Mobile App. Uses
If you’re interested in adding mobile applications to your marketing strategies, here’s a good article for you to read and see what’s hot right now.
Popular mobile apps allow things like:
- Website viewing
- CRM viewing
- Advertising campaigns
- Website Analytics
Take a look at these 10 hot apps for blackberries (conduct skype meeting straight from your phone)
More to come!
Anna @ Toronto
What is Viral Marketing?
If you’ve ever wondered what viral marketing is, you can get your question answered here.
Equivalent to “word-of-mouth”, “creating a buzz”, and “leveraging the media”, viral marketing can create brand awareness by spreading a message (Video, email, article) to a large audience. If one person sees your message, sends it off to 10 friends who send it off to another 50, those 50 send it off to 500, and so on and so on – your message spreads like a virus.
Here’s a list of the 10 most popular videos that went viral in 2009, and 2007 and spread like wildfire.
If you notice, in the case of companies generating viral videos, they aren’t always creating commercials to necessarily sell their products and services. Instead they are using viral marketing as a tool for brand awareness. Just like social media tools are used for things other than selling, viral marketing is used for brand recognition and making an impression rather than trying to make a sale.
Use viral marketing as a tool to get your name heard and recognized; don’t use it necessarily for selling your products; instead focus on generating traffic to your website for more information and industry news. Products and services will sell themselves. What you have to do is create recognition.
There are three tools you can use for viral markeitng:
1. Email Marketing – Send out emails with valuable and interesting information to contacts. If you’re message is interesting, people will pass it to their contacts, and those contact will pass it to more contacts, and so on; until your message spreads to large audiences.
2. Writing an interesting article could have the same effect. If people like it, they will send it to their contacts and those contacts will send it to others until the message gets viral.
3. eBooks work similarly and are becoming increasingly used as a tool that attracts attention and increases traffic to a website. By creating an easy-to-access and downloadable information source, like an ebook, you can gain enough readership and followers who will want to let their friends and contacts know about your source.
A success story?
Hotmail
Over 10 years ago Hotmail came out with a free email service. Each email sent with Hotmail was accompanied by an attached message at bottom of every email sent by a Hotmail user reading: “Get your free email at Hotmail”. Once the received user clicked on the link, they would be sent to Hotmail’s homepage where they were able to sign up for a free Hotmail email too. Hotmail acquired over 12 million subscribers.
Cheers,
Anna @ Toronto
Twitter can be a powerful tool for strengthening your company brand. According to an article by Dan Schwabel entitled “A Personal Branding Checklist for Twitter”, Dan discusses how successful companies go about incorporating Twitter marketing plans, and uses his company’s “checklist” as an example, “include a set of actions that ensures the company’s management team and interns are effectively engaging with relevant people on Twitter, growing their personal networks and building brand awareness”.
The key to do this is to create a following that turns regular users into “brand evangelists” – fans and customers that actually vouch for your company and the services you provide. By building a community, you allow your business to stay connected with your most important organizational asset– your clients.
Social media takes precedent in the strategies of marketing companies today so much so that the position of the producer relative to the consumer has almost entirely flipped. Imagine thirty or forty years ago when it was the producers who would dictate to the audiences what to buy and what to like; but today it is the consumers who are the ones dictating what they want – and they are using social media to make their voices heard.
Dan gives helpful tips on how to utilize Twitter to a company’s advantage: If you build a Twitter network around your business, make sure that you are providing for your followers exactly what they are asking for. In a previous article entitled “How to utilize social media for customer service”, I mentioned that Twitter is a great way to answer questions and respond to customer concerns; and Dan incorporates that into his personal branding checklist by turning company consumers into brand evangelists. The only way to do this is to offer customers exceptional customer service so they don’t get a chance to complain and instead promote your brand by twittering about how good it is.
Dan gives the following advice on what else to incorporate along with becoming a source for exceptional customer support:
- Tweet a relevant blog post to your industry daily
- Retweet a news article on your field
- Tweet an inspirational quote
- Tweet something personal
- Answer a question related to your field, and;
- Reach out to one industry expert per week
Along with interacting with your customers, position yourself as an industry expert by tweeting relevant industry topics on a regular basis. Dan even mentions creating a Tweeter calendar and following through with all the scheduled tasks on it like clockwork.
