October 2010 – Page 6 – Management Library

October 12, 2010February 21, 2023

Back to Basics – Small Business MUST Adopt Social Media Marketing – Part 2 of 2

Man holding a note while noting down social media

Integrate Social Media Marketing – Brand Advocates

When companies engage their audience and develop online relationships in social media marketing with real authenticity and trust, they have an exciting opportunity to make those individuals volunteer advocates of their brand!

Business has never had a bigger vehicle for positive word-of-mouth advertising. Fun campaigns can go ‘viral’ and trigger momentum like never before. This takes some strategic planning by management, and some genuine understanding of social networks. It’s a new culture that MUST be embraced by the entire organization, from the top down.

7 Steps to Start Strategizing – Target and Engage Your Online Audience

Gather together a company team to strategize social media marketing. Include a cross-section of top management, sales, marketing, customer service, and a knowledgeable social media marketing individual (bring in a consultant if you don’t have this expertise on staff.)
Convene this group for a minimum of four hours. Bring the current marketing plan. Ask everyone, “Does our (product or service) delivery match our marketing message?” If not, STOP. You must solve these problems before you can mount a successful social media marketing strategy/plan/campaign.
Discuss and decide on your marketing and advertising goals. Do your current marketing and advertising efforts achieve them? If so, challenge the team to set higher goals, and brainstorm ways that social media marketing can be implemented.
Identify online communities where your ideal customer congregates or searches. For example, if you are a local business, Google: “(your city) directories” to find local directories in which you should be listed.
Make sure that you have searched and settled on specific keywords and keyword phrases that you use consistently in all of your online content.
Establish 2-6 online “properties” (all optimized for your keywords) such as; at least one website, blog, social network site, and directory. The more places you exist online, the greater your chances of being found!
Brainstorm online campaigns that help you achieve your goals. Remember, social media is effective ONLY if you have an end in mind. Otherwise, it’s fun, but can be a waste of time and precious resources.

Hundreds of creative possibilities exist, depending on your time, budget and goals. Have fun with this!

What social media marketing goals work for your company?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available in bookstores and online in January 2011. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

October 12, 2010March 28, 2023

Trust in your team – how important is it?

At the Fresh Tracks office we recently got together as a team look at the issue of trust. It made me realise how much we take trust for granted when it’s there, and how much extra work a lack of trust can create.

Can a successful team function without it?

Although our session included event managers, admin staff and senior managers, it was fairly informal and allowed participants to look at their own views on trust – how and why trust is important at work and at home; what does trust mean to the individual and to the team; what would happen if there was little or no trust in colleagues.

In our team, it soon became apparent that there is quite a huge amount of trust; everyone seemed to take it for granted that they would be trusted and that they would in turn trust their colleagues. For us that makes for an easy and friendly work environment, part of the reason we choose to work here at Fresh Tracks. But it also made me realise that trust is ultimately at the heart of this office culture. Continue reading “Trust in your team – how important is it?”

October 12, 2010February 17, 2023

Corporation Solicitation Programs – Part 3 of 3: The Process

person-making-a-checklist-for-a-research

Keeping in mind that only about 5% of all non-governmental giving to nonprofits comes from corporations, you’ll want to use your time and resources cost-effectively. That means not trying to get funding from every corporation that comes to mind. So, first, make a (wish) list of all those corporations, and then gather the material you need to begin your research.

Some Corporate Annual Reports list the amount(s) they’ve given to nonprofit organizations, and often list those NPOs. Check to see if they give to organizations that do what you do. Look to see if there’s a statement of policy as to the types/locations of NPOs they support. Some corps give only to NPOs that their employees support – check that out. Go to your public library or a branch of the foundation library and check the reports of corporate giving.

Check to see if the corporation has an office/department/division of charitable giving … or whatever they may call it. Call them, ask for a copy of the corporation’s giving guidelines. Talk with a corporate giving officer, if they have such, and (come right out and) ask what you have to do to get the corp to add you to their list of nonprofits they support. FYI, corporate giving officers are there to work with you to see if there’s a match – and sometimes work with you to create a match — between what you can do for them and what they can do for you.

Make a list of the officers and directors of the corporations and circulate that list to your board members, volunteers and major donors to see if anyone you know has a personal connection with a corporate board member or officer who can help you get corporate money.

That means that you must cultivate – build a relationship with – those corporate officers and directors … the same as you would with a prospective major donor.

See my recent three-part series on Asking for the Major Gift — the links to the three articles are at the right, under “Recent Blog Posts.”

Most corporations have been asked before. Don’t be bashful.

Sometimes the ask can be as simple as a conversation with the right person, and sometimes as formal as a grant proposal to a foundation. You’ll find out which when you do your research.

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Have a comment or a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program, your corporate solicitation program, major gifts fundraising program or a capital campaign? Email me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll be happy to answer your question.

