Posted in Corporate Strategy, Social Media Community, Social Strategy, small business, social media, social media marketing, social networking

2 comments

14/09 2009

Creating A Strategic Communication Plan

Today’s guest about is by Manunya Nookong. I met Manunya through the social networking site, Smaller Indiana. I had an excellent conversation with her about strategic planning and I asked her to write a guest post.

When people hear the term “strategic planning,” they think of something rather complicated, intimidating or time-consuming, and it makes them lose interest. I am a big fan of strategic planning. I use it because it really works and is highly effective, I just want to see if there’s a way to make people think that it is not that hard to do. All it needs are strong attention to details and determination to improve business.

Of course, strategic planning takes time, but think of what a business can gain after it’s done: a new way to do things around the organization that helps employees to perform better. The result of their planning effort is invaluable. Employees will learn more about their business environment and what impact the business’ productivity.

A strategic plan brings business a clear direction and strong sense of purpose. Employees get to be creatively and effectively involved. They will learn what they need to do, how exactly they can contribute, and when their tasks need to be done. At the end of each strategic plan, employees will be able to see and evaluate the result of their effort.

Now, what is strategic planning? Strategic planning is a management process that includes direction and a series of steps that helps a business do things to achieve their goals.

A strategic planning model can be broken down into four different phases.

Research and Analysis

-Analyze business situation: Understand what goes on in the situation. Find out what the issue is.

-Analyze organization: Find out where the issue started, internally or externally, and who is responsible for it.

-Analyze key audiences: Key audiences are people who closely interact with the business’ issue. Find out who they are, define them in the plan and see what they want or expect according to the issue, what their relationship with the organization is, and what their communication involvement with media and society look like.

Strategy

-Establish business goals and objectives and a position of the organization (or its products or services): Develop realistic, specific and measurable objectives that identify business’ expectations. For example, in company A, its use of corporate blogs increases the number of visitors 25% during the first two quarter of 2009. An objective can be to increase (change in behavior) Web visitors (audience) 15% (level of change) through the use of corporate blogs by the end of 2009 (timeline).

-Create action and response strategies: Create action plans and direction for the organization activity and key messages.

-Use effective communication: Find key points about the organization and communicate those through new key messages.

Tactics

-Choose communication tactics: Consider all communication channels (face-to-face, internal media, advertising media, news media, etc.) and find the most appropriate channel to use with each key audience for the organization’s current issue

-Implement strategic plan: Develop time-line and budget to implement the strategic plan.

Evaluation

-Evaluate strategic plan: Assess whether business objectives have been met, and see if they need to be modified/revised, or can continue with the current plan and activities. Measure the effectiveness of each chosen tactic according to the business objectives.

These nine steps will help strategic planners and employees become more organized in their planning and execution. A strategic plan does not have to be complicated. Start with a simple one and get familiar with the idea. Before long, it will become second nature. Employees will start to think and work strategically and they will certainly see improvement in their organization.

Strategy, Tactics and Hope (ericbrown.com)
Get Your IT Project Fast-Tracked (blogs.harvardbusiness.org)
How to Create a Leadership Development Strategy (myventurepad.com)
Social network marketing for real (myventurepad.com)

Posted in Advertising, Corporate Strategy, Social Media Community, Social Strategy, corporate blogging, social media, social media marketing

7 comments

11/09 2009

Why Kodak Thinks You Should Use Social Media

Kodak has been doing some interesting things in social media over the past couple of years. Leave it up to the photo giant to release a Kodak_SocialMediaTips_Aug14 describing their experience using the tools. There is some extremely valuable insight from the Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Hayzlett. I thought I would lay out some of the key points he made in his introduction letter at the beginning of the report.

“Why do I take the time to use social media like Twitter and Facebook? Because in today’s media landscape, it’s vitally important to be where our customers are. Kodak has always embraced this marketing philosophy, and today that means being active in social media.”

This is a huge step for corporations to make when using social media as a tool for communication. It is encouraging to see a c-level executive using and relating to the tools within the social media world.

“Social media has enabled new ways to initiate conversations, respond to feedback and maintain an active dialogue with customers.”

