What does Social Media mean for you and your business?
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So I just had an interesting follow-up on my call today. People questioned my credibility since they couldn't find me on our company website. To me Social Media is about being, umm well, SOCIAL. A company can't really be social without Scott and I being social for NTG there is no entity that will just do it on it's own.
Something I talked about today is be your Brand. When you see my pic to the left here you know that I am the MINION QUEEN and that I am going to be talking about NTG or representing NTG in everything I do. I really am the brand and so is SAM. I carry business cards everywhere. When someone meets me within minutes they know who I am and I have a crazy alias and who I work for and with.
Shouldn't everyone that is in a Marketing/Sales role be doing that all day every day?
Should NTG's website have my likeness plastered all over it? Or is just the fact that SAM and I are super Social be enough to spread the word? -
Probably both. Having a pic and bio of all prominent staff is a common thing these days. Check out this one...
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Hmm... I dunno. Do other company presidents have their likenesses plastered all over the company website?
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@Dominica said:
Hmm... I dunno. Do other company presidents have their likenesses plastered all over the company website?
All over, no. On a "who are we" page, yes. Other than Fortune 100s, it is very common. The bio on a company site could link to accounts on ML too, for example.
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Plastered all over the place, no - who wants to visit say, IBM's page and see the CEO's picture on every page they click on. But an About page, sure. The owners, especially if they make public appearances and are representing a company.
It's kind of like having an authors picture on the inside cover (or back cover) of a book.
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I know that this is something that @Minion-Queen and I have talked about a couple times. How many places do we really want to see her crazy crown pic?
I think the new way to do business is really being social and knowing personalities not a website that is cold and not social at all.
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Okay, so my inclination to think that was strange wasn't off base.
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Your website is minimal, which I like.
However, you have a businesses section, only has 1 type of business in it. Do you only service garages? Your technology section to me looks like a SEO grab to me. Your blog only has one post.
Please don't be offended, but it does have a "fly by night" feeling to it. Also, having a blog with only one posting from August 2011 makes it feel very dated. Having no blog should be better in this case. The default wordpress sidebar makes it seem like the website was put up very quickly and not very thoughtfully. The stock photo doesn't help ether. No careers or testimonials pages also make me wonder if this company is a real company (I know it is, just saying from the potential customers point of view.)
It's not clear to me as a client, or prospect from your website who you are, and what you do. Adding people to your website would make your website feel more welcoming for sure, and from a customers point of view would make me feel better doing business with you.
What services do you provide? What our your hours of options? Do you provide emergency support?
There isn't one social media link on the whole site. In the footer where is says "Niagara Technology Group is proudly powered by WordPress Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)." Feels sloppy to me, I would remove it.
Having a contact from would also be a very nice.
Take a look at this: http://www.charlescomputerservices.com/about-us/team/
Now this site has many other issues, but the people section is nice.
You list a mailing address in Piffard, NY - however I know you cover many more areas then just Piffard. What is your service area? When I Google your address, there is no business listing. Having a business listing would allow you to list all your locations, and gain more search visibility.
Not trying to be critical, but I thought you would appreciate some honest feedback. If you would like to talk offline, I am always willing. Also, I pretty good with WordPress, and can give you a hand, if you want
If you do list people on your website be sure to list there name, title, what roles they preform in the company, and a little bit of personally wouldn't be a bad idea ether.
Once again, not trying to offend anyone, but I did want to provide some honest feedback.
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Is it cool if I hire some male model to take my photographs so I don't scare off the customers? In all seriousness, I do wonder if anyone has ever done that. I bet they have.
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- There is no post count or rewards.
- Everyones posts must be approved by the Interior Ministry
- Two toilet breaks per day
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Wait... oops, I thought that you meant socialist media.
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I see what @Aaron-Studer is saying and as far as structured criticism goes, that's pretty good.
I am unsure of the credibility of the person doing the original questioning.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Probably both. Having a pic and bio of all prominent staff is a common thing these days. Check out this one...
I see they've gone for the wacky photos. If you're an organisation where the majority of your workforce are young, hip and good looking then it works to your advantage. It's been proven that in business people are attracted towards looks, just like in real life, so a good looking organisation will be more successful than an ugly one. Ridiculous and pathetic, but true. So it's harder to swing if the majority are old, untrendy and ugly, although a good photographer and Photoshop can work wonders.
I originally liked the anonymity of the internet. There was no way to tell if someone was a 16 year old kid in their parents' house or a 40 year old pro. It was pretty meritocratic. But now people's images are all over the net. It seems any self-respecting blog or LinkedIn profile should have a photo of you looking cool and clever. A disadvantage to those of us who will never look either.
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What about us business owners who are neither young, nor hip, nor good looking? Especially not good lucking? What are we to do!?
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The problem that arises with images is that it takes what was awesome about the Internet (anonymity) and introduces a strong potential for customers to use even something as simple as headshots to work around merit-based selection and go to racial, age or gender factors. People only wanted to hire young, white males can easily look to see what companies are loaded with them and not work with others. There is no law, nor is there a way to really make a law, to make that illegal.
The anonymity of the Internet was a huge boon for minorities, the young and women in its early days because with anonymity came equality.
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@tonyshowoff said:
What about us business owners who are neither young, nor hip, nor good looking? Especially not good lucking? What are we to do!?
Hire hot people. People who own strip clubs are almost always old and ugly, but the draw isn't the owners.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@tonyshowoff said:
What about us business owners who are neither young, nor hip, nor good looking? Especially not good lucking? What are we to do!?
Hire hot people. People who own strip clubs are almost always old and ugly, but the draw isn't the owners.
Note to self, hire strippers. Got it.
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Here's a current snap shot of our corporate offices:
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@tonyshowoff said:
Here's a current snap shot of our corporate offices:
While that's nice and all, I'm not sure I agree with your choice of curtains.
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Interesting social media question pops up... about Instagram...
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/797834-instagram-for-business
