Over the past decade, we have had to drastically change the way we reach consumers. We have also had to change the way we think of "change". Moving away from the negative connotation, we need to embrace it because change is at the heart of what will bring us closer to our customers.
Traditionally, marketing has focused on pushing information out to the public. With the ever-increasing amount of distractions and the decreasing amount of time everyone has, this approach is no longer feasible. Marketers need to focus on engaging consumers through two-way communication and interaction.
There are various social marketing tools available that make this new form of marketing possible and successful. These tools bring us closer to consumers, so we can better understand their needs. With this kind of high-value feedback, we can redefine our products and services to meet the ever-changing demands of our customers, while getting to know them better at the same time. I would argue this kind of opportunity is invaluable to any company, the only cost is time.
How much time? Marketing Departments need to recreate and redesign their own strategies in order to integrate social media marketing into their every day activities. The amount of time and personnel needed will vary from company to company, industry to industry. But the important thing is that it is happening, rather than not at all.
So, I encourage you to start a company twitter account, join groups relevant to your industry on linkedin, create a facebook page, start a blog, reach out. Generally, the amount of resources you invest in it will reflect the value you receive back in the end.
The above post is Part I of a IV part series highlighting the importance of social media marketing. Later parts will delve deeper into certain strategies to help develop and build on the expertise of marketers in order to increase the value-added to their efforts.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Professional Development as a Performance Incentive
In today's tough economic times organizations are cutting back on whatever they can, and training programs tend to be the first to go. Organizations want to focus on pulling through the tough times, not on developing their employees. But just because they’re spending less does not mean there’s not a price to pay.
This price comes in terms of employee performance when the good times return, but also in terms of employee incentive and morale. Employees want their organizations to provide them with training opportunities so they are able to develop themselves within their profession. If an organization doesn't provide these opportunities, employees will leave to find a company that will. A high turnover rate means more cost and less productivity. When employees are dissatisfied, they also tend to deplete the sense of community in an organization, leading to an apathetic approach to work life. This approach finds individuals no longer striving towards organizational goals, which is a great internal weakness for the success of the company. Managers need their employees to be working together towards large organizational goals instead of working independently towards their own individual goals.
In essence, training provides more than increased productivity. It acts as an additional incentive for employees to stay with a company because they are able to develop and improve their own management skills. It also enables employees to develop their sense of community within their organization because their managers have shown that they believe in them enough to invest in their skills. The morale of the employees increases because they now feel more secure about their future with their company.
So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to coach and mentor; organizations need to capture the knowledge of their employees and pass it on for the development of others. We know the times are tough, so try forming a peer coaching group within your organization and meet bi-weekly to talk about and reflect on your management experiences. After 3 sessions, re-evaluate if your time is worth it. What have you learned? What have you gained? You'll be surprised at how far a little talking, coaching, and mentoring can bring you and your organization.
This price comes in terms of employee performance when the good times return, but also in terms of employee incentive and morale. Employees want their organizations to provide them with training opportunities so they are able to develop themselves within their profession. If an organization doesn't provide these opportunities, employees will leave to find a company that will. A high turnover rate means more cost and less productivity. When employees are dissatisfied, they also tend to deplete the sense of community in an organization, leading to an apathetic approach to work life. This approach finds individuals no longer striving towards organizational goals, which is a great internal weakness for the success of the company. Managers need their employees to be working together towards large organizational goals instead of working independently towards their own individual goals.
In essence, training provides more than increased productivity. It acts as an additional incentive for employees to stay with a company because they are able to develop and improve their own management skills. It also enables employees to develop their sense of community within their organization because their managers have shown that they believe in them enough to invest in their skills. The morale of the employees increases because they now feel more secure about their future with their company.
So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to coach and mentor; organizations need to capture the knowledge of their employees and pass it on for the development of others. We know the times are tough, so try forming a peer coaching group within your organization and meet bi-weekly to talk about and reflect on your management experiences. After 3 sessions, re-evaluate if your time is worth it. What have you learned? What have you gained? You'll be surprised at how far a little talking, coaching, and mentoring can bring you and your organization.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
What we've been up to!
We have just finished a series of webinars that we ran throughout June and the beginning of July. They were a lot of fun to organize and participate in! I really felt we were able to share some of our knowledge at CoachingOurselves with the participants. Our webinars titled "Introducing CoachingOurselves" were about who we are, how we got started, and what we do. We had great turnouts with highly engaged participants. We also ran a "Social Learning for Management Development" Webinar that was very interesting! It was all about social learning, the naturally occurring process that makes up the majority of our learning in the workplace, and how it can be captured for management and leadership development. Soon we will be publishing some of our recorded webinars on the site for individuals to view them at their own convenience until we start up another series in August. Our first one back is another "Social Learning for Management Development" Webinar on the 12th of August.