Like everything in business, and especially in online marketing– things take time. Invest in a good start and reap the rewards which will eventually come with a solid social media strategy.
Happy Tweeting!
Anna @ Toronto
Utilize Twitter for Customer Service
If you’re wondering about the best way to utilize Twitter for your business, according to an article entitled “3 Twitter Marketing Ideas That Avoid Marketing” written by Nathan Hangen, an internet marketing strategist and founder of social media consulting company Webrepreneur Media, the most effective way to use Twitter is through customer service.
Nathan explains that Twitter is an effective tool to put out fires with existing customers. Never mind trying to sell your products and services, and linking articles with the intent of getting the attention of followers, use Twitter to communicate with your business community, ie. your current client base!
“Dealing with customer issues via email, help desks or on the phone can really sap a company’s resources…Unhappy customers will complain, and Twitter is one of their favourite place to do it.”
Do keep in mind that messages on Twitter spread fast, and in order to avoid all your customers from seeing one single complaint, make sure you put the fire out right away before it spreads (and in turn show that you offer exceptional customer service at a remarkably fast speed).
Whether you’re conducting business on or offline, you already know that what is most important to a customer is that he or she gets recognition for his or her problem, and that this problem gets solved as fast as possible. So try and turn your customers into brand Evangelists (customers and fans who will vouch for your company) to save the trouble of complaints spreading through your Twitter community.
The 3 Twitter Marketing Ideas that Nathan presents in his article are the following:
1. Instead of spending money on people trying to sell using Twitter, spend your dollars on creating brand evangelists. Let your fans and customers market for you by ensuring they are so enthralled by your company that they are happy to vouch for your business by twitting great things about it.
2. Use Twitter as a customer service platform and let the word spread that you offer caring and exceptional customer service.
3. Respond to each and every customer and respond quickly – quick response-time is the key to creating happy customers.
Nathan ends his article by saying “Trade Emotional Appeals for Empathy”. What he means is that customers who complain quite simply just want to be heard, and the best way to give them a voice is by patting them a pat on the back (recognizing their problem and solving it for them). Show them that they are important, and surprise them by offering service like they’ve never experienced.
Although Twitter maybe a simple place where people post in less than 140 characters telling their followers where they are and what they are doing between being in the office, emailing or blogging (if you’re interested in the basics of Twitter you can read about it here), this article will serve as the first of many to show the different ways that Twitter could be utilized for your business.
Stay tuned for the last installment on the advantages of Twitter for business.
Anna @ Toronto
In a recent article entitled “How Non-Profits are Using Social Media for Real Results”, Gist uncovers the benefits of social media for non-profits looking to reach out to communities for involvement, integration and strategic planning by analyzing how successful names like Enchanted Makeovers and Dreamers into Doers have done it in the past, and how they continue to keep up with the ever-evolving changes.
Through the powers of online video, successful non-profits attract recognition and bring in support by connecting with others in the non-profit community: “It’s all about easy flow of communication and connecting with others with the same cause”, explains Gist. The article allows for those not yet familiar with social media to see that it is possible to manifest change by implementing smart social media strategies. One way to use social media effectively for those looking to raise awareness for their cause is by sharing stories and insights on the impact that others have created: “The power of social media comes from engaging others and making them feel like they are on a personal journey.”
The advantage of social media for non-profits arises when lines of communication are open and dialogue is created in which people feel like they belong to a community, that they have a voice, and that they can create positive change in the lives of others by connecting with people who are interested in the same.
One non-profit, called Hope140, uses youtube and social media to help generate awareness and drive action. Hope140 uses Facebook to engage and communicate with supporters, donors, volunteers and advocates in a way that was before impossible. Organizations in the past would have to invest money into building websites in order to raise awareness, but with the advent of social media, non-profits could use free sources for advocacy and still generate a following.
If you’ve ever wondered where your donations are going, and know too well about the horror stories, social media is a phenomenon that has helped tremendously with organizational transparency as well.
If you’re an avid fan of non-profits, or have a specific charity that you support, the article encourages people to get connected with communities through social media. Your non-profit of choice is probably already out there engaging in open dialogue with others like you. If you’re a non-profit owner, consider that social media is a real way to get others engaged.
