Hewlett Packard fails in Social Media

It is always interesting working in social media how cases sometimes just fall into your lap. I have made it a policy with my own work to try to focus on the positive side of things. The positive side of this is that I get an active case study to use with my clients of what NOT to do. To start with, we must remember the range of what social media entails, we are not talking just Facebook here. Communities and dialogs of all sorts, blogs, microblogs, social network sites, intranets, are only effective if we partake in the dialog with which they are designed for. When we invite dialog, we must take part in listening and responding, not just setting up a forum.

We have all had moments of frustration that involve the hardware and drivers of various gadgets and connections. This time, it was my HP printer, yet again. When it works, I love it. Unfortunately, more often than not, it doesn't agree with me. I think I have removed and re-installed the printer drivers and software more times that I care to name. This time it was the printer cartridges, which is clearly where they make their money. After the printer demanded, yet again, to replace the ink cartridge that I recently replaced. Despite replacing it yet again, it continued to refuse printing for lack of yellow. The natural solution was go to the HP support site. To my grave disappointment I discovered a years worth of similar customer complaints over eight pages, without one single response from a HP support representative. The solution presented, by several of the customers, never buy another HP product and switch to Canon. Very sad indeed. This is exactly what NOT to do when your company decides to enter the dialog, be-it a forum, or other forms of social media.

Out of curiosity, I checked their Facebook presence. Many official sites, not so much activity and all employees (ie. no trust). I must say that I am not surprised given the start. So I shall tweet and maybe if I am feeling adequately irritated, I will start a Facebook fan page for fans of "HP doesn't listen". I could even invite all the poor victims of the support forum that had the same complain, after all united voices have greater impact.

I have now replaced my printer with a Canon, as I need to continue working, and the printing job cannot wait. My HP printer at home has been acting up too, so we shall see how long it takes to get to "adequately irritated" even for a patient person like myself. I am just one of many. Shall we practice a ferocious roar for disturbing our workflow, wasting our time and our money.

Storytelling for Impact and Resonance

We are writing our own stories everyday, whether we take pen to paper, fingers to keyboard or tell it to a friend/ colleague. These are the stories that are woven into those of others. From individual letters to condensed newsletters, we evolved to the email and online newsletters. Creating websites and blogs and connecting through online communities spreads our stories to further corners of the globe. But, have the stories gotten lost? Do we remember to share how they impact our lives or others, rather than just the latest sales pitch or annual reports, what we ate for breakfast or what we are reading.

In pulling together the cases for my book, I am more determined than ever to tell the story from the impact perspective. How does social media effect our lives and our businesses. I am one individual with many roles which affect how I am impacted by any story. I, the shareholder, the executive, the speaker, the teacher, the developer, the social entrepreneur, the writer, the mother, the wife, the sister want to write a book that I would enjoy reading, that will resonate. I interview the people behind the case studies and hear the experiences and misadventures with social media and social networks. These speak to me with far greater resonance than the case studies. After all, "social" is about people. So, I am changing my strategy in collecting content. I will interview and collect stories of impact. These stories need to be shared. They are real. They impact our lives, our communities, our businesses and our futures.

Has social media or your involvement in social networking had an impact on you, your business and/or your community. Please tell me your story. Let me interview you to share it with others.