creatorbase

Are you really open for business?

Collaborating, loosening the reins on creative control, sharing information, crowdsourcing, automatically extending trust, being exposed to more risks (not necessarily real), and engaging with authentic communications are all indications of openness in business. As your customers, employees and community members in general become more adept at using social and other related technologies (i.e. mobile), they will push you and your business to be even more open. Guaranteed.

Charlene Li, founding partner of Altimeter Group and co-author of Groundswell, recently released her new book, Open Leadership. I was very fortunate to be able to participate in the early stages of her book's development and review, and think it's a must read for anyone who values and understands the currency of relationships in business. Further, if you believe social technologies are changing how we do business then you'll find Open Leadership is a great resource and business-case builder. Here's a quick preview about why Charlene wrote the book and what's in store:

There are many tools and take-aways in the book and online via the open-leadership community. For example, Charlene discusses how all open-driven objectives create common benefits, in that they:

• Remove friction: removing barriers in business, and providing more access to information and people, lowers the cost of decision making

• Scale efforts: a culture of sharing means things spread faster and wider

• Enable fast response: the real-time nature of social technologies means you can respond quickly to needs and opportunities

• Gain commitment: businesses that win the hearts and minds of stakeholders gain business and competitive advantages

For me, this book fits like a glove because I tend to be an open person and prefer to work with other open leaders and practitioners. Close to home, I doubt that I would have landed a dream job this month if both employer and new employee did not share a passion for innovation and openness. 

Try moving out of your comfort zone to reap the rewards of really being open for business.

A conversation with John Mast of Expedia CruiseShipCenters

A cruise on the warms seas with extended stays in a variety of ports; that sounds very appealing right now. My conversation with John Mast, vice president of marketing at Expedia CruiseShipCenters, at MarketingSherp's 2010 Email Summit in Miami is a reminder of how much I enjoy tropical pace and weather.

John presented at Email Summit about his permission marketing strategy including CRM and tri-messaging work. Like many online marketers, John and his team are achieving significant results by integrating email, social and mobile channels to engage and serve on-the-go consumers and influencers. It's all about creating customers for life with memorable experiences. Learn more about the Expedia CruiseShipCenters success story in this brief clip:

Shame on moi.

I appreciate French culture, language and the people and have fond memories from a trip to Paris in the 90s. The word "moi" is an informal way of saying "me" in French but it will also represent an acronym for a new point of view that I'm going to keep in mind going forward: meaningful online investments

It occurred to me last week that I missed a planned January blog post on creatorbase.com. It's not that I didn't have content or ideas in mind, or that I wasn't online and able to make a post. I spend a lot of time using the Web (via laptop and mobile) for work, family, friends and personal interests -- but I simply prioritized other things over thinking about and creating a meaningful post last month. I also know there is no turning back time and creatorbase will forever be absent of a January 2010 post; a hole in the archive. 

To be clear, a hole in the archive is not an issue for me or anyone reading or sharing creatorbase. The key here is that blogging, social media and time online, in general, has become a very important component of an investment strategy for living. What's the take-away here? I'm committed to meaningful online investments that help others and are sometimes meaningful to me. The reality is I won't always get it right for others and that's okay.

Email, social and mobile...

The online marketing space has evolved, and social media and mobile channels present the opportunity for more personal engagement to exist between people and brands. Businesses and marketers need to think beyond a batch-and-blast email marketing mentality to a well choreographed and integrated approach that is in sync with target audiences. 

Social media and mobile channels combined with email marketing can help fuel this shift, enhance engagement, grow customer opt-in lists, and maximize audience touch points. Yet, as noted by Forrester’s David Daniels, “not enough email marketers are integrating proven channels, such as social into their email marketing campaigns.” Likewise, Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang recently discussed on his blog why he believes that email marketers can no longer avoid integrating social tools. Continue with the post...

Does social media create ROI for businesses?

You bet! And I'm counting on this fact, and some factoids from this video and 2009 results at Lyris, for an upcoming presentation. I lead our community practice at Lyris and social media is right smack in the middle of an infusion that includes customer engagement, thought leadership, traditional media, community intelligence, mobility, response management, and brand-building activities and investments. Of course -- analytics, communications, innovation and teaming are required behind the scenes to successfully bring it all together.

If you're having trouble selling social media and networking strategies and programs to your boss or leadership because of a perception that it's difficult to create and measure ROI, watch this video for some ideas and proof points; share with others too...

  

Make Face-to-Face Part of Your Strategy

I had a little "ah-ha" moment a few weeks ago after co-hosting an informal BMA roundtable at Chevy's in San Francisco. I realized that I need to get out more! Yep, out of the office and into more face-to-face conversations, debates and networking with peers, competitors, practitioners and the curious. This occurred to me not because I am looking for a new job -- but because I experienced how face-to-face conversations can help me be better in my current role.

The good news is event formats like meetups, roundtables, tweetups and the like are very easy and cost-effective to organize and host. This is especially true now with online communities, web-based services and cultural shifts that I believe are being driven by workforce transitions, mobility, social media and mass restlessness. 

JD Peterson and I posted some thoughts about this topic including some tips and tools to consider. I'm convinced that face-to-face is required in the mix if you want to be more effective in your business. Expensive travel and event management budgets do not necessarily apply but you might consider serving margaritas and chips!

Lyris HQ Goes Mobile for SMB Marketers

by Erick Mott 

We recently launched a new mobile marketing application (SMS) within Lyris HQ. Why? Because mobile is hot with consumer demand, improved device experiences, lower data plans, wireless email growth, and now the social media craze moving to mobile devices. 

Jessica Tsai from destinationCRM magazine covered our announcement on December 8th with this article. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Nokia Webinar, Innovate with Mobile Middleware...

by Erick Mott

This time last year, I was at Nokia in Silicon Valley getting ready for the holidays and a year-end push. Yep, the smartphones were ringing with joy as we prepared for a webinar about mobile innovation with middleware (Intellisync) for just about any device or PC.  If you're a mobile developer for operators, ISVs and on-demand applications, check it out. 

I moderated and my colleagues focused on mobility trends, architecture, how-to information and three case studies including Mirapoint, Novell and Pivotal CRM.  Tis the season to give.

Your comments, ideas and links?

Competitiveness through Business Mobility

by Erick Mott

I recently created and led a thought leadership initiative for Nokia that was both insightful and influential. We wanted to engage thousands of executives worldwide to capture and discuss their opinions on how business mobility is helping organizations, across many industries, to be more competitive and sustainable.

This effort included: quantitative and qualitative research; media partnering and outbound marketing; networking and a dinner discussion in NYC on 3/22/07 at the Nokia Flagship Store and Four Seasons Hotel; a report written by the Economist Intelligence Unit; media outreach and a press announcement; two key events ( CIO Forum in NY and CIO Summit in CA) to present the findings and discuss mobility strategies; and a June 28th webinar entitled "Business Mobility and the Agile Organization."

Download a complimentary copy of the EIU report to review data from more than 500 survey respondents, and read what executives from UPS, PwC, Sprint, Novartis, NTT DoCoMo and Ogilvy & Mather had to say about how their firms are becoming more competitive with business mobility strategies and execution.

Your comments, ideas and links?