We ran our first virtual CoachingOurselves workshop for individual managers. Those who attended worked through a CoachingOurselves topic as a group and participated in discussions, adding their own insights and personal experiences. It went really well and was a great experience for all who were involved. There are plans to run another CoachingOurselves workshop for individual managers in August.
We are currently working on putting up our partner page on the website. This page will display all of our partners from around the globe. It is these partners that will be traveling to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the fall for the CoachingOurselves Partner Conference.
We are also updating the "Our Team" page on the website. The CoachingOurselves team has grown and we want everyone to appear on our website so you can know who we are.
Recent Marketing Success Story: holding webinars in order to reach out to our customers, keeping them informed and up to date in the world of learning and development
We ran our first virtual CoachingOurselves workshop for individual managers. Those who attended worked through a CoachingOurselves topic as a group and participated in discussions, adding their own insights and personal experiences. It went really well and was a great experience for all who were involved. There are plans to run another CoachingOurselves workshop for individual managers in August.
We are currently working on putting up our partner page on the website. This page will display all of our partners from around the globe. It is these partners that will be traveling to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the fall for the CoachingOurselves Partner Conference.
We are also updating the "Our Team" page on the website. The CoachingOurselves team has grown and we want everyone to appear on our website so you can know who we are.
Recent Marketing Success Story: holding webinars in order to reach out to our customers, keeping them informed and up to date in the world of learning and development
Monday, June 29, 2009
"Rebuilding Companies as Communities" by Henry Mintzberg
I was recently reading Henry Mintzberg's latest article in HBR titled "Rebuilding Companies as Communities". It is such a powerful article, especially for our current economic situation.
He speaks about the damaging effects of "the depreciation in companies of community". When there is not a sense of community in organizations, individuals are acting out of self interest instead of focusing on developing the productivity of their organization as a whole. The employees do not feel bound to each other or to their organization. Without community, employees are not working together towards a common goal, they are only working on their own personal goals, whether that may be increasing their own bonus, being promoted, etc. How can organizations ever become more productive and develop as a whole this way? They can't. And Mintzberg believes this is at the heart of the economic downturn.
Mintzberg also speaks about leadership and how it has become perceived as something separate and superior to management. He says "this view only isolates the people in leadership positions, thereby undermining a sense of community in organizations." He believes leadership and communityship go hand-in-hand. "A community leader is personally engaged in order to engage others, so that anyone and everyone can exercise initiative."
He also talks about several programs he has created with colleagues for developing managers in order to help them develop their organizations. These include IMPM, IMHL, ALP, and CoachingOurselves. These programs have taught him that creating small groups of committed managers help trigger the spread of initiatives around the organization, thereby strengthening its sense of community.
Mintzberg concludes by restating that organizations need to understand that they must develop and strengthen community within their organizations in order to create "a healthy society [that] balances leadership, communityship, and citizenship".
He speaks about the damaging effects of "the depreciation in companies of community". When there is not a sense of community in organizations, individuals are acting out of self interest instead of focusing on developing the productivity of their organization as a whole. The employees do not feel bound to each other or to their organization. Without community, employees are not working together towards a common goal, they are only working on their own personal goals, whether that may be increasing their own bonus, being promoted, etc. How can organizations ever become more productive and develop as a whole this way? They can't. And Mintzberg believes this is at the heart of the economic downturn.
Mintzberg also speaks about leadership and how it has become perceived as something separate and superior to management. He says "this view only isolates the people in leadership positions, thereby undermining a sense of community in organizations." He believes leadership and communityship go hand-in-hand. "A community leader is personally engaged in order to engage others, so that anyone and everyone can exercise initiative."
He also talks about several programs he has created with colleagues for developing managers in order to help them develop their organizations. These include IMPM, IMHL, ALP, and CoachingOurselves. These programs have taught him that creating small groups of committed managers help trigger the spread of initiatives around the organization, thereby strengthening its sense of community.
Mintzberg concludes by restating that organizations need to understand that they must develop and strengthen community within their organizations in order to create "a healthy society [that] balances leadership, communityship, and citizenship".
