Sharing as a Marketing Strategy

Welcome to the Monday Minute.  My goal here will be to use my past to help your future.  I will share my experiences and insights over the past week in hopes of giving you a different way to approach your challenges for the coming week.

 

Last week I attended the HTG Summit in Dallas, TX. SolutionWorx belongs to a peer group of IT companies the purpose of which is to share ideas, challenges, and best practices in order for us all to improve.  A rising tide lifts all ships. It was a great week of sharing and learning. In my role, I invested my time on learning how to better market our organization.  I took pages of notes, and more action items than I could ever hope to implement over the next year, so I tried to sum it up to three areas I hope to improve on over the coming months.

 

What I learned can be applied to any business, large or small, so I share them with you.

 

1. YouTube is the second largest search engine. 

• Video must be a part of your marketing plan
  
• Steps to making good videos.  I'll introduce this over the coming week as I test some Do It Yourself options
  
• Use sound as well as video to spread your message in different formats (YouTube, podcasts, blog postings, etc...)
  

  
   

2. Before you begin marketing, you have to know your message.  You have to understand why your organization exists. This is not just about revenue and profit. Every organization has a purpose. You need to know yours.

• Know the culture of your organization so you can define why you exist
  
• Have a message for all of the many formats of media today
  
• Constantly review and refine your message. It is critical to stay fresh and current
  

  
   

3. Social Media is not about sharing your products. It is about having a conversation and sharing your ideas and knowledge for the benefit of others.

• Only 25% of your time should be spent publishing new content
  
• Strive to spend 50% of your time commenting and providing feedback to what others publish
  
• Use tools like Linked In Answers to demonstrate your expertise and credibility to the marketplace
  

 

A recurring theme of the HTG Peer Group, and the conference was the spirit of giving. The idea is that we should give more in value, than we receive in payment.  If you have not read the book, The Go Giver, I suggest you do.  It's a quick read with great lessons to succeed by giving yourself.  This is a cornerstone philosophy of our organization, and our peer group.

 

My objective in this space will be to provide one person one idea, to help them fix one problem.  Like any investment it must start with the first penny in order to grow your savings into something meaningful.