Is your Business Model Killing your Competitive Advantage?
Are you at risk of becoming extinct?
If you were at risk of losing your business, would you be willing to do whatever it took to save it? Would you be able to step away from “the way things have always been done” and stand in a new space to test and innovate, try something different, uncertain of knowing the outcome?
Clay Shirky’s post about “The Collapse of Complex Business Models” has me thinking about the distinction between businesses too beaurocratic to change, and those lithe enough to adapt.
Digital Darwinism.
It’s become common to hear commentary about how print media is dying. Shirky comments on how “Diller, Brill, and Murdoch seem be stating a simple fact—we will have to pay them—but this fact is not in fact a fact. Instead, it is a choice, one its proponents often decline to spell out in full.” Shirky goes on to paraphrase the media moguls as basically stating, “Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, or else we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.”
Lots of business leaders like Diller, Brill and Murdoch are standing in the space of “we don’t know how to do that” with their heads in the sand and/or their feet feeling like cement shoes.
The world we are living in is changing more rapidly than any other time in the history of mankind. How and how fast is the internet altering your industry? Your business?
As entire industries and individual business owners struggle with how to adapt communications, delivery, customer service, marketing, sales etc. to meet the demands and expectations of consumers on the social web, their future success lies in their ability to move beyond “the way we’ve always done things” and begin exploration and testing of “the way we are going to be doing things now and in the future.”
Shirky summarizes his thesis on the collapse of complex business models by stating, “When ecosystems change and inflexible institutions collapse, their members disperse, abandoning old beliefs, trying new things, making their living in different ways than they used to. It’s easy to see the ways in which collapse to simplicity wrecks the glories of old. But there is one compensating advantage for the people who escape the old system: when the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.”
Position yourself to be the one who gets to say what happens in the future.
To survive and thrive you need a digital strategy to adapt your business model and communications to work in today’s world. The internet continues to influence and impact consumer expectations. How fast is your business responding?
How Can a Wiki Help the Homeless?
Last year I had the privilege of working with the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County (HCHC) where I learned about the need for a ‘one-stop-shop’ – a central location where citizens in need could go and get direction on how and where to get help. Hillsborough County has the largest homeless population in the state of Florida. That translates to approximately 10,000 men, women and children in search of finding shelter, food, clothing, a hot shower, education, job assistance and more on a daily basis. With the huge obstacles like funding making it impossible to realize a physical location, I started wondering what a digital solution might look like.
That’s when I met Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and Co-Founder of Wikia, who confirmed that a wiki platform could work to collect, organize and disseminate information about homeless services and that it was already being successfully done in San Francisco.
Rayme Nuckles, CEO of the HCHC, supported the idea saying, ““We are thrilled to be able to offer this new resource to the community, specifically for our homeless neighbors and those working to improve the quality of their lives. This wiki will provide up to date information that printed publications cannot.” The result is the Tampa Bay Homeless Resource Wiki.
Why use a wiki?
“The great thing about a wiki is that it provides a tool for quality organization without central planning or top down control. Anyone in the community who wants to help out, can help out. Every service provider can check and update their own entry to make sure the information is timely and accurate. Ordinary community members who are Internet savvy can help improve the wiki as a way to get involved.” – Jimmy Wales
How does the homeless resource wiki work?
The goal of the wiki is to provide a central point of collaboration and a channel to disseminate all types of information and tools to use in helping homeless citizens. Anyone can contribute to the wiki – it is a volunteer-driven resource that can be edited by any user. If you want to help, we invite you to view our training videos, learn some basic wiki-editing skills and jump in!
My vision for the Tampa Bay Homeless Resource Wiki
Jimmy and I caught up this week and he told me a story about sitting on a panel with Bill Clinton about Technology and Education in the Developing World at the World Economic Forum. Bill Clinton was talking about the Clinton Global Initiative and how his staff is working to coordinate relief efforts in Haiti. Clinton pointed and said, “When my staff needs information, they can easily find it, Thanks to you Jimmy!”
That’s pretty awesome.
It made me start thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if someday soon we get to hear that same sentiment on a micro-level as the wiki grows more robust with resources and people say, “When we need information about homeless services, we can easily find it, Thanks to the Tampa Bay Homeless Resource Wiki!”
Why do People Use Social Media?
People use social media because it’s easy
It’s easy to upload a video to YouTube. It’s easy to share photos on Flickr. It’s easy to connect with friends on Facebook. Social media has made it easier for all of us to tell stories about our experiences.
