience and member is a huge commitment but one that will pay off in the long one as establishing yourself as a knowledge leader in your field.  Blogs do take time and commitment to write, but is it possible to spend about 1 hour a week on your blog work?  Consider video blogging vs. writing a blog.  Make it a point throughout the day jotting/writing down blog topics and key points (approximately 5-10). Schedule an hour to sit in front of a video (does not have to be a professional production) and tape a 5 minute blog session on each topic that you’ve recorded. The video blogs can then be posted weekly to your site and based upon the number of video blogs that you recorded, you could have about a  months or a little more of video blogs to post that took you a few hours to complete.

Assign social media sites to various people in your organization. Arrange for these people to be in charge of each site and check/perform searches on the selected keywords for your organization, and interact with others. A schedule can be arranged where this occurs at least 3 times a day for approximately 1/2 hour each time. This provides some type of interaction with the social media main stream and enables your organizations name and content to be seen and discussed.

Becoming involved in Social Media does involve a commitment of time and resources. But if this is planned according to your companies goals and staffs schedule and abilities, can become a positive tasks to any ones day while increasing company awareness, site visitors and potential members.

It amazes me how little large, well known companies focus on customer service.  Is this because they feel that their name is branded and that they’ll receive sales regardless of their customer service or because they just don’t care that you’re spending your hard earned money at their company?

Recently, I had two different experiences with 1) a well known internet company and 2)  a company that isn’t so well known.  I made purchases that were “guaranteed” to arrive by a specific date.  Due to weather in the Eastern US the items were delayed.  Surprisingly, I had two very different customer service experiences.

From the well known internet company -  I never received any notice/warning, communication about the delay. The items just didn’t show.  I had to keep checking the tracking information in order to determine when I would be receiving the items (which was a moving target due to delays, etc.). I realize with weather related issues it really isn’t in the control of the company, but according to the delivery tracking information, the packages didn’t even leave their facility prior to the weather issues.  Basically, the packages left late in the first place.

From the not-so-well-known internet company – I received an email 2 days before the impending weather hit the East Coast warning me about the possibility of a delay and informing me that I could contact them and cancel my order.  I then received daily updates via email from this company on the status of my order and they also upgraded the shipping type to a higher level in order for me to receive the package sooner than the level that I purchased. At no charge.

The final outcome, my packages from the well known company were over a week late and I never received any type of notice or communication from them at all.  The package from the not-so-well-known company was a few days late and they have a customer for life.  I find my self more apt to read their advertising emails when they arrive, look at their site, recommend them to my friends and family, and place orders for items not really needed. Yes, I am admitting to ordering a few things that I really don’t need.

As far as my continued support of the well known company, I don’t spend any time looking at their advertising emails or visit their site to see what they have that may be of interest.  Just not interested in giving them my money any longer since they don’t seem to value me as a customer.

Customer service plays a very important role on not only current, direct sales, but future sales as well.

No customer service = No sales.

What are your doing to ensure that you have a customer for life?

The cell phone industry is growing daily with new types of cell phones (called smartphones), applications and new technologies that enable us to stay in contact easily with this very portable device.  As the HTC “You” commercial says, it’s the first thing we see in the morning, it is always within arms reach and the last thing we see at night.

With this in mind, technologies are evolving to include group activities for your cell phones. Group activities will include creating groups (i.e, family group, marketing group, new prospect groups, etc.) and then being able to either send a text to that group, leave a phone message for each individual within the group, email the group, or schedule a conference call for the entire group to attend directly from your cell phone.

This ability presents itself with endless possibilities and ideas on how to stay in contact with your members, prospects, family, etc.  Business will be able to use this ability easily for quick messages to members, updates, and meeting information. Small businesses will be able to connect to their sales and prospects with marketing items, etc. and staying in touch with family and friends will be more efficient.

Which cell phone carriers and when will this be available?  Unfortunately, this hasn’t been released as of yet, but the idea and concept presents itself with ideas and opportunities that will be beneficial to those who embraces new technologies.