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| How to Maintain Traditional Customer Service in the Social Media Age | | Friday, March 02, 2012 10:18 PM | Duke Chung |
|  Duke Chung co-founded Parature in 2000, with a vision to provide superior customer support software accessible via the Internet. Today, Parature's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product suite supports millions of end users worldwide. You've been monitoring your Facebook wall and Twitter pages, responding to customer inquiries. But what are the next steps you should take to stay abreast of the latest trends in social service? The emergence of social media communities requires you to track a new set of customer service metrics. Fortunately, you'll have a better understanding of who your customers are and their service expectations. In some cases, it might even mean the end of traditional service level agreements (SLAs). Service Level Agreements -- How Will They Change? SLAs are becoming more complex to manage because of the public, viral nature of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Some consumers decide to "cut the line," gravitating to these channels because they think they will get the fastest response. So, are SLAs still relevant? Is it acceptable to let customers "cut the line?" Should you always prioritize Twitter service requests over requests placed through traditional service channels? What should be the response time on each channel -- be it web, email, phone or social media? The fact is that SLAs still have a purpose, but because of the very public nature of social media channels, companies need to know where their customers are and understand expected response time on each of those channels. It's a delicate balance: Companies must understand that some channels require faster more personal responses, but traditional service channels still demand attention. We have a few recommendations on how to handle impact of social channels on service requests and traditional SLAs. Know inside and out who your customers are, what channels they gravitate to when it comes to customer service, and the expectation for response time on those channels. For example, if the majority of your customers frequent Facebook and Twitter for customer support, invest more in personal, timely responses from both your customer service and marketing teams. When a consumer asks a question on Facebook, he does not want to receive an automated response, fast as it may be. Consumers expect both personal and fast replies on Facebook. If you find that many of your customers seek help on your social media channels, host knowledge bases on those networks. It is a good way for consumers to find answers to commonly asked questions, and it frees up the time your customer service team would otherwise spend personally answering the same questions over and over again. Evaluate how urgent the inquiry really is, and see if you're able to answer quickly and personally with some initial suggestions to solve his or her problem. If the answer requires further involvement, that's ok. Tell the consumer his inquiry has been received and that it is being further evaluated by the customer service team. This will not only show that you're responsive, but it will also give you more time to escalate the issue and route it to the correct representative in a more reasonable timeframe. Customers will understand that every service question cannot be answered instantly. Social media service instantly reflects on your brand and directly impacts your company's marketing efforts. If you are slow to provide an initial response, or you don't provide any response at all, it can cast your brand in a poor light. Your social media responses are public and will be read and shared with other consumers. The fact is that social media has really blurred the lines between marketing and customer service. Just make sure the two teams work together to tackle social service. Don't ignore traditional channels because you've become focused on social media. Remember that social media has simply provided a new channel for engaging with your customers; it has not replaced the other channels. And just because a customer is reaching out to you on Twitter does not mean you need to drop everything and respond instantly; you must evaluate and discern the level of urgency first. The balance is important: You can't simply move all of your great service exclusively to social media channels at the expense of traditional channels. Better Metrics Management In social service 2.0, it's important to track several metrics and adjust your strategy as volume and complexity grow. Response time, time to resolve, tickets opened per day and tickets resolved per day are all part of traditional customer service metrics, but social media can render them more complex. Devise a system that allows you to track the number and complexity of support requests coming through social media vs. phone or email. Keep track of response times across sites like Twitter and Facebook. As time increases, develop a strategy to push complex requests to another channel, such as email, where customer service representatives (CSRs) can quickly match up new inquiries with cases that have already been opened. As the volume (tickets opened per day) mounts, create canned content, in the form of responses or linkable knowledge base