Riding the Waves of Social Media Marketing

Today I was at the JW Marriot hotel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, attending Social Media Marketing Master Class from Mr Luke Brynley-Jones, one of the UK's most experienced and best known social media consultants. A trip if during weekend would only take 15 minutes from my house, on a sweet Monday morning like this, it could simply surpass an hour mark with no traffic police sighted along the way. Oh, how I dreaded the early morning jam but at the same time I was so thrilled to explore the opportunities that social media could bring to our brand and our business.

We started with Facebook and Twitter some years ago with doubts in our heads. Would this work? Who would Like us? Who would follow? Would the industry take us seriously? I understood all the concerns but at the same time, there was something about the social media that just couldn't be ignored. Exposing our brand to a large number of targetted audience via a cost effective measure and it is permission marketing, it is just too good to pass, isn't it?

But the question remains, how could FingerTec be in the social media when we are not a consumer brand. We are not selling toothpaste, we are not a brandname of a snack or fizzy drink, we sell hard stuff industry products. Many of our clients have question marks on their heads and even now some are still raising eyebrows with our involvement in the social media channels. These platforms are meant for social, not business.. so they say.

This seminar convinced me that we are on the right track. Even though we understand the power of social media marketing to businesses, we still lack of understanding on how to strategically plan the social media marketing to get the best out of the audiences in these platforms. There are a lot of ground to cover to stay active and effective in this marketing mix. Selection of channels, the question of ROI, the reputation we need to maintain and manage, strategies to plan, etc.

FingerTec Facebook likes are now approaching 19K and counting. We have gathered our fans from around the world though our efforts and through our partners' Facebook pages. Though compared to Coca-Cola, our number can be considered miniscule, we are proud of where we are through the efforts that we've put on so far.

One interesting point to note about our target in social media marketing is that, FingerTec is not here to hard sell our products, we are here on these platforms to connect with all FingerTec users around the globe who have been using the products for attendance and for their office security. Positive or negative feedbacks, we accept them. And we warmly welcome your presence on our social networking space, to be a part of our lives.

Join us at www.facebook.com/fingertecworldwide

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Watch Out for FingerTec Ads in 2012!

Deciding on where to put your money on advertisements could be as tricky as scoring a perfect bullseye in a dart game; a slight misjudgment could divert the dart to miss the intended target. While in the dart game, the consequence could be reduced to nearly none; in business it means burning money at a very fast rate. There is a saying that one needs to spend money to gain money but resources are usually scarce at the initial and growing stage, therefore a prudent spending must be exercised to avoid draining of the cash flow to the point of no return.

In the past years, FingerTec has been focusing its effort in the Internet advertisements, placing the brand in Google and a few other sites for select regions and audiences. The brand grew organically and we are happy with the outcome but at the same time we know that the brand needs to grow further and faster in our way to become a renowned global brand. Our resellers have been asking us this question in many versions over many years, basically to mean, when are you going to advertise in the industry. And the answer is always, when the time is right. I suppose now is the right time for the brand to soar a little higher with the help of the printing media and more exposure in popular sites in the Internetland.

Choosing the right media to advertise in order to reach our intended audience should be a calculated risk. Hence, throughout 2012, do check out FingerTec advertisements in A&S International Edition, Detektor, Safe and Secure (India), Building and Investment (Malaysia), Malaysiakini.com and Facebook.

Spread the news around and in the meantime, we call for your efforts to advertise FingerTec in your specific territory. If you need any assistance from us or you have some suggestions for improvement, kindly email to info@fingertec.com for a discussion. 

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Great Support Is What Great Support Does

Last night I watched a very hilarious episode of 30 Rock, where Queen Latifah assumed the role of Congressman Bookman who is finding her way to fail the merger between Kabletown and NBC. Using a politician’s style of speech, she spoke with a lot of passion and energy; she made everybody listen to her and not the details of her speech. The dialogue went like this, “I don’t know where I’m going with this! But if I continue talking like this, everybody will pay attention and they will clap their hands when I’m finished talking!!” And lo and behold, everybody ended up applauding her for the so-called speech. I ROTFL; so to speak. That scene also depicted the term lip service quite obviously.

