Last week I spent the week co-facilitating a Mindshop Excellence program at Computershare with Mike Boyle from Banjar Group. We worked with four students from Yarra Valley Grammer School Andrew McNeill, Declan Woods, Matthew Hulme and Jack Zhu.

Mindshop Excellence is a structured five-day Work Experience Program for groups of 4 -6, Year 10 or Year 11 students. The program aims to immerse the students in a real problem, selected by a host company. It has the potential to avoid the ‘pretend’ element that so often lessens the impact of Work Experience. The students are seen as real partners with a valued role to play.

The students real problem was to look at the existing working environment at Computershare and make suggestions for improvement. Over the course of the week the team looked at the existing environment, surveyed employees and used an array of consulting tools to come up some solutions for improving the workplace. On Friday 27th they presented, to the Computershare Technology Services Team, a selection of recommendations on how to improve the working environment. Ideas included "A Crash Area" (with Nintendo Wii, Sofas and Table Football), reconfigured desks, improved meeting rooms and the use of Epiphytes or “air plants" throughout the office.

Computershare staff were highly impressed with the boys' ideas and indeed their fabulous presentation skills. Well done lads!

Written by Rieva Lesonsky

Remember the famous Tom Hanks line in the movie A League of Their Own: "There's no crying in baseball"? Apparently, entrepreneurs aren't crying in their beer either. According to a study just released by ThomasNet.com, the online site that connects buyers and sellers globally, "despite challenges that are out of their control," business owners are both optimistic about their abilities to ride out the rest of the economic storm, and also expect to grow this year.

An overwhelming 76 percent of those surveyed in the semi-annual ThomasNet Industry Market Barometer believe the economy will improve by the second quarter of 2010 or sooner. And 35 percent actually expect their businesses to grow this year.

These people are not delusional; over half saw a dip in their businesses in the first half of 2009 (most of them lost customers). But they are determined, as one survey respondent said, not to participate in the recession and to focus instead on changing the way they conduct business.

But the most interesting part of the survey was how these businesses chose to fight their way back to business growth. Most decided to essentially reinvent their sales strategies. To find out more, I spoke with Linda Rigano, executive director of strategic services at ThomasNet. Rigano says 70 percent of the businesses decided to institute new sales tactics, specifically by:

• Increasing online marketing
• Expanding into new markets, particularly internationally
• Exploring new channels of distribution

Nearly 40 percent are tackling the problem by innovating and creating new products.

There's a good lesson here for all of us. As Rigano says, in times as challenging as these, "You can't go back to your old ways." To survive, "you've got to do something different."

Perhaps the easiest way to start reinventing and reinvigorating your company is to take a good look at your Web site. While it's important to have a solid Web site with good content and navigation that's easy to use (as well as a price list, a fact I learned years ago from another ThomasNet survey), Rigano encourages entrepreneurs to develop a strategic online sales plan.

This may sound intimidating, but Rigano says you should look at your offline sales plan and replicate it. For instance, if you were hiring a new salesperson (offline), your first step would be to "identify your business objectives." To help you do that online, ask yourself, "How can my Web site help me meet my business objectives?"

The next step, advises Rigano, is to consider your customers, both existing and potential. Determine where those customers are shopping, what they're looking for, and what actions they take when they find it. Rigano advises that you consider what customers are asking for and find a way to bring it online. Do your customers currently call you? Make sure you list a toll-free number on your site. Do they compare your products to the products of other vendors? Build an online comparison engine that customers can use. Engage in e-commerce? Make sure customers can get a price quote or fill out an online purchase order.

The key is to make it as easy to do business with you online as it is offline, since the more business you conduct online, the lower your overhead is likely to be. If you're selling products, it is crucial you offer an online catalog. In the Market Barometer survey, many respondents decided not to tackle that on their own. Instead, they reported that they focused on their "core strengths" and turned to experts for help creating online catalogs or developing new sales strategies.

How much of a difference can this make? Rigano cited a client who, after posting a new interactive online catalog, saw a 15 percent jump in sales for the year. This client reported that the new online catalog was the single largest contributor to the increase.

Rigano says there are two common mistakes small businesses make when moving some of their business online. The first is not paying attention to metrics. You need to know how many people come to your site, how much time they spend there, what pages they're looking at, and how often they are abandoning their shopping carts. And check your metrics as often as you would check in with your salespeople. The key, according to Rigano, is "to arm your Web site with the same ammunition you would give a real salesperson."

Asking the wrong question may be the second big mistake you make. Too many business owners ask, "What do I want customers to do when they come to my site?" Instead, ask yourself, "What do customers want to do when they come to my site?" and design it accordingly.

