Mr. Funny Man

Ever since I can remember, I liked making people laugh. Jim Carrey, and Adam Sandler have always been my favourite “funny guys”, this is because of the amount of humour they show in their movies. It was always a constant laugh. I never liked watching scary movies, so I figured “Hey I’ll just stick to comedy movies” Obviously I have seen my share of scary movies, but to me there was nothing greater than comedy films.

In my spare time, I enjoy making funny videos on my phone. One of my earlier ones was a dating video  I created in May of 2012. I remember turning the phone towards me and having no idea what to say, but in the end my improv turned out better than I thought.  I am just finishing off my last class of the BBA program at NAIT and will soon be getting my Marketing degree. I’m still figuring out my life, which i’m sure many others have trouble figuring out. I’ve always said It was never about the money, I just want a job that I like! I have my dream girl already, so all I have to do is just stay positive and the pieces will come together eventually.

Stay Tuned for more 🙂

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001191/

Image 2 retrieved from: http://sewonset.com/portfolio-items/jim-carrey/

The Importance of the Employees and the groundswell

In my previous blogs, I have discussed how you can connect your customers in the groundswell. But what I never mentioned before was your employees. In most businesses, you have employees that work for you. Your company’s success should be a common goal you share with your employees. The bigger the company is, the more of a problem internal communication becomes  (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 234). Throughout corporations around the world, employees are connecting on internal social networks, collaborating on wikis, and contributing to idea exchanges  (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 234). That being said, what is being done here is tapping into the power of the groundswell of ideas among the people who know best, which is the employees.

In the past I have brought up essential objectives when it came to using the groundswell. If you do not recall from my earlier blogs, the essential objectives are: Listening, Talking,  Energizing, Supporting, and embracing. There are a few things you need in order to nurture the groundswell power of your employees: promote a listening culture from the top down, ease and encourage participation with incentives, and find and empower the rebels in your organization (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 245).

Without managements active participation, your efforts will fail (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 245). There is no substitute for management involvement. Within a company, groundswell thinking does not come naturally (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 245).  X5 management , a company I have brought up regularly in my blogs definitely is in the right state of mind for all of this. The team stays well ahead of the game, they have regular communication and share the duties for the company. As long as they continue to stress the communication amongst each other and make a commanding effort to follow the power of groundswell can be nurtured.

This is my last blog for now! I appreciate all the feedback thus far, and look forward to future blogging 🙂

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/Congregation-Administration/Legal-Issues-for-Congregations/Questions-About-Employees-and-Volunteers.aspx

Image 2 retrieved from: http://leeannbrady.com/tag/patient-communication

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

How to get Energized Using the groundswell

If your like me then you like learning new things daily.  I have continued to enjoy my weekly readings from my groundswell textbook. This week I was reading a chapter in the book called “energizing the groundswell”, what is energizing? Let’s put the this in the perspective of a political candidate.  When they get their supporters pumped up, and spread the word this is called “energizing the base”. This also applies to companies and their customers. Energizing the base is a powerful way to apply the groundswell to boost your business (Li & Bernoff Pg. 130). Another topic worth mentioning is word of mouth.  This is very powerful in brand marketing, achieving results that no other media campaign can achieve (Li & Bernoff Pg. 130). There are a few reasons about why word of mouth succeeds: it’s believable, it’s self-reinforcing, and lastly it’s self-spreading. I was shocked when I read about the percentages of “how much online North American Consumers trust sources of information about products or services”. The highest trust sources were from recommendations from friends and family (73%) and following that was emails from people you know (65%) (Li & Bernoff Pg. 132).

One of the main readings I felt was crucial for any business to absorb with groundswell was: “five steps for applying the techniques of energizing to your own organization”. I will explain each step in detail and relate it to a company that I’d like to work for, X5 Management.

1. Figure out if you want to energize with groundswell.

Obviously energizing with the groundswell isn’t for everyone. Energizing works well for companies with customers who are, or could be, enthusiastic about the company and its products (Li & Bernoff Pg. 148).  Even if companies have enthusiastic customers, energizing the groundswell can be a challenge (Li & Bernoff Pg. 148). Regarding my company of interest, X5 can definitely put this step into perspective. The approach of X5 is to ensure all aspects of business (CROPS) are smooth and systematic. The X5 team wants to be energized, and wants the customers that they work with to have the best services provided. If customers are enthusiastic and energized themselves, this leads to referrals and more value for the company.

