Shared vision between employers and employees accelerates business momentum

A shared vision creates momentum in your business. If you and your employees have a shared vision and you can make them understand what you and your company do, what you stand for, they are more able – and probably willing – to share that goal, that vision with others. If you can inspire them to have pride in your organization and what you and they do, they will care more about your company and will want to help you succeed. Not only to succeed to make sure they keep working and getting a paycheck (although that is a big motivating factor these days), but also because they believe in what they’re doing and they take pride in helping you make it happen. They feel like they are a part of your success.

Employers who treat their employees like a commodity get the same in return. Average performance, no passion for their work or your business, and worst of all – no loyalty. They work, you pay them. Employees who have buy-in with the shared vision and are encouraged to share that success are proud to work for a company they believe in. When you share your successes and awards with them, and acknowledge your team when you talk about how great your company is, it builds pride and confidence. They aren’t passive employees who show up and do their jobs, they become prideful and confident partners in your success.

Buy your employees a spiral notebook and have them do the same thing you should be doing – every day identify four ways to grow your business and make contacts – even if it’s as simple as handing out a business card. Maybe it’s just a question that a client has asked them or a comment they overheard that could create a business opportunity. It’s not about turning your staff into sales and marketing people, it’s a way for them to share in the growth and future of the business. And you might be surprised with what they come up with. It can also build their confidence. If they see themselves as agents of the business, not just as employees, they will have more pride in themselves and the business as a whole.

If you look to emotional, rather than financial, motivation (pride in the organization/job/success, building confidence, having a shared sense of purpose, knowing that what you believe in personally is shared with the people you work with, etc. ), you will have better employees, better relationships, and a better organization.

How do you create shared vision? By knowing your focus before you start. Your employees can’t understand and articulate your business if you don’t know it yourself. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are they supposed to?

Only when you have your focus (a plan in place, a belief in and an understanding of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, an understanding of your audience and their needs, etc.), will you be able to identify what characteristics you will need in an employee to be able to have the benefits of a shared vision.

Only hire people who are interested in that principle. Don’t just hire the best at what they do or the ones you can afford, hire the one willing and able to share your passion and belief in your business. If you’re a small or growing business, you’ll find that good people are willing to work longer hours, for less money, if they share your sense of purpose.

Social Media – the 10 commandments

I recently read a blog post by Lon Safko from Fast Company on the <a title="Social media – 10 commandments" href="http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/lon-safko/ten-commandments-social-media/ten-commandments-social-media. This sums up what I’ve been preaching to my clients in a really great way. Most of the text is his, but the answers in bold red are mine.

Here’s your Ten Commandments or things you need to be doing to get in and win with social media.

1. Thou Shalt Blog (like crazy).
2. Thou Shalt Create Profiles (everywhere).
3. Thou Shalt Upload Photos (lots of them).
4. Thou Shalt Upload Videos (all you can find).
5. Thou Shalt Podcast (often).
6. Thou Shalt Set Alerts (immediately).
7. Thou Shalt Comment (on a multitude of blogs).
8. Thou Shalt Get Connected (with everyone).
9. Thou Shalt Explore Social Media (30 minutes per week).
10. Thou Shalt Be Creative (go forth and create creatively)!

Commandments 1. Thou Shalt Blog (like crazy)
Blog. Please! That’s the first priority. Set up a blog, a personal blog, a business blog. It’s easier than you think. Use an existing blogging site such as Blogger.com or GOingOn.com or install your own branded blogging site right on your own server by using WordPress. And, WordPress is free. I personally love WordPress and there is so much functionality with it. I haven’t used the others.

Commandments 2. Thou Shalt Create Profiles (everywhere)
Create your profiles; do it now before someone else takes them. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. That’s called cyber squatting. So get out there. Use Open Social to make filling in your profiles as easy as a click of a button. – Whether it’s intentional cyber squatting or not, there are only so many names in the world. Create all you can for yourself and use them as often as you can to prove ownership.

Commandments 3. Thou Shalt Upload Photos (lots of them)
Upload photographs. You’ve got them. Don’t upload the one with you with a lampshade on your head…counterproductive; but other photographs? Absolutely. Customers want to see and participate. You want to give people a face to go with your company. Today it’s all about the relationships with clients – post as many business related pictures (watermarked with your logo in the important areas that you can’t photoshop through) as possible in as many places as you can. Show off your work. Clients will notice, it will be googled and become a valid part of your SEO!

Commandments 4. Thou Shalt Upload Videos (all you can find)
Videos. You all have got videos. I don’t care whether it’s training videos or customer videos, grab your video camera and go interview some of your customers. What’s better than seeing your customer’s smiley face on your Web site? And it doesn’t cost anything. As great as it is to hire great videographers for your videos – and I do recommend it when it’s needed, and yes, it is needed for commercials and top-rank video – but for some of the videos, it’s not really necessary. Buy a good quality digital camera and give it a whirl yourself. If you don’t think it works, hire a professional. At least you’ll have some practice in front of a camera that will make professional video more productive.

Commandments 5. Thou Shalt Podcast (often)
Podcast. If you’re too cheap to get a camera, use the free audio software that’s in your computer. That’s what I did. I created 48 audio podcasts. If you take the podcasts I did for my book and played them back-to-back, they run 24 continuous hours of interviews. You can do that. It’s free. It just takes time. Always try something new. You never know what you can personally do until you get creative and give it a try.

Commandments 6. Thou Shalt Set Alerts (immediately)
Set alerts. People are talking about you. You probably need to know what they are saying and you want to participate. I assume he means Google alerts and I can’t agree more. It lets you know what you’re competition is doing and how you’re doing on your keywords, and where your competition is doing on your keywords.

