Where to start with a company blog

May 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Writing a pressrelease you might consider how should we write this to make it newsworthy. Writing a blog on the other hand should be done with a different approach. Yet, I’m surprised by how many times I stumble upon a person saying, we cannot start a company blog because we do not know what to write about. Asking me, what should we write about?

Having this approach to company blogging is to me a clear indicator that you are not ready yet. A company blog should not be about what to write. It should be a way to give people, customers and users information they are looking for.

If you are a clothing store you could write about fabric to one group of users and about the latest fashion to another.

So instead of asking, “what should we write about?” ask “who are our customers and or potential customers and what information are they interested in?”. By starting that way you can create a blog, which provides value to your customers, which from there will lead to loyalty, a relation and a purchase.

As simple as that. Looking for an idea, or an example? Comment below.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Are you ready to drop TV ads and spend on Tweets?

May 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I just finished listening to a very interesting speech by Gary Vaynerchuk. Now, I’ve read Crush it his first book, but not the second the thank you economy because if it is just half as good as his speech I’m gonna love it.

In his speech on the Nordic E-commerce summit he covers something I’ve wondered about a while, and I’m sure you have too. Why do marketers spend millions on Tv commericals, billboards and banner ads, when almost all of us fast forward (if we own a tv), don’t pay attention to billboards and scan sites leaving out the banner space?

I think the reason is that marketers do not know what else to do, and they don’t have the courage to change the spending in their budget without knowing that it will work.

Vaynerchuk has figured out what works and put it as “don’t spend money on platforms, spend money on people.” While most marketers think it is a waste of time and effort to google one individual customer and figure out a special thanks to them, I think that we have much to learn here.

We are going into a time period were we have to look at one to one marketing and where money spent on staff might be more efficient than money spent on tv ads.

Do you dare to spend money on a customer to give some thing with out expecting anything in return? Do you dare too answer questions for hours without any promises? Do you dare to invest in the customers and you staff to build relations? Do you dare to take the leap?

Listen  & learn

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

I don’t read when I know what I want

May 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

Tonight my brother and I spent a sometime downloading a few programs and other things. I rarely do things like this with him, which might be why I got a few revelations.

Both him and I are heavy computer users who spent 10 h + by the computer daily.  Both at work and in our free time, he’s a gamer and I have been a modest gamer.

What I realized what that we never ever read an instruction or try to follow a list of things. We only look for the “buttons” we are expecting to be there and perhaps read a title or a see a picture if there is one. (perhaps even the text in the picture, and yes, SEO people I know this sucks)

What this basically means is that every word you can cut from an “action” page, raise the chance of me reading another word.

So the next time you’re trying to explain a product of a download, cut the words, show some pictures and give us the download button.

Filed Under: Web development Tagged With: , ,

Adding to orders – the missed opportunity of online retailers

April 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m a frequent online shopper and probably to about 75 % of my purchases online. (Not counting food). Many online shops are far from easy and usable while others are splendid. However, there is one thing that almost all have in common.

They are all failing to seize the opportunity to have customers make additions to orders.

Most order confirmations contains the following

-       A specification of the order and payment

-       Delivery address and way of delivery

-       Company information

-       And a few info about web orders and changes

What I am missing is the option to see a few product related to what I bought which can be added to much purchase. In a normal store you rarely have the possibility to do up sale after the purchase, but in an online store you do. Because there are a few hours or days until your order will ship.

Many might hesitate to buy that extra product they looked at or that product accessory as the amount in the check-out is to high. But if they do the order and then get a reminder in the order confirmation or in a separate mail, they might consider it. This might also be a great time to give them a discount as well.

Think about it – how can you make up sale happen after the order has been placed, yet have it delivered with the original order?

Filed Under: Web development Tagged With: , , , ,

Never accept the first alternative

April 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Yesterday I got a new nickname “the opinion machine” – why? Pretty obvious there is nothing I do not have an opinion about. Why? Because someone have to.  I am constantly surprised of how many things are agreed on with out a question or an alternative.

Maybe I’m picky or cynical but I truly believe that if something is agreed upon as first glance it cannot be the best possible solution.

  • How do you know if the suggestion is though trough if you do not ask questions?
  • How do you know if there is nothing better if you do not give an alternative, or ask for one?
  • How do you know what you think about it with out a discussion about it?

The lesson is as simple as this: Never accept something without seeing another alternative, asking a question or discussing it.