2. Check the Social Technographics profile of your customers

According to my textbook, “you need research to determine how actively and in what numbers your customers are participating in the groundswell” (Li & Bernoff Pg. 148).  Now X5 doesn’t have age specifics but rather focuses on companies from all different industries. If X5 stays in contact with the customers, this results in customers having the right profile and participating with groundswell.

3. Ask yourself, “what is my customer’s problem?”

X5 excels with this. The great structure of the X5 team, allows them to have one on one’s with customers to get the full scoop on what specifically they need help with. You can relate this to the CROPS method I mentioned earlier. X5 doesn’t waste any time on things that don’t need to be done, it’s all about what the customer wants and needs.

4. Pick a strategy that fits your customers social technographics profile and problems.

“To make a community that’s successful you must consider the costs of design, moderation, and marketing, which can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars” (Li & Bernoff Pg. 149). If X5 wants to get energized, then they will have to set a strategy to work with the groundswell. Once specifics are set and social technographics are matched then the company can capitalize on methods that will attract the companies from different industries.

5. Don’t start unless you can stick around for the long haul. 

If your not in this for the long haul,  then you should think about the ugly endings you’ve seen to marriages that lacked long term effort (Li & Bernoff Pg. 149). X5 is around for the long haul, so there will be success throughout the journey of energizing with groundswell. With common sense you know that success doesn’t just come to you, you go to it. If commitment is set, then plans can be put to use and the business will have leverage over other companies in the same field.

Do you want to get energized using the groundswell?! I welcome your thoughts 🙂

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/the-top-10-ways-to-stay-energized.aspx

Image 2 retrieved from: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2004/energizer-batteries/

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Twitter Twitter Everywhere!

I recently created my own Twitter account. I know what your thinking, “Really? You just created your account now?” I never really saw the point to Twitter, as I always thought it was all about putting constant status updates that no one cares about.  I had Facebook already, I didn’t need to put a status twice. Then I had a  weekly read in my groundswell textbook and I saw that there really are benefits towards using Twitter. According to my groundswell textbook, “Twitter is now at the center of a whole ecosystem of interactions.”  (Li & Bernoff Pg. 197) There are a few essential elements that relate to that ecosystem that are worth mentioning. The first one to mention is Followers . With Twitter, anyone can follow anyone they want (unless you are blocked, but this is rare though) and followers form quickly, and some of the individuals on Twitter, develop followings in the hundreds of thousands  (Li & Bernoff Pg. 198 ) A second element is Hashtags and searches. Every single tweet is public, this allows the tweet to be searchable  (Li & Bernoff Pg. 198) From a company’s point of view, this makes it easy for them to see who exactly is tweeting about them. Hashtags are something I wasn’t familiar with until recently. The purpose of the hashtag is to mark a tweet as reference for any particular topic using the # symbol in front of your tweet. Links is an element that involves a website to your update. “This is what makes such short updates so powerful.”  (Li & Bernoff Pg 198. ). Using links you are able to share an article as well as anything else on the internet. (Li & Bernoff Pg198. ). One last element of Twitter worth mentioning is lists. In 2010, Twitter allowed people to create list of people they followed, these lists can be shared  (Li & Bernoff Pg. 199) I feel that all these elements can benefit a company in various ways, and can act as a gateway for future business and awareness.

A company I’m interested in working for in my future, X5 Management actually uses Twitter several times per week to reach out to other businesses sharing key insights and advice, videos, and what their capable of doing for a company looking at earning more revenue. X5 uses the “links” element in a beneficial way, by posting a link to their blog the public is able to view it and look deeper into the company.

In terms of social strategy for Twitter, my groundswell textbook suggested various ways to follow when it comes to using Twitter. I will explain them in further detail and also relate it to X5 Management. “Follow others” is a key strategy when it comes to getting involved with Twitter. It costs you nothing at all to follow others, and there is no requirement that says you have to pay attention to everyone’s tweets (Li & Bernoff Pg. 210). On a side note, Twitter’s rules also require that you follow people if you want them to send you private “direct  messages.” (Li & Bernoff Pg. 210). X5 can capitalize on following others, and it costs the company nothing at all. “Listen first” is another important aspect. You want to know what people are tweeting about your company before you start posting (Li & Bernoff Pg. 210)

With this particular strategy, X5 can see what is being said about them, and can post accordingly to that. One last key strategy that can be brought to attention is “Respond, retweet, and link”  in order to have an effective Twitter campaign, you want to be sure that you include all of the elements of the rich Twitter experience. This includes: responding to people who Tweet you, retweets of tweets, links to interesting material on your site, and links to photos and videos (Li & Bernoff Pg. 211). X5 is bang on with this method. X5 has some great videos which are worth sharing to the public. There is definitely interesting content that is shared with the company Twitter account. The Company blogs are posted weekly to the site, so that individuals interested are able to read and gain interest with the company. The X5 team works together to share company information through Twitter, as well as other major social media sites such as Facebook, and LinkedIn.  I would consider X5 to be leaning towards groundswell with Twitter, and the continual practice of groundswell methods will be put to use!