Commandments 7. Thou Shalt Comment (on a multitude of blogs)
Comment. Commenting is like going to a cocktail party. You wouldn’t walk into a networking event, walk up to a group of people talking, and tell them your name and what you do in your business. That would be rude and unacceptable. Listen first. Read the blogs and add comments. You can be controversial, that’s okay. But participate. Get involved. I agree, but on another front, all of the relevant comments help your SEO and bring you into the conversation as an “expert”. There are so many people who call themselves an “expert” these days – everyone is an expert, it’s important to prove that you really are one – comment on a relevant blog and that improves your SEO, links to your site, and links to you proving yourself, or just lets you say what you want to say about a subject – if you can prove your expertise.

Commandments 8. Thou Shalt Get Connected (with everyone)
Get LinkedIn. Put it in your email that you have a LinkedIn account, you have a FaceBook account, and that you have a Twitter account. Make it a part of your heading on your letterhead, because that’s how you propagate. That’s how you sell it. I’ll go further than that. Put it at the top of your header, your content page, every single page you can mention, and then every single thing you have that is printed: why isn’t it on your business card, your web page, and everyone one of your social networking pages? Make sure you Tweet about it, make sure it’s LinkedIn, Make sure your Facebook account isn’t just social, but is about your business. Personalize with a vanity URL wtih your name (if it’s available) or your business name. Then set up a business page on your social page and invite people to become fans.

Commandments 9. Thou Shalt Explore Social Media (30 minutes per week)
Explore social media. Give me thirty minutes a week, that’s all I’m asking. Friday morning grab your coffee, lock yourself in your office, and give me thirty minutes. Just Google something. I promise you within the first 30 days you will be excited. You’ll be as excited as I am. You will get excited because of the ROI. When you first start in social media, take it one step at a time or you will be doing nothing but social media and it will become too time consuming. Create a strategy of where you want to be in three months time and take each medium (be it Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging) and do nothing but that for a week. Get your profile and picture up, make sure your bio is sprinkled with your SEO key words/search terms. Know what your clients would be searching for and make sure they can find it in your profile. And then get to know the program, get to know the other people using the program. Be selective about who you let into your network. Just like in the business world, you are the people you associate with. I’d rather have 80 Twitter followers that say something I want to hear, or that can benefit from what I have to say, than 800 who do nothing but bring more noise.

Allocate a certain amount of time and each day explore something new about the application. On Twitter, find out about apps like Tweetdeck or Seesmic, look for ways to Tweet on your cell, learn how to search (always search yourself and your business name), and learn about things like # tags and SEO search functionality. In LinkedIn, get involved in groups that share your interests, look for news and directories – that’s where the good information is. Treat it like a networking function. On Facebook, be more social but still professional. Find groups, invite “fans” – spend time finding out why these things are important to your company – how others can be a resource and how you can be a resource to others. That is the power of social media. I rarely google anymore – if I have a question, I put it out to my various networks and I get recommendations that have already been vetted – things to use, things not to use – that not only save me much needed time but also much needed resources. Social media exceeds its ROI for me.

Commandments 10. Thou Shalt Be Creative (go forth and create creatively)
And the most important commandment is creativity. That’s all. It’s just creativity and having fun. But you know what, that’s what your customers want. They want to see transparency. They want to see authenticity. They want to see you having fun. They want to be able to relate and communicate. Go Get Creative!

NOTE: Just remember that EVERYTHING you type is a lasting tribute to you. If it is online, it will be there forever. Even if you think it is private, don’t put things in writing that you would be embarrased about others reading. That is just good business.

A fun logo and business card design

Logo and business card design for Flour Creations

My first Twitter background design

I just designed my first Twitter background. Okay, technically it was my second, but the first helped me work out the kinks. I love the new design, especially the painting in the background. What do you think? If you like it, feel free to leave me a comment or vote it up at Twitter Backgrounds Gallery – http://twitterbackgroundsgallery.com/page/4/

If you don’t like it, please let me know what you don’t like. I’m always up for suggestions.

Brenda Whitfield Twitter background design

Professional vs. personal: which is more appropriate for your web content

Your personality shines throughout your business. Make sure your web content, and employees, follows suit.

New media in the media mix

My partner, Shawn, has been reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. The ideas this has inspired have led us to previous debates we had about new media and the use of social networking versus having a comprehensive marketing mix; one that allows old media to support and promote new media functions.

Shawn argues that television, radio and even print designs like newsletters, brochures and direct mail are dead. As a graphic designer and someone from the “old-school” of marketing and PR, it would be pretty upsetting if this is true.

I don’t believe old media is dead. It is aging and in transition, but I believe it can work as a bridge from old to new media platforms and anything that comes after. On a national level or in a medium to large market where the technology base is generally at a higher level, I can understand his argument better. But in smaller, local markets, attempting to use nothing but blogs, podcasts and social marketing and other forms of new media aren’t as practical. I recently had a client who had her own domain name with a small site up but she was still using an old email address that wasn’t connected to her domain. She didn’t know she could have a domain supported email and didn’t understand the value of this simple way to market her website. She is typical of the type of clients I’ve found in smaller markets. Once she made this small change and started promoting it through a hand-delivered postcard and business card – and through an email campaign, she had a big jump in hits and new leads.

Many of the small market business people I’ve met don’t want to meet online – it’s not that they don’t know it’s there, they don’t really care. It’s good for follow up but, for many small markets, it is more about social networking – the face-to-face kind found through community, social and business organizations or even through the dreaded cold call.

While I do believe new media and social networks will continue to gain prominence in the future, making traditional media outlets a jumping off point to new media and an extended customer experience seems like a smarter and safer prospect. I look forward to continuing this debate as I try to find a way to merge my traditional media outlook to a new media perspective.

Welcome to Go Get Creative Marketing!

Welcome to Go Get Creative Marketing