Original posted at http://blog.brand-yourself.com.

We often discuss Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, your resume, networking  etc. one at the time or maybe in pairs, but seldom the whole picture is described. Your brand is the sum of the all parts of the communication and information channels you do use, and sometimes by the ones you do not use. Therefore it is essential to have a strategy for how to communicate in the different channels over time. So let look at a checklist for how to work with such a strategy. I assume that you have already defined your brand before starting with this strategy.

The desired outcome

This is the foundation of every strategy, if you have a clear sense of what you are and what you do want to achieve with your communication you are much more likely to get the desired result. I would like you to take this to the next level and defining what outcomes you will get if you get the result you want. By outcome I am referring to the consequences and changes that the result will ignite.

Example: The result is to “being known as an expert in automotive gear box development”, the desired outcome could be “work 20h/week as a consultant with the same salary as before”.

Who would yo like to reach and where are they?

Every person you interact with has different capabilities to help you achieve your desired outcome. Some has zero possibility and some has 100 %. The question you should ask yourself is which persons has the best possibility to get you to where you want to be. If you do not know who it is, then ask yourself how to find that out.

The next step is to identify where these persons are active. Which channels do they use/read/visit?

How do they act – how do you act in each channel?

Once you have identified the key persons for your communication (the Key Opinion Leaders) and identified the channels they are using, start analyzing whom they interact with and in what way are they communicating. Adjust your message and communication to the recipient but don’t loose yourself by changing who you are. Your message and your style should be adjusted to 1) the person(s) you are communicating with, and 2) the appropriate way to communicate in each channel. Imagine yourself talking to an important person on twitter, using 140 characters with a link to more information in the end and maybe a hashtag for categorization. Now imagine interacting in the exact same way when meeting someone over lunch. That person would most probably wonder what the hell you are talking about.

Do you work systematically with a publishing calendar?

To be consistent and have a clear, focused theme across the different channels will make your brand stand out. Also to have common elements that identify yourself  will give the recipient a solid image of who you are. To maintain a high level of consistency and quality of the communication I would recommend you to create a calendar where you plan your activities in the near future. Each entry should incluce

1. Channel (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog, newsletter, networking events, phone call, seminar etc.)
2. Target audience (specific person or group of people – communicate to attract the right persons)
3. Topic (make sure your topic or subject for discussion is something you can stand up for and that you have made your homework in the area)
4. Desired outcome (when publishing or leaving the networking event – what is the result and outcome that you desire?)

You want to reach me – why and what do you want me to do?

Last, always keep in mind that we all play the game of givers gain, and if I feel that I can trust you and that you communicate confidence, you have to let me know how I can help you take the next step to achieving your goals. Be clear to the recipient what you want them to do and how they can do it, that way you are a lot closer to actually getting it.

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!

I årets upplaga av MyMission var jag (Ola Rynge) med och tävlade med en ny typ av kundvårdssystem, cSocialClub:

“cSocialClub är en plattform för kundvårdsprogram med fokus på affärsnytta där företagens kunder enkelt kan mäta och belöna sina kunders varumärkesstärkande och säljande engagemang i sociala medier.”

Tyvärr blev idén inte nominerad i den tuffa konkurrensen av 350 andra affärsidéer inom upplevelseindustrin. Vi vill skicka ett stort grattis till följande som blivit nominerade i de olika kategorierna:

Affärsidé

Badanka Kvack – Johan Van Leer
Vera Snook – Marie Bergwall
Bymby.se – Linda Eriksson
Bloggboken – Juliana Fritzhand
Freenet – Ararat Pogosean

Nytänk

Fyrform – Christal Knappe
Unbreakella – Karin Stammarnäs
UNICO Topfloor – Maritza Molin
Human Watch – Henrik Paulsson
Food Square – Sabiqah Bahrom

Wildcard

Multiper viewgadget – Hamed Ordibehesht
Blind Screen – Robert Nordman
ÅretRuntsommarcafe – Linda Gustafsson
Ultimate Gaming – Ulf Fors
Hard Money – Antonio Poté

Kulturbidrag

Combined Art – Karl Winroth
“Art to go” – Elisabeth Bilander
Undefined – Ulrika Arvidsson
Fabulera Mera! – Karin Ahlin
Stadsgungor – Malin Wallin

Prisutdelningen äger rum på Brewhouse den 26 maj klockan 18.00

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!

