Social media can be an excellent marketing tool for your company. It’s also a venue in which your employees are spending a lot of time, and every so often, someone makes a comment such as, “We deliver cold pizzas every Saturday night because it’s just too flippin’ busy” or “Rumor has it my boss is leaving the company – but he doesn’t know it yet.” Also every so often, an employee lets the competition know, in no uncertain terms, that they “stink” – or worse.

If you haven’t established a clear, written social media policy for your company, you can call your employees to task when and if you catch these indiscretions, but the responsibility for any damage done lies also with your firm.

Just as your company has, ideally, established standards for brand use, for dealing with the press, for giving (or not giving) employment references, for use of company computer systems and more, you must also establish standards for employees’ use of social media as it impacts your company.

Certainly, standards include the basics: don’t talk online about confidential company matters, don’t reveal new products, don’t discuss litigation, don’t harass or badmouth management or coworkers, don’t flame the competition – but there are many other considerations as well.

As a firm that has long been involved in supporting clients in developing and managing their messaging, vSA knows that the power of social media can be used for good or harm – even inadvertently. (“Facebook, are you a good witch or a bad witch?”) We work with clients to help assure everyone at their companies with access to a keyboard knows what’s okay and what’s not in terms of promulgating company-related information that could pop up on Google for years to come. We’ll share more on this topic in upcoming blog posts, and are available to consult with clients regarding both their focused use of social media and risk management techniques.

Simonds International Microsite, www.neveryieldtosteel.com

Why develop a microsite when you already have a corporate site? There are a number of situations in which a microsite can be an unbeatable marketing tool. Here are five best uses for a microsite:

1-You are running a specialized promotion or contest. Examples may include: an offer that you’re making in specific geographic regions and/or to specialized market segments. For example, one of our clients created a B2B promotion for just a few southern cities in which sales had been lagging. All sales and marketing outreach led small business owners from these cities to a microsite that offered business tips and allowed firms to compete for regional recognition… all while promoting our client’s best products for small businesses.

2-You have a new Web application or service that deserves its own Web presence. Examples include: training, certification, relevant calculators, product life cycle assessments, competitive comparisons, product specification/product selectors/e-commerce, or specialized product catalogs. The sky is the limit here!

3-You are running a specific advertising/marketing campaign and want to test its success in bringing respondents to your landing page – a microsite allows you not only to track responses but also to continue the conversation or even clinch the sale on the spot.

4-You want to communicate actively with customers and prospects, creating a special place for them to speak or be recognized, through vehicles such as customer-focused case studies, awards, testimonials, Q & A, real-time communications, or other personalized content that develops and sustains relationships between your firm and your customers.

5-You want to entertain, engage or inform customers and prospects on a site that does not overtly promote your products, brand or services as the main corporate site may do. However, consider that you need to plan to “hook” these prospects at some point, so some (even subtle) branding and a link to your main company site are often in order; this is also an important consideration for search engine optimization (SEO).

Your thoughts and experiences? We’d enjoy learning from you.

It’s a hot summer day. So sometimes what’s obvious eludes us. After all, the sidewalks are steaming.

Here’s an example from my own role as rainmaker: vSA offers strategic marketing. GREAT, I think to myself. PR with a new emphasis on interactive, really sharp Web outreach, innovative sales tools, advertising… and lots more. Cool.

BUT.

What does a prospect care about marketing, really (perhaps not much). It’s my job to light the fire by determining SPECIFICALLY how vSA can improve the prospect’s situation and life.

As in… vSA bolsters sales, builds market share, helps create thought leaders. vSA makes companies more visible than their competition so they LOOK BETTER than their competition, SELL MORE than their competition, and WIN in a dog-eat-dog economy.

Furthermore, we help make our individual clients ever more successful as executives or business owners. vSA can help them make more money as well as enable them to go home on time more often – feeling good – so they can ride their bikes or float in the pool.

After all, it IS hot out there.

As I compose this post on a lovely summer afternoon, financial headlines include phrases such as “market swoon” and “U.S. Economy Is a Complete Disaster”.  That’s arguable, but nonetheless, it’s no time for business professionals to close their eyes, not even for a moment. Here’s why:

We’re doing it all. Productivity continues to be high, because there are fewer people doing more jobs, working longer hours, coming up with better ideas. If we don’t remain at the alert (or if we don’t hire back some of those people we’ve ushered to the sidelines) production will fall and our ability to respond to opportunities quickly will drop.

Prospects and customers say “maybe” and “no” more easily than they say “yes”. We must stay on our toes to give them reasons to move forward with us. They’ll save money. They’ll save time (which is money). They’ll be more productive (which is money). Or they’ll feel happier (which is more important than money sometimes, eh?). Get to yes. Argue with the going wisdom of the day, with the “we have no budget” or “we’re not planning to do that until 2011″ or “we have a supplier already.” Invite your prospect to look at a situation through new eyes and improve results.

