We’re coming off another busy week, getting ready for launch of the Canadian International AutoShow. In addition to the usual amount of work (think traditional marketing), we’ve been doubly busy monitoring and engaging in a variety of social media channels as well as exploring new ones. Which explains the relative quiet around this blog over the past week. This, for me at least, brings up an interesting question: where do other folks in marketing—who write such frequent, insightful and often long blog posts—find the time?
There are a few possibilities, of course. One, they’re not as busy. Two, they’re in a big enough shop the workload is better distributed. Or three, they just work a hell of a lot more than I do. Then there are the possibilities I haven’t even thought of. As I see it, such is life in a small agency where everyone wears so many hats and you can only accomplish so much in a day. I’d love to use the excuse that I’m new at blogging, but the truth is I’ve been maintaining a personal blog for more than 4 years. Granted, this blog is different. I could work longer hours but as it stands, many of my evenings are already filled with work for a non-profit organization. I’m not complaining, mind you; this helps push me forward and compliments our business.
If you find you’re juggling many tasks in a day, how do you do it? More importantly, how do you do it all and do each thing well?
Posts Tagged ‘Communication’
Frazzled
The Bell Follow-Up
Well, we got our quicker Internet connection today. Unfortunately for Bell, it’s not with them. They did come to install the Optimax service but after arguing with a support centre in India, the technician admitted he wouldn’t be able to upgrade our service.
Which begs the question: why were we told we could in the first place?
Regardless, our Internet service has now gone to Rogers. They were in our office earlier today and just like that, much quicker speed. At less than what we were paying with Bell. You’ve got to love competition.
Just Being There Doesn’t Cut It
Twist Image partner and author of Six Pixels of Separation Mitch Joel wrote an interesting article on his blog yesterday. In it, he asserts that a conversation is NOT a community. He’s quite right. While many clients are starting to recognize that the traditional model of shouting at people about their product has lost its effectiveness, a lesser number truly understand how to change. They may be aware of digital marketing initiatives but are unsure of how to get involved, or simply are not ready to commit. Because there are commitments. In time, money and effort.
Joel suggests a client needs to “make yourself more findable, approachable, likeable and spreadable.” But to do this—and to build a community people want to join—you need to honour your commitments in fostering your brand. Simply having a Facebook page or a Twitter account will not ensure a meaningful conversation with your customers. And meaningful is the metric that will help you grow.
The “Up To” Promise
by Mike Charbonneau
A Speedtest.net test of our internet connection.
Our recent efforts in the world social media multimedia have revealed (or, I should say, brought back to our attention) an issue with our internet connection. It’s slow. Really slow. Looking over our contract confirmed we have a high-speed connection which should give us “up to” 6 Mbps of download speed. Now, I understand the whole “up to” promise and how it’s dependent on where you are and the type of wiring that exists; it’s akin to achieving those theoretical gas mileage numbers but only if you drive at 20 km/h on a new road, with no wind, with optimum ambient temperature. But having checked Speedtest.net more than a few times, we rarely hit download speeds above 2.5 Mbps. Not what you’d call speedy.
So I called Bell to ask if there was a better option and apparently, there is. It’s called Optimax and it promises to deliver download speeds of 8 Mbps. Not up to but specifically 8 Mbps. And all for $10 a month more than what we are currently paying (on a 3-year contract and with a $125 installation fee). We expect the service on Monday, so I’ll keep you posted on the difference.
But the truth remains, we would have gladly paid the difference to get the service we required from the get go. I have to wonder why Bell couldn’t have looked at our service (which they can do), ascertained that it would never reach the ideal target and offered us a different option. I mean, think of it. They get more money, we’re happy with the service and now, we’re thinking of their company in a positive light for having given us with a solution.
I can see how it would require too much time and effort to look at each case individually. Perhaps “up to” is the easiest way to deal with everyone. But as I watch and participate in communications between brands and consumers, I have to wonder, is the easiest way the right way to go?
