Two Studies Indicate Need for IT Pros to Get Businesslike
Updated Feb. 1, 2012
CEOs have long complained to me about information technology. They complain about high-priced consultants, and that IT projects are too expensive and fail to yield a return on investment.
Now, two 2011 studies underscore the need for IT professionals to become more businesslike.
Study No. 1
At ITBusinessEdge, Ann All wrote a dynamic piece, “Don’t Let IT Projects Get Out of Control.” In it, she cites a study by McKinsey consultants and Oxford University that show both public and private sector IT projects can be a headache.
But the public sector gets more criticism thanks to enterprising journalists.
Ms. All cites Oxford Researcher Bent Flyvbjerg in a silicom.com article.
“A big one is lack of senior executive involvement,” she writes. “Senior managers have tended to see IT as less strategic and delegate responsibility for it…”
She quotes researcher Flyvbjerg, who provides his five solutions to prevent out-of-control IT projects, which include:
1. Benchmark it. This should be the first step, says Flyvbjerg, because it will help organizations understand everything that follows.
2. Get the bias out of the business case. The researchers found most IT projects are “highly biased,” with inaccurate estimates of costs, schedules and benefits.
3. Minimize complexity. This advice gets repeated a lot.
4. Limit project duration. The researchers found that projects that lasted longer than 30 months are the most likely to go out of control.
5. Get a master builder. It’s important to enlist someone with proven project experience, Flyvbjerg says.
Study No. 2
A Tenable Network Security study indicates 90 percent of security professionals are aware of reported breaches, but the majority don’t take proper action.
That’s right, the Tenable press-release headline reads: “90 Percent of Security Pros Take Note of High-Profile Breaches, But Majority do Nothing.”
The study surveyed attendees at the 2011 Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit. More than 90 percent were aware of the Citigroup, RSA and Sony breaches, but only 23 percent didn’t act on the information.
It gets worse.
“Nearly half (46 percent) of attendees surveyed had experienced some form of insider threat while at their current company, but surprisingly ‘preventing insider threats’ was ranked the second-lowest information security priority for the next six to eight months by the field,” said the press release.
“Even more surprising, one in three security professionals admitted that they had violated internal security policies they created in order to complete a work-related task quickly and/or easily,” Tenable added.
Yes, part of the problem with such IT projects is the lack of full participation by upper management, but clearly, chief information officers and their staffs have to do some needed footwork in communication and planning.
From the Coach’s Corner, so there’s no mystery regarding the conclusions in this Study: CFOs Still Calling the Shots in IT Decisions.
Here are two other resource links for IT:
How CIOs Can Get More Respect in the C-Suite
Tech Planning: What if There’s a Double Dip?
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
-Bill Gates
__________
Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
What Should You Divulge When Asking for Investment Capital?
If your startup is the next big thing, but you want venture capital, you can start smiling. Yes, financing has been difficult to obtain in recent years. But entrepreneurs wanting venture capital have reasons for at least a small celebration – the money is starting to flow again after the Great Recession took its toll.
The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) indicates the trend is upward, ostensibly, for multiple reasons: There’s been an improvement in exit markets and portfolio valuations, and VC performance has been better than the public markets. There are also other positives – indications of an increase in angel funding, and a boom in initial public offerings. NVCA based its conclusions on data from 1,290 VC funds.
For many startups, it makes sense to grow organically. But for others, the answer is to seek capital.
So how do you take advantage of this improvement in financing? Certainly, it’s critical to make the right presentation to investors.
Such entrepreneurs typically ask noted financial strategist Joey Tamer how much information they should reveal for venture or angel capital. They turn to her because she’s a strategic consultant to entrepreneurs in software, Internet, technology and digital media.
Ms. Tamer says entrepreneurs also typically express these concerns:
- “I’m not quite ready for a big investment until I get more early traction.”
- “Will I weaken my position by showing how much I need and how soon I need it?”
- “Will what I’m looking for move around the community to everyone and shouldn’t I be selective in what I say?”
What’s her response?
“The answer is to stand up and lay out your plans and your rationale,” she blogged in explaining how much an entrepreneur should tell investors when pitching for capital. “You must treat all investors as if they will become your partners, starting immediately. If you are taking a pitch meeting, you might as well pitch.”
She astutely reminds clients that investors of all stripes do their due diligence. She warns you risk not getting a second meeting, if you aren’t candid and informative.