We’re operating in a new environment. Picture yourself trying to perform everyday tasks in a weightless environment. Your cereal floats away. You can’t move from here to there the way you used to. Doing business today is similar. People don’t often pick up their phones unless they expect your call. They may make decisions by doing research online rather than talking to people like you. They do without, or they do things themselves. (How many major corporations have taken to creating their own sales materials, for example, or simply have no current materials? Oh, there’s nothing more impressive than the sales rep drawing the new automation system on a frayed paper napkin at Burger King to show to a key prospect, I’ll tell you!) Take the time to dream up new ways to help your prospect, and to speak to his or her real concerns, which are very likely different than they were two years ago.

Since you’re wide awake anyway, walk away from the lagging crowd. Think for yourself or find a fresh new adviser or partner with whom to share ideas. Figure out how to develop, value, sell, and build market share for your product or service. Learn about the new tools and techniques, motivations and buy signals that work in a strange new world, even as the pundits wring their hands and your competition slumps in its seats.

By the way, coffee helps.

Some people love the process of sales. For the rest of us, it’s a challenge. That challenge is heightened during difficult economic times.

Following are some of the lessons our sales team has learned through experience, trial-and-error and the wisdom of others:

First, make sure you’re selling something worth buying. Give yourself a break! Some people can sell ice cubes to citizens of the frozen far north, but the rest of us will do a lot better marketing something that has value to the prospect… even if the prospect doesn’t know it yet.

In a tough economy, be ready to highlight the immediate benefits, cost savings opportunities, time saved, and other at-the-ready positives your product or service offers. Why? When money is tight, people tend to think short-term. Even corporations think short-term. In some cases, they feel they can’t afford to do otherwise.

Stop talking. That’s right. Learn about your prospect. What is s/he working on, concerned about and planning? Know this, and your sales message can address relevant needs.

Once again, stop talking. Once you’ve made your pitch, be quiet. Let your prospect ponder your offering, even let your prospect feel it’s his/her turn to speak up. A little awkward silence at decision-making time can be a good thing.

Don’t sell on price, but don’t be insensitive to cost issues. In the end, cost will nearly always be a consideration. Just don’t make it your selling point. Unless, of course, you have nothing else.

Be willing to follow up. We’ve all been subjected to fire-hose sales pressure. It’s unpleasant. If what you’re selling is of value, you can afford to be consultative. If you can’t close the sale that day, ask when you can check in again. Sure, you may lose momentum… assuming you ever had it. Learn to know the difference between a prospect expressing genuine interest and one who is merely being polite to put you off.

Even if your prospects are thinking short-term, you shouldn’t be. Someone who’s interested in your product but not in a position to buy may be ready later. Too many salespeople drop the ball and lose longer term prospects.

Be likable. Despite online shopping, phone voice mail trees and other impersonal ways of doing business, personality still matters. When people are working with others, they gravitate toward those they like. Overbearing, single-minded and pushy aren’t characteristics that come to mind when we say “likable.” Consultative, warm, engaging, and having good listening skills are. Why does it matter? Because you want your prospects to take your next call or respond to your next email. You want their referrals. You want their business.

“And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick,” proclaimed our president this morning in an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show.

Some people may object to this remark because it is coarse. I object because it is disingenuous and clearly the brainchild of a media relations team. “President Obama! The American People think you’re an effete intellectual. They think you lack emotion. They want to see you get mad!” And, “The American People do not want to hear about experts or scholars. They want you to get out there and KICK ASS!”

President Obama, polls or no polls, please speak with your authentic voice. Work with BP, work with everyone who can help clean up this terrible mess, build some regulations, kick some ass if necessary, but don’t talk to us as if street fightin’ is your way of life. Get real.

Don't try to manage complexity in a vacuum.

I know. You have no time. Your marketing budget is spoken for, or maybe you don’t have much of a marketing budget this year. You already have a marketing firm. You don’t want to suffer through a high-pressure sales session. It’s easy to come up with reasons NOT to meet with that marketing consultant who requests your time.

But there are at least three reasons why you SHOULD meet with a good marketing consultant.

1) Marketing has changed drastically even in the last two years. If you’ve been trodding more or less the same path for the last couple of years, there’s a better-than-even chance you’re not up to date on something you ought to know: how to use social media press releases to improve your Web site rankings, how to narrow-cast your updates to immediately support sales efforts, how to cut expenses by leveraging new interactive advertising techniques, how to direct mail to smaller audiences for better results… and lots more.

2) A good consultant will clue you in to very specific programs that are working for other companies. Maybe you’ll learn something new about affordable search engine optimization (SEO), advertising on Facebook, targeting top prospects by holding private events during trade shows, customer loyalty-building programs, opt-in email campaigns, company blogs, or who-knows-what. You’ll get the inside scoop quickly and painlessly.

3) Networking with people who have services you may someday desire – even if you don’t want them today – is forward-thinking. To be an executive or business owner with vision, you need inspiration. Personal relationships provide a source of inspiration you’ll get nowhere else.

Remember, you can set the ground rules for this meeting. For example, prior to agreeing to meet, specify: You have 30 minutes. You’re not in the market to buy services today. You’d like this to be a discussion rather than a sales session. You name it.

Have a great meeting.

If you’re like many US company executives or entrepreneurs in 2010, you bet you are. And for good reasons.