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Future of Learning
The other day, I stumbled across an article by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler titled "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0". I couldn't help but noticed how the article outlines the future of learning by speaking about several effective approaches that CoachingOurselves currently employs.
It talks about how Web 2.0 technologies have paved the way for new styles of learning. Since our current educational institutions will soon not be able to sustain the growing population and growing demand for higher education, we need to find new ways to educate ourselves and each other. They say "social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions." CoachingOurselves utilizes social learning through its self-directed peer learning groups. These groups then work together to coach themselves through conversations about their own "management happenings". This approach is highly effective, as enforced by a study by Richard J. Light of the Harvard Graduate School of Education that determined "one of the strongest determinants of students’ success in higher education—more important than the details of their instructors’ teaching styles—was their ability to form or participate in small study groups." The social view of learning promotes participation and collaboration. "Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own." It is easier to obtain and remember information through natural conversation because we have become involved and engaged in the discussion.
The second aspect of social learning is "learning to be", which comes after "learning about" through group collaboration, involves fully participating in a particular field in order to put your new-found insights to action. In a typical CoachingOurselves program, participants are directed to put to practice in everyday life the new knowledge they have gained from the group. At the next meeting, the groups will discuss their experiences and outcomes from the week before. This brings us to demand-pull learning, which "shifts the focus to enabling participation in flows of action, where the focus is both on “learning to be” through enculturation into a practice as well as on collateral learning." "Demand-pull" learning is more effective than traditional "supply-push" learning because new knowledge flows as a result of our own passion and interest, rather than the knowledge of our professors and teachers being passed down as a result of their own interests.
This all brings us back to Web 2.0 technologies and how they will make "learning about" and "learning to be" more possible for more individuals around the world. We can continue to demand knowledge throughout our careers, participating in communities of practice (CoP) and self-directed peer learning groups to educate ourselves in order to create "a twenty-first century, global culture of learning".
It talks about how Web 2.0 technologies have paved the way for new styles of learning. Since our current educational institutions will soon not be able to sustain the growing population and growing demand for higher education, we need to find new ways to educate ourselves and each other. They say "social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions." CoachingOurselves utilizes social learning through its self-directed peer learning groups. These groups then work together to coach themselves through conversations about their own "management happenings". This approach is highly effective, as enforced by a study by Richard J. Light of the Harvard Graduate School of Education that determined "one of the strongest determinants of students’ success in higher education—more important than the details of their instructors’ teaching styles—was their ability to form or participate in small study groups." The social view of learning promotes participation and collaboration. "Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own." It is easier to obtain and remember information through natural conversation because we have become involved and engaged in the discussion.
The second aspect of social learning is "learning to be", which comes after "learning about" through group collaboration, involves fully participating in a particular field in order to put your new-found insights to action. In a typical CoachingOurselves program, participants are directed to put to practice in everyday life the new knowledge they have gained from the group. At the next meeting, the groups will discuss their experiences and outcomes from the week before. This brings us to demand-pull learning, which "shifts the focus to enabling participation in flows of action, where the focus is both on “learning to be” through enculturation into a practice as well as on collateral learning." "Demand-pull" learning is more effective than traditional "supply-push" learning because new knowledge flows as a result of our own passion and interest, rather than the knowledge of our professors and teachers being passed down as a result of their own interests.
This all brings us back to Web 2.0 technologies and how they will make "learning about" and "learning to be" more possible for more individuals around the world. We can continue to demand knowledge throughout our careers, participating in communities of practice (CoP) and self-directed peer learning groups to educate ourselves in order to create "a twenty-first century, global culture of learning".
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Additional Resources for Marketing in Tough Economic Times
I hope my posts have provided some insight and helpful suggestions for frugal marketing in the 21st century. For additional resources, below I have provided some links to a few videos and articles that will help you delve deeper into the world of low-cost marketing, (especially during the current business climate!):
Professor Karl Moore and Executive Director Phil LeNir talk about frugal marketing in the Globe and Mail's Talking Management
Peter Fisk on "Marketing in Tough Times"
Patricia Fripp and David Garfinkel on "How to Market Your Way out of Tough Times"
"Five Don'ts for Marketing in Tough Times" by Steve McKee of BusinessWeek
Professor Karl Moore and Executive Director Phil LeNir talk about frugal marketing in the Globe and Mail's Talking Management
Peter Fisk on "Marketing in Tough Times"
Patricia Fripp and David Garfinkel on "How to Market Your Way out of Tough Times"
"Five Don'ts for Marketing in Tough Times" by Steve McKee of BusinessWeek
Monday, June 15, 2009
Two weeks in a nut shell
The last two weeks have been very busy. Last week we ran our first webinar titled "Introducing CoachingOurselves". We ran a trial about an hour before the real thing and everything ran smoothly. When the actual webinar came around we had some technical difficulties at first, but we got through them and successfully ran the half hour webinar. It really goes to show that you can never be too prepared for what might happen. We have two webinars coming up: "Introducing CoachingOurselves" on Wednesday June 17 and "Social Learning for Management Development: Introducing CoachingOurselves" on July 7th, both at 12:00pm EST. We are very excited about the amount of individuals that have signed up for our webinars this month!
