Businesses shun Royal Mail in favour of e-communications

Many small businesses were left relatively unaffected by the Royal Mail strike with most opting to send most of their correspondence electronically, according to social business network Ecademy.

Over 800 people viewed a blog entitled ‘Your business and the Royal Mail, time for a divorce?’ by William Buist last week on popular social business network Ecademy with many commenting on how the strike would impact their business.

A high proportion claimed that the strike would have little or no effect on their day-to-day business as they opted to use the Internet for most of their correspondence.

“It would seem that many small businesses have already made the transition to electronic based communications some time ago, relying mainly on the Royal Mail for delivery of cheques from customers and items which had to be sent physically. Many say they already send PDF versions of letters and invoices and receive payments by BACS and rarely venture to the Post Office at all,” says Societal Web expert William Buist of Abelard Management Services.

Many commenting on the forum post did have sympathy with the Royal Mail workers and blamed the management for failing to move with times and embrace new technology as part of their offering.

Penny Power, founder of Ecademy believes that the Royal Mail needs to turn its attention to the web for valuable customer insight and take into account the views of its customers and what they want from their postal service in the future if they want to survive.

“The strike has highlighted how many businesses have moved their marketing activities online, opting for social networks and online media to create a brand rather than utilizing Direct Mail. People are becoming a lot more vocal online and willing to express their views and opinions with their peers, this activity is gaining many businesses an opportunity to build their brand globally and with a very low cost associated with the activity. The Post Office is fast becoming out dated in their use of technology for businesses”.

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Editors Notes

Ecademy connects business people all over the world. Founded in 1998 by husband and wife team Thomas and Penny Power, it is privately owned and sustains itself through subscription. Ecademy is present in over 200 countries. For more information visit www.ecademy.com

For press information, hi res images or to arrange an interview please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk or alternatively call Jenna Gould on 07958 263 708.

Cash flow concerns for collaborative groups who fail to call in debts

Suppliers who collaborate with others to provide a combined value added offerings to customers could be putting their finances in jeopardy by failing to chase up internal debts from other group members.

Collaborative working expert William Buist has raised concerns that many could be jumping into collaborative group arrangements only to lose sight of the value additions and transfers of time, effort and skills that are going on between the various companies making up the group.

“The temptation to work for the good of the group and therefore, perhaps not raise or chase late invoices internally, means that some aspects of the collaboration may fail if one or other member of the group feels they’re not getting a fair return for the effort that they are adding to the team,” says Buist, MD of Abelard Management Services and President of the Blackstar Life Members Community on business social network Ecademy.

Buist recommends that whilst companies remain separate, it is important to maintain a strict invoicing and payment structure internally as well as externally to ensure that those imbalances are fairly dealt with.

“The graphic designer in a collaborate group for example may feel they are providing more time and effort than someone providing strategic support which is only used intermittently and without a formal payment structure, this member could quickly tire of the arrangement and feel they are being taken for granted. However, if all of the parties invoice and are paid as normal then the flows of money will cancel out within the group where the collaborative effect is identical. Any imbalances in terms of effort, inputs or costs also gets properly handled in the books of all of the businesses so that their results truly reflect the impact of the collaboration and not the impact of their mutual goodwill.”

“The key message here is that money was invented as a means of measuring fair exchange, and exchanging it in the context of a collaboration certainly works well. When the collaborators know their value is being fairly rewarded, then they will commit a fair effort to delivering the best result they can,” says Buist.

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Brands still view social media as risk not reward

Brands are spending too much time viewing social media as a risk management exercise and are missing out on lucrative opportunities to engage with their audience, according to social media expert William Buist.

Buist claims that social media gives businesses an opportunity to develop new strategies and new ways of being in touch with customers and those who engage well and effectively will find they get significant information and feedback to help them develop and grow. But ultimately, he says the brand’s approach to social media will largely be determined by whether they view it as a risk or as an opportunity.

“It’s not enough to appear when a problem has arisen, make apologetic noises and leave, because the consumers see it purely as a means of correcting the current issue rather than correcting the underlying problem or listening to the consumers’ voice over a period of time,” explains William Buist, founder of The Societal-Web.com.

Buist says Brands that encourage their customers to talk to them have long been seen as more robust and stable than those that bury their heads in the sand, but in the social media world that means being around consistently, all of the time.

“That doesn’t mean firing off short comments without thought, but having a well practiced, well rehearsed, experienced group of people interacting on behalf of your business with all of the social media sources for conversations about what you do,” explains Buist.

