There is still doubts in the minds of business owners and marketers alike wether social media is really worth the time and investment. The reason the answer is not so cut and dry is because it is hard to gauge how interactions with customers and clients on your sites translates in to dollars and cents. Without these clear and present figures in hand how do you know wether or not your marketing dollars are being used efficiently and effectively?

Of course there are a number of social media analytics tools out there to help you tighten the gap. But they do not clearly state how much money you are making from each interaction on the array of social media sites.

In order to translate the figures from these tools you need to set up a complete and systematic series of landing pages and links that will measure specific comments, tweets, and content you put on your social sites. From these landing pages you now can track and funnel customers into a marketing campaigns that will help you identify how much money you are in fact making from each person. This is the only way to get the direct results you need in order to verify a dollar for dollar analysis.

Social media’s indirect benefits

On the other hand there are also a variety of ways a customer can interact with you via social media and never actually click on a landing page. They might just be visiting your page, or sharing a link or photo. These activities are not going to be automatically funneled into a sales or marketing campaign. They are simply traffic or interactions, not part of a intentional process, either because the person is just visiting, checking it out, or just passing through. These interactions could also be interactions with existing customers that have already bought from you and are now just following you. These interactions are extremely valuable but not necessarily in direct dollars and cents. These interactions help drive traffic to those landing pages that you are constantly setting up in order to drive traffic towards sales. Also the more content posted on your social media pages the more search engines will find you and give you a good rank.

In conclusion, using social media is a great way to drive traffic to landing pages that are specifically set up to convert customers toward a sales funnel. Social media can also help you generate links/content that will support your website or blogs search engine rankings! In order to determine the cash value of a social media investment it requires much documentation and organized data that will show how interactions caused customers to enter into a sales funnel or marketing campaign and as a result of those efforts spent x amount of money.

You probably haven’t thought much about what Design can do for your business other than does it make my fonts and my graphics look good…Right?

That is just one aspect of what Design does. In the last few years business professionals have been looking for new and improved ways to jumpstart and modernize their business’s. Innovation is what keeps corporations, countries, and markets viable. Mark Johnson of Businessweek’s online editorial speaks directly at the isssue. If you think your business is any different think again. Mark highlights these five key components to managing innovation.

• Process
• Governance and team structure
• Customer
• Business rhythm
• Value chain

Design Management focuses on these key components helping you prepare for long term growth and success. With the utilization of technology, the right people, and the right structures in place you can advance your marketing power, your brand, and your operations steadily and significantly. In this blog, we will be looking at branding, innovation, organization, planning, strategy, consumer experience, environmental impact, and much much more…

Designers
The world is full of designer.. Maybe even too many! Design is suppose to make things easier, or more user friendly right? Design is suppose to get your message across. Design is suppose to be attractive and sexy! Right? Well maybe?

PHRASE:
by design: as a result of a plan, intentionally

Key Word being INTENTIONALLY:

Design is not always a touchy, feel good, I think this looks cool, phenomenon like most people might associate with it. Design involves many, many, many things. User, Creator, Bystander, Viewer, Manufacturer, Owner, Investor. As you can see we are getting into more than just graphic design advertising and marketing, or even industrial design. We are actually getting to the source of all of that.

which is… the intention of design.

A Design Audit is the first step in this whole process. Visit the Design Audit Page for more details. The Design Audit quickly identifies what needs to be looked at and analyzed further for your business to start intentionally building a better and more innovative company.

Online Video Grows into a Mature Market

This post is about the climate or culture you create within your business. There probably is a culture there even if you haven’t thought about it. The culture of a business is the attitude or feeling of everyday operations. The relationships coworkers have with one another, and the relationships the employees have with customers.

The management team plays a huge role in the business culture. Mangers are the ones that start conversations, direct conversations, and make decisions on what conversations will take place on a daily basis. Also, I am pretty sure everyone is aware of how the actions of the manager can cause an unintended culture to develop. This unintentional culture is usually what we call water cooler talk. These conversations play a big role in the culture of your business.

The question is… “Can you design a unique and empowering culture on every level within your business?” Many businesses like to think that they do and they probably designate this task toward the HR personnel. But as many also know HR managers are very lame and probably too socially and politically correct to tap into the true culture of your business. This scenario is illustrated very well on the hit T.V. series “The Office”.

I believe it all starts with the brand your company creates. Branding your company is a kind of statement saying this is what we are about. This is what is important to us and this is what you can expect from us. The brand is a visceral perception of your company’s mission statement and goals. The brand is usually always affiliated with your company’s logo. The logo is so important because it embodies so much in such a small and unique way getting the point across instantly. Many company’s will rebrand themselves when changing directions and redefining their business objectives for the net 10-20 years. The first thing they do is redesign their logo. Apple did it in 1997 when Steve Jobs took the helm to bring Apple to where it is today!