Customers use social media to publish stories about their experiences working with you, buying your product or service and how you subsequently delighted or disappointed them. They might be recommending you to their friends, or they may be telling about the horrific experience they had with your competitor. Think TripAdvisor, Amazon or Angie’s List.
New publishing platforms for storytelling
Marketing is all about telling stories. The best ones are concise, easy to repeat and easy to share. Today, social media offers marketers new publishing platforms for storytelling.
You can tell a story in a 140-character tweet or you can invite customers who are fans of your business to share their experience. What about recording a video with your customers, publishing it on YouTube, your website & offering it to your customers for their website? Think Word-of-Mouth marketing on steroids.
It’s not about having a Facebook page or setting up a Twitter account. It’s about choosing your goal and being specific.
Yes, I know you want to increase sales, but what do the results look like? Who is the audience you need to connect with? What is the story you are going to tell? Where and how are your going to reach them?
For example, you’ve got publishing options that were unimaginable just a few years ago – blogging, tweets, status updates, videos, pictures, podcasts etc. When someone hears your story, how can they respond? Have a call to action that correlates to you achieving your initial goal. What is the result you are looking for?
Tell me a story (but don’t be boring)
Start with a goal, know your audience, and use social media to tell your story in a way that delivers outcomes & results for your business. Enjoy!
*Note: This post is also published in the November 2009 Maddux Business Report
Surfing, Skateboarding and Social Media Marketing
If you are into surfing or skateboarding, you’ve got stories. I know because I’ve seen them all over the internet when I was doing research for a talk I gave on Social Media Marketing to the Board Retailers Association at Surf Expo 2009 in Orlando. Via pictures, videos, blogs, meet-up groups, events and LinkedIn groups – there are tons of conversations happening online where fans a.k.a. customers are telling stories and talking about brands. Marketing is all about telling stories, and for board retailers there is plenty to talk about.
The slides are here for your viewing pleasure.
View more presentations from Julia Gorzka.
Tampa TweetUp coming to The Florida Aquarium
I am thrilled to announce the next Tampa TweetUp is happening May 23, 2009 at THE FLORIDA AQUARIUM
If you’ve been to one of our previous TweetUps, you know Josh and I like to bring you to special spots in our city that give us a little somethin’ extra to tweet about.
The Worlds Most Dangerous Tweet
The fine folks at The Aquarium are partnering with us to introduce brand new, never-before-imagined tweet opportunities.
Two LUCKY Tweeple will have the opportunity to Swim with the Fishes! And, as if that wasn’t amazing enough one of our Tweetup members is actually going to Dive with the Sharks!! As far as we know, this will be a tweeting first for America Aquariums.
Who will the lucky tweeple be? Follow both myself @JuliaGorzka and @SIGEPJEDI on twitter for details a chance at this giveaway!
Tweetup Schedule:
3:00 PM – Arrival and Welcome in Taylor Great Room
3:30 PM – Animal Encounters in Taylor Great Room
4:00 PM – General Aquarium Viewing (Swim with the Fishes and Dive with the Sharks taking place in the tanks)
4:30 PM – Cantina food service ends
5:00 PM – Coral Reef Dive Show (and SCUBA divers special welcome to Tweeters)
5:30 PM – Penguin Promenade in the Coral Reef Gallery
5:30 PM – Cantina bar closes
6:00 PM – Tweetup ends
***Cash bar***
RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/tampabloggers/calendar/10333946/
This is one TweetUp you don’t want to be late too!
** We appreciate your sharing this event with your friends and online followers.
Please HashTag with #tbtweet
Wondering What’s a TweetUp?
Meet other local Tweeple (People in Twitterspeak) who enjoy Twitter, blogging, podcasts and just all that is social media & beyond for an evening of drinks and great conversation. Enjoy a night out of the office or home, Away from your computer, to dork out with others who share similar passions of social networking and have a few drinks.
Like minds gathering to both share and learn. Whether your a webmaster, business professional, professional blogger, PR or Marketing professional, social media junkie, or even just looking to learn this event is for you! It’s an all you can eat brain food buffet, with fellow tech dorks sharing their passions & discoveries. Business deals have also been known to go down!
We aggregate all Tampa Twitter chatter over at TampaBloggers.com! Join the conversation!
Hash Tag: #tbtweet
RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/tampabloggers/calendar/10333946/