What are your thoughts on Twitter and X5’s strategy? Feel free to comment below 🙂

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://technorati.com/social-media/article/twitter-fakes-tweets-to-promote-twitter/

Image 2 retrieved from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jun/11/professional-reputation-social-media-tips

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Are you helping groundswell support itself?

 Recently, I came across another fascinating read in my groundswell textbook  that was worth reading. The main focus was on “helping the groundswell support itself” I’m sure most people in the world are familiar with what a wiki is. According to my groundswell textbook (2011) if you have customers who you think are ready to share in a common collection of information, you should consider starting one. Wikis are not easy to get going, they’re a lot harder than support forums, to be sure (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 168). In order to have a successful Wiki, there are a few ingredients you must have: People, content, patience and policy (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 168).

Now looking deeper into the chapter, we can look at what it would mean for your company to help the groundswell support itself. “Should you tap into the search for psychic income”? Properly managed, helping your customers support each other will make them happier, save money and generate insights (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 171). Before you think about anything, you must first consider three things: what problem you will solve, how you will participate, and finally whether you should create a support community or join an existing one (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 157).

Another section that captured my attention was about practical advice for getting started with a community. There were five suggestions mentioned with building a community if you decide to go forward with it. I will list each of the five suggestions and relate it to the company which I have a desire to work for someday, X5 Management.

1. Start small, but plan for a larger presence. 

With the variety of groundswell activities out there, it was always suggested that starting small was the best way to succeed (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 174). X5 does not have “multiple product lines” but instead believes in Improving Business Process through People. X5 believe that productive relationships between systems and people are key to business success. The plan for a larger presence still exists in the eyes of the X5 team.

2. Reach out to your most active customers.

My groundswell text suggests that through your sales group, you should find your enthusiast, and ask them how they’d prefer to participate. This will make them important leaders in your own community (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 175).  With X5, the whole team is considered to be enthusiast and wants to participate with identical techniques. Everyone works as a TEAM, and all will be equal leaders in the same community.

3. Plan to drive traffic to your community.

Nobody know’s you exist until you do something drastic for the company. A few examples could be: advertising on sites where your customers are interested, and having search engines (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 175). X5 has this suggestion locked in already. X5 uses various social media sites and has a few paid search listings for the target market.  As mentioned in my last weeks Blog, the company has been blogging for 18 going on 19 months. Traffic has been increasing over the past few months, based on the success of driving traffic into the community.

4. Build in a reputation system.

This suggestion is critical. A quote I felt explained this suggestion well was from Lyle Fong, the CEO and cofounder of lithium technologies was ” users will spend hours a day building their reputation in a community. A well-built reputation system encourages users to participate and behave in the right manner.” This is another suggestion that X5 has not practiced. I feel that recognizing how important a reputation is, X5 can capitalize and benefit from following this.

5. Let your customers lead you.

Communities always have opinions on everything (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 176). It’s recommended from my groundswell text to include a thread called “improving this community”, you want to make sure you pay close attention to what you hear, not just there but also throughout the forum (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 176). This suggestion is something that would come across as new for X5, but it is something that can be considered in order to work with the groundswell. It’s always crucial to have respect for your customers and let them help you out if needed. If X5 wants to follow this suggestion, then the company has to be prepared for how this will change the way business is done.

How are you helping the groundswell support itself? I welcome your thoughts 🙂

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-choose-the-right-wiki/

Image 2 retrieved from: http://www.fbig.com/vancouver-calgary-security-community-services.php

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Effectively Communicating with groundswell

I find that over time with my Social Media Marketing class I’m learning more and more about using groundswell. This week I had read an interesting topic which was “Talking with the groundswell”. I personally was curious to know about ways of talking more effectively with groundswell. My reading identified four specific ways to talk with groundswell.  I will explain in full detail each of the four effective ways, and relate it to the company I’m working for:  X5 Management.