This week President Obama noted the important role of small business in leading the nation out of these challenging economic times. If the optimism and strategic thinking of those answering the ThomasNet Market Barometer survey are any indication, better times may be right around the corner.

http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling-sales/13271108-1.html

Great video from Socialnomics author Eric Qualman with some thoughtprovoking stats on Social Media

Visit our Social Media Page for more...

This 2008 presentation from the Zappos Ceo provides some great insights to building a successful company.

Create the right culture, recruit the right people and great customer service for which they are renowned in the US will follow.

Some good information on blogging contained in this presentation. As expected  it's not a way to get rich quick! IT takes passion, time and commitment just like everything else!

Technorati SOTB 2009 -

by Mike E. Belicove

Social networking sites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have followed the same path to the business world that blogs did only a couple years ago: They're all online hangouts that evolved into sophisticated branding, lead generation and sales tools for business. And with the right approach, they are an ideal way to quickly--and cheaply--promote your startup:

Facebook offers several applications and advertising solutions for promoting your website, products and services. For example, you can create a free group based on any topic and invite customers and Facebook members to join. Group content, which is usually created by Facebook members, lacks hard-core marketing messages and makes a strong soft-sell tool.

Creating a Facebook page for your company means you can share information about your business with Facebook's 220 million members. As they interact with your page, stories linking to your profile are shared with their friends--so news about your business can go viral.

You can also pay for premium advertising, which allows you to target those who are the best match for your brand. For information about paid advertising and other business solutions (many are still free), click the advertising link at the bottom of any Facebook page.

I recommend starting with a Facebook page that can function as your home base, then expanding from there.

On Twitter, instant messaging meets social networking as members share what they're doing right now. Each post or "tweet" is limited to 140 characters, and can be done via computer, cell phone or desktop app like Seesmic.

Tweets have a short shelf life, so don't expect them to drive substantial sales or replace a website or blog. Twitter is better for company announcements, spotting trends, conducting polls and posting on new products, services and in-the-moment specials. Visit Twitter.com to get started, and remember to include strong calls to action in your tweets.

LinkedIn provides a more traditional platform for business networking and is more useful for business-to-business relationships and harvesting talent. You can create a company profile to use as a research tool that helps other LinkedIn users "find the right companies to work for and do business with." Are you Socially Acceptable?

Most social networks enable you to integrate your website or blog, to some degree, with the network. On Facebook, for example, you can use the "connect" feature (on the advertising page) to connect your startupís site to a memberís Facebook account.

For LinkedIn, you can add a button to your website or blog that will let visitors click to your profile. Just go to LinkedIn, click Edit My Profile, then Edit Public Profile Settings. Under Public Profile, click Customized button to access HTML code to put into your website or blog.

To link to Twitter, simply add a Twitter button to your site that links to your Twitter URL. Google "twitter button" to find a good selection.

Mikal E. Belicove is a market positioning, social media and management consultant specializing in website usability and business blogging.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/use-social-media-to-elevate-your-companys-online-cred-mikal-e-belicove

Over the last number of years, social media companies, and the tools they have developed, have received ever increasing column inches in the business press. It seems when real news is sparse business columns get used up telling us how the latest social media tool is being used by a large company or a quirky celebrity to do something fuzzy like generate awareness or grow their brand.

Naturally as an internet advisory company, these articles are of interest to us and we are constantly trying out the new technologies mentioned. However when we discuss social media tools with our clients they are not interested in hearing about the new features the latest social media tool offers. Small business wants to know one thing: how can social media add value to my business. The problem with articles on social media is that they don’t address the issues of delivering value to business.

Thankfully this area of the internet is maturing and we are starting to see the emergence of some approaches that promise to deliver value from social media.

The first thing to recognise is that every business is different, with different products and services, and even more importantly with different customers, with different behaviours. To get value from social media a company needs to begin with this understanding.

Forrester Research outlines a simple framework for implementing social media in its latest book “Groundswell”. It is called POST which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. This is an approach we favour.

People: Begin all social media initiatives by analysing the people. What is your target market? How are your customers segmented? Once you know who they are you can start to understand how they interact on the internet and with social media in particular? Forrester Research has developed a social technographic s ladder to describe customer behaviour in relation to social media. It recognises six types of profiles: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives. You need to understand where your customers fit on the ladder. This will tell you whether they are ready to embrace a social media initiative and, if so, how they are likely to engage with it.
Objectives: What are the business objectives of the social media initiative? Are you looking to build your brand? Do you want to listen to what your customers have to say? Are you looking to generate sales via social media? Forrester lays out five key objectives of social media (all related to interaction with the customer): listening, talking, energising, supporting and embracing.
Strategy: What is your strategy? How do you want to change your relationship with customers as a result of social media? Every business will have different strategies. However every business should have a strategy and a tactical plan outlining how you are going to achieve this strategy?
Technology: Interestingly, and as with all good technology projects, the technology comes last! Only when you know what you want to do with the technology should you begin implementing it. As with all technology implementations, have a good process to ensure you choose the right technology provider and implementer (we recommend developing a functional specification matrix, or at the very least a simple decision matrix (see http://www.bua-tools.com/decision_matrix/).

