Social media – does it really work? And three more questions…

Social media is (was) supposed to be the silver bullet for better and interactive contacts between customers and companies, between citizens and public officials, between activists and stakeholder groups.

But is it? Does it really work? Or do I simply ask for too much, too quick? And why are we as consumers accepting this state of affairs?

I am not speaking about the number of likes on a Facebook page, pins on Pinterest, retweets on Twitter. I’m speaking about real constructive interaction between a customer and a company. Is social media becoming another hype that “has to be embraced” and then turns into yet another failed communications tool? One reads in the papers about how someone tweeted and got a job, someone else got a new ticket, a third won against a company and got a failed product replaced. But is this all? It feels like having 200 TV stations while only watching 2.

In a sense it reminds me about when e-mail and e-commerce came (yes, my dears there was a time before “e” and I remember that time) and how we whom already worked with both advised corporate strategists and communicators “Answer e-mails within 24 hours during the working week and 48 hours in the weekend. And put in place an automatic answer to the sender and say this so the customer knows what to expect.” These advice seems to be gone with the wind. I don’t expect instant contact but I do expect contact within the above given time frames. But after implementing social media (mostly I get the feeling this means a Facebook page and a corporate Twitter account) companies seems to feel that they are relieved from this. Because: “We have social media, so we remain in contact with our customers.” But it is still far too often the same one way communication and no real contact with us as customers. Sometimes I feel that the so often beleaguered public sector actually is better and more responsive than private companies when it comes to customer contacts. Even if customers is not the correct term when it comes to the public sector but I trust you understand what I mean.

And to answer my third question:

No, I don’t think I ask for too much too quick. On the contrary, I feel we as consumers are quite wonderful in our patience.

Even if the “I have always had Internet” generation is just coming of age, PC’s and various forms of digital interconnectivity have been around so long they are an inherent part of our every day lives, professional and private, so having grasped how to work with on-line tools (which after all is what Social media are) should be a normal as pen and paper. As should developing services that actually use the opportunities this brings rather than just automating old badly working paper based processes. But from what I see, it doesn’t seem to happen.

But I have no answer to my fourth question – do you?

And what can we as corporate communicators do to change the situation and to turn our organisations into leaders in the area?

 

Lobbyists – shape up!

Yesterday I was contacted by an aspiring young lobbyist. It became a rather epic phone conversation.

After the first misunderstanding due to bad phone lines on his behalf, it transpired he represented two organisations with a rather tarnished image: FIFA and Johnson & Johnson, hired by the latter. These two organisations have identified it is in their core business‘ interest to work together in a lobby effort aimed at the European Parliament.

Personally I would have thought they’d be better of doing something that would raise their image, but nope they prefer to belittle the MEP community in Brussels.

He called very kindly to invite us to an event Johnson & Johnson and FIFA was organising at the Parliament in the near future. Only I work for a Pirate Party MEP and worthy and important as health issues are our main concern are issues like preserved civic liberties on-line and reformed copyright. So I asked him how the analyses looked like when they identified us as interesting to this event? Of course, he couldn’t answer, no surprise there.

Then came the best of all – but if the event is of no interest to your MEP maybe he would like to attend the cocktail we are hosting the evening before the event?

In other words: MEP’s are so easy to lure and so eager to be schmooze they will turn up to any event.

Let me say this – you want us supporting your cause, telling us we are a cheap date and easy to buy isn’t the way to get it.

European Parliament blocks all mails containing the ”gender stereotype” on International Women’s Day.

Breaking: European Parliament blocks all mails containing the ”gender stereotype” on International Women’s Day. You couldn’t make it up.

In an attempt to isolate themselves from voters who were outraged about the looming ban on porn and sexual communication online (between consenting adults), the European Parliament’s IT department resorted to spamflagging all protests. Specifically, they were silently dropping every mail that contained the words ”gender stereotypes” – on International Women’s Day.

Really, you couldn’t make it up.

(Verified by technical tests with/without these specific words.)

http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/european-parliament-blocks-emails-containing-the-word-gender-on-internationa-womens-day/

No trust in trust

Past Monday I received flowers from my sister in Sweden. It was a birthday greeting. The flower shop called ahead and fixed a delivery time. 30 minutes early they rang my door bell. Luckily the care taker saw the delivery girl because I wasn’t home. The flowers were old and have already starting to sag and the note was printed on a reused document, with old text on the back. My sister certainly didn’t pay for this.

Today I got an email from Euroflorist asking that I’d rate my customer experience. As you might imagine I had a few heartfelt words to say. I was given a link on my phone, already here the first hurdle, a manageable one but still a hurdle. Turns out Euroflorist takes their customer reviews seriously and that they want to offer their customers a safe environment to either praise or complain. Nothing can be said about that.

