You Don’t Understand It, So You Attack It

I had an avalanche of thoughts triggered after reading a recent rant of yet another person hating on Groupon and it’s business model.

I started wondering why it was that human nature is such that it attacks people, concepts, ideas, religions, races or anything else that is different than the rest. I came to the conclusion that many people fall into this trap: You Don’t Understand It, So You Attack It.

It is close to a couple of major celebrations in Israel, the land which I was born and where I live now after 26 years of bouncing around between USA, France and England: Passover, or Pesach as it is pronounced in Hebrew, and Easter.

My ancestors and education, which are steeped in Judaism, have me excited to celebrate a tradition with my children in teaching them about how after 400 years under Egyptian slavery the Israelites escaped Egypt with the help of God.

My wife, who has an education and family history with a Catholic heritage, is excited to celebrate Easter and teach our children about the moral and religious significance of that holiday.

Both holidays share roots in Israel, a holy land, and both share the celebration of spring which in itself is not a religious celebration but a celebration of new beginnings.

Throughout my lifetime, as a Jewish man, and through thousands of years my ancestors and I were discriminated against because of our religious identity.  One of the common threads was human beings inability to tolerate something that they can’t understand.  The human mind is brilliant, the emotions that humans are capable of are amazing but when it comes to comfort, acceptance and tolerance human beings can be quite primitive.  The inability to accept a belief system or religion is different than yours, often times results in a person attacking what they don’t understand.

The history of Christianity, evolving from a sect to religion, had its own period of time being under attack because the Roman Empire could not understand why some people don’t pray to idols and others pray to a higher power. Christians and Jews were slaughtered by the Roman Empire, including in sports complexes throughout the Roman Empire including the Coliseum in Rome.

As I evolved my professional career, working at NASA Ames Research Center as a 19 year-old, moving to England as a 29 year-old and moving back to Israel as a 34 year-old, I have seen a massive lack of understanding by people for disruptive technologies, disruptive businesses and disruptive individuals. In this case, I use the word disruptive as a positive word because of the massive amount of changes brought to the world because of new technologies, new business models and new ways of employees.

When I read blogs, articles, tweets and rants over Groupon I think about the person’s inability to understand a new type of business model, with a new type of technology and a new type of employees. Just as many have ignorantly prosecuted and attacked human beings, because of their differences to others, many attack Groupon with a theme of this blog post: You Don’t Understand It, So You Attack It.

It takes an incredible amount of wisdom to try and find understanding, rather than simply reverting to basic human nature of attacking things you don’t understand.

For those celebrating the coming of spring, the holiday of Passover or Easter or those that are simply celebrating new beginnings, I wish you a wonderful chapter in life and ask that you put more weight into considering new ideas rather than attacking them.

Peace! If you want to engage in dialogue on this topic, please comment on my blog or reach out to me on Twitter: @goldmanmichael

LinkedIn + Twitter Got Me a Job

Exactly two weeks ago I posted an update on my LinkedIn profile and Twitter account, this is a story about the power of a personal brand, a strong network and the use of social media to get four job offers within eight days.

The methodology I followed in exploring new avenues for a job is the exact methodology I have used the previous three years of my career in prospecting, cold calling and closing Entrerprise contracts with some of the largest consumer brands in the world.

On the 9th of March I shared a message with a targeted part of my LinkedIn network, focusing on individuals that I thought were relevant for finding a sales role in Israel, preferably with a SaaS or media company.  This is a process that everyone should use in a job search, marketing campaign or sales effort: Choose your target audience, use a contextual message and leverage social media to engage others.

I had used LinkedIn’s share button to forward a message I had originally posted on Twitter. I had previously connected my LinkedIn account with my Twitter account. Here was my tweet: “February had me over 200% of goal and my 3rd quarter over 100% of goal. Who is looking to hire a top notch salesman? I am transitioning. #in”

There was a very large response rate within 24 hours of my Tweet and sharing of the tweet with my LinkedIn network, resulting in job interviews with eight companies.  Introductions to these eight companies were made my two headhunters, one 1st degree LinkedIn contact and two companies proactively contacting me because of my LinkedIn update.

