Archives for November 2015
An Early Look at how Content Marketing will Evolve in 2016
Content marketing strategies hardly stay put for long. Here’s how last year’s good ideas will evolve into 2016’s next big trends.
Social media across multiple platforms
Facebook and Twitter pages have long been important, and Google has integrated their Google + pages into search engine results, making it easier to discover businesses across platforms. The growing market share from platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and Vine means businesses need to diversify their social media strategy. These platforms are all unique in format – from sharable images on Pinterest to six-second clips on Vine – requiring businesses to also change their strategy.
At Viral Solutions, we understand the trials and tribulations that many new owners of small businesses face in the early going. When we were first starting off, our journey would have been so much easier if we had someone there to give us guidance, knowledge or even simple encouragement. This is why we dedicate ourselves to helping small business owners stay motivated and achieve all of their business goals. We believe that your needs should always come first, and our “give first” mentality of customer service ensures that you will always have a dedicated team of small business professionals helping you find success. Let us serve you in any way we can to help you achieve your marketing goals and improve the efficiency of your business.
Video is most important media content
Facebook now prioritizes video content, making your ads and posts with video more likely to be seen. Twitter and Facebook have both added auto-play to feeds, so viewers are automatically watching your videos just by scrolling past. Creating videos for your existing social media will make it easy to leap to the new platforms mentioned above, especially if they’re less than ten seconds.
Videos don’t need to have a Hollywood budget, but does need to be creative and engaging. If people are forced to watch video ads in their feed, it should be enjoyable and leave them feeling positive about the brand.
Content should be interactive
It’s getting easier – and more crucial – to be social on social media. Users enjoy the interactive aspect, replying to comment threads, annotating shared posts, and directly connecting with other users. Content marketers have long used social media for asking questions and holding contests in addition to interacting with users. The platforms are catching up; for example, Twitter rolled out a poll option this fall, allowing followers 24 hours to vote on a given question.
Social media taste-makers and content creators will drive traffic
The quickest way to increase reach on social media is to have someone else share content with his or her followers. The best content will be shareable; users will want to not only share, but also comment and annotate, allowing content to be posted beyond the individual business’ channel. Encouraging users to create content around the brand – video contest entries, responses to a question, or simply sharing thoughts on other interesting content – will be a smart strategy.
Prepare for the next step in content marketing evolution! Contact us today at Viral Solutions to get started.
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner and an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Training Implications of Four Business Strategies: Concentration, Internal Growth, External Growth, and Disinvestment
Training and development initiatives are key to facilitate the teaching and understanding of strategy. The ability to shape an organization to meet its is objectives requires purposeful, strategic action. Owners and leaders in small and medium sized organizations are conductors to their organizational orchestra. Every excellent conductor has a strategy, and behind that strategy is teaching and leading members how to perform in perfect sync and rhythm to deliver a dynamic experience. Here, the purpose of this article is to discuss four business strategies and factors to consider in regards to training and development initiatives that either support or hinder such strategic initiatives.
“The best CEOs that I know are teachers,
and at the core of what they teach is strategy”
– Michael Porter, Ph.D
- Concentration. The concentration business strategy focuses on increasing market share, reducing
STRATEGIC PLANNING WITH VIRAL SOLUTIONS | This service digs deep into your processes, your systems and your strategy. We make sure you have defined, rigidly and systematically, your perfect prospective customer. This definition must include the obvious demographics but more importantly the psycho-graphics. Then we test your will power to prove that your approach, your tactics, your messages and your core offerings match what that perfect prospective customer is looking for. We require that you understand and can articulate your plan, your vision, your position statement effectively and with fire in your gut. With our strategic planning session your target customer will be redefined, your marketing tactics will no longer be in question, you will have a strong and decisive position statement, you’ll know your strengths, admit to your weaknesses, relish in your accomplishments and learn from your mistakes.
operational costs, and establishing market specialization. The method in which strategy focuses on innovation in product, process and service improvement will vary per firm. From a training perspective, the needs assessment concentrates on competencies needed to develop talent. Potential areas of concern may include costs associated with the training, relevance, and credibility of training initiatives, and actual application of such expertise.
- Internal Growth. The internal growth strategy may focus on a variety of key areas within a firm to expand products, research and development, talent, and other key business initiatives that may help to grow the existing business. Depending on the scope internal growth areas the initiatives established may vary. The initiatives may include expanding product and marketing channels, research and development, quality improvement or revamping product and service lines. Major factors that typically arise in the business strategy include innovation, knowledge management, recruitment and retention of key talent, identification of financial and non-financial resources needed. From a training perspective, a needs assessment would be a valuable tool to identify specific needs relevant to the specific internal growth strategies, establish the competency based training needed, and determine the most appropriate forms of training that align with the internal growth initiatives.