“I strongly believe that if you get involved in social media, it will grow your brand, strengthen the connection between you and your customers and keep you grounded and aware of what people really think about your company. It’s well worth the time invested.”

Kodak is making pretty large strides into the world of online communication. The research report is pretty simple but powerful in the same way. For many social media users the information contained in this report may seem secondary knowledge… but for the majority of the CEOs, CMOs, and business owners in the world… it is a light shining through the darkness.

Well done Kodak… Well done.

Jeffery Hayzlett, Kodak’s CMO about Social Web and Marketing (pravdam.com)
6 Ways Social Media Can Help A Local Business (newmediachatter.com)
How Social is Your Email? (myventurepad.com)
Is It Just Me Or Is Twitter Not Ready For Prime Time Yet? (socialmediatoday.com)

Posted in Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Reputation Management, Social Media Community, innovation, productivity, relationship, small business, social media, social media marketing, social media mission, social networking, twitter

5 comments

10/09 2009

5 Ways to Track Your Competitors Using Social Media

My post on Tuesday talked about the growing trend of social media being used in order to gain more lead generation and marketing potential in businesses across the nation. You are going to need to be online. You are going to need to have a voice in this world of social communication.

Can we talk about another reason to be on social media? Are your competitors using it? This should be a deciding factor in whether or not you get involved. So where do you start? The first thing is to investigate.

1. Sign up for an account at Competitious.

Competitious is a cool tool that allows you to track, organize, and solidify data from your competition. Right now the beta is a free account… jump on over… sign up and try the tool. It also allows you to share and collaborate on different forms of data internally inside of your company.

2. Use the search tool SocialMention.

SocialMention is a keyword based search engine that aggregates different forms on content from across the web. You can search on microblogs, blogs, comments, events, and images (to name a few). Receive free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest on a celebrity.

3. Google Alerts never hurt anyone.

Google Alerts is an awesome tool that allows you to sign up for… you guessed it… email alerts when a keyword is used in any type of content on the web. I have setup keyword alerts for Indianapolis social media, social media, Kyle Lacy, Brandswag, Twitter Marketing, and corporate social media. Check out this tutorial on how to use Google Alerts.

4. Do some investi-ma-gative journalism.

This should probably be step number one but it seems pretty simple… go to their website. If they are using social media in the right way they should be listing the tools in which they use. Follow them… feed them.. watch them. You could learn a ton from the way they share information.

5. Use HubSpot to track down the competition.

Hubspot has plenty of tools that allow you to track and influence different levels of your competitors use of social media. They give you the ability to track conversations online and hook up with different influencers in your industry. This is a paid service but it can extremely beneficial to the long term success of winning over the competition.

Get out there and listen to the net!

Are there any tools you have used? I would love to hear more!

Business Promotion through Social Media (slideshare.net)
Is It Just Me Or Is Twitter Not Ready For Prime Time Yet? (socialmediatoday.com)
You are Crazy not to Measure the ROI of Social Media! (newcommbiz.com)
300 Things I’d Like To See From Twitter Before A TV Show (techcrunch.com)

Corporate Strategy, My Life, content, corporate blogging, innovation

1 comment

9/09 2009

Defining Change As An Individual

I found this amazing example of kinetic typography last night and it created an idea that is not new… but needs to be rehearsed and rewritten hundreds if not thousands of times. Do we fully understand the power we have as an individual? Do we fully understand the power we have as a community of individuals?

I am not speaking of change in a political sense but change in a single… solitary way… a change in individuality that has the power to spread across the many platforms of communication afforded to us.

Smaller Indiana is just one example in the many different platforms that allow your individuality to shine through… the many platforms the allow for ONE person to make a change that could empower thousands of people toward the same goal.

“In my observation it is you that creates the change by challenging your own individuality…creating that positive atmosphere for yourself and every person surrounded by your presence. And in the end it is all in simple action… whether it is conducting by individuals as a whole or just by one person.”

Because of the tools afforded to us by the Internet and technology… we have the ability to spread our own message to hundreds of thousands of people…

What is YOUR message? Are you challenging it?

