Book Review: Empowered Is More Than Empty Words

Filed under Resources by Aaron Pearson on 11 April 2011 at 21:02 {one comment}

Forrester’s Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler’s New Book Is a Practical Guide for Unleashing Social Innovation by Employees

I have one more book review post for a while – this one being Empowered, by Forrester Research’s Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler. This is a follow up to Bernoff and Charlene Li’s well-known book Groundswell, and was published late last year by Harvard Business Review Press.

Let’s get right to it: I highly recommend this book.  It’s the best one I’ve read in a while. It dispenses with “social media will save the world” hype and gets on with the very real-world challenges of just how to go about encouraging social media-led innovation in your organization. In fact, it’s more a guidebook for supporting any kind of innovation involving technology in this era of “consumerized IT.”

Bernoff and Schadler introduce the concept of HEROes – Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives, who are the key to helping stay ahead of the competition and keep up with your customers in the social era. You can shut them down or you can nurture them along. Obviously, we hope you opt for the latter.

Most of the social media books out there focus on how to connect with customers successfully via social networks. As important as that may be, those efforts won’t scale at a larger company without the support of senior management and IT. The focus on those internal dynamics is what makes this book particularly valuable. That leads to what the authors call the HERO Compact. In short, they note:

“IT is responsible for supporting HEROes with technology innovation, giving leaders the tools to manage risk, and scaling up successful solutions.

Managers are responsible for making customer-focused innovation a priority, establishing the governance structures to support HEROes, and working with IT to manage the business risk of technology.

HEROes are responsible for knowing what customers need, experimenting with technologies that solve customer problems, and operating within the safety principles established by IT and managers.”

Helpfully, they then provide a Pledge in the HERO Compact for each of those three audiences (e.g. IT will focus on technology innovation as a core skill so they can counsel HEROes when they come with technology ideas, etc.).

My favorite story was how HERO Rob Sharpe of Black & Decker sales training turned to YouTube to transform training on their products into an engaging, collaborative experience in which training time has been cut in half and the salespeople themselves are submitting a lot of the videos. Interestingly, the IT staff has learned from Rob and is now employing online video for their own training.

If you find yourself in a larger company with inevitable organizational complexity and in any of those three HERO Compact roles, this book gives you some great material for ensuring you are effectively moving innovation forward – quickly, strategically and safely.

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Spotlight on Healthcare from HIMSS 2011

Filed under Discussion by Aaron Pearson on 28 February 2011 at 11:26 {2 comments}

I got back Wednesday night from the HIMSS Show, which is essentially the Consumer Electronics Show of the health IT industry. It’s a good opportunity to share what I’m seeing in marketing to healthcare providers, including at HIMSS specifically.

It’s a hot market. Thanks to both the HITECH Act, which provides funding for the meaningful use of electronic medical records, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which brings millions more Americans into the healthcare system and encourages the creation of new kinds of entities like health insurance exchanges and accountable care organizations, providers have a lot to deal with, and of course vendors are rushing to their aid.

This wasn’t a market that saw much or any recession, which meant the pick-up now is all the more pronounced. The show broke a record with more than 31,000 attendees and 900 exhibitors. And the vendors didn’t hold back, with booths at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and featuring in-booth 3D videos, a Back to the Future replica DeLorean and a Tesla sports car.

Here are just a few of the trends I saw at the show:

Tablets are Everywhere. It might be that the B2B industry where tablets can have the most impact is healthcare, and that was certainly apparent on the show floor. This is an industry that’s all about fast collection and access to information and yet almost nobody is sitting at a desk. Doctors, nurses, and lab technicians, not to mention the patients themselves, and been slow to let go of paper, and no wonder. But the iPad and emerging Android tablets may finally get us there.

Interoperability is Key. One of my own clients, IEEE, played a key role in setting up an acre-sized interoperability lab at the show, along with about 80 other organizations and vendors. HIMSS notes that a typical 100-bed hospital utilizes hundreds of interfaces to transfer patient data from department to department. For all the wonder of the innovations from the vendors on the main show floor, it was at least as important to see them working together in Hall E.

Strong Social Media Presence: Healthcare is still served by a robust ecosystem of healthcare trade publications, but social media influencers like Dr. David Kibbe and Dr. Jim Marks at the Health Care Blog or the anonymous blogger at HIStalk have made coverage more social. The #HIMSS11 hash tag was scrolling fast and furious on Tweetchat throughout the show. A professional journalist staffed the HIMSS YouTube channel, shooting many videos with a simple flip cam. There was even a large Social Media Center on the show floor with its own track of sessions.

