Corporate Transformation

Paint the house before you sell it!

The old Homeowner's Rule applies to every Merger, Acquisition, Capital raise, Marketing campaign, new product roll-out, and much more.

Before you embark on an event that will impact your bottom line (and your budget), you must diagnose the current state of your ..., you thought I was going to say Brand, right? 

I really mean the Value of your company, product, goal, event, etc., as it relates to the overall value you wish to extract.  

Let me explain in a few examples:

1. M&A and Capital Raising - you spruce up the corporate value by getting your Value Chain in order and doing some minor (or major) cosmetics to the Brand.  If you don't have a grasp of all the Social Media opportunities hidden inside your Value Chain and inside your corporate Business Processes, you are leaving money on the table. You are not quantifying the hidden value in your company that you should be focusing on.
2. New product Roll-out - Do you know where your potential customers are spending their time online? What are they saying about your other products? Does the Value Chain in your organization support the type of Service & Communications that will be required by your potential Customers?
3. Marketing Campaign - OK, so you have a hotshot marketing person from Harvard Business School and a hotshot Intern from NYU and they've told you you can create a Social Community in minutes. Did they tell you you will spend a lifetime managing the damage it can create?
4. Multi-Product brand management - are your products managed as a Brand Architecture with Social Communities for each one with Cross-sell opportunities built in?
5. Social Media - yeah, that one is a tough one - Social Media Strategists are like mushrooms after a rain - everyone has seen the (Social media) Light!  But to implement a sustainable Social Media Strategy with the right resources to manage the multi-dimensional campaigns needed for each Customer segment, that's where the heavy lifting comes in.

Bottom line here is, before you start, plan it well and spend the time doing some basic, if not deep, Corporate Transformation.  Read up on Michael Porter, look at examples of the LBO world when restructuring their companies.  And try to integrate the intricacies of Brand Architecture as it relates to Social Media into your organizational matrix and business processes.

Remember - this applies to a startup as much as it does to a $Billion conglomerate - don't think you can't find hidden value in those niche Customer segments!

Now you can paint the house, fix the shutters, retrofit state-of-art plumbing and install a digital home so that you truly get the value hidden in your corporate house and get top dollar (or Euro!).

And oh, use bright colors, please!

 

Don't Build a Social Media Website !!!!

Attention Small & Mid-Market Businesses!!

The business life-cycle today is too fast for you to build a Social Media website!!

You can't keep up with design tools and the technology and the Social Media widgets keep changing and evolving so fast, your employees can't seem to hang on.  The decisions as to where to find your potential customers and where your existing Customers hang out - keeps changing! Trying to enter a new marketplace? Traditional Market Research will not pinpoint where your potential Customers are and how they buy.

So, I tell my Clients, "Don't do something that you can get someone else to do - better!"

Managed Services for Social Media Marketing.  

Outsource the Social Media platform(s) strategy.  No, I DO NOT recommend you outsource this offshore - it's too critical and changes too fast for you to be bogged down with a rigid contract and language problems.  

Managed Services with Social Media experts who speak your language of business and Marketing! Have an experienced team manage the Social campaign building, the mechanics of your Social CRM, the tools and the platforms, the methodology, the market segmentation, and most importantly, how to penetrate new markets!

The Social media platforms and tools and widgets are out there ready to use.  It's like cooking a French Soufflé.  The ingredients are all there, everyone thinks they know how to do it, but when you put the ingredients together - only a French cook (no, not a cook who is French) does it right.

See my colleague Alex Romanovich's blog on the subject:

Hey, Small Business, DON’T build a website… build a Marketing Platform!

How to do real-world Social Media in an Enterprise - it's NOT Vanilla Ice Cream!

I'd like to share with you the work I'm doing on "The Social Value Chain".  

This is quite important for all Enterprises, Organizations, Operating Corporations, Multi-Product - Multi-National Companies and PE Firms, since the Social "stuff" floating around all over today does NOT work well for the Enterprise.  

It appears that every other Consultant on the street today is a “Digital Media Strategist”.  Every marketer became a Social Community Expert.  Graphic Designers have become Social Platform Builders.  And the hype around “Social” continues …

For an Enterprise, a Corporation and real operating entities, the value of “Social” is NOT uni-dimensional.  Nor is it in a single corporate Blog, a plain-jane Twitter account or even in a copycat Social Community tool.