Rynge Media Monitor looks into social and traditional media on the Internet, based on specific key words and phrases defined by the user. Let’s say that I as an user adds “The Rynge Group” and “Ola Rynge” as specific key phrases. Then the Rynge Media Monitor looks into different sources for new content generated during the last two days, and then it keeps looking for new content until I remove the key phrases.

The results are then presented as an RSS feed, which is a standardize format for presenting frequently updated works. These feeds can be read through the most common e-mail programs (eg. Outlook, Thunderbird) or other specific RSS readers. We recommend the use of Google Reader which is free, but requires the user to sign up for a Google account. The advantage of Google Reader is that it is has a lot of functionality to share, delegate, sort and act upon the news results.

What can and should you do with the incoming articles/posts?

When looking at one of the results, you are probably asking yourself what to do with it.

Step 1 – is it relevant?

Relevant or irrelevant – is it irrelevant, you might want to refine your search term. If it is relevant information, then you should define in what way it is relevant.

Step 2 – how is it relevant

You should define certain categories that are relevant to you where you can sort incoming articles. The way I have defined my categories are: Possible leads, positive feedback, negative constructive feedback, negative non-constructive feedback, product development, key opinion leader, educative.

Step 3 – act

Depending on which category I act differently:

Possible lead
For possible leads I try to identify who is the persona that I need to get in touch with to see if this can be converted to a sale. If it is a possible lead, but it is another person in my organisation or network that should contact the lead, then  I forward it to their e-mail via the E-mail function at the bottom of each post in Google Reader.  Here I can add a note as well and suggest action points.

Feedback / Product Development
Positive feedback is always encouraging, so I share positive feedback with my organisation, but I also thank the person that published the positive feedback. If appropriate I might even suggest an additional service based on the positive feedback. I am however very careful to not be over selling.

Negative constructive feedback should be answered in a polite and respectful manner, explaining why the negative thing happened,  why the product do not include the specific feature or whatever the negative feedback is aimed at. Maybe an excuse is in place if a customer has been treated bad. Negative constructive feedback is very valuable if responded to in the right manner. The client could turn from being dissatisfied to become a raving fan due to your fast and caring answer. It could also be used for product and service development.

Negative non-constructive feedback is never easy to handle. You can say that you are sorry, but that is pretty much it. Sometimes non-constructive feedback is better left alone.

Key Opinion Leader
I use key phrases to identify who are the key opinion leaders for my industry in different networks. When identified, I follow them, I learn from them and I try to connect with them. When successful, the key opinion leaders likes you and your products and will spread the word about your excellence to their followers (which probably are your potential clients).

Educative
You probably consider yourself and your organization to be experts in what you are doing. To stay up to date with the latest trends, methods and news in your industry, you can use the media monitor as well. Read the interesting news, spread the word internally and externally through your networks. Add some thoughts or comment on the content if possible and you will probably be a key opinion leader yourself in your social network.

How do you work to stay on top of things today? Please share in the comment section below.

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!

More and more information is being published online, on news sites, social media, blogs and discussion boards. Knowing what is being said or reported about your organization or industry is essential to establish communication with the press, your clients and other stake holders. It is also a great source of information in the decision making process.

We have been developing Rynge Media Monitor to provide a tool that is easy to set up, easy to integrate and use and that provide the essential data for your organization. News websites, social media, forums, blogs and video blogs are monitored on an hourly basis to track the issues important to you.

