Insights

The Importance of Curiosity

Curiosity

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the lack of curiosity can kill business.  Observing the world around you, with an open mind, is something many professionals have unlearned, but it’s something that we’re all born with. Basically, if you want to spot and understand trends, you can.

Understanding customer trends is critical to any business.  And trend tracking is easier than you might think.  Be curious and open minded.  You may be set in your own ways and have strict believes about what is right and what is wrong, but keeping an open mind is important in observing the world around you.  Ask yourself ‘why‘ whenever you notice something new, instead of immediately looking for shortcomings.

Also realize that you are not necessarily your customer and that what you care about probably isn’t the same as your customer.  You may not be excited about something new, but there might be others that are.  Try to figure out what makes others excited and why it is meaningful to that person.

In other words, think and act like a private investigator. How?

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Why companies are reluctant to embrace social media

A case for enabling your organization to take advantage of new technologies

10 years ago, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to find companies that restricted email access to a select few key employees. You know, the ones who really needed access. And while we’re adding technologies to our list, we shouldn’t forget to mention mobile phones. Every decade, revolutions in technologies bring with them fear and restrictions – sometimes for perfectly sound reasons and at other times, for reasons that are completely irrational.

It would be unfair for us to judge those decisions by what we know now and especially because of how commonplace email and mobile phones are in everyday communications. And of course, we’re cherry picking the obvious, perhaps forgetting other technological innovations that might have been riskier.

However, considering the transformative power of emerging technologies and the speed by which they are released and effectively utilized, companies NEED to build processes and resources to evaluate how they can harness and enable their organization to take advantage of the opportunities, rather than wait.

We understand the formula for success, but not always the means. The companies that can build more effective relationships, identify prospects and influencers, provide better service and source new ideas for product innovations – all faster than the competition will just plain win. The risk of getting left behind is far too great to be too cautious.

10 reasons that companies are reluctant to evaluate social media

  1. The perception that people are wasting time or it’s a purely personal endeavor
  2. We’ve been successful so far without it
  3. Lack of knowledge and unwillingness to invest resources to learn
  4. Lack of executive or leadership sponsorship
  5. Focus on one-way, advertising communications
  6. Lack of perceived control of brand and messages
  7. Culture that is uncomfortable with change
  8. The perception of IT security risks
  9. Concern about legal risks
  10. Unwillingness to be transparent and accessible to customers

All of the above issues are by themselves not unreasonable considerations. Companies of all sizes need to have sound justification to embrace new strategies and should have practical understanding of their costs and ultimate value of the new direction to the organization. What I’m arguing for is for businesses to speed up the process by readying their organizations for change and enabling small teams – no,  “requiring” small teams to evaluate new technologies and address each of the above issues.

There’s just no excuse for sitting on the sidelines when there’s ample evidence for so much success.

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Social Media Talk for SMPS Oklahoma

In addition to the SMPS Southern Regional Conference in Houston, Peter Wyro will be presenting a talk on the development of a successful Social Media strategy and the implications for Professional Services firms. The talk is sponsored by the Oklahoma Chapter for SMPS, The Society for Marketing Professional Services.

February 15th, 2011 – 12:00 P.M
Wallace Engineering
200 East Brady Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103

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A strong social culture enables social marketing

By now, every marketing-related firm has had to address the demand for social media integration into a client’s marketing platform.

What is often forgotten are the steps required to create a social culture that enables the organization to truly harvest the benefits of a social strategy. If an organization isn’t comfortable with change, a sudden transformation of the fundamental way that it communicates internally and externally might be an uncomfortable proposition to digest.

A social culture is flat and transparent. The organization is part of a dialogue between “real people” inviting feedback, responding to questions and concerns and including the participation of internal and external stakeholders. Employees have not only a voice, but a responsibility.

The community is creating the dialogue. Companies need to decide whether or not they wish to try and influence the conversation for positive outcomes. If one opts-out of the dialogue, a competitor will take advantage of the invitation.

Components of your social culture

Rules of engagement

These are the patterns and practices of how people interact with one another.

Values
What’s acceptable and what’s not. It’s a good idea to have a set of policies that help frame the culture that you’d like to create.

Syntax
What is our language, technology, iconography, symbols that make up our vocabulary?

Style
How does it make us feel when it’s working or not? What’s the mood of our conversation?

How will you know when you’re on the right track

You’re still focused on business results

Understand the broad set of objectives that can be enhanced by your social culture and social media communications before you take any new direction. There are always media and financial measures to any strategy. Discover which ones are relevant for your business.

You are participating in the dialogue

Use communication channels that allow information to flow both ways and make it a priority to show up where the conversations are happening

Empower and encourage authentic participation from employees

Your employees are most-likely passionate about your brand. Give the access and empower them to have an opinion and appropriately engage one another, give feedback to leaders, and respond to customers about any issue that is important. Your rules of engagement will govern what is appropriate.

Listen before you speak

A conversation works both ways. If what you have to say isn’t very interesting to the other parties, you might get tuned out. The only way that you will now if what you have to say is meaningful or not, is to listen.

Focus inside as well as outside your organization

Increase the speed and intensity of your communications by giving your organization an internal opportunity for discussion. The people on the front lines are in a great position to discover innovation.

You understand that you can’t outsource your authentic voice

It’s a lot easier to take advantage of social marketing strategies when your organization is prepared for change and ready participate. Your marketing partners provide expertise in planning, implementing your platforms and understanding your customer’s needs, but your voice needs to remain in the game.

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Supporting Positive Tomorrows, Great for your Community and your Brand

 

BraveMatters supports an Oklahoma City based organization that is changing the lives of some of the most at-risk children in our communities. Before learning about Positive Tomorrows, It had never crossed my mind that homeless adults would often be accompanied by homeless children, constantly moving from couch to couch or living in shelters or even worse.

These children are often the silent victims of domestic violence, addiction and a seemingly never-ending cycle of poverty. As you can imagine, the lack of stability and other complicating factors that most only see as depression, behavioral problems or poor academic performance. Without early intervention, these children are likely to drop out of school and repeat many of the same patterns.

Positive Tomorrows provides a private, free education that cares for the special needs of Oklahoma City homeless children, Kindergarten through 5th grade. Having been personally involved with the organization, I am proud to say that it is much more than a school – it’s a sanctuary of hope for these intelligent, wonderful kids.

How you can help, immediately:

  1. A local filmmaker, Mike Jones has pledged to make 5 commercials for the top 5 non-profit organizations that receive the greatest amount of votes. Click here to vote now.
  2. Cork and Canvas is a wine tasting and art auction fundraiser scheduled for February 19, 2011 at the City Arts Center at Fair Park. Purchase tickets or make a donation.

For Local Businesses:

If you are a local business residing in the Oklahoma City area, I encourage you to visit Positive Tomorrows and consider supporting their mission.

Good for Branding

Your brand is a connected to a wide range of emotional associations and allied connections. You can’t go wrong linking yours to Positive Tomorrows.

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