OTTAWA – The standard pre-budget photo-op features the federal finance minister buying a new pair of shoes.
Now, Jim Flaherty’s preparing to tell Canadians how it feels to walk a mile in those shoes.
His department will use its Twitter account to chronicle Flaherty’s day as he prepares to deliver the 2013 federal budget in the House of Commons on Thursday .
It’s one of several social-media and digital strategies the government is using to communicate the new federal spending and savings plan.
They include live-streaming a so-called “enhanced” version of the budget speech to the House of Commons, which the Finance Department has dubbed “speechPLUS.”
While the minister lays out the government’s fiscal plan, those watching online will be privy to graphics and videos the department says will provide context for the information he’s sharing with MPs.
Meanwhile, the department will also post links to those materials via its Twitter account.
All of it will be branded with the hashtag #eap13, which is short for “economic action plan,” the phrase the government uses to refer to the budget.
The document itself will be made compatible with mobile and tablet devices and the online version will have a better search function to allow the document to be scanned quickly.
The department began the digital campaign on Tuesday, posting an introductory video about the budget on YouTube.
The comprehensive digital plan is a first for Finance, though officials did tweet elements of Flaherty’s speech in previous years and also made the document available on some mobile platforms.
It represents the increasing integration of social media into government communications as part of an overall strategy, rather than just an afterthought.
Data released by the digital analytics firm comScore earlier this month shows the government of Canada is the second-largest advertiser on social media sites, representing 40 per cent of all ads people see.
Rules for the use of social media by civil servants are now in place and further guidelines are expected later this year in an effort to standardize how tools such as Twitter and Facebook are used to communicate with the public.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own Twitter account has had a recent facelift, with staff using it to share previously unpublicized interactions or comments that may not merit a formal news release.
Harper offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his own day via Twitter in January.
With its plan for the budget, the Finance Department is taking a page from efforts in the United States.
President Barack Obama’s state-of-the-union address for the last two years has been live-streamed with an enhanced format.
After this year’s speech, some questioned whether the graphics presented data fairly or whether they had been generated to emphasize the points Obama wished to make.
They are an effective marketing tool, one observer noted.
“I will say that I think the use of the charts was very successful and does make the president’s speech more effective,” Randy Klum, the president of a U.S. infographic design company, wrote on his blog.
“By their very nature, the charts imply that the president has data behind his message, and that can be a very persuasive, compelling tactic.”
Research has shown that people are increasingly taking in live television events with their smart phones or tablet computers and political events are no exception.
The Pew Research Centre for People and the Press found that 11 per cent of those who watched the first U.S. presidential debate were following it online at the same time as they were watching it on television, with that number rising to 22 per cent for those under 40.
Packaging company Amcor is among several manufacturers considering social media to boost productivity. Photo: CARLA GOTTGENS
Australian manufacturers are turning to social media to boost productivity and compete in an industry that continues to face economic challenges.
The past decade’s pressures on Australia’s manufacturers have resulted in iconic manufacturers such as Rosella closing their doors and a decrease of 0.8 per cent in manufacturers’ contribution to GDP.
Now, firms such as packaging maker Pact Group are, among other IT-based endeavours, embracing social media in the form of business-tailored tools to improve their fortunes.
”We own and operate over 70 sites throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia,” said Pact customer systems manager Brendan Cocks. ”What we found is that there was a breakdown in communication between those sites. What we wanted is a platform that is easily accessible to everyone in Pact Group.”
The company has deployed Salesforce’s Chatter – a Facebook-like tool – for more than 600 of its 3500 employees with plans to extend to 1000 by June.
Mr Cocks said the social platform had helped improve productivity by allowing employees to more quickly share large files, pose questions to help solve problems quickly and access knowledge from all its sites.
”It has cut down those silos and brought the group together as a business,” he said.
Pact is also trialling Chatter’s project group functionality to allow external parties – including customers – to contribute to the conversation. The next step for the manufacturer is to deploy tablets to sales teams for access on the move.
Fellow packaging manufacturer Amcor is another organisation that is turning to social tools.
”Like most industries today, the manufacturing industry needs to be nimble and responsive to deal with a global economy and changing market conditions,” said Amcor’s vice-president of corporate communications Prue Deniz.
”Adopting social business tools helps support the flow of information and knowledge transfer on a peer-to-peer basis. Amcor has a number of business groups, or communities, already using social collaboration tools.”
