Sometimes we, as business people, devalue ourselves and forget that our time has value. You have to remember that ROI has to include you and your time, not just the time for you to do the job, but the time it takes to do the estimate, the back end stuff that takes your time, answer the phone calls, making up the contracts – sometimes that takes hours but if you don’t bill for that time, how can you claim a profit?

It shouldn’t matter if you have other  jobs to fill those billable hours to fill that time, even in this economy,  if you devalue yourself and your time and give your time away, others will devalue you too. Once you know your value, find clients willing to pay it. Those that aren’t willing to pay your worth, aren’t worthy of you.

This is by no means a complete list of apps or recommendations. The apps I personally use are marked with *.  This list is only as a reference to get you started on your integrated FB Page.

FYI: 10/13/10 -  It has come to my attention that Facebook will not longer allow Custom Tabs starting in November. You can still use and enjoy custom business apps. I will post more to my blog and FB page at http://www.facebook.com/gogetcreative as new information comes to light.

Social Media and Blog Apps

NetworkedBlogs * – This app shows up on your profile or in your boxes tab and displays your blog and any of the blogs you like to read. It’s a great way to promote yourself and others.

My LinkedIn Profile – Creates a badge from your LinkedIn profile that gets displayed on your Facebook profile.

Social Tweet (formerly Social Twitter) – Social Tweet enables you to tweet directly from Facebook. It updates both your Twitter and Facebook profile. It can also be displayed on your Wall, Boxes tab or a new “Tweets” tab. You can also select which tweets to be posted to your status.

YouTube Channels – Synchronize your Youtube Channel with your Facebook profile, pages or even on Application page.

Constant Contact Labs – Join My Mailing List – Helps Facebook users interested in your business or organization to join your Constant Contact contact lists.

SlideShare * – SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. Upload your presentations, documents, PDFs, add mp3 audio to make webinars or embed Youtube videos into them. You can also import your SlideShare.net presentations into Facebook.

Video Channel – Integrate an entire You Tube channel into your page with this powerful app. Simple content management system included.

Notes (Default App) – Default App found on the right side of your profile. Add your RSS feed and view your friends’ feeds. When your blog updates it shows the article in your feed.

Social RSS * – This one can be in either a box on your profile or even better, its own tab on your profile.

RSS Graffiti – RSS Graffiti allows you to publish multiple RSS/ATOM feeds on your Facebook profile’s & pages’ walls and automatically pushes them to the news-feeds (Facebook homepage) of your Facebook friends & fans.

Business/Self Promotion

GLPrintBusinessCards – A flashier business card; gives you options to create your digital business card.

IEndorse – Testimonials are a great way to build the value of your company. This app allows Facebook denizens to endorse your company or find it via the IEndorse business database.

My Business Blink Web– Create a widget that promotes your business and that others can place on their profiles. This basically turns your friends, clients, or customers into your advertisers.

Professional Profile – Create a tab on your profile for all of your professional contacts, information, and activities. Very useful if you want to separate the two sides of yourself.

Testimonials – Use Testimonials to gather your personal, professional and academic references in one place from your teachers, friends, and co-workers.

Roost Social Media Toolkit – Roost’s free “Real Estate” tab adds a local real estate section to your Facebook pages in 3 easy steps. Includes residential property data, schools information, walk ability and more. You can also brand this tab with your own company logo & links

Networking

Introductions– If you’re not good at meeting new people this app will help introduce you.

Social Fly– Create notes about your online contacts, setup reminders to talk to them, and manage your contacts. Great app for keeping up with business contacts.

BranchOut – BranchOut is the leading career networking tool on Facebook. If you’re looking for a job, have a lead for your friends, or just want to explore your friends’ employers, BranchOut is for you. Branch out, and discover the power of your network.

Collaboration

Huddle by WorkSpaces – Store or share documents, make plans, collaborate on projects, and more (also one of  the LinkedIn apps).

My Office– This virtual office will help get everyone on the same page by sharing documents, tasks and more.

Retail/ecommerce

Payvment E-Commerce Storefront Launch a professional full-featured e-commerce storefront on Facebook. Features built-in search enabling millions of Facebook users to discover your storefront and products. Plus the storefront and shopping cart supports over 20 world currencies.

Marketplace – Buy, sell, and trade with your Friends, Friends-of-Friends, and the Facebook Community

ShopBuddy – ShopBuddy will take your shopping carts product feed and convert the data into a Facebook friendly display of your shop, right on your business or personal Facebook page.

ShopTab – ShopTab is a Facebook App for online shops who want an easy and inexpensive way to get products to show on a shop tab on a Facebook page. We created ShopTab to make that process very easy so shop will show on your Facebook page with share tool.

eBay Selling Feed – This application enables eBay registered sellers to share the items that they are listing on eBay via Facebook news-feeds with friends in their Facebook social networks.

Contests/Polls/Surveys

Contests – Contests for Fan Pages enables companies & agencies to easily create & launch branded contests on Facebook Fan Pages within minutes. Available formats: Photo contests, video contests, design contests, logo contests, essay-based contests.

Misc.

My Money – This online banking app isn’t very useful if you’re a large business, but for small or single owner businesses it’s just one more tool that can help make Facebook a more valuable business stop.

Page Maps – Display a mini map (with links to larger maps) of where your business or favorite place to have business meetings are.

Static FBML – Add some advanced functionality to your Facebook Page by being able to render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) on the page. Change the look and feel, and even add apps, forms, and widgets from other places.  This app was developed by Facebook, so it’s fully supported and not prone to the problems of some third party applications.

Menutab – Display the Menu of your Restaurant on your Facebook page. Add Photos and choose your Style.

Facebook Places – Facebook made a huge splash last week with the official announcement of Places, the social networking site’s stab at a mobile location-based feature similar to Foursquare and Gowalla.

While the feature is still being rolled out to everyone, the potentially huge significance for small businesses is hard to miss. What makes Places so important is not so much the functionality (which appears to be largely lifted from existing players), but rather the fact that it’s being launched by Facebook. With over 500 million users, who are automatically opted in to the new feature, it may well be Facebook that pushes geolocation into the mainstream.

Brenda Whitfield

Go Get Creative Design and Marketing

Navarre, Florida

http://www.facebook.com/gogetcreative

A shared vision between the company and its employees helps create personal meaning for employees and allows them to relate to the organisation on a personal level; to take pride in the organisation and the work they do for it. If a company and its employees have a shared vision, management can help them better understand what the company does and what it stands for. Once employees have that understanding, they are more able – and probably more willing – to share that vision with others. If management is able to inspire them to have pride in the organisation and what it stands for, it is more likely they will want the company to succeed. Not just to succeed to ensure they continue to have a job and a paycheck, but also because they believe in what the company is doing. They feel like they’re a part of it. Shared vision equals a shared sense of purpose.

According to Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, authors of Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond Strategy to Purpose, (1994) “Shared vision reflects the values of the company and those who work in it.” If everyone in the organisation agrees on purpose – what the organisation stands for – a core belief system, you can all move forward in the same direction, even if individual members of the group get there in different ways.

“Capture employee’s attention and interest by defining a company’s objectives so that they have personal meaning for employees. Allow them to access information in simple, personal language that anyone could understand,” states Bartlett and Ghoshal (1994). “Equally important is that employees can relate to and take pride in such a mission.”

A Mercer Human Resource Consulting survey argues that helping employees agree on the brand and vision and how it should be presented to customers is important because when executives and managers live the company brand, employees are more likely to understand their role in delivering high levels of customer service. (Krell 2006)

“Of the 85 percent of senior executive respondents who indicated that their behavior demonstrated their brand, 87 percent believed that all or most of their employees were fully aware of their role in providing a positive experience to clients. However, of the 15 percent who said senior executive behavior does not align with the brand, only 58 percent said employees understand their customer service roles.” (Krell 2006)

Shared vision, and a focus on shared understanding of organisational purposes, can help create emotional motivation in management and employees. This can show itself in pride in the overall organisation or individual job, a shared sense of purpose, increased personal and organisational confidence, and a knowledge that the company’s personal four core values are shared by the people who work within the company. These shared values allow employee and organisational development and growth.

