Leadership and communication

Communication, like charity, must begin at home.

All communication should flow uninterrupted around an organisation, like blood through the body. If the flow is blocked, damage soon occurs. CEOs today must lead through more personal and direct communication to harness both internal and external support and turn their vision into reality.

I think it is necessary to radically rethink how the CEO educates and enthuses their organisation with their vision. The CEO must remember that leaders empower their followers, that every one of their employees is their ambassador. They must also be aware that their reputation can make or break the reputation of their organisation and that there is usually a gap between perceptions and reality!

For me these quotes sum it all up;

“It is hard to look up to a leader who just keeps his ear to the ground”

“Leaders have a vision of a better future, they feel strongly about the need to go there”

“There go my people. I must find out where they are going, so that I can lead them there”

This all revolves around the basic belief that companies must put their people, not their customers, first. Leadership is doing the right things and management is doing things right!
Leadership is about impact and impact can only be achieved by communicating effectively and by moulding a positive image. In my view good communication is about;

• Shaping and influencing opinion
• Sharing information and views
• Inspiring and re-assuring
• Being honest and transparent
• Building trust and co-operation
• Listening, listening and listening…

Please add to, improve or comment on this list.

A NEW New Years Resolution

As the 9th January is meant to be the day most people in the UK break their New Years resolution I thought that the 10th was a good day to suggest a fresh resolution. “Develop a sound social media strategy”.

Slowly but surely I am starting to understand how important it is for me to get involved with social media marketing. If you are like me and want to manage your online presence all by yourself, and you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe this blog can help you stick to your shinny new resolution.

Start with the – “Why?”

Many people get into social media for the wrong reason and participate in the networks they joined too much or too little. Now’s a great time to really give some thought to why you are involved in the social networks you are involved in. Having clarity in the “Why?” is the first step in getting yourself organised and on track. Here’s a few ideas to help you answer the question.

• Are you involved with social media to boost your ego? Do you collect followers, connections, and Likes solely so you can tell your friends about the numbers you’ve amassed?
• Do you really want to engage with the people you’ve connected with, or do you just want to promote yourself or your product all the time?
• Did you join a particular social network just because “Everyone I know is on …?”
• Are you prepared to put in the time necessary to accomplish your social media marketing goals consistently throughout 2012?

The answers to these questions are important and will help you form your social media marketing strategy for 2012. Businesses and business people, wanting to succeed in the world as it is today, must WANT to connect. You must WANT to connect with you current clients, customers and prospects if you want to be a successful social marketer. These are the people who will help your business grow. Now, when I say “connect,” I mean really engaging in conversations with people instead of pummeling them with promotions for your product or service. I mean adding value to people’s lives on a regular basis with your posts ( like this one?! ). I mean working hard to build lasting online relationships with your connections so they trust and respect you.

If you don’t consistently provide your connections with valuable content you and your business will be forgotten. If you over do it and post too much people will get irritated and stop following you. The key to a successful social media strategy is the same key to a happy and healthy life: Balance.

Whether you are a small business or a BIG company your commitment to social networking should be consistent, compelling and engaging. The social community is a fickle one. They will follow someone who is consistent, compelling and engaging, but once you slip up, they’re gone, never to return.

Developing a social networking schedule you can handle, must also keep you accountable. Again, the goal is consistency. Build your schedule and stick with it for an entire month. At the end of the month, stop and evaluate your efforts to determine if you are still on goal. Do you need to tweak the schedule? Do you need to get involved in more social networks or less?

Here’s my New Years resolution social media marketing schedule. You can use my schedule to generate ideas that will help you create your own schedule to meet your needs and the needs of your social communities, accomplish your goals, and fit your particular business and work style.

I will…

Two times a day

• Check my Twitter feed. Reply when required and check the keywords I am looking for. Join a conversation or two.
• Check my LinkedIn profile and visit some of the Groups I am in. I will engage with my LinkedIn network in some way twice a day, every day.
• Check my Facebook Page and post something of value or respond to comments.
• Check my Google Alerts for information on your competitors and mentions of your own brand. Actually I have not really got to grips with Google Alerts so this is more a must learn how to resolution!

Once A Week

• Work on Twitter and Facebook Lists to be better organised so I am able to send targeted marketing messages when appropriate.
• Really spend some time in LinkedIn Answers and discussions in the Groups I belong to.
• Schedule tweets and status updates for the next week so I am consistently providing myr connections with “valuable” information.
• Spend some time building relationships with other influencers.
• Keep up to date on new products and social tools that may increase my efficiency and reach.

During the Week

Monday
Schedule tweets and status updates to provide meaningful content in addition to the content I scheduled in my once a week session.

Mondays and Wednesdays
Get involved in an industry specific conversation on Twitter.

Tuesdays
Respond to blog comments on my blog and leave a comment or two on another blog. Remember what I said about building trust and credibility!

Fridays
Check on the things I’ve been listening to. This would also be a good day to take a look at my analytics and analyse my website and blog traffic for the week.

I’m sure that your schedule is likely to be very different from this one. Consider your time commitments. Make the schedule something you will really do every week, stick to your NEW New Years resolution. Tweak the schedule along the way but remember that consistency is key.

Please share some of your own ideas in the comments.

The good news for 2012

Following on nicely from my last blog. I have been lucky enough to meet a number of interesting and stimulating people in course of my work. Some of whom have become my friend. Once such friend is John Hollands. He runs a small marketing company in Littlehampton, RWP. He always has sound advice and creative ideas. I'd like to share this e-mail he sent me. I think you will agree it made for a good read on a Sunday morning.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and managed to use the break to get some rest and recreation. I was ill for a couple of days (like quite a few people by the sounds of it) and this gave me some time to do a little reading. The first thing that struck me was how negative the news is, not only did it seem to be quite a violent period of time over Christmas but how down everyone was on the economy.

