Corporate Eye

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Archives for May 2009

Google Cards for Your Business

Another social media platform? Yes, I’m afraid so. It’s such an appealing way for businesses to connect that Google wants to join in on the fun too. Now, your company’s executives and officers can establish themselves with a new social networking platform and position themselves to be found in the wonderful community of the World Wide Web.

I’m thinking that perhaps there may be an over-saturation of social media sites, so many that I can’t keep track of them all! I certainly have my favorites, but then again so does everyone else. Each of the sites serve a different and diverse audience and also serve different purposes. And, if many users are like me, they have accounts with more than one of them and utilize them for the some of the same functions on each of them.

While it may be just as effective to work two or three social networking platforms to get the desired results, users generally want to find that “one” site that serves most of their major goals.

Want to share music and the latest releases? Try MySpace.

Want to share what you did five minutes, ten minutes ago? Try Twitter.

What about photos, links and meatier posts? Facebook should do it.

The new social platform by Google should serve an even bigger, more diverse audience with their business card presentation and professional appearance. There really isn’t any new information shared there that you cannot find on any of the other sites. Perhaps only in layout and design will you find differences and nuances.

As for company executives and officers, I think the platform is going to really be an added bonus for company’s who are looking to gain more exposure. Perhaps when customers or clients can’t find a specific company, they will have more luck finding the people who work for the company. Therefore, instead of one shot at one hit in a search engine, there are chances of 10-15 shots in a search engine for one company. Sound plausible?

So, how do you think the new Google platform will measure up with the other heavy-hitters? Do you think it’s different or unique enough to last a while? I actually set up my page here and started playing around with it. One thing that I found that was really likable about it was the instant gratification of typing my name into the Google search engine and watching my information populate instantly. If nothing else, it certainly does wonders for the ego.

What do you think?

Turbo-charged PR Management Meets Social Media ROI


vocus

In a word:  Vocus.  I recently took a one-hour tour of this magical kingdom, and left feeling that I could never again be satisfied with ordinary life.  While you’re in the Vocus world, it really seems as if you have the entire media establishment of America (and the UK) at your beck and call.  Just waiting to hear from you!

Okay, so that part is a fantasy.  But what you do have with Vocus is access to a very powerful database of media outlets and contacts, combined with an exceptional toolset (for contact management, distribution, etc.), and accessed through a user-friendly, virtually seamless interface.  It’s on-demand online, so no infrastructure or upkeep is required.

All this comes at a price, of course, but not actually an outrageous price.  And it has the potential to pay for itself.  First, the built-in reports and analytical tools could be a big help in terms of tracking and justifying the PR budget-including social media investment.  And second, the time savings, plus improved targeting, could definitely improve PR ROI.

On top of that, Vocus provides comprehensive capabilities for monitoring what’s being said about your company.  The need to see media trends and manage PR issues in nearly real time has by now become more than obvious.

But before I begin to sound like an advertisement, I should say there are other products that do each of these things, and there may be one or more that does them all–I didn’t research the whole space.  And your company may already be doing a great job of coordinating these factors in-house.  The point is not how it’s getting done, but whether it’s getting done.  And my Vocus tour was a strong reminder that every company needs to have a strategic plan for creating PR and a tactical plan for measuring the result.

If it sounds like this line of thought applies to something that happens in other departments (or on another planet), consider that a warning signal.  Treating PR and HR as separate worlds is one of the root causes for weak employer branding.  As an exercise on this point, look at two questions:

1.   “What are consumers thinking and saying about our company’s product/service?”

2.   “What are high-value candidates thinking and saying about our company as a place to work?”

Not the same!  Of course there’s some overlap, but measuring 1 doesn’t tell you anything about 2.  And if there is a problem in the area of 2, it won’t be solved by fixes applied to 1.  Et cetera.

