Tips on engaging in social media in regulated industries

Because social media moves at the speed of a tweet, it can be downright difficult for organizations in regulated industries such as financial services or healthcare to participate effectively. With some planning and incremental steps, though, successfully participating in social media can be a clear reality and success.

Here are some tips on engaging in social media in regulated industries:

1. Start by listening. Listening to social media conversations does not break any rules or regulations, and provides insight into trends of topics.
2. Develop cross-organizational support. Obtaining buy-in from departments ranging from legal to compliance to IT can smooth the road to social media engagement.
3. Prepare key messages ahead of time. Just as in the preparation of talking points for traditional media, having key messages approved in anticipation of specific topics will allow quick social media responses.
4. Develop accelerated approval times. Social media moves at the speed of a tweet, yet content needs to go through appropriate approvals – just faster.
5. Train your organization. From executives to day-to-day contributors, provide an education on the importance and intricacies of social media.
6. Remember that social media is a casual dialogue. Stilted language is out of place in social media. To comply with regulatory language requirements, consider linking to disclosures from tweets.
7. Move beyond numbers in measurement. Numbers can provide some insight, but more meaningful indicators of success include consumer sentiment, engagement (comments and feedback), and development of new business relationships or the expansion of current ones.
8. Develop a social media policy. Having a policy in place that includes the dos and don’ts of participation will make all stakeholders more comfortable. For instance, The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority requires that firms keep records of all communications on social media sites by their registered representatives and that those who participate in social media are properly trained and supervised. And to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, employees in the medical industry need to be sure not to reveal patient information.

These tips are from an article that I wrote with Jared Roy for PR News Digital PR Guidebook, Vol. 3. Read the full article.        

Michael Chorost: 'technology is a two-edged sword'

Technology doesn't always work like it does in the movies. That was clear to the more than 150 attendees at last night's inaugural John Beardsley Lecture at the University of Minnesota featuring Michael Chorost, Ph.D.

Michael Chorost, Ph.D.

After hearing a 16-channel demonstration of what it's like to hear through a cochlear implant, audience members differed on the phrase that they thought they were hearing. To some, it was, "I'd like to play tennis," while to others it was, "I'd like to play chess." One woman heard, "I'd like to have sex." (I guess we hear what we want to hear. The correct answer, by the way, was "I'd like to play tennis.")

The passing of Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, one day before was often referenced throughout the evening. Chorost, author of "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human" and "World Wide Mind: The Coming Integration of Humanity, Machines, and the Internet," shared the lessons he learned about the intersection of technology and humanity through the experience of having a cochlear implant.

"The real future of technology is not in repeating what biology has done," said Chorost. "It is in doing entirely new things."

Chorost said that e-mail was an entirely new way of communicating and that the future holds such possibilities as "telempathy" (how to read what a brain is thinking) and optogenetics (the use of light to make genetically altered neurons fire or stop firing).

While Chorost said that Twitter is becoming the emotional center of the Internet thanks to people sharing their feelings through the microblogging service, "there is no high-tech shortcut to community."

An easy way to keep clients: surveys

The following post is based on an article that Melissa Neill and I wrote for InvestmentNews.


Take a moment to think about a store you visit regularly, a family physician from which you never stray or a dentist you always recommend. What keeps you going back? Is it the way they treat you or is it what happens between the times you see them?

Financial services organizations thrive by acquiring clients and retaining current ones. Financial advisers are no exception.

All too often, efforts are directed at generating inquiries that lead to new clients. Financial advisers, however, need to focus on current clients as well. Understanding their needs is just as important, since they can be advocates for your business and provide a steady stream of referrals and revenue.

Many advisers would say that they understand clients and intuitively know how to communicate with them. But what they think they know doesn't always align with reality.

So where is the best place for an adviser to start? A survey of current and lapsed clients is a great way to see why some stay and why others move to another firm. What follows is a simple step-by-step guide for assessing and addressing client retention for your business.

Getting ready

The preparatory work starts with an internal brainstorming meeting with employees who work with clients. Keeping this group small will help with making decisions. Appoint a facilitator or consider asking an outsider to lead this session to bring in an objective perspective.

This session is a conversation about client retention efforts, types of client communication, goals for retaining clients and desired outcomes of a survey. Following this discussion, review present and past efforts to retain clients; look at client communications, including newsletters and appointment reminder voice mails or e-mails; and review industry and competitor retention practices to help with question development (e.g., does a particular communication piece serve its purpose?).