BUT, they use a service from the company Trustpilot. And let’s just say that that company doesn’t do either trust nor pilot very well.

Why? Well, for starters they don’t get their basics right… Getting your basics right is an old-fashioned concept, I admit, but one that works. All the time.

Before giving up and writing to Euroflorist directly, I tried FOUR times to give my input on this rather failed delivery.

First of all I get a text message with a link. Has anyone ever tried to type a longer message on a phone???

Second, I am asked for the delivery number, which is a good idea seeing that it helps with identification, but tell me where do I find that number? It’s not like it is written on the flowers. There is a number in the initial text message but that isn’t automatically reused in the message header.

Third, I have to create a profile with Trustpilot to send my message. Why? My profile is verified via my email address. AND THEN I HAVE TO RETYPE THE MESSAGE ON MY PHONE. Whom dreamt up that? Not someone having usability as a core concept and quality, that’s for certain.

Four, I am doing this on the Swedish home page. Let me just say, if you don’t have the resources to get a Swedish mother tongue writer in, don’t localize. That simple. The verification email is misspelt and the website a joke. This for a company that promotes trust.

Five, I am offered the possibility to log-on via Facebook. Facebook? Facebook is possible the most criticised company when it comes to privacy and Trustpilot think that is a good way to log on to a site touting security, privacy and trust?

Am I the only one seeing the irony?

 

Equality to the unseen. Is equality in the boardroom a utopia?

There is an ongoing debate about women and quotas to boards in Europe – to legislate or not to legislate. Personally, I don’t know. Because while I can see the need for a nudging a change to happen I don’t know if I’d like to be on a board ”just because” or thanks to my competencies and added value.

However, that’s neither here nor there right now because something I’d like to address is the attitude some men have. SOME men please note that. SOME. It’s like women doesn’t count. It has happened numerous times that men have come into this office and either (just like now) plain ignored me: even a ”Hello” and/or handshake or; I’m alone in the office and a man comes in and asks ”Is there no one here?” E-mails are addressed to my male colleagues, questions are deferred to them, it’s like I and my competencies doesn’t count. And I work at the Green group with men whom supposedly have a better approach to equality than say parties on the right-wing.

I don’t think legislation can change this blacking out of women. I mean, how can someone you don’t even acknowledge, see or speak to be seen as an equal?

After careful consideration….

That is a message we’ve all received and we know that those words isn’t the beginning of a new and fruitful relationship. And that’s fair enough and not that much of a problem, an organisation should recruit the person they believe can do the job.

No, what bothers me is the time lapsed between the application and this answer. Friday I submitted my CV to a large industry association for a Communications Director position I immediately received a confirmation that they had received my application. And 15 minutes later. Yes, you read correct fifteen minutes I received this follow-up message:

Thank you for your recent application to XXXX.

After careful consideration we have decided not to progress with your application at this point in time as we have identified candidates that more closely match our requirements.

Please continue to review our current opportunities on the careers page of our website at xxx, to ensure consideration for future roles.

Thank you for the interest you’ve shown and may we wish you every success in your search for a new role.

Yours sincerely,

XXX Talent Acquisition

Really? My application was carefully considered for the whole of 15 minutes after which I was considered too light. How careful can you be in 15 minutes? Personally, I not only find this behaviour unprofessional I also find it rude. If this is an automated answer based on the fact that my CV doesn’t have enough of the keywords the recruiting team are searching for, programme an automated timer to the answer and hold it for 24 hours. It would at least make you look minimally professional.

 

Recruitment in Europe – viewed from a candidate

My inbox is filled with mails from recruiters and head hunters encouraging me to send them an updated CV so 2013 will be THE year when I’ll land my dream job. And of course they will help me in that process.

So I started to think a bit on my experience as job hunter in Europe and how recruiters in different countries can meet you. This is by no means an international survey with an academic touch; it is simply my personal reflections based on my experiences. Someone else will have different experiences and thus different reflections. And I am only speaking about my experiences from a candidate to international communications roles.

I am amazed about how much our mother tongues and national cultures spill over in this process. I think it’s nice and as you might surmise I like living abroad and I like living with all the small daily hiccups living abroad will mean. Yes, my life would certainly have been easier if I had stayed in well-organised Sweden, but also (maybe) more boring.