What else can one do to design a strong and empowering business culture??? There are many things. Ultimately, what ever you do has to have an intention. More often than not the business culture is far from intentional. Remember Intentional=Good Design. Whenever there is an intention and clear goals are defined, the design process is a natural one. The design process can be used in all aspects of a business even to create a business culture. A culture that will forward your business into the next generation, and causing breakthroughs to occur that will boost revenues wildly beyond what you thought possible. What??? Yes of course!! When employees are happy at work, productivity will increase. Also a sense of belonging to something bigger will keep them on task and focused, not to mention the sense of pride and excitement your employees will carry with them with interacting with your customers.

Photo by DonnaGrayson

Having a problems simply indicates there is something that needs improved upon. And if you run any kind of business, I doubt things are running seamless all the time. There are always things that need improved in order to optimize your capabilities.

Problem-solving = designing. I think business owners/CEOs are starting to see that when they incorporate design thinking early in the problem-solving process, designers are able to identify key items/elements that others; might not have thought about, noticed, or failed to explore deeper. The design cycle is very similar to the problem-solving cycle. The problem-solving cycle was defined by psychologist Robert J. Sternberg (1986) and further by [Hayes 1989; Bransford & Stein 1993] .

In a text book titled “The Psychology of Problem Solving” published by Cambridge University (edited by Sternberg, 2003), it starts off stating “all most everything we do in life is a problem”. It’s a very scientific and technical book, but it goes into great detail about problem solving and the problem-solving process. In short, the problem solving cylce is defined in 7 steps.

The Problem-Solving Process

1. Recognize and identify the problem.
2. Define and represent the problem.
3. Develop a solution strategy.
4. Organize your knowledge about the problem.
5. Allocate mental and physical resources for solving the problem.
6. Monitor the progress toward the goal.
7. Evaluate the solution for accuracy.

The Design Process

The design process is basically a “problem-solving process“.  As you can see the problem solving items listed above are very similar. The design cycle can be used for any visual, mechanical, structural, organizational problem that needs evaluation.

1.) Investigate

• develop a design brief, defining the problem.
• brainstorm solutions and resources.
• formulate a specific goal or outcome.

2.)Plan

• design a product/service/solution.
• plan production/execution/solution.

3.) Create

• organize and allocate appropriate techniques/tools/equipment.
• execute the plan.

4.) Evaluate

Designers are built for problem solving because they see things in a different light and are always looking to improve upon. They tend to be very observant and think very nonlinear which opens up doors otherwise ignored or missed.  When a designer can communicate effectively and present their solutions to the CEO; it is then up to the CEO to listen and be open. If this does not happen the whole design process/problem-solving process becomes diluted and will need to be re-evaluated until all questions are considered and acknowledged.  A Steve Job’s number one rule for success was “Think Different”.  He made problems for himself because he was a perfectionist. They were problems that needed to be made in order for Apple to achieve iconic status.

I learned in a life coaching program I attended 5 years ago, that since you are always going to have problems, why don’t you  choose  which problems you are going to have? In other words there is always going to be something that isn’t right and life is never going to perfect. Basically they are saying the same thing I started this article with. You are always going to have problems. So if you are always going to have problems, why not pick the ones that really matter to you. The problems that will make a difference in your life. Just like Steve Jobs did by creating problems that changed the face of personal computing and mobile communication. Create problems that will make a difference.

Apple Inc., a design powerhouse simply because Apple constantly put out new products that continue to trump the previous version before it. They race to be the first out with new technology and wrap it in a very sleek and stylish case that defines “modern” itself. Not only are Apple’s products sexy to look at, they operate with one the most user friendly operating system simply called “OS” and now iOS for mobile devices. The factors that make Apple’s design strategy so great are. 1.) Continuous Development 2.) User Friendly 3.) Stylish and Shiek. Design plays a part in all three of these things.

Design can change the face of a whole company when embraced and cultivated within it’s culture. Well, not just the face of a company, but every aspect of a company including the systems, operations, and orders that allow them to flow and thrive. Many businesses are already familiar with business strategy as a means to produce results. But what if design was taken into account? Design can help productivity by simplifying, automating, and opening up new pathways. By allowing  new ideas to form, old and new ideas will meld into a unique blend of insights and solutions that will create an exclusive and distinct organization.

Strategy is inevitable for any business whether written, vocalized, intentional, or unintentional. Some businesses have a strategy some don’t. For some businesses a strategy might just consist of their yearly or quarterly goals. In any case design and strategy should be hand and hand.

Let me say it like this, a strategy is better than no strategy, strategy with design is better than strategy no design.