Once engagement occurred with these eight companies, I followed the second step of my methodology which was to learn about and validate if I want to continue the job interviews with these eight companies.  This is where I shifted from a volume based approach, engaging a high quantity of people, to a focus on quality as part of my qualification process. Just as potential employers are qualifying me and potential customers are qualifying if they want to buy a product or service being offered, I was qualifying the companies to see if I really want to work for them.  Following this method required tremendous belief in what you are selling, in this case I was the product or service being offered as part of a job interview. Naturally I had to build a strong mindset and confidence level to keep my potential employers engaged. Some of the tactical things I executed on was the use of LinkedIn search to see if I have direct connections with the eight potential employers, including those that had previously partnered with or worked for those employers. I also leveraged Twitter to learn more about the brand presence, including any positive on negative sentiment. Using the Twitter search and looking through a few dozen tweets gave me a sense of if this brand was being engaged online and if there is more positive or negative buzz about this brand.

Step three of my methodology was the executive summary of the company I had prepared before the face to face interview. Having a snapshot of the ownership structure, senior management, main products, value proposition for those products, customers, partners and company location gave me the ammunition I need to ask smart questions and have a highly engaged interview. This combination of thorough preparation for a job interview and leveraging my notes to ask contextual questions or make smart comments led to a highly positive and engaging interview. In sales this approach is also vital, adapting to the company you are selling to and showing that you can both tailor your message and show genuine interest in their brand and company direction.

Step four of my methodology is leveraging the new pieces of information I learned in the various rounds of interviews, leveraging the interface I had with several people in the organization to validate if what I am hearing is accurate and if the people I am interviewing with are people I want to work with. I leveraged LinkedIn and Twitter to identify who in my social and professional network are connected with them and both emailing and calling individuals as part of my effort to find references.

Because of a rational and professional methodology as well as leveraging the power of social media, in this case LinkedIn and Twitter, I was able to get four offers from the eight companies and have the high-class dilemma of choosing who I wanted to work with.

LinkedIn + Twitter Got Me a Job and I feel blessed to have moved quickly from one full-time role to a new job that will hopefully be a launching pad for the next 20 years of my career. I am thankful for both my abilities and the power of social media in both finding a great job, but also cutting down on much of the red tape that exists in traditional job searches. Good luck to everyone out there who is looking to close deals, build a brand and find a fulfilling job. Ping me on Twitter if you found this blog useful, my Twitter handle is @goldmanmichael

Gaming is Key to Uptake of Mobile Apps

The past 12 months I have worked on and advised others on the development of mobile apps that focus on consumer shopping behavior and how to drive usage of these mobile apps.

My number one takeaway is that gaming, as part of the ego in social media, is key to adoption and engagement of consumers for a mobile app.

Consumers have a clear human psyche which is to gain pleasure, as part of this they use mobile apps to grow their network, their standing in their social network and as such things like points, scores and other incentives to use the mobile app is aligned with the consumers ego.

Many self-described social media experts claim that tools such as Klout, Kred and PeerIndex simply drive a gaming behavior and is not the way social media should be used.

In one specific article, authored by Brian Solis and Altimeter Group, there is a huge amount of ego by Mr. Solis is his claiming that social media should not be driven by gaming behavior and that scores from Klout and PeerIndex, for example, drive the wrong kind of behavior. He explains that there should be a social media strategy in place instead of worrying about scores.

My opinion is that Mr. Solis completely misunderstands that human psyche, people’s desire to gain pleasure and as such ego is a hugely important aspect to why human beings strive for a network, both offline and online.