An interview with Andrew and Peggy Cherng, founders of the multi-national Panda Express fast-food chain (Bartiromo, 2007) states, “They take seriously the concept that to lead is to serve. Put in action, that philosophy means helping associates improve their livelihood and, in the process, learn to live a fuller life. ‘In the end’, says Andrew, ‘they are better off financially, but they’re also smarter because they’re curious and learning. They take care of themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. When all of us do these things well, there’s a better chance we will treat the customer better.’”

Creating a shared vision is vital for management to articulate the organisation’s focus and purpose. This can be accomplished by having an organisational plan in place, having a shared belief in or understanding of what the organisation is doing and why it’s being done – from management and employee perspectives – and also having an understanding of the business’ audience and their needs. This process allows management to identify needed characteristics in employees, clients and projects, that benefit not only employee growth but the overall growth of the business.

“If you’re not going in the right direction, you might as well be standing still,” says Emma Harrison, founder of E4a Ltd, a multi-national training corporation based in the UK (2007)., “You might eventually get where you wanted to go, but you’ll lose valuable time and focus on the way.

Find your focus – your direction – and start moving forward.”

Resources:

BARTIROMO, M. (2007) Readers Digest. Positive Thinkers. P. 61-63.

BARTLETT, C AND GHOSHAL, S. (1994) Harvard Business Review Vol 73, No. 3 Beyond Strategy to People.

HARRISON, E. (2007) Top Tips to Grow Your Business. Workshop at Norwich Playhouse, Norwich UK. [30.10.07]

KRELL, E. (2006) HR Magazine, Vol. 51, No. 10. Branding Together. http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/1006/1006cover.asp

Creativity at Work Newsletter

February – March 2010

I recently returned from a three week trip to Singapore and Malaysia, where I spoke at educational institutions, (including Singapore Management University), and corporations.

Singapore has become a vibrant hotbed for creativity and innovation, which I find really exciting. Since my last trip to Singapore two years ago, I’ve noticed a shift from a focus on technology and problem-solving, to one of creativity. Singapore recognizes that creative industries drive economic growth and it has positioned itself to be a global arts city, as a means of competing in the global economy.

The old model on which I worked was to create a First World City in a Third World region – clean, green, efficient… These virtues are no longer sufficient. Now we have to be an economically vibrant and exciting city to visit, with top class symphony orchestras, concerts, drama, plays, artists and singers and popular entertainment… We have to develop our high culture – symphony orchestra, ballet, the arts… We must also develop our popular culture – pop singers, TV dramas… This is today’s global village that we have to be a part of…Singapore has got to re-position itself in this world.
~ Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew [Parliament Speech, 19 April 2005]

Singapore is in the midst of turning this vision into reality, and  has a comprehensive plan which includes creating centres of excellence to attract and develop talent, infrastructure support, ecosystem support, and community engagement. (See the National Arts Council Report.

One of the challenges facing Singapore and other nations, including Canada, is in developing the 21^st century competencies necessary for people to succeed in the globalized world we live in. These include skills development in critical thinking and creativity. It is impossible to innovate without creativity, and it’s impossible to create without imagination. Moreover creativity requires the right environment if it is to flourish in an organization.

You can’t expect your business to be a 21st-century success story if you persist in using 19th-century techniques to run it. A fundamental re-think is needed. In the age of Web 2.0 and wikinomics, managers must modernize or die.
— Gary Hamel.

What can you do to foster creativity in the workplace?

1. Focus your creative efforts on an area in alignment with organizational objectives in which you have control, ie, creating value for your customers.
2. Have the courage to make the shift from command-and-control style management to one that is more collaborative, when you want to elicit creativity from others.
3. Help people learn through Socratic inquiry. In other words, lead by asking questions, not providing answers. Give people clear objectives and let them figure out to achieve them. Give them time to think through situations, look at the big picture, bounce ideas off of peers, and experiment with possibilities.
4. Re-frame questions so they are focused on desired outcomes, rather than problems. Try these quick questions to spur creative thinking:
   What if…? For example, “What if we couldn’t do things the way we do them now, what would we do?” When you stop asking this question, you’re suggesting there’s no room for improvement.
   What else…? Encourages people to push for alternative answers or solutions and not simply accept the first answer that comes to mind.
   Why not…? Takes away any constraints and frees the mind to explore possibilities.
5. Break the habit of responding with “Yes but..,” when people present you with ideas. Develop a “Yes and…” mindset to build on the ideas of others, rather than discounting them.
6. Provide encouragement. People need to feel their work matters. Give them recognition in a way that is meaningful to the individual. Saying thank you is a good start. Give credit where credit is due.

