Follow Friday #FF is driving me crazy

Everything Else | Posted by Katie
Apr 13 2012
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Is it just me or is the #FF becoming a bit of a joke?  Actually I know its not just me because I have read other people’s blogs about it but today kind of felt like the last straw when allllll day and I mean all day our Twitter stream has been full of random #FF tweets.

I don’t have a problem with a genuine #FF where it states a good reason why I should go and start following this new person, I do have a massive problem when there are reams of tweets #FFing the world and cramming as many Twitter accounts into the one tweet as possible.

Oh and just to continue on with my rant there really is nothing worse that someone RTing the tweet that they were #FF’d in!  And now I sound like an ffing lunatic!

I suppose that one of the reasons I get so angry about it all, apart from the fact it is useless drivel filling up the Twitter stream, is that I probably miss a lot of genuine Follow Fridays because of all this rubbish.  So on one of the blog posts I read recently, whilst over a year old, they did mention trying to start a #RealFF and I would be interested to hear if anyone has used it, been impressed by it and has found new business or contacts through it?

I have to say until this madness calms down I will not be partaking in the #FF love-in, just not my scene and just adds to the nonsense in my opinion that Twitter is kind of leaning towards, you know the thing I’m talking about, where people RT something just because it’s got their name in it – come on, that’s like showing newspaper clippings to random people in the street just because there happened to be a photo of you in it!

So, is it confirmed that I am definitely a grumpy old woman or is anyone else feeling my pain?  Answers on a genuine lack of #FF tagged up tweet please :)

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Facebook bugs and why they annoy me

Business News, Client News | Posted by Katie
Mar 16 2012
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This week I have spent a significant amount of time setting up new cover images and sorting timelines, apps and other admin sections of customers Facebook business pages.  Whilst I love the majority of the new options the sheer obstructive nature of Facebook has annoyed me more and more.  Oh and did I mention bugs in the title?  Riddled with them!

At one point after trying to upload a profile image 6 times I gave up… went away and made a cup of coffee, came back and there it was as if nothing weird had been happening at all.  Also with all these new and improved features why oh why does Facebook still not realise that there are people outside the USA using it, and therefore don’t want to put their price in as $’s or have full stops put in their telephone numbers.  But the most annoying of all, when did Facebook decide that the about us section of a business page will not actually be about us unless we change the category to something innocuous like ‘company’ rather than the reality which is many of our customers are hotels.  Just sheer frustration all week.

However, I do like to end on a positive note – the ability to change the images on the apps is a welcome addition, as is the ability to pin and highlight posts but why do I get the impression Facebook are giving with one hand and taking away with the other?

Anyone else feel a rant coming on that they would like to share?

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So you have your social media in place – what now?

Business News | Posted by Katie
Feb 09 2012
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So, you’ve got your Twitter account, your regularly posting on Facebook, you’ve uploaded all your photos to Flickr – what now?

Well there is nothing more frustrating for us going to see a customer we have been working with who doesn’t let their customer know that they are on all of these social media platforms.  As we all know, we are now living in an instant gratification world these days thanks to the nearly immediate actions you can take online, so for example if I am sitting in your hotel room with my smart phone and I am loving the tea and coffee making facilities, I may be tempted to talk about you on Facebook with my friends….. now what was your hotel called again?  I put the search in my Facebook on the phone and it gives me 10 different options based on your hotel name and I have no idea which one you are…. right, won’t bother then.  The same applies to Foursquare and to Twitter.

We know that you don’t want to cheapen your look by being on a constant sales drive, but we also know that customers rarely open bedroom folders, or look on the back of menus, or look at your company brochure for this type of information.  You need a simple, cost effective way of getting that kind of information across.  So our ideas are as follows:

  • Tent cards with small icons and your profile name next to them on every table in your business
  • A proper email signature that goes out on absolutely every email you send that includes the icons and your profile name
  • Business cards with all of your contact details, social media icons and profile names rather than a picture of your business logo, scattered about the place or put in an envelope with every mailout you send
  • Anything that electronically leaves your business, i.e your newsletter – make sure you always include the social media icon with your profile name

We used to find ourselves saying all the time, what is the point of having a lovely website if no one finds you on Google?  These days we find ourselves saying, what is the point in setting up all of this social media and making sure you use it if no one knows you are on it?