I am in the middle of designing a prototype for a mobile app, and a key requirement is the user engagement of this app and how to motivate users to further engage with this app.  Stroking the customers ego, a topic I’ve blogged about for several years, is key to success of any web-based or mobile-based business.  As such gaming is key to update of mobile apps.

Job description I wrote – Head of Customer Success and Customer Experience

The role: Head of Customer Success or Head of Customer Experience

- Design a high-caliber customer experience of the company’s product and interaction with the company’s team;
- Build a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), best practices, knowledge base and company business processes that align to a high-caliber customer experience;
- Partner with all company departments to engage both potential customers and existing customers to ensure that every touch point, including phone, email, website, social media and face to face deliver a superior customer experience;
- Head up the new initiative, called customer success, and deliver a business plan as to how the company should deliver a superior customer experience and evolve the customer success deliverables as the business grows;
- Work closely with the customers to continually understand the voice of customer;
- Interact and build relationships with the product management and account management teams, including the design of business processes that align to customer success;
- Design a set of self-use tools to ensure customers get the most amount of value from the company’s service, including a differentiation of tools offered to SMB (Small and Medium Business) customers as compared to Enterprise customers;
- Build a set of BI (Business Intelligence) reports that are visible to all senior company stakeholders as to how customer success is being measured and where improvements can be made
- This role is a highly-visible position at the company, as such team-building skills and being able to interface with senior management both inside and outside of the company is key.

Candidates background:

- Person applying for this role needs to wake up in the morning thinking about customer success and how to deliver world-class customer experience;
- Background needs to be in customer facing roles including account management, customer support, product management and sales;
- Candidate needs to have at least 10 years of software experience, SaaS specific experience as a particular strength;
- Language proficiency in English, as a native tongue, as a key requirement with proficiency in French and Spanish as a plus;
- Track-record of success in customer-facing roles, including the relationships built with large enterprise companies;
- Attention to detail a must;
- University degree a requirement;

Are you AMPLIFIED? – Your state is key to CLIENT success

End of March 2009 was a key turning point for me in my career, I decided to use every moment in my career as key to ensuring client success by being in a AMPLIFIED STATE of being with my actions, words, tone of voice, attitude, perspective, psyche, communication (written and spoken), and optimistic tone to all of my client interactions.

The result?

I stand out with my clients and potential clients as compared to every single employee, vendor, partner, customer, shareholder, competitor and personal contacts because I have differentiated myself since March 2009 as outlined in the way my state of being AMPLIFIED.

The question is, do you as an individual, as a corporation, as a product, as a financial brand stand out in the abyss that is the financial crisis tsunami which we are all wading through globally?

If the answer is no, then flip the switch.  Turn up the dial.  Kick up the pace.  Pump up the volume.  Bring the intensity.  Differentiate your company brand image, your company product image, your company financial brand and your own personal brand by being AMPLIFIED.

Athletes use the terminology “I am BUZZING” when they describe being in the zone, being so focused and self-centered that nothing, no one, no obstacle will stand in their way.

A good analogy is when I played inside linebacker at Del Mar High School (Northern California, USA) and strong safety.  The moments, the games, the practice field scrimmages where I was in the zone was when I was AMPLIFIED.  I didn’t care what it took to get the football, the focus was so intense that literally I felt I could move mountains just with my state of mind being AMPLIFIED.  The moments that I had this extreme focus brought a BUZZ a sensation that is unlike any other.  A parallel feeling was when I ran my first marathon in BIG SUR, California, where I was so connected with the road being ran on, the ocean on the horizon, the mountains on the side of the road, the hawks flying up above and the thousands of other runners and so I crossed the finish line in joy, peace, feeling of serenity, moment of determination and tears of joy flowing as I embraced my family and friends that waited at the finish line.

All of this can be applied to a person’s job, a companies brand image, a companies product image, a companies financial brand and doing so will make your clients successful because of the AMPLIFIED STATE of focus required to differentiate as compared to the others.