1. Post a viral video-   Obviously the internet has become popular over time, and I’d say most people find themselves surfing the net. YouTube for example is where millions of viral videos are found for the world to see. An accurate example of how X5 used this strategy would be when they set up an event that took place on March 5th, 2013. Darren Hardy  was brought to Edmonton to discuss productivity strategies of super achievers. It is important to note that prior to this event X5 also promoted an invitation video that was produced by Darren Hardy to attract people to the event and to purchase tickets. This video was a significant component in drawing the 265 guests that attended.

2. Engage Social networks and user- generated content sites

According to my groundwell textbook, creating a personality within social networks is one of the simplest ways to extend your brand reach ( Li & Bernoff Pg. 103) X5 does an exceptional job with social networking. By having a strong LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter account, the X5 team is able to reach out to their target market and continually create greater awareness of the services that X5 provides. This has  allowed X5 to be consistent on a weekly basis as well as well as providing value-add content.

3. Join the blogospehere-    The essential idea behind joining the blogosphere would be to empower your executives or staff to write blogs. While your writing blogs, you can also LISTEN and respond to other blogs in the blogosphere (Li & Bernoff Pg. 103) X5 has been blogging for the last 18 months, and has experience with the blogging world. A unique asset X5 has is guest bloggers. Not just the X5 team but other reputable business leaders became bloggers for X5 as well. An example would be from one of X5’s recent contacts from India (Sawan Kapoor). A blog  from November of 2012 was written specifically about building stronger relationships. Another guest blogger that gave some wise business success advise was Jeff Polovick, the founder and CEO from DRIVING FORCE. These guest bloggers give X5 leverage and allow them to gain the attention in the blogging world.

4. Create a community-  According to the groundswell text, communities are a powerful way to engage with your customers and deliver value to them. (Li & Bernoff Pg. 103) X5 has created a group of business leaders in Edmonton called “X5 Mavens”. (Mavens are trusted experts who are willing to share information) X5 is at the epicentre of this concept. They connect many businesses to one another within the Edmonton and Alberta community.

What are your thoughts? 🙂 I welcome your feedback!

References

Image 1 retrieved from: http://amillionblogs.com/the-best-free-online-blog-sites/

Image 2 retrieved from: http://www.revlongboards.ca/community/

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Are You Using The POST Method?

Furthering my knowledge with my groundswell textbook, I found an excellent read on the POST method. This acronym includes four questions that relate specifically to your own groundswell strategy.  POST is a systematic framework for assembling your plan. I will describe each of the four steps:

People- In one of my previous blogs, I discussed briefly about the social technographics profile. This was associated with the question about what your customers are ready for. It’s crucial that you assess how your customers will engage, based on what you’re already doing (Bernoff & Li, 2009, p. 67).

Objectives-  This relates to goal setting. You have to know what your interested in, is it the marketing part , or is it generating sales by energizing your best customers when using the groundswell? A third consideration would also be tapping into groundswell internally to help employees work together more efficiently (Bernoff & Li, 2009, p. 67).

Strategy-  Obviously relationships in business are key for creating success. This focuses primarily on determining whether or not you want relationships with your customers to change. You want to know if you’d like customers to help carry messages to others in your market. A bigger question is if you want customers to become more engaged with your company (Bernoff & Li, 2009, p. 68).

Technology- For initiating, this is important to consider what application you want to build.  Once you brainstorm the people, objectives, and strategy, your able to get into picking the right technologies. A few examples are Wikis, blogs and social networks (Bernoff & Li, 2009, p. 68).

Now that you have an understanding of the POST method, let me show you an example of the method being used by the company that I am interested in working for,  X5 Management.

To begin my analysis of all four elements of the POST method, I will start with people.  With reference to X5 Management, customers are ready for guidance. This can be brought on through training/coaching for businesses looking at improving themselves. It’s key for the customers to focus on which of the five areas they want to improver whether it be:  Customer Satisfaction; Risk Management; Operational Efficiencies; People, or Sales. X5 may facilitate workshops to show the people within the business best practice customer service methods.

Getting into Objectives, the main objective would be to generate sales by energizing all customers of X5. An essential goal would be to gain referrals in order to continue future business. It’s important to put yourself out there for your company so if your able to form friendships in the process then you obviously will be able to attract many potential clients to grow the company to a high level.

One strategy would be for customers to be more engaged with the company.  In order to do this, you must be able to follow through for the company and accomplish what was supposed to be done. (i.e. getting a snapshot of current challenges through interviewing senior management.)