A warm-weather break for HIMSS conference-goers, such as snow-bound yours truly. I didn't have time to sit at the pool but lunch outside was glorious.

Deadlines and Challenges: There are several looming IT challenges facing the industry. For instance, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) were a result of the ACA and are designed to be provider-led organizations that are responsible for improving the health of the populations they serve while controlling costs. Particularly in educational sessions, payers, providers and other industry stakeholders were struggling to envision what this world might look like. Another is the adoption of ICD-10 coding, which is sort of a Y2K moment for healthcare, as 14,000+ new codes for describing various diseases, conditions and other diagnoses must be adopted system-wide. And of course, many providers are struggling to demonstrate “meaningful use” of EMRs in a three-phase process between now and 2015.

I love health IT – it’s such a dynamic, challenging industry and the potential impact on people’s lives is high. The industry may be in something of a bubble, however. Dollars will get tighter and consolidation is likely. The industry also stands to become more global as countries around the world look to best practices wherever they can find them. Hang on.

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What a Wonderful ‘Mesh’ We’ve Made!

Filed under Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 11 February 2011 at 11:04 {3 comments}

There have been countless books published about social media in general but now we’re starting to see business books about emerging business models that are enhanced by social networks, but that aren’t about the networks themselves. One of these is The Mesh, by Lisa Gansky, which was published in September.

Gansky’s Mesh model is about “network-enabled sharing.” It’s about offerings that can be shared rather than owned, with usage and customer information tracked and analyzed via Web and mobile data networks and with marketing powered largely via word of mouth (juiced via social media if possible).  The classic offerings are generally physical goods, especially those goods we use somewhat infrequently and that are relatively expensively like specialty sports equipment or a house or land.

Why do I care as a B2B marketer? Because there are significant value chain implications for a lot of B2B companies if in fact many consumer product companies shift to selling shared offerings from selling products outright. For a component supplier, product durability and quality become more important factors than just lowest price. Repair services become B2B offerings instead of B2C offerings – it’s now the responsibility of the retailer to maintain those items for the next person who shares them. There are new information technology opportunities to help Mesh businesses collect different kinds of information. Asset tracking and management becomes of interest for a lot more types of companies than just airlines and trucking companies.

Like Erik Qualman in Socialnomics, Gansky certainly brings wide-eyed optimism to her concept, contending that the recent recession has changed consumers’ thinking about financial responsibility and debt while growing sustainability awareness is causing consumers to question our throw-away society. I’m sure that’s true for some, but I believe this is still going to come down to hard decisions about cost vs. perceived value for most consumers. Moreover, Mesh businesses aren’t altogether new. In fact, although companies like Blockbuster have since been clobbered by the likes of Netflix, in their day they enabled video tapes and then DVDs to explode for the very Meshy reason that we got a lot more value out of borrowing lots of movies once than owning fewer of them outright. That said, it’s a concept that would be good to see catch on and it’s great for entrepreneurial thinking.

Here are some of the B2B companies impacted by the Mesh as highlighted in the book:

  • Amazon Web Services:  Cloud computing enables companies to avoid building expensive data centers and instead focus on more distinctive aspects of their businesses.
  • Kickstarter: This service connects “micro-patrons” to inventors, artists and other creators to help fund their ideas.
  • RedesignMe: This site provides a platform to connect designers to companies who need them.
  • IBM: A growing group of companies is keying on the need for growing networks of wireless sensors to help connect anything to the “Internet of things.”
  • SAP:  A number of enterprise software companies like SAP are using social networks to involve their customers much more closely in developing future versions of software and in helping the customer base with the existing versions.

Frankly, Gansky could use some more B2B examples, which perhaps points to opportunity. Some of these companies, like IBM, provide the infrastructure to make Mesh business models work. Others like Kickstarter serve as supply chain supporters for Mesh businesses and others like Amazon Web Services are true Mesh enterprises themselves.

It’s a thought-starter book, creative thinking, and a pretty quick read.  Check it out.

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You’re Not Marketing to a “B”, so How Well Do You Know Your “P”?

