'Educated Change' to build brands

Kevin Bryant (@kbrantuk), of Educated Change, stepped in last night for a sick colleague to speak at a Chartered Management Institute professional networking event.His theme was how organisations can use social media tools to enhance brand value.  His organisation focuses on helping organisations make the changes that help them maximise social tools.  The tools are a part of a move away from 'command and control' to 'collaboration and conversation' and some organisations may find the changes more painful than others!  But Kevin showed that even firms that might be considered 'traditional and hierarchical', for example, law firms, are using such tools as Twitter extremely effectively.  The tools can also help smaller organisations, 'punch well above their weight'.The key messages of the evening were:

• organisations should aim to get a balance between 'listening' and 'broadcasting'
• the ROI is difficult to measure and will be medium to long term rather than delivering immediate results
• a certain level of 'personal' engagement is required - not just one single corporate voice
• appropriate use of the tools us 'common sense' but organisations can, if needed, develop social media guidelines for staff