Plus Social Media is evolving every second and will continue to do so for who knows how long… So you could say it is one big social experiment. Design also uses a lot of trial and error in it’s equation for success. Although designers try to limit any error when designing, there is always a human factor that can never be measured to the fullest. Designers use sociology, cultural studies, marketing, empathy, among other various tools in order to predict and calculate how design will forward the goal or outcome.

Social Media changes so fast, and design is constantly at play within these changes. Look at how Facebook is constantly changing and evolving whether they move the tabs from the top to the left side of the screen, or they design a “like” button rather than being a “fan”. Design can be as simple as changing a button from one red to blue or moving it from one side of the screen to the other. Amazon does this on an everyday basis. Their method is very very scientific and calculated. Design essentially is a science or at least very similar to it.

Design is such a general term. It used to be synonymous with graphic design, interior design, or even industrial design, and architectural design. Design is all of those things and more. Design is basically what the planet is built on. Engineers design or plot out where new roads will go, or where new power lines will be installed. Design is all about advancement, productivity, and solutions, optimization and realization. All these are important factors in the development of social media.

Basically you have to use CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to create a custom page on another server and then pop it into Facebook using the Developer Ap. It is designed to link social Facebook aps all over the web and link it seemlessly with your facebook pages/tabs.  Exciting stuff! It makes it very easy to embed Flash files to crate dynamic looking pages! A big improvement from the static FBML tabs.

***THIS JUST IN***

I just found out about LinkedIn’s developer website which was launched April 6th! It seems LinkedIn and Facebook are becoming more and more alike as I mentioned in my last post LinkedIn v.s. Facebook. LinkedIn is trying to compete with Facebook in order to keep current and connected online by distributing aps that can be loaded into webpages just like Facebook’s aps. Here is a list of the plugins LinkedIn has come up with.

Keep checking in with me on Facebook and Twitter and Subscribe to my Blog to stay informed on breaking news within Social Media Developments.

It seems like most of the Social Media experts out there in the web have been focusing primarily on Facebook and LinkedIn in for marketing. LinkedIn and Facebook are very similar and becoming more similar than when they each started up.

Currently as of March 22. 2o11 LinkedIn hit the 100 million users mark. LinkedIn has always been the business professionals social media connection. From the beginning, LinkedIn was designed strictly for business connections. The only way you can connect to someone is if you know them personally, either by their email address or via a referrer from another contact.

Because social media/LinkedIn has become such a huge factor in new marketing people have become very cleaver in how they expand their network using LinkedIn. Did you know you can connect to people that are in the same group as you? You can send them personal messages and even request a connection. I received a personal message from someone that said they really liked a comment I posted on one of the group discussions. I was kind of flattered, then right after that they asked me to join their network and connect to them as a personal contact. Of coarse I did and now I receive all their tweets and updates on my home page when I log in.

With LinkedIn’s company pages http://learn.linkedin.com/company-pages/ You can easily create transparent and relevant information about your company to further establish your company’s brand online. Not only is it a great way to look for company’s to work for, but it is also a great way to find company’s to work with! If you are a business you can easily find other company’s within a certain market that you can contact to do business with. If you use the LinkedIn Search tools http://www.linkedin.com/search there are a variety of specifications that allow you to narrow down your search to find exactly who you need to talk to.

Facebook

First off if you haven’t reviewed faceboook’s dveloper pages site you should take a moment to do that because there is so much that Facebook is doing to dominate the world of social online interactivity. Go to http://developers.facebook.com/ Click on the Documents link for a good overview about all things Facebook is doing to make people’s social experience online more intertwined and natural for web users.

You have probably experienced some of the social plugins already surfing online or visiting your favorite news channel and websites already. Facepile is one that connects websites to your Facebook profile and displays friends who like that webpage. For example: if someone  “likes” the CNN Facbook page, the CNN website it will show the profile pic of your friends right there on the websites letting you know that those friends “like” CNN.

One of my personal favorites is the Live Stream plugin. It allows for real-time interactivity on your site. If you’re doing a live presentation webinar of some sort, or streaming live video footage, you can add this plugin to the site and Facebook users can chat live right there on your site.

You’ve probably noticed that you can now login to certain site via your Facebook profile. This makes it easy for you to have personalized settings on each site, and you don’t have to remember another password for each site that requires a login. I’m telling you Facebook is taking over the web. They are now using their famous social experience to plug into the rest of the web via these tools that easily can be inserted into html via javascript.

So now you know why online marketers are raving about getting your business online and making it social. Because with LinkedIn’s 100 million users and Facebooks 500 million users plus all the cool apps and tools they are offering you really have an advantage to reach out and connect to your customers on a who new level.