Do we need another media monitor tool? I think so since the ones out there are overly complex, focusing on fancy graphs, big corporations and lack the focus of business value and usability. The Rynge Media Monitor will be easy to use, we will provide cases for how to best use the tools and want to create a dialog with the users to constantly improving the quality of service and increasing the business value.

During the spring we will launch the service to the public, but if you want access already today, sign up for our private beta.

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!

This is the second article in a series about Creative Relationship Marketing – Customer focused traditional and social media marketing (the first post can be found here). Since the abbreviation CRM was already taken, I will use CRM² for Creative Relationship Marketing. I think the extra ² is suitable since the Creative Relationship Marketing approach takes CRM to a new level. And since it is on a higher level, you have to make sure that the right resources are in place.

To think marketing and being creative about it is not something that comes naturally to everyone, and even then corporate traditions and culture will make anyone losing their creativity if it is not stimulated. So how can you make sure if you have the right person for the job?

First I usually look for someone within the (marketing) organization that has an interest for new methods of spreading the message and are not afraid of trial-and-error, but at the same time have a keen ear to customer requests and reactions. The person should also have some experience or at least interest in the new social technologies. Even if a lot of the social relations tools available are free or cheap, there is a cost involved since every relationship needs nurturing and care, which consumes time. Time that the person and his manager must be willing to invest to make the effort worthwhile.

So what if there are no one with the right qualities and/or time? Then there are basically two options:

1. Find a new co-worker suitable to the task
Employing someone is always a big step, but the reward of having a dedicated CRM² officer can be immense if it is the right person.

2. Create a long term relation with a consultant
This is a faster and more flexible solution, but normally a more expensive one.

The advantage of a consultant is that he/she (hopefully) is an expert in the field, but the disadvantage is that he/she is not an expert in the industry and your company. In most cases the best solution is a mix of a consultant and a current or new employee, where the consultant is a part of creating strategies, routines and plan. If you have found a great partner to work with, the consultant can inspire and awaken the creativity of the employee(s) and coach them to learn how to think in a creative manner and hence develop new creative ways of marketing the company’s products and services.

So, look at your organization to see if you have the resources available to enter the world of CRM². When you have done that, let’s take a look at setting goals for your new marketing efforts.

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!

I do not like the phrase “social media”, even if I work with it every day. The reason is that it tries to describe something new and often in a free standing context. Creative Relationship Marketing is broader but also more to the point. It is broader in the sense that it also include the use of traditional media in new ways, but more to the point that it is about marketing and building relationships.

Every day we market our product and services, our ideas and ourselves, but it is really all about communications and relations. This is my view on the current and future of marketing and communication.

Creative Relationship Marketing

Social media is not new. Viral marketing has been around since forever, online forums since the time of the Bulletin Board Systems (pre-Internet) and real time communication existed in the early days of the Internet via IRC and ICQ, blogs been around for decades etc. The thing we call social media is really just new web services that has reached a broad enough target group to be interested to marketers.

What is new is the creative use of the media and the focus on creating relationships with clients. Well, this is actually not new either, at least not for some persons/companies, but the mainstream use of creative solutions are new. Many of the mainstream users still have still to understand that it is about relationship building and not about pushing a message through as many channels as possible.

Ons should also observe that for many persons the above is not new at all, if you are part of the younger generations (born in the 80′s or later) you are probably more prone to test new channels without reflecting over that they are new and creative. You are then probably more interested in the functionality and what problems it solves. You can belong to another generation and still have this focus, but you will find that the percentage is much higher for the young.

The basis of marketing and communication (that you learn in the universities) are not very hard, but to apply it with creativity and gain a competitive advantage, that is the complex part.

Over the next weeks I will go into different aspects of Creative Relationship Marketing and how you can apply this thinking to get the most out of your business. Even though the posts will be business focused, with just a ounce of creativity, you can apply it to develop yourself and your personal relations as well (if you make a distinction between business and personal).

- Ola Rynge (@rynge)

Subscribe Now!