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Time Management for CEOs (and everyone)

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time management

Harvard Business Review recently published an article about a study they did based on how 27 CEOs allocated their time over the course of a business quarter — 24/7 for 13 weeks.

We found this study valuable in how it highlights both the dilemmas that arise in different areas of an organization and describes various means of coping with them. While CEO is a very specific role in an organization, many of these lessons can be applied to managers in traditional corporate hierarchies and any number of roles in organizations that have done away with traditional management structures. Read about our key takeaways on Medium.

Marketing for the Future of Facebook

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The big “talk” in the industry has been that Facebook is “killing” business pages, or that it’s making a play to push all companies and advertisers towards a paid advertising model. That would mean anyone who’s been using the platform on a free basis to stay in touch with customers and promote product news and other information… would now be out of luck because Facebook has said “Pages” are going to index lower if they don’t create meaningful interactions for the audience.

It all started with this blog post the company made a few days ago https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/trusted-sources/

The good news is – it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, businesses will need to be even more strategic about what they choose to share and how they choose to share it, but at Kompani Group, we always tend to believe that’s a good thing for brands.

All the same, we know many of you have questions about what this means for your social media marketing campaigns in the here and now. Some of the most pressing and frequently asked questions we’ve had are:

Is it time to pull out of Facebook?

Short answer – no. We just need to make sure that content is fresh, relevant, and optimized for this new approach. If you’ve worked with us at all in the past, you know Kompani Group is a big believer in optimization across the board – so this isn’t a big shift for us, strategically. What you MAY see is us making more recommendation about “taking things live” with video of your latest installation, or a forum/round table discussion with some of the experts on your team. But we’re definitely NOT recommending that you dump all facebook marketing.

Should we be focusing more on other platforms like instagram, twitter, snapchat, etc.?

Again, if you’ve been working with us up to this point, we’ve probably already advised that you consider a presence on LinkedIn (particularly those of you in B2B industries) as well as twitter and instagram as is appropriate for your business. What you might be pleasantly surprised to find out is that if we’ve developed video for you to use online in any capacity… it’s already got a home on YouTube. So if you want to create a YouTube channel for your business, Kompani Group can help get that done. Likewise, the more visual and interactive content becomes for social media – the more places you’re going to be able to share it. And we believe that’s a big part of where this is all going… you may not be posting two or three times a week on Facebook anymore – but you will be spreading out your presence across a wider field of viewership.

How do the changes to the Facebook news feed impact marketing budgets?

There’s a lot of concern (rightfully so) that this shift by facebook is going to blast everyone’s social media budgets through the roof. Let us be clear that this doesn’t have to be the case. If Facebook has been your primary source of sales leads, then select paid distributions are likely worth the investment when planned out and scheduled. It’s also worth educating your audience to “See Us First” so that they stay in touch with you as the news feed changes. This is also a great time to let someone like Kompani Group look at your budget and help you figure out a more diverse allocation that achieves the same or better results.

What else can you do going forward? Well, for starters you can request a free social media content review from Kompani Group and learn our recommendations for optimizing your social media presence, and the services we provide to make it simple.

Stay tuned as we continue to explore the changes of Facebook and how your business can still get ahead and stay ahead with Kompani Group on your side.

Keeping Your Business Needs First: Security for Your Website and Your Business

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With recent news releases about Equifax and Yahoo data breaches, along with so many others this past year, this message to our clients seems somewhat timely. In recent months Kompani Group took steps to secure all of our client websites with SSL – Secure Socket Layer – a technology used to encrypt data being transmitted from browser-to-server. Once reserved for ecommerce websites that transfer credit card information or health provider websites transmitting patient data, SSL is now being utilized to secure all varieties of websites.

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We took these steps of our own accord for two reasons: 1) Security, plain and simple. 2) As security is an increasingly important tenet of websites, a secure website is now also a factor Google uses in determining rank position in search results. Google wants to deliver its customers to secure locations, so having that ‘s’ in the https:// is now one of the variables they use to qualify sites.

At Kompani Group we are perpetually looking to help our clients Get Ahead and Stay Ahead of their competition and the market in general.  We took this action to ensure that a site’s security was not a detrimental factor in web search results for our clients. Of course there are many other variables that also help strengthen a site’s positioning such as mobile responsiveness, keywords, traffic volume, and session length but this was an action that we knew would support you and help protect your customers.