She said sales and marketing staff used social media internally to share insights and remove the boundaries between business groups and geographies.
Amcor is also piloting an enterprise-wide social collaboration tool for its 33,000 workers in 42 countries. It declined to name the product while in testing.
”Our aim is to ultimately enhance the way we support our customers and drive competitive advantage,” Ms Deniz said. ”The tool enables users to interact, share files and create communities to collaborate in an online environment.”
IT research firm IDC said the manufacturing sector represented 10 per cent of Australian IT spending – or $4.7 billion – in 2012.
In addition to the social business movement, other technologies manufacturers should consider include mobility, analytics and cloud, according to PwC.
”There will always be an ever-changing chest of digital tools that automate content and analytics management,” said PwC partner and national digital change leader John Riccio.
”However, the tools are less important than the business model and culture change organisations need to embrace if they are going to remain relevant in the industry.”
Mr Riccio said setting clear objectives and measuring efficacy were critical and potentially ”the key to surviving in the digital age”.
OTTAWA – The standard pre-budget photo-op features the federal finance minister buying a new pair of shoes.
Now, Jim Flaherty’s preparing to tell Canadians how it feels to walk a mile in those shoes.
He’ll be tweeting elements of his day Thursday as he prepares to deliver the 2013 federal budget in the House of Commons.
It’s one of several social-media strategies the government is using to communicate the new federal spending and savings plan.
They include live-streaming a so-called “enhanced” version of Flaherty’s budget speech to the House of Commons, which his department has dubbed “speechPLUS.”
While the minister lays out the government’s fiscal plan, those watching online will be privy to graphics and videos the department says will provide context for the information he’s sharing with MPs.
Meanwhile, the department will also be posting links to those materials via its own Twitter account.
The government is also making online versions of the budget compatible with mobile and tablet devices and creating a better search function to allow the document to be scanned quickly.
The comprehensive digital plan is a first for the Finance Department, though officials did tweet elements of Flaherty’s speech last year and also made the document available on some mobile platforms.
It represents the increasing integration of social media into government communications as part of an overall strategy, rather than just an afterthought.
Rules for the use of social media by civil servants are now in place and further guidelines are expected later this year in an effort to standardize how tools such as Twitter and Facebook are used to communicate with the public.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own Twitter account has had a recent facelift, with staff using it to share previously unpublicized interactions or comments that may not merit a formal news release.
Harper offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his own day via Twitter in January.
With its plan for the budget, the Finance Department is taking a page from efforts in the United States.
President Barack Obama’s state-of-the-union address for the last two years has been live-streamed with an enhanced format.
After this year’s speech, some questioned whether the graphics used presented data fairly or whether they had been generated to merely mimic the points Obama wished to make.
They are an effective marketing tool, one observer noted.
“I will say that I think the use of the charts was very successful and does make the president’s speech more effective,” wrote Randy Klum, the president of a U.S. inforgraphic design company, on his blog.
“By their very nature, the charts imply that the president has data behind his message, and that can be a very persuasive, compelling tactic.”
Research has shown that people are increasingly taking in live television events with their smart phones or tablet computers, and political events are no exception.
The Pew Research Centre for People and the Press found that 11 per cent of those who watched the first U.S. presidential debate were following it online at the same time as they were watching it on television, with that number rising to 22 per cent for those under 40.
“Social media is becoming the most accessible and robust source of consumer insights for marketers,” said Richard Pasewark, CEO of Visible. “The insights generated from the VI platform along with these new features, help tie social media more closely to marketing programs, audience analysis, and influencer identification. As a result, marketers are able to position more effectively, engage consumers more directly, and drive marketing and sales improvements more rapidly.”
The Trend Identification and Personalized Engagement options will likely garner the most interest. First, Trend Identification offers social marketers an assist by notating trends within the social networks; the marketer simply identifies a product, topic or event to follow the trend reports note how that offering is trending through social networks.
Then, the Personalized Engagement option bases engagement on business priorities and then reports using icons, queued assignments and other options so that team members are only updated on items of use to them.
Meanwhile, the security and reporting options are set up to offer more in depth views of campaigns and to manage permissions across single dashboards.
Finally, there is an option called Russian Sentiment which extends native language sentiment to the Russian language. The Russian online space is exploding, and businesses who can not only understand but analyze of Russian speaking consumers are engaging may be ahead of the curve. The platform already supports German, Italian and Chinese languages among others.
