You can’t avoid it. You can’t sweep it under the rug and you certainly can’t run like hell. We know the online world is starting to overpower the offline world. We can now start to show case studies of how big corporates are radically overhauling their marketing budgets towards social media activity.

People are talking about it, having conversations about it, delivering seminars about it, meeting about it, discussing it and, of course, doing it! You can’t stop what’s happening but you must understand this social media explosive wave of communicating with customers and spreading ideas. The implications are both fascinating and daunting.

It’s evolving rapidly and is causing huge problems for companies large and small. Marketing campaigns you’ve used over the last 3 years have become irrelevant. Before you think I’m thrusting Facebook down your neck and recommending you immediately create fans stop! It’s too late now just to test it out, you’ll fail. You can’t do what I did 18 months ago and plunge into it with no armbands just to see what it was like and whether it was for me. I did! I love it and hate it at the same time. But, life has moved on, its too serious for you to see it as a side issue.

I know how people are feeling, particularly those who haven’t done anything on the social media front yet and those who are wanting to rack things up this year. It presents a paradox; exciting and overwhelming! The key thing to think about is that actually the technology doesn’t really matter….it can almost do anything! What we all need to focus on, no matter what stage we are at, is how social media can help you  to develop relationships with people.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their book ‘Groundswell’ quote “people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.” I  would add that this is not a trend that is about to go away, in fact, its likely to blow your business model apart over the next few years. As I mentioned earlier, its not something you can dabble in anymore, you need understanding, structure and strategy.

With hindsight, I’d consider following these four steps before embarking on a marketing approach that is not a spectator sport:

1. Read, read and read. Follow people who know what it’s all about and understand why its happening.

2. Understand what it is! It’s not just Facebook and Twitter. Consider some case studies.

3. Think about how you can use it to develop relationships with your customers, suppliers, people and community. It’s about allowing participation and having a conversation.

4. Then, with help, build a strategy that can be implemented. A focused approach that doesn’t expect miracles overnight but that gradually and solidly sustains your marketing over the long term.

Hope that helps!

Over the Xmas period I’m writing an eBook considering how business is changing including the fundamental shifts we are experiencing and, also the key things we possibly need to get back to. It will cover between 50 and 100 words all supplied by my colleagues, clients, followers, connections and fans. Although, I may throw a few into the mix.

I’m hoping to provide an overview of some critical factors that will influence the future of work and business. Some of you have been kind enough already to provide some interesting topics such as; value, adaption, substance, competition, talent, time and feel.

It would be great if you could join in! I’ll reference you in the book and provide a hyperlink to your website or blog. Hopefully, I can provide some thought provoking ideas and thoughts with a bit of humility too. Can’t wait for the conversation to start once it’s published in February/March 2010.

If you want to contribute a word or two, please just make a comment on this blog, direct message me on www.twitter.com/annholman or, email me at ann@annholman.co.uk

Thanks!

Beware of stealing in your business. Perhaps there is a better word? Stealing happens when someone takes something from you when you are not looking, or, when you are unaware initially. Customers, staff, suppliers and partners involved in your business can do this. Their motivation is often being unfair to gain an advantage for themselves.

Whether it is by asking you to reduce prices, taking valuable time from you without adding value, not understanding that the relationship you have is just as important as the profit you make, or, by demanding stuff you just can’t do which is compromising. If you allow people to steal from you, you are literally giving people permission to cheat you.

An amusing talk given to TED by Carl Honore discussing the principle and benefits of slowing down. Thought provoking and worth 19 minutes of your time.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Say what you want, have a feeling tourists very rarely make a decision to visit a land mark whether its three minutes or ten minutes away. Crazy idea, crazy waste of tax payers money and irrational decision making by managers who focus on busy work not real work.

The old sayings are the best!! It’s better to do a few things really well than a lot of things badly. Whenever we take something new on, something else has to go. A good look at what you are currently doing is the next step. You need to distinguish between real work and busy work:

-       Real work contributes significantly to the growth of your business, busy work stunts growth

-       Real work impacts positively on your bottom line, busy work distracts you from your bottom line

-       Real work utilises your skills, expertise and knowledge, busy work underuse’s you

-       Real work is challenging, busy work is mundane and boring

-       Real work only you can do, busy work is what anyone can do which is why you should outsource it!

