Ryan C. Miller.com - Social Media, Design, Tech, Commentary - broadcasting from Utica, NY

Read and Write Your Ass Off

Posted on December 4, 2009 by MillerNo Comments

Today I gave a quick talk to the students of the Utica College PRSSA group about the job I do at Romanelli Communications as well as how brands are using social media to reach their audiences.  Of course with graduation dates approaching, students are wondering how to best position themselves for the job market (and more specifically in the PR department). Here’s the top 3 points I wanted to drive home:

1 - Read your ass off. I was a bit surprised that by and large the group wasn’t actively consuming blogs that are written about their industry (and the future of it). Because this is where the medium is going, I tried to stress that they need to reading enormous amounts of material DAILY as well as leaving comments and adding to the discussion. Since colleges aren’t offering in-depth courses in Social Media right now and since Social Media is becoming such a huge piece of the PR puzzle, they really need to put in the hours to become as knowledgeable as possible once they get that job opportunity. Books like Trust Agents and Tribes should be standard issue reading as well as Beth’s Blog, PR Squared, Chris Brogan’s blog, HARO, and Mashable need to be on a daily reading list just to name a few.

2 - Write your ass off. Resumes are so 20th century. I know you still need a kick-ass one, but I tried to stress how important it is for PR students to have their own website or blog to show their writing skills, their design portfolio and build their own personal brand. It’s essential. They also have to NEED to be on LinkedIN and active. Building a network, asking questions and contributing to groups in their industry will build connections and let people know that you’re out there. It’s a great way to get introduced to experts in your industry or get recommended for a potential job.

3 - Show me, don’t tell me. If any of them go into an interview for a public relations job or ANY job for that matter, they should be able to show their resume and have the HR director pull up their website. On that website should be their posts about the industry, examples of their work, and maybe even a case study of how a Press Release they put out or an event they orchestrated was a huge success for a local non-profit (hint: volunteer your time. Non-profits need your expertise and its a great experience). Being able to show ROI for a project you weren’t even paid to do shows your chops and speaks to your character.  Being able to SHOW a prospective employer that you have the skills necessary for that job (or are devoting lots of time to learning them) will set you apart from other candidates. I promise.

There was a lot more discussed and the group had some great questions about blogging, social media, and how businesses are using the tools. I won’t get into those here. But I did want to give a quick recap of what I thought the group wanted to have a discussion about and hopefully I was able to provide some good info to give them a leg up in understanding how social media tools are shaping the way PR works and the way people find jobs.

Big thanks to Megan Fariello for having me and congrats on her upcoming graduation in two weeks!

Managing Expectations? Manage This.

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Miller5 Comments

I helped a friend out the other night who was using Verizon DSL and had recently magically became unable to send outgoing mail. This actually isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this problem in the area so I had a hunch that they were simply blocking port 25. I’m not going to get too technical here, but let’s just say we were able to determine this was the problem. After nearly an hour on the phone trying to explain this to a technician at Verizon, they continued to insist that it wasn’t their issue and that could no longer help us. Long story short we switched to cable internet that night and that resolved the issue.

A couple of nights later I had an issue with my Windows 7 license and though the Microsoft technician didn’t solve what I wanted, they were much better at customer service than Verizon. But I noticed what may be a new ‘buzzphrase’ and trend in corporate customer support (besides outsourcing it to India ((no offense, India)) )…

That new ‘buzzphrase’ was this: “So, before we proceed any further I want to set the expectations for this call.” Really? Set the expectations? If I’m calling Customer Service. It’s my expectation that you will FIX THE PROBLEM I’M CALLING ABOUT.

Immediately after hearing that phrase my brain started telling me that I just heard a cop out. It told me that they were going to go through the things that were in the manual, like asking me if I have my router plugged in or if I’ve rebooted the computer before. It also told me that this was the end of the line.

Contrast that with what folks like Frank at ComcastCares are doing. If I’m a Comcast user (which I’m not), I may still think Comcast sucks at the end of the day, but having someone who’s not reading from a script, but talking to me like I’m a human being will go a looooong way toward making me think that they suck less. I promise.

One final example. Last month I had issues with my hosting provider (Netfirms). After getting a not-so-fast response from their helpdesk line (phone), I sent out a Tweet regarding my problem. Almost immediately I got a response back from Netfirms’ rep on Twitter with an acknowledgement of my problem, the promise of a follow up (with ticket), and a speedy resolution. That, my friends was a kick-ass and unexpected surprise. They turned an angry customer into one that would still recommend their service to others.

If your business starts off a call with letting the customer know that they’re going to set expectations before they even start working on the problem, it’s probably not going to be a fun experience for your customer. But if you engage like a human being, give a crap and know that it’s the customer who is setting the expectation - you’ll fare much better (or at least make people dislike you a lot less).

Now more than ever it’s customer service that is going to make and break brands just by the nature of how conversation scales online.

Shared Items - December 1, 2009

Posted on December 1, 2009 by MillerNo Comments

Best articles, photos, and general signs of cool from my Google Reader Feeds
• Rupert Murdoch has it backwards

November 23, 2009

• Watch the money

November 30, 2009

• 10 out of Tenn

November 29, 2009

• Martian landscapes - The Big Picture - Boston.com

November 30, 2009