Tags: social marketing, social marketing analytics, social marketing tools, social network tools, Visible Technologies
“Development”, “Diplomacy”, and “Defense” make up the foreign policy triangle, but have different approaches to engaging and sharing information. Although Social Media Week organizes some great workshops of how to promote a message, I would rather focus on how social media tools may get us closer towards solutions rather than large informational data dumps. Of the three areas, the most open with information is the international development community — as donors, like Oxfam, or recipients. They are familiar with holding each other accountable for financial spending to get results. For example, the development community has its four big treaties, like the Paris Declaration, which describes how aid should flow with some checks and balances. “Diplomacy” is actively incorporating lessons learned from its social media experience. Meanwhile, “Defense” is still dealing with its transparency identity.
On Monday, March 11, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute recognized how international development’s foreign policy cousins, “diplomacy” and “defense/security”, are trying to catch up to this culture of mutual accountability and transparency in the “Age of Information.” Therefore the goal is to achieve “cognitive dominance” — which is fancy military speak for making sure that the people with the most knowledge are at the center of social media” as one of the report’s co-authors, James Herlong, argued. The report recognizes the power of civil society to channel positive and negative vibes. Arab media specialist, Courtney C. Radsch makes a strong case for tracking which groups are voicing online or not and what this means for activism and policy. Why? Because in the end, for all the influence and perceived “chaos” that a group like Wikileaks introduces into the public space, they are not held accountable to anyone other than themselves. But governments are, and social media provides another outlet to hold organizations accountable — to not just the people they are supposed to serve, but to those that also get pulled into the snowball of communication.
Last year in May, another social media worry came to surface as Ambassador Arturo Sarukhán Casamitjana of Mexico expressed the initial concern for the diplomacy community using social media: feudalizing overseas posts from home governments. Or more simply: allowing embassies to exercise more flexibility in order to respond more expediently to their local environment. Consequently, if embassies do what they want, then they will become more independent.
Nonetheless, Senior Advisor for Technology at Department of State, Shahed Amanullah explains, “I follow the Twitter feeds of every embassy that I have visited. I see what is happening in the U.S. embassy in Ireland. It’s about being on the same page. Either pick up the phone or follow their Twitter feed.”
What is more feudal? Having embassy officials conduct closed door meeting or tweet? The alternative to social media is waiting for access to the cable. Or, diplomats may receive communication from colleagues a few days later — whereas they could easily follow the ‘locked’ Twitterfeed, which is instantaneously available to them — like a mission cable, but at zero cost. The ideal is that every embassy tweets what they are doing, and each one following the others’ streams. That is connectivity.
Digital Diplomacy: Reviewing What Can Work
Like development practitioners, diplomacy practitioners are absorbing the lessons learned. “Digital Diplomacy” still affirms that face to face, behind closed doors meetings serve as the primary driving force of international relations and government to government engagement. Launching a network in a high-risk country, like in Pakistan, a face to face complements the digital diplomacy effort. Quite possibly, embassies will represent plural interests rather than just government, national interests.
Are poor countries condemned to be excluded from the global dialogue if not adopting digital diplomacy practices? Apparently not as the line is being eradicated. As Amanullah points out, “We in the West make the mistake that other lesser developed countries lack the sophistication to engage on social media.” In the U.S., pundits may tweet about Syria. But average citizens in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Syria are risking their lives because of what they tweet. Yet, they still choose to engage. Clearly there is a deeper level of engagement as risk factors increase exponentially. Social media gets countries’ challenges off the map and into the trending topics.
Development, Diplomacy, and Defense: Combining the Social Media Capability To Promote a Solution
In an October “Twiplomacy” forum, David Ignatius related how social media may introduce more distractions with information overload and introduces a more progressive challenge: using the tool of social media to offer solutions rather than loads of non-contextualized images and facts. As Ignatius recommended, a mechanism is “needed to curate” the tweets, which include useful information buried in the banal points and rants. Syria’s revolution provides an example how thousands of images and statistical overload almost dehumanize injured and dead civilians as their images float on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.
Given Ignatius’ recommendation to curate the information overload presented by social media, perhaps an institution — even a government (U.S.: hint, hint) — could undertake an initiative to collect and organize the thousands of images depicting civilian suffering, which will ultimately amount to historicizing the human rights abuses carried out by the regime and other groups. Syria presents a case of anticipating a problem that will need to be addressed once the Assad regime falls. However, fact-finding missions will happen only after the damage and casualties are buried–which may be years from now. By that point, the dead and injured will be hidden. Social media provides real-time tools for government officials to curate a body of evidence that will prepare a more holistic picture of what occurred, when, and how once the opportunity to review the human rights abuses in the International Criminal Court emerges.