An Enterprise can benefit more so from “Social” than a flat organization.  The real impact of Social Media and Social Communities lies hidden inside a corporation's Value Chain and in their operational efficiencies. Remember Michael Porter’s Value Chain?

To implement an effective Social Media & Community Strategy, you need a Social Value Chain Methodology that delivers improved Sales, Marketing, Operational efficiencies, Brand/Customer Loyalty and Financial results - throughout the entire Value/Supply Chain.

All (that I've seen to date) of the so-called Social Media Strategists completely ignore the Value Chain - because they don't have broad Operational experience!  As an example of successful implementation, by embedding a Social Value Chain in one company, a number of complete Business Processes have been replaced with a less expensive alternative - powered by Social Communities!

The Social Value Chain requires a seasoned understanding of the Supply/Demand Chain, the entire enterprise’s Value Chain, operational KPI’s and a deep, visceral mindset that thinks in terms of Social Media & Community persona's.

Oh, and by the way, you would be well advised to use a Methodology that seamlessly melds the above.

Is your Value Chain “Social”? Is it plain Vanilla?

Here is how a Corporation / Enterprise implements real Social Media Strategy & Methodology across all of it's Value Chain: http://slidesha.re/d5C9I9  

Ytzik Aranov

Twitter the Time Away?

My Message to Pace Lattin --> http://industrypace.com/frontpage/2010/1/21/twitter-no-money-to-be-made.html

Hey Pace:

Affiliate Marketers will claim to everyone that they can make money on Twitter - as do everyone and their brother-in-law who wants to create an Online Revenue Stream to supplement their income (heard that one before?). We know what happens to the creators of the Online Programs (they make the money) and to their Customers (the Affiliates - they spend the money). The real point in using Twitter is that it is a direct channel that Consumers ACTUALLY LIVE ON!! Brands today do NOT have anywhere else a 24/7, active, live, uncontrolled, say-what-you-want, and well-monitored channel directly to their Customers and Fans. Twitter is that channel. So, making money on Twitter - maybe, although probably not. Brand Refreshment, Brand Extension, Customer Service, Channel expansion, Damage Control, News Blasts, Brand Loyalty, Value Chain Management, yada, yada, yada, .... 

Vote YES on Twitter!

And for all you old-timers who know what the Value Chain is, you'd best take notice since Social Media IMPACTS the entire Value Chain of your Enterprise! So, listen up and map your Social Media Impact Points to your Value Chain!

Or, just call me .....

Social Media Architecture - all the Rage!

Hey, what's all the rage today?

Social Media. 

It's like saying the word "Alchemist" in the first Millennia, or "Wizard" in the Middle Ages, or "Freemason" in the 1800's, or Web 2.0 in the early 2000's.  It invokes visions of the secret, dark arts.  It gives one the stamp of "I know the real state of the world".  It attempts to connotate that all previous attempts at web marketing are useless now and there is a new paradigm dimension one must enter.

You know, it's funny, though, that I see whenever many of these "paradigms" pop up (unless they are a truly new technological discovery), the common theme among them all really is "Common Sense".

Unfortunately, we have all lost our common sense here and are being made to believe that Social Media Marketing & Networking is some new technological discovery that obsoletes all before it and if you are not on the bandwagon, then, well, you must be over the age of 25 or senile!

It's how to apply Social Media to your business that makes the difference and makes it effective - or not.

My good friend and one of the foremost Social Media Architecture & Marketing experts I know today, Alex Romanovich, founded a Think Tank called "Social2B"  - of which I'm honored to be a participant in.

Alex publicly asked the question on LinkedIn

What role do you think that Social Media Marketing 'Architecture' will play in the success of a company?"

My answer is very simple - and it's Common Sense!

Like all Information Technology Architectures, the Social Media Architecture is no different. 

A company must first define who are their Customers/Constituents, the desired results (Sales, Loyalty, etc.), the Product/Line/Service mix, the Marketplace into which they are selling, the data associated with the Customer/Product/Service/Market, the Business Processes, corporate goals, etc. 

Once that is mapped, then a Social Media Marketing Map is created that identifies where the Customers, Suppliers, Service Providers, etc., are located. This is obviously created based on the intersects between where they are and data from Step 1. Then both data architectures (e.g., the results of the analysis) are mapped to each other - and then an Architecture with a Social Media Marketing Strategy & Social Media Marketing Campaigns emerge. 