And why do I share this? It is as simple as this: after discussing something a few times, seen the alternatives and made a decision the results will feel and be much better.

Filed Under: Development Tagged With: ,

Why leaders should be inspired by online games

April 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A friend told me about Jane McGonigal’s Ted talk a few days ago, and this morning I finally had time to watch it. Believe me, you should no wait that look, you should drop everything right now and see it. Because if you are a online gamer you will learn about your possibilities and the education you have done, and if you are or will be a leader you will learn of what you should do to get the people you work with as passionate about what they to as an online gamer can be about the game.

Jane talks about how the ideas and wisdoms one can draw from online gaming can be used to save the world and I believe that it can be done. But more than that I think that her ideas can safe people’s daily drabness. If we could design work environment where we where contantly encouraged for what we did, like we are with skills in WoW, we could level more in real life to.

For example, If I’m a person who is terrible with numbers and great on speaking in front of people, I would already have a high skill on speaking but not on numbers. Then in my work place I could be encouraged to get even better at speaking, but also to improve what I’m not good at, and get points for everything I do which for example could give me a higher salary or a longer vacation. Perhaps one should get bigger rewards for developing the skills we are worse at.

Now, I know that some companies have grading systems similar to what I just said, but I think they are built in the wrong way. If you build them like games they could actually trigger the gaming feeling in everyday life and all of us could work to improve ourself.

Another point that Jane makes is that in gaming we are always trusted to complete the next challenge, and we always get challenges that are on our level or slightly higher. I think this is perhaps an even better lesson. As a leader you should trust your employees to complete their challenge and evenly important, you should make sure they know that you trust them.

Now, I should stop blabbering, and you should watch:

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Selling tickets online in a world without printers

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My title pretty much says it all – if you are selling tickets online you have to consider the fact that most people do not have printers at home any more. Which means that either people wont buy because they are not sure if they need to print something or they will buy and be pissed when they realize that they needed a printer.

As smartphones continue to become mainstream people find that printers are not longer necessary. They do not need to print e-tickets etc, because they have the email in the phone. However, this mostly goes for things one have already purchase before. For example, I know that  I don’t need to print the ticket when flying SAS as long as I have the booking reference.

However, when buying other things, such as a ticket to Arlanda Express, I might not, simply because I have no idea if a booking reference will be enough or if I will have to print something.

Lesson learned: When selling tickets online make sure that people know if they need a printer or not!

Filed Under: Web development

The Importance of Timing for New Product Launches

March 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As part of my current research on companies overruling customer power I’ve read an interesting study by Dr. Anthony Di Benedetto called “Identify the Key Success Factors in New Product Launch”. Though the study shows many interesting points both expected and unexpected there are a few ones that stuck with me more than others.

The one that stuck with me the most is the  importance of the timing for the launch (i.e when the launch is conducted from the point of view of the company, the competition and the customer) is just as important as if al other tactical activities are performed. I found this especially interesting as I think that most timings of product launches are set to “as soon as the product” is finished. However, looking into apple and a few other companies their launching dates are set in on a certain time of the year. And the development and production has to be done by then. Quite interesting if more companies would try this philosophy, however, working with development myself, I have to say that few companies could actually pull it of in practice.

Playing with the idea I think it makes a lot of sense to try to do it reversed. The reason is that many business have their set “campaign” periods, fall sale, summer offers, christmas offers, spring sale, you name it. And because everyone knows that these are coming they plan their whole business around them. If we could put the same theory on product launches, we might see the same result. If everyone new that there was going to be a product launch in April (period!) next year, all the departments around the product development department could work for that, instead of “lets plan the launch, so we are ready when it’s time”.

Perhaps many companies do have this approach, they have just not managed to use if to the full extent. For once I know that on the yearly mobile fair numerous new products are presented. Yet few are in the market the day after. Same goes for the car fairs. Is this because of delays or bad planning or part of some strategi? Either or, I think they could work on this and see major improvements.

Filed Under: Development Tagged With: ,

10 reasons to why students should have LinkedIn

March 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

LinkedIn is a powerful tool in the professional world. It lets people get to know you, your network and your skills. And it gives you a place to build your professional network. Yet many student have not begun to use the network as a tool in the future job hunting yet. Thus, I wanted to gather up a list of reasons to change this. It is time to get on the network now!

Here are 10 reasons to why students should have LinkedIn:

1. Stay connected with those you meet during your study period

Business cards get swooped when you meet people briefly and emails when you have classes with people. But from experience networks like Facebook make it easier to connect as we are constantly reminded about what people are up to. Therefore you should start right a way to build that network for your professional contacts.

