By Neicole Crepeau, Contibuting {grow} Columnist

Are you a small business owner or manager looking to improve your marketing and sales? If so, you’re also probably seriously time-constrained. So it’s important that the time you do spend yields tangible results with conclusions that can translate into actions that improve your bottom line. Based on my experience working with small businesses, if you only have time to do one thing, it should be becoming acquainted with your sales funnel.

In my experience, discussing and documenting the sales funnel has never failed to provide new insights, identify holes, and uncover opportunities to improve marketing, reach more target customers, and increase actual sales/conversions.

In this day of digital marketing, social media, and mobile, a simple sales funnel analysis may seem passé. But I guarantee that if you do the analysis and ask the right questions, you’ll find ways to improve all those aspects of your marketing … and more. That’s because reviewing how you acquire customers and the stages they go through to buy from you exposes the rocks in the stream.

Who should analyze the sales funnel?

One of the great things about sales funnel analysis is that it applies to all types of businesses—and even non-profits.  B2B and B2C companies can benefit from looking at how they acquire customers. Non-profits can use the same process to evaluate how they acquire donors.

You don’t have to limit your analysis strictly to sales, either. For example, I worked with a services firm recently who uses subcontractors. We used the same analysis technique to examine how they acquire subcontractors, especially for key positions. Since doing that is critical to their business, it warranted a thorough evaluation, so we could find new ways for the company to “market” to contractors.

It’s best to perform the analysis with a small group of people, rather than trying to do it alone. In a small business, the CEO is very often in the analysis meetings. If the goal is to improve marketing/sales, then the marketing owner should certainly be involved. Other likely candidates: any consultant you are working with on marketing/sales, a key sales person or the manager of sales (if you separate marketing and sales), whoever owns digital, social media, or content marketing (if you are doing those), and whoever owns your website and watches the analytics. You may also find it valuable to include someone from customer support or, if you provide services, project or account managers who work with customers after the sale.

What funnels should you create?

To start, determine which products or services or markets you’ll analyze.  If you have multiple products and they appeal to very different customers or are marketed in very different ways, you’ll want to analyze each. If you market different services or to different types of clients, then you may need to model each sales process separately. If you’re not sure whether you need to model them separately, start with one funnel. As you begin discussing the process, if you find yourself saying “Well, if it’s this product then xyz, but if it’s that product then abc,” you know you need to model each one separately.

How do I do the analysis?

I always draw a funnel on the white board. Begin at the top and work your way down.  The basic stages are generally the same, though you might end up modifying them as the discussion ensues. I usually start with:

• Awareness of problem/need—Customer realizes that he/she has a problem or a need
• Awareness of product/service solution to the problem—Customer realizes that there are products that can fill his/her need or vendors who can provide services to solve it
• Awareness of your company’s specific product/solution—The customer discovers your product or service as an option
• Shortlisting available products/solutions—The customer narrows down the products or vendors under consideration
• Comparing shortlist products/solutions—The customer does additional research and comparison of the products/vendors. This step may only apply to large purchases.
• Proposal and negotiation—The customer puts out an RFP and/or contacts you, you provide a proposal and/or cost, and negotiations ensue. This step may or may not apply to your business (typically a b2b step).
• Sale—Sold! The customer purchases

Asking the right questions

The key to getting value from this analysis is asking the right questions. Start by trying to understand who your customers are. Include questions such as:

• The role or title of the customer (in B2B sales)
• The age, gender, and other demographics of the customer
• The demeanor of your customer, at the time they are in this sales process. Is your customer frustrated, worried, in a hurry or taking their time, in the store or at home or on the move, under the gun from upper management?
• The online behaviors and activity level of your customer. Is this a person comfortable researching or buying online? Is he or she a mobile user?

At this stage, you may decide to diagram separate funnels for different types of customers.

Now, for each stage, ask the right questions to prompt ideas, identify problems, and determine where you need more information.

Awareness

• How do customers describe their problem/need? In what terms do they think of their issue?
• How pressing is the problem? How likely are they to look for information about how to solve it?
• Will customers know already that there is a product or vendor to solve this need?
• How do customers learn about your company or product? What are all the possible ways now? How do they learn about competing products/vendors?