The main technologies for X5 Management include: the company website, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The website has well detailed explanations of all the staff members, and break down of the specifics, this focuses on what each member brings to the table. The website also connects to LinkedIn, and Twitter on the team members profiles. This allows contact to be available for businesses that might want to connect with a team member. Behind this strategy, with the use of social media it allows the name X5 to reach out to the world and capture future business.

With the use of the company blogs, this also allows the ability to capture one’s attention and to look into X5 more deeply. It’s not just wise advice and stories your taking in from the blogs, but also lessons that can help you achieve your goals with your own business. Technology is significant for any company in order to gain more business and it must be clear and speak with common sense.

Are you using the POST method? Tell me your thoughts 🙂

References

Image retrieved from: http://www.socialmediamodels.net/social-media-implementation-models-category/forresters-post-method/

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). groundswell. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Transformation is easy with groundswell

For the last few years, I have watched the show Dragon’s Den. As a business student, this show has motivated me to think big about my future. When I see the introduction of all the cast and hear about their stories, it amazes me to see how they grew their business and achieved greatness and wealth. Success obviously doesn’t happen over night (unless you win the lotto) but it happens over time with hard work and dedication. During my weekly read of my groundswell textbook, I read a chapter that focused specifically on transforming your company. It wasn’t until the very end where it captured my attention about the 5 key steps that you should make sure you and your company do in order to have the best chances of succeeding (Li & Bernoff, 2011 P. 230).

The following is a list of all 5 steps:

1. First start small
2. Second, educate your executives
3. Get to the right people to run your strategy
4. Get your agency and your partners in sync
5. Plan for the next step after the long term

Now in relation to these five essential steps, I’m able to tie this into the company I would like to work for which is X5 Management. From X5’s point of view, educating the team is crucial for furthering the success. In my previous Blog, I stated that X5 uses social network tools like: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. They use these in an effective way and this triggers potential customers for the company. With a cooperative team, X5 can bring everything they got in order to keep the success going. From my knowledge in school, I have learned that strategy is a must for any existing company. The third point mentions getting the right people to run your strategy (Li & Bernoff, 2011 P. 230) With a reliable team at X5 everyone has the characteristics of a bright mind.

When it comes down to picking the person with the most passion about starting a relationship with customers, it would all be even with the X5 team. Each member is passionate about the customers, and doesn’t only focus on the business side, but also the friendship side. groundswell is a new idea for X5, but in the long run with the team being committed with investing time and resources groundswell can be a great asset for the company.  With the teams strong vision X5 can be taken to the next level and a large contribution would be from groundswell.

Is your company preparing transformation with groundswell? I welcome your comments and thoughts 🙂

References

first image retrieved from: http://www.rozdoum.com/partners.html

second image retrieved from: http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/04/social-media-strategy-tactics/

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Are You Listening?

Sorry… can you repeat that? I wasn’t listening. All joking aside, I’m sure everyone knows how important listening is. This is something that I have struggled with my entire life. I’ve slowly tried to train myself to be able to only focus on the person that is talking to me instead of drifting my mind away from concentration.

As a business student, I’m picking up day by day all the key aspects I need to help me in the real world. I remember learning in my first year of marketing that customers are an essential part of any company.  Relationships help build future business and also allow a company to hold a positive reputation.

While reading my groundswell textbook I had the good fortune to read about two listening strategies that I was not familiar with before. The first strategy was to set up your own private community. Essentially setting up your own private community is comparable to a continuously huge engaged focus group (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 82). The last strategy worth mentioning is begin brand monitoring. What this means is that you can hire a company to listen to the Internet, blogs, discussion forums etc.  (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 82).  After monitoring your brand you will see summary reports to see what’s happening, and then afterward you can address any issues that need attention (e.g. customer service).

As previously stated there are two strategies that are brand new to me, so with the knowledge I’ve absorbed I can look closer at this from the point of view of X5 Management. Given the first strategy, which was setting up your own private company, I realize X5 does follow part of this strategy. Having team meetings on a weekly basis to analyze what customers and perspective customers are saying online about X5 is valuable to X5. They are listening to what their audience is saying and doing. Focus is crucial for everyone to plan the next big step in an attempt to acquire more customers.  X5 is always thinking about attracting the attention of prospective companies. One by one the team focuses on listening to each other and looks for the next biggest thing, and it’s important for X5 to have a respectable company blog that attracts business and also having other strong social media tools that captures attention (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter).