“It is acceptable to take a short meeting — 20 minutes maximum – or two with potential investors, to get on their radar about your idea, even before you are ready to approach them for an investment,” she explains. “You can report back on your progress of reaching your benchmarks. This establishes an early relationship with them, and allows them to watch you deliver the benchmarks you promised.”
For an example, she suggests a possible scenario:
“Suppose you are looking for angel capital now, and you are presenting to an early stage boutique venture capitalist, who invests in revenue-generating companies, but who sometimes will step down to a seed round of a few hundred thousand dollars.”
Her recommendation:
“Pitch what you want now: say $250,000, and show what you will use the funds for, and what benchmark you will reach with that seed round,” she says. “Your potential investor might provide it and add a deal structure to his position for the next round, giving him right of first look, or protecting his investment in certain ways, even setting aside all or part of your next round.”
What’s next?
“Next you say you want to raise a Series A round after some specified consecutive months of growth,” she asserts. “You say when you expect that moment to arrive (what Quarter of what year), and what benchmark you will reach in what Quarter of what year with that Series A round.
“You can say that you will look for a growth round following Series A, once you can track the speed of your growth, and can assess competition and market conditions at that time,” she adds.
Ms. Tamer says this illustrates that you understand the big picture – that you fully grasp investors’ concerns about scalability and their likely return on their investment.
“If you look to your investors as long-term partners, this early truth telling and planning sets your relationship on the right path,” she points out.
(Note: I’m very acquainted with Ms. Tamer’s expertise. She and I are members of an organization, Consultants West, www.consultantswest.com.)
From the Coach’s Corner, in addition to Ms. Tamer’s Web site, www.joeytamer.com, here are informative resource links:
What No One Tells You about Raising Investment Capital
Eight Strategies to Consider Before Starting A Tech Business
“If you are beginning your company with Other People’s Money, it is good to have a strong relationship with the Other People and their Money.”
-Joey Tamer
__________
Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Study – CFOs Still Calling the Shots in IT Decisions
The top IT decision-maker for many companies is not the chief information officer. Instead, the chief financial officer is, according to a Gartner study.
The chief financial officer is becoming the top technology decision maker in around half of businesses, according to Gartner research released in June, 2011, which is entitled: “Financial Executives International (FEI) Technology Study.”
In fact, more IT departments are overseen by the CFO, not the chief executive or other senior managers. But this is ill-advised, and I’ll explain later.
The study’s conclusions:
- 42 percent report to the CFO
- 45 percent IT investment strategies made by the CFO
- In 38 percent, the IT department is managed by the CFO
- In 7 percent, the CFO is the lone decision-maker
“Understand that the CFO views the impact on business process and business enablement as the top technology issues,” said Gartner analyst John Van Decker.
“Therefore, applications and analytics are the top investment priorities, and the enabling technologies that support these initiatives need to be viewed as equally important,” he added.
The study also indicated that analytics and applications are the No. 1 investment priorities by the CFO.
While this trend probably makes financial executives happy, it doesn’t make for best practices.
It raises at least three questions:
- Do such CFOs have the necessary tech knowledge to understand the value of each decision? Sufficient steps have to be taken to ensure due diligence in IT security and other decisions.
- When will CEOs reconsider such strategies because of the negative impacts on the teamwork and morale of IT departments? An IT thought leader will resent such intrusions on the chain of command in organization structure.
- What will CIOs do about it? CIOs must take the proverbial bull by the horns to exert more leadership.
My bottom-line: Agreed, the CIO should adhere to all financial checks and balances. But there should be balance. As with human resources management and marketing whom the chief people often aren’t sufficiently respected, in essence, the top IT decision-maker should be the chief information officer with input from the CFO and other managers.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s related reading:
How CIOs Can Get More Respect in the C-Suite
Tech Trends: CFO’s the Boss, IT Departments Are Disappearing
Tech Planning: What If There’s A Double Dip?
“Men are respectable only as they respect.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
__________
Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
11 Travel Tips – Save Money, Prevent against Cyber Theft, Fraud
Sometimes data is misleading. Business travelers might be relieved to learn the number of fraud and identity theft victims is down, according to the Javelin 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report. However, the aggregate financial pain from cybercrime is greater. It increased 63 percent from 2009 to 2010.