If you’re already taking advantage, and are looking to raise money for your cause, another thing Hope140 recommends is to pool together monetary resources by using Twitter. For every tweet of #EndMalaria, users are able to raise money by linking their tweets to other websites where people can actually donate.
Stay tuned for the second installment of a three-part series on the benefits of Twitter for business.
Anna @ Toronto
Copywriting is the largest component of selling you’ll ever do online. The content and copy on the pages on which your prospects land on is ultimately the deciding factor if your product or service is going to sell.
Joe Sugarman is the author of the book “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook“. You can read his biography to see what a copywriting maverick is all about. He has been a tremendous influence in my copywriting learnings and experiences.
Below is a list of f key copywriting components that Joe covers in his book, and key components that you should be applying to your sales letters, websites, and any other online medium on which you intend to sell your products and services.
I encourage you to read his book if you’re delving into the copywriting world.
Here are a few of his teachings on prominent copywriting must-haves:
Headlines
Headlines are the largest components of good copy. They leave the strongest impression on prospects because often readers go through content not necessarily reading everything but instead skimming through. Without a catchy headline or post title (for blogging), chances are you’ll lose a lot of prospects who aren’t interested in delving deeper after a headline hasn’t grabbed their attention. In fact, you’re headline should already incorporate elements that cause your reader to be stirred to action and be inclined to purchase. A good rule-of-thumb is that headlines are considered to hold 70% of importance in grabbing the attention of readers, which makes good sense because if readers aren’t enticed to read your articles– they probably won’t.
Benefits
What’s in it for the consumer? How is your product or service going to generate revenue or cut costs for them?
Consumers are ultimately concerned with how a product or service is going to benefit them. If there is no benefit, there is no reason to buy.
If you’re selling SEO services, focus on benefits like increases in profit, increases in traffic, higher conversion rates, and the ease of having a website mostly maintain itself why consumers are buying your products and services without much direct one-on-one salesmanship.
This is why content is valued so highly. If a consumer can get all the information they are looking for simply by being engaged in your rich content, you can be sure they will be enticed to purchase if you lay out the benefits.
Proof and Results
Testimonials are a powerful tool to convince prospects that your products and services actually work. Use things like quantitative representation and case studies. If you’re selling a weight lose product, show pictures of past clients who have used your solution, demonstrate how their lives have chanced and how using your product has cut considerable time spent on other weight lose regiments.
Demonstrate that your product is a solution and demonstrate proof of how it’s been a solution for others. After all, “the proof is in the pudding!”
Guarantee
People are often sceptical to try something new. Guarantees are created for assurance. Let your prospects know that you are so confident in your product or service that you are willing to put your business at risk because you believe in its value that much.
Offer your products and services with a guarantee. For instance, you can use things like: if your client base does not increase by 100% in 3 months of SEO work, you will get 100% of your money back.
Call-to-action
The key to doing business online is that there is an element of immediacy. You’re objective should be to sell your products and service fast since prospects are actually coming to you. You don’t have to spend efforts chasing after them.
There are three tactics you can use for a call-to-action
1. Scarcity. Scarcity creates immediacy because it pushes people to make a purchasing decisions fast if they know that time is running out, or that the product is running out. Time constraint puts stress and inclines people to make a decision faster.
2. Bonus. Think of why people love to eat at buffets; it’s because they know they can get an unlimited amount of food for a fixed price. If you offer your prospects something extra for the same amount they would otherwise buy it regular price, it entices them to make a faster purchasing decision.
3. Offer. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. This is closely tied to the bonus; but you could use the word “Free” instead. Make your prospects feel that they are gaining something more by purchasing at that exact moment instead of putting ithe decision off until another time.
Rule of Thumb – If you’re a salesman, and you’re in the door of your potential customer, the most important thing is to leave the house with a signed contract or agreement. The last thing you want to do is leave without one because once you’ve stepped out, chances are you won’t be invited back in and your competitor is going to get the sale by offering a better price.
Psychological triggers
There is a whole literature out there that discusses specifically the topic of psychological triggers that cause people to take action and specifically to buy. In fact, Joe Sugarman covers it extensively in his book. While Sugarman discusses various triggers in detail, the two that I like to list here are greed and fear. The reason for this is that they are the most penetrating and immediate emotions that cause people to take action.
