Saying No to the Niche: Throwing Conventional Wisdom Out of the Door

business people edited

 

One of my favorite chats on Twitter is #Blogchat which is hosted by Mack Collier. This chat is full of great nuggets that you can immediately apply to your blog.  The topics vary and the thought leaders that drop in are extremely helpful.  I would highly recommend this chat to anyone that is looking to monetize their blog.

One of the ideas that came out of the most recent #Blogchat was the notion that one should pick their niche to focus on within their business. I had to think twice about if I was in agreement with this idea or not.  I recognize that conventional wisdom would tell you that you can not be great at everything.  Although studying and mastering one topic is a novel idea, but is just not one that I see as beneficial to my clients.  I look at my client roster and think that they need someone who knows how to develop a strategic marketing communication plan, a social media strategy, out of this world events, and being able to speak to the media on their behalf if that is necessary.  I don’t think that a client should feel the need to hire multiple consultants to cover their marketing needs.  I do understand that one person can not literally know everything.  For example, I am not a graphic designer and I recognize that is a service that I will have to hire out for if a client has that need.  I am also not a website designer, but I can provide top notch strategic counsel to someone that needs to develop content flow on their site (to bad I do not have enough time to work on my own site).

Another person that I enjoy learning from is Marie Forleo .  She recently sent out her video to launch her upcoming B-School.  One of the ideas that she mentioned was that she is of the mindset that it is great to be a ‘multipassionate entrepreneur.’ She feels like this idea of designating a niche is completely wrong for some people. (How timely?!?) The comments agreeing with this thought process were in the hundreds (if you have time, take a look at her site). Not that I was planning on changing my mind once I had thought this through, but this video made it even better that someone else that is very successful feels the same way.

I would absolutely love to hear your feedback on this topic.  Do you believe that someone should pick a niche and stick with it or do you think someone can be great at being a generalist? My gut feeling tells me that the answers will probably be slightly generational in nature.  Just a hunch!

Dosomething.Org Taps Snapchat For Teen-Centric Valentine’s Campaign

Interesting use of Snapchat!

On-Demand Ride-Sharing Startup Lyft Is Raising Another Big Round Of Funding

Lyft is definitely a company to watch!

Mom 2.0 Summit — We’ll Be There!

This is one of the top summits to attend for all things related to Mommy Blogging. As an official Mompreneur, we love connecting great brands with the mom audiences. This will be our first year attending this summit, but we are sure it will not disappoint.  The connections made at a summit like this will help us to better serve the needs of our clients.

Take a look at the intro video:

Here’s What Would Make Google’s Smartwatch Awesome

In future technology news ….

Twitter’s Dick Costolo On What It Takes To Be A Good CEO

Twitter’s CEO had a great response to the question, “What makes a great CEO?”

Facebook Turns 10

Happy 10th FB!

When Effective Employee Communications Matter

origin_3224486233

Companies will often times spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new initiative, but will not spend a fraction of that to make sure that it is communicated properly. We see this on a regular basis. One example that comes to mind is the rise of wellness programs in many of our large corporations.

The idea of a formalized wellness program is fabulous. The C-suite loves saying that they offer a wellness component for their employees. In their eyes, they are looking out for the ‘best interest of their employees.’ What the C-suite is not supporting is the communication effort needed to make these programs a success.

Many times, when the topic does not directly affect the bottom line, the higher levels of management are forced to sweep the topic under the rug. For example, Manager A has a newsletter to write each month. Manager A realizes that her success is measured by how well she produces widgets. So, in an effort to make sure her team is producing enough widgets, she uses the limited amount of space in her newsletter for widget production needs. In her eyes, she is doing what needs to be done in order to remain successful when it is time for her employee review.

This situation is happening at facilities all over the country. The problem is this behavior is very individualistic. The C-suite does not realize that by having objectives in an employees list of items that he/she must accomplish that only center around production, will continue to drive this behavior.  We do not want you to think that we view these objectives as not important, but without a balance there are softer objectives that are not going to get addressed. As the next generation of employees come in, they are looking for a more balanced lifestyle.  Not one that only involves production goals.

Just as many companies had to accept social media, companies are now going to have to accept more individuals seeking work life balance in order to keep good employees. Every company is not going to be Apple and Google, but there are steps that companies can take to begin to work towards that direction.  One of those steps is to communicate a variety of topics to employees that will help them in their whole life.  Topics such as wellness which was mentioned in the example above and the importance of investing which many new to the workplace do not see the value in starting early.  Proper communication could change their way of thinking.

Below are a couple  of steps that may help communicate with employees about topics that do not have a direct impact on the bottom line:

1. Have members of the C-suite address softer topics from time to time.  When the heads of the company are speaking these messages, this will encourage other managers to also discuss topics of this nature.

2. Cover the softer topics in multiple communication channels.  If you have a strong Intranet, company newsletter, or a social media platform, take the time to spread these softer messages that will not be tied to confidentiality. If these channels are not strong, that is OK too.  This may be what they need to bring them to life.

3. Craft the messages in a fun manner and not the typical corporate speak. There is a time to speak in a corporate tone and a time to lighten up.  It is good for employees to see the softer side of the company.  This is the side that employees are going to be more willing to engage.

Photo credit: photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/elycefeliz/3224486233/”>elycefeliz</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>

Live Tweeting During the Super Bowl

Super-Bowl-2014

We will be live tweeting as we watch the Super Bowl commercials.  Join us! We will see if anyone else comes up with an Oreo moment again this year.

Photo Credit: http://www.mactrast.com/2014/01/rumor-apple-planning-run-commercial-super-bowl/

Marketing Nuggets Newsletter Coming Soon

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new Marketing Nuggets eNewsletter!  We hope that you will sign up to keep in touch with us.  We have a lot of great information to share with you throughout 2014.  The idea behind the newsletter is that we would like to send you information that you can apply immediately to your business.  This information could be considered your nugget because it will be short and sweet!

Feel free to share this information with others who may also benefit from great marketing tips!  We will never spam you!  You can opt out at any time.