Social media and recruiting

Green Rubber and its parent company Petra Group are fairly new to the world of social media. That said, we have a video on YouTube which gives an introduction to the technology, as well as a rapidly growing Facebook group and a LinkedIn group. The boss, Datuk Vinod, has his own popular Facebook Group and I have this little blog as well.
But already we are seeing our interaction with stakeholders via social media platforms starting to pay dividends. Web traffic is up and we are also getting resumes sent to us from people whose first point of contact with the company has been on Facebook.
The lession is simple: Conversations about you and your company are taking place whether you are part of the dialogue or not. So it is important to engage with stakeholders across web 2.0 platforms.
In my opinion, social media will become the dominant media when it comes to communicating with stakeholder groups, particularly customers. More on this subject later...

best viral video I have seen all year

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/jun/19/strongbow-viral-video-ad-bankers

Green Rubber

As I mentioned before, my day job is for a technology conglomerate in KL called Petra Group. One of its businesses is called Green Rubber. It has a fantastic technology to recycle waste tyres. There are 7 billion sitting in landfill around the world and the company's patented technology enables waste tyre rubber to be recycled and turned into new applications.
You can find out all about the company at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8WdBzSrz3Y

Twitter - what is the point?

Apparantly the number of people using Twitter has risen 93% over the last 6 months. That is some growth by anyone's standards. But why use Twitter?

To me Twitter is one of the best social networking tools. It seems the people who get the most out of Twitter are those who already have big followings - celebrities, well known politicians, sportsman etc. For their followers, Twitter is a great way of getting close to their icons. Twitter has a very personal feel to it - communication is direct and to the point. It makes for a happier fan base.

But for businesses and business leaders, Twitter is even more valuable. The great thing about social media, and Twitter in particular is that it provides a great platform for gathering market information. Got an issue at work? Not sure how people see your brand? Just ask the question and I am certain you will get valuable comments coming back.

Business communication is no longer a monologue, but rather a dialogue. You need to know what your followers (i.e. your stakeholders) are thinking about you, your company and its brand.

Twitter is an enabling tool to make that happen.

Ideas that are born on Twitter quickly take on a life of their own. Your followers, (bright and interesting people just like you) sitting at their desks in all likelihood, will provide you with a whole heap of new thoughts and provide the fruits of their imagination freely and without question.

Of course there are dangers with using Twitter as well. I was told by a former boss that before you fire off an angry email you should take a deep breath, save the email and then go back to it after you have calmed down. With Twitter it is ludicrously easy to vent without thinking.

Everything about Twitter is about speed - therein lies its strengths and potential pitfalls. Got a scoop, some valuable bit of information, then Tweet and your followers will value your contribution.

But don't Tweet every five minutes. You will appear addicted and followers will grow bored with the endless stream of verbage. My advice would be use Twitter relatively infrequently and only tweet when you actually have something to say.

So what is Twitter actually worth as a company? Well that is a whole other question...

I found this great article on how businesses can best use Twitter. Take a look http://mashable.com/2009/06/24/twitter-brand-best-practices/

The First Post...

So, I thought I would start as I mean to go on and talk about the world of online communications. To many, including most corporate PR departments and CEOs, the new wave of internet communities is something of a puzzle. Everyone is on them (Twitter, Facebook, myspace etc etc) but how do you tap into these communities to add value to your company’s brand or enhance your own reputation?
The first lesson to learn is that you are no longer in control of your reputation. It doesn’t matter how many press releases or adverts you churn out, the deciding factor in how you are viewed by the world is what people are saying about you. A recent Edelman PR survey found that people are most likely to trust information provided by someone like themselves. PRs featured at the bottom of the list nestled between estate agents (realty agents for you US readers) and Fox News Anchors. So the challenge now facing companies and high profile business leaders, is how to engage with stakeholders who recognise and instinctively distrust corporate spin.
This is a topic that I will be returning to in detail over the next few months.