articles, for the most frequently asked questions. You should also monitor these additional metrics that specifically involve social media channels. The "net-new" group of customers. These are the people for whom you've provided a support channel over social channels. It's likely that this new group of social users is different than the customers who have been contacting you via email or phone. The number of times other customers -- not the company -- respond to support requests and inquiries. For example, a visitor to your Facebook page asks technical questions about a particular product release, and he or she is quickly answered by one of your Facebook fans. The frequency of this sort of event indicates the value of your social support, and shows how many brand advocates you have. Marketing and Customer Service Both Report to Social Media Training If a B2B company has established an online community to address technical problems, customer service probably owns the social media effort. But B2C companies are heavily invested in tracking customer attitude and effect on brand issues. In these companies, marketing will have to collaborate with support teams about inquiries via social media channels. Make sure that each team knows the protocol for dealing with social media. Hot button issues will arise -- via Twitter in particular -- and sometimes you'll have to respond as quickly as possible. In such cases, it's appropriate for marketing to step in and indicate that they're responding in turn. In anticipation of these issues, have a triage and a crisis response plan in place. As discussed, a negative comment on Twitter doesn't automatically constitute a crisis that requires interrupting a service rep. Discern the nature and depth of the complaint and respond appropriately. As a safeguard, monitor who in the company is responding to inquiries to ensure collaboration between marketing and customer service. Bottom Line: Adapt and Evolve Consumer facing companies will have to learn the rules of the road for social service 2.0 if they want to survive. SLAs with long windows of response time simply don't work on today's public social platforms. Know your audience, understand the tight response expectations on social media channels, and keep in mind the very public nature of these platforms that will directly impact your brand. Use tools like knowledge bases to save time and costs, and make sure your marketing and customer service teams are tightly connected and openly communicating with one another. While you can't totally control whether consumers "cut the line" by racing to social networks, you can control how quickly and personally you respond on those channels. Stay on top of important metrics to make sure you are responding to each customer, regardless of the channel he is using, in a timely, thoughtful manner that will reflect positively on your brand. Images courtesy of iStockphoto, fotosipsak, studiocasper |
| 10 Strategies for Non-Profits on Pinterest | | Friday, March 02, 2012 9:39 PM | Matt Petronzio |
|  Non-profits are utilizing Pinterest as an extension of their organizations, using photography, infographics and other visuals to show supporters more about their missions. Pinterest's goal is to connect "people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests." Non-profits, then, can use the social site to connect people based on their social passions, and since non-profits work with and for the community, Pinterest can certainly come in handy. Last week, we covered 10 non-profits that are particularly awesome at leveraging Pinterest for social good, but how did they get there? What are their strategies? SEE ALSO: 8 Strategies for Launching a Brand Presence on Pinterest Here are 10 tips from non-profits that are currently using Pinterest. With these suggestions in your back pocket, your own organization can further (or even reinvent) its image in no time. 1. Know Your Audience It's important to understand who is using Pinterest before you start branding through the network. Of Pinterest's 10 million+ users, 87% are women, and the average age of users spans between 25 and 54. So, what do you do with this information? How do you know what to pin? Daljit Singh, office manager intern at Jolkona and curator of the organization's Pinterest, says that a fun project helped. The staff of the non-profit, which is a web platform that connects you with global development projects and shows you the impact of your donation, asked: If Jolkona were a person, who would it be? They decided that Jolkona would be a woman in her mid-to-late 20s with mixed ethnicity. She would also drink coffee, ride the bus and listen to indie rock. "Because so many of our regular online donors match the demographic of users on Pinterest," says Singh, "it wasn't really a question of if we should request an invite, but rather when we would receive an invite." Jolkona tries to keep its pins colorful, light, creative and relevant to the non-profit's mission. Whenever Singh needs to determine if a pin is relevant, she can think back to the description of Jolkona as a person. 2. Get Personal When it comes to social media, users respond better to personal influence than widespread branding. Sarah Cohen, communications and development manager at charity: water, a non-profit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, says it's important for staff members who are pinning to be familiar with Pinterest and really love the site. "Our staff is young, curious and hungry for information," she says. "We love sharing books we've read, bands we just checked out, the newest gadget or some new gear for the field." 