My current work
I work in LocalTapiola. LocalTapiola is one of the biggest insurance companies in Finland. I am sales manager. Sales manager is a supervisor of the sales team. My team consists of twelve salespersons. I am a supervisor, and I can say that my main work is to make selling possible from my role. My team main job is to get new clients for LocalTapiola. My team members target clients are households and small enterprises. In my current working role I help my team to sell as much as it is possible. I lead and coach my team and team members to sell. I am responsible for our team selling results. I develop my team work and sales process. I have also recruited new team members and introcuced them to the job. Collaboration within my team and my company is very important. I think that I can say that my work is quite diverse.
My work is quite digital today. Me and my team communicates via mobile phone and teams software. In teams we use chat comversations, calls and video calls for communication. We have also meeting once a week and it is organized on teams-meeting. In teams we have chat for our team and almost whole communication is organized in teams. We also communicate in outlook by email and use outlook calender to plan our work and schedules. In my current job Microsoft office programs are important tools and I do a lot of work by using Microsoft Office programs, for example PowerPoint and Excel. Our CRM is Microsoft Dynamics based. Insurance programs are computer programs and web browser based programs. I also use a lot of other computer programs too, for example I report coaching events in own computer program. We have sales management program, which I use in sales management. I can follow my team sales events in real time and analyze my team work. I can also take reports and develop our work with the help of sales management program. I have to say that allmost all of my work is made with the help of computer and different kind of digital programs. In my industry we all have to have good computer using skills and digitalization enhances computer skill’s requirements for workers.
LinkedIn is a community which users can expecially network professionally. It is a community where users can load their curriculum vitae, their hobbies and their interests. User can also get references, for example former employer can give references and also collegues can be referees. LinkedIn is not a straight site to looking for a job. Its’ expecially planned to broaden users network. Users can also get new job opportunities from LinkedIn. Employers can use LinkedIn in looking for a right and good employee for their service. LinkedIn is a very good place to show own expertise.
In my role as a sales team sales manager I can use LinkedIn to grow my network and to show my expertise in insurance industry and as a manager. We all need a wide network and network can help me in my work, for example if I have some problem in work or on my freetime. My network can also help me in difficult work situation which I have to solve as a manager. In a wide network is for sure person or persons, which can help me if I ask help. LinkedIn is a good way to show my expertise as a leader, in sales and in insurance industry. My expertise and reputation as a professional can help my team and my company in our work and business. In the future I can get good job opportunities from other LinkedIn users, if I am looking for a job and I have successfully shown my expertise. I am not a salesman, but my team members and I can get sales leads from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the best places for social selling. Social selling is good way to make out own expertise and collect sales leads. It is important to be active in social media expecially in LinkedIn, because most of us are active in social media and that is the reason why salesmen is good to be active in social media today. LinkedIn is so called professional social media.
We all have to plan our social media using as a part of social selling process. Planning and social selling in LinkedIn takes time. It is good to plan and organize social selling time to the working schedule. It takes time, but it is important to see that time as a working time and as a work. The worst side of social media and also social selling is huge amount of misinformation and if something goes wrong bad reputation can spread very quickly in social media. Social media could affect on reputation very fast.
Hangouts
Hangouts is instant message and video call program. It works on internet and it is also available as an application. User can use emoticons, pictures and gif-animations while instant messaging. Also group messages and conversations are possible in hangouts. From 2 to 10 partisipants can talk in video calls. Video calls can be streamed straight on Youtube.
For me it is possible to use hangouts as whole team or couple of participants video calls. For example I can coach my team or develop our work with conversation and video calls. Maybe it is possible to use Hangouts as a weekly team meeting place which is organized once a week. It is also possible to use Hangouts for one to one coaching or/and group coaching place. We can create a team group and use Hangouts to problems solving. Before I can start using Hangouts, I have to teach Hangouts program to my team. It takes time, but I think that benefits are a lot more bigger than the waste of time.