Filed under Soap Box by Aaron Pearson on 3 October 2010 at 23:52 {no comments}

Do we do enough research into our target audiences?  What are they reading, who are they listening to, who do they trust, why do they buy, what do they care about? Consumer marketers do.  I don’t think we do enough.  Why isn’t it as culturally ingrained in B2B marketing communications programs to get the kind of research to really profile our audiences that way?  Maybe we think we’re selling to companies or institutions.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
Peter F. Drucker

We’re not. We like to go on and on about how B2B is different than B2C, but the fact is, who’s the B?  It’s a person. Actually, it’s probably a team of people. And as such they’re all different and they relate with each other in complicated ways, with a mix of respect, trust, suspicion, envy, aspirations and worries. And every B you target presents a different mix of such people. As Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer has said, “B2B is more P2P – people to people.” We’ve got to get into their heads and sort these relationships, motivations and interests all out so we have some chance of getting all those Ps to give our products or services a chance.

Every day I preach how we need to explain in a clear and compelling way how that product should resonate with the ever-evolving critical business challenges of the industry being targeted. But that really isn’t enough. We need to resonate with regular people. Our P2P-focused social media tools only make this more apparent.

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Customer References: What’s In It For Them?

Filed under Discussion by Aaron Pearson on 2 August 2010 at 16:46 {one comment}

I don’t think I’ve ever had a client without a customer reference problem.  Let me know if you’re an exception – I’d love to know how you found the path to reference nirvana.

Let’s face it, it’s not going to be easy. At the same time, nurturing customer references might be the most important part of your marketing program. Every study I’ve ever read about what influences B2B business buyers puts the personal recommendations of peers and colleagues at No. 1, and it’s not even close. So let’s just roll up our sleeves and accept we’re going to have to work at this.

from jasonkeath on Flickr

My theory is that customer references are more sustainable and have more influence on your prospects if there’s something in it for the reference. But it’s not just the obvious. Yes, a thank you in the form of a dinner or a gift is a nice gesture.  But for your best references, it’s ultimately about access and networking:  access to your senior leadership and experts, and networking with peers.

Well this is exactly what you should want!  If you want to maximize the ability of your best customers to help create new ones, they need to know more than just the details of their own project. They need to know your strategy and where you’re headed. Their conception of that strategy may be two years out of date (valid when they originally bought your product or service). That means they may very well be spreading the word about a company strategy or product direction that’s no longer valid and that may as a result attract the wrong prospects and deflect the right ones. More than that, senior-level decision makers in particular know that the most valuable commodity they and your leaders have is time, and investing it tells both parties they are important to each other and breeds loyalty.

Your customers value access to peers to network and learn. It can be difficult to form those relationships, especially when those organizations are separated by thousands of miles and every day seems so busy it’s just about survival. You bring a lot of value when you creating opportunities to bring these individuals together in interactive settings. (And by the way, by interactive, I don’t mean to suggest that this can be a webex or conference call – there’s a place for some virtual engagement but it’s face-to-face that cements relationships.)

Of course, some customers, for whatever reason, won’t be particularly interested in participating in your program even if their experience with your product has been positive.  That’s okay. Keep them happy – because they may find they get their voice back as a badvocate – but move on to others to be the lead customer advocates for your company.

That’s the relationship side of the success equation.  There’s also the process side, which is equally important.  You’ll need someone to manage all this.  Check out Kyle Flaherty on his Dances With Strangers blog for more on that: “These programs are important.  They are the lifeblood of supporting numerous sales and marketing activities, plan accordingly and have someone dedicated to making sure that things are done right. “  Technology tools are helpful, like Boulder Logic’s customer reference program add-on for Salesforce.com.

Best wishes.  As long as this is going to be a significant undertaking, let’s try to get the best possible customer engaged in the program.

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Channeling Your Inner CIO

Filed under Application, Discussion, Resources by Allan Schoenberg on 27 April 2010 at 10:27 {no comments}

Ever since I was introduced to CIO magazine several years ago I was immediately drawn to the similarities faced by both CIOs and chief communicators. Perhaps it’s just me, but I read CIO magazine not necessarily for the IT information (which I also enjoy), but with every article I substitute CIO with CCO or CMO. Go ahead and try it. Here’s one that recently caught my eye:  From the CEO: 5 Questions CIOs Need to Answer.

cio-logo_180x109

I’ve taken those five items and listed them here, but with viewpoint of someone in communications:

1. Do we understand what we broke, and what is our plan to fix it?

If you have the perfect communications team than you can skip this point. If not, keep reading. Most discussions with CEOs revolve around helping the business and with communications that’s no different. CEOs always challenge us to improve, to be better than the competition and to find solutions to win customers. This also can apply to your company’s reputation. How do your customers view you positively and where can you improve? These are issues CEOs look to us to fix.

