improving customer experience

Raising your profile with Social Media

In these tough economic times we need to use every advantage we can get to raise  our profiles whether we are a business or employed, however when networking the traditional way I have noticed that many people are not using social media to raise their brand awareness…professional or business

When I meet leaders I always have a look at their Linkedin profile, website and if they have a blog because 1. I am genuiely interested in people and what they do 2. If / when I meet them again I can have a more informed chat with them 3. Steve Jobs always reccommended looking outside your own industry for inspiration 4. I am nosey!

Some trends have struck me

  • Linkedin – No photo or sometimes worse a horrendous one (I am a photographer as well, so I always unintentionally critique photos),or the profile hasn’t been updated in ages with what they are doing, skills, description, no recommendation’s etc. A Linkedin profile is like a CV – one that the world can see!
  • Websites – They take too long to load (you have between 3 – 5 secs before someone will give up on your website). Bland, uninteresting or hard to navigate. If you had trouble getting into a store and couldn’t find anything, would you go back? Lack of pictures, I am a visual learner so pictures are a must for me
  • No Blog – If your website is your virtual market place, then your blog is the voice of your business. People buy from People… always. Your blog gives you a virtual personality.
  • Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc People tell me I don’t have time for all these, well if you set up your blog correctly it will update some of these automatically. Imagine for a moment that most people on Facebook have between 20 – 500 ‘friends’ if they like your facebook post then think how many people that could reach. It costs nothing, but a little time

If you are currently employed you maybe thinking, I don’t have a business, this doesn’t affect me, well something to consider is

  • Most recruiters will search on the web for applicants, if a recruiter searched for you what would they find…
  • Research has shown that potential recruiters are actually suspicious of people who don’t have a web identity
  • How safe are anyone’s job these days, it better to be ahead of the competition

As part of a stand alone package or as part of a coaching package I will help you increase and enhance your social media profile; please see my page https://mcdougalldevelopment.com/social-media-raising-your-professional-business-brand/

email me at mcdougallmartin@aol.com

Still need convincing watch this youtube video

http://youtu.be/1aconjR6uH4

Oh in the spirit of this post, please feel free to contact me on Linkedin, Like my Facebook page at the bottom of the home page, tweet, wordpress – like / press this or share in any other way! 😉

Linkedin hints & tips

http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/231900330

Let me know what you think about using social media

Is it time to give your business a spring clean

Well spring is nearly upon us and traditionally at home many of us would take stock of what needs fixed,changed or thrown out so that our home feels fresh and has a new energised enviroment.

Seeing as many of us leaders spend alot of our lives at work, then maybe it’s time to think about what we can do to freshen up our business and our customer experience. Many businesses are thinking that a fire sale is what they need by cutting prices, staff and training and development, but take a minute to think about the potential consequencies

  • Once you reduce your margins will you ever be able to put them back up?
  •  How will reducing staff affect your customer experience? Are you driving them to the competition?
  • Research has shown that companies that spend money on staff development and training on average perform better*
  • If you don’t develop and stretch your talent pool they will leave

So as part of your spring clean consider the following

  • Could we give our customers a better experience and therefore charge a premium?
  • Is our company Vision relevant to our marketplace and engaging your employees?
  • How do we engage our colleagues more?
  • What development would make a difference to our bottom line?
  • How do we retain our best people?
  • Do we effectively performance manage our employees and reward them appropriately?

Good Luck with your spring clean, if you have any ideas for business spring cleans, please comment below.

I have noted a link to a great article about Ron Johnson who revolutionised Apple retail stores and later J C Penney http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/08/steve_jobs_originally_envisioned_apple_stores_as_targeting_creative_professionals.html

Low cost ways to show your employees that they are valued

http://www.fastcompany.com/1822943/low-cost-ways-to-show-your-employees-they-are-highly-valued

* http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/02/four-in-ten-uk-line-managers-ineffective.htm?wa_src=email&wa_pub=cipd&wa_crt=news_1&wa_cmp=pmdaily_280212