Start thinking of your brand more broadly! When most people think of their organization’s brand, the logo, style guides, and corporate colors are what come to mind. Many don’t realize that everything is their brand. Stephanie blogged about customer service and the way you treat people as extensions of your brand. Every action and inaction defines your brand. This is your true brand.

Recently, I was speaking with the COO of a large company who said many years ago the company ran into reputation problems because they took on more work than they could deliver. Even though they had a great logo and tagline, it was their reputation for not delivering on-time that became their greatest brand attribute. It took a major shift in project management and years for this company to get the brand image back where they wanted it (needed it) to be.

Over lunch with a partner at a prestigious lobbying firm, we started talking about pricing strategies (yes, we have an odd sense of enjoyable conversation). One of the ways this firm signals that it is better than all the rest is to charge higher retainers than competitors. Not only are their people worth the price premium, but the higher price makes their prospective clients feel like they’re getting the best representation for their money. And the firm delivers on this expectation. I pointed out that the high price being charged simply creates brand consistency: everything at the firm is high end — the people, the access, the results, and…their prices. To lower prices is to lower the brand value. The classic example that illustrates this point is the company that figured out how to produce a great-smelling perfume for a fraction of competitors’ costs. When they went to market, the product didn’t sell even though testing showed a clear preference for their fragrance over the competition. One savvy executive had the counterintuitive idea of raising the price on the poorly selling product…sales soared. The fact is people don’t want to buy cheap perfume. And the price of the perfume created a brand image of “cheap” that overpowered all other branding elements.

Your website, content, technology (or lack thereof), client interaction, responsiveness, collateral, prices, and deliverables/products all come together to reflect on your company. This is your true brand. What does your true brand tell your prospects and clients?

Where I see the most opportunity for capitalizing on web and mobile technology is for traditional, old-line businesses and organizations, not just high-tech firms.  These are the firms that can use the technology to create even greater value. Manufacturing, retail shops, even agriculture can realize efficiencies and create new opportunities using these technologies.  Government is the perfect example.  In the government, things have been done largely the same way since the advent of the “modern bureaucracy” during China’s Qin Dynasty well over 2000 years ago.  Slowly people in bureaucracies are looking at their processes and procedures, then asking, “How can technology improve the way we work?”  For example, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves used paper-based processes to schedule training and administer attendance and performance.  Since pay is linked to these records, errors made on paper created problems with issuing accurate checks in a timely manner.  Automating the system not only made it easier to manage drills, it reduced the lag in pay from months in some cases to the standard of two weeks.

It is the intersection of web and mobile technologies with traditional ways of doing things that is the most exciting because it can yield the greatest results.  The firm Legal River created a platform to link small businesses with a legal problem to quality lawyers able to solve the problem.  They used technology to address the issue of “how do I find a good attorney.”  Manufacturing plants are using mobile phone applications to monitor assembly line metrics, which are automatically input into a web technology that generates performance reports broken down by machine, worker, and hour.  Small mom and pop retail shops can use the web to not only sell products across the world, but to reach highly defined niche target markets of people most likely to buy their products.

Using technology to make traditional businesses and everyday processes better is where the real innovation exists.  And this is what makes our jobs so rewarding.

I received a call today from an entrepreneur with a new start-up idea. He was concerned because he doesn’t understand the nuts-and-bolts of the technology that will be required to launch his business, so he asked me where to start. In his situation, the technology for implementing the idea was not proprietary or even critical to the execution. These days technology is often a commodity used to execute a business concept. For example, if your business model involves an eCommerce or social media site there are so many “out of the box” technologies that can be uniquely customized to execute the business idea it simply isn’t necessary for the entrepreneur to dig deeply into the technology, a basic understanding is sufficient.

The entrepreneur who called me would get more value and productivity out of hiring experts to build the back-end and front-end of his idea rather than trying to figure out how to manage doing it himself. The highest and best use of his limited time and energy is to fully flesh out the idea, develop prototypes, create the brand, refine the user experience, and, of course, figure out how his idea will attract users and generate revenue. Even though he’s starting an online business, the technology driving that business will not be what makes or breaks the new company. It is the viability of the business model.

I’m often asked if we at Tellenger “do social media.” My short answer is “Yes.” People generally want to know if we do both social media campaign planning and execution (yes), and at what rate (approximately $130/hr, depending on the complexity of the project).

But I normally probe a bit more about what people want to achieve, because social media is more than just having a Twitter account or a Facebook page. In response, I’ve heard:

• More sales. (Actual conversions from campaigns)
• More traffic. (Higher numbers in general)
• More brand awareness. (Greater presence in existing social networks)
• Wins over the competition. (More sales and social media followers alike)
• More customer feedback. (The right vehicles to encourage audience interaction)

Each client’s social media strategy is different, and each of these questions carries with it important elements that not EVERY client would need. For example, our social media strategy at Tellenger is participatory — we individually have been building our social media profiles for years, but only recently started a company blog collectively. By contrast, we’re working with someone who is preparing to launch a product, and driving sales is The Sole Purpose for his exploring social media in the first place, so careful planning, detailed execution, and daily analysis are absolutes.

