Mr Lerner is the current owner of Aston Villa Football Club.
I have tried to contact Mr Lerner’s office, secretary and PA by email and telephone for 4 months now.
Eventually I managed to get through to Aston Villa’s press office, to be told “Randy doesn’t give interviews to bloggers- he only speak to accredited media, and there’s a very long waiting list.”
Image supplied by Sports RX.
It is crucial for commercial organisations to use online communication channels to help them engage with both customers and fellow businesses.
Businesses are increasingly using social media platforms to build more personal relationships with customers. But while well-implemented digital media communications can be the cornerstone of a building a brand or reputation, a weak online strategy can be equally damaging and deliver a poor return on investment.
Companies need to follow a strategic path using social media to grow their online presence, improve communication with staff and increase customer loyalty. Because social media challenges the old-school practice of ‘push’ media and uses engagement instead, this can come as a culture shock. It also requires an understanding of alternative technologies and online platforms as well as a fresh attitude to acquiring new business that can conflict with traditional communications techniques.
The growth of social media affects how news is delivered: on demand, placing the consumer in control and enabling them to filter content. Some 43% of news on Twitter covers developments in technology, compared with just 1% in the traditional print media*. For businesses operating in a niche such as this, the benefits of social media engagement and online marketing to consumers are clear.
Social media can also be a valuable business-to-business (B2B) communication channel. Twitter is a particularly good example, with ‘follow me’ opportunities replacing ‘friend me’, enabling people who are not friends to do business online. Twitter’s 140 character limit also encourages succinct communications. Meaningful short business conversations add a human touch to the corporate world, creating encouraging online conversations with colleagues, clients, customers and potential contacts.
Facebook on the other hand is predominantly a platform for brands to communicate with their consumers – in July 2009 a study of Fortune 100 companies found that more had a presence on Twitter (54%) than on Facebook (29%). Surprisingly, the study also found that only 32% had a corporate blog, which can be a fast and inexpensive way to promote controlled, on-brand messages and news online**.
The study also found that these companies were using social media platforms for several purposes: company news, customer service, marketing promotions and employee recruitment – the majority of which were successfully completed on LinkedIn. This is most likely to be because they are low cost and highly targeted, providing provided a platform for even the smallest company to excel.
Bullring Birmingham (@Bullring), which is based in the West Midlands, successfully integrated social media and traditional communications during its Christmas campaign in 2009. A model of the shopping centre was created from LEGO, and shoppers were offered the change to engage by recreating themselves as LEGO figures and placing themselves within the model. The initiative really fired consumer’s imaginations; not only did the project provide a story for the traditional media but consumers and local bloggers created LEGO figures online and used them as profile pictures on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
So what is next? The BBC has announced changes to its iPlayer, which will integrate social media platforms into the TV viewing experience. Geographical tagging and the open use of publicly available data will drive online users to business directories such as http://awmist.org (set up by the Advantage West Midlands’ ICT Cluster), and this practice will actively reward engagement by offering visitors a richer experience through content such as integrated promotional videos, photographs and press releases.
The world of social media is changing fast. Facebook is causing a storm with its privacy policies at the moment, and many platform providers are seeing a huge increase in mobile handset publishing. Expect social media to become more mobile, so learn how to really use your Blackberry or iPhone now. That way, your knowledge and successful use of digital communications will grow with the technology catering for it, ensuring you can take part in online conversations that customers may already be having about your business or brand.