Kompani Group always strives for total client satisfaction and we pride ourselves on working to ensure your business is poised to not just meet industry needs, but to surpass them. To better understand how Google determines secure sites, follow the links below. If you have questions regarding this upgrade or other technology, marketing, or business optimization support we can provide for you, please let us know and together we can Get Ahead and Stay Ahead.

Read More:

Security and Mobile Responsiveness for SEO

Is Your Site Ready for Google’s New Security Ratings?

 

Effective Public Relations in an Online World

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How is your business perceived on Yelp? Facebook? Twitter? Google? Amazon? Managing your online reputation should be a priority for your public relations team. Setup a workflow to track – and most importantly – respond to online reviews, comments and ratings. Remember, just one bad review can be enough to sink your business. You can’t stop bad reviews, but you can lessen the negative impact to your online reputation through a series of steps.

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Monitor your online presence

Reading Facebook comments once a week isn’t cutting it. To be effective, you need staff in place actively monitoring customer interactions on a daily basis. You also need a detailed plan of best practices to optimize your responses to benefit you and show your customer base that you are an engaged and open brand.

Our free white paper – Cyber Identity Guide: Managing Your Company’s Online Reputation – outlines three common online reputation tactics:

  1. IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY have a Facebook page – you should be using it to promote events, post pictures, and reply to customer comments or feedback.
  2. COMMENTS ON REVIEW SITES SHOULDN’T be left to sit unanswered – thank people for their positive feedback and work to resolve any complaints so others know you’re committed to their satisfaction.
  3. CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING TO POPULAR message boards where your brand, products, or services, are discussed. If allowed by that particular forum, participate in discussions regarding customer experience and establish a rapport with other members. These people have the power to become brand ambassadors or your worst enemies.
BAD REVIEWS ARE GOOD

Don’t panic when a customer posts a bad review. Instead, react. Respond to every bad review with a professional response. Don’t try to respond to the specific complaints or offer excuses on a public forum. Instead, apologize and post a phone number or email reply stating that your company wants to make it right and discuss the issue with the customer in private, offline.

Bad reviews serve another purpose – legitimizing your online reputation. Brands with overwhelmingly positive reviews are often accused of having fake reviews. Legit, negative reviews can actually bring a sense of trustworthiness to a brand.

Be professional but stay on brand with all interactions. It sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised how often brands panic and break good practices when interacting on reviews, comment threads and message boards.

WHAT IS YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION WORTH?

The tendency to ignore bad reviews or handle them incorrectly can ultimately ruin your reputation and your profits. Think about how much a single lost customer can cost you. Consider this situation:

Scenario A: A customer is eating at a restaurant and they find a hair in their meal. They contact the server, who brings them a new meal and apologizes.

Scenario B: A customer is eating at a restaurant and they find a hair in their meal. They contact the server, who brings them a new meal and apologizes. The manager/owner comes over to apologize again and takes care of the bill.

Scenario A likely ends in a bad review on Yelp. Scenario B, on the other hand, may or may not result in a review. If it does, it will certainly be a more favorable rating but will certainly mention the free meal.

So, what is your online reputation worth? With Scenario B, paying the customer’s bill probably prevented a negative review, and at worst, other potential customers will see that, despite the hair, the restaurant paid for the meal, too.That free meal could prevent multiple customers (and multiple meals) from going elsewhere.

Effectively managing your online reputation is an important – and often overlooked – step in the world of digital content marketing. First contact with a brand is often looking at reviews and ratings. Prioritizing the importance of your online presence in your overall marketing and brand strategy is key.

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Interested in learning more? Contact us!

Using White Papers to Propel Your Brand

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One of the best ways to show a company’s expertise in their industry is by authoring and publishing white papers.  White papers are informative reports examining relevant industry issues, and often offering guidance on a solution. As a marketing tool they are extremely effective for both content marketing as well as to demonstrate expertise to prospective clients/customers.

There are numerous ways to leverage white papers to your benefit, which we help our clients with the writing, editing, and designing white papers.  Once written, Kompani Group will help promote your white paper through social media channels, email blasts, and industry publications so your business constituents are aware of your industry knowledge and your company’s capabilities.

