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By now, most companies and brands are using social media, however there are still many brands a

re struggling to understand how social media can fit into their business strategy. According to a study by digital marketing firm Acquity Group, 90% of 50 large retailers are currently active with Twitter and about only 29% use it to actively engage with their consumers.

Brands typically tend to ignore tweets from their followers because it can be seem as overwhelming to respond to every single inquiry. Twitter is all about having a conversation with your followers. It’s best when your company’s Twitter profile compresses of a mix of replies, retweets and tweets.

Replying to most tweets can be a great opportunity to showcase to the rest of your followers what great customer service and support you can offer as a company. As I always say, if one person has a question there will be 100 other people with the same question. It’s in your brand’s best interest to always follow up with a response.

It is my belief, that a majority of companies originally signed up for Twitter because someone in their office read an article online and said that they should join in to. This usually happens without even thinking of who would be responsible to manage those accounts. It can be more damaging to a brand to have a Twitter presence that is unresponsive than to not have one at all. If a follower’s tweet goes ignored, they inquiry comes off as unimportant and irreverent.

Type “@,” followed by the user’s name — with no space — and send out the tweet if you want to directly reply to the user. The recipient will be notified of your response, because they’re directly mentioned in the tweet. However, your response will be publicly available.

Do you reply to all of your Twitter mentions? Share below your strategies and techniques when responding.

Thank you!

On June 14th, 2011 I will be joined with keynote speaker, Andrew Schiestel (tbk Creative), David Canton (Harrison Pensa) and myself Ashley Hall (Voices.com) for an informative and interactive morning workshop which will help London Chamber of Commerce members understand social media and to help build an online community for their brand.

Topics covered will include:

• The communications field is in a global revolution. Learn what is happening and why.
• Demystify the role of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogging in your communications plan.
• Why most brands suck at social media and what to do about it
• How to begin integrating social media into your company’s marketing & communication’s.
• How to build an online community around your brand.
• Legal issues surrounding social media
• Dealing with negative social media
• Case studies from local businesses

Hope to see you out at this event!

Straight Talk on Social Media: http://www.londonchamber.com/events/?id=425

Overcoming Barriers of Communication

The communication process is successful when the sender and receiver can both equally understand the message that is being communicated. Unfortunately, most of the messages we send through various channels are only partially understood because of common communication barriers such as bypassing, differing frames of reference, lack of language skills and distractions.  

A person’s frame is reference is formed by a combination of an individual’s experiences, education, culture, personality and expectations.  Everyone brings their own completely different personal biases, prospects and predictions which can be a potential barrier.  In workplace, there is a wide assortment of educational backgrounds which can work against the process because the receiver does not understand the purpose for the outcome.  To overcome this barrier, the sender has to clearly state the desired results and the steps leading to the result. A strong business communicator must be aware of both frames of reference and also how the receiver will interpret the information. 

Technology serves as a wonderful communication tool but digital distractions are becoming more of an issue in the workplace environment.  Digital distractions such as cell phones, online chats and even emails can easily disrupt the employee’s focus of the task at hand.  Employees are being faced with conflicting demands, multitasking, information overload and even staff shortage so overcoming the challenge of the remaining focused has become much harder in today’s workplace.  To maintain focus, communicators must accept the challenges in encoding and decoding.  Overcoming digital distractions can be accomplished by creating specific times when you check your email inbox, logging out of chat forums when needed, dealing with one message at a time, block unwanted incoming messages, becoming more ruthless when prioritizing your tasks and even putting your phone on ‘do not disturb’ mode.  By following these simple suggestions the task could be completed much quicker with fewer interruptions. 

Strong communication requires consideration of the person’s frame of reference and ignoring the interruptions both physical and digital to focus on the main objective. To overcome communication barriers the sender must adapt the message to the receiver, improve on their listening skills and plan for feedback.  Clever communicators strive to avoid communication barriers by being aware of a person’s frame of reference and to dodge digital distractions.  Only then we can foresee clear communication between the sender and the receiver to achieve more positive results.