-Shareholders are demanding results after a tumultuous run
-Cash flow is… eh
-You’re itching to hire, to grow revenues… in short, to do what companies do best

Even as you focus on the immediate, you’re no doubt aware that you mustn’t lose sight of the more distant horizon (the cross country drive vs. the drag race). How can you align the two?

-Don’t accept today what you don’t want to live with tomorrow. Cutting your prices, appealing to a less-desirable customer or client echelon, conducting down-and-dirty marketing and sales campaigns… these choices may allow you to meet short-term goals, but if they harm your firm’s market profile or long-term prospects, think twice. In fact, think about Wall Street investment firms and how some of them look to the public today (thanks in some measure to basing bonuses and such on short-term results).
-Even when you’re generating the quick buck or the immediate sales, have your five-year game plan not only in mind but also in writing. Where does your company need to be? What is the path from A to B to C? Post Great Recession, it may be time for a new marketing plan, perhaps even a new business plan. Talk with us.
-Get some help. Create an advisory board, talk with a well-reputed business growth consultant, watch what’s going on in your industry and similar industries. Remember that 2013 will look as different from 2010 as did 2007. Conditions are changing as we speak.

We welcome your perspective, either as a comment to the blog or through a private email to our offices.

Synergy and momentum matter.

Just as there is arithmetic to recovering in the investment market, there is a logic and arithmetic involved in business recovery. Specifically, it’s often easier to lose ground than it is to win it back.

In the investment market, if you lose 40% of your $10,000 investment, you have $6,000 left. When that remaining investment adds 40%, you have… $8,400. What a bother.

Similarly, a recession can create business losses that are challenging to recoup… and they aren’t all strictly in the numbers.

For example, a large business customer may pull its business “temporarily” during a recession. Getting that customer buying again can be an uphill battle. Getting the customer back to or above its previous level of purchasing can be even tougher. During the customer’s hiatus, it has probably been courted by your competition, with great deals, low prices and – gulp – perhaps a fresher approach.

Many businesses reduced their marketing and hence shrunk their visibility during the last difficult quarters. Now they need to regain what they’ve lost in terms of being “top of mind” – ramping up marketing will require serious, insightful and ongoing effort now if it’s been shelved or minimal in the last year or two.

Were your engineers busily designing the next great thing during the slowdown? Great – you can come out shining. However, if the malaise meant that R&D was stalled and that even the best minds in your company were dulled by lack of sales and incentive, it’s time to refresh your approach and your offerings, because your competition will or has done so already.

Has the sales team been keeping in touch with all its customers and prospects, or has it, as in the infamous sales saga of Glengarry Glen Ross been waiting for the “good leads” and better times? There is no time NOT to be selling.

Today… while the past certainly affects your firm, days gone by matter now primarily as a lesson. Starting today, you have the need and you’ve absorbed the arithmetic. You know that a concentrated, energetic and smart effort distinguishes the companies that will soon regain their momentum and reach new heights from those that will not. This is true even if your revenues are down, your staff is reduced and you’ve borrowed money. It will take more work and more applied intelligence to gain ground than it took to lose it, just as it does in the investment market.

How is your company addressing the recovery? Please comment or email us privately with your thoughts.

Maybe it’s because the business climate is hardening, or perhaps it’s because vSA as a company has reached the ripe old age (25) when we’re much hungrier to do what’s right for a client than simply what’s expected. But in either case, we’re encountering an increasing number of situations in which we feel called upon to give our clients answers to questions they may not have asked.

Typical issues include the continuation of business models as well as sales and marketing programs that have become limp remainders of what they used to be. Very basic examples in the sales and marketing arena have symptoms that include dependence on non-working outreach: large commitments to print industrial directories or yellow pages, networking through local chambers and other organizations that haven’t updated their thinking or memberships in years, cold calling for rareified services, and keeping salespeople who cost more than they bring in. More problematic instances involve selling products that have become overly expensive compared to foreign knock-offs, perpetuating processes or technologies that are being washed over by tidal waves of newer ideas, and trying to get more and more work from fewer and less prosperous customers. The most intractable problems are faced by companies struggling to sustain a business service or product line that is – well, today’s typewriter. Products are becoming obsolete faster than ever. A glance into the computer graveyard in vSA’s storage room (or perhaps your own) is ample testimony to this reality.

The need for tough solutions and big shifts in business practices has altered vSA’s work as well, making it harder and yet more rewarding. Marketing is certainly enjoyable when we bring exciting new sales and opportunities. Today, rewarding and fun strategic marketing has married the stern face of business consulting. This partnership has become crucial because when clients call upon us to develop programs to build their sales and market share, we occasionally see that structural changes to their business processes, model or offerings are required before outreach is appropriate. Our work begins further upstream, supporting change to meet the spoken and unspoken needs of the client’s prospects, customers and other influentials.

So, that’s where the courageous consultant comes in. Just like a physician telling a patient that change must start with quitting drinking, losing weight or controlling his mood swings, vSA professionals do the right thing by helping clients build or rebuild for the wild and crazy future. In those cases, we don’t simply put a bandage on the client’s offerings and start marketing whatever we’ve got. Not when the stakes are so high for our client.