2. How do we get full potential from discretionary spending?

How often do you review your budget and make changes? Are you maximizing that discretionary spending? And where can you improve your budget in order to help the organization achieve its business goals. In today’s economy in particular, CEOs want to ensure every department across the enterprise is getting the best return on investment. Are you?

3. How will we drive unnecessary complexity out of IT?

This point obviously speaks to complexities of software and hardware, but this still applies to communicators. Where is complexity in your department? Are  you sharing metrics? Are you maximizing events? Is social media a cross-department effort? We all have complexities that we can tear out of our marketing and communication systems, but finding them and fixing them takes time and effort.

4. How will we take better advantage of “good enough” solutions?

Yes, your news release is good enough — you saw the stories. Your web site too since people are visiting. And I’m sure your advertising is good enough as well. But you’re competitive, right? What will you do to take the risks to really make your brand stand out? We all have a lot of “standard” communication tools available to us, and no where is this more evident than with social media. We all have these “free” tools but where are you excelling?

5. How do we make outsourcing more strategic?

That new agency you hired — are you tapping into their best resources? Do you go with size and depth of the big agency or lean and nimble from the small agency? These are key decisions we all need to make as the playing field becomes more competitive for us. If your agency isn’t constantly challenging you to do the right/best thing, actively reviewing your activities and asking you tough questions than maybe it’s time you need a more strategic partner.

I am a huge supporter of working as close as possible with your IT team (my earlier post on working with InfoSec) and I encourage you to work more closely with them as well. I think you will be surprised at the number of similarities.  There’s an entire list of email newsletters available at CIO and I would encourage you to sign up and read CIO Leader and CIO Insider, but read them from a communicators perspective. I think you’ll find yourself thinking differently and developing some new ideas for implementing your strategy.

Let us know your thoughts. And if you happen to pass your CIO in the hall offer to take him/her to lunch. They can probably learn a lot from you as well.



Listening & Responding to Customers: Industries That Have Struggled Are Making Strides

Filed under Other Voices Interview, Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 28 January 2010 at 12:42 {9 comments}

A Q&A With Jeannie Walters, Founder, 360Connext

Jeannie Walters’s Chicago-based consulting firm specializes in the cornerstones of customer experience, including customer engagement, employee engagement and connections like social media. Before starting 360Connext, she spent 12 years at Vox, a customer experience consulting firm, eventually as President and Partner. Walters specializes in helping companies achieve more loyalty from employees, customers and prospects through improved experiences at every level.

Jeannie Walters, Founder, 360Connext

Jeannie Walters, Founder, 360Connext

I spent some time last week talking with her about the profound impact improved customer engagement can have in B2B, both in terms of strengthening existing business relationships and in unleashing those customers as word-of-mouth advocates for your brand.

Aaron: Talk a little about what you learned at Vox that reflects your priorities now at 360Connext.

Jeannie: A main focus for me has been around the customer experience, and typically no one person owns that function so it touches a lot of areas. Employee engagement is one of the easiest ways you can influence customer experience so that’s a big focus for me right now. For example there are a lot of companies right now that have laid off employees and you need to keep those remaining employees focused on the mission. The other area that’s really coming to life is social media to connect directly with customers, and that goes to both content and communication. But most customer initiatives don’t typically work, because it has to become a part of the organization’s culture.

Aaron: Changing culture is a very long-term process, right?

Jeannie: It is, but one step people can take is to really understand what your customer experience is right now. I’ve worked with large companies like Allstate and AIG and that’s a daunting effort. So you need to take it one piece at a time. For instance, look just at your social media strategy. Or just look at conversion rates online. Then take those learnings and apply them to the next piece and the next piece. Don’t expect a CRM system to be a magic bullet to [fully understand the customer experience].

Now my focus is more on midsized companies because in a lot of ways, you can move things a lot quicker, make changes easier. Oftentimes, midsized companies are still run by the original leader. They are often more passionate about the customer experience too.