Short-listing

• What’s the checklist in the customer’s head? What requirements have to be met for you to even be considered?
• How do customers find out whether you meet these requirements? Where do they look for information? How hard do they look?
• How short is the customer’s short-list? What are the determining factors as customers narrow down their choices?
• Is there anything about a product or vendor that would cause customers to move directly to the next stage or even skip the comparison stage?

Comparison

• How do customers do a detailed comparison? Who is involved at this stage in making decisions?
• Where do they get the information they need?
• What are the deciding factors for selecting a product/vendor?
• How long does this process take and what can derail it?

Proposal/Negotiation

• Is the process formal or informal?
• How transparent are customers about their budget?
• What approvals are necessary and what other stakeholders become involved at this stage?

These are just seed questions to get you started.  You may find that you don’t have the answers to even key questions, suggesting the need for further research. You’ll certainly see places where you may be able to improve. For example, you may realize that you don’t have the kind of information customers want to do a detailed comparison, at least not in a way that’s easily accessible to them. You may find that customers short-list by looking for reviews—and you don’t have any reviews on popular sites.

All of these represent opportunities to improve your marketing, and grow your sales.  Of course, that’s only half the battle. Next, you have to actually use that information, create a plan, and execute on it. A sales funnel analysis is a excellent and relatively easy way to take the first step in improving your sales and marketing.

Have you used a process like this in your business? What would you add?

Neicole Crepeau a blogger at Coherent Social Media and the creator of CurateXpress, a content curation tool. She works at Coherent Interactive on social media, website design, mobile apps, & marketing. Connect with Neicole on Twitter at @neicolec

This is a blog post with a mission and shortly, you’ll see why.  I’m going to keep the link to use far into the future and maybe you will too. I think it will save you time and get you out of awkward situations for years to come.  Here we go:

Dear Twitter follower:

I enjoy connecting with people and am eager to help my social media friends in any way I can. However, it is a bit awkward when folks ask me to tweet a link, contribute to a charity, review a blog post, read your book, examine your website, review your business strategy, or like a Facebook page when I don’t really know you.

The social web is a weird place.  Perhaps you have been following me for some time and maybe you’re even reading my blog.  I can see why you might think that you know me.  But from my perspective, it is a little spooky to have people I have never heard of pop up and ask me to do them favors.  And all these requests add up!  If I answered every request from people who want to “pick my brain” I would not be able to feed my family. You see, as a consultant, my time is the only thing I have to sell.

How can we correct this situation?

For people who authentically try to connect with me on my social sphere — commenting on blogs, connecting with me on Twitter, conversing on Google Plus or Facebook — I will enthusiastically and tirelessly help them in any way I can.  In fact, I give my time to help somebody almost every single day.

Remember that the social web is about being SOCIAL.  It’s about giving. In fact, it’s about giving, giving, giving, giving, giving … and THEN asking.  So please get to know me before asking for a favor, OK?  I look forward to that because once we’re connected, you never know where it may lead.

Thanks for taking this first step.

Your friendly neighborhood blogger,

Mark Schaefer

A shortened link for your future enjoyment and use : )  bit.ly/GrowByGiving

I recently received this excellent question from one of my students:

Big global companies usually have a social media department but medium and small companies usually add this job for some marketing or PR manager in addition to his area of responsibility or hire some cheap employee or intern — with negative results.  So how should a small business with limited resources realistically approach social media marketing?

The time and resources needed to be effective in social media is certainly a problem for companies big and small. I think we can burst the bubble by now  — social media is NOT free. In fact, large brands are devoting a significant part of their marketing budget into these efforts.

There seems to be no choice — most companies must develop some competency in this channel. In addition to the obvious reason that social media has become a preferred method of communication (and complaining) for many demographic groups, other marketing channels are drying up.

The transition to a social marketing mindset is difficult for companies of any size!  One huge consumer goods company laid-off 1,500 marketers last month because they didn’t have the right skillset to move into the future. Another global brand I work with has literally tested the digital competency of every marketing person in their company. Low scorers are going through mandatory training, medium scorers are going through advanced training and even high scorers are going through a series of “TED talk”-like seminars.