In business, many advertisements and marketing efforts are not as what they seemed. A gigantic burger could turn out to be just a normal burger. A mouthwatering pizza with extra cheese could turn out to be a hard pizza with a thin layer of cheese. Not only do many companies boast unrealistically about their products, many also highlight great after-sales service and excellent technical support to close business deals. But when push comes to shove, do they actually experience the greatness and excellence that were promised? It’s very crucial to note that the inefficiency of lip service does not only apply in politics; lip service does not work in business as well. Delivery of the promises, on the other hand, does.

Apart from strengthening the company’s support systems, monitoring of the delivery of support must be second to none. Currently, we are using the world's renowned CRM, Salesforce, which means no emails or technical enquiries could be left unattended. All enquiries must be replied within our specified time. Now, how do you monitor yours?

At the end of the day, great support is what great support does. And only your satisfied clients can verify this testimonial. You can scream with a microphone from the top of a mountain that your company has great support, but if you fail to deliver your promises to your clients, business is not going to prosper in a long run.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Support is Marketing? Yes, apparently!

I met someone long ago who told me that a good marketer could sell a useless dirty rock for a price, for the art of selling is in its convincing. He stressed that the ability to convince a client to want a product he doesn't really need is a highly sought-after trait in a marketer. I could partly concur with his opinion but marketing these days need more than just the convincing part in order to retain customers in a long run. The question is always, how to capture customer’s attention, to get them to buy your products, to make them coming back for more and to make them be with you through good and bad times.

It sounds a tad romantic isn't it? But that’s the real challenge in marketing these days. A lot of times, marketing also involves customer relationship management whether you prefer it or not. FingerTec is least interested in hit and run Alibaba's style of business, we prefer our relationships with our customers to be a long lasting one.

Through the years, I’ve experienced different marketing approaches from different countries and they are variety. I am in no position to judge who is right and who is wrong because when faced with different demographic group and foreign business cultures, my wrong could be other people’s right. Nonetheless, they are some common ingredients to a succesful and long lasting relationship with existing customers and the new ones. Apart from promoting the excellent specs of your products, what else do you pitch to your clients to get them to choose your brand and your company?

In my opinion, excellent customer support is always a winner! While customer is king, in a business like FingerTec, customer support is Queen. Customer support is vital that the absence of it could make your company absent from the market. Many companies I met talked about customer support but when customers send them problems, they view problems as burdens. We receive problems in bulk everyday and while not all were solved immediately, we always let you know that we are attending to your problem(s), and the remedy would come sooner or later. Customers must be comforted in the fact that when they buy something, someone from the supplier would know the answer when they are stuck with a problem or two. Maybe you don't have sufficient staff or your staff is not proficient enough in the subject matter but that shouldn't be the excuse to play hide and seek with a client. Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what to do in difficult times.

Play it smart! Tap on what FingerTec has prepared for you. Get them to sign up to our resources, get them to use our user website, guide them to where they could find information. This education could be done in the early stage of marketing. FingerTec has just introduced some feature badges, which you could place on your website to direct your clients to find information they need about FingerTec. Pick and choose the badges you want and place them strategically on your company's website. I'm not saying that you should be ignoring your clients and direct them to inhumane interaction, but you must make them feel that you care about them, wanting to take care of their problems. Explore what FingerTec has prepared to better your support. For example, last onth we introduced the toolbox for technician to bring along during site visits; you don't need to source the toolbox from us but use the information to improve your support. When customers feel taken care of, changing supplier would be the last thing in mind.

I am a firm believer that customer support is the determining factor in marketing. Ignoring this aspect in business could spell disaster in capital letters. Your sales could be good this month but there is always next month and when clients know the good reputation of your customer support, the repeat orders are not hard to come by.

Drop by at FingerTec tips website and user website to learn how you could use our readily available information for your company. We don't charge you any cent, take advantage please!

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