For time-strapped businesses, this may sound labour-intensive, but Buist claims that much of this can be automated, and Brands can easily monitor when a conversations starts and respond accordingly. In some cases, brands may choose to start the conversation themselves, as was the case with Mornflake who are using a social media campaign to invite members of the public to make videos about their values. It’s a social media driven awareness campaign from a 333 year old traditional company that’s demonstrating interest in their customer’s views and values.

“When people see your willingness to interact and deliver a consistent and persistent message about what you do, then you can find that social media can be really leveraged heavily for you rather than being a potential weapon for those few customers who do feel dissatisfied with what you’ve done. You cannot please all of your customers all of the time and so don’t try to. There will be complaints and there will be comments that are negative, but in reality they’re just part of the picture about the brand that’s painted. It’s not what they say that matters but how you react to it,” says Buist.

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New Podcast Series Delivers Virtual Training On How To Do Business In The Societal Web

A fascinating new series of podcasts from the creators of The Societal Web has been launched to help small businesses to get to grips with utilising online communities and gain the upper hand whilst the corporate world still struggles to make headway.

In the first podcast released on Monday 25th May 2009, social media expert and Societal Web founder William Buist revealed that the current online world crossed language and cultural boundaries that had never been crossed before, presenting small businesses with a lucrative opportunity to gain valuable ground over their corporate counterparts who he claims are seriously lagging behind.

“The Societal Web is really the latest incarnation of something that started way back, some a hundred years ago. Technology brings community together, but what is interesting about The Societal Web is the reaction of people when presented with this technology and how they then interact with each other. I see these tools and technologies being used across in a wide range of businesses, but I find the most exciting and innovative uses are happening in entrepreneurial businesses,” says Buist.

According the Buist, who amongst his many clients, he has facilitated the growth of the Ecademy Life Members Community – a premium global group of Entrepreneurs and Business Owners of which he is now the Club President, The Societal Web is really only just beginning to emerge as businesses stop just telling people what they do and start to listen and take input from their customers, suppliers and their stakeholders. He reveals that they have moved from one person talking to many and from using one media type to an infinite variety and suggests that the primary challenge for businesses is how they can continue to maintain their business income stream and how they can adapt to this changing world.

However, perhaps the most important lesson to be learnt from The Societal Web podcasts over the coming weeks is that reality is no longer defined by the owners, it is defined by everyone.

“Everything people do on the Societal Web is open to comment and challenge, we encourage people to talk about us when we are not there, we make it easy to be found by people we don’t know and have them say things about us we cannot control, but based on what we are, what we do, how we come across and what we write. It has never been more important to be both persistent and consistent, and it has never been more important to be open and transparent and accepting of others views,” says Buist.

Buist suggests that Societal Web marketing (Marketing v2.0) allows anyone to talk about you and your products to anyone without your permission and without your knowledge. He says that Marketing is now about the unknown message to the unknown potential customer and that there is only one way to be connected with them, by taking part, listening and contributing to their conversations.

“Smaller businesses and the self employed have taken to the Societal Web for support and help and gradually also to enhance their marketing. Your business may be small but your need to compete in the marketing pool for the attention of your clients is as real now as it was 30 years ago. It’s just that right now, we have the tools to do this and we have the knowledge, and we have it way ahead of those with the money to drown out our message. It’s the best time ever to drive personal brand to the forefront and our podcast series is designed to help you navigate the often confusing and varied nature of The Societal Web,” explains Buist.

The Societal Web podcasts are available to download from www.societal-web.com

Publisher lack of interest in customers will stunt digital growth

Despite news that UK publishers are predicting a 16% growth in their digital revenues in 2009, many will be stunted by a failure to show genuine interest in their customers, warns social media expert William Buist.

Although the move away from a reliance on advertising revenue is a positive one, Buist, who specialises in developments in The Societal Web, says that having multiple touch points and opportunities to generate revenue with their audience is absolutely key to growing market share in a recession and that many publishers are simply missing the point when it comes to online communities and customer engagement.

“As we move from web 1.0 through Web 2.0 to web 3.0 and beyond, we will see the emergence of the ‘Societal Web’. Publishing will move from telling to listening, from informing opinion to collaborative insight, from one to many and from monomedia to infinatemedia. The challenge for publishers during this inevitable transition will be on how they can continue to maintain the income stream and adapt to the changing world of media,” says Buist.

“To succeed, organisations need to move with their target audience who aren’t simply standing still,” continues Buist. “The only way to know where they are and where they are going is to be engaged in the conversations with them and that means being interesting to them and interested in them. Most brands do well at being interesting to their audience, but not so well at showing they are truly interested in their audience in return.”