In conclusion, The POST approach will ensure organisations adopt a business oriented approach to social media that will ensure value is delivered to the organisation. For more on Social Media and the forrester tools outlined above visit www.buaconsulting.com/social_media

1. Decide “who” you want as your customers. Unlike mom and dad where you don’t get to pick, here on the Internet, you do.

2. Find everything about “who” before you start a business. Visit forums, read blogs, think hard about where they are and what they are reading (or watching).

3. What are the things that your future customers don’t do but you like to… for instance I like reading blogs, but what if my target market likes watching videos instead?

4. Who is your competition? What are they not doing? For example if you opt to their newsletter… how often are they sending it you? Do they have a blog? Do they update the blog regularly? Are they on Facebook? Do they have a phone number on the website? Where are the gaps?

5. Sit down and ask yourself honestly that if your business solves a problem that this slice of market has? If yes… move forward. If no… look again at what you are planning to sell.

6. What makes you different from everybody else out there? Is it something you sell? Is it the way you sell it? Is it your story? Is being you is the difference?

7. Here is a piece of paper & my question to you: why should your business exist in this world with so many businesses already doing what you are doing? Write the answer down. Is it the best answer you can do? Can you tell me in 30 words or less?

8. Launch a Facebook Business Page before you launch your website. Most websites languish because of no traffic, no attention. Facebook Business Fan Page gives you instant traffic, instant feedback, and instant interest.

9. Name your page wisely.

10. Point traffic to your Facebook Business Page both organically and by advertising.

11. If you are coming from the corporate world and your day job did not had anything to do with marketing & selling – you are going to have some mental queasiness about buying advertising. I can’t help you get rid of it. Nobody can. Just acknowledge and know that it will be there. Ignore it.

12. How are you going to get leads? Where are your buyers found? And how can you show up there without annoying them?

13. Avoid the temptation to scream as in going to a blog or a Facebook Page and screaming your site and running as fast as you can. People remember you for warm handshakes and hugs you gave out not for loud screams.

14. Once you know how you are going to leads – what can you offer on your blog / Facebook Page / website or where ever you are asking this traffic to go to convince them to opt in to your list?

15. What is going to happen once they are IN – they opt in to your newsletter, left you a voice mail, fill out a form requesting more information? Are they getting something from you? What are they getting? Is it ready or are you going to build it once you have 100 people waiting?

16. How are you going to sell? Is there a process or is it all random? Do you have bullets, photos of products, PowerPoint, webinar, video? A system for selling your product or service (up sell, down sell, cross sell) that exists and is repeated over and over again?

17. I am sure you have a basic version. What can you offer in a premium version that probably 20% of your customers would be happy to buy?

18. Are they getting a thank you note from you once they buy? A hug? A cookie basket? What are we going to do to bring a little happiness to them?

19. How are you going to give them a gentle nudge to remember you once the sale is done to write something about you on Yelp or recommend your restaurant to all their friends on Facebook or Fan your Page up? An email or a card or a phone request or is it all going to be left to chance and fate?

20. How are you going to keep in touch with them once the sale is done? A newsletter? Something on your Facebook Page to keep them interested? An event online to teach them something?

21. Now look at every step and ask is this the best I can do to completely to blow my customer expectations away? How far apart can I stand from my existing competition that is already online and showing up in Google when I start? Two feet, 10 miles or three light years?

Article link: http://ijlal.com/things-to-ask-before-you-launch-your-business

In their 2008 book, Groundswell (Harvard Business Press), Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff classify online consumers and their engagement with social media. This is a useful tool when considering the use of social media with your customers.

The Social Technographics Ladder

1. Creators - publish a blog , web pages, upload videos, music and articles they have created.
2. Critics - post ratings/reviews of extra services, comments on other blogs, contribute to forums and wikis.
3. Collectors - Use rss feeds, add tags to pages and photos, vote for websites.
4. Joiners - maintain profile on social networks, visit social networking sites.
6. Spectators - read blogs, watch other user videos, listen to podcasts, read online forums, read ratings and reviews.
7. Inactives - don't get involved in social media activity at all.

How would you classify your customers/clients?

Business Catalyst, the business from whom we licence our content management systems, announced yesterday that it was being acquired by Adobe. Bua Consulting powers many of its online businesses using Business Catalyst. While details of the deal are yet to emerge we believe this is a positive development for our clients.
Adobe create many of the best known web and design technologies and over time integration between business catalyst and the Adobe suite of products should be enhanced.