Social Media

On Tuesday 16 June, 2015, Leaders in Heels is holding our first-ever workshop about Creating Brand Awareness Online. It’s a free event held at Fishburners, 608 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW. In the lead-up to the event, we’ve asked our amazing speakers a few questions about online branding, and any tips they have for entrepreneurs. You can find our previous interviews with speakers Andre Weyher and Anna Kochetkova.

Our final speaker and interviewee is Katja Forbes. She’s been working in digital media since the mid 1990′s. She has spent time in a number of companies such as Sapient, Thomson Reuters and Yahoo in Sydney, London, Tokyo, Delhi and Beijing. Katja enjoys sharing her experiences in the challenging and fascinating field of experience design. She now runs an independent consultancy, Perceptive Ideas, and is an educator at Sydney University in their Design Lab.

Katja original

1. What do you do and what is your experience with Creating Brand Awareness Online?

I’m an experience specialist running my own research and strategy consultancy most days of the week and an educator at Sydney Uni for the love of teaching. Brand and experience design are inextricably linked so everything I create contributes to a businesses brand perception.

2. How has online branding changed over the past 5 years online?

It’s not about logos any more, it’s about the entire experience a customer has, where they’ve come from, what expectations they’re bringing to the experience a brand is providing and what they remember from it afterwards.

3. What is one common mistake you’ve seen people make when marketing their brand online?

Thinking its just about the logo and snazzy design. Brand has to be treated in a holistic fashion.

4. What is one hot tip you’d give entrepreneurs if they have never marketed before?

Understand your target customers at a deep and meaningful level so you can truly provide them with experiences that they want and possibly don’t even know they need.

5. If you had to be a brand, who would you be and why?

Omega. It’s beautifully designed, executes on its purpose flawlessly and is utterly reliable in terms of quality and delivery.

If you like what Katja has to say, why not sign up for our workshop–it’s free, and you’ll be getting the best advice from experts in the brand awareness field!

Katja

Our next interviewee is Anna Kochetkova. She’s the client manager at Yours Socially and has been supporting small businesses in getting noticed through social media, by creating successful campaigns. She is crazy about creating content that is impactful and achieves outstanding results.

Anna original

1. What do you do and what is your experience with Creating Brand Awareness Online?

As a social media butterfly and strategist, I’ve been working with small businesses’ digital presence for years now. In my experience, it is all about entering this humans’ playground where everyone are already having fruitful conversations; and entering it with the right content to support the existing social madness. Social media space is perfect for brand awareness activities; however, it doesn’t tolerate interruptions. Creating brand awareness online includes solid strategy, perfect content, well defined goals and both eye balls on the end results.

Creating brand awareness online includes solid strategy, perfect content, well defined goals and both eye balls on the end results.

2. How has online branding changed over the past 5 years online?

Online branding has been changing over the period of about 10 years. The last 5 years have been particularly fast. Social media has become hipster, in a way! What I am trying to say is that there is nothing new in getting a business Facebook Page or a Twitter account; however 5 years ago it was still an outrageous marketing strategy. This change imposes benefits and challenges – it is harder to impress and you simply have to be on social media.

3. What is one common mistake you’ve seen people make when marketing their brand online?

No strategy. Low quality content. No goals. These are the main 3 mistakes or questions people come to us with. They usually say, “We started a Facebook Page and posted a few pictures and videos but I don’t think it is doing anything for us.”

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to online branding. Even so, this is a common problem because social media is only a part of businesses’ marketing strategy, not the core. This is why we, as social media obsessed experts, make sure this headache is gone and everything is looked after.

No strategy. Low quality content. No goals. These are the main 3 mistakes or questions people come to us with.

4. What is one hot tip you’d give entrepreneurs if they have never marketed before?

If you decide to market your brand with the help of social media, take some time to explore what others are doing if they are doing it well. Try to understand the patterns. Map up a solid strategy. Test things. Never try for a few weeks, decide that it didn’t work and give up – that never works in any marketing space whether it is public relations, search engine optimization or social media. And of course get professional advice or even a few tips off someone who is online 24/7 – like us!

5. If you had to be a brand, who would you be and why?

As a brand, we are bright, daring, social, entertaining, goals orientated, results driven and fun – that must be Elvis Presley :)

If you like what Anna has to say, why not sign up for our workshop–it’s free, and you’ll be getting the best advice from experts in the brand awareness field!

Anna

These days a good business also has to be a media production business as well. A social media strategy should be essential to all businesses and with media rich channels like YouTube, you can become a celebrity in your niche.

A classic example of this is Melissa Maker from Clean My Space. Melissa is a cleaner. She cleans houses. However she has leveraged the power of YouTube to become a celebrity in the cleaning space.