If your work overwhelms you but doesn’t challenge you, you’re probably suffering from too much busy work! Put together a list of all the work that comes in on one day. Identify which is real work and which is busy work. You know what to do next!

Been helping a couple of small businesses with some overwhelming time management issues recently. As usual no time to improve and think about developments for the future because the majority of the staff are engaged in fire fighting. It comes from the ‘top’ and therefore is a problem for the ‘top’ to solve. Time management, I believe, is a cultural issue. It’s no good individuals on their own attempting to manage their time more effectively if other people are not respecting it and adhering to the boundaries or working parameters, great time management requires.

We can work quite inefficiently, we often get distracted by random factors in the working day. We prioritise based on noise but work doesn’t come from thin air, it comes from the commitments we make. We came up with a quite a few exercises to help the process. Here’s one:

1. Make a list of all of the outstanding work you have at the moment. Write down how long the task has been outstanding for and the number of hours it would take to complete the task. When you’ve picked yourself back up off the floor. You now know what your backlog looks like and how big or small it is!

2. Collect a days worth of incoming work. Write it down. You now know what you have to do just to stay on top!

3. Put all of your backlog work into a folder then collect all of your work for one day and deal with it in one batch and do that for three days.

4. Spend the fourth day dealing with your normal incoming work but start the process of clearing one item on that backlog list and do that first thing when you get in the office. Keep doing it until the backlog is gone.

Remember whenever you take on something new, something else has to give.

There are times when we all get sluggish, struggle with self motivation or the hurdles feel that just that little bit high to jump. On bad day it could be plain lazy. Making things happen during these hours/months (hope it’s not years) can be difficult. Heres some potential ideas:

1. Each week do something different. Something you haven’t done before. It doesn’t have to be sky diving but visiting an art gallery, kayaking or sitting in a coffee shop with a good business book will do!

2. Every so often take a ‘team time out.’ Take your people to the cinema, for a walk, bog snorkelling (we Brits do strange things) or visit another business you admire. It gives your team a different perspective, makes them feel valued and gives them a break.

3. Take time out yourself. Its tough running a business. Take time out for at least an hour a day to think. The best ideas often come when you are away from the office, away from staff and away from customers.

4. Every quarter do some house keeping. Set aside half a day when everyone throws out the stuff they don’t need anymore. Brochures, files and paperwork. It’s an opportunity to create a feeling of a fresh start.

Hope it helps….!

As managers of small businesses we are constantly fighting and struggling against the flow. Customers, staff, suppliers, competitors and shareholders are all competing for our attention. Our minds can get buried in the day to day operations, the immediate dangers and the problems we think needed solving yesterday. Our concentration becomes the floor rather than the horizon, and what we should be focusing on disappears into oblivion. Just to help you think about things ask yourself these few questions:

Reflect on how well you  focus on

Opportunities rather than problems?

Purpose rather than tasks? 

Meaningful rather than money?

Real work rather than busy work?

Long term rather than short term?

Flexibility rather than control?

Trust rather than doubt?

Positive rather than cynicism? 

Then think about where you need to be spending more time. It may mean some change, it may mean changing a lot, but, being able to change where we spend our time as managers is a reflection on our ability, first, to reflect on our own growth needs, but also on where we create the most value.

I ride my cycle a lot. I’m used to numpty car drivers pulling out on me (if you’re a cyclist you know what I mean.) I don’t hang around, I cycle quite fast. This weekend due to a lack of patience a car overtook in the most incredible place and hit the vehicle coming the other way. Wing mirrors went spinning across the road. Cost, £300 all because one car driver just couldn’t wait a few seconds.

In the rush to get the job done, to get to our destination, or to get the business to grow, we knock things off. We knock people about…. whether they are customers, our people or suppliers and like the car drivers it costs money. People leave our business because they are not treated the right way. We become consumed by doing busy work rather than real work. We run round in circles, become less efficient and take our eye off the real ‘REAL’ ball.

It’s the equivalent of driving head down along the road without enjoying the ride, appreciating the view and taking the moment in. Business is a lot like that. We spend so much time trying to achieve but not understanding how to achieve.

The definition of patience is tolerance of delay. It implies self control, considering the options and sometimes just waiting. How many times have you jumped at a decision only to recognise later that delaying or self control would have put you in a better position or you would have made a better decision?

Just slow it down a little, think carefully, be patient, don’t rush it. Better to get there than never at all!