March 15 marks the two-year anniversary of the Daraa uprising in Syria. Hundreds of YouTube clips and pics will be shared. Creative activists will splice images to be reshared. Again. DC Social Media Week pushes government agencies to see how non-profits use social media to produce more impact with less cost. The U.S. government is in a unique position to catalog what is happening, regardless if it engages more deeply in the security realm. Syria will serve as an example of how the development, diplomacy, and defense sectors can pool their resources to share information that documents what has happened in a more meaningful way.
EDMONTON – Social media tools that can distract the attention of teen drivers are key to promoting a new safe-driving campaign that urges motorists to keep their eyes on the road.
Teens from six Edmonton schools, many of whom don’t yet have their driver’s licences, put the videos together to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving. It is part of a new Alberta Motor Association campaign that asks motorists: What are you doing behind the wheel?
Teams from Victoria School of the Arts, W.P. Wagner High School, Harry Ainlay High School, Edmonton Islamic Academy, St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School and Louis St. Laurent Catholic Junior Senior High School made the public awareness videos. Most send the message that distracted drivers can injure or kill people.
Louis St. Laurent students used humour to sell the message that teens shouldn’t tolerate distracted driving. W.P. Wagner students put their peers through a driving simulation to test their abilities while distracted by a cellphone. Participants’ mistakes increased by 100 per cent, according to the school’s video.
The student-made videos are posted online at www.yourpledge.ca, where viewers are invited to vote for their favourite video, make an online pledge not to drive distracted, and share the safe-driving campaign through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. About 10,500 people have signed the online AMA pledge promising to avoid talking on hand-held phones, texting, emailing and other distracting behaviours that take focus off safe driving.
Grade 11 Harry Ainlay student Mohamed El Bialy said he hopes the safe-driving message is more powerful coming from peers than from police or a lecturing parent.
Teens are used to being constantly plugged in to social networks and it’s tempting to do a quick Facebook check or dash off a text while stopped at a red light, said El Bialy, who helped develop one of the videos.
“It’s that split-second that does make the difference. I think it is quite a big problem with kids nowadays, with smartphones,” said El Bialy, 16.
“I really hope people will think twice about checking that phone or drinking that coffee while they’re driving. I really hope people might wait a bit longer, have some patience, and think logically about whether it’s safe to do this or not …
“It’s really scary when you’re in the car and you’re going at that light and someone’s checking their phone and they don’t see that there’s another car turning at the same time. It’s just that split-second we’re trying to eliminate that could be life or death.”
St. Francis Xavier student Evangenlina Janschitz said she offers to answer the phone or respond to texts for friends who are driving, so they don’t pick up their smartphones.
“We hope to decrease the amount of distracted driving happening and make people aware how much it actually happens,” Janschitz said of the video campaign.
Distracted driving legislation that came into force in September 2011 means drivers can get a $172 ticket for behaviours such as using hand-held phones, operating electronic devices such as video players, manually programming GPS systems or portable audio players, reading or writing behind the wheel or personal grooming such as applying makeup.
Last year, Edmonton police issued 4,594 distracted driving tickets, 97 per cent of which were for offences related to cellphones, according to an AMA news release.
Distracted drivers are most often talking on hand-held phones or sending text messages, said acting Insp. Ted Hrebien Tuesday in the Edmonton City Centre mall where high schools students and officials launched the AMA campaign.
“Despite the fact that we’re probably 18 months into this new law, we see it every day,” Hrebien said.
“I think if we attached demerit points to the fine, you might see, perhaps, more compliance.”
Many drivers now try to conceal their phones, holding them in their laps to avoid being ticketed, said Chris Rechner, spokesman for the AMA’s advocacy programs.
That behaviour was the target of the recently launched Crotches Kill campaign by Alberta Transportation. The campaign uses traditional advertising along with digital ads for restaurant and bar washrooms and talking urinal pucks that tell Albertans, “We know what you’re doing down there.”
Distracted driving is one of the most serious hazards on the road along with speeding and impairment, Rechner said. “It puts everybody at risk.”