2. Keep a dialog with those you meet

As I said in the first point, you get constantly updated about what people are up to. Use that to stay connected. Email people who change jobs or comment on someone who share a link and thus keep the dialog going.

3. Make your resume a constant work in process

Most of us have a resume that is only updated when it is time to apply for a new job. But when you have it on LinkedIn it is easier to update it more often as you’re constantly reminded of it. And we all know that things we work a lot with is often better than things we do “last second”.

4. Let others know what you are up to

Like you can stay connected by other’s updating what they are up to. You can do the same. Let people know about you latest projects and when it is time to graduate. People might have something they can contribute with.

5. Get endorsed for the work you do in school

It is easier to get endorsement when you have a reason to ask for them and while it is current. Let teachers and mentors endorse your work in school or with a project on LinkedIn right after they finish. Then you have it ready when and on print when someone wants to know more about you.

6. Give recruiters a way to find you

Recruiters are always looking for the best students. If not based on grades then best in other reasons. Give them a way to find you by having a well worked through LinkedIn profile.

7. Connect with people in the companies you are interested in

When it comes to big companies it might be hard to get in contact with a person as their website rarely gives you names on others than press people and the CEO. With LinkedIn you can research for some interesting connections yourself.

8. Show people what you know by participating in the forums

Many people ask questions in the forums on LinkedIn. Here you have a reason to show people that you know what you are talking about, by contributing with answers.

9. Apply for jobs on LinkedIn

When you have a complete LinkedIn profile, with resume, summary and endorsements LinkedIn can be a powerful tool to apply for jobs with, because people recruiting have a lot more than a piece of paper to go on. You can send people your resume as a link or you can apply for one of the jobs advertised on the forum.

10. Begin building your professional brand online

What it all adds up to is a price of your professional brand. What do people find when they Google you? If you are not ready for or don’t want to have your own website or portfolio this might just be enough.

If you’re still not convinced, read some of these stories.

Filed Under: Career development Tagged With: , , ,

Improvement should be the focus for product development

March 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of what makes some product so much more successful than others. As I work for in the telecom industry products easily become cellphones as this is something I know about. So what is it that makes the iPhone so much more successful than other brands? And how is it that iOS can keep so big market share when almost every other company develops with android?

I’ve seen a few things that I think defines this, and surely I’m not the first to figure it out, but what I want you to remember as the core idea is this: If you don’t believe in your own products then why would anyone else?

Product improvement

How many people can name four or five HTC models? Or SE past the “3310”? Anyone know the name of the “Apple phone” and most knows all the versions. Apple could have renamed and redesigned all the iPhones they have created, but instead of doing that they have kept improving the original iPhone. Showing that they believe in the product (while admitting there is always room for improvement) so we can too. While all other phone producers keep changing them so much that the customer cannot assume that they can easily change phone from the same producer without having to relearn the functionality.

Focus on the basic functions

Apple has realized that it is the basic features on the phone that is still the most important and most used. Calling, texting, now; emailing, checking calendar, etc. Thus they have focused on making these functions easy to use and keep improving them. Such as letting email sort after subject etc.

One fits all instead of one of each one

There have been many rumors implying that Apple is planning a “cheaper” iPhone. Personally I doubt this, but anyway,  only having one phone, thought a few versions of it. Makes it really easy for the user to choose which iPhone they want. Sure you can buy in different colors and GB, but here Apple once again prove that they believe in their products. They aren’t saying “these couple of phones are good, pick one of them” they are saying “this one is the best”. I wonder what make it easier for the customers ;)

Steve Job’s introduction of all new products

Before every launch of every product of version of it we here Steve Jobs stand up and tell us about it. To have the CEO introduce or talk about a product is not that rare, but with Jobs enthusiasm toward the products and his (at least perceived) knowledge, at least I get the feeling that he has been part of creating them. And that is more than I can say about many other leaders “representing” their products.

Usability and consistency

A while back I questioned, “is usability the key to success?” when it comes to Apple it is at least on the most important things., if not the most important. We have seen many YouTube clips of two year olds using the iphone and the 100 year old woman using the iPad, that if anything shows that they made them easy to use. And we like easy!

 

In other words.. You have to believe in your product to make everyone else do it to, be proud and improve instead of starting from scratch!

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings Tagged With: , , ,
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