Groundswell, Canadians embrace social technology……….
Hands down, Groundswell is one of my favourite, top five, books on social media. It outlines the POST strategy (People, Objective, Strategy, and Technology) for creating a strategy for social media in your business. I’m a stickler for creating a social media strategy because ultimately we want to see results from our social media marketing. It’s a great read, pick it up.
Check out some of these impressive statistics from the Groundswell blog:
- With 79% of online Canadians connecting with social content in some way at least once a month, Canadians are among the most active consumers in any country we survey.
- Well over half of online Canadians connect with social networks.
- As in other countries, young Canadians use social technology more than older Canadians, but Gen X Canadians are still very active, with 85% using some form of social technology at least monthly.
After reading Groundswell I had a chance to surf their blog. Also, a really good read. They have a social technology profile tool for profiling your customer’s social computing behaviours. When I prepared to use the tool to create a profile of my clients based on the criteria’s required, I noticed one glaring oversight. When it came to choosing the country in which my business resides, Canada, was not on the list!!!??? As a hockey lovin hoser I was a little put off by this, eh!
Well, fear not my fellow Canucks; they have released that very information for Canada. Please review and discover:
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/12/new-data-canadians-embrace-social-technology.html
Richard: Centricity360
Marketing to Canadian SMB’s – Hmmmm short bursts of information……
I’m always very intrigued when ever I see an article on how to market to today’s busy entrepreneur. Since I target SMB’s in my business it’s always top of mind. When I read this article “Companies aim for bite-size Message” by Rick Spence of the Financial Post it really has changed the way I think about my own marketing. Let me know your thoughts on this article, does it change your approach?
www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2284263
Richard
Centricity360
Social Media and ROI
Is there an ROI to social media? I believe it’s an objective that is a critical part of any social media strategy. A quantitative objective has to be established. Is it easy to measure, not always. There are more and more tools that are being developed to track and report on social media, like Radian 6. I counsel my clients on developing business processes that take online marketing initiatives like social media and we develop a conversion process within a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that ultimately leads to passing social media conversations that have been nurtured by marketing to sales as qualified leads. With a conversion process in place, we can start to see that quantitative objective or ROI coming to fruition.
As always Eric Qualman always puts together very interesting videos on You Tube. Here is his latest video on Social Media ROI.
RBo
Centricity360
Social Media and Security – Be aware….
Recently, I’ve been doing in-depth investigation into Social Media security. Why, well clients have been asking direct questions over their concerns for security of social media networks. What is the risk? Well there is plenty at risk, so it’s important to understand the nature of the risk from both an internal and external perspective to your business. To mitigate risk internally it’s important to develop a Social Media Policy or Internet Posting Policy for your employees. As guidance a Social Media Policy should include some of the following:
- The purpose of social media.
- Be responsible for what you write. Exercise good judgement.
- Respect copyrights and fair use.
- Which tools should be used and should not be used.
- What employees can and cannot say on social media networks. Protect confidential and proprietary information. I.E. Client information, intellectual property.
- Bring Value. Don’t just broadcast.
- Productivity matters. Advise on what is good use of company time on social networks and what is not.
As a reference Cisco has a very easy to read Internet Posting Policy online that your organization can model:
External threats can come in many forms. Too many to detail. It’s important that your organization follow the latest scams, schemes and phishing on the Social Media sites that you use. A very helpful site I have been researching lately is Social Media Security: Exposing the Insecurities of Social Media, a great podcast is available on iTunes as well:
At the very least be aware of what you’re clicking on, think first then act. A good question in the back of your mind should be: Would this colleague send me something like this?
Good luck. Safe Surfing.
RBo.
Centricity360
Internet Access in Canada, an all time high!
A recent press release from Ipsos Reid indicates that internet access in Canada has reached an all time high, an amazing 82% of Canadians now have access at home. With the continuing rise in internet access penetration it’s no surprise that companies are exploring social media tools and online advertising strategies to market to Canadians. It’s getting cold outside so logon.
Internet Access in Canada Reaches All Time High
Read the press release here:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM goes Social Media
Microsoft is set to release (Soon I hope ;o)) an accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-08MSDynamicsCRMAcceleratorsPR.mspx
The solution looks like it could be a valuable tool for those running MSCRM and potential looking to track and measure their social media efforts. Here is a You Tube presentation on the product:
A Taste of Social Media: Link in to Build Your Business – Press Release
Chamber all a-twitter for Small Business Week
At their monthly Business After Hours event in September at Ned Devine’s Irish Pub, the Milton Chamber of Commerce announced a unique social networking challenge for Miltonians as a lead-up to Small Business Week in October.