Jumping into Blogging, or Social Communities or Facebook, etc., without conducting the preliminary analysis and Strategic mapping is like driving to a meeting while hoping that on the way, the people you are meeting with will give you the address. 

Think, Then Do! 
Measure Twice - Cut Once!! 

Ytzik Aranov

>> See Alex's question and a number of answers here.

Who Is Driving?

Hi folks!

Here is a Seth Godin gem, if I ever saw one!  It's so important that I've copied it word for word and provided the link to his post as well.  See my notes below.

Seth's Post:

"Hop in, I'll drive."

Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn't mean you have to take it.

In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it's reassuring when the other person offers to drive. "Leave it to me," they might say, or, "I'm socializing this through the organization... be patient, I've done this before and we need to do it this way."

Often, this is true. It's the honest appraisal of a generous insider, someone who wants both of you to succeed.

But, just as you should never get in a car with a drunk driver, understand that the minute you let the other person drive, you've bought into their process. Spending three months or three years following someone off a cliff is nuts.

I'd rather disappoint you today and refuse your offer of a lift than end up with both of us having wasted hours and hours of time somewhere further down the road. No, you can't pitch this to your husband, that's my job. No, I won't stand by and watch you mangle this before the board. No, we're not going to interact with customers your way merely because it's the only way you know.

Thanks, but I'll drive this time.

=====================================================

What a message Seth drives home!

When conducting your business - and I mean YOUR business, that is exactly what it is - YOURS.  You conduct your business, your company, your partnership, your department, your personal life, etc., in the manner consistent with your personality, lifestyle, leadership, knowledge, experience and business sense.  Don't relinquish this to others - however well-intentioned they may be.  By doing so, you've lost control over the process and lost the edge which is completely YOURS and which is YOU.

Seth says it in a special way that only he can; take note and embed this into your leadership / management style and into YOUR way of doing business and conducting YOUR life.

The TechComDev Service - what is it?

Welcome to the rollout of our new TechComDev Service.

This hands-on Advisory & Consulting service provides our Clients with deep expertise and track record in:

• Technology Commercialization
• Global Business Development
• Strategic Partnering
• Outsourced business advisory services
• and more

The New Social Media Dashboard

Your car has one.  Your cell phone has one. Your dishwasher has one too!

Your Career focus needs one as well.

Create a Career Dashboard to channel your efforts in your targeted dimensions of activity.

Do this:

1. READ Mike Fruchter's How restaurants can use social media 
2. READ Mike's Netvibes: The New Social Media Dashboard
3. Go build yours
4. Monitor it
5. Respond responsibly and frequently!

Teens Don't Tweet ... Hello!

Teens DO NOT Tweet.

It's True, folks. My teen kids and ALL their friends and all their friends' friends refuse to Tweet. And many more friends that they know, do not Tweet also. Having lived through technological changes for years and having transformed corporations with new technologies for years, I can say that there is a generational thing here. Most Teens do NOT invent the new technologies of today. It's the twenty-somethings. By the time the new tech becomes commercializable or goes viral , the 20-somethings and above assimilate the new tech into their arsenal, but people above (the "older" generation) as well as the generation below (Teens), refuse to accommodate the trends. Because no one tells them what to do or how to live, let alone how to communicate and to whom! And they don't trust anyone over 19 - remember?! By the time the Teens become 20-somethings, a new technology comes along or they invent it. And the cycle begins again. If you think 20-somethings are focused today and tech-savvy, Teens today are even more so - so focused that you WILL NOT move them off and out of their tight-knitted community (that grows slower than you would think) of friends and their FaceBook/MySpace/SMS inner circle. So, don't go overboard trying to hook and net these Teens - they're smarter than the rest of us and smell bait a mile away.  

The Secret

The secret to Teens is "Something Free". Give them something free that they can use and also forward to their Teen friends and they will make this so viral that the CDC will have to get involved! Free means they gamed the system. Free means they get value without asking Mom & Dad for money. Free means they are a source of authority for their peers.  

Now the free stuff has to resonate with them. Like a free subscription to a Massively Multi-Player Game that they can invite their close-knit inner circle into. Free means Ice cream at the local Mall. Free means Free.

Ytzik Aranov

Twitter is a hundred times better than Google for market research!

So, are you using it correctly?

See the video clip from Mark Shaw and then make a list of the targeted segments you could be searching for to market your product and/or service to Prospects in your target locations.

Twitter Market Research