Go on, ask yourself “AM I AMPLIFIED?” If no, get there because your AMPLIFIED STATE is key to your CLIENT success!

UK Innovation alive and well – Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv BE WARE

My brother put me in touch with his UK contacts that are the movers and shakers of technology, digital media and start-up innovation.  His company was one of the co-sponsors of a networking event which one of my buddies was attending in London this week and the buzz and vibes were reaching decibels that normally are only seen in the tech sector in Silicon Valley (northern California) and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Having worked and lived in London for nearly four years, being brought up in Israel for the first 11 years of my life and spending 19 years in Silicon Valley,  I have to say that I am very very proud of the innovation happening right now in London and the rest of the UK.

Not normally known for its technology and service innovation, London has been on the map for its Financial Services, Advertising and Tourism industries.  From the ashes of the financial crisis tsunami which is still burning in London comes the eagles of innovation.

One company in particular is called AMPLIFIED STATE, a digital media, buzz analytics and marketing advisory that is moving at lightning speed the past 30 days and is about to launch its website, its first customer case study and build a web presence through social media during its 27th of June launch at the Apple event called http://www.CannesLions.com 

AMPLIFIED STATE is just one company that is rocking the innovative scene in London and my forecast is that the thousands of out of work professionals whom are desperately looking for work will be building up companies from the ground up and attacking the market with a level of innovation we have never seen in the UK.

While I am not a complete fan of British politics, the Queen and Football (not American Football, but soccer) there is a buzz, an essence, a presence, a momentum and ground swell that will have the UK being one of the thought leaders of innovation by 2010.

Just three years away is the 2012 Olympics, hosted in London and digital media has opportunities to build personal brand, financial brand, product brand and company brand for so many innovators, so many traditional British companies that are re-inventing themselves and an opportunity for the City of London, the politicians of the UK, the average tax payers to build a global brand image that will lead to an influx of investment in new UK-based companies.

Keep an eye out the next few weeks as to what AMPLIFIED STATE and its partners, competitors and customers are doing in the digital media space, truly fascinating stuff!!!

CLIENT is KING – CRM a JOKE?

In June I have been blogging about four types of brand images: People; Product; Company; and Financial.  Improving the brand image is being recommended through digital media, social media, online analytics and buzz.

 

Common sense will tell you the CLIENT INSIGHT, CLIENT LOYALTY and CLIENT SATISFACTION reign supreme and will directly improve the four types of brands my blogs have been covering.

 

The focus has been on the financial brand and my argument of the company image, product image and executives image need to be measured, optimized and amplified in order to drive a strong financial brand.

 

Before posting a new blog today I was looking at the blog statistics the past seven days to see what is being read on this blog site and the statistics below were eye popping:

 

Views Title 

232 Will a new CRM help build client LOYALTY and client INSIGHT? – Still a skeptic of Salesforce.com

30 How Much is your Firm’s FINANCIAL BRAND Worth? Your Personal Brand?

15 Pressure to succeed – Company Talent versus Britain’s Got Talent

14 Protecting A Bank’s and Corporate’s Brand – Financial Impact and Client Loyalty

10 A Banks and Employee Exit Strategy – HAVE 4 PLANS WITH FLEXIBILITY FOR THE UNKNOWN

 

Keeping a finger on company stakeholders (including clients, employees, vendors, suppliers, banks and investors) pulse is very difficult to do in a scalable fashion, understanding the shifting sentiment of these stakeholders is even more difficult and proving to the board of directors and CEO that there is a direct impact of company spend to improve stakeholder insight, loyalty and satisfaction is the holy grail.

 

Or is it?

 

My online research, executive meetings this past week, discussions with my clients and prospects and speaking with my professional network is showing a trend of shifting from traditional methods to keep the finger on the pulse, generate the BUZZ needed to driver competitive advantage and re-align spend in marketing, advertising, public relations and investor relations to drive improved results in this down economy.