Do your employees need motivation?

The top three motivators in studies by K. A. Kovach, are 1) interesting work, 2) appreciation and 3) being part of the team.

In traditional marketing principles, a company’s brand represents its promise to its customers.
It tells the world who the company is and what it delivers. (Krell 2006) An effective brand
brings your products and services to life for your customers. Employees, whether in a
customer service role, or working behind the scenes, deliver your brand’s promise to your
customers. As emissaries for your company, it is vital for your employees to know and
understand your brand, what it means, what your company is promising inside and outside
the company, the organization’s external marketing message, and how your goals, values
and purpose reflect on their own beliefs and values.
“The brand is about our client’s interaction with us. It’s a small but crucial distinction,” says
Allan McKisson, vice president of human resources at Manpower in Milwaukee. “The aspect
of the brand that matters most inside the company is an intangible one: how employees’
understanding of the company’s brand influences their behavior, whether they interact
directly with customers or not.” (Krell 2006)
The 2006 Internal Marketing Best Practices study, conducted at Northwestern University,
identified six key characteristics that drive successful internal marketing programs. (Forum
2006). “The study, based on interviews with executives at 18 international corporations
such as Cisco Systems, 3M, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s and The Ritz-Carlton, shed light on
strategies and tactics that align, motivate and empower employees – at all functions and
levels – to consistently deliver a company’s brand promise, which helps businesses reach
their goals.” (Forum 2006)
These six characteristics include:

• senior management participation;
• integrated organizational structure;
• a strategic marketing approach;
• partnership between management, marketing and human resources;
• focus on employee engagement;
• internal brand communication.

Internal Marketing Best Practices Study, Forum 2006

*As shown in the diagram, the six best practice elements are related to and supportive of an overall IM initiative.

Operating and managing a business requires vision, flexibility and a lot of hard work. In this new world of constant change, the current attitude in business is adapt or move aside – this is corporate evolution on speed! Survival of the fittest never meant so much to so many!

Managers in today’s business world need a different skill set, a new way of thinking about business and interacting with employees and clients, and how they in turn interact with your organization’s internal and external brand and identity. It is more important than ever to look beyond how business has always been done and find new ways to manage customers and employees, develop products and services, organize internal and external marketing and promotion, and monitor cash flow.

Focusing attention on shared vision, and organizational values and purpose, as well as nurturing creative and innovative thinking inside the organization can help support and encourage momentum and growth. Engaged employees who are encouraged to foster creative thinking and innovation add to an organization that understands the importance of living their brand inside and out. An organization that understands what its values and purpose are, and how that affects their employees and client base, is more likely to succeed in today’s economy. Business has never looked so simple or so challenging.

“For innovation to flourish, organizations must create an environment that fosters creativity;” says Linda Naiman, founder of Creativity at Work, “bringing together multi-talented groups of people who work in close collaboration together – exchanging knowledge, ideas and shaping the direction of the future.” (Naimen, 2007)

Management can introduce their business to more creative ways of thinking by fostering a creative environment and allowing employees to apply all of their skills and abilities to the workplace. It’s possible to encourage a free exchange of dialogue and argument without undermining your sense of purpose. This can give an ideal base from which to grow the business.

“It’s no longer individuals toiling in a laboratory, coming up with some great invention. It’s an individual. It’s individuals. It’s multidisciplinary. It’s global. It’s collaborative.”

Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM (Naiman, 2007)

Resources:

Naimen, L. (2007) Creativity at Work. http://www.creativityatwork.com/Newsletters/newsdir.htm

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.

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.