Javelin Strategy & Research provides data for the financial services industry globally.
The most vulnerable travelers are businesspeople. That’s because they have to use Internet and e-mail. They’re expressly in danger from vulnerabilities – from wirelessly- accessible passports to using WIFI.
To save you from aggravation and money, here are 11 quick tips:
- There are no free meals. The adage is applicable to offerings that appear too good to be true. If you get a unique travel offer, do your due diligence. Review the scam alerts at Web sites, such as www.419legal.org. It wouldn’t hurt to check the site of the airline trade organization, International Air Transport Association, www.iata.org.
- Watch for offers from fakes. Cybercriminals are prevalent in the travel industry, and are publishing sites that look like the real, well-known companies.
- Don’t use social media to chat about your travel plans. Don’t alert criminals. Your home-front and business will be vulnerable.
- Cautions about debit and credit cards. Unlike debit cards, credit cards protect against fraud and theft. Better yet, before you travel obtain a no-foreign transaction fee card. Be sure to alert your credit card company about your trip. Just in case you might need help on your trip, get the credit-card issuers’ number that you can telephone collect when you’re overseas.
- Guard against currency conversion surprises. Don’t sign any checks or receipts that aren’t shown in the local currency. Overseas merchants sometimes try to manipulate travelers – they provide their prices in U.S. currency, not their local currency.
- Be prepared to utilize your passport when making a purchase. Reputable foreign merchants don’t trust your credit card unless you have acceptable identification. That’s because U.S. credit cards have the old-fashioned magnetic stripe on the back. European credit cards use the chip-and-pin system, which is a modern fraud-security system.
- Use your own computer. For data security and privacy, never use public computers.
- Forget WIFI. Don’t use WIFI. It’s not just a matter of cybercriminals viewing your computers. They’re establishing fake access points, which can give them an entrée to your important files and data. If you have to use a computer, hook your computer to your smartphone’s service or try MIFI.
- Protect your e-passport. They have RFID chips containing your personal information. Cybercriminals can view your information even though you can’t see them. So use an RFID blocking passport.
- Bluetooth has vulnerabilities. So turn it off.
- Think twice about using in-flight mobile phone and SMS services. They’re just as risky as a WIFI hotspot.
Use these tips to help insure you enjoy your trip and to transact some good business.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a site with helpful research information http://globaledge.msu.edu/.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there.”
-Unknown
__________
Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
11 Tips to Make Money on Facebook
Depending on your type of business, the jury might still be out over whether Facebook can you help you make money by making the cash register ring. But advertisers are increasingly investng in Facebook.
Websitemagazine.com is a must-read for any Internet entrepreneur. Its newsfeed on May 23, 2011 included Facebook’s 10 optimization tips for merchants and reasons to use Facebook’s “like” button. I have to agree.
Here are the first 10 of the 11 promised optimization tips:
1. Allowing users to add comments will significantly increase the number of clicks on the Like button
2. Display Like buttons at both the top and bottom of your posted content
3. Clicks increase dramatically when Like buttons appear near videos, images, infographics and other visual content
4. Like buttons that display thumbnail images of friends will receive three to five times more clicks than versions that don’t
5. Ask questions of users on your Fan pages, such as “Would you like …?” and “Would you prefer … ?”
6. Post fun and interactive content such as games, trivia questions and polls
7. Incorporate coupons and discounts on your Wall
8. Post time-sensitive content and relate to current events
9. Post videos
10. Include links to additional content
The Website Magazine feed also mentioned Buddy Media, a Facebook advertising platform. Buddy Media has raised some serious venture capital – $40 million.
Buddy Media licenses its software to ad agencies. The average fee for its 650 ad agency customers is $3,000 per month. When you consider the licensing fee is on top of the advertising budget, that’s some serious advertising coin being diverted to Facebook spending.
VatorNews is another interesting trade publication. Reporter Bambi Francisco Roizen interviewed Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazarow for some interesting insights. (Buddy Media accounts for 10% of Facebook ads?)
As promised, here’s my 11th tip to profit from Facebook courtesty of VatorNews: Update your Facebook wall on Tuesdays.
From the Coach’s Corner, before you jump entirely on the Facebook bandwagon, make sure you read this cautionary Biz Coach column: Winners and Losers in Facebook’s Invasion of Google’s Turf.
“The Internet is the trailer park for the soul.”