So much so, that she is now making more money from speaking engagements and advertising than from actually cleaning. It’s never been easier to build an impressive presence in your niche.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Know you niche

For Melissa, it was home cleaning. What’s your niche? Identify what your niche is. What can you comment on and what can you provide plenty of helpful advice about? Generally it will be what you are currently paid to do.

2. Select a channel for your message

Melissa chose YouTube. This is ideal for such a visually relevant topic as demonstrating how to clean. If it’s visual then YouTube makes sense. You could also incorporate Pinterest or Instagram. If you are explaining details or interviewing experts then a Podcast might be the ideal medium.

Whatever channel you use, make sure it all leads back to your website. This is your home base for all your media content. So use these available social media channels but also capture email addresses and bring them back to your website for more content.

3. Create useful, valuable content

This is the step that ensures your content will be shared and re-shared. It has to be useful for the audience. The trick in all this is to not to chase sales; it is to position yourself as the expert in your field. By doing it this way, you will attract higher quality sales than you’ve had in the past. People will see you as the ideal provider of the service or product.

Some people worry about what they can create content about but if you are already being paid for a service then you do have valuable knowledge and expertise. The trick here is to break it down to bite-size pieces for your audience to consume regularly.

4. Deliver it regularly and consistently

People like people they can trust. Deliver your content at a regular time each day, week, fortnight, month – whatever suits you. Just stick to it and maintain it. Melissa Maker sends out a new YouTube video every Saturday at midday. People know to expect it and it is delivered. They trust her and know they can rely on her. This regularity of content helps build your subscribers. They know to expect your content and by doing it regularly the word will spread and your numbers will grow.

5. Spread the word

Winking at someone in the dark is the same as creating content that no one sees. You know what you are doing, but no one else does. Once you have created the content you need to share it. You need to Tweet it, post it on LinkedIn, share it on Facebook, email it. Collaborate with people who have the same audience to ensure more people see it.
People will respect the fact that you are staking a claim to a niche and putting your name to it.

If you follow this process you will build your brand, your credibility and eventually be seen as a star in your niche. The key here is being prolific. Stick to a strategy and keep generating content. It won’t happen overnight. This is a year long strategy at least. The more regularly you create content the quicker the result will be. It could take a year though. But don’t let that put you off – the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time to plant one is today. So start now.

Geoff Anderson is owner of Sonic Sight, a corporate video production company. He presents on using video in business and is the author the Amazon Bestseller “Shoot Me Now – Making videos to boost business”. To find out more about Geoff and to learn about the 5 Mistakes to avoid when making videos, visit www.sonicsight.com.au or visit www.geoffanderson.com.au
Source

The advent of social media has given every person with an account a voice. It has allowed the ordinary person to publicise any perceived discrimination. But like the metaphorical double-edged sword, social media can also be a weapon of mass destruction.

Just recently a café in a Brisbane bayside suburb made headlines after a request by a reporter to the small business owner to put on some lipstick or not be in the picture promoting her business. The business owner vented her displeasure on her business Facebook page, and then social media took it to the next level turning on the reporter and newspaper. This was just after another café posted ‘housekeeping rules’ about their expectations of child patrons on the NSW central coast.

And further up the Hunter Valley a burger restaurant mocked a vegan customer on Facebook and all hell broke loose (socially speaking).

Back in 1995, an episode of the classic TV sitcom Seinfeld addressed the quirks of a small business owner who specialised in soup. The small business owner had precise requirements for ordering and taking the soup.

Jerry: “The guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the ordering procedure.”

Elaine: “Why? What happens if you don’t order right?”

Jerry: “He yells and you don’t get your soup.”

When not followed correctly, the business owner would yell “No Soup For You!” and threw the customer out. Now imagine how that would have played out in today’s culture of social media shaming.

With most small business owners running their own social media accounts, this puts you in direct contact with your customers. Your business Facebook page allows you to develop and write messages for your customer base about situations or issues but you need to consider how these will be perceived by your customers, their contacts and even the media.

Social media users and the media outlets that picked up the stories above expressed different levels of outrage and sympathy – but what impact does this type of behaviour by business owners have on their business? The Hunter Valley burger restaurant received death threats when the business owner’s personal mobile phone number was posted on a page set up in response to the initial post.

When there is a great deal of publicity surrounding a business page like the examples above, social media users anywhere can post an opinion. Which often include negative reactions. How a business owner reacts to these opinions is important.

So what lessons can you take from their experiences?

1. Don’t post on your business page when angry

Very important! Engaging with backlash needs to be thoughtful so don’t provoke the social media beast. Take a deep breath. Have a glass of wine or hit the gym. Write your rant on a piece of paper then burn it! You are not sharing your problems with a small group of friends, you are essentially shouting into a global microphone. Having a post go viral for the wrong reasons can be a social media disaster, rather than a boon to business.

