Taxation in Twitter?

From the Finnish perspective it looks awesome: behind the Atlantic they're already using social media to help people file their tax returns!

Okay, it's a tax consultancy business.. And sure, the taxation differs from what we have here in Finland. Plus, we Finns in Twitter are so few..

A question to you: do you remember seeing another article, say in six months, about this agency and its thoughts on social media? I really hate the constant search; browsing all the tags and link lists and bookmarks and coming out empty handed, all the same =(

Mashable wrote about a Twitter team of fourteen, ready to serve on this new channel. I guess here, in the middle of the snow, the first ones of us only start to stretch our boundaries towards the new media.

So it seems quite a wild thing to handle questions concerning taxation with only 140 marks. But let's take a look at the tweets:

Hi Mike. Which browser are you using? Site is up and humming along. Let me know how we can help. ^sg

Isn't that just the basic customer service on how to use our products? We could do that.

Tax councelling in Twitter?! Or any other public conversation? We're are being careful since the information in taxation and our customership are private. On the other hand, where the customers share topics in conversation there they seek for advice with each other. And if there is no one to know for sure, they're bound to find also some wrong answers. So wouldn't it be just great to make sure the advice given is correct?

The team is taking the service to new channels (to broaden its funnel) where new customers can be addressed and forwarded to the real answer, longer than just the famous 140 marks.

Where's my refund? Good question. Here's an answer: http://bit.ly/dr5wbB ^C

This is multi-channel at its best, Twitter, a blog and a community site.

Mashable was also pondering whether the team will have enough resources once the rush heats up as the April 15th draws near. All the best to you, Twitter Team!

By that time we are only starting our business here in Finland. The pre-filled tax returns start arriving in mail after which you're supposed to check and correct the income and the deductions. This year you can file rental income in the web. Stay tuned.

Passion will spread your wings

Welcome to my blog in English. Thanks Nathan for your support!

My first post is loosely based on my previous post(F). I am a co-writer in a team blog Lupa palvella(F).

The name translates nicely to License to Serve! The team is spectacular: we share the passion for our work and our customers. Or should I say, for our customers and, hence, our work.

Ken Auletta picked up 10 things Google can taught us.

Passion wins

Focus is required

Vision is required, too

A team culture is vital etc.

If more officers could let their thoughts be broadened like this, who knows how marvellous it would get to go to a government office. There are no limits to good service, if you start with thinking about your customer.

Change calls for new thinking, new leadership

YLE(F) and the Police(F) have been the first public sector offices to enter and engage the areas of the social media. YLE, our national broadcasting company, is sharing content in new ways and challenging the audince to co-creation. The Police seems to have started by meeting with its primary audience - and is doing a great job, I might add! In a country of 5 million, Facebook community of 1.5 million the Police has reached a fan club of over 36 000 fans.

Leadership is under constant change. The world is so complicated and there is so much information that .. we need motivation and to free our natural creativity. - Mikael Jungner, CEO, YLE.

Passion for customer to lead the business

Steve Denning is about to publish an interesting book, Radical Management. In my public sector perspective, (For full picture, please read Steve's original seven principles) there are four wonderful steps to success:

Client delight, which demands

Continuous innovation, which can be brought up in

High-performance teams, increasing well-being; resulting

Higher productivity, thanks to clients and teams

Vision and courage to management

Vision and courage will lead the way to new ways to find and offer help to the customers in need.

A team that is allowed to use its own passion will inevitably exceed the expectations set upon it. - Mikael Jungner

I recently wrote about the concept of shopping malls: Instead of all the government agencies building up their own sites (and silos), how about going out there, where the customers get together?

Virtually they are there having conversations about different topics of their interests and needs. And the officials? We should be there, too. Not controlling or supervising but listening and offering the advice when and where needed.

Learning new ways to address the customer needs, organize our services and offer customer value in new ways.