Aaron: How do you engage employees in customer experience initiatives? It’s not just about the marketing and sales people, right?

Jeannie: The problem is we often focus on the salesperson relationship but often after the deal those people move on. So companies need to focus on retention as much as acquisition. All the money and resources go to acquisition or selling – making the sale. …

A lot of the [employee engagement problem] relates to hiring the right people and making sure they’re the type of people that solve problems and are service-oriented. Because if you get feedback from customers, you need people who are really prepared to respond.

Aaron: So what are some of the best practices in being responsive to customers?

Jeannie: Be very public about feedback and use it. There are some SaaS [Software as a Service] companies that do a great job of that. They say, “Customers, we heard from you and so we’re doing x, y and z” with our software. The other thing is kind of empowering employees to solve problems. Call centers are often incented to spend less time on the phone and that’s terrible.

Aaron: I’ve actually heard of call center workers purposely faking connection problems to rack up a bunch of short calls.

Jeannie: Yes it’s better for them if they hang up.

Aaron: Of course, it can be hard to find the resources for solving that caller’s problem right then and there, especially with complex products.

Jeannie: So you need to be realistic, about whether we can call you back for instance. At the end of the day, humans are reasonable. The rub comes in when the expectation comes a certain way and is not delivered. Cell phone companies are finally figuring out that service is what they do and getting much better at call center service.

Aaron: Talk about customer events. Do people use them well?

Jeannie: Social media has done a lot to promote events better and to help companies understand what customers are looking for. People want substance, and especially with complicated products, they want to understand how to make this work better for me, and another customer can help them understand that best. SaaS companies have also done a great job here by bringing together their power users to help [these other customers] and that’s had a lot more influence on the experience.

Aaron: It’s interesting that you keep bringing up SaaS companies – these are companies that realize they are service companies, not software companies, so it seems natural that they would really be focused on listening to and responding to the customer, true?

Jeannie: Absolutely true. Also, look at banks and how they used to be known for abusing small business clients. They took your business for granted and then realized people have more choices. Some banks have been strugging with family-run businesses because the clientele is dying off and they didn’t reach out to the next generation. I had a client who found their business customers had a relationship with their banker. So if the banker moved on, so did the business. In response, the bank started creating small business-focused events – forums for small business customers. AmEx Open Forum is an example of that. If you are an AmEx busines customer and carry an Open card, you get access to other entrepreneuers like yourself. The part of the pendulum swing that we’re in is exclusive memberships. I predict we’ll see more of that. People want to find the right people a little easier.

Predictions for B2B Social Media Use in 2010

Filed under Discussion by Kate Brodock on 3 January 2010 at 19:33 {4 comments}

As the last in my series of 2010 prediction posts, here are some of my thoughts looking forward to the next year in B2B social media use.

  1. Social media use will grow horizontally in the B2B space. This means there will be a lot more industries that will be represented on social media than there have been thus far.  And we’re talking a lot more industries like cementing or manufacturing.
  2. Because of the horizontal and first-time occurrences mentioned above, it also means there will be some industries that will be under-represented in the social media sphere, but that will develop front runners who will get significant advantages within those respective industries.
  3. While being more accepted, there will be more boundaries placed on how many B2B industries us social media.  There won’t be so much “stuff” to play with because implementers will realize that there are particular tools that are more helpful for B2B purposes, and that there are many tools that just won’t work.
  4. Social media will be used heavily for internal use in the B2B space.
  5. There will be a lot more multimedia uses, specifically video.
  6. As for all social media marketing, it will be a question of how to interact with people rather than simply where.  This goes a long with the idea of strategy trumping tactics, but it really emphasizes putting together a fuller picture of what can be done with social media tools in B2B and applying in a more focused way.

What do you think will happen in the next year?

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Community is Like a Dinner Party

Filed under Discussion, Guest Post by Kate Brodock on 24 June 2009 at 08:34 {no comments}

This is a guest post by Rachel Happe, the Principal and co-Founder of The Community Roundtable, a peer network for community managers and social media practitioners.