Here’s the funny thing. Our clients and almost all of the business owners I know are quietly confident and upbeat about business in 2012. So how can they be down on the economy yet up about their own prospects. Who knows? – I thought I would do some digging. Can it all be negative?

Headline 1 - Double dip and depression on the horizon. Well, if you define a depression as a prolonged period in which output lies below its previous peak, then the USA, UK and many other European countries are already in one. Doesn’t seem too bad does it? It's just a label.

Headline 2 - Unemployment hits new high. True - 14th December 2011 UK unemployment increases to 2.64m but there are two points to mention.
a) That’s 8.3% of the population. So 92.2% of the UK population is still in work, still has money to spend and in fact more disposable income due to the record low interest rates (despite the inflation rate and rising costs).
b) The rate of increase in the jobless total is very much slowing down.

Headline 3 - The break up of the eurozone will cause the collapse of Europe, a deep depression across the continent, British businesses will suffer and jobs would be lost. The eurozone is Britain’s largest trading partner. etc etc - Nick Clegg suggests "millions of livelihoods at risk".

I had a look at this and here are the facts.

• The eurozone countries account for 43% of our imports and 47% of our exports. Our exports account for 27% of GDP. So roughly only 13% of our economy is dependent on exporting stuff to the eurozone. 
• Maybe luckily; Britain doesn't make many things that people buy in the shops these days. What we do do is weapons, pharmaceuticals and oil and petroleum products followed by business and legal services, financial services, design and consultancy. (Plus Scotch whiskey and Japanese cars) So realistically some of these sectors would continue to do OK even if a deep depression leads to a 5%-10% drop in GDP. - Not quite a collapse is it?

A collapse of the euro could mean that currencies will need to be re-established and the only place with that kind of expertise is the city. Lawyers will be redrafting contracts and filing writs, consultants will be working overtime. American, Japanese and Korean firms may relocate here to escape an unstable eurozone and of course British firms could snap up assets across Europe at bargain prices. The more I think about it the brighter this outcome could be.

So enough about the economy. Where then do we stand from a marketing point of view? We have been advising our clients to

1. Keep their current customers as close as possible. Try a simple phone call. 
2. Add more value. Don't discount - give that little bit extra, people are spending but they are looking for good value. 
3. Look at what is working and do more of that. 
4. Find what is not working very well and stop it.

Good luck for 2012. If you need some advice send me an email. If you like my email send me an email.

( If you want to take him up on his offer his website is http://www.rwpgroup.com/  I have not included his e-mail address in case of spams)

Fundraising in hard times

As bad as this economic downturn has been for us all, chairites who survive will have learned lessons that will prove invaluable later, whether times are good or times are bad. Here are some tips I have collected over the past few years.

I’d be interested in hearing your experiences.

Which ones have you tried?

Can you add to the list?

1. Don't become or sound desperate.Instead, emphasise to your donors that every year, good or bad, your needs continue. Don't talk about grand plans for expansion, but do talk about solid plans for today. Don't lose your enthusiasm and optimism about your cause. Donors will notice and pull back if they think that you, the fundraiser, have doubts.
2. Prove that you are responsible. Let your donors know that you are doing your part by being financially responsible. Cut costs where you can, make sure you have good controls in place, and that you are examining marginal programs. Keep your money safe and avoid risky investments. Don’t do an Iceland!
3. Don't give up on your corporate and cause-marketing activities. Gifts may decrease, but keep your corporate contacts strong. It is very hard to get back on the corporate charitable list if you are dropped. Avoid this by staying visible, and keep cultivating your contacts within the company. Likewise, don't give up on cause-related marketing. Companies are finding that these activities pay off for them with consumer loyalty. Remember too that just because a company's stock price has been depressed doesn't mean that it is not a strong company. Look at the balance sheet to identify companies that are in a good position, and that will likely come back strong from the economic meltdown.
4. Diversify your funding sources by identifying all types of financial support. Avoid depending on one or two major donors or trusts. Most charitable giving is made up of small donations. If you are not doing direct mail to a large base of supporters, start working toward doing so. Use the Internet to reach more people. The cost is low so that donations can be smaller. Those add up quickly. Explore payment options with low transaction costs and online donation sites.
5. Put your fundraising programs under the microscope. Determine which fundraising programs work best and are the most efficient in terms of resources. Then cut the least efficient ones and shift those resources to the ones that are doing the most good. Maybe that big special event eats up precious time and resources for very little return. Or the promotion you started last year just doesn't seem worth the time and effort. But, don't let the money and volunteer time you use in those efforts just dissipate. Put them to use by expanding the annual campaign or making more major donor calls or doing another planned giving seminar.
6. Don't pull the plug on major campaigns, but do slow down. If you were starting a capital campaign when the economic crisis hit, don't stop. But do slow down. Recognise that getting those lead gifts in the size you want will take longer and be dependent on how the economy is doing. If you ask for a multi-year gift, and the donor resists, fall back to asking for part of that gift now, and plan to go back later for the rest. Donors are understandably shy about making long-term commitments in this economic environment.
7. Keep up your marketing and PR. Building buzz about your good work will help you with your donors. The more they know and see your name about, the more likely they are to contribute to your cause. Got PR professionals on your board or committees? Seek their advice before you launch anything big. Let them organize a PR/Marketing Committee that might bring in other professionals to help. See if their firms can do pro bono work or work at a discount. This kind of help is really priceless.