You: What Gadgets Can’t You Live Without? (everyjoe.com)
WordsMoveMe.com – Connecting Through Literature (killerstartups.com)

Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Social Media Expert, innovation, social media, social media marketing

6 comments

8/09 2009

When Should Business Engage in Social Media

The marketing and technology world is on fire with this new form of communication: social media. And yes… I did mean to say new. Many in the corporate and small business world have yet to set foot into this new communication platform. This is hard for many social media advocates to grasp. How could the business world not be ENTIRELY tuned in to the growing social avalanche that is happening in their front yard?

In truth… social media is not really in their front yard at all… more like an alley down the street… waiting to be swept up by an avalanche of customer opinion and buying patterns. We are talking about a flood gate collecting a force that will… soon… explode.

We are still in the infancy of social media adoption across a wide spread of the globe.

This is in no way degrading the idea that the tools of social media will not be a main form of communication in the years to come… we are just not there yet.

We (the business world) are going to see a significant change in how consumers buy and communicate with brands in the years to come. We will see a wide-spread use of social media tools in both the Internet and mobile environments.

So what should the business world do when debating the use of social media for communication and lead generation?

Take it from the words of Jay Baer at Convince and Convert:

“Social media is about fundamentally changing the dynamic between brands and their customers. From master and servant, to peer to peer.”

Now is the time to educate on how to effectively use the tools. Do not listen to a social media expert when they tell you that you MUST be using the tools. You must be educating on how to best use the tools and how they are applicable to your growth as a company. PERIOD.

Yes… there will come a time when the Internet will unleash the flood gates of 60 even 70 percent of the globe… one unified community of customers, products, services, and brands…

The question is… will you be ready when your front yard is flooded… or not?

Are We Really Just “Students”? (altitudebranding.com)
When Good Gets In the Way Of the Best (kylelacy.com)
The Launch of Tech in Twenty Broadcast (dailyslackr.com)
Joining Not Very Famous Social Networks And Communities Can Bring … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

Corporate Strategy, Marketing, baby boomer, blogging, selling

10 comments

2/09 2009

Social Media Selling to the New CEO

It is going to happen.

The Baby Boomer generation is going to slowly trickle out of the top spots in companies all over the world and Generation X is going to take thier place. How are you positioning your company to sell to the next CEO?

There are individuals who have different ideas on how to market directly to leaders of companies. There are direct mail campaigns, email marketing, event marketing, and offline networking. However, the world is slowly changing.. let me rephrase that.. the world is fast approaching a digital community of business owners and entreprenuers who are creating content and communicating on a level that was never possible… until now.

LinkedIN is posting 5% growth in July. Facebook is growing at an exponential rate among men 26-34. Even Plaxo and Twitter are making strides into the world of B2B selling. Are you supporting your company to market to the next generation of CEOs?

The next generation of CEOs are going to connect on an entirely different level than their predecessors. Email and newsletters are going to be a thing of the past and the new social economy will welcome them with open arms.

We have a global community of people presenting ideas and content on a daily basis to help run businesses at a smoother, more profitable rate. Why are you not involved in this process? Is valuable content such a scary proposition?

Share your ideas on a blog. Start a LinkedIN group for young professionals. Invest in the 25-38 year old demographic (both male/female) and watch the leads start to generate as they take positions of power in the company.

Social Networking Watch: A Map Of Social (Network) Dominance (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
Balancing Perception and Reality in Social Media (kylelacy.com)
Who Are You Targeting on Social Media? (kylelacy.com)
Are We Really Just “Students”? (altitudebranding.com)

My Life, social media, social media marketing, social media mission, social networking, twitter

8 comments

1/09 2009

My Top 10 Twitter Business Applications

1. TwitterHawk

TwitterHawk is a real time targeted marketing engine that allows you to search Twitter on a chosen topic (or keyword) and will either auto-reply to that person or generate a list of matches for you to respond or reject. The point of this application is to hit the conversation while it is happening and they follow up. Make sure you are being sincere when using the tool. DO NOT SPAM.

You also have the ability to link track with an average cost of around .02 cents. The people over at Twitterhawk are feeling blessed and are offing 10 free tweets for signing up.

2. CoTweet

CoTweet is a web application that allows you to manage up to six Twitter accounts through a single CoTweet login. This is a great tool for businesses with more than a couple of employees using Twitter at one time. You have the ability to monitor keywords and different trending topics on Twitter. You can assign Tweets and on duty notifications for your employees! It is an awesome tool. I would recommend this for any business owner.