These represent two strategies toward this transition — jettison ineffective resources or aggressively re-train them.

But let’s get back to the original question, what if you’re a small business and have very few resources to begin with?  How do you make this transition?

The big difference is, as a small business owner, you have less room for error.  You probably don’t have the luxury of hiring a new team to create a social media effort.  So here are some ways to minimize the risk during this transition:

1) Do a reality check. Before committing to a new plan, conduct a simple survey or get out and talk to your customers. Where are they spending their time?  What are your competitors doing?  Keep in mind that there is probably a first-movers advantage for many businesses so don’t overlook the fact that creating a competency in social media marketing could be a source of competitive advantage.

2) Learn. To move ahead with social media for your business, you don’t have to be an expert, but you do have to learn enough to at least ask the right questions.  If you’re just starting out, here is a video series that can help get you quickly up to speed on the basics:  Social Media From Scratch.

3) Set real goals. What are your company’s critical needs right now? How can some of these new social media opportunities specifically align with your goals? Don’t get caught up in the hype. Your budget probably does not have much room for “extra,” so think through how this activity will best move the needle for your business.

4) Get professional help. 95% of the companies I see engaging in social media are simply checking a box and not getting much out of the effort. In other words, they had somebody’s cousin create the company Facebook page.  For the first six months, it usually makes sense to invest in a marketing professional to give you some guidance and speed you through the learning curve.

It’s like strapping yourself to an instructor the first time you skydive. After a couple trips, you’re ready to go it alone. When seeking expert help, ask this question: What previous marketing experience do you have and can you show me measurable results of your social media efforts? That will weed out most self-proclaimed “gurus!”

5) Don’t view social media as an “add on.” Before you hire a new social media team, I would first look at where you are spending your current budget and resources – is it time to simply re-adjust?  For example, spending on newspaper advertising has declined by 75% in the US (down to 1950s levels).  If you have been spending much of your time on traditional forms of advertising, it might be time to move those resources to something else. You have to go where your customers are.  Should you re-allocate?  If you just pile more work on to existing employees this will probably fail.

6) Re-frame the opportunity. Here is some good news. Ten years ago, you would take out an ad and wait for something to happen. Today, literally every employee can be involved in “marketing” as a beacon for your company on the social web. It’s a new way of thinking, isn’t it? How can you capture employee incremental time or down time? How can you involve and engage the many networks of your employees, customers, and other stakeholders?

Another way to re-frame the opportunity is that marketing through the social web can possibly be a great equalizer for small businesses. For a little bit of time and effort, you can potentially have a very powerful impact and possibly reach vast new audiences.

7) Realistic expectations.  For many small companies, the result from social media marketing is more like the long-term benefits of networking at a chamber of commerce meeting than the short-term benefits of issuing a coupon in the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong — short-term benefits are certainly possible — but in general, aim for long-term benefits such as increasing customer loyalty.

I’ve worked with many small businesses and start-ups so I know how painful and risky these marketing decisions can be.  I’d love to hear from you. What additional recommendations would you give a small business trying to make begin a social media marketing program?

I just completed a whirlwind trip of London and had very little time to rest and take in the sights. But a meeting cancellation opened up a magical 90 minutes to walk through Hyde Park and enjoy a rare period of London sunshine.

I came upon the glorious sculpture and fountain pictured above, “The Joy of Life” by  T. B. Huxley-Jones (1963).  I became transfixed by the uplifting theme and the sheer exuberance of the artwork.

While I was admiring the fountain, I caught a whiff of pipe tobacco smoke — the same brand used my grandfather, who died almost exactly 10 years ago.  My grandfather was a hard-working plumber who, through his craft, helped transform his hometown of Pittsburgh from a sooty mess of a place to a shiny, modern city always at the top of the “most livable” cities in America.

It could not have been easy work and he sometimes struggled to make ends meet. And yet he never complained and taught me through his example to take pleasures in the simple things that he could afford — a hearty soup, flowers in his garden, a baseball game on the radio. Such a simple life, such a joyful life.