-Marilyn Manson
_________
Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site
Google has unveiled more vital information about what it considers important for Web site ranking. Without divulging proprietary information, Google emphasized it’s all about value – quality for Internet users. In other words, there are no shortcuts for success.
There’s been a lot of buzz about Google’s 2011 algorithm update called Panda, and how it’s affected Internet sites. Many sites have benefited and others haven’t fared well in their Google ranking. Well, Google has made it clear what it considers important. It issued a formal statement on May 6.
“Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals,” wrote Amit Singhal on the Google Webmaster Central blog.
“Some publishers have fixated on our prior Panda algorithm change, but Panda was just one of roughly 500 search improvements we expect to roll out to search this year,” the spokesperson explained. In fact, since we launched Panda, we’ve rolled out over a dozen additional tweaks to our ranking algorithms, and some sites have incorrectly assumed that changes in their rankings were related to Panda.”
“Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users,” wrote Mr. Singhal.
“Our site quality algorithms are aimed at helping people find ‘high-quality’ sites by reducing the rankings of low-quality content,” he added. “The recent ‘Panda’ change tackles the difficult task of algorithmically assessing website quality.”
He indicated that Web site publishers will benefit by evaluating its page or article quality by asking specific questions – the type of questions that Google asks to analyze a site’s quality.
Here are the questions:
1. Would you trust the information presented in this article?
2. Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
3. Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
4. Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
5. Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
6. Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
7. Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
8. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
9. How much quality control is done on content?
10. Does the article describe both sides of a story?
11. Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
12. Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
13. Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
14. For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
15. Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
16. Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
17. Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
18. Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
19. Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
20. Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
21. Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
22. Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
23. Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
“We’ve been hearing from many of you that you want more guidance on what you can do to improve your rankings on Google, particularly if you think you’ve been impacted by the Panda update,” added Mr. Singhal. “We encourage you to keep questions like the ones above in mind as you focus on developing high-quality content rather than trying to optimize for any particular Google algorithm.”
Mr. Singhal also indicated a site’s rankings can be affected by “low-quality content” or “low-quality pages” on just some portions of a site.
“We’re continuing to work on additional algorithmic iterations to help webmasters operating high-quality sites get more traffic from search,” he added. “As you continue to improve your sites, rather than focusing on one particular algorithmic tweak, we encourage you to ask yourself the same sorts of questions we ask when looking at the big picture.”
My sense about Google’s announcement: Amen. It confirms that value counts. There are no shortcuts for ranking success – only high quality content. These are salient questions to ask about your site.
From the Coach’s Corner, if you want to stay current with Google’s webmaster updates, see: Webmaster Help Forum – Google.
“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”
- Francis Bacon
__________
Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Analyses: Are You Up-to-date to Capitalize on Major Web Events?
Updated – Feb. 27, 2011
February has been an eventful month for the Internet and marketers. Developments include the major players – Bing, Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Are you positioned to capitalize?
Here’s an update:
Google. Because it’s the longtime mega search engine, let’s consider Google first. Depending on which research firm you prefer, such as ComScore or The Nielsen Company, Google has about a 66 percent search market share. So whatever innovations it makes, it’s important.
Google has made a major change in how it ranks search results probably because it’s been under siege for being manipulated by certain Web sites.
The vaunted Google algorithms – its tools that determine how it ranks Web sites – have been fine-tuned to reward publishers of original content. Unique valuable information, if you will. That certainly includes in-depth thought leadership. Google says it involves about 12 percent of search queries. That might not sound like a lot, but 12 percent of millions and millions of search queries is meaningful.
You might recall numerous recent news stories: JC Penney, for example. The 2010 $17.8 billion retailer was chastised for dubious Internet practices. The retailer denied it approved spam-like behavior by its search-engine optimization company, SearchDex. But right after the story broke, SearchDex was fired.
Indeed, it must have been an eye-opener to the search giant to be labeled as the “tropical paradise for spammers and marketers” by a U.C. Berkeley scholar, Vivek Wadhwa. Hence, its algorithms upgrade.
Another search development: The Google Chrome Web browser now permits sites to prevent other sites from appearing in their results. (Its competitor, Blekko, does the same.)
So, Google has taken action to disallow Web sites, with little or no unique value, to dominate in search results.