3. TwitterFox

TwitterFox is a Firefox (the Web browser) extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets on Twitter. The Firefox extension adds a tiny icon on to the Firefox status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets. It also has a cool small text input to that you can use to update your tweets from your browser. This may be overkill for some of us that use Twitterific or TweetdDeck, but it is a cool tool to use. You may think it’s perfect if you love Firefox and Web browsing!

4. TweetDeck

There is no better tool out there for managing and organizing your Twitterati than TweetDeck. Imagine a tool that you can use directly from your desktop that manages followers, friends, replies, direct messages, groups, and anything you could possibly imagine. Tweetdeck gives you the ability to create groups that could cater to any type of subject. If you want to pull a feed from Twitter that has to do with Barney and childhood stories it is completely possible to do.

Tweetdeck can also be downloaded on your iPhone and used when you are away from your desktop. The program is easy to use and easy to manage. Built off the Adobe Air platform, it is your social dashboard for Twitter. And in respect to that little tool called the iPhone, there is a feed for that.

5. Hootsuite

Where Tweetdeck gives you the ability to organize and manage followers, Hootsuite is just as powerful when it comes to the world of Twitter productivity. Hootsuite gives you the ability manage multiple Twitter accounts, add multiple editors of the same account, pre-schedule your Tweets, and measure traffic. If you are looking for a tool to help you stay productive throughout your day and not be held hostage by the time suck police, Hootsuite is where it is at!

You have the ability to view clicks and where the click originated based on region of the world. You also have the ability to view your more popular Tweets as well as how many clicks you have received over a given time.

6. Twitterific

Twitterific can be likened to Tweetdeck but is designed more for use on the MAC desktop. Twitterific has an excellent user interface and is small enough not to be annoying. It gives you the same type of abilities as Tweetdeck but offers more keyboard shortcuts for the MAC user. The application is designed to let you view as much or as little information as you prefer when using on your desktop. Twitterific is also available for download on the iPhone as an application.

7. Twhirl

Twhirl is a social desktop software designed by the people who brought you Seesmic the video conversation website. The Twhirl application is still built in the same realm as Twitterific, Tweetdeck, and Hootsuite. It also has the ability to be run on both Windows and MAC platforms. If you are familiar with sites like Friendfeed and Seesmic this may be the tool for you. Twhirl gives you the ability to connect to multiple Twitter, Iaconi.ca, Friendfeed and Seesmic accounts.

You can let Twhirl run in the background while working and it will give you random pop-ups that display new messages. There are a couple of other cool features worth mentioning for this productivity chapter. You can cross-post messages to multiple profiles on other social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. You an also record a video and share it on the video social network, Seesmic.

8. NearbyTweets

This is a tool for those of us who would enjoy connecting to individuals in our general location. NearyTweets is a website that allows you to search based on geography in order to build customer relationships and monitoring in real time.

NearbyTweets is still fairly new but they will have some awesome tools coming up in the future including premium business tools, ability to show nearby business on Twitter, and a page for setting your default location.

9. TwitterGrader

Hubspot, the people that brought you Website Grader, realized that there was a need to track and rank users based on a certain criteria on Twitter. TwitterGrader was the answer to that question. The site allows you to track and measure your (and others) relative Twitter power. The calculation is based on a combination of different states including your number of followers, the power of your followers, number of updates, clicks, retweets, and completeness of your profile.

10. Twilert

Twilert is the tool for the paranoid in all of us. Twilert gives you the ability to receive regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service or any word you could possibly want, really any word. The service is extremely easy to setup and you will be able to stay on top of the conversation surrounding your specific keyword.

You can also use the service at search.twitter.com but Twilert gives you a more consistent feed from the world of the Twitter.

19 Twitter Desktop Apps Compared (mashable.com)
Are Social Network Aggregators The New Cheese? (techcrunch.com)
The Real-Time Web: A Primer, Part 1 (readwriteweb.com)
63 Twitter Tools and One Word of Advice (conversationagent.com)
IBM Debuts New Social Network for Business Partners to Discover … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

My Life

0 comments

31/08 2009

An Inspiring Story for Monday

There are times when you come across stories that are profoundly inspiring. There are acts of extreme human resolve that can keep you pushing ahead with the things that need to be done. Ben McDonald is a friend from Anderson University that plays, writes, and performs with the band Sidewalk Prophets. I had the pleasure of knowing Ben in college and he has undertaken and extreme makeover that has left me feeling… well a little overwhelmed… in a good way.