Being Swedish I start with “home.” I haven’t lived here since 1998 so my experiences are those of an expat candidate. And my experience is – don’t even bother. 15+ years international experience is of zero value in Sweden. Far more important in Sweden is if you know “one of the old boys.” Literally the old boys’ network, because despite the image that Sweden is equal and men and women have the same chances, it is incredibly male chauvinist. Which is odd, we are a relatively small population so one would think that a country couldn’t afford to treat almost 50% of the population as lesser valued. Every now and then I am contacted by Swedish head hunters and while this is very flattering there is rarely a match. More and more I have the impression that we Swedes are a bit like Ibsen’s Peer Gynt – self-sufficient. I am sure I “suffer” from that myself. Maybe it’s our long dark winters and living in the periphery of Europe (read EU) that makes us like this, I don’t know. But in Sweden, do as the Swedes, because we are the best. Outside of Sweden, too. Even if the Norwegians always beat us in skiing.

The Dutch and Swiss recruiters are probably the most international minded of the nationalities I’ve been in touch with.

The Dutch are far more relaxed in their approach than most and often they realise that you don’t have to be serious just because you are serious. Of course they are professional and result oriented, but in my experience you quickly enter into a conversation about the position and what you hope to achieve if you are hired. However, it took me some time to get used to Dutchlish, i.e. speaking Dutch in English. It can be very “direct.” Not that I mind and nor can, or will, I say anything, after all we are two people conversing in a foreign language so f course there might be misunderstandings and missed nuances.

I find Swiss recruiters charming, although it took me a few interviews to learn what they 9 times out of 10 will look for in an interview. I mean, if you picked strawberries a summer in school and for some reason this is listed on your CV be prepared to answer the question how many litres you picked. And they will walk through ALL your entries in your CV with the same level of detail. Once this is achieved, you’ll enter into a conversation. And in my experience there is no difference between the different Swiss “nationalities” i.e. if the recruiter speaks French, German or Italian.

German recruiters are bit like the Swiss only far more so. Very much more “ordnung muβ sein” and in my experience there is not as much conversation going on, it is much more a question and answer session. But in all honesty you do get to ask questions as a candidate too.

Of course the French are, well, French. For those of you that have missed this, in France there is a system of “grandes écoles.” Originally launched by Napoleon to break the elitist system of universities these schools have become the elite they were founded to combat and unless you have an exam from one of these schools, there are approximately 250, you don’t have much value on the French job market. It is, slowly, getting better but still more often than not your ordinary French recruiter doesn’t know what to make of you if you haven’t got a grande école. And rewrite your CV, a French CV always start with the school and ends with the last experience.

Belgians have changed of lately and are becoming less and less international in their approach. Unless you speak Flemish, a minority language in international business, your CV will be weeded out. From personal experiences I know that it doesn’t matter if you are the best person for the role. You don’t speak Flemish you’re out and this whether or not you need it for the job or not.

The only recruiters in the UK I have had experience from are based in the London area. And broadly speaking there are two types: those that are very internationally versed and those that are very British. Let’s start with the last group, and I must admit I’ve often asked myself why they are tasked with international recruitment. To a far higher extent than other nationalities they can be quite insular and I have been met with the attitude “But you’re on The Continent.” Yes, capital continent, one can hear it. I gently point out that it is quicker for me to go to London from e.g. Brussels than someone in Glasgow but it is still “you’re on the continent.” It doesn’t matter how interesting the position is, I just fold there is no need to continue. That gap is wider than across the Atlantic and back.

The first group is growing, not only in the UK BTW, but they are a growing breed “all over” and personally I always enjoy these interviews. These recruiters have sort of stepped “above and outside” nationality and are only looking to experience and achievements and if there is a possible fit with the role and the company. In a perfect world this must surely constitute the best approach for international recruitment? Then again, one can state that we don’t live in a perfect world and we are all humans and as such fallible. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be boring if things were perfect?

Can this change be seen in the candidate pool too? I don’t know since my experience is limited to one person – myself. But if a recruiter would care to comment I’d love to hear more.

Finally, there is another generic recruiter group. These have been taught recruitment in an US corporate environment and as such are well-tuned into equality, fairness and above all how to avoid being sued. In my experience no recruiter is unfair nor do they not give every candidate the same chance, but there is an element of personality match between the recruiter and the candidate and since we are people this will always be. Not that I mind, on the contrary. In particular if it is an in‑house recruiter because then I can assume I will fit in the company culture. Or not, as it may be. But this group of recruiters are impersonal to a T; they read ready-made questions from a questionnaire, note your answers verbatim and then move on. Sometimes (often) there are two recruiters so you as a candidate sit between them and turn your head like at a tennis match. Of course as a candidate you can be certain that you will have the same questions as your competitor and in a sense this is good, but personally I prefer some differences to this feeling of talking to a wall.

If any recruiter would care to comment on my experiences I would be more than interested in hearing them. After all – we need each other and the more you know about the “other party” the better it is.