As I am working tonight, I am watching a CNBC special about the Swimsuit Issue of the Sports Illustrated magazine.  It is fascinating to me to watch what a large distinct business was created from a simple decision to do a particular photo shoot in a single magazine focused on sports.  The level of growth in the business and the number of superstars that were created from this single magazine issue is beyond anything that could have been comprehended.  As an example - it was quoted that it is Time Inc's most profitable single magazine issue.
 
I think it is a blueprint for all of us in business - to look at our audience (however we define the universe in which we do business) and then to define our products and our offerings in the context of that audience.  How many times have we heard about successful businesses that have started with a certain business plan, product or solution in mind, only to end up with a different offering and business model? 

People often ask me how important a business plan is to launching a business.  My response is that it is critical for the investment community that you have a well written and well thought out business plan but for internal purposes not so much.  In fact, what is more valuable for the CEO is a 2-page list of bullets that identify direction and plan and goals - something that can be easily morphed and managed.  Think about the business that you are in.  Think about the clients / audience that you are serving.  Now, think about what opportunities are available for you because of that client / audience base. 

Be flexible.  Be nimble.  Try different things.  Be "married" to your clients and your audience but do not get yourself "married" to your product - be open to what it could be and what potential you have created.

Photo Credit: Archangeli

During a meeting today, we were discussing the different strategies that companies use in working with their sales and marketing teams.  More often than not, companies provide sales staff with a roadmap for selling and a menu of solutions to sell, and then charge the team to go out there and produce.  That got me thinking that there is a new way of selling that is forming.

After training them on thinking outside of the norm and using new tools and techniques to reach customers that previously were hard to reach and hard to communicate with, challenge those sales people to be innovators for the company.  It used to be that people would talk about "solution selling" as a technique to teach sales people to sell solutions that speak to customer issues and customer returns.  But "innovative selling" is different.  The task is to have the sales staff work with customers and potential customers to identify advances in the current products and/or solutions that are being offered, and to come back with information that will lead the company to the next generation offerings. 

The sales staff, when they truly understand the concept, react in an amazing way because they feel, often for the first time, that their mission it to really lead the direction of the company and to chart the course for the future.  But even more important, from this, the innovations and feedback received directly from the prospects or customers provide an amazing set of insight to company leadership and the product teams that will be charged with development. 

As the digital marketplace continues to grow, the connection between customer and product grows closer as the "middleman" continues to disappear.  This level of innovation-based sales will become a driving force for the next generation of business.

What are your thoughts on this?  Agree?  Disagree?  Let's chat about it.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Brooks

For years our family saved to visit the Magic Kingdom and last year we finally got a chance to visit.  It was a wonderful experience for all of us.  In addition to being a wonderful place to visit, Disney provides social media marketers powerful lessons:

With the ever-increasing popularity of social networking sites, there are many companies working fervently to get a social media campaign in place before the trend has passed. Unfortunately, many companies rush out to create a Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace accounts without a clear understanding of the tools, not to mention any sort of strategy or plan. This practice does not lead to a successful social media campaign, and can hurt a company more than it can help.

In order to truly succeed with social media, companies need to focus more on the wants and needs of their audience, and less on the individual tools. Here is a strategy to help determine what social media can do for you:

Forget the Tools

The first step to figuring out what to do with social media is to forget everything you know about social media. Stop thinking about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, and start thinking about WHY people are using these tools. People use Twitter to communicate ideas and share links, Facebook for connecting with Friends and sharing media, etc....

Understanding the concepts behind the tools will help guide you in the right direction.

Start Listening

Next, take a look around the web and see where your audience is living online, by listening, searching through blogs, community sites, and other places where you may find people interested in your product. Pay special attention when you find people complaining about your website or lack of social interaction, and use these criticisms to enhance your overall visitor experience. In a sense, we can think of the social web as the world's largest (and least expensive) focus group.
 

Set Goals

At this point you should have a general sense of what your audience is looking for in the social media space, and you can start to build out some simple goals for your efforts. Goals should clearly state what you hope to gain from social media interactions:

•    Increase conversations within community
•    Increase traffic to landing pages
•    Increase in blog subscribers
•    Decrease custom service complaints
•    (You get the idea)

Then you must decide on how you're going to measure your social media efforts.

Select Tools

Now that we have talked through the audience needs and your goals, we can finally begin to think about the tools again. However, before you start planning the color scheme for your Twitter page, you still need to think about how to get the most out of these tools. One company may find value in an internal community platform, while another may utilize YouTube and Twitter -- it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish, and who you are trying to reach.

So, before you embark on your next social media campaign I would urge you to toss out the tools, and start thinking about how and why your audience will engage with your brand online.

Thoughts?

Photo Credit: Eric Gjerde
 

Earlier this week I had an interesting meeting with a partner (remember, we prefer partnering) who was being approached by a "web site and social media consultancy" about how he should be marketing his organization via social media.  The client organization focuses on selling specialized services to a high end B2B market.  The consultancy suggested to him that his organization needed a Facebook Page and a YouTube channel along with a Twitter strategy and blogging strategy.  The client said to me "It did not feel right to me, but each time I asked a question they seemed to have an answer and response."

I wish this was the first time I had heard of a partner being sold like this.  There is no question - NOT EVERY SOLUTION WORKS FOR EVERY COMPANY.  Moreover, trust your instincts as only YOU know your business.  You know your clients.  You know your prospective clients.  You may not know or may be learning the world of social media and digital marketing, but this learning should not overshadow your knowledge and instincts.

For this partner, not only were these solutions the wrong solutions, but in fact a Facebook Page and a YouTube channel might have actually hurt the brand that was created.  In the end, we agreed that he needed to position the organization as thought leaders and initiate a newsletter with them as curator (a newsletter that is an aggregation of interesting industry articles with commentary and observations from the organization) and ultimately look at creating a coinciding blog.  Once the momentum from that has been created, a Twitter strategy would follow suit immediately and from there other social and digital marketing techniques could be implemented. 

The point of this story - there is no magic bullet, no panacea.  There are solutions and opportunities out there to do things differently, smartly, and intelligently using the latest tools and techniques.  But, if you think it does not make sense - it probably does not.  If you think it is interesting, it probably is.  Open your mind.  Listen to ideas.  And then implement the solutions that will work.

Photo Credit: Matthew Burpee