People using cellphones while driving are about five times more likely to be in a collision and those texting are 23 times more likely to either crash or nearly crash, according to AMA statistics.
The AMA hopes campaigns such as the one launched this week will eventually make distracted driving socially unacceptable, Rechner said.
When Officer Trey Beveridge found out about a rash of burglaries in Western Branch and Deep Creek, he told the neighbors.
In 15 surrounding communities.
Beveridge posted information about the crime spree on Nextdoor.com, a private neighborhood-centered social media platform. Neighbors responded with calls to police to report suspicious people in the area, he said.
The Police Department started using the site a year ago, and it’s the only Hampton Roads city using it on that level.
“A nosy neighbor beats an alarm system any day,” said police Chief Kelvin Wright. “When you have that ability to drill down to the lowest level of groups – it’s a very tremendous return on your investment.”
That’s not the only way local police are reaching out to residents in cyberspace.
Last year, the Chesapeake department launched a Facebook page, and last fall, it joined an existing app – MyPD – where users can find department contacts, submit crime tips, file a report or commend an officer.
Wright said the app allows the department to send out notifications instantly to those who have downloaded it on their smartphones.
“You have to be able to reach people where they are,” he said.
Charlie Ferguson, president of the Miars Plantation Homeowners’ Association, was sold on Nextdoor.com after the burglaries in his community. He got his neighbors to join the site.
At first, he said he was concerned about privacy. Then he talked to Beveridge, who explained that police can’t check people’s personal information.
“When I tried it, I liked it, and I started helping to spread it to Western Branch contacts,” Ferguson said. “We can get the word out to people if the police have something relevant to share.”
Holly Parker, who lives in Western Branch, said burglars broke into her home and stole family heirloom jewelry. After that, she said she got her neighborhood of 15 homes to join Nextdoor.com to help prevent others from falling victim to what happened to her.
“Apparently, there had been a lot of burglaries prior to mine, and I didn’t know,” she said. “And I saw somebody suspicious the day my house was robbed. Had I known this was going on, I would have made a phone call to police immediately.”
Maj. Stephanie Burch, a deputy chief for Suffolk police, said the department uses Facebook and Twitter to post the latest on crimes, wanted fugitives and crashes. But she said social media remains under-utilized in law enforcement.
“It’s a great way to let people know what you’re doing,” she said. “The media tends to report the things that aren’t good. It’s a way to promote the things that are good, that are positive in your community – the initiatives you’re doing, new equipment, any of those things.”
Last summer, Suffolk police used Twitter to host “Tweet-Alongs” or virtual “ride-alongs” where followers could keep track of an officer during his shift.
Two officers participated, tweeting about arresting people wanted on warrants and National Night Out activities using the handle @SuffolkVaPD. Burch said she would like to do more in the future because it makes officers accessible to the public.
“It introduces people to our staff, and it kind of humanizes what we do and gives people a glimpse into what we do,” she said.
Norfolk police, on Facebook since 2011, use the site to promote department initiatives, special events and officers’ accomplishments, police spokeswoman Karen Parker-Chesson wrote in an email.
She said friends of the department’s Facebook page can share information about wanted suspects and fugitives with their followers. Facebook helps police reach people who might not be involved with neighborhood groups, she said.
Two weeks ago, when the department posted it was seeking a fugitive who didn’t report to prison after being convicted of robbery, 50 people shared the post. On Wednesday, the fugitive was apprehended, and the department posted his arrest on the site.
Portsmouth police, on Facebook since 2008 and also on Twitter, said the social media sites reach a broad audience quickly. Their Facebook page has nearly 3,000 “Likes.”
Virginia Beach police use Facebook and Twitter, and the traffic division has its own Twitter account, @VBPDTraffic, where it posts traffic tips and updates on DUI checkpoints as well as reminders to choose a designated driver.
“I don’t know how many people actually get that when they’re out at the bar, but social media – to a degree – people are influenced by it,” said Colin Mack, an officer who runs the traffic Twitter page. “I hope it makes a little bit of an impact.”
SOCIAL media have changed the face of traditional media. In its wake is the advent of citizen journalism where just about anybody can trigger news event from anywhere and bring the world to a standstill.
Now, traditional media is trying to keep pace, with breaking news and ensuring that its readership or viewers are abreast of the news all the time by incorporating social media into their platforms. One major way traditional media has opened up its platform is to allow eyewitness report. Many traditional media now allow citizens to report events happening in their area just like many citizens use their social media tools to announce events and breaking news.