My sense: The jury is still out on Google’s changes. In my sampling, I haven’t seen a positive noticeable change, especially in its key word results. Otherwise, if successful, Google is to be commended for dealing with a crisis confronting its quality of relevant search and its image. (Candidly, as a business-performance consultant, I’ve always advised clients on the importance of frequent, strong informative content.)
Bing – social search. Bing grew to a 13 percent market share at the start of this month. But it’s created new buzz by adding Facebook “likes” that allows Internet users to see the results that their friends like.
Here’s how it works: Pictures of your friends appear when you search after you connect with Bing with your Facebook account. You can disable it easily if you choose.
Bing now includes related Twitter features (so does Google).
My sense: The new development in the Bing-Facebook partnership is unique and it affects word-mouth-marketing – as businesspeople and consumers make buying decisions. This helps to make marketing fun. It’s also a reminder that content, search-engine optimization and social media should be synergized and orchestrated in your overall marketing.
This includes:
- Listening to Internet-user preferences
- Interacting with them to maximize your opportunities
- Continually measuring results
- Fine-tuning your approach
From the Coach’s Corner, Bing’s partnership with social-media giant Facebook should remind you to capitalize on Bing search.
Here are valuable tips: Get Busy With Bing Webmaster Tools.
Windows 7 Looks Great, but Should it Be Better? Yes.
Jan. 29, 2011
A review about Windows 7 in InformationWeek caught my eye because it struck a nerve. The publication’s senior editor, Serdar Yegulalp, wrote an insightful piece entitled, “What Windows 7 Is Still Missing.” As a longtime Microsoft supporter, I agree with his insights and have my own personal unfortunate experience but more on that later.
“There’s little question Windows 7 has been received with open arms by users and admins,” Mr. Yegulalp writes.
”It fixed many of the problems that plagued earlier versions of Windows, made good on the promises that seemed only half-fulfilled with Vista, and introduced a slew of new functions — big and small — that were also warmly received,” he explains.
“When Windows 7 was released, Microsoft made a major blunder by not updating a free offering that had been previously available for Windows XP and Vista: SteadyState,” he adds. “Windows does not have, by default, a single all-encompassing mechanism for returning the entire system — user settings, data on disk, etc. — to a given state.”
He explains SteadyState saved Admins setup time.
“Instead, Microsoft released a white paper in which they described how admins could use many of the native technologies in Windows 7 to emulate the behaviors of SteadyState,” he points out.” It isn’t hard to guess the reaction: people booed Microsoft roundly for ignoring a much-requested feature from its customers.”
Mr. Yegulalp maintains Windows 7 doesn’t provide a critical function: “…one of the biggest and most crucial functions — disk protection — isn’t provided except through workarounds like System Restore. These don’t work in remotely the same fashion as SteadyState’s own disk protection, which required little or no intervention or downtime.”
He points out it lacks support for other hardware.
“Most of us are all too familiar with this scenario,” he writes.”You install a copy of Windows on a newly-minted PC, or perhaps reinstall a clean copy on an existing one. Unfortunately, a great many things simply don’t work — your Bluetooth module, for instance, or your memory card reader. Or the whole system just seems weirdly sluggish for a fresh install.”
He makes these suggestions:
- Extend Windows update to close the gap
- Universal software updates
- Proper touch support for tablets
- Acquisitions, third-party features
“But Windows 8 is two years or more away, and most people will not wait that long for solutions to the problems…They want some sign, sooner rather than later, that the right thing is being done,” he asserts.
“And if it Microsoft doesn’t provide it, someone else will,” concludes Mr. Yegulalp.
Amen.
To read his full assessment, here’s his article: What Windows 7 Is Still Missing.
From the Coach’s Corner, my own Windows 7 experience is not what I’d expect from a leading technology company.
After some thought, I decided to buy Windows 7 to upgrade my most-revered notebook computer, an IBM ThinkPad. (Actually, I own two.)
However, making a purchase online, it could not be installed. Plus, Microsoft didn’t send an email confirmation as promised. I tried every tip provided on Microsoft’s Web site to no avail. So I called the company. It took repeated calls. I was forced to deal with two people who were difficult to understand.
Initially, they didn’t believe I even made the purchase. After all, there was no receipt. Then, someone thought to ask for my product key. They concluded they couldn’t help me.
Ultimately, I reached someone I could understand. But the tech-support person concluded that I’d have to wait for the five days for a disk to install Windows 7.
