For all the procrastinators out there, we’ve set out to help you: Here’s a list of strategic resolutions with your organization’s marketing, communications, and branding goals in mind.  It could help chart not only your own professional growth in 2010, but also guide your company’s success for the next 50+ weeks:

1. We will revisit and adjust our Goals for 2010.

Every marketing, reputation building, or social media plan should be traceable to your overarching goals.  What do you want to achieve with your communication to your target market? What do you want to achieve via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube?  Set projections.  Before writing a blog post, or updating your status this year, consider if it will bring you closer to achieving your main goals?  And importantly: is your company’s reputation and brand aligned with your entire communication plan?

2. We will redefine our strenghts and weaknesses.

It doesn’t hurt to do an audit at the start of a new year.  If you have a well-defined SWOT-analysis, do everything you can to successfully promote your strenghts across all platforms, re-define your value proposition to prospective clients, and differentiate yourselves from the competition.

3. We will strive to Practice Better Web Etiquette than in ‘09.

Remember that there’s no “advertising” in social media.  It’s a cliché’, but it is called “social” media for a reason.  Engage in conversation, listen well, and provide content of value.  Do not push sales to your followers and fans.  They won’t return.  In a recent study reported by Bulldog Reporter  93% of online users now expect companies to have an online presence. To keep them coming back, you’ll have to come up with creative content and be engaging.  Recognize that it is a big deal for someone to “fan”, friend or follow you – make it worth their while.  Set up automatic “Thank you”-messages, provide exclusive content, or other creative ways to reward their decision.

4. We will strive to be year-long Learners.

The communication landscape changed more in 2009 then in the previous decade.  It’s the communicators job to stay abreast of new developments.  Nielsen reported that two-thirds of the global Internet population now visits social media sites regularly.  Communicators have to incorporate ever-improving social media tools into their traditional arsenal.  There are so many new developments and new methodologies every month – you owe it to your clients to stay on the cutting edge so they can reap the benefit of your knowledge and application.

Two quick examples of important new developments:

-         Search engine changes are influencing online marketing and communications and you should know how to use this knowledge to maximize the ROI for your clients.

-         The new Twitter Lists are a way of tracking your target markets, building group relationships and more.  Find out how it can make your job easier.

5. We will strive to have genuine dialogues with our constituents.

Famed Social Networking expert Gary Vaynerchuk often says that he is successful because he cares.  That’s the essence – instead of selling, have real conversations with those you are trying to reach and influence.  What do they want?  Who are they?  Really caring and real dialogue will create loyal followers that can be seriously effective advocates of your message.

6. We will ask for client Goals before accepting new accounts.

Go to greater lengths to persuade your clients not to jump into the social media arena without first agreeing with you on their objectives, identifying their target audiences, and defining reasonable measurements of success.  E.g. strongly discourage a client wanting to launch a new product from creating a promotional Facebook Fan Page days or weeks before a launch date.  They are setting themselves up to fail.

7. We will continuously look for ways to Improve.

Constantly seek to improve your brand and reputation and everything related to that – including your website, your social media relationships and conversations.  Revive your customer service, improve your client communication, increase your productivity by working smarter and not more.

8. We will strive to expand our Brand.

We will put renewed focus on our own online contributions.  We will update our company’s blog, Facebook Fan Page, and all other social media sites with regularity and use these channels more deliberately to drive traffic to our website.  At the same time, valuable contributions such as an expert blog post at the right time, can build credibility and establish you as an expert.  The same goes for contributing to industry-specific online discussions, e.g. answering field-specific questions on LinkedIn.

9. We will focus on enlarging our network.

No-one works in isolation and networking with your peers can be invaluable.  This can lead to collaboration opportunities, helpful discussion, referrals and more.  Join a business networking group such as BNI, your local Chamber of Commerce, or a Social Media Club in your area.  And don’t underestimate the power of social media – we met our Minister of Technology at Stylo Creative Communications via Twitter!

10. Remember to have fun!

It is easy to get burned out by the information overload.  Remind yourself why you are working in the communication field – reignite your passion, revisit successful past projects and don’t take yourself to seriously.

By Marco Bouwer

It’s a marketer and advertiser’s dream – a captive, easily reachable audience meeting in a central location.  Not only that, but FB’s search options enable you to zoom in on extremely specific target audiences, or FB groups.  In addition, what makes social media – and FB in particular – so unique, is the “place” - or psychological mindset of your audience – where you meet them at.  “FB is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family, and coworkers…”, states the official FB Company Factsheet.  Visiting FB is like relaxing on the couch and watching a TV sitcom after a day of grind at the office.  Your mindset is different.  You are ready to meet people.  You’re relaxed and more accepting of outside influences and suggestions.
 
From a business perspective FB presents a definite paradigm shift with regards to marketing and brand management.  FB is a platform that facilitates the sharing of information through social interaction, in a trusted environment.  It is certainly not an advertising and marketing platform.  It is also not a tool for listening to and tracking consumers of your brand.  It goes beyond that, it is about engaging your audience and becoming one voice in a thousand.  It’s about putting the “social” in front of “marketing”.
Apart from some remarkable responsive corporations like Coca-Cola and BMW, the corporate world is too slowly waking up to FB’s possibilities.  Everyone wants a part of it, and no-one wants the competition to have the first say in the global discussion forum that is FB.
 
But fools are rushing in.  Many companies, large and small, are setting up their business presence on FB, instead of tasking expert communicators with the job.  The wrong message could cost you, and public opinion (read FB-opinion) is a fickle thing.  Let the experts take care of your online corporate socializing.  You’ll thank them.
 
Contact SCC for a free consultation.

By Marco Bouwer