While commenting on the impact of social media on journalism, Cable News Network’s (CNN) Correspondent, Vladimir Duthiers, said social media has invented citizen journalists who create stories and tell it the way they want.
Duthiers made the observation as a member of a panel at Social Media Week that was celebrated recently in Lagos, noting, “What is lacking in this is professional touch, the editorial process that makes sure that the information uploaded is authentic. The CNN iReports for instance has a submission process which ensures that every iReport submitted goes through an editorial process for authentication before being fed to the world.”
Duthiers was of the opinion that leading traditional media would continue to resort to social media or citizen journalists for news while social media will continue to increase in relevance because “negative stories effect positive change.”
The potency of social media, the correspondent noted, had seen it being described as “the people’s AK47,” which underlines the need for traditional media to exercise discretion in ‘sourcing’ news from citizen journalists.
“That is the import of the editorial process. Postings by independent writers must be authenticated before being deployed for public consumption”.
He gave example the story of a man in Tunisia who, when he got fed-up with the situation, set himself ablaze of which the world saw the story go viral on the social media space, and consequently triggered reactions and changes worldwide.
He stated that “The huge impact of social media will continue playing out in the affairs of men. I have seen it during the fuel subsidy protests in Nigeria. I have seen it in the Arab Spring in the way that Egyptians were able to bring down a dictatorship that has been in existence for over 40 years in just a few weeks. The Arab Spring started through the social media in Tunisia when a man who has had enough decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore and set himself on fire and that story went viral on social media.’’
Duthiers also argued that leaders across the world could also take advantage of the potency of social media in building strong perceptions for their countries instead of making efforts to stifle it.
Describing the social media as a huge driver of perception, he said, “the cat is already out of the bag and no amount of policing can stop people from posting on social media. That is the power of social media. It allows people create and tell their own stories.”
He further said that Nigerians could plug into the vast opportunities provided by social media in building a strong perception and a better image for Nigeria.
On why Nigerian government must latch onto social to build a better image for the country, the correspondent pointed out that: “Nigeria is one of the most innovative, advanced countries with the use of social media as a platform to get messages out, outside of the United States of America and few countries in Asia. I say this because of what I know from statistics that we tally on social media usage.”
While the potency of social media abounds for all to tap from, he, however, argued that the space should be thrown open, adding, “I believe the right of the people to be heard should not be hindered. It is a basic, fundamental human right. I firmly believe that the voice of the people should not be subdued”.
The rise of social media has seen citizen journalism gain ground across the world, with leading and trusted traditional media resorting to citizen journalists for some breaking news. Duthiers was optimistic that this trend would continue because traditional and social media are moving towards a blend and would see both supporting each another.
Everyone wants to be part of a community and have like-minded people with whom they can share the good and the bad that is part of everyday life. Many pork producers are representing both their states and their collective career choice while banding together at the National Pork Industry Forum in Florida this week, working together to make important decisions about research, education and promotional efforts that will impact the entire pork industry. Face-to-face meetings like Pork Forum, state producer meetings and World Pork Expo are great opportunities to band together to “talk pigs.” Nobody understands what it’s like to be a pork producer quite like another pork producer. At the same time, nobody can share the real story about what it’s like to be a pork producer nearly as well as—you guessed it, an actual pork producer. Don’t you wish you could continue those pork-friendly conversations long after the meetings are over? If you aren’t already doing so, maybe now is the time to consider reaching out to share your story through social media.
At the recent AgChat Foundation’s Upper Midwest Regional Conference in Rochester, MN, the focus was on building community and advocating for agriculture through social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blog posts. The meeting attendees were primarily farmers and ranchers from surrounding states, coming together to learn how to use social media tools, both to reach out and support each other, and to share the many positive stories that there are to tell about how food is produced on the farm. The common theme throughout the conference was a confidence-building message. As Katie Pinke, a North Dakota farm wife and seasoned blogger explained, “Some people are immersed in social media, some are just getting started. I was motivated to engage and start talking about my experiences on the farm because I found lots of negativity about agriculture in social media. I started feeling a sense of urgency to tell my story because I wanted to try to be a part of the conversation.” Pinke decided she wanted to share the positive story about agriculture as a way of protecting the agricultural way of life for her young daughters. She wants them to have the option to be the sixth generation on her family’s farm.