3. Reveal Yourself Give your followers a look at your non-profit from behind the scenes. Pin images that show staff and volunteers working with your organization, as well as those who benefit from that work. It's a good idea to show supporters the human faces behind your logo. When the Jolkona staff looked at its Facebook statistics, they found that the most engagement came from posting visuals. "At first, Pinterest was a great place to find new infographics and pictures to provide content for Facebook and our blog," says Singh. "However, as we started gaining new followers, our strategy changed and we decided it was best to pin things...that help show our audience who we really are." You can find various campaigns, projects, goals and photos of staff members and volunteers on Jolkona's Pinterest page. The folks at charity: water have a board called "Photo of the Day," a concept that founder Scott Harrison came up with in 2009 for the organization's Twitter page. Mo Scarpelli, the multimedia producer at charity: water, says, "Many of our followerslook to the POD as a daily source of inspiration and hope, a reminder that we can change (and are already changing) the water crisis." Cohen adds, "This idea of showing the impact is core to the work we do...The spirit and the joy of our photography was a perfect fit for the optimistic nature of" 4. Focus on the Achievable It has become a trend for individuals to use Pinterest for dreams -- dream houses, dream weddings, etc. But as a non-profit organization, you're all about making things possible. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's mission is to advance research, support patients and create hope. "Our goal is to provide helpful content for all individuals who have been affected by pancreatic cancer," says Laura Behrman, social media manager at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, "whether they are a survivor, have a loved one diagnosed with the disease or have lost a friend. In an effort to attract more support for our efforts, we are educating the general public about the organization and the disease through Pinterest." For charity: water, Cohen says the staff "looks to inspire our supporters with images of hope and opportunity that the water crisis is solvable." 5. Make It a Team Effort Get various staff members involved with your organization's Pinterest to diversify your boards and flesh them out. A recently added charity: water board is "Products We Love." Cohen says that the board is comprised of brands the staff admires, most of which "are partnering with a non-profit or have a philanthropic component to their business model, like Feed Projects, TOMS and Falling Whistles." You don't necessarily need to have multiple staffers use the Pinterest account directly. At the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, for example, Behrman is currently the only one pinning, but employees and volunteers contribute ideas and repin on their personal boards. 6. Fundraise Pinterest makes it extremely simple to sell various items, helping you raise money for your non-profit. Whether it's a t-shirt with your company logo or an inspiring poster, all you need to do is pin the image and type the "$" sign with the price in the description box. Pinterest automatically adds a nifty banner in the top-left corner of the image, displaying the cost, and the item will be added to the Gifts tab on the Pinterest homepage. 7. Repin/Highlight Other Non-Profits Like all forms of social media, Pinterest isn't a place to over-promote. Avoid this is by mixing original pinning with repins of images from other non-profits within your sphere of influence. Users receive an email notification when their images are repinned and they are credited on your repin, which can increase their following. The non-profit you repin may return the favor, allowing Pinterest to become a channel for valuable, non-disruptive cross-promotion. 8. Add Pinterest to Your Website/Project Pages This may seem obvious, but it's often overlooked with new networks. You can add various Pinterest "goodies" (a "pin it" button, follow button, logos, etc.) not only to your homepage, but also to project pages for more exposure. 9. Pin Videos Videos aren't very common on Pinterest, but they're on the rise. YouTube videos are especially easy to add, and Pinterest even has a special section for pinned videos. SEE ALSO: Need More YouTube Views? Try Pinterest Jolkona's "Campaigns" board consists of numerous videos. Singh says that people are more likely to donate when they're asked. "We wanted to make sure that that happens interactively online, so we offeronline campaign feature, which allows our donors to honor a special person, celebrate a birthday or special milestone, or just show the impact you and colleagues or friends can have on the world...Videos offer an added emotion and call to action that pictures sometimes don't." She admits that Jolkona hasn't received many repins for videos, but it has helped to increase traffic to the blog and adds something interesting to the Pinterest page. "There are far fewer videos than images on Pinterest at this point, so use them to distinguish" Singh advises. 10. Be Inviting Pinning can sometimes seem like an individualized, solitary action, but it's important to interact with others and keep community in mind. For non-profits, Pinterest is more than just posting interesting visuals -- if used properly, it can be an extension of your organization and, when applicable, a support system. Through the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's Pinterest, says Behrman, "We create a community that is inviting for others to share their story and connect with not just our organization, but with others going through a similar experience." Images courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock, JamesBrey, 1stclassphoto, ContentWorks. |