The objective is to encourage those who live and work in Milton to join the Milton Chamber Group on LinkedIn, a social networking site for the business community. In the spirit of friendly competition and rivalry, the ultimate goal will be to surpass the Oakville Chamber Group on LinkedIn, which currently has just under 50 members. The Milton Chamber already boasts a healthy saturation rate for memberships, with over one third of Milton businesses being Chamber members compared to 22.33 % for Oakville.
“We are pleased to be helping businesses take advantage of the technology revolution,” said Sandy Martin, Executive Director of the Milton Chamber. “With social networking tools, the boundaries for business are expanding as are the opportunities for growth.”
The deadline for the challenge is 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 22, which is the date of an educational breakfast meeting being hosted by the Chamber during Small Business Week, entitled Taste of Social Media. Social media or networking is a new marketing trend encompassing sites such as Flickr, Twitter, You Tube, LinkedIn, Blogger and Facebook. Attendees at the breakfast session will learn how social media participation is becoming an essential business tool for networking with colleagues, making new contacts, recruiting employees and keeping in touch with the world. The session is being presented by Richard Bolton of Centricity 360 and Andrew Ballenthin of SOL Solutions.
Those who wish to participate in the challenge – whether they are Milton Chamber members or not – can simply visit www.LinkedIn.com, sign up and then search for the Milton Chamber Group to become a member.
Other events being offered as part of the Small Business Week celebration include a ROXUL plant tour on October 20 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and an economic development tour on October 21 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Advance registration and payment is required for all events and is available online at www.miltonchamber.ca or by calling 905-878-0581.
Halton Region – Bridges to Better Business – Mind your E-Business seminar.
I had a chance to speak/present this past week at a seminar for small business. Halton Region – Bridges to Better Business – Mind your E-Business seminar. The event highlighted how small businesses across the Region can use technology to drive their growth. Topics included: website design; business management; e-commerce; e-security; social media marketing; and much more. It was an awesome event and very well organized.
The Halton Region Business Development Centre is an amazing organization in Halton that does a great job of supporting our small business community. They access to government programs and services, information on Halton’s business environment and services to help you establish, expand or consolidate a business within Halton’s borders. If you have not had the opportunity to check out this organization and you’re starting or currently running a small/medium size business in Halton be sure to check them out: http://www.halton.ca/business/
Regards,
Richard Bolton
Centricity360
Respecting your customer data
As I have mentioned in previous blog entries your customer data can increase the value of your business, don’t under estimate this value add, no matter how big or small your business is.
I recently read yet another blog posting (The Customer World blog worth reading, Treat Data With Respect) that reviewed a research article released by Royal Mail. Within the article it stated “an estimated 90 per cent of companies fail to exploit data they already hold on their customers!”
Here are some of the top findings from that report:
- Only 15 per cent of companies declare their data as an intangible asset on their balance sheets.
- Data is proven to be a fundamental asset. A firm understanding of a customer database can significantly bolster the bottom line and add value to the company itself, potentially adding millions to a sale price.
- Most companies are getting less than half of the potential value from their customer data.
By addressing the data problem, enterprises could potentially increase their value by up to 30 per cent. It is imperative that enterprises look at ways and means to design a customer data strategy road map and extract value from it.
However, for data to be trusted, it must be accurate, timely and reliable.
An awesome, awesome posting! Let me reiterate one key phrase from this finding “By addressing the data problem, enterprises could potentially increase their value (business value) by up to 30 per cent”.
Take that to the bank.
Richard Bolton
C360
LinkedIn – Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008
Some of the big movers and shakers in the CRM addon functionality business in 2008 will be around incorporating social networking into CRM applications. Why? It adds a completely new way of generating business. My favourite – LinkedIn.
Watch for it, if your not on it, get on it!
Wired mag includes LinkedIn in it’s Top 10 Startups worth watching in 2008:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/12/YE_10_startups
LinkedIn, a career-oriented social networking site, found 16 million users, yet until recently has been eclipsed by much larger, livelier competitors. Now, a much-needed upgrade has the 4-year-old startup looking pretty good after all. A new developer platform aims to bring LinkedIn networks to the web at large, starting with Business Week’s website, which will show your connections to any companies mentioned in news articles you’re reading. LinkedIn still emphasizes utility over frivolity, and that’s just the way we like it. Instead of virtual hugs and stripper name generators, expect the site to add “modules” that gather news and events from your industry. The dull-but-useful strategy seems to be working: LinkedIn projects revenues of nearly $100 million in 2008 — not too shabby compared to much larger Facebook’s estimated $150 million for 2007.
- Founders: Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Valliant
- Funding: $27.5 million from Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and numerous individual angel investors
- Employees: 200
Happy New Year to all and to a most profitable 2008!
Cheers.
Richard Bolton
Centricity360