Greed stems for people’s desire for power. Especially in our western world where we value personal advancement. So greed works when you can spin your product and service in a way that ties in with someone getting something out of your product that will make them better and stronger.
Fear is a universally felt emotion and with it you can trigger your prospects to take action if they feel that they lack something; and if they do, you can use this to your advantage by showing how your product or service could secure them from that fear.
These are basic components you should always have in the back of your mind when creating copy. Copywriting is a game of psychology, so understanding things that have influence is an important part of being a successful copywriter.
Happy copywriting!
Cheers,
Anna @ Toronto
The Culture of the Business Card
How essential of a thing it is to exchange business cards with people we meet on a daily basis! Everywhere we go we find ourselves in the midst of this sacred ritual. The monetary world spins round in direct correlation to the connections we make and the business cards we exchange.
And what of the cross cultural etiquette surrounding the ritual of the business card? Travel to Asia and be amazed by the different considerations made when cards are exchanged. What values are associated with business card etiquette! It’s all truly phenomenal in its variety!
History of the clear plastic business card
The original business card came in the form of a trade card in 17th century London. When the numbering system of commercial properties did not yet exist, merchants and business owners would hand out trade cards to guide customers to their shops. With the rise of their popularity, trade cards began to be reproduced in more visually appealing forms to entice customers.
In 19th century Europe, business cards came to represent middle-class society. Both men and women alike would decorate and refine individual cards to ascertain awe and adoration when received. However, by this time in America, business cards became the every-day mundane act of business exchange with no ties to upper-class society, and business cards began to be traded on the regular.
Today, business cards are matters of branding. Marketing strategies require careful attention to be made when selecting the design and creation of a business card; and this especially holds weight depending on the industry that you are in.
Mi-Cards is a special kind of business card manufacture with a particular focus on clear plastic business card. There is an evolution happening in the business card industry. Sturdiness and boldness is taking on a new meaning, and unbreakable business cards are made to last and keep away from anyone throwing away a piece of design like that of a clear plastic business card.
Back to Cultural etiquette: a cross-cultural analysis
The study of business etiquette is performed in an effort to understand how to wean the best possible outcomes in social and business situations conducted with people with whom you wish to network and acquire business dealings. The more at comfort one feels when dealing in a particular situation, the more likely are they to produce successful results. When dealing with foreign associates, colleagues, customers and clientele, knowing what to do and say at the right moment helps to acquire trust and communication.
Let’s review the cross-cultural etiquette of business cards in relation to the North American and European style which places business-cards in a place to merely outline the most basic and essential details like who one is, where they work, and how to be contact in the future.
A trip around the world
Japan – In Japan the business card is a sacred representation of its owner. When cards are exchanged, they are to be honoured and respected by the recipient in order to not disrespect its giver. When you receive a business card from a Japanese business-man, acknowledge the business card by being magnanimous when receiving it, and spend a few seconds reviewing its content to show a genuine appreciation. Study the card, comment on it and clarify any information before putting it away.
Status and hierarchy are Japanese cultural values, and business cards are a reflection of this importance. Treat the business card with the same reverence as you would the person, and make sure to include your title on your card (status and hierarchy are primary).
During a meeting, place the business cards in front of you on the table in the same order the people are seated around, and when the meeting is over, put the cards into a case or portfolio.
China – Never write on someone’s business card unless officially instructed. One side of your business card should be translated into Chinese, while the other side should remain in English. Ensure proper translation to the appropriate dialect, either Cantonese or Mandarin, and hold the card in both hands when it is passed to you.
India – Always use your right hand to give and receive a business card. Absolutely essential to have on the business card your educational level and what university you’ve graduated from. English can remain as the proper language on your business card; no need to translate into Hindi as English is widely spoken throughout India.
UK – Never put business cards in your pocket, and always make sure you business card is clean and simple (hierarchy does not exist and atmosphere is more casual than Japan). Don’t feel obligated to hand out your business card to everyone you meet. Try to create a small circle at networking events.
