Before You Leap Into Social Media and Networking Photo

Before Leaping Into Social Media and Networking

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Social Media & Networking Photo - Before Leaping

Six steps to your organization’s social media and networking success.

The Internet, more specifically social media and networking has changed the way people and organizations connect, create, stay in touch or seek help from others.

Citizen journalists are using social media tools like blogs, microblogs, and video sharing to inform the world of the events surrounding the 2009 Iranian election protests when traditional journalists were banned from the country. It helped to topple the Egyptian government and many other Middle Eastern governments in 2011.

Musicians utilize services like Myspace and YouTube to launch careers and connect with fans. Companies employ wikis to collaborate on product development,  manage projects and customer relations, and provide technical support. E-tailers and restaurants apply reviews and opinions to increase traffic and drive sales because while 14% of people trust ads, 76% trust consumer recommendations* for purchase decisions. Furthermore, companies use Facebook to encourage fans to refer their products or services since a Facebook friend referral makes two-thirds of US Facebook users more likely to purchase a product or visit a retailer¹.

However, many organizations are jumping head long into social networking before they know what it is, how to use it, what platforms their stakeholders may or may not use, what social technographics define their stakeholders and what costs —  direct and hidden — are involved for fear they are going to be left out.

Others leap in because it is going to be a ‘cheap’ way of marketing themselves without having goals, strategies and tactics established, knowing the human resource and time allocations needed to get results, defining a method for measuring results, and determining what message(s) they’re going broadcast. Read more

Without Knowledge Your Marketing Investment Is Worthless Photo

Without Knowledge Your Marketing Investment Is Worthless

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Without Knowledge Your Marketing Investment Is Worthless Photo

Business owners invest in their firms, not stocks is the headline AP Business Writer Joyce M. Rosenberg used for her article in Crain’s Detroit Business, June 24th Small Talk section. It discusses how business owners, like you, are intending to invest in their businesses instead of the stock market, since it’s such a risk.

If business owners are truly going to (re)invest in themselves as the article states, then they really have to understand that a marketing investment is something they cannot do without. It’s one of the investments that, if done right, has the largest return-on-investment and impacts the business the most.

But sadly, I have to say, many companies start without any research. Many fly along by the seat of their pants. Many don’t have a clue who their competitors are, what their business structure is and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace. Many don’t have an inkling who their stakeholders are, their customers’ needs and wants are, or how and where their customers get their information. Many don’t know what makes their own business unique.

If your business wants to gain the greatest return-on-investment possible, have the best conceivable brand image and awareness and have the largest sales increases attainable, you must do your due diligence before you invest. Hopefully, that is what you did when you invested in the stock market. So, the same principles must apply to your company’s marketing investment because without knowledge the investment is worthless. Read more

Wakeup Fluid Power Industry or Prepare for Extinction Photo

Wake Up Fluid Power Industry Or Prepare For Extinction

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Wake Up Fluid Power Industry Or Prepare For Extinction

A recent post in the Hydraulics & Pneumatics magazine’s discussion group on LinkedIn asks: Is fluid power on the decline?

As a person who worked in the industry for 10 years and has provided consulting services to the industry for the past 16 years, I believe it is—especially in the United States. And, if they don’t wake up immediately, they’ll find themselves in the history books and museums alongside dinosaurs—extinct.

Like a precision military assault, the fluid power industry is getting hammered on several fronts: technology competition, the environment, government regulations and knowledge loss. The environment, government regulations and knowledge loss have teamed up to open a gaping hole in the fortress allowing a full frontal attack by technology competition.

And, like Great Britain during World War II, the industry has done very little to combat the forces working against them. While some have acknowledged defeat and quit the battle, most of the industry, it seems, have yet to realize they’re under attack or their survival is at risk. Read more

Agencies Unite Photo

Agencies Unite To Help Organizations Keep Pace With An Evolving Landscape

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Mountain Stream Group - Agencies Unite Photo

Fluid Power Technologies International and Konstanz Kommunikations undergo consolidation with Mountain Stream Group to form new, Chicago-based experiential communications design consultancy.

Thanks to the Internet the world’s getting smaller and moving at an ever-increasing pace, communication methods are expanding, and an organization’s success is increasingly dependent on fluid global communication.

The number of internal and external, seen and unseen points where your stakeholders touch, experience and hopefully connect with your brand, product or service keeps growing. Beyond the normally thought of touchpoints, your building’s architecture, your workspaces, your information systems and workflow processes, your product’s aesthetics and functionality, and your computer-mediated and machine-to-machine interactions are now vital members of a very dynamic communications ecosystem—living together interdependently. Read more