Web Strategy: (Try to!) focus on the customer

On Tuesday I’m leading a workshop to develop the web strategy for our Demand Programs organisation – something which, to be honest, is completely DAUNTING.

In a large, complex organisation the web is also large and complex.  Each business unit has a vested interest in their own portion of the site, with different objectives and strategies.  The closest I came to finding a single strategy document was an architectural strategy and technical blueprint – god bless IBM and its engineering background!

With so many conflicting interests, the corporate website does start to represent what Jeremiah Owyang stated as:

“… an unbelievable collection of hyperbole, artificial branding, and pro-corporate content.”

In order to take a step back and approach the web with a fresh pair of eyes, I’m adopting the following approach:

Building your social media strategy

Social Technographics Explained

View more presentations from jbernoff.

Forrester’s Social Technographics Ladder classifies how people are using social media.  Organisations can use these categories

Drive: the truth about motivation

On Friday morning I was fortunate to attend a breakfast briefing with Dan Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in conversation with David Rowan, editor of Wired UK.  Dan outlined the premise of his new book – that the current theories around motivation – i.e. external rewards like money and fame, or the fear of punishment (AKA the “carrot and stick” approach)  – do not work. 

Social media digital spaces

Social media is an umbrella term used to describe the digital networks and tools that enable people to communicate, interact and share content with one another.  Social media networks and tools are deployed and developed for

The power of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising

I was listening to a recorded teleseminar by Chris Cardell and Jay Abraham on how to make your website more profitable with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and there were a number of points I found particularly pertinent.

Evolution of interactive marketing – From shopfront to relationship building

The diagram below from Toolbox demonstrates the evolution of interactive marketing – but whilst it demonstrates potential objectives and measurements for corporate websites, the reality is that many organisations are still grappling with how they make some of these goals a reality.

2010 – New Year, new opportunities!

Another year of exciting challenges in the digital media space!  New’s year’s resolutions include:

Social media roadmap – from basic to advanced

I came across the following social media spectrum of participation in the toolbox.com White Paper, “5 Social Media Marketing Best Practices for B2B” (and apologies for the grainy picture!).  It outlines a Basic to Advanced Roadmap for social media that enables companies to identify where there efforts currently lie, and where they can aim to get to.

Twitter is not a strategy! 4 social media objectives.

After what felt like the hundredth conversation on social media which started with “so I’ve created a Twitter ID, Facebook fan page and LinkedIn group”, I started to despair.  Why is it so difficult for people to identify their objectives before they launch in with the tools?

And let’s face it, setting up the tools is the easy part!  Whilst there are a number of agencies out there who have been touting their services to create these groups, all they really require is a little time and effort to get started.  The hard part – the REALLY time consuming part, is identifying why the hell you’re creating them in the first place, and how you’re going to measure your success.

So I thought I’d jot down some potential objectives:

300 Case Studies of Social Media Marketing

I was in the midst of putting together a presentation on how to leverage social media to grow your business when I came across a document on Scribd that collated 300 examples of social media marketing from various corporations