Who are you not reaching today?

Here is a most relevant question.

Who are you not reaching today? The people and the number is huge relative to your potential business partners or customers. You know it is true. The times are changing. It is no time for business as usual.

Who will keep you in business tomorrow? Now think about it. Is it the people you are not reaching today?

The problem with Facebook is?

Facebook is a complex ecosystem of individuals, creators, brands and advertisers. The problem is the only way Facebook has found to make money is by treating all entities on the site as advertisers and charging them to share their content.

How Social Media is changing business and your job search

Social media isn't going away. It is the way of the new world and empowered employees. There is no hiding your head in the sand thinking you don't have to change. You do. Your employees are different and you need to be a part of the open, collaborative world.

Far and away, the most important element of a strong social strategy is the corporate culture behind it. Without a culture that supports sharing and collaboration, the underlying social technology being implemented is futile. That might sound harsh, but it’s the reality. Social tools will collect dust unless employees feel empowered to use them. For organizations with a traditional, hierarchical structure, this is a big shift in thinking that will affect how, when, where and what employees communicate. It can be a bit scary for executives to overcome this initial hurdle, but once done, the results will speak for themselves.

Read more: How Social Media is Changing Business — And Your Job Search

Can one simple oversight bring our stock price down 8% in two weeks?

It is easy to underestimate the new power that consumers have in the digital world. Don't let it happen to you. Will it take a disaster to get our attention. Let us hope it isn't so. Now is the time to obsess about how our customers may point out our vulnerabilities.

Almost five years ago, I was sitting in the conference room of one of the world’s largest insurance companies, trying to push the idea of social customer relationship management to their corporate marketing team. I showed them the power of Twitter and Facebook, and painted pictures of how they could get closer than ever to their customers with these then-new touchpoints. Roughly 4 hours and 45 slides later, the CMO stood up, shook my hand, and told me how he realized going social and “being there” for his customers was important. And then he added that he just didn’t have the bandwidth for it. He explained why his company was just not ready to go social, and why he believed it would be far too risky to allow his customer service onto public forums or leave his brand open for user generated debate. About six months later, a tweet from an angry customer went viral and brought the insurance giant’s stock prices down by 8%. In a mere two weeks!

Read more: The Customer Support Hierarchy of Needs - Vikram Bhaskaran - Harvard Business Review

Is hierarchy overrated?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are a number of trends that are converging that make it easier to have less hierarchy. Is it time for leaders to reconsider our approaches? 

However, as digital technologies make it easier to work in a distributed manner, and we enter the social era, flat structures will become increasingly common.  There are sound business reasons for treating people with dignity, for providing autonomy, and for organizing among small teams rather than large hierarchies.

Read more:Hierarchy Is Overrated - Tim Kastelle - Harvard Business Review

Why we no longer need HR departments

I must say, this article from Bernard Marr is bold. But think about it. Why not?

The time has come for HR (Human Resources) departments to call it a day. HR departments often portray themselves as a valued business partner for management and staff alike. However, how can anyone take a department seriously that refers to people as ‘resources’?

Nothing matters more to companies than the people who work there. Companies are nothing without the right people! And I am sure that not one, single individual wants to be referred to as a ‘human resource’.

So, the first point I want to make is that the name is wrong: very wrong. It signals to everyone that this department manages ‘human resources’ in a top-down fashion, i.e. managing humans in a similar way to other resources such as finance, property or machines. If departments can’t see that this is sending out the wrong messages, then they don’t deserve to be there anyway.

Read more here: Why We No Longer Need HR Departments | LinkedIn

A good case for not hiring a CDO (Chief Digital Officer)

Martin Gill at Forrester Research says don't hire a Chief Digital Officer. Chief Digital Officer (or CDO) is the latest in a long line of snazzy C-level titles to emerge over the last few years. At Forrester they’ve been watching this trend for a while now and have made a few comments, but Martin thinks it’s time to put a firm stake in the ground.

Now, why might he say this when a number of high profile firms are in fact hiring CDOs? Well, to put things in perspective he looks at a tale of three brands, all of which you'll recognize easily. 

Read more here: Why you shouldn’t rush out and hire a CDO | Forrester Research (Martin Gill)

Is it being digital or being customer focused?

Recently David Cooperstein from Forrester Research has invested a fair amount of time with CMOs and agency executives, working through the challenges that marketing faces, especially as shiny new objects like social and mobile develop some patina and digital gets categorized as a mature channel. In a past post on Forbes he called the era we now live in a “post-digital” world for marketers, because the strategies that matter most are those that don’t start with the channel (i.e. mobile-first or digital-first). Marketers need to put themselves in their customers’ seat and define the marketing activities they take on from a customer-first perspective.

I agree that it is important to focus on the customer first. That is to some extent all that matters. 

Read more in this blog:  The Age Of The Customer Requires An Obsessive Focus By CIOs And CMOs | Forrester Research