Buist suggests that whilst paper media is not likely to disappear, there will be pressure on pricing whilst costs will continue to rise and circulation will be hard to grow offline. “Online geography has less meaning so the right titles will grow globally but only the best will make it. And in order to make it, you need the right people to be talking about you at the right time and in the right places,” he says.

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Government ‘Big Brother’ proposals will halt use of social media for business

Government proposals to monitor social networking sites centrally fail to consider the impact of such action on businesses that now use these tools as an integral part of their marketing strategy and could result in some businesses abandoning social media altogether, according to a leading social media consultant.

William Buist, MD of Abelard Management Services and a regular user of social media for business purposes says that the new proposals ‘have not been thought through fully’ and will cause some businesses to cut back on making valuable connections online through fear of reprisal in the future.

“For an increasing number of businesses, social networking sites serve as a means to gather connections as part of an integrated marketing strategy and is not necessarily about creating close, personal relationships which are more akin to personal usage of sites like Facebook and Bebo,” says Buist who last month alone made more than 1,100 new connections via social network members from across the globe.

“Business social networks like Ecademy and LinkedIn work on the premise of embracing random connections as a way of extending your network and your sphere of influence,” says Buist. “On my Ecademy account, for example, I have over 17,000 connections to people, but I do not know them all personally. At the moment, I actively encourage people to connect with me and my business has benefitted as a result. But once networking activity is subject to national scrutiny, many businesses may opt to simply cease all online activity to avoid any unwanted comebacks in the future.”

Amidst recent news that Councils in England and Wales have used controversial spying laws 10,000 times in the past five years, Buist is concerned that this extension into the social media world will not be welcomed as people simply won’t believe that their information is safe and is being used properly.

“Whatever safeguards the government promises they make it harder for them to be believed when misuses of powers are reported regularly. Whilst all businesses support measures to reduce the risks of organised crime and terrorism the measures used need to be collaborative and transparent, and built on a relationship of trust. Sadly, we are a long way from that,” says Buist.

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Social networks forced to ‘get serious’

Social networks must develop a more serious focus and move beyond simply allowing people to meet and communicate if they really want to make headway in 2009, warns Societal Web expert William Buist.

Buist, creator of The Societal Web (www.societal-web.com), believes that the combination of shrinking world economies, falling advertising revenues and reduced activity per capita will have profound implications for web traffic and ultimately, the business models of many social networks, who will be forced to refocus and ensure their proposition really adds value.

“Social networks are increasingly realising that they need to develop a more serious focus by providing help and supporting members as well as just allowing them to meet and communicate. The winners will be the ones with high traffic, or high niche value”, says Buist.

Buist claims that whilst social networking sites such a Facebook are likely to survive due to high traffic, the real impact (and benefit for members) will be seen in business social networks, like Ecademy and LinkedIn, and even more niche networks like IFA Life.

Only recently, Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) announced that membership numbers had had doubled in the past year and that the average time spent on the site was up by a third, which Buist says proves that people are increasingly looking for deeper, more meaningful connections which have a real impact on their lives and their business.

“The business world is changing and within this new world of The Societal Web, communities will provide the direction whilst companies merely provide the infrastructure, and there will be a fundamental shift to collaboration and mutual support. Social networks will increasingly become the place to source such support, regardless of their size or membership count and I think many will be surprised at which social networks are on top at the end of this troubled period”, says Buist.

For more information please visit www.abelard-uk.com

Labourspace lacks personality to engage with community

The Labour Party’s recently launched social networking site Labourspace is unlikely to make the desired impact in the wider community, who will see it simply as another attempt to be ‘spoken at’ rather than an opportunity for genuine two way dialogue, according to online community specialist William Buist.

Whilst Labourspace.com claims to offer organisations and individuals the opportunity to set up campaigns they want to bring to the attention of Labour politicians, Buist, who is MD of Abelard Management Services, believes that the site suffers from a fundamental failure to establish a two-way conversation, which will result in poor engagement by the community.

“Labourspace is likely to lead to skewed results because it’s not engaging with people in the true sense of the word, the party is just using it as a vehicle to talk to the public. It’s clearly saying ‘we want information from you’ but gives no guarantees of what you’ll get back in return”, says Buist, who is also President of the Blackstar Life Members Community on popular business networking site Ecademy (www.ecademy.com).

Buist claims that whilst loyal supporters may respond well to the site, communities won’t, as simply providing the opportunity to get involved is not the same encouraging people to actively engage.