Speakers like Emily Zweber, a dairy farmer from Elko, MN, shared tips producers could take home and use to create their own Facebook fan page for their farms. She noted that the experiences gained from participating in social media may not always be positive, but that even some of the negative comments can open the door for sharing information. “I think that 90% of all negative engagement that we have had on our farm’s Facebook fan page ends up being a question or misunderstanding that the person just didn’t know how to phrase better,” she said.
Speakers also talked about using social media to make new friends within agriculture, too. It’s a good way to work together to both share common experiences and, if necessary, defend a way of life. Pinke talked about having online friends in agriculture who act as “ag ninjas,” defending the real story behind agriculture. Zweber added, “If you build the (online) community, it will work to defend you if necessary.”
A number of pork producers are active on social media, using the outlet to both network with other producers and reach out to the non-agricultural public. If you are looking for some ideas on how Facebook can be a “friend” to agriculture, check out the Liberty Swine Farms, or (jumping species), the Zweber Farms, LLC Facebook fan pages. What has your experience been working with social media? Do you regularly tweet, blog or post content online as an agricultural advocate? Share your story with us in the comment section, or email lora.berg@penton.com. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and click “like” on the National Hog Farmer Facebook page while you are at it!
Even though up to half of sales for 13 percent of U.K.-based restaurants, hotels, and travel operators are generated through social media, the majority of the industry still questions its potential. What are the implications?
If more than 10 percent of your competitors were generating up to half of their business using a specific tool, you’d consider using that tool as well, right? Well, according to new research released last week by global financial services provider Barclays, that’s not the case.
Barclays asked 126 hospitality and leisure operators in the United Kingdom about their social media presence and the opportunity it presents them to engage current and potential customers. Respondents did show clear benefits coming from these channels: Twenty-nine percent attributed up to 25 percent of all of their sales to social media, and 13 percent said that these platforms generate up to half of their sales. Additionally, 68 percent of those currently using social media report that they have had a “positive” or “very positive” experience, whether that’s attracting new customers or receiving recommendations.
More than one-in-10 operators do not currently use social media, and they don’t have any plans to do so.
Yet despite all that praise for social media, more than 60 percent of the sector, which includes hotels, pubs, restaurants, and travel and leisure operators, say that they only see “some” or “limited” opportunity in using social media tools to engage consumers. In addition, more than one-in-10 operators do not currently use social media, and they don’t have any plans to do so. Even the 44 percent of respondents who do have a presence on Facebook and Twitter say they say they rarely update or use the tools. And this is in a country where it’s estimated that over half of consumers own a smartphone and one in five have access to a tablet device. You’d think these stats would be even more reason for the hospitality industry to get on board. What gives?
“The industry is missing a trick. Social media has blurred the line between personal and corporate communities—something that has been encouraged by consumers who now expect to be able to interact in an immediate and very personal way, not just with friends, but with their favorite—and not so favored—brands,” said Barclays’ Head of Hospitality and Leisure Mike Saul in a press release. “[Social media] can create a very powerful feedback loop—if operators can successfully tap into these networks, both good and bad reviews can be used to their advantage.”
Social media does blur the line between personal and business, but it also blurs the lines between countries, meaning that customers and will likely expect the same social media experience whether at home or abroad. So while this study looked only at the United Kingdom, its implications could affect travelers worldwide.
Like Saul said, one of the main advantages to the hospitality industry’s active participation in social media is the ability to listen and respond quickly to current and potential customers. A quick reply to a complaint by a hotel or restaurant can turn an unhappy customer into a happy one, and thanking someone for a positive remark can make them even more loyal customer, who may then recommend that business to a friend or colleague.
Not using these tools can also make these businesses seem out of touch, particularly to younger generations who are accustomed to communicating online and receiving quick replies. A business wouldn’t want to lose a customer simply because they weren’t on Twitter or they last updated their Facebook page three months ago.
Want a few examples of hotels and restaurants doing social media well? Read this and also this.
And while respondents’ concerns about the amount of time social media takes to manage, the risks of negative publicity, and the technical skills required are valid, 58 percent did say social media’s role in the sector will increase in the next year, proving that a social media strategy needs to be top of mind—and that that 10-plus percent who don’t currently use social media and have no plans to start will start to fall behind their competitors.
How do you think the hospitality industry can use social media better? Or what positive experiences have you had with a hospitality provider listening and responding via social tools?
Samantha Whitehorne is deputy editor of Associations Now. More »
