Shannon's thoughts on marketing, public relations, social technology, entrepreneurship and other things

Shannon Mouton
Shannon Mouton

the principal at Topaz Consulting, is a relationship marketing professional, with a passion for utilizing social technology for building B2B/B2C relationships, sharing information, networking and advancing the greater good. She has over 20 years of public relations, marketing and community building experience. Her combination of political, nonprofit, higher ed and corporate experience has afforded her opportunities to build communities where none existed, develop and launch innovative programming and bridge generational, economic and racial divides.

Shannon serves on the board of directors for the In Series, a Washington, DC performing arts organization. She is a regular contributor to Women Grow Business and Discover Exceptionalism, and her blog, Shannon Sez So, examines life's joys, pains and idiosyncrasies. Shannon is the founder of Topaz Consulting, a DC based marketing consultancy with a nationwide portfolio of clients. She graduated from Mount Vernon College (now part of The George Washington University) and is a proud native Washingtonian.

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2011 (31)
2010 (74)
 

Are We There Yet? (or Roadmap to Social Technology Success)

It's time for summer vacation:

  • car ready: oil changed, gassed up and washed
  • clothes packed: an outfit a day, plus a couple for dress up stuff, lingerie and sundries
  • entertainment (car): bag-o-fun packed with electronics, DVDs, CDs, magazines, games and extra batteries
  • mail forwarded and dog at the kennel
  • picnic basket packed: snacks, water and treats
  • stove off, iron unplugged and alarm set
  • map in hand: route planned, rest stops and best exits for food noted
  • hotel reservations: made last month and confirmed yesterday via email (copies on hand)
  • entertainment: amusement park tickets reserved last month and confirmed via email (copies on hand)

You're all set to go!

Think for a second...if you put that much effort into planning a vacation, wouldn't you put in the same amount of effort to planning your organization's social technology? As in the example above, proper planning helps to ensure you'll have an enjoyable vacation, with solutions and contingencies at hand for the unexpected. You should do the same thing for your business, plan, with solutions and contingencies in mind for the unexpected.

Nugget of knowledge: successful marketing campaigns are thoughtfully planned out.

Consider these steps as you begin planning:

  1. Do your homework: read blogs and white papers; attend webinars, meetups and tweetups; watch videos --> learn from other's missteps and get motivated by their accomplishments

  2. Begin at the end: envision success, know what it looks like --> set your goals and objectives, make sure they are realistic and set a time to reach them

  3. Control your brand: capture your name in the social media space --> get your username on as many sites as possible, you will not use them all, but no one else can be you in those spaces

  4. Be self aware: know your organization's history and mission, know who your customers are and where they are --> go to where your customers are

  5. Get your house in order: make sure your organization is on board with adopting social technology --> who is responsible, resources allocated, social media policies and integration plan into current marketing efforts

  6. Check out your competition: do a CASE study

  7. Evaluate your progress: make sure you're social media is taking you where you want to go --> set benchmarks as you would for a traditional marketing campaign

  8. Go for it! You will make missteps, it is okay --> do, mess up, learn...it's the evolution of success

And yes, you are there now.

Posted
 

Is There A Worm In Your Apple?

The last few weeks have not been what Steve Jobs had hoped for when he dreamed of launching the iPhone 4. While there was a lot of anticipation and hype leading up to the launch, since the product's debut, there has seemingly been as much exasperation and disappointment. There is a design issue that causes disruption in the phone service, which lead to an interesting question, what is the iPhone's primary function?


When the iPhone 4 launched, a lot of the media attention went to the design, the display clarity and the front-facing video camera, with almost no coverage going to the phone's phone functionality. While it has phone capabilities and customers should be able to use it as phone, the ability to make and receive calls seems secondary, even tertiary, to the device's true nature. The sheer number of apps, which allows users to do anything but make calls, seems to speak to the device's primary function that of a mini-computer.

This may be the true worm in the Apple: functional confusion. Is it a phone that can do a lot of other things or is it a mini-computing device that happens to have a phone?

The company's stock prices are recovering and Jobs has ameliorated customers to a certain extent, so the question becomes, does your enterprise ever had a worm in it? Here are some things you can do to keep the worms away:
Stay focused, have clarity and get it done!
Posted
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo.
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