Then, his major gaffe – he lectured me for buying Windows 7 instead of buying a new computer with it already installed.
“Where’s the attitude of empathy and customer service,” I thought. “What a waste of more than three hours.”
I hung up telling him: “You’re of no help.”
Oh, and more than 24 hours later, I finally received a purchase-receipt from Microsoft.
Is this the best a world-class company can do? Now, after reading Mr. Yegulalp’s article – not knowing whether Windows 7 will even be compatible with my own needs – it’s a purchase I hope I don’t regret.
Key Steps to Make Your Social Media Work
Businesspeople have discovered social media is a work in progress. It takes huge amounts of time — to plan, implement innovations and continuously fine-tune – to succeed.
Here’s a surprise in social media best-practices: To lay a solid foundation for success, save time and money for the long-term by making certain all phases of your operation are ready. That includes bricks and mortar.
Two basics to remember:
- First impressions are important. You won’t get a second chance. So make sure your employees, office or store, and Web site create a favorable impression. That means cleanliness and organization, and professional customer service.
- Practice an attitude of service and gratitude for the opportunity to serve customers. In every communication with prospects or customers, use “Thank you” instead of “Have a nice day.”
Prior to my consulting practice, in moving from broadcast journalism, one of my jobs was selling radio advertising for Gannett-owned KIIS-FM and KPRZ-AM in Los Angeles. But I quickly learned that a campaign on a great radio station did not guarantee success. I vividly recall an upscale store in Beverly Hills was unsuccessful because the displays, aisles and end caps were unkempt. The merchant thought a radio advertising campaign was enough to solve his cash flow issues. I couldn’t help a businessperson who didn’t help himself.
That also proved to be true for a struggling law firm in advertising. The firm’s partners expected a miracle by merely advertising. However, the receptionist’s greeting was unprofessional. The teamwork among staff was subpar, and it took the partners 90 days to approve initiatives because of indecision from self-doubt.
Later, when I bought a marketing firm and met my two biggest clients, they had major internal issues that negated their marketing investments. The businesspeople did not understand the value in having an attitude of service and gratitude. They were so close to their self-inflicted challenges, it took an outside participant to identify the problems and implement solutions. (So, as a marketing consultant, I quickly expanded my firm’s practice. My first new projects were included human resources, management and operations.)
In all such cases, none of the advertisers understood what they needed to do to enhance their customer experiences – to create a happy buying environment by eliminating their internal obstacles to success.
The moral: It’s vital to understand the emotional-buying motives of customers. Pay attention to how your customers are treated by your frontline people. Call your business as ala a mystery shopper to hear whether your customers are greeted with friendliness and professionalism. Check out your Web site. Is it truly customer friendly – attractive, convenient and logical?
Blogging
OK, so now you’re ready to move onto blogging, social media and related tools. Whether you have one already or anticipate blogging, a good blog is an opportunity for growth. It provides added value in content to provide useful information in a variety of channels, if marketed correctly. You’ll get stronger Internet prominence, recognition for your thought leadership, and new revenue. By the way, there are good reasons why B2B marketers like content marketing.
Actually, for a well-written blog that takes time for research, development, editing and promotion, I prefer another term, e.g. analysis, insights or commentary. But for this discussion, let’s stay with the universal term, blogging.
If you’re not a good writer, you can outsource your blogging with a quality provider.
Make certain you take every precaution about security, and use a reputable outside Web hosting company to give you an added layer of security. You don’t want your blog or Web site to be compromised – hacked or invaded by viruses. The search engines will take action that will embarrass your blog with warning flags.
For most small to medium-size businesses in search-engine optimization (SEO), a blog should part of your Web site. Otherwise, you’ll dilute your site’s online prominence and Google page rank. Use effective SEO strategies for a No.1 rated blog.
If you’re unfamiliar or unsure about blogging, read the blogs of experts. Like you would for any other initiative or project, do a SWOT analysis. Determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Ask questions of experts and customers.
Solicit ideas and help from your staff and close associates.
Find needs of your target customers and plan to fill them with topic ideas. Then, set goals and timelines (e.g. the goals for this business portal are to satiate my desire for writing, provide Proven Solutions for Maximum Profits, acquire clients for my business-performance firm, and to attract advertisers).
Successful blogs operate off a schedule. You’ll develop a more-loyal following by developing a schedule on which they can depend.