Issuu
Issuu is a program which converts PDFs into digital publications. Publications can be shared via links or embedded into websites. It is possible to edit publications by customizing the design, using templates, or adding links and multimedia to the pages of their documents. It is also possible to measure and monetization of the content.
For me Issuu is possible a good tool to make me and my team weekly meeting documents to a intresting and good looking form. Me and my team can use Issuu to convert our quotes to the digital and intresting form for our customers. I think that every company can take an advance of Issuu on marketing. Issuu is a good tool if I and my team can use it. I think that it takes time to adapt Issuu, but advantages are bigger than the waste of time.
Mural
Mural is an application or software which makes possible to work together in real-time or asyncronously with a digital whiteboard. Its’ collaboration features is designed to inspire better collaboration that possible leads to business-driving outcomes. The Mural application makes me and my team connected and it enables me to capture and share inspiration.
With Mural it is possible to bring me and my team best ideas to life wherever we work best. Mural makes me possible to invite my team to inspiring collaboration session and it does not matter where my team members are. It is possible to review contact and provide feedback and to keep work moving forward. The Mural application makes innovation and innovative thinking possible for me and my team. I think that I can use the mural application to advance my team collaboration and innovative work. The Mural is good tool for developing.
Youtube
Youtube is online video sharing and social media platform. Most of the content is generated by individuals and corporations. Youtube makes it easy to watch online videos. User can create and upload own videos and to share with others. Users can comment videos and discuss together. New Youtube feature is Youtube Shorts which are short vertical videos created using a smartphone and uploaded directly to Youtube from the Youtube app, like stories.
I can use Youtube to brand building and coaching place. Me and my team can create videos and try to polish our company brand by intresting videos and try to get people watch and comment our videos. We could have own video channel. It is also possible to teach clients and other people, if we create and upload “teaching” videos on Youtube.
Positive and negative side of social media
Social media brings us together. It is very easy to be connected with each other via social media. Social media makes it easy to find groups of like-minded people and also make new friends. In social media all people can use social media to develop a platform with a larger audience. It is easy to show empathy by supporting and encouraging others through messages and comments in social media. Social media can be used to offering support. News can spread like wildfire on social media. While this can be overwhelming at times, it can also keep us in tune with important events. We can use social media to build an interested audience, for example if we share valuable content and establish a brand voice that resonates with your target consumers. We can share helpful content and advertise to send people straight to your website in social media. Social media can also help businesses to improve the customer journey. Answer questions quickly and reply to comments is the way, how your followers feel valued. Social media is a great place for businesses to advertise their services, software, and programs.
I think that many studies have found a link between heavy social media using and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harn, and suicidal thinking. I think that social media reduces face to face contacts and interaction. Social media can increase the risk that relationships are more likely to fail. Social media is the easiest way to stunt, or even kill, the creativity. Heavy social media using is associated with poor sleeping. I think that social media collects a lot of personal data from us and it is important to keep in mind. We have to be careful for our privacy. It is also easy to spread misinformation in social media.
It is important to plan social media using. Expecially in business planning is extremely important. Planning is a key for a good results. It is possible to get a lot of good attention from social media. If we want good results for our business from social media, it is important to have a good ability to use social media. It is also important to keep in mind that social media consists of a lot of misinformation.
Self evaluation
It was really intresting to read and test different social media platforms during this course. Some of these applications were familiar to me before this course and also some applications/tools were totally new for me. I noticed that there is a lot of choices and it depends on situation which is good to use. Most of these programs/platforms makes work-from-home possible and maintarget is to make collaboration better. I also noticed that I have to learn all the time and it makes me possible to take all the advance from social media in my work. For all of us it is important to learn to use these programs/platforms well before we use them. We all must also plan these platforms using well. I learned that social media has a lot of good properties, but it also have negative side. I still think, if we use it right way, social media have more positive things than negative. Knowledge helps us and me to stay on that positive side.
References
Digital Publishing Platform & Content Publishing Solutions | Issuu
MURAL is a collaborative intelligence company | MURAL
A-Study-on-Positive-and-Negative-Effects-of-Social-Media-on-Society.pdf (researchgate.net)