 

Output of this multi-channel research shows a need for companies that measure stakeholder BUZZ through online analytics, online measuring of buzz, prioritizing the buzz/image influencers and adjusting marketing spend to align with the previous steps.

 

CRM is NOT the solution.  The fact that CRM vendors claim that spending massive amount of time, budget, resources and management mindshare to improve client loyalty, client satisfaction and client sentiment borders on false advertising.

 

CRM and similar technology will never fulfill the claim its vendors are making unless companies focus on the business process, employee training, partner training, management incentives and transparent dialogue with the company’s stakeholders.

 

CRM budget should be cut to the bone and the money saved and time saved should directly go into the people managing the stakeholder relationship (training, incentives, business processes optimization leveraging full power of current technology) and online analytics.  What the employees are blogging about online, what the supply chain partners are chatting about in discussion forums, what investors are conveying through social media and how a company’s brand image, financial image, employee image and product image are amplified online is tremendously more important than CRM.

 

CRM is a JOKE if its vendors or internal company advocates think that stakeholder loyalty, stakeholder sentiment and stakeholder satisfaction will be dramatically improved through CRM.

 

The CLIENT is KING, keep current technology, focus on employee training and incentives, optimize business processes for client facing activities and amplify the companies image by tapping into digital media including BUZZ analytics!

 

 

Will a new CRM help build client LOYALTY and client INSIGHT? – Still a skeptic of Salesforce.com

Web 2.0, software-as-a-service, CRM, digital media and social media have had their share of hype the last six months.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in particular has tried to re-invent itself the past 12 – 18 months, positioning itself in line with corporate dollars spent on IT, marketing, advertising, financial reporting and management reporting, but the fact is that CRM is still a painful tool to implement regardless if it is implemented as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) or client-server implementation.

The past few years I have blogged about the MASSIVE security flaws that SaaS has unless it partners with its clients to adopt OTP (One-Time-use-Passwords), dynamic passwords (user name / password combination changes), smart cards or PIN readers (ala Barclays PIN reader combined with Barclays debit card). The company’s IT / Corporate Governance scandal still looms large over its own ability to have the correct set of policies and enforcement of those policies with its own employees.

Salesforce.com in particular has stood out like a sore thumb, primarily because of their own marketing, advertising and PR efforts to stand out from the crowd. I am a fan of standing up in front of thousands or millions to build my own profile (e.g. this blog), but what is shocking to me is how slow Salesforce.com has been to adopt tighter security protocols (remember the Salesforce.com employee stealing client data?) both inside their own network and the way customers access the information.

Consistent with the Salesforce.com security flaws is the way the business processes are designed for end users, be it sales, marketing or human resources professionals.

The lax standards of creating a new institution or contact are a good parallel to the lax security standards, corporate governance and IT governance that appear to embattle Salesforce.com as a corporation.

When comparing other SaaS solutions, or even old-school client/server implementations to Salesforce.com it is amazing how the loose business process workflow can allow for even more garbage or duplicate data to be created in the CRM system. What other solutions do in terms of looking up a match for a current contact or current email address, Salesforce.com chooses to skip this step and allow the employee to enter a duplicate record. I won’t go into the argument that Salesforce.com makes for this business process simply because it makes no sense to me, but I argue that CRM vendors need to think about the end goal in mind: IMPROVING CLIENT INSIGHT and DRIVING CLIENT LOYALTY.

Being involved in Master Data Management projects will show you the complexity that a Global 2000 corporation goes through when trying to find a single view of client, create a simple view of that clients buying behavior, building an association workflow to show who that client has in their personal/family/business network and designing a marketing campaign / digital media campaign to up-sell, cross-sell and solution sell to that client, their friends, their family and their business contacts.

It is the responsibility of end-user applications to think about the big picture, including CRM and other front-office technologies.

