Commentary

Facebook, Twitter LinkedIn, Ulitzer, MeettheBoss - Execs Go Online Big-Time

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST

A study run by online business networking service www.MeettheBoss.com shows that executives are spending an extra 11 hours a month online sharing their professional experiences and learning from their peers. The survey asked its executive users what direct value they gained from spending time running blogs, writing tweets and connecting with other executives on sites such as LinkedIn, Xing, MeettheBoss, Ryze, Facebook, Ulitzer and Twitter.

The True Cost of Not Making a Buying Decision

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:30:00 EDT

Today, after a six month sales cycle that included extensive relationship building, expensive marketing strategies and a detailed return on investment analysis that revealed a monthly savings of $ 13,347 per month (net after the expense of my new proposal), the client shared that she was inclined to delay the decision by 12 months! Her reasoning? She feels that she can get a better deal when her contract comes to end of term. I am so frustrated and angry! I’ve neglected other clients because of the amount of effort, time and energy I have put into winning this deal. Without this deal I will not make plan. I am at my wits end and fear that I could lose my job. Do you have any thoughts that may help?

Social Media Phobia: Killing the Messenger

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:45:00 EDT

I have a client with a “twitic.” A customer who, on Twitter, will criticize and say absolutely vulgar things about the company and his dealings with it. A customer that refuses to consider limitations of contracts and instead resorts to blameshifting and voicing of unrealistic expectations. Some of my contacts within the client organization considered [...]

Cloud Talk with Peter Coffee: What's Next for the Cloud?

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Coffee, of eWeek fame. Peter, as industry veterans may be aware, was eWeek’s Technology Editor, and is now Director of Platform Research for Salesforce.com, a leader in cloud computing. Our conversation began with my blatant attempt at gaining insight about Salesforce's strategic roadmap, knowing full well only the CEO can answer those type of questions, but you never know what you can glean from a non-response. Hey, I gave it a shot.

ERP on Ulitzer - Has the Time for Open Source ERP Come?

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:45:00 EDT

For some time now I have been tracking the change in popularity of the top open source platform and I noticed a curious trend. At the beginning of the year ADempiere ERP was the top open source project. Looking down the list you would have found PostBooks at 8, Openbravo ERP at 9, webERP at 17 and OrangeHRM at 21. At that time it was mostly on my unconscious mind and had not “realized” it. But slowly the trend became more pronounced. Five of the top 7 open source projects are ERP. This is how it stands –order in which it is ranked in Source Forge:

The Science of a Team

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:45:00 EDT

During a speaking engagement to a Fortune 500 company I told the story of a Sales Manager who I knew, that gained invaluable insight regarding the importance of a establishing a strong team - during a health challenge, he’d experienced years earlier. The health issue came about very suddenly and consequently, the Sales Manager was faced with the daunting prospect of, finding the right team of specialists who could treat his condition and perform the life saving operation.

Corporate Blogging Framework - Where to Start?

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:00:00 EDT

There's been a lot published and dissected over the value and methods for successful corporate blogging, and the intersections between corporate and employee use of social media. What's not been discussed much is the application of Systems Engineering Methodology, within the Information Management Architecture Domain, to implementation of corporate blogging. Being that a corporate blogging program is essentially part of a corporation's "Information-Sharing Line of Business", integrated with and supported by other corporate operational domains (like Marketing & Communications, IT Operations, and Organizational Change Management), it's therefore an IT program -and IT programs are best managed through standardized IT Investment and Systems Engineering Lifecycle methods.

To start, therefore, a corporate blogging program, a framework should be established for program planning, resource scheduling and alignment. This framework will help generate a program CONOPS (concept of operations), solution architecture, program plan and performance measurement indicators. These program artifacts, as any IT Project Manager worth their salt understands, are essential to establishing early buy-in, investment approval, compliance and risk mitigation.

Blogging does introduce 2 very important elements in particular to your Marketing & Communications (Marcom) efforts. First, it’s a new (or another) online content management and distribution platform for corporate information. It needs to be integrated into your overall Information Management infrastructure. Secondly, and most importantly, it’s a new forum for online conversation between your corporation, its employees and/or representatives, and the public. The blog speaks directly to individuals, and they to you – and this conversation needs to reflect the right balance of personable though moderated and useful dialogue.

Here are some facets to consider, in suggested priority order, when establishing your corporate blogging framework - there are many more details and methods to consider (both standard and contextual to a particular company) once the framework matures; these are only initial guidelines.

Governance

1. Executive commitment and approval – share the idea and collect feedback regarding corporate blogging from key executives and corporate legal, policy, public relations and marketing. Simply raising and discussing the initiative, along with some basic education (not everyone understands blogging or microblogging) and examples, will go a long way towards buy-in, integration with other Marcom activities, and a successful governance framework (i.e. who approves what).

2. Champion/Evangelist – establish the “Corporate Blogger Champion/Evangelist” – a well-coordinate program will require some ongoing, insistent initiative by someone who’s ready to answer questions about blogging and social media, and coach others through the learning processes. This person will also take the lead regarding translation of blogging needs and processes to IT requirements, own the ROI – i.e. setting up and reporting tracking metrics, observing the readership trends, adjusting the blog content, process or template, etc.

3. Create a basic, sample decision-making process. Start with the example that a corporate officer/employee announces they will be speaking at an upcoming industry event. Start backwards with the decision-making:

• Who “presses the button” to publish the blog entry?
• Who reviews, edits and approves the final content?
• Who reviews and approves the draft submission?
• Does the employee need approval to create the draft content?

Note that you may end up with several decision workflows, depending on what kind of blog entry it is. At the end of the day, well-balanced blog content will probably be a mix of “corporate” managed content, “employee” direct submissions, “syndicated” content (i.e. brought in or copied from somewhere else) and user/reader submissions. The blogging framework may in fact become multiple blogs – but try to start with just one. There’s a lot of trial and error along the way – and there WILL be some slip-ups in what gets published and how; simply be prepared to deal with this as a course of business.

Note also that your overall "Content Management" workflow may end up with blog entries authored and published internally, and via some kind of content management or "social media governance" process, get published externally (i.e. to your Internet-hosted blog).

Employee Communications and Awareness

1. Share the initiative with employees and trusted advisors – start an internal conversation, perhaps a volunteer working group. What do they think?

2. Survey/canvass your employees – are they already active in social media? Do you have any “employee blogging stars” already, with personal online brands? (Check yourself – “Google” employee names and your corporate name – is anyone already an accomplished blogger?) From the reverse perspective – are there reputation management concerns to address, i.e. an erstwhile professional blogger is less constrained with Facebook postings?

Authors

1. “Authorship” is a tricky subject – some great corporate blogs are written by corporate executives, others are wholly supplied by direct employee submissions. Some are simply automatic syndications of content published elsewhere. As the blog matures, it’s likely many authors will be attributed. Start simply for now – establish the “corporate” persona (i.e. “this entry published by –your company-”), and who will actually “be” this persona initially. Should the blog be immediately successful, it’s important to be ready to “reveal” the person behind the persona.

2. For your core authors, determine how they’ll be attributed. (a) Do they want to be personally identified, or anonymized? (b) We recommend only first names for authors who are essentially unknown publically; if the author is already a well-known, public figure online, already associated with your company – then use the whole name. No other PII (personally-identifiable information); no sense in creating new opportunities for spam or online security problems. (c) Use anonymity/corporate persona really only for authorship of posts that truly aren’t suited for personable dialogue – like press releases or announcements.

Topics

1. What to post about? The corporate blog really shouldn’t be just another advertising, marketing or PR vehicle – it’s an opportunity for more personable and honest dialogue. You seek to share information with your readers that you really want and appreciate their input about. (Of course, the ROI is enhanced by inclusion of marketing messages and advertising techniques; to be further discussed). Think about both your SEO keywords AND major sections of your website – what are the top 5 keywords or “tags” you’d use to categorize the blog entries? For example, “zzz”, “xxx”, “xxx News”, “zzz people”, “zzz events” – where “zzz” is your corporate name, and “xxx” is your topical keyword.

2. Align with industry news – while the blogging initiative may eventually result in many threads of dialogue across many topics – start first with your primary marketing agenda, and in particular, items that are timely in the industry. The very best corporate blog entries match targeted keywords with current industry events or news – people exploring popular media-generated news and events should also “run across” your related information.

Content

1. Regardless of the actual subject matter, the blog “content” can take many forms. Simple text, links, external or embedded attachments, photos, videos, scripts/widgets, flash movies, rich internet applications (RIAs). Most search engines can index most of this content, in terms of the text embedded within – but straight HTML text is probably the most important content from an SEO perspective. Focus first on getting the blog text, tags and titles correct, and perhaps some limited use of photos/illustrations. Remember a blog enables syndication of its information to many other websites, mobile devices, readers and applications – always consider how easy it is for others to “consume”, read and re-purpose your content through RSS.

2. Other content can be added as (A) part of the overall blog design (it is a website, after all), and (B) as reusable digital assets are identified within your company, that you’d like to leverage into the blog. The most important point is that the search engines and readers see a constant stream of new, unique, interesting, timely, relevant headlines with basic supporting information and specific keywords, that effectively directs further action (i.e. “read more”, “contact us”, “discuss this”, “support this”, etc.).

Blog Platform/Channels

1. The best objective for a blog platform, is to use an internal, corporate-hosted software product – many content management products (like Sharepoint and Drupal) offer this (though you’ll need to get the components necessary for external publishing “through the firewall” to your external, Internet-hosted website). Wordpress is a free, popular product, on the other end of the spectrum, and can be customized to match your website’s branding, look and feel. (Note – for very sophisticated, highly customized and high traffic blogs, you’ll probably need to spend some money – but the blog initiative budget should be considered as part of your overall Marketing and IT budget).

2. If you’re not ready to devote the time and resources to install/implement an internal blog platform, Internet-hosted blogging services can be leveraged – though you’ll need to consider how to protect these "digital assets" hosted outside your company. There are no guarantees that anything posted on 3rd-party services like wordpress.com or blogger.com will be maintained or protected to your standards – at the very least, blog content should be created and protected internally, before published externally. In fact, such services are known to simply disappear quickly into a larger corporation's acquisition strategy. Take a look at the popular platforms like Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Blogsmith - there are pros and cons for each (While I'm a big Wordpress fan, the Blogger capability for FTP'ing content to other websites is really why this blog is hosted by Google).

It’s also important, when using a hosted service, to set up the publishing and links in a manner that generates maximum SEO and Conversion value – by proper linkages back to your website, through syndication of the content back to your site (via RSS widgets or RSS to HTML converters), and by basic copywriting techniques. For example, the external blog “catches” readers with some information, but to get more, and also to subscribe for monthly updates, readers are linked back to your website contact page/subscription process.

3. If you’re really not ready to implement an actual, corporate-branded blog – consider starting to blog in existing forums – i.e., an employee is a member of a LinkedIn group, and posts regular “discussion items”, responds to industry blogs and discussion, etc. It’s a good entry vehicle to testing the “art of public discourse”, choosing and testing keywords, etc.

4. If you do create a blog, whether internally or externally hosted, be prepared for some design/configuration activity, with some knowledge of HTML/RSS required – it is a website, after all, and there are most definitely useful guidelines available for properly designing and optimizing blogs vs. more traditional sites.

After considering these guidelines, you'll likely be ready to construct the Information Management Framework, composed of the Systems Engineering artifacts indicated above, that will enable your Corporate Blogging Framework. Or maybe you're just ready to start blogging!

Stay with this blog for more information about Corporate Blogging Frameworks, or contact me directly for specific help.

Fall Cleaning: Clean Up Your Online Brand

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:45:00 EDT

Over the weekend I went through this process to check out a prospective partner, and ran into some good news and bad news. The good news is that this company has clearly embraced the idea of expanding its footprint by using a variety of offline and online marketing tactics and properties. The bad news, however, is that as the company has expanded that footprint, it seems to have lost control of its brand and core messaging.

B2B Website Back Door Optimization

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Most companies pay a lot of attention to their homepage. But, with search results driving a majority of click through, what happens when your website visitors come in through the back door via an internal page? All of your web pages must establish context to keep your visitors from bouncing away in search of what they need.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – Nail Your Foot to the Floor

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EDT

This clear energy focus can be the difference between a high performer and someone with a job at the individual level. At the company level, the difference can show up as profit.

New Research Report - Netbook Shipments Twice as High as Laptops

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:45:00 EDT

In Q2’09, the total notebook PC market posted strong Q/Q and Y/Y growth as units surged past the 38 million mark, as reported in the DisplaySearch Q3’09 Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report. The mini-note PC (netbook) market was particularly strong, growing 40% Q/Q, which was twice the impressive 22% Q/Q growth rate of larger notebook PCs.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – It Will Take You Twenty Times to Learn This Move

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:45:00 EDT

It will take you twenty times to learn this move – New students come into class and see all of the Hapkido techniques on sheets on the wall. The list is intimidating to say the least. Korean terminology, foundational moves, nuanced techniques and sometimes small notes written in pen on top of the typed sheets. White belts get very impatient because they want to be as fast as the higher belts. What they can't embrace is that we were all white belts once and if you want to be fast, you have to allow yourself to become masters of the foundation which is going to take more time than you thought.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – There Are No Short Cuts

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:30:00 EDT

This is Lesson No. 3 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business. There are no short cuts – a Hapkido master told me this and thank goodness there are people in the world who still believe this. Stop trying to be clever and instead focus on earning real capabilities. In Hapkido, you either know it or you don’t and it shows in the practice of the art.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – A Million Lessons Everyday

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:45:00 EDT

This is Lesson No. 4 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business. A million lessons everyday – Everyone you meet, everything that happens to you is a lesson. In Hapkido, every class brings either someone who knows more than you or someone who has taught themselves something you didn’t explore. Listen to them and humbly take their gift. This learning is happening to us everyday if we would just pay attention and get our ego out of the way.

Gartner Sales Force Automation Ranking Is Out - The 2009 Report

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:30:00 EDT

Despite a down economy, we continue to see investment in SFA. With shrinking sales resources and market opportunities, investing in technology to automate critical sales processes may be the only alternative to still meet sales targets. The economy has affected vendors in different ways; some vendors on our 2008 SFA Magic Quadrant continued to see double-digit growth, while others dropped out of the market completely.

What Happened to the Sales Funnel?

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:30:00 EDT

In this new era of marketing, communications must focus on creating a dialogue, not just keeping in touch. If your marketing programs are only focused on the top of the funnel, you're missing a lot of opportunities. That's because the funnel is now more like a cylinder. It takes continuous effort to move leads across the buying process until they are sales ready.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – Be Present

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Be Present – Woody Allen (will he ever again be mentioned in a martial arts article? Doubtful) once said that 80% of life is showing up. He was right. If you don’t show up to class, you can’t learn. Sure you can stay at home and practice the moves, but nothing replaces having a real person in front of you or two to three people coming at you at once. Show up, clear all of the junk out of your mind that creates mental clutter and learn.

Value Is Where Value Lives - The Way of the 21st Century

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EDT

Remember the "good old days" when we sat around and waited for the marketer to tell us where the value was? Even if we didn't believe them, they would throw money at it and pound on us until we decided that there must be something there. Now the marketers have to fight the joined voices that work together through their shared contributions. These micro points of generated value come together to form a collective view on the overall value of the marketer's offering.

What are those voices fightin…

Strategy Beyond the Send

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:00:00 EDT

If your B2B lead nurturing strategy consists of one-off sends focusing on the topic of the moment, you need to re-think your marketing approach. This article examines why the one-off approach doesn't work and gives you an exercise for planning a nurturing program for extended engagement across the sales cycle.

Are You An IT Superhero?

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EDT

At times, do you think you're a Superman or Wonder Woman? Pitted in a daily struggle between the IT department and the business units? We all know that IT managers juggle a number of hats and scramble to put out dozens of fires, and truly can be a superhero to their organizations. But did you ever think about what kind of superhero you are? Where do you rank in the Legion of Superhero's taxonomy? Are you an IT Wolverine, Green Lantern or Flash? Take the IT X-Men (or Women) quiz to see if you have the right stuff to be an IT Superhero.

Bernie Borges' Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, implement it and measure results. Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing covers these topics:

The ERP Selection Process

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EDT

Developing your initial list of potential ERP vendors is a critical step in the ERP selection process. Your initial list of potential ERP suppliers will serve as the basis for which suppliers you will send Request for Information (RFI) documents. Suppliers’ responses to the RFI will in turn help you to eliminate some ERP vendors [...]

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Grows 75 percent in 2008

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:45:00 EDT

Gartner reported that the overall Customer Relationship Management software business had grown 12.5 percent in 2008. But the two clear winners for growth were Microsoft and Salesforce.com at 75 percent and 42.7 percent growth, re…

How to Avoid Investment Scams

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EDT

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has just published an article on Avoiding Investment Scams which is available below: FINRA Avoiding Investment Scams This article is six pages long, and depending upon your perspective, either teaches you how to run an investment scam or how to recognize one. It however, does not teach you how to avoid one in the first place. Here is a reprisal of the earlier piece we did on how to AVOID an investment scam:

Content without a Goal is Unemployed

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Every single piece of marketing content needs to be designed to achieve a goal. That goal should include delivering on the promise your title or associated messaging sets in the mind of your audience. Otherwise it's just blowing hot air that diminishes prospect interest. Use these tips to make sure your content is doing more than taking up white space on your web pages.

Quit Using Email to Train Your Leads to Ignore You

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:45:00 EDT

We've all experience "mosquito marketing." You know what I mean - those hit and run messages you ignore because they're more irritating than valuable. Becoming a trusted expert is now the prerequisite for catching your leads' attention. Email marketing takes more than hitting send. Find out how to structure your email marketing programs to become valued content resources your prospective buyers anticipate receiving.

Challenges And Opportunities for Open ERP

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EDT

New version 5 of Open ERP comes with a full review of the web site giving access to more than 1500 pages of documentations on business management and a reorganisation of the community sources build upon the Open Object framework. Also Open ERP offers to customers a set of editions that bundle Open ERP with commercial maintenance and services.