Anna @ Toronto
If you’ve been using Google long enough, you might’ve already crossed the path of realizing that search results come up differently in various regions, by different computers, and by either using Google.com or Google.ca.
Depending on the computer being used, search history will be specifically tailored to the user’s past searches and preferences, while a completely different list of results will return for another user with different browsing history.
Create a mini-test for yourself. Type in a search word in both browsers – Google.com and Google.ca, and see the different results that come up for each. The thing about Google is that it picks up on information differently by region and browser in an effort to be more relevant. This in fact, is a beneficial feature for end-users because Google picks up on specific results depending on browsing history and previous queries.
Last year, Google came out with a new way to refine searches. If you’ve been using Google as a signed-in user, Google has been storing your browsing history to better target searches and zero-in on results with preference. However, this has been recently extended to users who are not signed in to Google. If your browser is configured to store history (whether you’re signed in or not), search results will come up to reflect your browsing history. The main focus for Google is to deliver search results tailored to individual tastes which mainly depends on search history. If you search for “Sox”, depending on your previous search history, Google will either present you with information based on the baseball team, or on socks for your feet. If you type “Bordeaux”, you will get results either aimed at the wine, or the French town.
Question: Does SEO becomes irrelevant if it’s configured to browsing history? The answer is No! In fact, it only means that SEO campaigns have to better and stronger.
When Google conducts history checks, it is important to have your site listed in top searches so that users will find you, and their browsing histories store your website. SEO strategies are now more important than ever. In the past, when searches results were uniform for all users, everyone would get the same results and the locus of targeted users would be more dispersed, meaning that users would not be so targeted and you’d get visits by users with no interest in what you have to offer. The downside to that is that conversion rates lower because audiences aren’t specific to your industry.
Personalized search means that search results are specific and tailored to user needs based on previous searches and geographical location; whether someone is searching for a term in the West coast or the East coast, what comes up on their results pages differs. The fact that Google is now showing relevant sites based on browsing history is an important aspect from the perspective of SEO because now you are responsible for optimizing your website to appear first for different keywords in order to be stored in the browsers of user histories. The upside is that you will be getting many visitors, while the downside is that your audience may not be so targeted. But. It never hurts to boost traffic because increases in traffic give website higher ranking, and higher ranking means climbing up the search results.
The key is to continue using good SEO practices in order to increase the relevancy and uniqueness of your website and to make it an authoritative source for various audiences. In an effort to build loyalty, you have to make sure that users become frequent visitors of your website by providing meaningful information.
By appearing on the top results for various keywords, you are ensuring that your website is stored in user browsing history. Again, while it does not mean that you will be necessarily targeting the audience that’s most ready to buy your products and services, you are increasing the authority of your website; and this element is becoming more and more important for being successful in the online market. Remember that content is what will generate traffic, climb you up the rankings, and turn your website into a useful information source for visitors to come back for again in the future.
While browsing history has entered the realm of depending on previous search results, it’s now important to make your website rank for various terms. You may not be selling your products and services to everyone, but you will be creating an information source that will be used by people in different fields; try to become a source for others in your industry, and those in private organizations and governments. Allow your website to be stored in the browsing history of various users for more exposure and higher ranking.
Conduct good SEO practices and target more keywords all in an effort to be seen by a wide range of global consumers and prospects who may find your information relevant, unique, and useful.
Anna @ Toronto
e-Commerce Websites
For the past few days I’ve been researching about e-Commerce websites and learning about the different options business-owners have when they want to branch out in the online market with their products.
Here are 2 links for you to take a look at.
e-Commerce websites are online stores. If you’re looking to expose your products to the online market, you should approach this decision with a well thought-out plan. First find out if your products are compatible with online users and if your products will be able to sell online.
Branching out into the online market, and especially with an e-Commerce website is just as detail-oriented a process as starting a regular business.
There are various options for e-Commerce websites. You can have things like:
Dell is a successful e-Commerce site, while another popular auction site that comes to mind is Ebay. Fogdog and Clinique are known to be very user-friendly.
e-Commerce websites are most successful when they give the user a unique experience. The less complicated and more clean your website, the more you can be sure that visitors won’t leave your page and that you won’t lose potential business.