October 11, 2010September 27, 2022

Got a Pick?

A professor in grad school used to take pride in humiliating students, presumably to teach the students how to handle tough questions they may be asked about their research. It was a brutal process to watch. Perhaps you work with bosses or co-workers who do this. We run into various sharp objects in our work and life. I recently ran across Rumi’s poem, The Pickaxe*. It provides a re-framing for sharp barbs or blows to our ego self.

Rumi speaks of demolishing the house of our false self to find the real jewels hidden below. Often to find our more authentic self, our Divine Essence, we must take out the floor boards that are warped, moldy, not serving us any longer. You may have recently found your foundation shattered or your sense of self-worth demolished. If you have recently lost your job, you may be in such a state, not sure how to pick up the pieces or where to rebuild your foundation.

I once knew a guy who lost his lucrative bank job in a merger and after some time landed another job with less pay and that was less interesting. He felt desperate so he took the job. After he was in his new job a couple years he noticed some shady accounting and brought it to the attention of the General Manager. Instead of getting support for finding the questionable accounting, he was terminated. Turns out a partner was embezzling and somehow managed to make it look like someone else was at fault.

At first the accountant was shaken pretty hard- down to his foundation. With a couple kids in high school, it was tough going, both for his ego and his personal finances. However, a few months later I talked to him and he said it was the best thing that could have happened to him. He realized how much he resented having to play bad cop. He took the opportunity to switch careers and follow his passion for business ethics. He found his jewel in a new career as professor helping students enter the business world with a solid grounding in ethics so they are prepared when faced with tough business situations.

How have you handled the pickaxes you’ve encountered? Have you taken the time to re-build your foundation or have you merely patched up the hole with plaster, not clearing out the rubble underneath?

Rumi reminds us that our house is only leased, we don’t own the deed. Look for the Owner, whose jewels lay waiting to sparkle, buried beneath your foundation, if only you will search for them. Tear open your house, board by board, and be sure you have a solid foundation to support your work.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

* The Pickaxe (from Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, pg 113-114)

October 11, 2010January 26, 2022

Organisation and projects:

There are many elements in the environment of a project, and ‘organisation’ is one of the most important. Organisational decisions can encompass wide-ranging aspects, such as partnerships, key supplier and sub-contracting relationships and responsibilities within a project – and that’s the key word: “responsibilities”.

Making responsibilities clear at the practical working level, perhaps phase by phase, is one of the most important tasks a project team will do. The converse is that if we don’t make responsibilities clear, the downstream impact of this will all too often be measured in cost, schedule and technical terms – sometimes this alone leads to substantial impacts on a project’s success and delivery goals.

So, if this is the case, why is it that so many project teams roll along without spending much effort or paying attention to this question – it seems such a fundamental thing to do, but corporate and individual behaviour does not always support this?

What do you think and what are your experiences on your projects?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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October 11, 2010February 21, 2022

Dangerous ideas made safe

Boards need to discuss horrible ideas: the idea that your product might no longer be relevant to your target market, the idea that your staff might prefer to work elsewhere, or that your technology might leave you unable to deliver goods and services. These are not issues that management like to talk about and, indeed, when we are being honest these issues scare directors as well as executives. But we do need to talk about them.

A recent failure in IT service left an airline unable to fly because it could not book passengers on to flights, work out where its planes were, or roster crews to work. The booking platform had been outsourced and the failure breached the service level provided under the outsourcing contract. Now journalists are reporting that the resulting damages may bankrupt the IT service company and the airline is struggling to reassure potential passengers that they can be relied upon; not an easy task when for several days the news headlines were about executives missing meetings, families unable to return from holidays and brides unable to attend their own weddings.

The key question of ‘what will happen if the technology fails’ had been asked and answered with assurances of back up sites, time limits on outages and other comforting facts. These assurances proved false. Did something stop the board from asking questions that might have revealed that the assurances were not deliverable under the arrangement as implemented?

Was it a lack of understanding of the importance of a booking system to an airline? I don’t think so.

Could it have been that the board were totally trusting of IT suppliers who had never before failed in any way? I doubt it.

Or was it that, having asked a good question and received a satisfactory answer, the board conversation quickly moved on? Could directors have been uncomfortable with pursuing the idea of what a total failure would mean?

Boards need to be places where uncomfortable conversations happen. A recent harassment case was followed by a spate of embarrassing remarks such as ‘we always knew he was a party guy’ or ‘everyone knew he liked the ladies’. Why did the board not consider the implications of these gems of knowledge? With hindsight it all seems so predictable. Why was it too hard to apply foresight?

