Making digital happen
I help companies develop digital strategies. Then I help implement them by structuring, training and growing internal digital teams and finding the right outsource partners.
Find me on...
Twitter feed
Loading Tweet...
Posts I like
-
Hat tip to Mark Smiciklas on Social Media Explorer for his Twitter workflow. This is a great example of how to manage Twitter on a day to day...
“Agencies still provide the magic of ideas, but technology will inevitably power most of the logic of implementation. Adapting to this sea-change in business model is proving very tough.”
Out of: The Progression of Agency Value
How does an agency stay relevant and valuable in the digital world? Four key pillars of maturity need to be evolved: data, technology, skills and culture.
According to the 2012 SoDA report Earned Media is King, Owned Media is Queen and Paid Media becomes Jester. Brands are using Earned Media to talk to key bloggers and encourage WOM. Major investments in Owned Media are the branded social channels the flagship website and SEO. Paid Media is mostly focused on branded content (video and other) as well as paid search. The shift is away from Outbound marketing (display banners) and into Inbound marketing (paid search and branded content).
“IT vs Marketing - the battle ground”
Why is it hard for IT and Marketing to work together and how to work towards a solution.
From a presentation for ALTC Viral
The composition of a Social Media Team - four major functions:
1. Leadership (strategy)
2. Business Unit Facing (liaison and education)
3. Market Facing (community managers)
4. Program Management (developers and analytics)
“Bureaucracy and mediocracy are a turn off for digital talent, as are stodgy offices.”
From “Why Digital Talent Doesn’t Want To Work At Your Company”. An interesting take on some of the issues surrounding the attraction of digital talent. Key out-take: being in Perth is not the problem, not offering the opportunity to do great things is.
Four typical models to manage digital within an organisation. Which one do you fit into?
The Five Dysfunctions of a Digital Team
A great research piece by Stanford Social Innovation Review on some of the structural problems within an organisation that cause an inconsistent or incoherent external digital presence.
Key Issues that were identified:
Silos: The people responsible for digital work are isolated from the rest of the organization, and end up becoming a quick-turn-around production team expected to blast emails without strategic input or considerations for member engagement. The digital lead may not be seated at a high enough level within the organization to be proactive.
Personality Fit: You have the wrong person in the digital role—he/she may have some historically appropriate skills but otherwise brings the wrong attitude and is unable to work collaboratively with others. If your digital lead creates resistance, or seems conditioned to say “no” more than “let’s figure this out,” you are—at best—stifling the growth of your organization’s digital program.
Overload: The digital lead or team has too much to do and is unable to prioritize work. This is one of the most common conditions we see. Leadership can exacerbate the overload by asking the digital lead to chase after new bells and whistles, which they may not have the confidence or experience to push back on.
Lack of digital vision: The underlying issue beneath overload is typically the lack of a framework to strategically prioritize resources for digital work. Every organization needs a digital vision to set a direction that supports the core mission and business goals of the institution, and to evaluate whether the inevitable new tools, creative ideas, and campaigns “fit” with the strategic approach and should be undertaken.
Lack of organizational vision: The problem may not actually be with the digital team at all. If you can’t clearly articulate what your organization is specifically trying to change in the world, then you’re just asking your digital team to create pseudo engagement with increasingly meaningless actions.
“..most teams are modest in size but are expanding their reach beyond the website to include mobile, tablet, and social experiences..”
Forrester Research has found that digital teams have started taking on more and more digital touch points in their portfolio. The teams have remained quite small and only use agencies where an increased bandwidth is needed. However that need to control and own everything within a small team is preventing companies from keeping up with their customer demands. Once a certain level of digital maturity is reached, it is time to start decentralising. Maintain strategic direction and the trial of emerging technologies and digital channels within a core digital team and start training and handing back responsibility to marketing, operations and PR teams.
Australia Post has unveiled plans on how it aims to support the ecommerce boom in Australia. Included are 24/7 parcel lockers - though not in Perth at this stage :-( - and low cost boxes and satchels for eBay. Looks like ecommerce is finally taking off in Australia!
“Too few hiring processes focus on the ability to Get Shit Done (GSD)”
Elad Gil, Founder of Mixer Labs which sold to Twitter last year.
Developers wanted!
A Melbourne digital agency has opened up shop in Perth. They are looking for mid and senior level developers to join their team.
Their focus is on digital campaign activity (Facebook competitions, micro sites, eDMs, apps) and their clients include Jeep/Chrysler and BGC.
If you know of any developers looking for a change, please let me know. Successful referrals get an ipad or $1,000.
Skills needed:
- PHP
- MySQL / Database skills
- Javascript
- HTML 5 /CSS 3
- Linux server admin skills.
- Good technical knowledge of the net and development workflows.
- Outgoing and passionate about online technologies
- Iphone app experience a big plus
Some helpful couple counselling tips on how to improve communication and prevent a divorce.
“Myer e-commerce manager to report directly to chief executive.”
Myer making organisational changes to give ecommerce and “new media” a priority.
It is amazing how much you can tell about a company just by looking at their org chart ;-)