In order to gain the full perspective I decided to embed this slideshow in order for you to view the overwhelming change Ben has gone through over the course of a year.

It is hard not be inspired by stories like this. He has made it through his 290-some workout and is pushing ahead to become a healthier individual. Do you feel inspired to finish something you started? I know I do. How are you going to use stories like Ben to enrich your life and help you along the path to success or greatness? It takes dedication and hard work to realize the kind of potential that you are capable of in life.

What are you going to do to make this week the start to something great?

Gen y, baby boomer, innovation

4 comments

26/08 2009

Baby Boomer’s Should Listen to Gen Y in Tech

We (Brandswag) have regular conversations with the good folks over at the Taylor MBA program. They are a great school and are always in tune and up-to-date with changes in communication technology. Taylor MBA’s head honcho, Larry Rottmeyer, forwarded me an article from the Havard Business Review names Let Gen Y Teach Teach. The article is about older generations finding a younger mentor.

This is a new concept to me. In pre and post college years you are told constantly to find older mentors who have the ability to guide you through the difficult parts of life and business. I am a huge advocate of the younger generations finding mentors. I would not be where I am today without the guidance of some key people in my life. That point… is for certain.

Time Warner has decided to take the lead on a reverse mentoring program which gives younger individuals the chance to mentor the older generation.

I find it fascinating that this conversation is taking place among the business and technology elite around the globe. There should always be a give and take relationship when it comes to a mentoring position… both young and old. This gives the younger generation (my generation) the ability to show their skills in things that may be deemed as unnecessary to some…in the older generations.

The fact is… technology is going to change the face of how we do business… it happens in every generation. It is comforting to know some are taking a valiant leap towards learning more about the world of communication technology.

Reflections on Leadership (myventurepad.com)
Made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die (jnd.org)
Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits (tech.slashdot.org)
MBAs & Graduate Degrees: Not Always Worth It (punkrockhr.com)

Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Micro-Blogging, blogging, corporate blogging, microblogging

4 comments

25/08 2009

Search & Authenticity Are Key to Corporate Blogging

I was skimming through Chris Brogan’s posts and happened across a post called: A Counterpoint to the Branding Craze. This caught my attention because I am a huge advocate for branding, both personal and professional.

I have tried to use my blog to create a brand identity for myself and my company and it has been successful in more ways than one. In his post Chris talks about the concept of search being involved in the corporate strategy of most companies:

One of the reasons that I advocate content marketing, such as writing a compelling group blog, is that it’s an opportunity to build search equity. Writing about things that people might search for is a great way to find some new people at your door who might want a look at your product.

Content marketing should be in the corporate strategy plans of every business in America. There are a couple of reasons why I am strongly urge clients and businesses to dive into the realm of content marketing:

1. The Search

By blogging and writing about things that “people may search for,” you are creating a website (blog) that will hit the search engines with enthusiasm. When you have a site where content is changing regularly and you are writing about issues/services that people find important, you will find an increase in visitors to your site. And with an increase in visitors comes… more lead generation for your company and service offering.

2. Authenticity and Personality

Consumers today want communication authenticity and personality behind a company. If you are a stoned face corporation sitting in a corporate park somewhere and are NOT listening to your customers needs and wants: YOU WILL FAIL. By blogging and creating an area for dialouge you are telling your customers: I trust you. I want to hear what you have to say. This goes for both big business and small business.

3. Brand Identity and Value

People want to connect with brands on a level that has become as personal as a relationships between two people. A blog/content marketing allows you to start the romantic courtship of a consumer. This courtship can turn into a seasoned consumer that will spread your good message across the valleys and streams. Maybe even through their email.

There are a multitude of reasons to start a blog and create a space where content marketing is king. Read more of Chris Brogan’s posts if you get the chance. He is a genius at laying out what it takes to create great, authentic content.