Top tips:
- Listen to what people have to say
- Use the platforms your target audience is already having conversations on
- Join the existing audience for your brand
- When you are listening to people, show engagement and understanding for their needs
- Build conversations in public
- Share information and news about your business
- Provide guidance, training and examples of best practice for communications staff to ensure that the voice of your company reflects your corporate values and ethos
- Don’t resort to ‘push’ tactics and spam – your customers should ask to be pulled instead
* Source: Pew Research Centre (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1602/new-media-review-differences-from-traditional-press)
** Source: Burson-Marsteller
Following a brief introductory meeting with Chief Inspector Markham on Monday 10th May, here is the summary of aims and objectives for further consideration;
· Pilot project to further engage local citizens of Handsworth, encouraging local people to partake in good and bad issues that affect their daily lives
· Starting with small steps, supported with traditional conversational reporting methods, introducing the local people to http://handsonhandsworth.info/ and encouraging them to contribute to the content of this local neighbourhood website
· Providing officers with a simple digital camera, to photograph a general image of daily life in Handsworth, highlighting good responses and bad issues as they arise
· Provide technical support to minimalise time spent by officers to upload images and text, allowing them to concentrate on frontline Policing duties
· Full social media technology assistance, digital publishing support and training as required for the duration of the pilot project, from an experienced professional
· Linking in closely with the Local Neighbourhood Manager, providing a route for reports to be actioned, thus saving valuable WM Police time spent on issues that are of a non-Police nature
· Include traditional local media and marketing supporting material to enhance the project awareness and raise the local profile of WM Police in the community
· Consider re-branding of local Police vehicles to show the website addresses for citizens to engage via social media platforms, increasing the number of local followers
· Build the pilot project application, and outcomes report into local Police neighbourhood meetings, following the national Police social media strategy agenda where appropriate
This brief presentation demonstrates the Production Lab explanation of process and details about the project itself, and offers some of my fellow students information about the platform, research behind it and possible suggestions for future progress. The assignment for this module asked me to reflect on my experiences, so I can now consider this a first attempt at gathering my thoughts in brief. One area is simply where I chose to tell the story of what happened, highlighting particular incidents and specific achievements. The last page is purely bullet-point summaries where the reflective thinking process starts to take shape.
Linking closely to the recent local Community Action Day (Hands On Handsworth, 2010), the most appropriate route forwards with small social media progressive steps has been the approval of my Social Media as Practice assignment 2 proposal, called “Snap Handsworth” (Hadley, 2010).
This assignment 2 project is based around the collecting of digital photographs, hosting these on Flickr (Flickr, 2010), linking this gallery to the Hands on Handsworth website, and forwarding action required to Fix My Street (Fix My Street, 2010).
In detail, I propose to purchase a small digital stills camera and instruct local Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers on appropriate methods of use, how to obtain good quality photographs in varying light conditions, picture composure and framing. An integral part of the process will be the education possibly required to further encourage community engagement, whereby an officer would hold a conversation with a local resident, who would perhaps highlight physical areas of concern to them, such as litter, graffiti, fly-tipping or pot holes. As part of the engagement process, the officer would photograph the identified situation, and note the geographical location, with postcode. Then, upon return to the Police station, this photograph would be uploaded to the local community account at Flickr to be shared and linked to the gallery on the Hands on Handsworth website. This identified and evidenced ‘incident’ would then be digitally reported on the Fix My Street website by the officer, sending an alert email to the appropriate department of Birmingham City Council, who are then obliged to investigate and act upon their findings. Drawing upon similar thinking to the “long tail” methodology (Anderson, 2006) , and “street level culture” (Florida, 2003) definition, the reporting process is then traceable by any citizen, encouraging long-term open digital communication with peers, transparency in line with council policy, and communication with local residents, police officers and local neighbourhood managers, building a stronger sense of community cohesion.
The progress of such a reporting method can then be included as agenda items at local neighbourhood meetings explaining the process to the citizens, encouraging both citizens and officers to follow the progress of the reports on line via the social networking platforms used. This practice would then demonstrate an agreed appropriateness of one solution to social media context, both for the ‘client’ and also the local citizens.
As identified earlier however, more defined work based on the issues of “digital literacy and inclusion” (Lane-Fox, 2009) should perhaps be defined and clarified to make the full opportunity of this project reach its potential level of success. Given that this assignment 2 project will run for just one month in practice, I therefore propose to share my findings and report with Digital Birmingham. It is their brief and remit to address such issues in local communities, and this organisation has the resources in place to make further progress, following completion of this pilot project, allowing for one aspect of my exit strategy towards the Personal Development Planning segment of this project.