Think of your e-Commerce website as an electronic mall. Customers visit around many stores, window shop and decide where they want to make a purchase. While money is one of the most decisive factors in business exchange, quality and customer service are high priorities and needs that need to be satisfied for consumers.
When building your online store consider the following:
- Extensive inventory
- Competitive prices
- Easy-to-use interface, and;
- Fast-loading Web pages.
If your plan for an e-Commerce website is properly thought-out, and includes user-friendly features, you can tap into a market which has consumers more excited about shopping online than in actual stores. The better user-experience a customer has, the more likely they are to return again. Online shopping is developing into a profitable industry, and if you want to tap into your market via the web you can feel comfort in knowing that there is a whole audience out there waiting for someone to show them a better shopping experience.
Online shopping is an enticing endeavour because there are no distance gaps – users simply make an order and get packages shipped to their homes. Users don’t have to spend time looking around a store and instead look through product catalogues in easy-to-use, navigational websites. e-Commerce is also ideal for niche products. While customers for such products are usually few, you can tap into a global market that could generate viable customer volumes.
If you’re considering tapping into the business world of the internet, know that it is more than possible to attract customers with a well thought out plan, an easy-to-navigate website, with easy options to transfer funds. Learn about your market first. See what others are doing, what methods they are implementing in their strategies, and feel comfortable knowing that there is an audience out there looking for exactly what it is you have to offer.
Cheers!
Anna @ Toronto
The Time/Productivity Approach
There is always that one course or one book that sticks with us forever after we’ve long graduated from college. For me, it’s always been “Organizational Behaviour” by Steven L. McShane. An avid fan of ethics and philosophy, this was a book that I read for my one and only business course during my university years, and in it, all the theories and notions I learned from my arts classes were put in practice in a single textbook – all applying to the laws of business.
Years later, I worked for a marketing company with the worst organizational culture; or as my book defines: the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that are considered to be the correct way of thinking about and acting on problems and opportunities facing an organization. If an organization is groups of people who work interdependently toward a purpose, my first experience in a marketing firm represented everything that’s wrong with organizational culture. It was, in fact, a deteriorating culture, with holes poking through at every turn mostly due to a lack of solid business planning, an encouraging support structure, and the desire to make money before understanding the right way to go about making it.
You see, as my book explains, the evolution of creating successful work environments is not a new curiosity. It in fact stretches as far back to Plato and the human desire to reach personal and collective goals – what another favourite of mine, Stephen R. Covey speaks of in “The 7 Habits to Highly Effective People”. Creating mission statements and end goals helps individuals and organizations draw clear paths to guide them toward accomplishing whatever it is they are set out to accomplish.
I am writing this article in an effort to revisit the nature of organizational behaviour and structure as it applies to today’s online marketing industry. For those in the online marketing world, the discussion about productivity and its relationship to time is probably a subject you’ve crossed paths with before. We’ve all heard about and read Timothy Ferriss’ bestseller “The Four Hour Work Week”. You may have also encountered the large collection of courses, podcasts and videos about the nature of productivity – one that comes to mind right now is Eben Pagan’s Wake Up Productivity. Famous blogger and author of “Blog Profits Blueprint”, Yaro Starak, also teaches “The Real Secret to a 2-Hour Work Day”. What I intend to do here, is delve into the reason why the productivity/time ratio is a constant subject among scholars and researchers, and why many successful online marketing enthusiasts are fascinated with working smart rather than working hard.
And so I begin.
It all starts with…personalities and individual value systems
Experts and researchers who’ve attempted to catalogue and assess the nature of personality, are responsible for dominant theories like the “Big Five personality dimensions” and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These are two that you’re probably already familiar with. How personality relates to different value systems is another subject that’s fascinating to people. Values, as my book defines, are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations. So when you combine personality with values, it’s clearer to understand why the human makeup is so different and why it makes us all so unique. Things we value like security, power, hedonism, universalism, tradition, achievement, all exist in each of us to different proportions. The question that arises is how is it possible to reconcile the idea that in an organization we are supposed to come together to achieve a common goal, when we are so individually different?
Organizational structure, in my textbook, refers to the “division of labour as well as the patterns of coordination, communication, work flow, and formal power that direct organizational activities”. Or as Stephen Covey explains in detail in “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, how levels of dependence, independence and interdependence work among people in an organization, and further – how can a company reach organizational success when people are all so different, all with their unique sets of personality and values.
