Large brands like the ones we work with typically include social media marketing as part of a much larger marketing mix, as they should. They frequently run TV ads, banner ads, PR programs, pay-per-click, print ads, out of home, event marketing and more.
Demystifying better social media marketing often starts with doing a better job of connecting with customers. But how can you connect with customers if you don’t know who they are?
Do you know who your customers are? Do you know what they search for and talk about on social networks? What influences them to buy or to recommend things to others?
You know what you need, or would like, to know about your customers. First, basics, like addresses, correct names and titles, phone numbers, company description, and then much more.
Yesterday’s NY Times featured a cover story about an increasingly common problem of turnover that many Broadway musical productions are facing. As more and more of these shows feature recognizable star actors as headliners like The Producers with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, they run into the inevitable problem of trying to keep the production going without the stars who have become “irreplaceable” in their roles.
Whether you see Facebook Places as a cool new way to find out where your friends are, another invasion of privacy from a company that builds its empire on the bones of your privacy, or a great way to find out who’s home to rob, with half a billion potential users, it will be hard to ignore.
Over the weekend I was chatting to a hairdressing friend about his decision to set up a Facebook page for his salon. While he’d taken longer than many to set up the page, he saw it as essential marketing.
What I find interesting is that I know for a fact he hasn’t set up a Google Places listing for his salon yet, and it got me thinking – Why?
The question of “Facebook Page vs Google Places page” will confront many small business owners soon, if they haven’t already been through that decision process.
Quick answer = BOTH!
In all seriousness, SMB’s do need both, BUT if you’re a time poor small business owner (which means you’re like 99% of other small business owners), then Google Places is probably the place to start.
Facebook is definitely a great place to engage with existing clients and potentially attract new clients (especially now that Facebook pages are indexed in Google), but it takes time and effort to create and build the engagement buzz.
Google Places on the other hand offers a range of immediate low touch benefits. Here’s 4 reasons why you should start with a Google Places page:
While Facebook continues to build itself as the Search 2.0 alternative, Facebook Pages will continue to grow in importance, but for now; my money is on Google Places as your starting point.
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Imagine you’re havingsome big, high falutin’ meeting. Perhaps it’s a board meeting. Or, if you don’t have a board, perhaps it’s a management team meeting. Or, if you don’t have a team, perhaps it’s just you talking to yourself at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Whatever mechanism it is you have to talk about important issues and make decisions, imagine that meeting. Are you imagining it? Good.
Social networking today has revolutionized the way we communicate with our loved ones and friends no matter where they are. LinkedIn, one of the most recognized social networking websites in the world, has come up with new features in an effort to keep up with the changes the burgeoning industry is experiencing.
Project management technology has been around for years now, so the problem of project execution must be basically solved, right? Wrong. The Standish Group has found that 68% of technology projects failed in 20091. Does this mean that project management solutions are just a waste of time?
The truth is that project management technology is only as good as the processes that support it. The only way to improve project execution rates is to look at the root causes of project failure and implement the necessary changes that will allow the technology to work. Here are a few of the top ways to accomplish this in your organization.
Problem #1 – Ignorance of True Per-Project Cost
We all know that people hate to track their time for a variety of reasons. Most find it to be a tedious exercise and believe that it takes time away from more important work. Others might feel suspicious that management wants to keep an eye on them. One of the biggest reasons is often that employees simply do not know what the time data will be used for or why they are tracking it in the first place, so why bother? This is a problem because time data can provide cost insight that you cannot obtain any other way.
If you do not know how much time your team members are spending on various projects, you do not really know how much the projects cost. A project that is a large resource drain can be much more expensive than the numbers in the budget indicate. Not only that, but when the boss tells you to cut 10% somewhere, how will you know where to cut if you do not know where your profit lies? Having employees track their time by project – and more specifically, by task – gives you the knowledge necessary to make the right decisions. In this case, it is not enough to have a time tracking software solution. You must also obtain widespread employee adoption, because the system is only as good as the data entered into it. Usually this can be achieved with an explanation of how the data will benefit the organization or some kind of rewards system. It is also essential to integrate this data with project status and cost reports for analysis purposes.
Problem #2 – Poor Resource Management
Most automated systems fail because they try to get people to track time only for payroll, DCAA compliance, billing or project accounting. This forces managers to use a variety of systems, resulting in employees tracking their time in multiple places and not being too happy about it. Not to mention the fact that these disconnected islands of data are not very useful for analysis or planning.
If, however, you have all of the time, project and billing data in the same system, you can understand who is over- and under-allocated, who is behind on their work, and who is available to work on your project next month – all important issues for a project manager to know.
Not only that, but a technology solution that incorporates resource schedules and allows you to conduct “what-if analysis” before assigning work provides project managers with a huge advantage. They will be able to see the impact of their projects before scheduling them, allowing them to avoid unnecessary risk and only implement plans that are feasible. For example, if a project manager puts a potential project plan into the system and finds that with the current timeline, resources will be too constrained, he or she can adjust it accordingly before actually scheduling the work.
Problem #3 – No Estimate Feedback Loop
Whenever you ask someone how far along they are on a project task, the answer is always the same: 90%. Rather, the right question to ask is, "How many actual hours of work remain to complete this task?" Once you have this data, it should go back into your project plan. The more you reinforce estimates with actual data, the better your estimation will be for future projects.
I recently spoke with a project manager at a well-known beverage corporation who told me that though his company had purchased a large PPM solution, people were still entering their time in multiple systems. This leaves them unable to feed actuals from different departments and groups back into the central project plan for up-to-date status and improved estimation. After spending so much time and money on a PPM solution, they are not getting any of the promised benefits. This is just another example of how technology will not magically fix project issues without the right processes in place to support it.
Problem #4 – Communication and Collaboration Issues
Microsoft SharePoint sales have been exploding lately, and the simple reason for this is that managing multiple people and projects across departments, companies and even time zones is extremely difficult. Everyone has their own PM methodology, technology system, culture and habits, and you, the project manager, have to accommodate for all of it. SharePoint and other tools like it can be extremely helpful, but ultimately, communication can still fail across the board. This is a human problem, not a technology problem, and the project manager must address it as such.
Problem #5 – Balancing Quality, Schedule and Cost
Have you ever heard the question, "Do you want it good, fast or cheap?" You might add value delivery to this equation as well. For example, if a wedding cake shows up seven hours late, it is worthless. At every step of the way, project managers have to ensure that they are still going to be able to deliver something useful in the end.
These days, the world is moving so fast that you have to constantly check to see if you are still on target for delivering value, even if quality, schedule and cost constraints are met. Technology cannot do this for you; it is a subtle, complicated process that requires market research and an understanding of your customers, for starters.
The Power of Project Management Technology
Project management technology is at the most advanced that it has ever been, providing all kinds of functionality and benefits to the project manager. Yet it takes a bit more than a software solution to solve the project execution problem – it takes a quality project manager who can implement the correct processes and manage people effectively. The right project management solution can be a powerful tool, but only in the hands of someone qualified to wield it.
The headline is shared mostly in jest, but this topic is one worthy of serious attention. The question at hand is whether or not the general advice shared in popular blogs and books when designed to be snappy, shareable, and consumable, help or hinder the ability to learn critical and important lessons in social media.