| YouTube's Learning Quiz Asks, 'Are You A Brainiac?' [VIDEO] | | Friday, March 02, 2012 9:27 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  "Get your learn on at YouTube EDU," says an erudite young student in a video promoting YouTube's latest channels. With a bevy of new channels on YouTube EDU, this cutesy video aims to sway more people and educators toward video learning. YouTuber Matt Koval and "star pupil" Olivia host a brief video explaining how YouTube EDU works. Launched in 2009, YouTube EDU is a collection of more than 500,000 free videos from organizations and institutions such as PBS, Khan Academy and Harvard University. Viewers can take the latest "Are You a Brainiac?" Pop Quiz to test their knowledge of general education topics. After a brief video question, viewers click on one of three answers, which will transfer them to a new screen and video. Video questions come from educators at recently added channels: Deep Sky Video (astronomy), TED-Ed (a channel from the organizers of TED talks), Crash Course (an educational channel from The Vlog Brothers), the Sci Show and The Spangler Effect (famed science teacher). Each click will take you to a new screen. Completing the quiz is a worthwhile effort --- there are different endings depending on how well you do. YouTube EDU allows users to search for videos according to content or browse categories such as "University & College," "K12," and "Lifelong Learning." YouTube offered YouTube for Schools in 2011 to grant educators access to YouTube EDU in their classrooms. The version for schools would cut-out the comments as to not distract students. Do you use YouTube EDU? Pros and cons? If you don't use it, why not? Tell us in the comments. ?Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, hamzaturkkol? |
| Foursquare Users, Despite Badge, Do Not Love the Windows Phone | | Friday, March 02, 2012 6:33 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Foursquare has started doling out a new "I Love Windows Phone" badge. The problem is that many of its recipients don't seem to understand how they ended up with it. "Not sure how. I'm an Apple girl," tweeted one user who received the badge. "How did I do this with a Blackberry?," tweeted another. Others resorted to a simple "why?" or, more bluntly, "wtf?" The confusion stems from a promotional badge gone wrong. Designed for users who check into a Windows Phone event or follow "WindowsPhone" on Foursquare, it was instead unlocked with every checkin. Foursquare has responded to the gaffe by sending this message to recipients of the badge: "We just wanted to send you a quick note to apologize for mistakenly awarding you the 'I Love Windows Phone' badge earlier today. Who's to say what you love, anyway? If you do love the phone, you can unlock the badge fair and square by following foursquare.com/windowsphone and attending one of their awesome events. Until then, we'll keep it out of your trophy case - and stop meddling with the affairs of your heart." Foursquare has hosted promotional badges for everything from universities to the Jersey Shore -- as far as we can remember, without mishap. "We quickly fixed the problem, removed the badge from the trophy cases of everyone that had mistakenly unlocked it, and sent all of them a note apologizing and explaining what had happened," a Foursquare spokesperson tells Mashable. |
| Homeland Security Tracks These Keywords on Twitter and Facebook [VIDEO] | | Friday, March 02, 2012 4:06 PM | Joann Pan |
|  Next time you write about an "infection," cooking "pork," sitting at the "airport" or "subway," or even mention "social media," know there's a chance the Department of Homeland Security will scan the tweet or Facebook comment. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) just released DHS internal documents about the surveillance of social media and the information collected daily. EPIC gained access to the documents with a lawsuit, pushing the Freedom of Information Act. The documents included hundreds of keywords that the government tracks. The Department of Homeland Security initiative started in February 2011. The department aimed to use social media to stay in-the-know about breaking news as it's happening. Tweets mentioning "attack" or "shooting" could, for instance, alert officials disturbances to national security right away. "Social media outlets provide instant feedback and alert capabilities to rapidly changing or newly occurring situations," states U.S. Homeland Security internal documents. "Theworks to summarize the extensive information from these resources to provide a well rounded