A small eBook for a big recession

Back in late March, amidst some ridiculous client deliverable deadlines, I was asked to contribute 10 selling tips for an eBook entitled “Selling through a Slump: an Industry-by-Industry Playbook”. My initial thought was that this wasn’t a good fit for me or my blog , considering I’m not (by definition) a pure play salesman. However, after giving it some thought and looking at the existing contributors, I quickly realized that the word “selling” in the title of this eBook is used in a broad context. After all, I am a consultant  and at the end of the day, if I don’t “sell” my services (however subtle that may be), I will be out of business. These tips apply to anyone really.

The one question I had to figure out was: “What is the unique market vertical that I operate in?”

The answer? Easy. “I am a marketing and social media strategy consultant, working solely for government and non-profit organizations”. I therefore entitled my section as follows: ” Business Development Tips for Marketing Consultants Working with Public Sector Clients”. For simplicity, this was later changed to “Selling to public sector clients”. I hope you find my tips to be of value.

The other contributors involved, along with their respective roles and section titles were as follows:

• Charles Green – Founder & CEO, Trusted Advisor Assocaites – “Selling for accountants and consultants”
• Skip Anderson – Founder, Selling to Consumers Sales Trianing – “Selling for retailers”
• Mike Wise – VP, Ideastar – “Selling for insurance agents”
• Matt Homann – Founder, LexThink – “Selling for lawyers”
• Anneke Seley – Founder & CEO, Phoneworks – “Selling in health care”
• John Caddell – Founder, Cadell Insight Group – “Selling in telecommunications markets”
• Dave Stein – Founder & CEO, ES Research Group – “Selling technology”
• Jill Konrath – Author, Selling to big companies – “Selling in services”
• Anne Miller – Founder, Chiron Associates – “Selling Media
• Dave Brock – President & CEO, Partners in Excellence – “Selling to manufacturers”

You can download the full “Selling through a Slump” eBook here.

I’m looking forward to finally reading the eBook in its entirety. Let me know what you think of it!

Why social media will be hot during the recession

Some time over the course of the last few weeks, the downfall of the economic situation here in Canada has accelerated significantly. Every morning I wake up to the voice of Kathleen Petty on CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Show, interviewing yet another financial or economic expert throwing in their pessimistic two cents. Jobs are being cut left and right, government is talking about a hiring freeze,  now even Prime Minister Harper is using the words “recession” and “crisis” on a regular basis as opposed to sugar coating the issue. Sometimes I wonder how bad the situation would be if people were not exposed to mainstream media. Would spending habits change if an experiment were to be run whereby a control group was exposed to regular media and a test group was isolated in a remote cabin for a month? Regardless, one thing we know for sure is that the situation is not good and the outlook is even worse. So where does marketing fit in? Better yet, social media?

It is a well known fact, especially in the private sector, that marketing budgets are usually the first to get slashed during a recession. In theory this makes sense, since most marketing initiatives usually have “growth” as a primary overall objective. However, a recession calls for “survival & maintenance” mode, a good time to optimize and streamline existing operations. That being said, every organization must keep on running to survive. A proper marketing plan is absolutely essential during a recession to ensure that resources are not being wasted on ineffective promotion, poor choice of location, improper price points, or a faulty product/service…yes, the infamous 4 P’s. Nonetheless, cutbacks will occur.

Enter social media. All too often used as a buzz phrase alongside web 2.0, social media at it’s core is simply real people talking, sharing and collaborating using various online channels and applications. Not just anybody, but a significant critical mass of people. 

So who cares right? How can social media possibly be on any organization’s mind when it is faced with tough layoff decisions? I’ll give you a few random reasons off the top of my head along with accompanying examples:

• Free research (e.g. Asking a question on LinkedIn or using Ask500people)
• Free advertising (e.g. Leaving a value-adding comment on a podcast or blog, uploading a video to YouTube)
• Free applications for internal collaboration (e.g. Creating a wiki on PBwiki instead of holding a meeting or facilitated workshop)
• Free access to every contact you will ever need (e.g. Using the “get introduced” feature on LinkedIn)
• Free presentation ideas to save you time (e.g. Slideshare)
• Free consultant reports (e.g. Scribd)
• Free long distance phone (e.g. Skype)
• Free access to powerful traditional media influencers  (e.g. Mommy Bloggers)
• Free search engine visibility (e.g. Starting a blog or filling out social networking application profiles can significantly enhance your web presence)
• Free real-time conversation tracking (e.g Twitter Search)
• Free real-time social media monitoring tools customized to your needs (e.g. iGoogle)
• Free access to aggregation tools that let you bring content from your favourite websites and blogs to a single location (e.g. Google Reader)

Government of Ontario in Second Life!

Upon checking in on the Government 2.0 Best Practices Wiki I set up last week, a few things came to mind today, which I thought I’d write about. First of all, I am amazed at and very thankful for all the wonderful contributions people from all over the world have made to the wiki so far. There have been over 5000 visitors, of which over 50 have already made new entries. Let’s keep them coming!

I was particularly amazed at a recruitment initiative by the Government of Ontario (thanks to Marvin Bedward for sending the link) involving Second Life. Most government social media initiatives are relatively safe (e.g. rss feeds, blogs, etc…) so this one tented to stand out. Rather than blabbing on about it, why don’t you watch the video below:

I would love to hear more about this. Mainly, was it successful? did it meet objectives? how did the implementers go about getting official buy-in? If anybody out there knows anything, please contact me. I have also heard of a Second Life initiatve put on by Library and Archives Canada. Although unfortunately I have been unable to find anything concrete written about it. If you have any leads, by all means please let me know or better yet, post the info up on the wiki!

What do you think? Will immersive experiences/demonstrations like this dominate the recruitment landscape of the future? Is this just too much for some of you? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts!