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You can’t fire the planet. Engage it through social media instead

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It always amazes me how, in the worst global economy of our lifetimes–where lost jobs can destroy families, and every family destroyed adds to the global misery index for us all–that when the subject comes up about employees and social media, the focus always seems to be on “Policies that help companies cover all the bases so you can easily terminate employees.” I guess some consultants can make a tidy living at that kind of thing, and sleep at night, but as usual, policy and executive fiat may ‘win’ short-term while failing to address long-term reality. What does?

(1) First, companies need to rein in, remove or at least redeploy the incompetents and abusive jerks who have found their way into more than a few executive suites. That alone Continue reading

Come sail away

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Two MarketBLOG entries ago we presented a company that, despite our best efforts, remains intent on not optimizing its website to drive revenue generation and retention, let alone use social media in pursuit of those business-building (or -saving) goals. The next took responsibility for being unable to book it on the oceangoing voyage many perceive social media to be. Today’s entry shows how when we succeed in moving companies to the third stage of AIDA [remember?]—desire, in this case the desire for a better site—they are actually primed to set sail.

How? Well, the journey begins with the larger question of structure and getting down to core essentials: Which pages and content should even appear on your site? Continue reading

…but the light bulb has to really want to change

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A variation on the changing-a-light-bulb joke goes like this:
Q – “How many [psychologists/psychiatrists] does it take to change a light bulb?”
A – “Just one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.”

Let’s just say we recently concluded a contract with a tiny company in a niche market that claimed it wanted us to help it take its business to the next level. “We’re tired of trading dollars, winning just enough new business every year to offset the accounts we lose. We want you put us on track to grow from $2 million a year to about $7 million.” Let’s just say the firm’s founder, CEO, grand poobah and big kahuna (all the same person) claimed to want to grow his “baby” from a minuscule unknown to a big or at least bigger hitter. Yet none of it is going to happen because he and the firm didn’t really want to change.

Let’s just say.

SWOT on demand: Company believes it is the “sole source supplier” to its niche. It’s not. It faces 15 competitors including publishing giant Thompson. Continue reading

A Tale of Two Companies

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We’ve been talking about why it’s important to think of search engine optimization /search engine marketing (SEO/M) and Web 2.0 not as the be-all and end-all of your communications universe but as key ingredients in a complete, balanced diet. Of course what we mean when we say “Web 2.0” breaks out into three areas:

  • Rich Internet applications (RIA) including AJAX and Flash
  • Broadcast media such as streaming, RSS and mobile SMS
  • Consumer-generated media (CGM) like consumer reviews, wiikis, blogs and participation in forums
All of us who post on just about any business-focused blog want to talk about best practices, but today is show-and-tell: I’m going to show you how two companies approached this in different ways and how that has led to divergent results. Continue reading