Creating the survey

To start, look at your current and lapsed list of clients. Look at the size of your practice and isolate what you believe is a sufficient number of clients to survey. Keep in mind that not everyone is willing to participate, so starting with a list larger than the target number of respondents is important. Ultimately, you will need enough consistent feedback from your survey to change the way you run your practice.

Next, develop the questions. The goal of each question should be to gather information germane to the initial survey objective. The best surveys include questions that can be answered on a scale of 1 to 5, followed up with a few open-ended questions.

Conducting the survey

How a survey is conducted depends on available client data: Do you have e-mail addresses or just phone numbers?

While the primary advantage of conducting surveys online is the relatively low cost for the quantity of consumers reached, it is also less intrusive, and respondents can complete the survey at their convenience. Don't give them too long, however. A safe time limit is two weeks, and a friendly reminder after the first week will encourage additional responses.

While telephone surveys typically are more expensive — they can cost up to $25,000 to capture 100 client interviews — they produce more-in-depth information. Don't underestimate the time required for such surveys: Securing willing participants can take weeks, even months.

Look for trends in information to determine the effectiveness of retention efforts. Then think about how the data can be used to enhance the client's experience.

Most important to note, though, is that a survey is not to be done once — used for a period of time to determine necessary improvements — and then forgotten. To be effective, insights need to be measured on a regular basis to determine changes in attitudes and behavior.

Depending on budget, resources and usage, surveys should be conducted every one to five years. Just be sure not to change the questions significantly. Keeping the survey consistent will allow you to see the changes in attitudes over time.

Surveys are more than just a gauge of satisfaction -- a client can be satisfied and still leave. The insights you glean will help you determine why clients stay or lapse, and put an action plan in place to retain more clients.

Netflix: a company without a clue

Dear Netflix,

Get a clue about public relations. You used to be a customer-centric company, shipping DVDs quickly free of charge for your subscribers.

But this year you really blew it. In the quest for shareholder value, you announced this July the separation of DVD and streaming content -- and price increases of up to 60 percent. Netflix, by offering streaming content in the first place, you are saving yourself money in shipping, and offering a convenience to subscribers.

Here's what you received in the process of putting shareholder priorities above subscribers' desires:

• A market value down 53 percent since the announcement, wiping out $8 billion in shareholder value
• The loss of 600,000 subscribers
• Tens of thousands of complaints

When I saw the e-mail from your co-founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, this morning, I was encouraged by its beginning:  "I messed up. I owe you an explanation."

I quickly was discouraged and realized that you haven't a clue about public relations. You now are separating the DVD business into something called Qwikster, but that site will not be integrated into the Netflix site. Therefore, subscribers will have to visit two different websites and have two different charges on their credit card statements.

Mr. Hastings, you also mentioned that you were concerned about Netflix going the way of AOL dialup or Borders bookstores. I don't think that you need to worry about that; those companies actually seemed to care a bit about their customers. The moves that you have made this year likely will be more akin to the New Coke debacle.

Sincerely,

Brant Skogrand

Good HR makes good PR

I love it when an organization's treatment of its employees accurately reflects the company's public perception. One example of how good human resources makes good public relations is apparel maker Patagonia.

Here's a snapshot from Bloomberg Businessweek of some of the benefits that Patagonia employees receive:

• Up to four months unpaid personal leave for "big, life-changing journeys"
• Two months paid parental leave for dads as well as moms
• "Working your flextime" by going surfing during the day at a surf spot two minutes from the Ventura, Calif., headquarters

I bet that Patagonia employees are more productive because of these benefits and the focus on work-life balance. Surf's up!

The viral video creation myth

In "Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Rodrick Rules," Greg Heffley and his friend Rowley Jefferson try to create a viral video that will be a huge hit on YouTube. Many of their efforts involve Rowley getting injured, but nothing seems to take off...that is, until they capture on video Heffley's mom dancing like a goofball at the school talent show. Then they have a hit.

When it comes to video creation, everyone wants theirs to go viral on YouTube. It's just not that easy, though, to manufacture a video intended to go viral -- it often happens by accident. Take the video, "Charlie bit my finger -- again!" for instance. It just was a time when a parent filmed kids being cute. Now it has almost 400 million views.

I think this is because, as humans, we know what is real and what isn't. I know that I definitely can tell the difference between videos on "America's Funniest Home Videos" that were authentic and those that were staged.

So, the next time that you think about creating a video that you hope goes viral on YouTube, check out the footage that you were going to edit out first -- maybe there's something "viralworthy" in it!