Explore the white papers Kompani Group has helped produce as well as other beneficial marketing tools that highlight and promote your business.Kompani Group White Papers side banner

Case Studies

 

Are You LinkedIn? Or LinkedOut?

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Improving Your LinkedIn Sales Performance

A Step-by-Step Guide from Kompani Group

Over the past few years, LinkedIn has started to evolve to be more than just a good online networking tool. Many astute sales people are now using it to source and farm new sales leads. The thinking is simple: you’re more likely to make a purchase from someone you know, or from someone recommended by a trusted colleague or friend. So by expanding your LinkedIn network, you can reach possible prospects from a more confident position.

But just because the thinking is simple doesn’t mean the actual task of nurturing those leads is ‘easy.’ So, we’ve compiled some recommendations for getting the most out of your LinkedIn relationships when it comes to sales…

  • Optimizing your profile
  • Searching for prospects
  • Join and participate in groups
  • Making contact the right way

You can find details in our latest guide, which you can download for free by clicking the button below. You can also contact us at Kompani Group if you have other questions about online networking, social media, and other smart ways to grow your sales opportunities.

Download now!

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Kompani Group offers support and training on new technologies and tools to optimize your business performance. Learn more about our training services here.

Security and Mobile Response Counts for Your SEO

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Why HTTPS Matters for Your Mobile-Responsive Website

Get Kompani Group’s Help with Upcoming Google Changes

We all know that Google is the top search engine in the world, which is why it’s extremely important to make sure your website is optimized to get the most favorable search results possible from the internet giant.

blooms-website-devicesAt Kompani Group, we’ve been guiding our clients through many of Google’s most recent changes – including how mobile-responsive sites rank higher on searches performed on mobile devices, and an upcoming feature in which Google will begin tagging sites without HTTPS as ‘Non Secure’ when viewing in Chrome.

But there’s an interesting area where these two updates overlap – and it has the power to significantly impact your search results – mobile and desktop.

When Google made the decision that mobile responsiveness and other “site quality” characteristics would play a role in search rankings, it meant considering several benchmarks of quality – not least of which is security. So now, in addition to maintaining strong, relevant content in order to index well, your site must also deliver a mobile-friendly and safe experience if you want to be among the first pages of results.

Fortunately, the process to switch to HTTPS isn’t expensive or challenging when you’ve got a partner like Kompani Group to guide you through it. Just get in touch with us and we’ll make sure your site is optimized for attracting and retaining as many visitors as possible.

Learn more here about our various Technology services and get your site optimize and up-to-date today.

Is Your Site Ready for Google’s New Security Ratings?

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Chrome is Tagging HTTP Sites as  “Not Secure” Starting 2017

In Google’s upcoming release of its popular Chrome Browser, there will be a number of updated features designed to make web browsing safer, quicker, and easier for all users.

But businesses and web-site owners should be aware – the newest Chrome version will also begin tagging all HTTP sites as “non secure.” Google’s security team describes the change here here.

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And though the data giant admits that HTTP doesn’t necessarily mean a site is inherently “unsafe” there are risks of the more open HTTP that are far less likely with HTTPS. So in a world of increasing data breaches and privacy concerns, the fact that Chrome is alerting users to the potential risk is a worthwhile effort. However, it does come with some drawbacks for sites that aren’t using an HTTPS framework.

  • Site traffic may decrease due to users concerned about security risks
  • Lower site traffic can have a negative impact on SEO, further reducing site traffic
  • An “un-secure” designation may also impact how search engines and web crawlers evaluate the quality of mobile sites, presenting yet another challenge to search results

Unfortunately, if your site collects email, contact info, credit card information, or other personal data – it may mean a ‘Non-Secure’ tag that could deter potential customers. At Kompani Group, we take internet security seriously, which also means how it may impact our clients’ businesses. If you’re ready to make the move to HTTPS and be viewed as a “safe” site for more than 1 billion users of Google Chrome – get in touch with us today and be prepared ahead of these new changes.

Kompani Group offers a wide range of services related to new technologies and site management. Click here for more information.

What’s Your Mantra?

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What’s my….what?  Your mantra, you know, the three or so words strung together in perfect harmony to describe the culture and philosophy of your company.  It can be clever, catchy, funny, bold, provocative, or even silly as long as people remember it and attribute it to your company.