operational picture for the Department of Homeland Security." SEE ALSO: Republican Senators: Keep Government Out of Cybersecurity After EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request, the DHS released 285 pages of documents. DHS paid more than $11 million to General Dynamics to help monitor the Internet and provide the government with periodic reports. EPIC sought full disclosure about the methods and breadth of the surveillance of media content. Plus, it wanted details about the dissemination of analysis reports to government partners. Now, the non-profit public interest organization is fighting to get DHS to stop surveying online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards completely. "The agency has demonstrated no legal basis for its social network and media monitoring program, which threatens important free speech and expression rights," EPIC said in a Feb. 22 letter submitted to U.S. Congress. EPIC says the surveillance of social media networks, public forums and websites violates the First Amendment and the Privacy Act of 1974. Do you feel safer with U.S. Intelligence watching over what people say on the Internet? Or do you feel it's a violation of privacy? Tell us in the comments. Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr, Hello Turkey Toe |
| ESPN Brings More Than 200 College Basketball Games to Facebook | | Friday, March 02, 2012 2:14 PM | Sam Laird |
|  ESPN is streaming more than 200 college basketball games on Facebook over the next week. It's the first time the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports has turned to the world's dominant social network to deliver live content. The streams of conference tournament games -- precursors to the real "Big Dance" tournament later this month -- began Thursday and run through March 10. Included are both obscure match-ups from far-flung leagues and heavyweight bouts from major conferences. But not just anyone with a Facebook profile can watch. The games are being delivered through the sports network's ESPN3 service, which typically provides live streams via the watchespn.com website to people who subscribe to the service or affiliated Internet providers. So to watch on Facebook, you'll either need to be a pre-existing subscriber or get Internet service through one of these providers. People who are allowed to access the Facebook streams can do so by going to ESPN's Facebook Page and selecting the ESPN3 app, which should be third from the left in the row beneath ESPN's new Timeline cover photo. Once at the ESPN3 app, users can choose from a number of simultaneously available games. "The Facebook (option) is the result of our '10,000 front doors' strategy for ESPN3, which started with the ESPN3 player on AustralianOpen.com this past January, where we achieved fantastic results," ESPN3 executive John Lasker said in a corporate blog post. "We believe in making content available to sports fans wherever they are and choose to consume." Do you think live events streaming via Facebook is a trend that will gain more momentum soon? Let us know in the comments. |
| Why Is Twitter's Logo Named After Larry Bird? | | Friday, March 02, 2012 1:32 PM | Sam Laird |
|  You know that blue Twitter bird that's always popping up these days? Well, the little guy's got a name. It's Larry. Larry the Bird. As in, Larry Bird, the Hall of Fame basketball player. This tidbit most recently came to light earlier this week, thanks to a tweet from Ryan Sarver, a platform and API manager at Twitter. He posted a photo of Twitter's creative director, Doug Bowman, explaining how the company's logo has developed over the years. Sarver's tweet mentioned the "evolution of the Larry the Bird logo." The connection actually makes quite a bit of sense, if you do a little Internet stalking and connect the dots. Twitter's co-founder is Biz Stone. A 2009 interview from The Boston Globe tells us that Stone graduated from Wellesley High School, just outside Boston. And Wikipedia tells us Stone was born in 1974. This means Stone likely was a wide-eyed, prepubescent youth at the same time Larry Bird was leading the Boston Celtics to two NBA championships, winning three consecutive league MVP titles from 1984 to 1986. The Beantown hoops backstory has gained a fair amount of media coverage since Sarver's tweet earlier this week. But Peter Stringer, the Celtics' director of interactive media, was aware of the connection back in August, when he had this Twitter exchange with Stone: @peterstringer @twitter @celtics @eeegeee yes it is!— Biz Stone (@biz) August 11, 2011 |
| Can You Survive Without Social Media for Two Weeks? [CHALLENGE] | | Friday, March 02, 2012 12:39 PM | Keith Kaplan |
| 