Relating to the second strategy, with a company that’s not globally recognized like X5, the brand monitoring side of things needs more effort and attention. Currently the X5 team works together so everyone has the opportunity to share what could be improved on, and the team is able to connect the dots and focus on what needs improvement.  Brand monitoring is definitely something that can be used to make the company’s market awareness grow over time.

My groundswell textbook mentions a great quote:  “whether you choose to start a private community, engage a community for brand monitoring, or just use the available tools to do rudimentary listening on your own, your organization must get started” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 93).  My interpretation of this quote means that in business today you must come up with a plan to connect with your community and market and at the same time you need to really listen to what your customers and community are saying and more importantly what their needs are.

There are six reasons stated within the groundswell textbook that suggest why your organization must get started:

1. Find out what your brand stands for
2. Understand how buzz is shifting
3. Save research money; increase research responsiveness
4. Find the sources of influence in your market.
5. Manage PR crisis
6. Generate new product and marketing ideas.

A great example of how X5 used many of the above noted points was in March of this year when they brought Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS magazine. They leveraged their market connections and systematically used social media marketing to create awareness of the event and sell over 260 tickets.  (A memorable pic of Darren Hardy and me at the X5 event, March 5th, 2013)

From my marketing experience in school, I most certainly can see all of these suggestions working for X5, and I believe following all these suggestions will result in further success for the company as well as any other companies willing to commit to this. How success will continue for any company will be mainly attributed to LISTENING to your market and community!!!!!!

All these skills are useful for any business, and listening is what can impact the results of success. Are you listening?  Feel free to comment below 🙂

References

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Review.

Listen Image retrieved from: http://www.charlesstone.com/5-ways-to-get-people-to-pay-attention-to-your-sermons#.Ub4m0rQSPq0

Putting more Social in Business

Have you ever just sat at home one day and wondered “what do I want to do for the rest of my life?” If your anything like me, then you have an idea where you want to go with your career, but there is something that’s holding you back.

I’m currently finishing up my third year of marketing, and I find myself at the point where I have to start pondering the career path that I would like to take. Obviously there are a wide variety of jobs in the marketing field. One job that I’ve had my eye on is working with my Dad’s company. His company is called X5 Management. What is X5 you ask? X5 is an Edmonton, Alberta based firm with a team of Business Process Coaches & Facilitators. X5 helps improve business process through people.  The target customer is companies look at improving their business. Their customer base varies from a small two-person company to 200 employees with over $200 Mil. in revenue. X5 has a number of business coaches to help support customers in five main areas of their business (CROPS). CROPS is an essential acronym that is used to help grow businesses. This stands for Customer Satisfaction, Risk Management, Operational Efficiencies, People, and Sales.  Following CROPS will result with business success. Click Here to view X5’s video.

In my Social Media Marketing class I have absorbed useful knowledge that will help me understand just how important social media is for a company. While I was reading my “groundswell” textbook, I came across a good read about The Social Technographics Ladder. There are seven steps to be considered: Creators, Conversationalist, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, and Inactives. Each one of the seven steps represents a group of consumers more involved in the groundswell than previous steps. (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 41).

When analyzing the ladder, the steps I feel X5 relates primarily to Spectators. Clearly from X5’s point of view, you need to have customers interested in growing their business.  People that read business related blogs are a big factor for the company; if someone lives and breathes business then they will be attracted to an X5 blog. Since a portion of X5’s marketing strategy is videos, so an important way to attract businesses would be through having a video posted online. (X5 currently has a video strategy incorporated into their weekly Blog strategy.  i.e  one video Blog every four weeks).

From the target customers looking on the main website, they can gain insight on how X5 can support their business. That will keep them interested with X5 and potentially spread the word and create referrals.

In my Social Media Marketing class, another lesson worth mentioning is using the Forrester tool. (Click here for more information) You’re able to use this tool to help you break down certain gender and age specifics for your target market. This tool also allows you to see who aligns with your target market based on percentage of each of the seven levels from the social technographics ladder. As mentioned earlier X5’s ultimate target customer would be company’s that want to improve their business. No specific gender or age is put into consideration. The main focus is on the company and the industry itself. But for many other industries the technographics profile from Forrester breaks everything down and can become a helpful tool for a business.

Stay Tuned for more information on my career interest and course content! Feel free to comment  🙂

References

Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Li, Charlene & Bernoff, Josh. (2011). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Pg. 43. ( The Social Technographics Ladder image)

X5 Image Credit: www.x5management.com