A motto, or mantra is an all-inclusive message that allows us to belong to something bigger than ourselves. It attracts our attention and joins us together. Your company mantra should be relevant, engaging and inspirational or thought provoking, depending on your business and the message you want to share with the world about who you are and what you believe, deeply and truly.

This is not an ad campaign or marketing gimmick and is quite different than a tagline, which is a frequently repeated advertising slogan that captures the essence of a brand’s promise to its customers. A brand mantra is an opportunity to share a message about something that is a fundamental truth about your company, products, services and the people who work for you.

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Your Brand Mantra

A brand mantra should resonate internally first. The mantra you choose should reflect the core values, mission, and culture of your company and support your brand positioning. They are words to live by and words that will not just survive, but thrive, for years. In essence, they should be timeless and true.

Mahindra, one of India’s most powerful companies restructured their marketing strategy several years ago and created a mantra with just a four-letter word, “Rise.”

So, how can this help your company sell more products or provide better services, and how does this help engage your team to be more productive? Because the mantra is used both inside and outside the company for your team and your customers, and because it is repeated over and over, it is a great opportunity to instill a sense of power and excitement and responsibility into your team member’s identities within your organization. “We care” posted all over a warehouse or assembly line is a constant reminder that each person is an essential member of the team, and each person’s job skills and attitude are essential, because in order to achieve the “we” part, everyone has to participate, or the mantra simply isn’t true.

Google, Facebook, Apple all have company mantras they live by. Mantras also help organizations decide, communicate and align everyone around who they want to “be,” instead of what they want to “do.” Apple’s mantra “Think differently” reflects the value it puts on creativity, while Google’s mantra “Don’t be evil” sums up Google’s culture and one of it’s core company values.

If someone asked you to describe the essence of your company in a few words, what would they be? For example, a vegan cosmetic line might use “We love beauty AND our animals.”  Your mantra might be one word, like “Rise” or your mantra might require up to 5 words to make your statement. Start by carefully going over your mission statement. While most are typically long and somewhat vague and generic, there could be some gems in there that offer inspiration. Invite your employees to brainstorm with you if you can’t come up with one on your own. Offer a prize to anyone inside or out of the company who comes up with your new mantra. After all, the whole purpose of a brand mantra is to bring people together to share your vision.

Does your company have a mantra? We want to hear about it, or if you like this post, please share with your friends and colleagues.

 

11 Reasons Why Your Company Needs a CRM

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Let’s face it, lot’s of money is budgeted for sales leads generated from online advertising, print ads, radio, networking, Pay-Per-Clicks or whatever method your company uses to get them. Unfortunately most leads never materialize into a sale and the money spent to capture them is wasted. As an example, one of our local new home builders estimates each prospect who walks into their sales office costs an average of $700 to get them there! Your cost might be less, but the goal is the same for any business-to convert those expensive leads to sales.

Investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool

By no means are there only 11 good reasons to invest in a CRM, but we thought this list was a good start to show the importance of a CRM to help your team convert leads to sales. Let’s begin with what it does: the purpose of a business CRM is to act as a central hub for all of your company’s activities related to your customer interactions. It simplifies and organizes tasks such as customer follow up and notes, setting appointments, managing contacts, personalized steps required by your team for each prospect from start to finish, and monitoring any email marketing campaigns. A CRM pulls it all together in one place and provides you with analytics and reporting tools to oversee operations and to maximize your selling opportunities. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider choosing a CRM for your business in an infographic you can save for future reference or share:

11 Reasons Why Your Company Needs a CRM-01

The caveat before deciding on a CRM platform is that the returns will only be as good as the effort put into the program in the first place. Simply using a CRM as an address book is not a good return on your investment. There is a learning curve when implementing a CRM for the first time or when upgrading to a newer version, so training your team to properly utilize and maintain the many features a CRM has to offer your business is key. Once a CRM is utilized to it’s full potential, it can propel your company to a higher profit margin and surpass your competition with amazing customer service!

At Kompani Group we understand the importance of a strong business CRM, which is why we have helped hundreds of clients to integrate solutions such as Insightly and Salesforce to improve their sales process. We don’t just stop there; KG also trains and supports the sales team to optimize the many powerful tools these solutions offer.  Are you interested in learning more? Get in touch, and we’ll tell you how we can get you started with your new CRM solution!