I sat by the fountain and reflected on my friend Gabrielle Laine-Peters. I had known Gabrielle some time through Twitter but met her for the first time this week and learned that she was a woman who had looked death in the face — numerous times — and has overcome incredible hardship to re-gain an infectious spirit of joy in her life. Much of this has come through the global connections of the social web. What an inspiring woman. What a joyful woman.

As I stared into the face of the boy in the statue seeming leaping into the pool I recognized the expression of my little friend Elijah, an inner city child I mentor and help care for.

He is a boy with the odds stacked against him yet can find joy by leaping (never walking!) down steps, turning a rusty railing into a playground, and yes, leaping head-first with joy into a puddle. I learn from him constantly — he can find joy in anything.

To be human is to suffer. And yet, what defines us as individuals is how we can or cannot overcome this unavoidable pain to find meaning and joy in our lives.  Life is hard.  I am constantly thinking about how I can transform and re-frame my personal challenges into experiences of joy.  I’m still learning from these inspiring people.

How about you? Are you making joy a priority in your life?

Join the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events.

Kacy Maxwell is a guy who loves his work, family and a good challenge. See more of his cartoons at EverythingIsMedia.com.

As I meet with many social media start-up hopefuls, I find that nearly every company is pinning its monetization hopes on one thing — advertising.  I began to wonder … where is all this advertising going to go? Where will come from? And how are we going to know if it is doing any good? Will it be diluted into oblivion? Luckily, I found somebody with an answer …

Guest post by {grow} community member Irv Shapiro

Social media providers are under intense pressure to generate additional revenue through advertising. The upcoming Facebook IPO is just the tip of the iceberg. The social media giant also announced it will soon display ads on mobile apps, thus contributing to the race to capture additional advertising revenue in the social space.

Twitter’s “enhanced profile pages” — and features on other social networking sites — are also clearly intended to drive ad-based revenues and bolster the bottom lines of social media providers. Everywhere you look it seems, we are going to be dealing with more and more advertising!

Obviously this presents new multichannel opportunities for businesses and marketers. But with all of these new forms of social media advertising targeting consumers, how can businesses ensure their ads are actually generating a return on their advertising expenditures?

The Problem with Social Ad Spend

The connection between social media ad spend and social channel ROI has been murky. Even those fully committed to social advertising have not always demanded the kind of rigorous ROI analyses that are typically applied to other marketing investments. In many cases, businesses have simply lumped social ad returns into the generic category of “improved brand awareness.”

Yet in today’s marketing environment, there is no excuse not to have total visibility about the returns we are receiving for our social ad dollars. Luckily, the technology is keeping pace.

A new generation of analytics

The gap between social channel investments and clear ROI is driving the implementation of a new generation of online and offline analytics, many of which utilize “call tracking” solutions.

Call tracking enables marketers to identify the social ads and campaigns that are producing the best results for the business, tracking the impact of advertising across multiple channels and delivery platforms. By assigning unique local numbers to each social media ad, the organization achieves a new level of granularity, capturing actionable insights that can be used to justify social channel spend and create a more optimized social marketing strategy.

For example, New York City’s Marquis Dental Spa (client) was struggling to determine the actual ROI of specific social channel ads and campaigns. To gain a more accurate picture of the returns they were receiving for the social investments, the company assigned more than 250 unique local numbers to ads delivered through paid search, Facebook, LinkedIn and other channels.

The campaign’s use of unique local numbers enabled the company to connect leads to specific social ads, thus generating solid ROI for every dollar invested in social media and other channels. As a result, the company optimized its advertising strategy and reduced its cost-per-new-patient metric by 50 percent. They plowed this savings back into ad spending on Facebook, their highest performing lead source during the campaign.

The opportunity for highly targeted ads has never been greater, and as more channels emerge, it is likely that the costs will be very competitive compared to other alternatives.  But like all good marketing efforts, we will need to use these new analytic tools to optimize  social channel investments.

Irv Shapiro is the CEO and CTO of Ifbyphone and is responsible for overall business strategy and corporate leadership.

By Stanford Smith, Contributing {grow} Columnist

I get asked a lot of questions about blogging and social media.  These questions range from the profound; “Does social media really matter?” to the absurd “How many words should I use in every blog post sentence?”