Most of us have heard some version of “Social Media/Twitter is like a Cocktail Party” and while this is hardly a new meme, I wanted to add my perspective because a party is not a party is not a party. I have a soapbox topic that is related which is social media is not community – even though it may share many of the same characteristics.  To me it is like saying a cocktail party is not a dinner party – most people would agree.  I like both as an individual but one represents my circle of acquaintances and the other represents people with whom I have more intimate relationships. For business, that is very similar to a marketing funnel – and depending on what type of business you are in, one may be more important than the other. In particular, if you are marketing to businesses rather than individuals, the deeper relationships engendered by “dinner parties” are critical to your marketing efforts.
There are a few characteristics of a good dinner party that make it special and different:

  • The food and wine are typically more elaborate and sophisticated
  • Your attention is focused on a small set of guests all evening
  • The music is mellow to allow for in depth conversations
  • Guests are introduced to other people they are likely to enjoy meeting
  • The host or hostess mixes things up, ensures the conversation keeps moving, and draws out their guests
  • You put out your best dinnerware

Done well, the host of a dinner party makes their guests feel welcome, comfortable, interesting, and desirable. It is a pretty good ‘tool’ for establishing closer relationships with people and making them want to stay friend with you.

What can businesses learn? Sure, throw a lot of cocktail parties (i.e. use social media tools), you have to get your name out and chat with the crowd… but make sure you also throw some fabulous dinner parties – or get invited to them because those are the events that allow you to have a richer conversation. Niche communities are where people will trust each other, participate in deeper conversations about their needs, and really get to know you. Setting up a community to serve the same purpose as a dinner party requires:

  • A appealing location (even if that location is virtual) that encourages conversation and connections
  • Good content that will encourage the conversations you want the group to have
  • A community manager who facilitates introductions, highlights content, and keeps the conversation going
  • Participation of experts and thought leaders that people want to meet – whether from within your own company or external

You can throw the dinner party, which may cost more but you get to decide who gets invited, or you can work on being a sought-after guest – someone that helps hosts provide good content and/or energy. But beware: It is all to easy to provide an appealing location, invite people over and assume they will form a tight knit community. But think about throwing a dinner party, having people come over and then spending the evening in another room – maybe yelling out to them every once in a while. Awkward, no? People would chit chat a little but the conversation would be stilted because there they are, sitting in your living room… waiting for you and the food, eventually leaving in disappointment and annoyance.

Communities are a phenomenal way of developing relationships with prospects and customers… but don’t think they will effortlessly develop. Want to understand them a little better? Go home and plan a dinner party.

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4 Great Reasons to Start a Social Media Program as a B2B

Filed under Application by Kate Brodock on 3 April 2009 at 11:12 {5 comments}

A lot of B2B marketing professionals or departments have wondered what, if any, benefit they would get out of adding social media components to their marketing plans. Isn’t that for consumer-facing companies?

Here are 4 ways to start thinking about incorporating social media within your company:

Thought Leadership

  • Provide valuable information that establishes your company as an innovate thinker in your industry.  The end goal is to position yourself as an industry leader.
  • You could post a blog on useful industry information, again providing timely and innovative content to your readers.  Kinaxis has done a good job at this with their blog, The 21st Century Supply Chain.
  • Develop a complete content production program with such things as eBooks, white papers, webcasts etc and utilize social media channels to disseminate your information.
  • Part of the concept of a content production plan is that the information that you’re outputting is ultimately connected to your brand in the eyes of the reader.

Research

Marketing Profs has a great post about the benefits of social media for B2B companies.  I won’t re-invent the wheel, as they did a great job in explaining it. They focused primarily on the research advantages it offers, with the following highlights:

  • Conducting research to understand more about a prospect’s or client’s “buying desires.”
  • Finding decision makers for certain products and services.
  • Extracting names from a given community for lead generation.
  • Getting answers to questions, reaching out to other experts.
  • Finding joint-venture marketing partners and creating various “cooperative opportunities.”
  • Connecting with past customers, keeping them up-to-date.

Brand Outreach

  • People often gather online around common interests or professions.  Many are employed in their field and, if not in a decision-making position, are at least closer to the decision-maker than you may be.  Join in their conversation in a valuable way.
  • Sponsor groups or networks that offer a forum of exchange and engagement for people that might be in what you consider your “target company” (see above).

Communication and Customer Service

  • The ability to connect with customers and clients in a way the offers 2-way communication and conversation can greatly increase relationships between parties.  Rethink the way you communicate with your clients.
  • Use new technologies to streamline the flow of information. Offer a platform to discuss pertinent issues and share knowledge on such topics as R&D, sales, supply chain, production and marketing.

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