- External Growth. The external growth strategy focuses on expanding by incorporating outside approaches, such as horizontal and vertical integration's via strategic alliances. Depending on the strategic alliance, i.e. merger, joint venture, or acquisition the issues associated with such a strategy may vary. For example, one could argue that an acquisition is not “equal” strategic alliance. The idea with such initiatives is that there is a 1+1 =Â +2 based on some complimentary or other synergies that such a deal would provide. From my dissertation research, this is one of the hardest strategies to achieve because two out of three mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their proposed synergies. The high impact of failure is the people side of the deal. Therefore, from a training perspective integration preparation focused on HR related areas (talent, procedures, compensation, roles and responsibilities) and culture (blended culture) are encouraged areas of training specialization.
- Disinvestment. The disinvestment strategy focuses on selling or changing investments based on focusing on new organizational objectives. Similar to focusing on ways to grow or expand business operations, the disinvestment strategy focuses on what assets should stop, be liquidated, or downsize specific initiatives.The strategy is designed to minimize costs and increase revenues. The nature of disinvestment may vary. However, common reasons may include doesn't fit with the core business needs, changes in business initiatives, legal constraints, alternative initiatives that align with the core business, needs cash or underperformance. Depending on the specific situation, the training implication may include leadership training, outplacement services, analysis of data to make more informed decisions. The training implications depend on the specific situation, and a needs assessment is encouraged to determine the best fit of training initiatives to assist with such a strategic initiative.
In essence, training implications arise in each of the four business strategies. The key is to understand the difference between concentration, internal growth, external growth, and disinvestment strategies. Likewise, to understand the impact training initiatives may have in each of the strategies. The training initiatives will vary based on the specific needs assessment of the firm and the strategy. The more awareness and understanding of such initiatives will help owners and leadership of small and medium sized businesses to make more informed decisions about training initiatives that align with business strategy.
by Katie Doseck, PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 by Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Tips for Improving Your Business’s Local Search Rankings
Search engines offer many features that make search engine optimization (SEO) that make it easy for local businesses to become easily discoverable in their neighborhood. While it may feel unrealistic for your small business to dominate the search rankings, these tips can help existing and potential customers find your business with ease.
Before you can take advantage of local SEO, you need to establish that yes, you own a local business. Just because you’re a small business, or only have one location, doesn’t mean you’re truly a local business. If your company runs exclusively online and serves customers beyond your local community, you are not local. If you have a storefront, or only provide services within a local area, you have a local business. Additionally, a local business needs a local phone number and an address.
“Searching in Google (or any other search engine) for a hairdresser or a dentist will result in a list of hairdressers or dentists in your local community. So, local search appears to happen spontaneously! However, in order to give a (high) ranking, Google does need to know the exact location of your business. Above that, Google needs to know what type of business you provide.” ~ Yoast
1) Claim your pages
Your business may already have a profile on Google or Yelp created by your customers or the platform. Claim your pages immediately so you have the opportunity to control information about your business; there will be a link on the page allowing you to do so. Check Google and Bing Places for Business, Yahoo! Local Listing and Yelp first, but also see if your business is listed in Facebook and Foursquare. Create or claim pages on all of these sites and any other online directories and fill out complete profiles.
2) Name, address and phone number everywhere
Now that your business is listed across several sites, make sure your basic information is the same everywhere. At minimum your name, address and phone number should be included on every platform, and when possible, your website. Your website should also include a footer with name, address and phone number so that it appears on every page. The more places your information it is, the easier it is for search engines to know a listing is your business and worthwhile to the searcher.
3) Create localized keywords
Keywords are a standard SEO tool, so local SEO requires local keywords. Add your city to any keywords you might use; for example, using “Dallas flower shop” instead of “flower shop.” Don’t forget to use these keywords in your descriptions on the directory sites mentioned above and in your social media. Text from these sites is included in search results, and now even from individual tweets.
Work with us at Viral Solutions to ramp up your digital marketing!
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Questions to Ask When Creating Your Strategic Training & Development Initiatives
Training and develop is a core aspect of organizational sustainability and success, or so it is preached. Experts encourage training and development initiatives to align with the organizational objectives. There is an abundance of methodologies, frameworks, and strategies, yet before all of this, one must understand specific aspects of the state of the organization and the goals that it is trying to achieve before designing any program. Therefore, this post will discuss questions to ask when creating your strategic training and development initiatives.
“Confidence comes from discipline and training,” – Robert Kiyosaki.
Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not, (2) clearly state which markets will be served and how, and (3) communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire organization. A mission is different from a vision in that the former is the cause and the latter is the effect; a mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment. Also called company mission, corporate mission, or corporate purpose. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides “the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated.” It is like a goal for what the company wants to do for the world. ~ Hill, Charles; Jones, Gareth (2008). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach
1. What is the mission and vision of your firm? Pretty basic, yes, but it is surprising how many small and medium-sized businesses have a hard time narrowing its mission and vision down. Or worse there is a “cookie cutter” mission and vision statement for the firm, but the culture and actions of the firm couldn't be farther away. Be real, be specific, and get clear on the mission and vision of the firm. It is encouraged to have internal and external stakeholders participate in the activity. Group collaboration may even help to shed light in regards to the connectedness or the lack thereof in regards to the perception of the mission and vision for the firm.