2. Don’t allow your business Facebook page to be hijacked.

You should calmly reiterate your message to focus on the issue. To emphasise the stance on child patrons, the business owner pointed out to casual readers that her business was based in a commercial/industrial area and not a mall, with business hours reflecting that.

3. Control the information on your page

False information on the Internet can be difficult to dispel (… if it’s on the internet is must be true). You hold the power.

4. Champion your business

The Hunter Valley burger café had an existing larrikin tone to all their posts – they reiterated their stance and took action against the hate page created to harm their business by engaging lawyers to send a cease and desist letter. When they realised things were getting out of hand on their own page, they posted a notice calling for a stop to it.

5. Don’t delete the post, comments or page

Unless they are malicious or go against the Facebook code of conduct then leave them there. Critics in your audience will see it as proof that they were right if you delete them. Call out those posting vitriol and respond rationally and keep it civil – this is your business.

5. Monitor the posts

Plenty of people sympathised with the small business owner who was asked to put on some lipstick – however comments directed at the journalist were plainly inappropriate. Monitoring the social media reaction allows the business owner to educate any reader about their stance.

6. Thank your audience for their support

It is important to keep your customers on side and thank them for their support but also underline that personal attacks of any form are not acceptable on your business page. This highlights an ethical stance that you should embrace – and practice.

Remember, your business Facebook page is advertising your business. You may double or triple your likes, but it needs to be sustainable and for the right reasons.

Do you know what happened to the business owner in the Seinfeld episode?

Elaine gets the upper hand and says to him, “You’re through. Pack it up. No more soup for you. NEXT!”

It’s in your best interest to have positive effects in moving your business forward. Keep your social media professional. A good rule of thumb is to think – would I sign off on this statement on my marketing materials?

Have you ever been in a similar situation? Tell us in the comments how you dealt with it.

Yolanda Floro is Leaders in Heels’ Social Media Editor and currently completing her Masters in Law, Media and Journalism studies, focusing on New Media.

Photo credit: Jeff Cutler

From social media platforms to news channels, you use apps all day, but have you thought about having your own? Announcing a new app is trendy and it is a good way to appear in the media, but let me tell you six great reasons why every small or medium size business should consider developing a mobile app:

1 – Create Awareness

There are several ways to spread the news about your business practices to the digital world and one of them is creating a business app that brings something unique to the table. Take Starbucks for example, the coffee app provides early-risers with directions to the nearest store, coffee mixing recipes and coupons as reward for being an early-riser. You can also create an app that provides a service to your business which would definitely create some buzz as people talk about it.

2- Predictive Analysis

The use of apps as a data collection tool cannot be over-emphasized. Having a mobile app or forum for the goods or services you offer provides a medium for knowing the likes and dislikes of your customers. You can then use this information to track the progress of certain products and services with the aim of either manufacturing more products—for popular items—or increasing the awareness campaigns for slow-selling items.

3- Interact With Your Customers

The push notification feature that can be integrated in your business app can serve as a medium of communicating new releases or products to your customer base. The use of notifications gives you ample room to open discussion with your customers, carry out market surveys and provide solutions to their grievances when it arises.

4- Reputation Management

A business app serves as a communication forum between customers and also between the business owner and the customers. And it is in our human nature to first seek redress from the person that hurts us, before broadcasting our hurt to the entire world. A mobile app allows you to read reviews of your products and services, be aware of customer issues and address them amicably before the disappointed customer runs over to Yelp to post a horrifying review.

5- Target Better

You will be able to track metrics such as ‘number of views’ which provides an insight for you and grabs readers’ attention. This insight then allows you to breakdown what users look at and you can feed different content or projects to different demographic groups.

6- Attract a Younger Generation of Consumers

Don’t forget that today kids are learning App Development in school!

The art of customer relationship management which has been perfected by almost every Fortune 500 company, plays a huge role in the success of these large corporations and most of them— such as IKEA or Starbucks—integrate the use of mobile apps to drive customer satisfaction.

If these successful business organisations need the extra support of a mobile app to engage their customers, then why shouldn’t your growing business have one too?

Anna Danés
Anna worked in the web sector before founding Ricaris have a nice day (www.ricaris.com) in 2009, a successful services company providing distributed solutions for companies in the web sector. Managing Virtual Teams (www.managing-virtual-teams.com) is a new consulting product bringing together all of the experience across the distributed teams of Ricaris, and putting it into bite-sized courses, virtual team activities, and consulting packages. Follow Anna @virtualteams

Cady: And they have this book, this “Burn Book” where they write mean things about girls in our grade.
Janis: Well what does it say about me?
Cady: You’re not in it.
Janis: Those bitches.