While I do remain a skeptic and will continue to be a skeptic until Salesforce.com satisfies me (this will be a uphill battle), I will admit that the challenge I am describing is not unique to just Salesforce.com but to their competitors as well.

The past couple of weeks I have been explaining online what the importance is of not just building a better company brand image and product brand image, but also FINANCIAL BRAND image.

Unless a Web 2.0 platform, SaaS solution, CRM offering or blog analytics solutions design their offering to have the correct set of business processes, data frameworks and data management policies then all of these technologies can prove to be more costly than they are worth because of the manually intense process of having to map the inconsistent, duplicate and garbage data to the business priority of driving better client loyalty and client insights.

How Much is your Firm’s FINANCIAL BRAND Worth? Your Personal Brand?

Market research shows that Global 2000 corporations and Financial Services firms spend between 2.5% and 3.5% of revenue on marketing.  This includes advertising, public relations, investor relations and marketing campaigns.  While the exact percentage varies depending on the research firm, consultancy, marketing book or blog, what is surprising is how the FINANCIAL BRAND image of a corporation or Financial Services firm is ofter overlooked or worse completely ignored as compared to the COMPANY or PRODUCT BRAND image.

 

Global 2000 refers to the world’s largest 2000 firms, which are not fully government run.  This includes privately held, publicly traded on stock markets and hybrid firms that are privately held and are partially owned by the government.

 

For publicly traded Global 2000 companies, less than 1% – 2% of overall marketing spend is actually allocated towards Investor Relations.  Not spending more to measure, improve and maximize the FINANCIAL BRAND is both perplexing and eye opening to me given the volatility of a companies balance sheet, stock price, market capitalization, shareholder perception and international investor sentiment.

 

One could argue that more than 50% of the marketing / advertising / public relations spend should show a direct correlation between the specific advertisement, marketing campaign or PR activities to the FINANCIAL BRAND.  If a bank or consumer brand or B2B corporation can show the direct impact that a CEO, CFO, Head of PR, Head of Investor Relations, Head of Marketing or Head of Advertising has on the FINANCIAL BRAND then the achilles heel would be exposed and millions of dollars would be poured into anything that will show a direct or indirect impact to the investor perception, shareholder sentiment,  stock price, market capitalization, balance sheet, company rating (AAA vs BBB) and ability to raise capital.

 

This is where an executives personal brand ties into the FINANCIAL BRAND.

 

A good analogy to use would be a corporations financial worth, such as the Major League Baseball team called the San Francisco GIANTS and the personal brand of an employee, such as Major League Baseball Pitcher and 300 game winner Randy Johnson.

 

The Associated Press wrote a great article regarding Randy Johnson and his 21 year career, his post game interview and showed how he was only the fourth Major League pitcher to get win number 300 in a San Francisco GIANTS uniform.  That same Associated Press article argues that Randy Johnson will be the last 300 game winner in the history of Major League Baseball.  Wow!!!! 

 

How much is that statement, that press release, the 300-win statistic, Randy Johnson and the legacy he leaves going to be worth to the FINANCIAL BRAND of the San Francisco GIANTS, to the balance sheet, the profitability, the teams ability to get cheaper access to bank funds and build a competitive brand as compared to the Los Angeles DODGERS (Duck the Fodgers as they say in the “City by the Bay”), New York YANKEES or Boston RED SOX.

 

A few sentences that struck me from that article:

 

…The Big Unit admits he can come across as surly, and he did his best over the past few weeks to downplay his pursuit of 300 wins. Once he got there….he was free to express that, yes, it really is a big deal. “I think it kind of hit me when I walked on the field,” Johnson said. “It’s a long-range achievement. It’s not a one-game or a one-year achievement, it’s a career achievement. Who knows how many teammates I’ve had over my 21 years, but they had a great deal to do with my success. I’m going to think about this for a long time.”

 

When was the last time a CEO, Head of Marketing, Head of Investor Relations or Product Manager stood in front of an audience of customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and competitors to establish both a personal brand and company brand that brought positive sentiment and positive results to that firms FINANCIAL BRAND?