Pay close attention to your choice of key words and tags.
Publish well-written guest blogs of experts. But do not publish without permission.
Insert informative videos.
Pay attention to your goals. You’ll achieve them with an excellent editorial plan, and strategic use of key phrases and words.
Basics in Social Media
On your blogs and Web site pages, insert social networking widgets. This will make it easier for readers to share your content, and boost your traffic.
Develop permanent customer relationships by humanizing your social media. Good relationships start by listening. Take the time to do it right – focus on the needs of your customers with strategic headlines and messages.
Social media succeeds if it creates a dialogue, not a monologue. Show your interest by congratulating others and invite feedback. Encourage your employees to do the same. The top three are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Lay the groundwork to turn your customers and associates into Centers of Influence – your brand evangelists.
Familiarity breeds friendships. Be consistent. Use the same picture over and over. That goes for your branding slogan and logo. Simplify your logo so it’s memorable enough to tell your story, but can be used as a 16×16-pixel favicon on the Internet. It is an image-builder on the search line of browsers.
For ongoing success in our dynamic digital age, use a mentor and fine-tune your social media. Harness the value of Internet press releases. Plus, you might get lucky. For example, it was my press release (Expert Warns About Starbucks WIFI Security, Provides Tips) not my business-coaching column that caught the eye of a Yahoo writer — three months after I wrote it. He included a link to my press release — 20,000 people read it – many of them were motivated to click on the link to my site’s column.
Don’t forget submissions to the news media. Even though most young people are increasingly using social media for information, authoritative news outlets are still relevant.
By using these basic suggestions, you’ll be creating luck because you’ll be better-prepared — you’ll be enabling your social media to work.
From the Coach’s Corner, this site’s Marketing/Sales and Tech sections have countless business-coaching tips, including:
How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on Cyber Strategies for Profit
Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google
Understanding Customers: Social Media Teaches Another Lesson
“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”
-Brian Solis
__________
Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Social Media – 5 Quick Tips to Boost Your Christmas Sales
Dec. 14, 2010
Yes, time’s drawing short if you want to switch strategies to make your cash registers ring. But there are at least five social-media ways to increase sales by the end of the holiday season, according to strategist/writer Sam Cannon. He offered his tips recently in E-Commerce Times.
What struck me was his wisdom in this comment:
“Just be sure your social media efforts offer something of benefit to the customer, and you’ll see the benefit to your brand image and bottom line.”
He cites 2009 data – social media triggered 27 percent of 2009’s shopping decisions. And it’s likely going to grow.
Mr. Cannon’s five tips:
Use Location-Based Apps – Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook’s new “Deals.” Adding location-based promotions is an effective way to drive in-store traffic and creates another touch point for consumer engagement.
Give the “Wish List” a Makeover - Finding that perfect gift for someone can be a challenge, and shoppers oftentimes will turn to gift cards as a last resort. As an alternative, consider a new twist on the “wish list” feature on most leading e-commerce sites. If your target audience is made up of music fans, launch a poster or album cover creator – something that will resonate with consumers and be seen as less of a chore to assemble.
The most important element here, however, is making the wish list easy to share across Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites.
Create Custom Shopping Experiences Online - Some of the most effective retail marketing campaigns are those that create truly personal connections with consumers. After a consumer interacts with the promotion, give them the tools they need to easily share their experience with friends in their social networks so they can join the fun too.
Use Social Media Channels to Promote Time-Sensitive Deals - Retailers have been extremely successful using social media to broadcast time-sensitive deals as a way to reward their loyal customer base. Post-holiday, these deal feeds are a great way to clear out the inevitable stack of returned merchandise.
Be as Clear as Holiday Crystal - It goes without saying that retailers should try to make the holiday shopping experience as stress-free as possible. So when using social media channels to communicate with your customers, be sure to clearly articulate the value.
Be clear about what role each of your social community efforts is supposed to play — both internally and with your fans and followers. If it’s to answer gift questions, then do that only. If there is another effort to address availability of gifts, make sure your team understands that.
Anticipate that if you create the impression or expectation that your social environment can help with holiday shopping, then customer expectations for you to deliver on that promise will likely be higher than at almost any other time of the year.
My sense is that he’s right. To see his entire article: 5 Ways Social Media Can Plump Up Holiday Sales.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a related column: Marketing Strategies to Cut Through the Clutter.