Occasionally boards discuss issues that dramatically affect the future of the company. It is imperative that directors speak up and follow their trains of thought to the most uncomfortable destinations, as well as to the most likely, or most profitable ones. Questions such as ‘What is the worst thing that can go wrong’ should receive several considered answers, from the board, management or specialist advisers. Mitigation or avoidance strategies can only be designed if the underlying events have been deemed possible.

As directors we must tackle the dangerous ideas in a safe environment; before we ever encounter them in real life. We need to allow thoughts to wander to the darkest outcomes and to contemplate with serious intent exactly how much we are willing to risk on each strategic venture. The trouble is, we often find it hard to give voice to these thoughts for fear of being perceived as unhelpful, unsupportive, or biased against the proponent of each strategy.

Chairmen can help by encouraging their boards to spend more time on the potential downsides than they do on the potential upsides. Only when it is safe to discuss the unspeakable horror of adverse outcomes will it be possible to avoid them.

What do you think?

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Julie Garland-McLellan has been internationally acclaimed as a leading expert on board governance. See her website and LinkedIn profiles, and get her book Dilemmas, Dilemmas: Practical Case Studies for Company Directors.

October 9, 2010July 10, 2022

Back to Basics – Small Business MUST Adopt Social Media Marketing – Part 1 of 2

Simple Steps will Integrate Social Media into Your Traditional Marketing Plan

As a marketing and small business consultant (www.LisaChapman.com and social media consultant (www.iBrandMasters.com), I am continually astounded at how SLOW small business managers really are in understanding, budgeting, and integrating online marketing into their traditional marketing plans. Lots of lip service, very little action.

I realize that this is old news, but if this post motivates even a just handful of small businesses to actually START their trek into online marketing, I will be thrilled.

For those of you who have already started – congratulations, and please read this in the spirit of checking yourself. Have you covered the basics?

Why is Social Media Marketing Important?

Traditional marketing has changed and will never be the same.

Technology allows consumers to mute or skip TV commercials – and they do.
Newspaper and all print circulation is dying. Ads do not get our attention.
One-way “push” messaging is now viewed as offensive and hype-ish. Bad for the brand.
Consumers are overwhelmingly ‘over-messaged’. We are all OVERLOADED.
Consumers do not trust traditional marketers anymore.

Consumers Demand More Attention

Online, consumers have a voice. If a company’s product or service doesn’t match their marketing claims, WATCH OUT! Disgruntled and disenchanted consumers now have the power to publish all of their harsh and unedited opinions – anytime they want to! Once published online, those messages are likely permanent, and business has no control over the backlash.

Consumers want and demand that:

Their voice be heard and ACKNOWLEDGED.
Companies be accountable for mismatched promises and actions.
Their peers be involved in the most powerful ‘word-of-mouth’ ever.

Business Can Take Action and Benefit Enormously

Think of it like this: social networks are actually a democratic form of business! Customers vote with their opinions. Business has a gigantic opportunity to directly impact their customers online, engage them, and develop a real relationship of TRUST that will be stronger and longer-lived.

Businesses of all sizes MUST adopt and USE a social networking and social media marketing strategies NOW – or risk being left in the dust.

In the next post, we will cover the basic steps every business must incorporate to get started right.

In the meantime, consider reading these. It’s easy – click here to purchase:

Engage: the Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses To Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

by Brian Solis

The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success

by Lon Safko and David K. Brake

Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business

by Erik Qualman

How has social media marketing benefited your company?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

October 9, 2010September 27, 2022

Proactive Social Media Pays Off

Proactive social media monitoring by H&R Block stops a potential crisis in its tracks

We’ve seen several examples of employees sabotaging their employers via social media, the most infamous of which may have been the YouTube video showing a pair of Dominos employees doing various disgusting things to customer’s food. Perhaps as a result of witnessing such incidents, H&R Block has a very proactive Social Media Policy in place, as former employee and self-styled Internet phenom “Kid Fury” discovered after a Tweet asking his followers to call in and ask for him by his Web moniker brought a swift reaction from H&R management. This quote from David Meerman Scott’s WebInkNow blog explains:

“Our Client Services organization, with guidance from our Social Media Team, are actively responding to customer service questions, issues, and comments via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites,” Zena Weist, director, social media at H&R Block told me.

“What Kid Fury didn’t realize was the impact of his tweets. People searching online for H&R Block help came across his ‘just for fun’ tweets in their search results.”

Because Weist and her social-media team actively monitor tax-related comments online, they knew the moment he began posting. “We had a team monitoring and responding to customer-service inquiries on social networks,” she says. “Within 10 minutes, our social-media outreach team had identified and contacted him and his manager. About an hour later, he had deleted his tweets.”

The speed at which the situation was resolved speaks volumes for the values involvement in social media holds for crisis management. Had H&R’s team not made it a habit to monitor for specific keywords that would concern or involve the company, it would all but guarantee the flood of calls would have lasted longer and cost far more money than it did.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.