Social media campaigns can be tremendously successful when done in consult with existing marketing and messaging, in consideration of the great, back-end capabilities that can be integrated, and with proper measurement that allows for instant evolution (i.e. Do more of what’s working; immediately stop doing what isn’t). Most people can’t afford to lose money right now, and the instant feedback that social media monitoring provides allows for business owners to see the performance metrics that are essential to their making informed, immediate decisions.

Of course, asking the right questions early to discover “what do you want to achieve with social media?” is Step One.

I was just having a conversation with an executive of a manufacturing company that’s been doing business offline for nearly a century. His company builds giant machines with 40,000+ parts — not the typical product people purchase on the web. But the parts that bring those machines to life, well, that’s a different story. So their question is, “How do we best sell our parts online?”

Initially, we’d ideally want to provide loyal customers the ability to buy replacement parts online directly through the corporate website. Those brand loyalists on average spend about 18 hours online each week, and traditionally NOT in social media spaces, so having an e-commerce capability on the corporate website will suit their needs. And, since this company knows which of their parts typically are ordered more often than other parts, they can even proactively contact customers and drive them to the corporate site to buy new parts. This also becomes a great opportunity to sell accessories to keep the machine well-maintained and operating efficiently.

A recent Forrester Research study describes how the healthiest manufacturing companies are making money right now by selling their products via *other* websites. Reaching the folks who aren’t necessarily brand loyalists–but still need replacement parts that they’ll buy through their existing favorite retail parts replacement shops–makes sense. (And, this route could be pursued regardless of whether the company wants to offer its own shopping experience online as described above).

Finally, with technologies like Alvenda’s product (a fully functional storefront in an embeddable widget), distributing that reach into existing social networks (and beyond) is getting easier than ever. Now, affiliate websites can host the storefront widget, earn a small referral fee while the company reaches more consumers, and everyone increases revenue.

I’m personally looking forward to the day I can visit my feed reader and, in addition to getting all the great content I consumer each day, be able to peruse all of my favorite shopping outlets (now including Alice–which you should check out if you haven’t yet–to save big bucks on my toiletries) in one place. And that day is not too far off!

Many people new to social media view it as a stand-alone campaign. They come up with a list of things they want to do on Twitter or Facebook, then start implementing.

The problem with such an approach is that it doesn’t leverage existing momentum in other parts of the business, and social media is most effective when used in coordination with larger organizational strategies that are cohesive in nature.

Most of the time, social media is one of multiple pieces of a larger sales or marketing campaign that might span print, television, and the web. Those efforts will incorporate an integrated look, feel, and messaging, which should transition to any new social media activities. Ensuring that all channels are unified and synergistic reinforces a consistent brand identity and call-to-action to target audiences.

For example, let’s say we make chocolate mint flavored toothpaste, and it’s the greatest tasting toothpaste on the planet. But it’s got major value adds to our audiences in that it prevents cavities and whitens teeth while tasting so utterly delicious. But, for the sake of having a cohesive message across all our campaigns, we have to decide: what’s our core message?

Aha! But let’s say we don’t decide on a core message (a problem that afflicts so many great products and services). Instead, we use TV to promote the whitening capabilities, print to promote the cavity-fighting properties, and social media to promote its choco-minty flavoring. Such an approach would create confusion about the key product benefit, and would fail to capitalize on building momentum across marketing channels.

So, when clients come to us asking for a social media campaign, we first identify the core messaging, then allow social media to boost those existing efforts in new, dynamic ways.

Such an approach will surely make you and your customers smile. (Yes, pun intended).

Touting “I had Bran Flakes again for breakfast” on Twitter *may* help your brand reach its goals … if you’re leading a community of people trying to eat a higher fiber diet, for example. But really, each client’s business or organizational goals are unique, and so each client’s messaging is, too.

That’s exactly why we move social media engagements through planning, execution, and evaluation phases (all three of which consistently are iterative as campaigns unfold and the data is analyzed) because being prepared and strategic is essential to success. This approach is also critical to ensure that social media engagements work in concert with existing sales and marketing efforts. Doing so reinforces consistent messaging and increases progress toward a common business goal.