Mean Girls 2004

Before social media, we ranted to ourselves or to our families and friends about things that upset us. Today, we post it on social media. Problem with customer service? Post it on the company’s Facebook business page. Upset about a contestant’s behavior on a reality television show? Post it on Facebook. Very upset about someone or something? Create a Facebook Hate page.

I discussed defamation via Twitter in my last post, this article will focus on defamation via Facebook. I encourage you to read the cases, they are really interesting – I’ve used the legal citations so you can look them up. Search them.

Defamation

The law of defamation protects a person’s reputation in the community, in the sense of their right not to be denigrated eyes of others. This involves in a sense, the restriction of another common law principle – freedom of speech. The High Court of Australia said about this balancing act:

The public interest in free speech goes beyond public benefit that may be associated with a particular communication…[everyone] has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public…but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. Australian Broadcasting Corporation v O’Neill (2006) 227 CLR 57 at [31]-[32].

Facebook

Facebook was launched in 2004 and its impact on society is growing with it.

It’s currently the largest online social media network. It currently has 1,310,000,000 active users, who share 1,000,000 links every twenty minutes [Link]. Social media has an informal and unreserved style, allowing rapid and spontaneous exchanges. And users are often unconcerned, uninformed or reckless when it comes to the legal risks of what they post online.

Legal Action

Facebook posts have given rise to defamation proceedings in Australia. In the matters discussed, the usual elements of defamation – publication, identification and defamatory matter – were considered. They all involve ordinary people.

Burtenshaw and Knueppel (2012)

Ms Burtenshaw was a school principal in a small community. Ms Knueppel was a parent of a student at that school. In December 2012, in the South Australian Magistrates court, Magistrate Morris was satisfied a Facebook hate page defamed the Ms Burtenshaw and awarded her $40,000 in damages. The Magistrate said:

I am satisfied that prior to the publication of the defamatory material the plaintiff had a sound personal reputation…[and] that the imputations of the subject defamatory postings are untrue. The fact that Ms Knueppel used the publication via a Facebook format and the ease of access and republication should be taken into account as a factor that aggravates the award of compensatory damages.

Polias v Ryall [2013] NSWSC 1267 is a matter which is, at the time of publication, still before the Court. It involves various messages on Facebook profiles between (former) friends. So far, the presiding judge has found some of the defamatory imputations complained of are “abusive words incapable of conveying any defamatory meaning; meaningless abuse; or vulgar abuse not damaging the plaintiff’s reputation”. Interestingly enough, these proceedings have generated some media interest because of the subject matter. A point to bear in mind is the publicity generated by defamation actions, ironically get the message out further.

Mickle v Farley [2013] NSWDC 295 involves a social media double whammy. The defamatory postings were made to Twitter as well as Facebook. The posts were brought to the attention of Ms Mickle by the school principal, who spent time each week to dealing with Facebook issues that arose in relation to students. Mr Farley was a former student of the school, but not of Ms Mickle. His father had been replaced by Ms Mickle when he went on sick leave. Mr Farley was ordered to pay $105,000 in damages. The trial judge found in favour of Ms Mickle, a high school music teacher:

When defamatory publications are made on social media it is common knowledge that they spread. They are spread easily by the simple manipulation of mobile phones and computers. Their evil lies in the grapevine effect that stems from the use of this type of communication.

Opening a fictitious profile to be a “mean girl”

Don’t think that if you have a fictitious profile, it’s open slather to spread hate. Courts have ordered social media platforms to disclose the identities of anonymous social media users through applications for preliminary discovery. In Western Australia, the Supreme Court ordered the disclosure of information relating to posters’ identities in relation to defamatory statements/postings on forums [Resolute Limited and Anor v Warnes [2000] WASC 35 and HotCopper Australia [2010] WASC]. In Britain, the High Court granted an order requiring Facebook to disclose information including the IP addresses of the creators of an offending Facebook page [Applause Store Productions v Raphael [2008] EWHC 1781 (QB)].

How can you protect yourself for being sued for defamation?

Think before you post!
Anonymous or fake profiles are no protection.
Think before you post!
Ordinary people can be sued for defamation.
Think before you post!

Social media has transformed modern communication. It allows people to share interesting as well as mundane stories, engage with businesses, market their own expertise and connect with peers. But when you use social media, temper your behavior online and don’t be impulsive.

Yolanda Floro is Leaders in Heels’ Social Media Editor. This is an edited and modified extract from a recent paper she wrote on Defamation and Social Media as part of her Masters in Law, Media and Journalism studies.

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