On top of organizing these webinars, we've been busy ironing out the details for a partner conference that will take place in the fall. We've been passing around ideas for the schedule for a while now and then had an hour and a half conference call trying to finalize the agenda. We're almost there! Next: location?!
Soon we will be publishing a partner page on our website so everyone can see who our partners are and learn more about them. It is these partners that add their expertise to the approach and content of CoachingOurselves in order to help organizations solve business problems!
We're also constantly reviewing and updating our website in order to make it easier to navigate and more informative about the happenings of CoachingOurselves.
We are still in the process of introducing CoachingOurselves for individuals, and have even set up a social network on Ning to help facilitate the process. It is through interested members that we can connect individuals in order to form peer-learning groups for the CoachingOurselves process. I am very excited to see how this will turn out!
So that is a brief update about a little bit that's been going on over the last two weeks. But for now, my recent marketing success story: holding informative webinars for your target audience in order to explain more about what you have to offer
On top of organizing these webinars, we've been busy ironing out the details for a partner conference that will take place in the fall. We've been passing around ideas for the schedule for a while now and then had an hour and a half conference call trying to finalize the agenda. We're almost there! Next: location?!
Soon we will be publishing a partner page on our website so everyone can see who our partners are and learn more about them. It is these partners that add their expertise to the approach and content of CoachingOurselves in order to help organizations solve business problems!
We're also constantly reviewing and updating our website in order to make it easier to navigate and more informative about the happenings of CoachingOurselves.
We are still in the process of introducing CoachingOurselves for individuals, and have even set up a social network on Ning to help facilitate the process. It is through interested members that we can connect individuals in order to form peer-learning groups for the CoachingOurselves process. I am very excited to see how this will turn out!
So that is a brief update about a little bit that's been going on over the last two weeks. But for now, my recent marketing success story: holding informative webinars for your target audience in order to explain more about what you have to offer
Friday, May 29, 2009
Taking Action
This week has been about setting the base to get things up and running. We've been working on setting up Webinars to allow participants to learn more about the approach and content of CoachingOurselves. Since I have a limited IS background, this process was unfamiliar to me when we first started working on it. We have now managed to have the webinars open for registration at http://www.coachingourselves.com/en/webinars and have figured out the logistics of syncing it with Cisco Webex.
Now that the webinars are up on the website, I can begin my promotion of them. But how? How can you attract interested managers to sign up? My promotion needs to begin with those who have taken action to express their interest in CoachingOurselves. I have started this process at our social networking sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These are very important places for promotion because there's a pretty good chance members of your groups on these sites are interested in learning more about your company, in my case CoachingOurselves. Next, I can turn to our CRM system. People who have expressed an interest in learning more about what we have to offer would probably be interested in attending a half hour free webinar for this exact purpose. By setting up the webinars and then contacting those who have expressed interest in the past, it shows that we are reaching out to our customers, providing them with the information they need.
Another thing I have been focusing on this week is reaching out into untapped markets. The marketing proposal I spoke about last week was about finding associations and organizations in need of management development and then figuring out a way to reach them. I figured out the way to reach them is through continuing education units. Certain professionals need to earn a specified amount of CEUs on an annual basis in order to maintain their certification with their particular association. Bingo! I have noticed several associations may have a need for management and leadership development. If I can reach these associations through the offering of CEUs, we will be that much closer to "changing how management is practiced!" I have been spending some time researching and approaching these associations in order to figure out the best way to go about helping them with professional development. I have heard back from a few and am excited to see where this path will take me.
Marketing success story of the week: reaching outside of your usual clientele to identify a new market in need of what your company has to offer, and creating a larger target market in the process!