“It’s possible that Labour will create an impression that they are consulting when in reality, they are not doing it in a way that encourages the whole community to take part. This may, of course, be deliberate and aimed at generating some interest and publicity, but if so it’s an extremely costly PR exercise. It’s not about the politics, but the design and implementation, as the concept is right, but it’s too impersonal and people are likely to see right through that”, says Buist.

Buist, believes that Labour would have achieved more by having an individual rather than the organisation front the site and suggests that they take a leaf out of Barrack Obama’s book and look at what he achieved in his presidential election campaign last year.

“Barack Obama’s social networking campaign worked so well because he provided a personality to the online campaign, and people felt that he was genuinely listening to their views. Whether true or not, the impression was that he engaged personally with each and every conversation. In comparison, Labourspace seems to be more about ‘you come and join in and tell us what you want and maybe we will come and look at it some time’ – it’s a lost opportunity unless there is much more engagement by key personalities in the party than has been shown to date”, says Buist.

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Retailers should embrace Facebook, not stifle it

Social networks like Facebook provide retailers with the opportunity to reach out to both staff and customers and can be more effective than email marketing campaigns, according to two industry specialists.

Despite recent news that employees from Waitrose and Tesco’s were using Facebook to post derogatory comments about their customers, customer service specialist Derek Bishop believes that rather than focusing solely on the risks associated with social networking sites, retailers should also look at the benefits that can be gained by embracing web 2.0 as part of their customer strategy.

“Waitrose and Tesco employees used Facebook to complain about their customers, but on the same lines there are plenty of personal blogs out there about poor service customers have received from organisations. Those organisations that aren’t already tapping into this valuable ‘feedback mechanism’ need to wake up and take action now, as valuable customer data is out there if you are prepared to look for it and tackle issues head on”, says Bishop, MD of Abeo Consulting.

Bishop also claims that organisations must accept that social networking sites like Facebook are a way of life for a growing percentage of the population and need to ensure the type of behaviour reported in the press is tackled within their internal policies to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

“Years ago organisations had challenges about Internet and email abuse by their staff, and have had to put policies and monitoring in place in order to manage the situation. This now brings on another level of challenge for organisations as they will need to have internal policies in place to help protect themselves from this type of dangerous scenario whilst also leveraging the opportunity”, says Bishop.

Online networking expert William Buist, MD of Abelard Management Services, agrees and says that like any tool, Facebook has its benefits and its risk. “Tesco’s and Waitrose have clearly experienced the risk side, but there is much research to suggest that in some instances, Facebook can be a more effective marketing tool than email campaigns”, says Buist.

According to leading online intelligence service Hitwise, during November 2008 online retailers received 5.47% of their UK Internet traffic from social networking sites, such as Facebook, YouTube and Bebo, compared to November 2007, when just 4.3% of their traffic came from social networks.

“Social networks provide an opportunity to engage with the customers in a way that can provide information to the stores and the customers that can either build strong synergies, or break the relationship. Organisations need to think about the opportunities and risks that tools like Facebook presents and how they can maxmise these tools for the benefits of the staff and customers. Those that understand the power of social networks will embrace the debate and join in the conversation, rather than trying to either suppress it or control it,”, says Buist.

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For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk

Outsource your ‘memory’ to a social network and see your business thrive

Businesses who use the extended ‘memory’ of social networks have the ability to extend their sphere of influence to many thousands of people, compared to a person’s own limited memory, which is only able to manage around 150 connections, according to Societal Web expert William Buist.

According to Buist, a leading online networking expert and founder of The Societal Web (www.societal-web.com), the typical sphere of influence in the old off-line world was limited to those we socialised, lived and worked with, and it was unlikely that a person could reach more than 150 people. But because social networks can retain the memory of interactions far better than the human brain can, Buist claims our sphere of influence can now reach to many, perhaps even thousands.

“Online, in social networks, we interact with others more often and with more visibility than we tend to do off-line. So if people are influenced by the friends of friends of friends then what we do has a chance of influencing the friends of the friends of our friends. This begins to explain the power of social networks. The powerful part of this is that our reach (and the influence we have in that reach) goes further than was perhaps realised. The level of influence with each person that we have might be tiny, but the potential reach through social networking is staggering”, says Buist.

Buist predicts that business social networks such as Ecademy and LinkedIn will see a surge in membership as many more businesses look to the web as a means of generating new business, as well as finding valuable contacts for collaboration and more cost effective virtual working.  But he warns businesses to ensure that they conduct their online activity exactly as they would in the offline world, as reputation and credibility will be what ensures they succeed in the virtual business world.
“If you aren’t consistent and focused on what you want to achieve then you won’t influence in a consistent way and towards your own goals. Do it well and there is an army waiting to support you”, says Buist.

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For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk