Archive for the ‘Enterprise’ Category
I recently had the pleasure of sitting on a panel that discussed how to effectively use social media in a federally regulated setting, such as a financial services company, public company or one of the “sin industries.”
A variety of federal agencies exist to monitor the practices of these industries from FINRA, the SEC and even the ATF. But none of them seem to have kept up with the rapid evolution of public relations and corporate communications practices. In fact, the FINRA document regulating online marketing practices for financial services companies is nearly a decade old.
But some government agencies are making strides to enter the modern information age. The SEC recently hired Mark Story to help connect to the new media scene. And its recent launch of investor.gov, a microsite dedicated to protecting and engaging with investors, shows just how far its come.
But there’s still a huge gap between accepted best practices for the use of social media technologies and what the federal government says you can and can’t do. The confrontationalist side of me says, if there are no rules, how can you break them?
But that is a dangerous precedent to set. Instead, we must develop suond practices that help interact with the community, but protect the interests of a company’s investors.
My advice
My simple advice is to know the rules. Then, come as close to breaking them as you can.
For example, about two years ago, the SEC revised its rules regarding the release of material information to include the use of a corporate blog as a means to do releases. So, time to set up that blog network for your audience. I have yet to see a company completely turn off its use of a wire service, however.
Also, FINRA has proposed an update to its rules, which strike me as a bit much. What do you think?
My value add is this presentation. Some of the elements didn’t quite make it into the Slideshare, but they were hilarious. Thanks again to Mark and Shannon Paul for taking the time to do this panel with me.
Tags: bwe09, Enterprise, ethics, REGFD, social media, Tips
Disclaimer, I adapted this from my blog for Etelos, as one of our executives will be speaking there.
Do you know what South by Southwest is? Sure, it’s a great music festival, but did you know it is also one of the best tech conferences around?
SXSW Interactive is a compilation of some super quality speakers and panels as well as some of the best networking (read: parties) around. It is by far one of the best events I’ve attended.
Loading…This year’s event, however, has a different appeal for me. I was able to secure a pretty powerful panel for Etelos founder & CEO Danny Kolke. OpenID, OAuth, Data Portability and the Enterprise will explore the challenges enterprise class companies face over data ownership.
Featuring Joseph Smarr from Plaxo, Kaliya Hamlin, AKA “Identitywoman” and Bob Blakely from the Burton Group will join Danny to discuss if OpenID and OAuth are good for the enterprise and how to implement them.
Shifting the focus
I think this will be an excellent topic for this year’s event. Layoffs are piling up, mandatory furloughs are being enforced and startups are folding. As the emphasis shifts from true innovation to a successful business model, the debate over identity and data ownership becomes essential.
A prospect or sales lead is an invaluable commodity, and this is even more true in today’s economic climate. But who owns that relationship? Who owns that customer’s contact information?
Meetup Tweetup Restup
Lots of exciting parties have already been announced and dozens more will undoubtedly pop up as March approaches. I have an awesome idea for a smaller, more intimate meetup opportunity if anybody is looking for an opportunity to host something.
I look forward to meeting you all out there and discussing some public relations goodies. As an extra bonus, Kaliya is organizing a lunch that will follow the panel. Come, join us there too!
I’m in the process of building up a schedule, but I want to get your input. What sessions have you excited? What speakers must you see? What parties are already on your list? Fill out the handy-dandy form or post a comment.
Tags: Add new tag, conversation, Enterprise, friends, Kolke, OAuth, OpenID, party, relationships, revenue, socialmedia, SXSW
Do you work for a company that hasn’t yet adopted social media practices? Perhaps you are the one implementing a strategy to stay connected to your audiences. But, what rules are there?
As I mentioned recently, social media and social marketing are in their infancies and we are defining the rules. But defining these rules is especially important for companies. Having clear guidelines makes a social media program versatile and transferable. Plus, it will make the lives of compliance officers a bit less stressful.
Don’t be an idiot
Sounds simple enough, right? If you are acting as a representative of a company anywhere that is visible to the general public, act as if your boss is reading over your shoulder (If you’re the boss, act as if your leading investor is over your shoulder). Having a little conscious whispering in your ear while you type should keep you clear.
Keeping a positive focus on the actions of the company should be a priority for the social media practitioner. It shares the spotlight with fostering discussion of the company’s activities.
Maintain your voice
When you operate as the voice of the company, it will be difficult to keep your voice out of the materials you generate — learn to embrace that. You will create “better” content if you keep true to your personal writing style and voice. Copy will come more naturally and your audiences will be able to better relate to it so long as you are being genuine.
Write what you know; write how you know and you’ll be surprised at the results. Plus, you will avoid the leading, unique tendencies to be a ground-breaking leader in your content vertical i.e. “marketing speak.”
Active or passive
When you are creating a content channel, make an overt decision on whether it will actively participate in any discussions that may or may not occur. Of course, I would recommend being an active voice within the community you are trying to create around your service or product. But it is sometimes necessary to broadcast.
What I would avoid, however, is simply being one or the other. If you only broadcast, no discussion, no community occurs. And that defeats the purpose of social media/marketing as a whole. If you are only responding to comments or external discussions, the audience controls the conversation. And, while it is important to participate, it is necessary that you lead the discussion as it relates to your product or service.
To delete or not to delete
Regardless of how you engage, be it broadcasting or conversing, I would strongly advise to proactively react to negative comments and feedback. Deleting the critical material is ultimately up to you, but I feel that addressing the issues is important. Unless the complaint is patently wrong.
Keep it current
Post, create content and keep it up to date. Not much to say beyond that.
Make it good
Making content that doesn’t suck is generally a good idea. If your job is to blog, make sure you read some of the popular blogs and see what makes them popular. Are they funny? Do they use lots of word play? How many links do they use? And so on. The point is to provide value to the people that pay your company money and the people you want to pay your company money.
Your tweets, blog posts etc… should be checked for grammar/spelling/typos. Your videos should have decent sound quality. Your podcasts should have a quick edit done to kill dead air or pregnant pauses. Posting solid content makes for a happy audience. It is frustrating to read through a post that is rife with errors.
Setting up social media rules is a difficult challenge to say the least. The problems compound when you add in the layers that are natural in a company. But I think that perhaps the most important rule should be “Don’t be afraid of change.”
What has worked in your company? How do you participate? What rules do you have? Share them in the comments.
Tags: genuine, Participate, relationships, socialmedia, Tips
I know it’s late for this, but hey, the idea popped into my head now. As we enter 2009, a lot of questions surround the general business landscape. But what are you doing to answer them? What are your business resolutions for the new year?
Kick ass
Simple enough, right? But let me expand upon kicking ass. I have found that it is simpler, more accurate and more rewarding to set micro-goals. Treat each task as an individual challenge and you will soon find that the end result will be better than you could have hoped for.
By simplifying and refining your goals, it will be easier to kick ass. And you’re kicking ass more often, which feels pretty good too.
Know your surroundings
Take a couple of hours and set up an RSS aggregator to monitor the fire hose of information that is pointed at your brain. Subscribe to new blogs and even delete a few of the old subscriptions. Google Reader or Yahoo Pipes makes it pretty simple to organize the information down to whatever level you want.
When you have your information coming at you in a controlled manner, it is easier to monitor trends, react to market demands and keep tabs on competitors. Which helps you stay ahead of the curve.
Participate
I can’t say enough about how important it is to be involved. Be involved with your users, your partners and your competitors. It is not necessary to have every conversation occur about you or your product, but it is pretty important to participate in almost every conversation.
By participating in events, blog posts and conversations, you are able to build a reputation and relationships that will only benefit you.
Enjoy life
I am a proponent of a work/life balance. I am hearing more and more stories of people burning out from trying to stay ahead of the curve. Don’t forget to enjoy life. If you have non-work hobbies, embrace them. If you have a family, embrace them. If you have a garden, embrace it.
So, what are your resolutions? What steps will you take to ensure your success for the next 12 months?
Tags: Enterprise, execution, planning
I think that 2009 will be the rise of the microbusiness. In today’s technology world, a win is no longer getting hired as an engineer at IBM or a marketer for Microsoft. Rather, it is finding clients as an independent “consultant” or working with a small startup that sees some element of success.
According to TechCrunch, more than 100,000 layoffs occurring in the tech sector at the end of 2008. And some of the largest numbers came from large enterprises. No longer is joining an established tech company a refuge for talented people who find themselves jobless as companies such as Sony, 3M and AT&T announcing heavy cuts.
The rise of the microbusiness
Using TechCrunch’s numbers, this is more than 100,000 people that are looking for a paycheck. Not necessarily a career, but a paycheck. They are taking freelance development and design gigs, working with staffing agencies or services such as Elance and building a modest client base.
But a decision will need to be made. Do they continue down the freelance path or seek the stability, opportunity and shelter of a full-time job? Freelancing is a contact sport these days and strong, talented and effective people will survive.
Unfortunately, most statistics aren’t current, but to give you some idea of what I’m talking about, here are some stats I was able to find:
- According to the US Census Bureau, 17,646,062 firms existed in 2002 that were classified as “nonemployers.” This meant that they were one-person businesses. This represented more than two-thirds of all businesses in the US at the time.
- By 2004, the number of nonemployer firms was 19,523,741.
- In 2004, of the 5,885,784 firms with paid employees, 3,821,128 had fewer than 10 employees.
- Sole proprietorships can be lucrative. According to BizStats, Internet publishing-Broadcasting businesseshad a net profit margin of nearly 65% in 2004.
- According to SCORE, there were 637,100 new businesses, 560,300 business closures and 28,322 bankruptcies in 2007.
These numbers show that we’re not afraid to venture to new, uncharted territory. When we take control of our own destinies, we are able to shape our lives to fit our ideal. What is your ideal?
Charting the path
This is where technology comes into play. Building a product is easier, cheaper and faster than ever. Social media and social networking are eliminating a lot of the overhead and burn that would consume an investment. Social networks, blogging and social advocacy are making it easy to create a network of passionate users.
All of these changes will make it easier for entrepreneurs to venture out as sole proprietors and make a product or a service that works. Sure, there will be some casualties. There always is. But, what makes microbusinesses different is the sef-reliance, bootstrapping mentality will come back into vogue. New avenues will be explored and new revenue streams will be identified.
What will you do to make your microbusiness succeed? How will you move your idea forward and make your microbusiness succeed?
Tags: business, entreprenuer, revenue, wacky idea
Originally posted on the Etelos blog, but I’ve added some extra commentary here.
Do your customers and prospects trust your blogs? New research from Forrester says they don’t.
Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff recently released a report that had this interesting tidbit, amongst others:
Consumers trust company blogs less than any other channel.
This result comes from a survey wedid in Q2 of 2008. Have a look at the data yourself. Not only do blogs rank below newspapers and portals, they rank below wikis, direct mail, company
email, and message board posts. Only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them. If you’re a corporate blogger or somebody who advises companies, you need to take this into account.
I’d like to know if you trust what we say here on these pages. we strive to create an open discussion on cloud computing, enterprise software and Web app distribution, amongst other topics.
Last year, Etelos was named as one of Inside CRM’s top 20 corporate blogs because we have made an effort to make sure every post is not a promotional spin piece for Etelos.
More to the story
There’s more to this story, though. In the original post, Bernoff lists other sources that people trust more than corporate blogs.
This graph is from Forrester and explains the break down in what sources people trust.
“Email from people you know” at the top is no surprise, but to see items such as wikis and yellow pages ranked higher is interesting. Most yellow pages services are sponsored listings — ads.
Quite frankly, I’m more willing to put faith in a quality, open and honest blog post than in an ad.
What I see in the general trend of trusted sources is that newer sources of energy are decidedly at the bottom of the list, while established or older relationships trend toward the top.
Earning trust
In his summary blog post, Bernoff advises that an open discourse is essential to establishing trust. Basically, what that means is that trust is earned. For a smaller company in a specialized industry such as we are, this trust is earned first in a small circle of companies.
So, how can companies earn trust? Here’s a couple of ways:
- Don’t just blog about the positives. Perfect software doesn’t exist, especially if yours is wearing a Beta tag.
- Link out, link early and link often. I feel that referring to others enhances your credibility.
- Let your content speak to your expertise. If you are truly innovative, your content will say so.
- Convers with your readers. Invite comments, respond to comments and post comments on others blogs.
So, my challenge to you is to earn some trust. Let me know what steps you’re doing to earn that trust.
Tags: conversation, marketing, Participate, PR Tips
Yeah, I said it. Marketing is a bunch of CRAP! But not the kind of crap you may be thinking I mean. I am talking about C.R.A.P.: Communicate, relate, anticipate and participate.
These are the foundations of an effective marketing campaign and will help any brand, any PR pro or any marketer work better with their clients and potential customers. So, spread the CRAP and let me know what you think.
Communicate
Photo from Flickr user kool_skatkat under Creative Commons.
This is a pretty obvious practice and should be standard operating procedure. Communicating means not just broadcasting, but responding and conversing with your audience as well. Most organizations fall short in a couple of key areas.
Openness is essential. The Beta’s delayed? Say so. There’s a bug? Fix it, apologize and move on to new features. There is a limit to how open you want to be, but I feel that in order for a company to succeed, it needs to be as open as responsibly possible.
Brevity is a key. I have invented a word: conciseification (ironic, no?), which means “take what you said in 500 words and say it in 200. Take your four sentences and make them two. By tightening your message, it becomes more memorable. The recipient can take the message away much easier.
Listening makes you a good spouse. By actively listening and conversing with your audience, they feel respected, empowered and happy. A happy audience is one of the most effective marketing tools possible.
Relate
Relating to your potential market is absolutely essential. Don’t just go to the trade show, take it over. Be a presence anywhere your potential customer base is at. This does not need to be huge parties, expensive sponsorships or even in-depth webinars.
A simple hello or a simple appearance at a meetup is enough. People will remember the brand or the business that goes the extra step to go to a Barcamp or to go to a PHP Meetup. Your competition isn’t doing it, so you should be.
Anticipate
This is probably the hardest premise to follow. In the tech business, people the customers generally get what they want. How can you as a marketer anticipate what the customer wants? Easy: Follow the other three elements of this post.
By communicating, relating and participating, you become an expert. You can identify trends and you can jump ahead of the mob to deliver the solution it is running toward.
Participate
I thought about just retyping the word “participate.” But I realized there’s a lot more to participation than being present. You’re participating because you have a goal: to succeed. But if you are genuinely passionate about the product or brand you are representing, then it will show.
Photo from Flickr user matiasjajaja under Creative Commons.
These concepts make for an effective cornerstone for a product launch, a new campaign or simply reconnecting with your audience. Step in this CRAP and the only thing you’ll smell is success. What do you think?
Tags: idea, marketing, PR