Tag: Marketing
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Digital Rebranding: Logistical and Human Factors
This piece describes and offers tips on some of the logistics associated with digital rebranding – changing websites and emails, moving blogs, rebranding social media identities, and promoting the new identity. It also addresses some of the human factors that can complicate (and potentially derail) a digital rebranding effort. The intent is to offer a…
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Becoming a Digital Organization: A Three-Phase Journey
There are three main phases to becoming a digital organization: digitization, digital engagement, and digital transformation. This post offers a lay oriented description and assessment of these phases. The objective is to help leaders who are digital rookies develop a conceptual foundation for understanding where their organizations have been, where they are, and – most…
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Website Upgrades: 5 Essential Considerations
Organizations are increasingly realizing they need to update the look, feel, and functionality of their websites. The process for website upgrades has changed significantly in the past few years. The days of hiring a web developer to “hard code” a site. A better alternative is to go with a platform like WordPress.org, which enables the…
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Digital DIY: Penny Wise and Pound Foolish?
For a host of reasons, many organizations have been taking a Digital DIY (Do It Yourself) approach to pursuing technology initiatives, both externally and internally. Though the motivations for these approaches are understandable and seem logical on the surface, more often than not they are suboptimal strategies that aren’t in an organization’s best interests. A…
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Trickle-Up Socialnomics: How BtoB Firms Can Leverage Social Media
This post introduces the idea of Trickle-Up Socialnomics™, which describes how BtoB (business-to-business) firms can view their supply chain as a Social Media Chain and leverage it to identify business opportunities and increase revenues. It includes links to a white paper that describes the Social Media Chain more fully and provides examples of how participants…
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Social and Digital Engagement: You Can’t Outsource Leadership
Effective social and digital engagement requires informed and active involvement from the top of the organization. Although it may be appropriate to outsource and delegate some responsibility and many activities, it’s not in an organization’s best interests to outsource leadership. To achieve the best results, leaders must educate themselves, develop a strategic, integrated approach to…
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Social Media Reality Check: Four Mental Shifts Leaders Need to Make
This Social Media Reality Check addresses four key mental shifts organizational leaders must make to accept new Digital Era realities and move forward. These shifts include recognizing changes in the balance of power, accepting loss of control, developing new perspectives on productivity, and viewing social technology integration as mandatory rather than optional.
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Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day? 7 Reasons not to be Fooled
Although it’s generally well intentioned, most of the advice for engaging via social media in 10 minutes a day (or similar short timeframes) is misguided, misleading, and misrepresentative – especially for social media rookies. This post offers seven reasons why, and suggests more realistic and practical approaches for individuals and organizations to find ways to…
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Coping with Social Media Realities: Time and Information Management
In our overcommitted, busy lives, lack of time is a common lament. The time challenge is exacerbated by information overload and the speed with which digital technology continues to change. For social media rookies in particular, these challenges can be overwhelming. This post highlights certain immutable realities of the world in which we live and…
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Five Social Media Engagement Principles (or Mantras)
This post offers five social media engagement principles to guide the efforts of both individuals and organizations. It is primarily targeted to rookies who are just getting started with social media, as well as those who want to regroup and redirect their efforts. The guiding principles include proceeding with “mindful flexibility,” listening first then talking,…
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Social Media Engagement: 7 Rules for Working Smart, not Just Hard
Written for both individuals and organizations, this post provides high-level guidance for rookies who are just getting started with social media, as well as those who are looking to add more structure, focus and discipline to existing initiatives. Maximizing social media engagement requires setting goals, assessing the operating environment, conducting a communications audit, developing a…
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The SAPLING Approach to Leveraging Social Media
The SAPLING Approach provides a general guide for individuals, groups, and organizations to establish and manage a strong digital presence. SAPLING is an imperfect acronym, but a useful mnemonic for remembering the necessary steps to developing and executing a social media strategy.
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Social Media Management: From Novelty to Utility
Social media is still a novelty to many professionals, especially those in leadership positions. Rather than viewing social and digital technologies as a radical departure from traditional communication approaches, however, it’s better to think of them as “new tools for doing old things” and to remember they are facilitators and enablers, not an end unto…
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Logo Design in the Digital Era: 6 Critical Factors
Logo design in the Digital Era requires attention to a unique set of factors to ensure the logo renders well in a range of applications. These considerations include simple design, strong colors, scalability, complementary fonts, monochromatic renderings, deconstruction and reconfiguration. Additional suggestions are welcome. (December 16, 2013)
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Twitter Best Practices: 11+ Tips for Tweeting Well
Targeted primarily to rookies, this guide offers a set of Twitter best practices that helps people maximize their ability to maintain a strong signal/noise ratio and avoid making mistakes that can hurt their individual professional and/or organizational brands. More experienced Tweeters – including mavens – may want to consider the advice and reconsider some of…
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Digital Engagement: 12 DOs and DON’Ts for Rookies (& Others)
Effective digital engagement is a never-ending challenge, and it’s especially difficult for social media rookies. This post describes 12 practices – 7 DOs, 5 DON’Ts – that individuals and organizations trying to optimize their own approach to digital engagement should and should not employ. Additional suggestions and questions are welcome.
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Twitter Hashtags: 7 Tips and a Decision-Making Flowchart
Though Twitter hashtags have been around almost as long as Twitter itself, many people still do not understand what they are – or more importantly, how to use them appropriately. This post offers seven tips – plus a decision-making flowchart – to enable Tweeters to not only avoid looking like a Twitter rube, but to…
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Twitter for Business: 21+ Tips
Many people still don’t “get” Twitter – especially from a professional perspective – or are uncertain whether there is any value in using it. Many others have set up an account but feel overwhelmed and/or unsure about how to maximize the potential benefits. Still others think they’re using it properly but really don’t know if…
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The Early Bird Gets the Worm, but the Brave Bird Gets… the Fries?!?!
Using a bird metaphor, this post discusses the importance of taking calculated risks to achieve goals, as well as the costs associated with risk aversion. The lessons offered are both timeless and uniquely relevant to the adoption of social and digital technologies. Additional lessons are welcome. (September 25, 2013)
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Hiring Social Media Experts: Guidance for (Rookie) Buyers
Most people would agree that hiring social media experts – whether you’re looking for a consultant or to fill an in-house role – is a dicey proposition, especially for buyers who aren’t very digitally sophisticated themselves. This post provides general guidance for organizations looking to hire consultants, contractors, and/or employees to lead and help with…