There are two elements of organizational structure that you by now are familiar with quite well – centralized organization and decentralized organization. Decentralization is the one I’d like to focus on because it is becoming eminently clear that the online marketing industry is becoming more and more decentralized as company structures flatten, and bureaucracy is weeded out with changes like open-concept office spaces. My good old book, Organizational Behaviour defines decentralization as the means of dispersing decision authority and power throughout the organization, eliminating micromanagement and allowing individuals to have the freedom to set out their own work ethics and strategies all according to their own personally and value systems.
How do I know that organizational structure is becoming decentralized?
Type into craig’slist a job description like web developer or graphic designer, and see the amount of companies that have posted job offerings for freelancers and outsourcing alternatives. Freelancing, whether it’s for design or SEO, is becoming the most prominent way for corporations to allocate work. Business owners today are even picking up on the trend of outsourcing administrative work to virtual secretaries.
Let’s take Google, for example. I invite you to look at this video to see what’s really going on within the organizational structure of Google. Google is essentially giving its employees the freedom to take care of their basic needs, their own domestic needs, and personal desires at work, all in an effort to become more productive in work. I’m not advocating that organizations should start thinking about bringing in gourmet chefs to their cafeterias, but I am saying that Google is finding a way to allow workers to be masters of their own productivity. In turn, Google is considered to be one of the best places to work, and I confidently say they are the most advanced company today.
Now, you may say that when a company is a young start-up without years of experience, it’s important to monitor everyone’s work closely and allow bureaucracy to reign as an element and catalyst for “true” productivity – A.K.A a 9-5 workday. You may also say that productivity speeds up with experience. These are elements that I am by no means disregarding – there are absolute truths in both factors.
However, I am talking about stepping out of the rigid values of our Western society that dictate that “time is money”, and working a 12-hour work day is what will make you reap the rewards of “real” success – A.K.A financial success. Another philosophy that you’ve probably heard of before is that constant movement is the route to true happiness (closely related to ideas like “The Secret”). But if you look at success stories, like Yaro Starak, you will see that he speaks exactly about bringing in elements of balance and the desire for well-being as priorities that override the hunger for money.
I am by no means advocating renouncing worldly needs, but I am trying to incorporate into the strategy the need for well-being and internal fulfillment which is a factor that is not reflected in the 9-5 shift, and the one-time 2-week vacation once-a-year.
So why is it that everyone in the online marketing industry is interested in cutting down the work week? Why is it that everyone is trying to find other means for productivity?
The ones who see big success in this industry are provided with the freedom to travel all around the world, and work from their laptops from whatever country they’re in and whatever beach they lay on. Chasing after a lifestyle such as this is not solely exclusive to the online marketing industry but with the advent of web technologies, this is becoming more and more of a reality for others in different industries.
Organizational structure should enable employees to experience the lifestyle they see themselves living (of course while being productive and contributing to their organization). While personality and values are different from person-to-person, our desire to live our lives without constraint is probably a universal phenomenon.
Organizational culture should be shifting to a focus on creating employees that work smart, not hard. Producing profits is the end-goal of any organization, and the validity of this need will never be disputed, but the realization that producing happy employees (like the employees of Google), and the freedom to work in an environment most suited to our individual preferences is something that we see prevail as online marketing companies see more value in outsourcing. The importance in chasing after happiness and well-being is a complex goal in itself, but by understanding more about what employees need and giving them the freedom to satisfy those needs, perhaps we are moving toward a more successful formula to organizational culture and structure.
To leave off, I’ll mention another term that my textbook explores: organizational commitment. What this term refers to is the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in a particular organization. Organizational behaviour scholars call this effective commitment because it refers to the individual’s productivity within the organization. Perhaps the goal of companies should shift from producing hard workers to developing employees that get satisfaction out of working where they do. Happy employees are productive employees, and if flexibility is the answer, then organizational structures should move towards incorporating this freedom. Working toward organizational commitment should be the goal of organizational culture and structure. Don’t be afraid to let your employees out of your sight. You might be surprised with what they come up with and what results they wheel in.
Anna @ Toronto
