Alberta Business MarketingJun
30
2010
Jun
29
2010
Breaking down organizational silos in favour of organization-wide collaboration was a predominant theme at CMA’s Social Media Conference last week. Presenters emphasized the significant value proposition of this more holistic approach to management – with the caveat that a full implementation of such a dramatic new policy will prove difficult.
“I think they’ll always be silos,” said David Armano, Senior Vice-President Digital at Edelman, in his keynote address. But you have to make the silos more permeable, he said. Several speakers provided useful examples of how to break down the barriers created by fragmentation. Jeff Gluck, Senior Manager, Marketing Communication and Web with MTS
Allstream, discussed the company’s Idea Factory initiative. The project saw the development of an intranet-based social media tool where employees in all departments could submit ideas to better the company. The response to the project, Gluck said, was very positive. Similar initiatives have been undertaken by myriad organizations – even the United States government operates a similar program though the Department of Homeland Security.
Another illustration of breaking down silos was provided by presenters from Research In Motion. Becky Young and Michelle Kostya are RIM’s Social Media Marketing Manager and Community Manager respectively. While they both leverage social media for the benefit of the organization, they are responsible for separate departments, which have unique areas of focus.
However, they make considerable effort to foster collaboration between their individual segments, particularly with respect to social media. Kostya says within RIM there are councils that have weekly calls to discuss social media policy, ensuring coordination across departments. This helps ensure customers get a consistent approach from Blackberry support teams providing user assistance through social media channels. “When consumers are online (using social media) they don’t expect to hear from one department or the other,” said Kostya. “They just want to hear from the company.”
Additionally, Kostya works out of a Young’s office once a week. This would be a frightening proposition for many - but it surely helps RIM’s Community Manager gain valuable insight into the operations of her colleague’s department.
A full transition of an organization’s structure from one of isolation to complete collaboration will face considerable challenges moving forward. But the introduction of social media tools into the marketing mix has helped to clearly demonstrate the benefits of a more holistic approach to company operations. If marketers continue to discuss and promote these benefits as they relate to profitability, senior managers will undoubtedly be galvanized in support of the destruction of organizational silos.
Jordan Sandler
Jun
29
2010
Today I am up in beautiful Red Deer, Alberta. I haven’t had the opportunity to come up this way for quite some time. I believe January may have been that last time I ventured up Highway 2. Red Deer is a beautiful city and Ulistic is still a member of the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce, however we really need to come up and participate more in this vibrant Alberta community.
Our focus today is Social Media for Non-Profits, Ulistic is working with a non-profit organization in Red Deer, assisting them in determining and understanding a social media strategy which can help them focus on those they serve and provide information to the community. Many non-profits in Canada are concerned about costs and social media when used with purpose can drastically reduce the costs associated with marketing and advertising.
Working with charities, non-profits and others who offer similar services across Canada excites us (I was up bright and early today). This market is another who are trying to figure out how online services, social media, search engine optimization and communications impacts their business and the way they communicate externally.
Social Media does play a huge role in the non-profit world and sometimes it is easier to attract an audience with these types of organizations or regular commercial entities. Why? People love to support a cause and rally behind an organization that is focused on helping those with cancer, the homeless or those who may have other challenges. Social Media technologies is the perfect vehicle to help promote the cause and attract those in the community.
I am sure today will be an awesome day in Red Deer as we serve the non-profit community with social media support and guidance.
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Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.
My business partner David and I are business professionals first. We understand what it takes to run a successful small business.
I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.
Jun
28
2010
Google gloats that over 2 Billion videos are viewed on YouTube each day, but don’t discount the value of posting video to your business fan page on Facebook. After all, Flickr was the most popular photo sharing site until sharing on Facebook became so popular. Now photo sharing on Facebook dwarfs that on Flickr. 
Youtube has big advantages over Facebook
Although views of videos uploaded directly to Facebook have more than tripled over the last year, according to comScore, and more and more phones have video cameras built into them, I don’t expect the video sharing on Facebook to take over Youtube’s positioning. For one thing, many video cameras including the iPhone make it super simple to upload video directly from iTunes to Youtube. Also, Facebook video quality is relatively poor compared to dedicated video sharing sites.
Facebook lacks HD Video
One thing that Facebook could do to encourage growth in video uploads to the social networking site is to provide HD video upload capability. As of now, file size and file quality are still too low for most folks to spend the time rendering their video files for the relatively small video audience on Facebook. For now, linking out from Facebook fan page to your HD video hosted on Youtube, Vimeo, or Blip.tv are best bet.
Jun
28
2010
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