"Network Solutions - Small business conversations and working together for small business success" - 3 new articles
Luxury vs. Necessity: Would You Give Up Twitter or Facebook for Lent?In case you’re still recovering from your Fat Tuesday celebrations, we’re now in the Lenten season, and for those looking for a non-traditional sacrifice for your abstaining pleasure, you can always try a Facebook fast. [Wall Street Journal article, via lots of different places] The idea of a Facebook fast for Lent isn’t a super-new idea — it started to get hyped up a few years ago. Maybe I’m still a Facebook outsider, because I’m still skeptical as to how much of an actual phenomena this is, versus something the media picked up and ran with because it’s still an unusual-sounding story that you can pretty much pre-write for the next few years. The WSJ’s 2009 update is interesting because the Facebook users it quotes from are two Gen-Xers (38 and 39-years-old), a boomer (53), and only one college student. In CNN’s article from 2007, the focus is flipped: There are two college students, a high schooler on MySpace, and one just adult (a campus chaplain — it doesn’t say whether he also tried the Facebook fast.) It’s another anecdote for the “aging of Facebook” fact file. A few other random thoughts about the idea of giving up social media tools for Lent: * In this day and age, Lenten sacrifices are about luxuries — chocolate, beer, TV, meat — things that give you pleasure, that you can live without. You don’t hear too much about people giving up necessities: the telephone, driving. Probably e-mail. Of course, while you can live without social media and social communication, we’re getting to the point where these tools move from luxury, to necessity. (Especially if you’re using these tools for your business.) By extension, when this happens, it means that Facebook and other social tools have become all about the utility, and any pleasure derived from them become incidental. * The question of what constitutes a Lenten sacrifice, or a luxury in general, reminds me of the marketer’s Zen koan, “Is it better to be loved or needed?” I tend toward the cop-out answer, in that past a certain point, to be loved is to be needed. Contrast this with other, negative aspects of “need,” that arise from switching costs or lock-in. * On social media networks like Facebook or Twitter, participation is presence: When you don’t post, you don’t exist. I need to think more about the implications of this, though consider that Twitter users are generally narcissists. * If the idea of taking a sabbatical from Facebook or Twitter seems tough to adults and older teens, think about how it must be for kids, especially those who are the focus of our latest social unease (not quite a full-on panic yet), kids who text message “too much” because they can’t stand the idea of not knowing what’s up. This, too, I need to think more about, as I think that we lose something when we “have” to stay connected, just like we lose something when we shift from knowing stuff, to knowing where to look up stuff. Anyway, I’m not planning on giving up Facebook for Lent (even though I have a hair-splitting way out — my Twitter posts update my Facebook status). If you’re reading this navel-gazing, dogfood-eating post about social media, I doubt you are, either, though I’d still be interested in seeing your thoughts about this. Overall Sales Strategy - Part 11 of the 2009 Business Plan SeriesWhat is marketing without sales? In Part 10 we talked about the marketing plan which lays all the ground work so that sales can close and the business may grow. But sales is the place were people must execute. Many say sales is marketing with actually asking for the close. I disagree and while they are closely intertwined the skills and goals are completely different. Marketing strategy deals with broader markets but the sales strategy focuses on the individual.. Sales Strategy is separated into four major areas in the Sales and Marketing section. They are: 1.) Direct Sales Force Strategy 2.) Indirect Sales Channel Strategy 3.) Sales Prospecting Strategy 4.) Sales Campaign Strategy As you write these subsections always keep in mind how sales leverages markets and supports the long term goals of the company. Closing Thoughts NEXT TIME: We close our written section of the Business Plan series (cause the number crunching is next) with the operations plan and discuss how to not only sell and market a great product but how to scale it properly so it doesn’t crash and burn. Overall Marketing Plan - Part 10 of the 2009 Business Plan SeriesWhen writing the business plan, the Marketing Plan section explains how you’re going to get your customers to buy your products and/or services. This is an OVERALL view of the Marketing Plan section of the business plan. I will be explored in depth in future posts. The Marketing Plan separated into four distinct areas and they are:
1.) Market Profile and Approach 2.) Market Penetration Strategy 3.) Market Growth Strategy 4.) Market Communication Strategy IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are developing a marketing plan on its own, rather than as part of a business plan, the marketing plan will also need to include a Target Market and a Competitive Analysis section. Closing Thoughts There are a few schools of thought on how to construct this kind of section. The approach outlined above took four key market areas and dove into their strategy. However, there are other resources that see the marketing plan include the Products and Services section that we discussed in a previous section. It also brings in the pricing strategy, the sales/distribution plan and advertising and promotions plan. While the last one on that list is a part of the Market Communications Strategy above, the other two (pricing and sales) could go into a sales plan that follows this marketing plan. Most importantly is that as you write these subsections always keep in mind how this ties into an overall selling strategy. NEXT TIME: Will connect the marketing dots to make sales in "Sales Strategy". More Recent Articles
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