October 8, 2010February 16, 2023

Good Timing in PR — It’s A Funny, Business-like Thing (and It’s in the Bible, Kinda)

Timing is everything, like any old Catskill comic, successful business person and even Ecclesiastes — a book in the Bible — will tell you. Cliched? Absolutely. And mostly true. As the good book says, “To every thing there is a season” — including (if you extrapolate enough) a right time to launch a PR campaign: A time to be born, a time to die, a time to gather ye media relations materials together to sow the good word of your business.

But when to start?

In my 20-year experience, I’ve seen PR campaigns launch that were premature, right on time and late. Depending on what you want to publicize and how early your target media contacts need to receive information, the best general advice is the be a good Boy or Girl Scout: Be prepared for a good launch that will not tax your business, because your people and systems need to be in sync throughout the organization so the holy light of media can shineth upon thou.

Case in point: A company I started working with several years ago had a breakthrough green product in an industry but we moved too early to promote it. The sales force was not in place, the website was subpar and even local dealers were not yet all aware of the benefits of this product to sell their customers.

Nonetheless, a collective decision was made to push out the pitch letters and a first news release (we had a comprehensive Media Kit in place for more information and insights about the product, the company, its principals and the product benefits). Fortunately, we managed to get some publicity locally and in the trade press, which created momentum both inside the company and among those on sales side and among dealers. Today we are all working together still, and the company is growing at a good rate.

But in reality, we should have waited a year. But that’s hindsight.

A recent New York Times article deals with this same issue. I know you’ll read it and say, “Sure, it’s a good problem to have.” But unless you enjoy getting swamped in your boat, be vigilant and circumspect about your timing. Here are the choice elements of the Times piece:

“Mr. LaCava, Eric Heinbockel and Fabian Kaempfer are the founders of Chocomize, a Web-based company that lets its customers create their own chocolate bars from more than 100 ingredients. Its Web site opened for business late last year; then, in June, the company was briefly noted in O, the Oprah Magazine. The mention was tiny — just 36 words in a wee stripe on the bottom of a page. Nevertheless, things went haywire.

“Our server crashed,” says Mr. LaCava, recalling how their orders quintupled overnight. “The phone was ringing round the clock. We’d thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to be in Oprah! We’re going to be making so many more bars!’ We didn’t think: ‘People are going to be calling us every second of the day.’”

Other than a dedicated server, there were two more things that Chocomize lacked: employees and a white-chocolate machine big enough to meet demand. Mr. LaCava, who is 23, describes the experience this way: ‘growing pains.’”

To avoid those kinds of growing pains — or at least to take the edge off them — be ready to reap the fruits of any public exposure in the media. Otherwise, sayeth your prayers so you can survive the blessing of a ‘good problem to have.’ ”

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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Martin Keller runs Media Savant Communications Co., a Public Relations and Media Communications consulting company based in the Twin Cities. Keller has helped move client stories to media that includes The New York Times, Larry King, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, plus many other magazines, newspapers, trade journals and other media outlets. Contact him at kelmart@aol.com, or 612-729-8585

October 8, 2010April 26, 2022

Corporation Solicitation Programs – Part 2 of 3: Not For Every Nonprofit

an-NPO-representative-with-a-corporate-manager

In considering the creation of a corporate solicitation program (a CSP), the first questions I’d ask of a nonprofit is whether they realize that only five-percent of all “charitable” giving to nonprofits comes from corporations, and (considering “return-on-investment”) how much of their time, energy and assets do they want to dedicate to this effort?

Whether the NPO does or does not deal with that basic concept, the major issue in creating a CSP is evaluating whether the NPO can do it successfully.

The planning process begins with the questions: How do corporations view your NPO? Do they see a history of good service to the community and good fiscal management? Do they see a history of other corporations supporting your NPO and getting the “quid pro quo” that they want? How do they know they’ll get what they want if they support you? Do you have a mission/program/service that dovetails with a corporation’s mission and/or product/service line?

Corporate fundraising is about the needs of the corporation; and a corporation’s needs are pretty much about their bottom line – they have stockholders they must satisfy.

If supporting an NPO gives them good visibility and good credibility, that would likely result in increased sales of their products/services. A corporation might give to be a good member of the community, or just to appear to be a good member of the community. But a corporation would certainly not give, if giving would hurt their bottom line.

Corporate fundraising is also about the needs of the corporate officers and board members – what will they (personally) get out of having their corporation support you!! That becomes more of an issue of individual cultivation – getting one or more of those people to see how supporting you will benefit them, and getting them, therefore, to become your (?) advocate within the corporation.

So, the first step in the process is determining if a CSP can/would work for your NPO. Once you’ve done the study to determine that, you’ll have a better idea of the kind of help you might need to implement/expand your CSP.

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