Now that the webinars are up on the website, I can begin my promotion of them. But how? How can you attract interested managers to sign up? My promotion needs to begin with those who have taken action to express their interest in CoachingOurselves. I have started this process at our social networking sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These are very important places for promotion because there's a pretty good chance members of your groups on these sites are interested in learning more about your company, in my case CoachingOurselves. Next, I can turn to our CRM system. People who have expressed an interest in learning more about what we have to offer would probably be interested in attending a half hour free webinar for this exact purpose. By setting up the webinars and then contacting those who have expressed interest in the past, it shows that we are reaching out to our customers, providing them with the information they need.
Another thing I have been focusing on this week is reaching out into untapped markets. The marketing proposal I spoke about last week was about finding associations and organizations in need of management development and then figuring out a way to reach them. I figured out the way to reach them is through continuing education units. Certain professionals need to earn a specified amount of CEUs on an annual basis in order to maintain their certification with their particular association. Bingo! I have noticed several associations may have a need for management and leadership development. If I can reach these associations through the offering of CEUs, we will be that much closer to "changing how management is practiced!" I have been spending some time researching and approaching these associations in order to figure out the best way to go about helping them with professional development. I have heard back from a few and am excited to see where this path will take me.
Marketing success story of the week: reaching outside of your usual clientele to identify a new market in need of what your company has to offer, and creating a larger target market in the process!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Settling In
I am nearing the end of my third week as a marketing associate for CoachingOurselves. I am finally learning the ropes and settling into my new job. I have been quite busy the past few weeks familiarizing myself with the industry through articles and blogs, creating the newsletter, editing the website, updating the management resources page, aiding in the organization of a partner conference, updating the CRM system, creating program flowcharts, attending SPB partnership kick-offs, and the list goes on. Throughout all these tasks I have become acquainted with the various systems that help facilitate all of these things, and it never ceases to amaze me. I created a CoachingOurselves LinkedIn group to discuss, debate, and share experiences related to the CoachingOurselves approach; I can then sign onto Google Analytics to directly monitor the website traffic and see how many people are visiting the CoachingOurselves website because of the LinkedIn group. Now that's a way to measure results! I can actually see the direct impact of a particular marketing effort!
I am also in the process of creating a marketing proposal that I will submit to my boss, the Executive Director Phil LeNir, for a few ideas that I have. I have just found a way to link every effort together rather nicely and am looking forward to the end result.
For now, my marketing success story over the past few weeks is definitely LinkedIn.
I am also in the process of creating a marketing proposal that I will submit to my boss, the Executive Director Phil LeNir, for a few ideas that I have. I have just found a way to link every effort together rather nicely and am looking forward to the end result.
For now, my marketing success story over the past few weeks is definitely LinkedIn.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
My First Day
Monday May 4, 2009 was my first day working as a marketing associate at CoachingOurselves. One of the founders, Phil LeNir, sat down with me to tell me what I had on my plate for the next four months. There was a great deal of information to take in as I tried to comprehend the amount of work that was in front of me. This process lasted for the entire day and continued into Tuesday morning.
On Monday evening, I attended the SPB and CoachingOurselves Partnership Kick-Off Cocktail with Professor Henry Mintzberg and Phil LeNir. The room was filled with excitement and chatter as numerous HR professionals filled La Cave at the Intercontinental Hotel to hear about this new partnership. The night began with some light refreshments & hors d’oeuvres and proceeded with a talk from Professor Henry Mintzberg, a presentation from Phil LeNir, and a concluding statement from Pierre Gauthier, President of SPB.
The expertise that our partners at SPB bring will allow the approach and content of CoachingOurselves to lead to positive changes in the organization. As a result, CoachingOurselves can develop managers in three ways: as individuals, the group as a team, and then together the team can undertake initiatives that will positively change their organization.
There was a great deal of information to take in on Monday, and no doubt it was a long day, but it was great because so many new and exciting things are happening at CoachingOurselves. The SPB Kick-Off cocktail was a great way for me to finish off my first day!
My New Job
I am working as a marketing associate at CoachingOurselves. My new job entails creating brand awareness for learning & development managers and HR professionals across the Canadian, U.S, and U.K market. I will be utilizing a large variety of marketing tactics, in which I will share my experiences and insight.
CoachingOurselves has a really cool approach to management and leadership development, which was started by Professor Henry Mintzberg and Phil LeNir. Their sessions use informal learning techniques through self-directed peer learning groups in order to develop managers on an individual level and as a team, which can then lead to initiatives to change the organization as a whole. You can check them out at http://www.coachingourselves.com/ for more information.
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