jheckman's blog

I've been doing some biz dev work lately that involved calling on marketing and advertising agencies. Try to identify this one: 

"We're refugees from the typical ad agency because we just wanted to work our own way"

Stumped? Try this one: 

"We're passionate about the client work, not the ladder climbing, so we founded ... "

Ok, I'll make it easy: 

"[Fill in the blank] years ago our team ditched the typical agency world to chart our own path." 

I'm putting together a pair of presentations for Roosevelt University to help alumni navigate the world of social media. This one is a bit of an evolution of the presentation I gave a few weeks back for Catalyzing Collaboration in two ways: 

How many membership organizations or university alumni programs could claim the following problem statement?

1. Our Alumni/Members should be better connected to support the organization and each other’s businesses.
2. Our organization overall needs a more effective outreach effort to existing and prospective members
3. Awesome. Finance it yourself, genius.

Concept

Let's say you're due for a redesign on your website.

Everyone says social media offers unprecedented opportunities for companies and organizations to connect with customers, constituents and members.

Everyone said the same thing about blogs five years ago. Some organizations achieved impressive results with blogs such as new customers and engaged members. Most did not.

Why?

The potential strength of social media (and blogs) is also its weakness. Social media is, first and foremost, a social activity. That means you need people who are passionate and committed to making a social media strategy work.