Two of our social media case studies illustrate just how broad campaigns and goals can be:

1. A non-profit combating underage drinking “competes” with other advocacy groups of greater and lesser fame. With an old site and no knowledge of the social media space’s potential, they didn’t know where to begin in order to gain support from financial supporters, and then gain support from American citizens who want to activate and prevent underage drinking. So they asked us to help.
   • Goal #1: Gain funding toward executing a new online strategy
   • Goal #2: Create a more dynamic, interactive online presence to better connect with volunteers across America who are interested in preventing underage drinking
   • What we did: Defined an entire online media campaign encompassing a microsite, blog, Facebook group, Twitter strategy, email marketing, and future considerations such as a database for users to input and extract data related to underage drinking prevention efforts.
2. A B2C is launching a new product and competing against other local vendors. Exploring an emerging market already saturated with like companies was daunting, and they wanted to open with a bang. So they asked us to determine whether or not a social media campaign was one tactic they should leverage as a complement to their existing marketing efforts.
   • Goal #1: Determine if social media has potential given the competitive market
   • Goal #2: If so, use social media to drive more foot traffic on-site
   • What we did: Created a research-based competitive analysis and defined a social media engagement using Twitter with existing marketing strategies to execute defined messages and an offline feedback process that would hook into Google Analytics goal-conversion tracking for instant analysis, evolution, and insight into returns on investment.

And we love helping clients get into the social media space, whether they’re trying to raise awareness, increase sales, or sell Bran Flakes.

Paul Boag of Boagworld authored “10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging.” In it, he knocks common corporate pitfalls like using a blog to publish press releases or treating it like a straight marketing tool (rather than as a means to form relationships with individuals).

Blogs aren’t intended to be packed with marketing jargon or attempts to up-sell. Readers confronting such commercial-style content likely will be dismayed because they didn’t find genuine personality in that brand’s informal communication vehicle. Those readers might even cry. (But probably not.)

So when clients tell us, “I’m told I need a blog,” we always ask, “Why?”

If they want to “get more sales,” then we might explore additional methods for attracting leads — and leverage a blog secondarily to add more context for helping users make decisions. If the client wants to “connect with audiences” through accessible, two-way communication, then a blog might just be the perfect solution.

Either way, clients who are willing to put forth the time and effort it takes to produce valuable blog content that’s useful, interesting, or capable of building communities will best position themselves to land a loyal readership that helps them learn and grow overall.

When Dave created the new Digital Strategies division and asked me to lead it, I jumped at the chance for a couple main reasons: primarily, I love meeting with new people and talking about the web. It holds endless possibilities, and we help people capitalize on those possibilities. Secondarily, Dave had established Tellenger as a firm that truly builds long-term relationships with clients. It’s a model I find unique in a landscape of web shops that promote their particular preferences or technology solutions (which may not be what a client actually NEEDS).

To that end, we’ve got six core values that we infuse into our client relationships and business processes.

1. Exacting Technology – We’re a technology-agnostic firm, which means we’ll recommend and implement or integrate solutions specific to a client’s particular needs (rather than our personal language or platform preferences).
2. No-Bull Estimates – Our cost estimates are organized by individual line items – sort of like a menu of solutions catered to individuals’ unique needs.
3. Purpose-Driven Deliverables – We only spend clients’ time on deliverables that inform, demonstrate, and/or provide actionable direction. (If they don’t truly demand attention, why bother?)
4. Open Collaboration – We use Basecamp to collaborate on everything from timelines to documents and centrally store assets like logos, images or files.
5. User-Based Design – We substantiate our beautiful, accessible designs with user-experience research that considers industry Best Practices.
6. Analysis & Evolution – We analyze results against identified benchmarks and recommend adjustments for improvement. (Really, being attentive and proactive allows us to innovate.)

I’m so proud to be helping clients capitalize in the digital space while also being a part of Tellenger’s own dynamic growth.

After two years, we’ve re-launched Tellenger.com to better highlight the results of our work and the services we provide. Like many businesses, we started heading in one direction, though our successes, clients, and the market have encouraged us to adapt in order to better meet a unique set of needs.

Some of the changes that more accurately describe Tellenger include:

1. No longer focused exclusively on Government clients – We’ve found that our work with the Marine Corps, for example, has led to private sector businesses wanting our advanced coding skills. And our Government clients want to benefit from our leading edge work in the private sector.
2. Increased focus on Business Strategy – While strategy has always been an important part of our process, we were surprised to discover how many competitors fail to put the business strategy of an organization at the forefront of technology consulting. We let the business objectives of our clients drive our exceptional technology engineering and visual design … not the other way around. As a result, we’ve proven exceptionally skilled at building web-based businesses and driving organizational value through technology.
3. Not just complex coding anymore – Tellenger got its start building complex, mission-driven software applications delivered through the web so people could access their apps anywhere, anytime. However, we were missing an important market segment of organizations that needed less complex, though equally important, websites and digital technology solutions. Interestingly, the shift to building web-based businesses and ecommerce sites has actually enhanced our software apps.

While some website re-launches are simply refreshes or updates, Tellenger’s signifies our successes and our growth. We are doing outstanding work for our clients, which is leading to new clients, new requests, and repeat business. The new Tellenger.com site is a marker of the achievements our clients have experienced as a result of our work together.

I’m proud to welcome the new Tellenger.com.