With over 845 million active users on Facebook alone, it's safe to say that social media has become integrated into our daily lives. The social media explosion over the past few years has changed the way people and communities interact. Communication among individuals has become more dynamic, and information is delivered at a faster pace. Social media has allowed family and friends to stay up to date with what is happening in each others lives. Even businesses can now reach out directly to fans. With all the advances social media has enabled, some people are still skeptics. They don't feel a need to be connected online, or they believe social media is too much work or too immersive. Some even ask the question: What would life be like without Facebook? Last year one of our writers at Mashable, Sam Laird, began a social experiment by testing what his life would be like without Facebook. This wasn't because he disliked Facebook, but because he was curious to see the other side: would he miss it? To this day, Sam has kept his Facebook account deactivated (but not fully deleted). He reported surprising results, saying that he misses out on a lot of conversation, and he always finds himself trying to catch up to articles posted on Facebook. He also reported that he had more time to browse the Internet, without worrying whether an article was share-worthy on the social network. In order to see how fully social media has been ingrained in our lives, we want to test your resolve. We propose a challenge: Who can survive without social media for two weeks? This means you can't update your status, send a tweet, +1 a post or "check in" to a restaurant. For two weeks you will only be able to engage with few online resources. Interested? Read on to learn how to take part. How to Enter the Challenge Leave a comment below this article answering the question: Why do you want to disconnect from social media for the next two weeks? Post your comment below by Wednesday, March 7 at 5 p.m. EST in order to be considered. Once all the comments are submitted, Mashable's editorial staff will select the five most inspiring entries. We will contact those five individuals and connect with them for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, each individual will write a reflection on his or her experience disconnecting from social media. The best reflection could be featured as a guest post on Mashable. *In our challenge, disconnecting from social media limits you to: emailing, SMS texting and content consumption via a news site or an embed video. This means you are not allowed to create or share any type of content. Actions like writing blog posts, uploading videos, commenting, Liking a comment, posting status updates, sharing a post, checking in, playing social games, chatting online, video chatting, or anything related to those actions are not allowed. |
| Twitter Surrenders One User's Data to Police Investigation | | Friday, March 02, 2012 11:33 AM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Three months after being subpoenaed by a Boston district attorney, Twitter has handed over user data from one account that tweeted data allegedly obtained by hacking into police websites. The district attorney of Suffolk County had subpoenaed Twitter in December, requesting "all available subscriber information" for @p0isAn0N, @OccupyBoston, #BostonPD and #d0xcak. The subpoena also included the name Guido Fawkes, which is associated with the @p0isAn0n account. On December 28, after the subpoena was issued, @p0isAn0n tweeted: "Haha. Boston PD submitted to Twitter for my information. Lololol? For what? Posting info pulled from public domains? #comeatmebro." Twitter spokesman Matt Graves told Boston.com that @p0isAn0n is the only account for which Twitter ultimately provided any information, and he declined to comment when the website asked about how Twitter dealt with the request for information related to the Occupy Boston account. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was among the most public opponents of the subpoena, and it challenged the measure in court. All court proceedings and documents involved in that challenge were sealed. A judge ruled last week against the challenge and Twitter complied with the decision, according to Boston.com. "We continue to believe that our client has a constitutional right to speak, and to speak anonymously; and that this administrative subpoena both exceeded the scope of the administrative subpoena statute and infringed our client's rights under the First Amendment," ACLU lawyer Peter Krupp said in a statement Thursday. "With the turnover of these documents any subsequent review of these issues will be moot." Should Twitter be obligated to hand over information about its users to law enforcement? Do you see such requests as necessary to investigations or as attacks on free speech? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, eldh |
| 'Klout for Pinterest' Scores Your Influence and Popularity | | Friday, March 02, 2012 10:28 AM | PSFK |
|  Web app Pinpuff measures your influence on Pinterest and gives you a score out of 100 based on your followers, who you’re following, your boards, pins, likes and comments. It was made in India by 20-year-old computer science undergrad Ammrita Sharma, who is a self-declared Pinterest addict. Once you’ve entered your Pinterest username, Pinpuff measures your popularity, influence, reach, and also decides the monetary value of your pins and the traffic your pins generate. Sharma explained to Penn Olson: "Depending upon the quality of sharing and followers, the monetary value of each pin is calculated. Monetary value is calculated keeping in mind the ROI that can be extracted if a brand is involved and is paying for pins. This again is developed through lots of underground tests for quite some time." Pinpuff is currently in private beta and the first 1,000 users will get exclusive invites to try the startup's experiments with Pinterest well before it is opened for all. |
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