Ninety-nine percent of the time, I enthusiastically answer these questions. I remember when I started blogging and content marketing and how worried I was about making a mistake. Answering questions is my way of saving people unnecessary frustration.

Lately, however, I have noticed a troubling theme in the questions.

More and more people are sweating the small stuff.

Usually thoughtful and cool-headed people are investing hours pondering…

• How many times a month should I post?
• Should I answer every comment?
• How many words are in a successful post?
• How long should a headline be?
• How many keywords should be included in the first paragraph?

These questions are the subject of tweetchats and even have enough gravitas to carry a full 60 minute webinar.

This is absurd.

Take a step back and you can see the hazy influence of the “get rich quick” mentality.  Without knowing it, these well-meaning folks are looking for a “silver bullet” that will instantly solve their problems.  Others are hoping that the right combination of post frequency, length, and headline type will instantly turn them into content rockstars.

These questions, while interesting, are ultimately meaningless unless you’ve tackled the “big stuff”

The Big Stuff: The Real Questions You Should Be Asking

The Big Stuff are foundational  questions that are difficult to answer in a five-minute conversation  These questions always focus on values, culture, objectives, and accountability.  They make people and organizations uncomfortable and may lead to a few arguments.

But the Big Stuff always underpins success. Answering the big questions protects you and your organization against wasted time, effort, and burnout.

Unlike the “small stuff” the big questions defy easy, quantifiable, silver bullets. Instead, you need to arm yourself with time, focus, and a healthy respect for trial and error.

Here are several of the big social media questions that organizations should start with:

How can our customers benefit from a two-way dialogue with our business?

Not all customers want a relationship!  Quarter-inch screw customers just want a cheap and reliable fastener.  They don’t care about your Facebook page or if you are active on Twitter.  On the other hand, the jogging stroller manufacturer absolutely needs to talk with moms and dads.

What can we share that is relevant, interesting, and valuable?

Start with your content.  Look at the brochures, briefs, white papers, and internal documentation that are floating around your organization.  Once you’ve gathered everything, ask yourself: “Do you have enough to keep a customer interested for a year?”  If you do, then release this content on a regular schedule and make sure you maintain quality.  If not, create a plan to start building your library of content.

You can’t answer the “post frequency” question until you know what you have to publish.

Do we have the right process for mining content from our organization?

Creating content is a discipline and skill that must be cultivated and nurtured.  Content producers are natural hunter-gatherers that see the world as “another blog post.”  Social organizations build clear processes for encouraging grassroots content creation and inspiration.

Are these processes in place in your organization?

Have we set up the right incentives to empower and reward employees for their social contribution?

Simply asking employees to write blog posts is the wrong way to build social competency in your organization.  You’ll get sporadic “compliance” at best.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Fortune 500 company or a two-person local business, you need to offer an incentive for someone to change their behavior and invest 100%.

Social Media is inherently creative and spontaneous and can’t be packaged in an 8-hour work day.  Blog post ideas sprout at 9PM while picking up apple Juice at Walgreens. A Pinterest picture happens at an impromptu company event.  Employees forced to “be social” won’t catch and capitalize on these moments.

What does success look like?

I’ll make it easy for you.  Successful social media creates and rewards delighted customers.  That’s all.  You can set-up your analytic tools to churn out the metrics as proof but readers, Likes, and retweets should ultimately lead to more customers.

Everyone who is interested in finding and delighting customers should participate in answering these “big questions”.  That means everyone from the front-desk, the delivery person, the marketing team, customer service, and the CEO.

Wait – Aren’t Those “Small Stuff Questions Important?

Listen...

Answering the Big Stuff, those important questions we discussed, will make the other questions irrelevant.  Once you thought about your content, the value you can deliver, and your customer’s needs all you need to do is publish.  It doesn’t really matter how much or how often.  Just publish valuable information your customers can use. They will appreciate and compensate you. Simple.

Make sense?

Talk to me.

Contributing Columnist Stanford Smith obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social, except when he’s chasing large mouth bass!