 

Food for thought.  When you are next at your companies office, banks headquarters or sitting in front of a firm that you own shares in, go up to that specific individual or team and convey how you think they have improved the firm’s FINANCIAL BRAND or better yet come with reasonable and actionable recommendations as to how during the next 30 / 60 / 90 days the FINANCIAL BRAND can be positively impacted.  Link to the Associated Press, Randy Johnson and San Francisco GIANTS article is the following: 300 Wins, GIANTS 4 – NATIONALS 1, 4th of June 2009

 

Protecting A Bank’s and Corporate’s Brand – Financial Impact and Client Loyalty

2009 has been an amazing year with companies being forced to transform themselves because of the unrelenting market pressure, competitor pressure, client pressure and stakeholder pressure to adapt the product and services to meet the current budget, time and value-for-money constraints that all corporate clients and consumers are facing.

 

The need to please current clients, current suppliers, current distributors/retailers/service providers and wear out the competitor all have one common denominator which is being missed: the stakeholders of your company and brand.

 

Volatility in stock prices, balance sheet health, market share and profit margin on services offered are all being looked at from a macro-economic, supply side, demand side or competitive advantage but what amazes me is the lack of visibility, transparency, communication and dialogue with the stakeholders of Banks and Corporations.

 

Carnegie Mellon Universities definition of stakeholder is “a group or individual who is affected by or is in some way accountable for the outcome of an undertaking.” (Referenced 2nd of June, 2009, from the Software Engineering Institute website: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/faq/term-faq.html)

 

Most marketing gurus will agree that stakeholders include the employees and investors/shareholders.

 

Keeping a finger on the pulse of the employee and investor demands, needs, requirements, perception, perspective and outlook is what banks and corporations need to lean on rather than solely focusing on major research projects, competitive analysis, macro-economic indicators and gut feeling at the board room level.

 

The question is how should a bank or corporation keep their finger on the pulse of the employee and investors?

 

Through hiring of consultants? Partly

 

Through networking with their peers? Partly

 

Through data-driven research projects? Partly

 

Through focus-groups? Partly

 

Through speaking directly with stakeholders, including clients, employees and shareholders? Partly

 

All of the above mentioned areas can be summarized by a word known in social media, online marketing and analytics circles as BUZZ.

 

Measuring, managing and maximizing company BUZZ can be done through a myriad of ways with some of the companies popping up globally the past few years measuring brand and product BUZZ through analytics software, manual analysis and focus groups. 

 

If you work for a bank or corporation ask yourself, your Head of Communications, your Head of Advertising, your Head of Marketing, CEO, CFO or Head of Investor Relations: How does my company measure, manage and maximize positive BUZZ about my companies financial brand image, company brand image or product brand image?

 

If they look at you like you are speaking a language from the planet Mars or say they don’t measure, manage and maximize positive BUZZ about your companies financial brand image, company brand image or product brand image then you need to get them thinking about doing so.

 

The financial impact and client loyalty impact of not looking at your companies brand or product BUZZ is massive especially for publicly traded companies.

 

The internet, social media and online business networking forums have pushed stakeholders opinions, perceptions and needs online.  Executives from a bank or corporation are not taking the adequate time to hear what the BUZZ is about their company decisions or product/service decisions.  What a shareholder and employee won’t tell you in person or over the phone is almost guaranteed to pop up in a blogging chat room online.

 

Do you care enough to measure if your companies BUZZ is positive or negative?  If you do measure your companies BUZZ what are you doing to manage that information?  If you measure and manager your companies BUZZ what are you doing to maximize a positive BUZZ about your financial brand image, company brand image or product brand image?

 

Rather than looking at just face to face, phone based or email based ways to have dialogue with your company stakeholders consider looking into how your peers are tapping into the BUZZ concept I am describing.