If you want to find us you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, view screenshots of our work on Flickr, view our website, and we don’t have a YouTube chanel because us talking about SEO will send you to sleep!

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do you have a moderation switch?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Feb 07 2012
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Listening to Radio5 this morning the call in of the day was entitled something like ‘the Internet ruined by life’… actually what they were focusing on was social media and how people have lost jobs because the photos of the big night out were posted on their profile the day that they called in sick, or pictures on their profiles including pictures of items stolen from the work place – well quite honestly these people are stupid and should know better.  There were of course the extreme examples of lives really ruined by social media and the practices of some horrid people targeting and using social media to bully, however, the upshot of the phone in was basically – think about what you post on the Internet.

We have all read the stories and heard the horrors of privacy on Facebook and of stalking on Twitter but as ever I would like to take a balanced view of social media.  Without social media we would struggle to do our job, businesses would lose that direct contact with customers and on a personal level I would miss being in touch with friends and family across the globe.   However, I would also like to think I have a ‘moderation switch’.

So what is my switch moto ‘if I walked into a room with friends, acquaintances and a smattering of people I don’t know, would I say out loud my status update’?  And as far as privacy and people finding out about you and your personal information, bear in mind – its not just Facebook and Twitter where you are actively sharing your information, think about Google – they know your shopping preferences, your health scares, your celebrity stalking tendencies and don’t forget Tesco and that clubcard you use, oh and your bank account with linked debit and credit cards…. you know that argument of identity cards or not – they already know all that information and it is all accessible for the right price.

In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, use social media with some basic moderation rules and you should be just fine… and if things get out of control or you are being bullied report the people that are doing the bullying, there are so many in built tools especially on Facebook and Twitter so use them!  And my last comment on the subject, if you don’t want people to know anything about you then don’t use the Internet and work on a cash only basis.

Comments gratefully received on our business Facebook page :)

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Customer Service is Key

Everything Else | Posted by Katie
Feb 01 2012
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How many different companies do you think you use in a day, a week, a month for your personal transactions right through to business services?  Well I know that we use loads and more often than not there is a problem.

All businesses encounter problems, delivery issues (why charge more to the Highlands – don’t get me started on that one!), stock issues, faulty or damaged goods, or as in the case of a recent transaction with Amazon, the order was lost completely.  Who’s fault is it?  Well I don’t really care to be honest I just want the goods that we ordered.  So I went onto the Amazon website, went to my orders, found the one that still had not arrived, pressed contact us, said they hadn’t arrived and within 5 minutes – yes you did read that right – I got a response from Amazon that wasn’t one of these ‘thank you for your enquiry we will deal with it when we manage to get round to it’ replies, it was in good English and it answered my question.  Now why, if a large and lets be honest enormous company like Amazon can manage good customer service, why can’t we all?

As a small business we pride ourselves on customer service, hate to think that a customer is let down by our lack of attention to detail or by not keeping them informed of anything, but our customer base is much more manageable than Amazon’s – so what makes them so different?  We have a list of complaints from Blackberry to Vodafone, Scottish Hydro Electric to Intuit Quickbooks and all of them are large multinational companies and all of them fail miserably to deal with customers the way we should be dealt with.

Not quite sure what I am going to do about it other than my usual rant on our blog, but I am interested to hear your good and bad customer service experiences so we know who to use in the future and who to avoid like the plague… our current avoidance recommendation is the Morrisons Petrol Station at Fort William – rude staff – and our current hero is obviously Amazon :)   Who are your heroes and villains in the customer service world?

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