I’ve been very active on Twitter for about four years now and I would say the aspect that has changed the most in that time is the explosive popularity of Twitter Chats.  Twitter Chats have become an important networking and sales tool. In fact, you can even make money off of Twitter chats.  So let’s take a deep dive into this important social media trend.

The idea behind a Twitter Chat is very simple. A group of people with a common interest gather together at a designated time to share ideas and discussion. The chat is united by a “hashtag” so that all can follow along. For example, #CMChat gathers people who are in the country music business and #CookingChat brings together cooking enthusiasts. There are chats for every imaginable interest and the list is growing all the time.

There are several powerful benefits of chats:

• Chats are a great place to learn and exchange ideas with like-minded individuals from around the world.
• It is an excellent place to meet interesting new contacts. When you find a chat that you like, it would be a good idea to follow these individuals and perhaps even create a list of the chat members.
• Chats are a great place to gain awareness for your own brand and ideas.
• Participating in chats creates connections and content that can enhance your personal influence.
• A company, brand, or individual can establish a voice of authority by creating and leading a chat.
• Chats have become so popular, some companies are paying advertising fees to sponsor them. Yes, you can make money from a Twitter chat!

So how do you get started?

The first thing to do is find a relevant chat. The best way to keep up with this dynamic list is to google “Twitter chat schedule” and you will find a detailed list of chats by subject, day, and time. It will also list the leaders of the chat and provide a link to the most recent session.

Once you pick your chats, there are a couple ways to participate. First, follow the people who run these chats and get their updates on upcoming chats. When the chat is scheduled to happen, you can search for the designated hashtag in Twitter.  The best way to follow along is to use a free service like TweetChat or TwitterFall, platforms specifically designed to enhance your Twitter chat experience.

A word of warning: On the most popular chats, the tweets may be coming at a furious rate!  It can be challenging to follow when there are concurrent conversations occurring.

Participation is key for reaping the benefits of Twitter chats. Ask and answer questions, add insight, discuss. These are usually very open and friendly forums, so don’t be worried about posting a “stupid” comment or question.

Many times, there are pre-determined questions and the moderator will pose these in the form of this example:  Q1 What is the best way to get value from a Twitter chat?  Participants answer accordingly: A1 One idea is to participate actively and help newcomers.

Creating your own chat

Hosting your own chat can be a fun and rewarding way to create community around your ideas and subject matter. Let’s walk through the steps of creating a new Twitter Chat.

Set-up

First, I would want to secure a descriptive hashtag. At www.Twubs.com you can see if your hashtag has already been taken and secure one for your chat.

Once you have a unique name, it would be a good to reserve a Twitter handle for the chat.

To promote the chat, you may want to create a homebase on Facebook, LinkedIn group, or blog where you can make announcements and post completed conversations.

You’ll also need to pick a time and regular date for the chat. Every Monday?  The second Tuesday of the month? Find a date that fits your schedule because as the moderator, you are creating a long-lasting commitment to your community. Some chat communities have co-moderators, or even shared responsibility among all the members.

Planning the content

In preparation for your first chat, you’ll want to personally invite a few friends to get the momentum going. Create enough topic questions ahead of time to propel at least 30 minutes of chat. Involve your community in choosing topics and questions. Other chats are just free-flowing with no assigned agenda. It’s just a place to meet and touch base.

Many chats feature special guests who help answer questions and engage with participants. So for example, I have been a guest “speaker” on book chats, marketing chats, and leadership chats to name a few. If you are asked to be a guest on a chat, be sure to have the prepared questions ahead of time so you can get ready with a at least a few tweetable responses. It can be quite challenging to keep up with the pace of conversation with coherent 140-character responses!

Post-chat and promotion

As the moderator, you are creating some very valuable, shareable content so be sure to capture this. There are several free platforms to do this including ChirpStory and Storify. You can post this content on your Facebook or blog and then promote this content to attract new members.

Promoting a link to your homebase in industry publications, social media outlets and related forums is another way to find people who might be interested in the topic.

Another best practice is to email a transcript to your community members after the chat. This will serve as a reminder of the next chat and also keep people in the loop even if they miss the event.