There’s plenty of advice out there on building the employer brand.  (Browse this interesting white paper on the topic from the Human Capital Institute.)  But let’s say your company has developed a good employer brand.  How do you promote the brand effectively?  Not so much advice available on this topic.

Presenting effectively on the corporate website is a key component, needless to say.  There’s a lot more to it, though.  So I rummaged around a bit, and the best thing I found was an old article (1998!) from the always-ahead-of-the-curve Dr. John Sullivan.  Seems like it could have been written tomorrow . . .


AOL Breaks Free of Time Warner but is It Too Late for AOL?

aolJust eight years ago in 2001, Time Warner paid $147 billion to buy AOL.  Time Warner even went so far as to add the AOL name to the company’s corporate brand, creating AOL Time Warner.  Fast forward to 2009, and AOL has been draining money from Time Warner for years.  Finally, Time Warner announced that it’s cutting ties with AOL and spinning it off as a separate public company in a press release distributed today.  But is it too late for AOL?

As one of my undergrad professors always reminded his students, business is cyclical.  Companies merge and centralize, and over time, they split apart again and become more decentralized.  History repeats itself again and again, and so does business.  Time Warner got too big.  Just as AT&T did in the 1990s, Time Warner couldn’t handle all the various, disjointed aspects operating under its umbrella and realized, it’s time to concentrate on its core to survive.  First, it spun off it’s cable and broadband Internet services business, and now, it’s AOL’s turn to break free of the Time Warner corporate stronghold.  Time Warner has made the decision to focus on it’s core — media — through movies, magazines, and cable networks.  It’s about time.

With its pending release from Time Warner,  AOL has a chance to revive its brand and rebuild its business in order to actually appeal to a broader audience with relevant products and services.  Let’s face it — the online world moves far faster than a corporate conglomerate like Time Warner can move.  A new AOL actually stands a chance of succeeding in the long term. 

The Time Warner and AOL split should be a good thing for everyone, including consumers.  What do you think? 

Image: Flickr

Eliminate Reasons for Consumers to Shop Elsewhere: Homebase Diversifies and Appeals to Many (Including Me!)

Alright, I love it! I love the idea and new market segment that Home Retail Group is carving out for themselves. Based in the UK, they are certainly onto something that hopefully will catch on quickly in the UK and find its way fast to the U.S. Although there are many companies here in the U.S. who offer pet insurance coverage, I don’t find many that are affordable and marketed very much. Do you?

Pet insurance, although not a novel idea, but a very needed one for families who love their animals and feel that they are just as much a part of their families as each other. But, I think often many people are somewhat embarrassed by the idea of having pet insurance and placing high esteem of their pets as a family priority. I say to each his/her own and priorities are personal.

My husband and I are still contemplating getting the children a pet. He leans towards no, I towards yes. I don’t really know why we can’t agree to either do it or not do it. Although we lean heavily towards no, there are some days we look at them (the children) and think about how nice and cute it would be to see them with a little pet.

We are primarily “no” about it because we are wondering if they are mature enough and responsible enough to handle a pet. When my siblings and I were their age, my folks did the same thing. They waited and waited and waited until what they thought was the “right” age and then got us not only one, not two, but three dogs; two toy poodles and one mixed breed. We were in hog’s heaven, to say the least.

But is my family ready for a new addition to an already busy and crowded lifestyle? I also worry about the maintenance and expense that it takes to keep a pet and to properly take care of it. When something went wrong with a pet of ours when we were little, my parents would just take it to the vet, get it taken care of with medications, shots, etc., and then sit and dread the bill. We didn’t have the luxury or the peace of mind in knowing that we didn’t have to angst over a sick pet or almost go bankrupt to take care of it. Pet insurance? I say go for it!!

Corporate entities like Homebase offer several strategic points of sale that work well with their business premise. If you will notice on their site, they also offer multiple other services for the consumer that appeal to the masses. Simply offering one service like pet insurance will invariably lock them into a market and create a situation that makes it hard for them to make a profit. Diversity is the key for any corporation who is trying to make a profit and make a name.

