Learn by Doing

I've always been the type of person who learns by doing, at least when it comes to technology or social platforms. Whatever the software product, I generally crack the virtual plastic wrap on the jewel case only when I have a specific project to work on. I find working on sample files as a training platform isn't as effective opening my project in another window and immediately applying what I just learned.

I have subscribed to Lynda.com for the past 3 years. It is an online platform of video tutorials on everything you can think of involving software and designing for print or online and mobile. It was founded in 1995 and has more than 100,000 videos supporting more than 2,000 different courses. There are various pricing plans, from a one-time use to an annual subscription.

This is one platform I can unequivocally recommend. Lynda constantly adds courses and expands the scope of training. In fact, I just discovered its iPad app that provides access to all the video.

Related: Read “Word of Advice to Agents: 'Like' New Media“

The training videos are presented in detail and are around 5 to 6 minutes long because the instructions are broken down into segments. A search feature allows the user to search by text for specific “how to's” that will take you to the relevant video, making it easy to find exactly what you need to learn.

The training is not just graphics or programming-based but includes business-based information. You can also find videos on topics like “Blogging for Your Business,” “Facebook for Your Business” and “Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter.”

Dealing With Change

I've often written about the challenges people have handling the pace of change. In my February 2010 column, “Responsibilities of Change,” I wrote how everyone within the agency needs to be responsible for dealing with changes. Leadership must have a plan that is communicated to everyone; the plan should have gotten input from the different areas within the agency, too. Only then can the opportunities offered by change be truly leveraged.

Often, only your public-facing staff, the CSRs or receptionists, notice the coming change. Maybe your clients are communicating with the office less via phone calls and more by texting. Or perhaps your CSRs are answering the same questions over and over, which could more easily be addressed by adding the information to the website in a FAQ section. Or you could consider how you leverage your customers' time on hold by recording a customizable message that changes to answer current questions your staff is getting.

Your agency also can use text messaging to proactively send valuable information to your clients relevant to current situations. My January column “Text Benefits” discusses the power of text marketing and the differences between it and email marketing.

Related: Read “Social Media ABCs“

Using SMS (short message service) communications is a more effective means of connecting with clients and prospects. Statistics show that consumers respond more emphatically to texting than to email:

• 8.6 trillion text messages are sent each year
• More than 99 percent of texts are read and 90 percent of them are read within 3 minutes of receiving the text
• 79 percent of cell phone owners text.

Change is inevitable, but how we perceive it, learn about it and respond to it depends on our role. Find a way to have regular conversations with your staff about what they are seeing, how they are interacting with the clients and prospects and what differences they may be aware of.

Consider your customer-facing staff as one of those caged canaries that ­old-time mine workers took along to alert them on whether the air quality had become poisonous. These “canaries” can alert you to social media changes or shifts in how consumers want to interact.

This isn't to say you wouldn't be aware of these changes, too; it's just that it doesn't hurt to get multiple perspectives. Your younger staff likely spends more time on social media sites communicating with friends and businesses than you. As their expectations or interactions with businesses change, your agency can learn from that and adapt.

Future Shock

In the 1970 book “Future Shock,” futurist Alvin Toffler argued that there are psychological consequences to the rapidly increasing pace of change. He defined the term “future shock” as a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time.” This was nearly 45 years ago and, thanks toMoore's Law, the pace of change has grown exponentially since then. I can only imagine what Toffler would have written if his book was published today.

Toffler's concern over our ability to adapt to change was flawed. Societal change doesn't occur overnight, even though it may appear to do so. In reality, change, even when consideringMoore, happens more like the frog in the boiling water.

If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will hop right out. But if you drop the frog into a pot of room-temperature water and slowly increase the heat over time, the frog won't even notice until it's too late.

Our businesses and society in general are more like the frog in the room-temperature water. But unlike that frog, changes aren't going to kill us but allow us to thrive.

It's good to look back occasionally to see where we've come from, but don't let the exercise frighten you when you realize how far we've come. Instead, take a lesson from technology futurist Daniel Burrus when he says, “You cannot change the past, but you can shape the future based on the actions you take today.”

As I wrote in my May 2011 column “Social Media ABCs,” begin by assessing your needs. How do you communicate with your clients? How are you marketing to your prospects? What is your agency's appetite for adopting a social media workflow?

Once you've assessed your needs and how they can be handled within your existing marketing and communications activities, ensure you needs aren't in contrast with your brand. If they are, then decide if it is the direction to improve and grow your brand.

Then cultivate a culture of social media engagement. Finally, define what your agency is going to do in the social media realm.