During the chat, everyone participating will be tweeting with the hashtag in the tweet. Just the act of having the chat is a great way to promote the event.  I’ll often pop into a chat when I see an interesting hashtag pop up. As long as you stick to a consistent schedule and provide interesting content, your attendance will pick up over time.

Just like everything else, Twitter chats have limitations. The 140 character maximum can limit the depth of a commentary and even good ideas can get lost in a big chat. Still, the serendipitous connections you make in these forums are often more important than the content of the chat.

What have I missed?  How do you get value from Twitter Chats?  Positives and negatives?  Tips you can share?

A long, long time ago I had to pick an online platform to store my photos.  What better brand name to trust with your photos than Kodak, right? Wrong.

For a century Kodak WAS photography.  The tech. The fun. The innovation.

I was saddened, but not surprised that Kodak announced yesterday that its photo-sharing site has been sold to Shutterfly as part of its Chapter 11 fire sale. What an amazing turn of events for this once proud and dominant company.  How could a brand that strong lose it so fast?

The company had everything it needed to succeed. The name. The technology. The resources. And yet in a decade the global brand has been decimated.

Kodak never really “got” the digital revolution did it?  When they started charging me an annual fee to store my photos, I knew the end was near for them. What a stupid move. The adjacent revenue they could have achieved from selling prints and stuff like photo mugs and calendars would have been enormous. But they needed to have the photos — and the owners of the photos — intact and engaged on their site. Instead of focusing on making it fun and great, they went for the quick bucks and lost.

Over and over, they tried to “re-invent” themselves, to no avail. Last month they exited the digital camera business. Now their patents are up for sale. When it’s all over, I don’t even know if there will be any company left.

Any way, here is the official announcement I received from Kodak:

Although I am sad to announce that our Kodak-branded service will be closing on July 2 as a result of this sale, I am very pleased to announce that we have found a strong partner in Shutterfly. They offer a market leading user experience that mirrors ours in many ways, and many of the services and products that you enjoy today on Kodak Gallery can also be found at Shutterfly.com. Their services include free, unlimited storage and 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee. Working together, we will securely transfer your account photos to them free of charge. We are absolutely committed to making this transition as smooth and easy as possible.

For well over a decade, Kodak Gallery has operated with a mission to make it easier for people around the world to celebrate their Kodak moments through photo-sharing, photo-product creation, and more recently, innovative new mobile photo experiences. Now, it is our top priority to ensure that your images and confidential information are kept private and secure as they move from our site to Shutterfly. And of course, although Kodak Gallery is transitioning, the Kodak brand you love and trust remains.

Don’t you mean the Kodak brand I USED to trust and love?

At the recent Social Slam conference, there was a ton of inspiring content from some of the greatest marketing minds around. And yet to me, the sentence from the day-long conference that has lingered in my mind came from the least-known speaker of the day.  She is not a marketer. She is not a social media expert. In fact, Social Slam was the first social media conference she had ever attended.

I invited Dr. Alice Ackerman, a pediatrician and college educator from Virginia Tech University, to relate her inspiring story of how she was connecting to her community through social media. She told the audience of her introduction to the social web through The Tao of Twitter and of her struggles to get approval to blog from the university medical community. She persevered and eventually got the go-ahead, but finding an audience for her blog posts was another matter.

Much of her first blogging efforts were aimed at educating the community on the importance of childhood vaccinations. But she had some doubt as to whether she was making an impact.  She displayed a chart displaying the lowly results of her blogging efforts.  For more than a year, her posts limped along.  In fact, she averaged 4.5 readers a day.

And then something magical happened when she received this tweet:

Dr. Ackerman is the person who changed my mind once I read her blog and her links. I had no idea that info existed.

And it was at this point that Dr. Ackerman delivered the line at the conference that received a thunderous applause from all the hard-working bloggers in attendance:

“Yes, I only had 4.5 readers a day on my blog … but I had an impact on one of them.”

I thought this was a profound lesson on many levels.

• “Citizen Influencers” are using the power of online publishing tools to make a difference in unexpected ways
• You never know when your words are making an impact
• Tenacity, commitment, and patience make the difference in social media success

I think this is an inspiring message for any blogger out there. What do you think? Are you making a difference in big and small ways?