2. What are the strategic influencers of the firm’s business strategy? Think of internal and external factors that have an impact on the firm’s business initiatives. Identification of such aspects are key to evaluating the influence, and building key initiatives to promote designing a training and development program that aids in learning, applying, and expanding on those key influencers to day to day business operation. Knowing what impacts your business strategy and in what capacity will help to see where the firm stands in comparison to where it could be if it crafted internal resources to maximize strategic influencers that aid in carrying out initiatives that tie in with the business strategy. In essence, this is a GAP analysis question that asks “What impacts our business, and what are we doing to carrying out our business strategy in the most resourceful manner? Are we missing anything? If so, what, and how does it impact our firm?”
3. What competencies are needed to carry out our business strategy? A needs assessment of competencies needed to achieve organizational goals is paramount to designing the right training and development program. Think of this question as “what are the critical success factors to achieve XYZ?” For example, if your firm is struggling with its marketing platform, that is an issue that will impact achieving marketing and organizational objectives. Identifying the critical success factors will help you to see what competencies are needed. The key is identification, evaluating options to gain the competencies, selecting the best fit based on the company’s situation, and doing something about it. Identification only will do nothing, but identify, and this question leads into a bigger question of “ok, so what, now what are our options and how do we do it?”
Training and development initiatives require purposeful preparation and understanding. The ability to sit down and evaluate the identified three questions helps owners, leadership, and training experts to identify, evaluate, and begin to craft the appropriate training and development initiatives. There isn’t a one-way is the best way approach, but there are best practices that are encouraged, the identified questions start in that direction and may surprise you in the alignment or misalignment between the perception and reality of training and development initiatives.
by Katie Doseck, PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 by Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Questions to Ask When Creating Your Strategic Training & Development Initiatives
Training and develop is a core aspect of organizational sustainability and success, or so it is preached. Experts encourage training and development initiatives to align with the organizational objectives. There is an abundance of methodologies, frameworks, and strategies, yet before all of this, one must understand specific aspects of the state of the organization and the goals that it is trying to achieve before designing any program. Therefore, this post will discuss questions to ask when creating your strategic training and development initiatives.
“Confidence comes from discipline and training,” – Robert Kiyosaki.
Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not, (2) clearly state which markets will be served and how, and (3) communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire organization. A mission is different from a vision in that the former is the cause and the latter is the effect; a mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment. Also called company mission, corporate mission, or corporate purpose. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides “the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated.” It is like a goal for what the company wants to do for the world. ~ Hill, Charles; Jones, Gareth (2008). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach
1. What is the mission and vision of your firm? Pretty basic, yes, but it is surprising how many small and medium-sized businesses have a hard time narrowing its mission and vision down. Or worse there is a “cookie cutter” mission and vision statement for the firm, but the culture and actions of the firm couldn't be farther away. Be real, be specific, and get clear on the mission and vision of the firm. It is encouraged to have internal and external stakeholders participate in the activity. Group collaboration may even help to shed light in regards to the connectedness or the lack thereof in regards to the perception of the mission and vision for the firm.
2. What are the strategic influencers of the firm’s business strategy? Think of internal and external factors that have an impact on the firm’s business initiatives. Identification of such aspects are key to evaluating the influence, and building key initiatives to promote designing a training and development program that aids in learning, applying, and expanding on those key influencers to day to day business operation. Knowing what impacts your business strategy and in what capacity will help to see where the firm stands in comparison to where it could be if it crafted internal resources to maximize strategic influencers that aid in carrying out initiatives that tie in with the business strategy. In essence, this is a GAP analysis question that asks “What impacts our business, and what are we doing to carrying out our business strategy in the most resourceful manner? Are we missing anything? If so, what, and how does it impact our firm?”
3. What competencies are needed to carry out our business strategy? A needs assessment of competencies needed to achieve organizational goals is paramount to designing the right training and development program. Think of this question as “what are the critical success factors to achieve XYZ?” For example, if your firm is struggling with its marketing platform, that is an issue that will impact achieving marketing and organizational objectives. Identifying the critical success factors will help you to see what competencies are needed. The key is identification, evaluating options to gain the competencies, selecting the best fit based on the company’s situation, and doing something about it. Identification only will do nothing, but identify, and this question leads into a bigger question of “ok, so what, now what are our options and how do we do it?”
Training and development initiatives require purposeful preparation and understanding. The ability to sit down and evaluate the identified three questions helps owners, leadership, and training experts to identify, evaluate, and begin to craft the appropriate training and development initiatives. There isn’t a one-way is the best way approach, but there are best practices that are encouraged, the identified questions start in that direction and may surprise you in the alignment or misalignment between the perception and reality of training and development initiatives.
by Katie Doseck, PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 by Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.