Ning – time to upgrade social networks

Very shocked today as I am catching up on a serious backlog of RSS news items to see that NING a popular DIY social networking site where by you are able to create your own social network ala facebook about any product, service, idea, whatever you like with features such as posting content, media and adding friends have now scrapped their free service and opted for a tiered pricing model.

This has personally come as a surprise as I personally know several people managing relatively decent sized social networks on Ning and cannot see them paying for such tiered pricing to continue their community when facebook would offer pretty much the same service for free. The pricing levels Ning have introduced are not over priced at all starting from around $3/month with its core features and going up in price dependant on a variety of factors that the user would wish to bolt onto their “social networking website”.

Tiered plans are rolling out in June and we shall see the true backlash of this as many users will undoubtedly flock to Facebook for a “newly released” community page which is a branch from the popular “Pages” used by businesses and the like. Others I suspect if they are serious about their social network website on Ning will opt to spending money creating a true self owned platform/website and shell out the initial cost as opposed to paying a monthly fee.

Ning ID is also being chopped which in a sense is a good thing, this was a single sign on created by ning so you would be able to sign into any social network hosted by ning with a single username/password combination. I say its a good thing because now we have so many other single sign on platforms ranging from the age old Microsoft Passport, to the variety of OpenID providers and of course the fairly newcomers of Google, Twitter and Facebook connect programs.

What is your view on Ning?

Social Networking and business

One of my favourite twitter followers @crystal_jewels1 posted a blog article recently about social networking and business and as this is something i personally talk to a lot of my clients about I think its only right to point others in the same direction.

So visit the article on Crystal-Jewels.co.uk to learn move and let her know your thoughts on social networking also

Bristwestival this Thursday evening!

Thursday 25th March 2010 should be on your calendar marked brightly to not forget! Its the 2nd global twestival event being held to support a specific charity and

For those who do not know what Twestival is, its a festival held WORLDWIDE to support charity and do fundraising that is organised predominantly through the global network that is Twitter.com

Twestival events although global are completely organized and orchistrated by local volunteers who give their time and effort to organize events together with finding talented people to collaborate with to donate prizes, source great venues, music and entertainment. All the proceeds from the sales of tickets, auctions, raffles and general donations will go to a charity chosen by Twestival.

2009 saw the first Twestival and donations were given to Charity Water (http://twitter.com/charitywater) and was a huge success wordlwide gaining a lot of publicity around the events and cause. This year the charity is Concern Worldwide (http://twitter.com/concern) who have a vision for changing education programs for the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world particularlly those who suffer from HIV and AIDS, children with disabilities, orphans, street children and so much more.

This year one of my favourite local businesses Crystal Jewels (http://crystal-jewels.co.uk / http://twitter.com/crystal_jewels1) are taking part in the Twestival in Bristol (bristol.twestival.com) by donating two handmade jewellery designs to the auction.

Bristol Twestival is being held at The Tunnels, an incredible location underneath Bristol Temple Meads station and former England rugby union international Gareth Chilcott who owns the space has given this to Bristwestival for free and if that wasn’t enough, fantastic local band Phantom Limb shall be playing on the night.

This year Bristol Twestival has over £1,000 worth of prizes to win – buy your tickets now or on the door on the night.

For a list of the prizes take a look at the Bristol.Twestival.com website

5 Ways to enhance your customer service using social media

Every day of our lives we interact with a variety of different people from all different aspects of life, different cultures, thoughts, backgrounds, emotions and so much contributes to the way in which those people will interact with you on a day to day basis. This can be very difficult when you are trying to deal with a company and their customer service is biased by so many factors – its can’t be helped thats for sure, however customer service is key to this whole social media business.

Every day I speak with customers and potential leads and ensuring that the customer service not only my company offers but myself on a personal level is the absolute best I could offer, as much as possible I go out of my way to visit and interact with my customers and actually give a damn about what they do not only in work but if personal life comes into play then that too because there isn’t a brick wall between personal and business life especially when it comes to caring about your customers. Far to many people but up barriers between their work and personal life and in some cases rightly so and some areas they are needed but knowing that if someone is going through a tough time then its really not the best idea to be chatting and trying to sell them your service.

Today I have had to deal with several fairly large companies to get some information and details changed and the manner in which this was achieved was nothing short of a 2 hour conversation for something that should have taken 10 minutes. Not because their systems were down, i was asking the impossible, there was a queue or things weren’t being put across properly but simply the cultural difference and bias bought upon them with the culture and expectancies of their company forced them to act and play out a scene that was really not needed at all.

When it comes to customer service for your business five things I think are crucial and these play a big part especially with social media:

1. Make sure your message is coming across as clearly and accurately as possible so that what you are saying does not offend or irritate the customer
2. Do not try and brush the customer and their concerns to one side quickly without properly attending to them just in order to get through more work or more enquiries
3. Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool – 1 bad customer review is worth a lot more when told to friends and family than 1 good review is and whats more with social media tools such as twitter, facebook, linkedin then this word of mouth has been increase a million fold – don’t damage your brand equity
4. Don’t rely on just your own knowledge when tackling a problem – if you need the help of co-workers or even the public – USE IT instead of being stuck or giving advice/information that may not be beneficial
5. The customer is always right, right? If they are embrace this and even display this knowledge through social media tools whereby should a customer praise, make suggestion or just ask for help with something promote these ideas and show the community you are listening. Should the customer not be the happiest person and are having problems with you – you better believe they will slate you through social media outlets – what do you do? Connect with them – engage and try your best to resolve the issue.

Make sure the way you communicate and engage with your customers not only through social media but on a day to day basis isn’t closed and restricted – caring is key – its not all about the money.

Wired Weston II – Another Success

For those who were unable to attend Weston-super-Mare’s Chamber of Trade & Commerce event last night Wired Weston II then take a look below for my presentation which I made to the great folks of Weston-super-Mare and surrounding areas.

If you are interested in the first event which happened in October 2009 and this second event then you can find more information including all the slides (yesterdays slides to come) over at my company website by clicking here.