What other kinds of services does your corporation offer? How can you diversify your offerings and still appeal to the masses as much as possible?

Thanks Homebase for giving me (or rather, eliminating) reasons why I should just go ahead, bite the bullet and get the children a pet. I’m sure they will be happy!

Will $100 Million Give Microsoft the Ba-Da-BING It Needs to Threaten Google

What do you think?  Will a $100 re-branding and advertising push turn Microsoft’s new incarnation of its Live Search product, named Bing, create more than a blip in the radar screen of Google’s online search monopoly? 

The short answer — it’s doubtful.

The long answer — it’s even more doubtful.

Let’s face it.  Google owns the online search market.  We live in a Google world.  A $100 investment by Microsoft to rebrand Live Search and attempt to steal market share from Google seems like a bizarre marketing strategy to me.  I don’t care how much money they throw at the Bing initiative, there are too many strikes against Microsoft to become a search powerhouse at this point.

I’m not saying Microsoft’s Bing won’t do well.  I’m sure it will survive just fine, but is this really the best Microsoft could come up with to save it’s flailing brand and business?  Once again, they’ve missed the boat.  Consumer’s haven’t been asking Microsoft for the next Google.  They’ve been asking Microsoft to fix what’s already wrong with the brand, the company, and its products.  In other words, trying to divert focus from Vista wrapped in Windows 7 clothing isn’t going to fix the core brand problems. 

I know Microsoft wants to gain a stronger foothold at the Google party, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time that they need to refocus the brand first.  Google wanna-be products aren’t the remedy to re-energizing the brand.

Oh Microsoft, why do you disappoint us again and again?  Can’t you just give us an operating system that works well?  How about spending $100 million on that?

microsoft-windows-vista-error-final

I guess that’s why I finally broke down and bought a Mac last year.  I still use my Windows-based PC, but I curse out Windows far more often than I curse out my Mac.  And don’t even get me started on Internet Explorer.

How about you?  Would you trust the Microsoft brand to give you a search engine that works well given their current brand image?  Would you choose Bing over Google?  What would make you switch?

Good luck climbing the Google brand mountain, Microsoft, but my money’s still on Google.

Image: Flickr

Tweethearts? (Or not . . . )

I was just talking with a very media-savvy lady who surfaced an issue I hadn’t thought about:  Twitter vs. romance.

She reports that it’s a challenge nowadays to find someone in the dating pool who wants to have actual conversations–or even make auditory contact (i.e., pick up the phone and call).  “I’ll tweet you” is apparently the newly preferred way of getting “in touch.”

But she’s determined to find that retro someone who’ll ask for a date instead of texting an address with the endearing message “6:30?”

Recruiting is actually more like dating than like any other human ritual.  After all, you’re trying to find the very best person for an important, hopefully long-term relationship.  You’re looking for people who might be a fit, then getting to know them, then persuading them to join you (well, your company) in a union that could be mutually fabulous–or just as easily, awful for all concerned.

And although it probably could happen . . . for the most part, planning to find and woo a suitable mate by means of tweets (or texts or links or blogs or emails) seems like a shot in the dark.

So with all the hoopla over social media for recruiting, it’s important to keep in mind the multiple dimensions of communication necessary for engaging candidates.  Put another way:  What do you do with them after you find them?

Companies need a comprehensive approach that seamlessly integrates discovery, invitation, outreach, and follow-through–with the corporate website as a central nexus.  I’ll explore, and come back soon with a checklist for getting from “Hello” to “I do!”

Meanwhile, for a refreshing burst of candor about Twitter/Recruiting, check out Twitter is a Great Recruiting Tool, for Other People at social media headhunter.  And be sure to visit Social Signal for more of Rob Cottingham’s cartoons about the social media world, plus excellent articles and good advice from the bloggers there!