{"id":1446,"date":"2013-02-27T14:49:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T14:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/blog\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2013-08-30T00:12:31","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T23:12:31","slug":"social-media-for-it-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/social-media-for-it-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media for IT support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1449\" alt=\"castellets\" src=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"486\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets.jpg 350w, http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets-216x300.jpg 216w, http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets-106x148.jpg 106w, http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets-22x31.jpg 22w, http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets-27x38.jpg 27w, http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/castellets-154x215.jpg 154w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Companies employ external IT support companies because it is not economical to run an IT department in-house. That said an effective support company should resemble an in-house employee in terms of its<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Speed of response \u2013 availability<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Investment in the company\u2019s future\u00a0 &#8211; providing advice on IT developments that will improve processes, reduce costs and increase income<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>How can social media facilitate the IT support company\u2019s role as a quasi-employee of all its clients?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Speed of response \u2013 availability<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When I have an IT problem I can\u2019t solve I want IT support immediately, and if I can\u2019t get it immediately I want to know exactly how long I will have to wait and what I might try in the meantime!<\/p>\n<p>Through social media IT support can provide links to the following on their contact page<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Twitter updates on support call traffic and waiting time.<\/li>\n<li>Twitter alerts on current \u00a0viruses and telecommunication hardware issues to beware<\/li>\n<li>Blog posts providing details on current viruses and telecommunication hardware issues<\/li>\n<li>Categories of blog posts providing step by step instructions on solving common\/recurring problems \u2013 using text, slides and\/or YouTube.*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">* The extent to which clients can resolve problems themselves there <\/span><\/em><\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">will result in a corresponding release of pressure on the call desk<\/span><\/em><\/address>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">2. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Investment in the company\u2019s future\u00a0 &#8211; providing advice on IT developments that will improve processes, reduce costs and increase income<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While every company has unique IT support needs but industries\/sectors will have IT support needs in common. The set up of social media platforms should reflect the division of industries\/sectors<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dedicated Twitter accounts for different industries\/sectors alerting followers to updates to existing or development of new solutions<\/li>\n<li>Blog with post categories covering all industries\/sectors served and solution types e.g. accounting, logistics. Industry\/sector categories should be listed as navigation menu items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Auxiliary to Twitter accounts and the blog I would recommend the set up of a&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Facebook Page \u2013 company Facebook page with up to date profile<\/li>\n<li>Company LinkedIn Page with up to date profile including info on services<\/li>\n<li>Company YouTube Channel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u00a0For more on a basic <a href=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/blog\/starting-out-in-social-media-a-social-media-mix\/\">social media mix go here<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Content for social media should include<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Properly categorised blog posts on IT solutions relevant to specific industries\/sectors targeted at existing and potential clients<\/li>\n<li>Blog posts on general rules of buying IT solutions, alerting readers on where to start, explaining the steps to determining needs.<\/li>\n<li>YouTube testimonials from clients on IT solutions provided by your company and their benefits. These clips be embedded in blog posts categorised by industry\/sector and solution type<\/li>\n<li>set up slide shows\/YouTube\/Vimeo videos on make-up of typical solutions required by different types of business<\/li>\n<li>Blog reports on projects from their beginning through to completion<\/li>\n<li>Cheat sheet and troubleshooter blog posts detailing the most common problems and fixes<\/li>\n<li>Posts on software features clients have in their solution package but are not taking advantage of, \u00a0preferring to keep to what they know \u2013 link this kind of post to training pages on website<\/li>\n<li>Post videos\/reports on training sessions<\/li>\n<li>Post evidence of time and money saved through the take up of your IT solutions &#8211; real world examples from across the range of industries and sectors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><b>Social media management<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You will notice the content ideas listed are almost all for blog posts. This is because the blog can usefully serve as a centre of social media where the bulk of information is provided.<\/p>\n<p>Every blog post can be further promoted\/disseminated via Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn using Hootsuite which enables the update of several social media platforms from one window. Setting up streams on Hootsuite to you Twitter accounts, LinkedIn page and Facebook Page you can alert readers\/viewers to each update on the blog on all or some of the streams as appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>Posting updates via Hootsuite on your LinkedIn will be visible to your \u2018connections . To make a greater impact you should also join groups on LinkedIn dedicated to industries and sectors for which you provide or would like to provide IT support. Strategically post discussions to these groups relating to and linked to your blog posts<\/p>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>Hootsuite dashboard is a personal favourite though you may\u00a0<\/i><\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><\/i><i>prefer to use an alternative, some of which I <a href=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/blog\/total-control%E2%80%93-finding-the-social-mediainternet-dashboard-that-works-for-you\/\">review here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/address>\n<p>I have made some suggestions on how social media may be used by IT support companies. If you have any comments I would be glad to hear them below.<\/p>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Remember! You can subscribe to our blog, choosing alerts on updates to only those<\/span><\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\"> categories that interest you.<\/span><\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\">[subscribe2]<\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies employ external IT support companies because it is not economical to run an IT department in-house. That said an effective support company should resemble an in-house employee in terms of its Speed of response \u2013 availability Investment in the company\u2019s future\u00a0 &#8211; providing advice on IT developments that will\u2026<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/social-media-for-it-support\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138,98,245],"tags":[246,247,248],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linkedin","category-social-media-for-x","category-social-media-for-it","tag-it","tag-it-solutions","tag-it-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1824,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhartley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}