Another year has passed and truly the seasons are getting shorter and shorter. Simply said I am getting older and hopefully wiser. Each New Year I take a hard look back and analyze that year’s business plan and create a new one. I realize it is still is a tough economic time we are facing both from a business standpoint and most importantly how it has impacted people on a personal level. Lost jobs, homes and delayed retirements. Fortunately for Strategis we saw a solid double digit growth in revenues coming off a solid 2010. I truly have to attribute two years of growth to our strategic planning and dedicated team.

“Follow the numbers and they will determine tactics to prosperity/” George H. Irish Jr. – My Dad (And I used to think he didn’t know anything.)

A few things to keep in mind when planning for 2012:

1. Create a plan – It sounds obvious, but if I had to guess a good 30% of organizations don’t even have a simple one page plan.
2. Work on the business not in it – Allow yourself time to step back and think. I find we have the mentality that progress is defined in just moving the process.
3. Set goals high – I have always found it easier to achieve a high level of success when I am chasing a goal that might seem to most unachievable. 2012 – 100% growth in revenues.
4. Get granular – Create strategies to attain those goals and constantly measure. I can see at least 4 key areas to grow revenues 100%.
5. Plan your work and work your plan – You just have to be doggedly persistent and understand failure will not be an option.

I hope this helps and please add to my list.

At 94% in just 4 minutes, SMS’ user response rate runs laps around every other form of advertising. Over 90% of theU.S.population has a cell phone and 91% of those individuals keep their phone within 3 feet of them 24 hours a day. As if those statistics weren’t something to get excited about get this; SMS marketing is actually extremely easy to use! The first step is to set your customers up with a keyword. They simply text that keyword to your 5 or 6 digit destination number, also known as a short code, and just like that your customers have opted in and your text message campaign is initiated. From there you can send exclusive offers or promote certain products or product launches. If you don’t have anything to promote, SMS marketing can simply be used as a way to keep your company name or brand fresh in their mind (without being too aggressive of course).

With smart phones and tablets on the upswing, SMS marketing is destined for rapid growth. Here at Strategis we have begun offering this new and exciting form of advertising to our clients. Give us a call or shoot us an e-mail with your inquiries and we’d be happy to get your business set up. It’s about time you ride the mobile marketing wave to increase your business!

For more information call (781) 297-9200 or e-mail George at girish@strategisadv.com

I am sure we have one more invite left, so give us your best reason why we should let you come to the big dance.

Over the years I have found out that keeping up with all my social communications reading is more than a full-time job. I could easily spend my whole work day reading and most of all cutting through all the information that is out there.My mantra “Don’t always believe what you read”. In particularly I love the top five or top ten category of blog posts. I find them quick and entertaining to read and as a blogger the most challenging and enjoying to write. When composing a blog for this category you must be concise and hit your points spot-on. You truly have to think through your top picks and succinctly get to the point. Needles to say this suits my style and the posts I prefer to read.

One that caught my attention this week was Mike Proulx’s post on Top Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes. Mike leads digital strategy at Hill Holliday, an advertising agency based in Boston. The key word for me was mistakes. If you are like me you would rather learn from other mistakes instead of making them yourself. Mike touches on not monitoring, down sourcing to interns, not quickly responding, faking it and having an off switch or end date. All mistakes I see everyday and the post confirmed my thinking.

Here is Mike’s post: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2010/ca20100617_480316.htm

There is an ever increasing number of regional and community banks that truly understands the impact of Social now and, more importantly, in the future. Strategically utilized, it will help retain and recruit customers from the large mega-banks. We have seen a surge in regional and community banks using Social Communications in innovative ways and have picked up on five key strategies:

1. Build a sense of community

What is the connotation when you hear the word “bank”? Conservative, stuffy, imposing, and unapproachable are a few adjectives that come to mind. That won’t make you rush to your nearest bank, but smart financial institutions are learning what will. They realize that now, more than ever, if they focus on relationships and building a sense of community then they can easily attract and retain customers. Banking is truly a retail business and should speak to and adopt the personality of the customers it serves. We want our bank to be friendly and approachable, and utilizing Social Communications can get us there. These are the days of engage, engage, engage. Gone are the days of sell, sell, sell.

2. Research

If you need to know what customers think of your products or services, Social allows for a way to enlist them for feedback. We have found a highly engaged social community will give you great insight into your organization and provide you the opportunity to provide better service.

3. Customer Service

Your social networks are a great customer service channel. More and more customers are using social channels like Twitter to get quick customer service questions answered. Take that great in-branch customer service and showcase it online by being responsive and engaging.

4. Marketing

This one is pretty obvious, but needs to be mentioned. Banks that are using social communications to brand themselves are integrating social channels into their existing campaigns and, in some instances, creating new social specific campaigns to foster a sense of community. The additions of social media tools now allow for solid, trackable marketing results.

5. Transparency

Today we find a tremendous amount of distrust in our financial institutions due to the financial meltdown of the last several years. In order to overcome this distrust, banks have turned to the social channels to become more transparent and build back that trust. What better way than to answer questions than on Twitter, Facebook, or a blog, where interactions are in real time and can be extremely transparent.

I had to stop for a second and think about it. Not the question as a whole but the word outsourcing. Outsourcing seems to be such a dirty and negative word. Especially when you put in a question with social communication, it just doesn’t seem to fit or apply. Social communications is about facilitating conversations and interactions and outsourcing applies a one-way migration of work or a task getting completed. “Here’s the assignment and you take care of it.”

Okay, should you find a strategic partner to team with you on social communications efforts? It depends. What is the approach you already apply to marketing and advertising in regards to partnering in general? If most of your marketing and advertising campaigns are being handled in-house strategically it might make sense to build a social communications team. If you are in the practice of utilizing strategic partners to handle marketing and advertising it makes sense to do the same with social. Culturally you must understand where your comfort level is. Secondly, what are the internal resources that you have available? Without a significant amount of time and some expertise the lack of these resources will dramatically stall your efforts.

This begs a second question. When I do partner how much should this cost?

I would appreciate any and all feedback. My perspective is only my perspective.

You can view the full release here.

Team Strategis at the Boston Step Out.

Better yet did you know about it?

I think we all have seen the growth in use of 3rd party applications on Twitter such as HootSuite and TweetDeck. Some statistics put their usage at 30% and growing. Most people that I have talked to don’t access Twitter through their interface preferring a 3rd party application. I think the true number that accesses Twitter through a 3rd party application is as high as 50%. With that type of migration and the need to monetize itself it was only time to integrate multimedia into the stream so it resembles a more sophisticated web app.

Please share your thoughts and comments and how you access Twitter.

There is nothing we hate worse than losing. (Ok, maybe not getting the opportunity to fairly compete when you are well suited to do so.) Reason being we only compete when we have at least a 70% chance of winning.

We understand losing is a part of life and especially in our industry, but why give in to it. Accepting defeat shows a lack of urgency and drive. Its ok, we will get the next one. Despising it shows grit, determination and a we’re good even though you might not think so attitude. Your loss not ours.

So what does this have to do with Social Communications? A Social Communications Platform that is well thought out and executed can significantly help stave off the no thank you. It will allow you to frame a conversation that will highlight your strengths and minimize your weakness. It will place you in a position of being a thought leader not a thought follower. More importantly it gives you the tools to gage how competitive you actually are.

Turn your hate into love. Love of Social Communications.