More Evidence of Benefits of SDGs for Business

It seems that stories about the benefits of applying sustainable development principles to your businesses are becoming more prevalent. Truthfully, advantages of such a noteworthy combination are visible everywhere.

Major industry leaders have projected that by putting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the center of the world’s economic strategy could unleash a major change in growth and productivity, with an investment boom in sustainable infrastructure as a critical driver. However, this will not happen without a radical change in the business and investment community, in its mindset and thought leadership.

For cutting-edge businesses with leaders that comprehend the advantages of this type of thought leadership, this pro-civilization orientation could offer significant outreach opportunities.

Unilever, a diversified food manufacturer, that conducted an analysis of this evolution, also noted that radical change is imperative for the benefits to accrue to businesses and humanity.

Among the required steps is real leadership – thought leadership – for the private sector to become a trusted partner in working with government and civil society to fix the economy.

The Business & Sustainable Development Commission is convinced that the SDGs provide the private sector with a new growth strategy that opens valuable market opportunities while creating a world that is both sustainable and inclusive. And the potential rewards for doing so are significant, the commission noted.

The report reveals 60 sustainable and inclusive market “hotspots” in four key economic areas – energy, cities, food and agriculture, and health and wellbeing – that could create at least US$12 trillion, worth more than 10% of today’s GDP. These hotspots have the potential to grow two to three times faster than average GDP over the next 10–15 years.

The value and anticipated extent of growth cannot by belittled by the business world – even the skeptics.

Earlier this month I “participated” in a webinar on the sustainability-business connection called “Leading the Way to Sustainability” sponsored by the China European International Business School of Shanghai. Conducted by Prof. Lydia Price, director of the Euro-China Center on Leadership and Responsibilities, the webinar demonstrated that paying attention to sustainability is in the best of interest of businesses.

Price said insurmountable evidence shows that businesses should adapt sustainable principles now by balancing financial results with social performance. Repeating the oft-heard crucial word “leadership,” she emphasized that business leaders must champion this new arrangement.

Price indicated that sustainable businesses will succeed only with strong leadership and built-in strategies.

If businesses reject building these principles into their business plans, then consumers and other stakeholders won’t pay attention to their goods and services because sustainability is quickly enveloping all segments of the world. Indeed, she noted, consumers, patrons and average citizens have already accepted its principles. Those consumers and other stakeholders have numerous media through which they can reveal to the world that one or another business is damaging rain forests or refusing to live up to the 17 SDGs, Price warned. Their unambiguous message will be “don’t buy from XYZ Inc.”

It’s not smarter to be a sustainability follower, waiting for others to show the way, she counseled, it’s better to be a leader and take advantage of the opportunities.

“Sustainability investments yield positive financial returns and they reap large rewards,” Price said.

She urged business leaders to strategically align sustainability with their business plans and fully embed it in the company’s strategies, processes and practices.

“Sustainability can create value by reducing costs, growing margins and building business,” Price elaborated.

Sustainability in a business environment works best when it flows in both directions from the top and bottom, she said, and also when management rewards employees for following through with such policies.

Price’s observations tended to focus on big businesses so I asked her about small businesses. Can entrepreneurs also benefit from embracing sustainability? She concurred. Large and small businesses, in concert with civil society, can certainly benefit from this global tidal wave.

However, they should tweak their approaches.

Price said when she speaks with NGOs, she suggests that they try to align their work and their language with a simpler framework so that business leaders can better understand their priorities and needs.

“I often find that NGOs use legal or environmental language that executives may find difficult to follow. This is one reason why sustainability is delegated to specialist departments in large organizations, which inhibits the value to business. If NGOs and large companies spoke the same language, I think we would have more productive collaborations,” she opined.

Regarding business risks and opportunities, Price said it is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs and small businesses to think about sustainable ways of leveraging resources or tapping markets.

“The notion of a ‘circular economy’ is that our current industrial systems generate ‘waste products’ with productive value that can be exploited. I mentioned a technology startup that is trying to make cement using readily available carbon as an example. Similarly, many social entrepreneurs look for ways to offer productive employment to special needs workers, who are undervalued in today’s economy.  To summarize, a ‘no waste’ sustainable economy would generate value from these neglected resources,” Price observed alluding to a few of the 17 SDGs. 

“Entrepreneurs can also look for ways to tap underserved markets with new and better goods and services. Natural food and cosmetics companies (e.g., Brazil’s Natura), for example, are experiencing high growth as buyers seek healthy lifestyles.”

In other words, sustainability is not merely a theoretical concept with limited applications in the real world but one that can provide all businesses and civil society with opportunities that will benefit them as well as civilization.

By hitching your wagon to the sustainable development goals, your businesses and NGOs will garner promotional mileage. Tell the world about it. That will certainly boost your outreach. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable,” “SDG” and “Agenda2030” communities with appropriate hashtags, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view by reaching out to likeminded stakeholders, explain your success, build followers, think outside the box, and become thought leaders about sustainability and business.

Tell your local government officials and other stakeholders about this important issue. Take photographs of your meetings and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.

Combing sustainability and business is fast becoming a vital business activity. NGOs can play an important role be explaining the principles to entrepreneurs and developing a common language.

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Boost Your Outreach by Partnering

Partnering, networking or outreaching is a generally accepted, effective way to boost your visibility in the marketplace or among your peers and stakeholders. It also increases your chances of succeeding.

By reaching out to the world around you, you create relationships that will contribute to your success now and in the future. Relationships are the building blocks for profitable business activities as well as successful civic happenings. Whether you want to organize a multicultural neighborhood volleyball game, get rid of unfair housing practices in your town, mobilize to protect the environment, or create a local business council, you will need to form many solid relationships.

Why? Because the relationships we form with the communities we serve, colleagues in business, our co-workers and staff members, and even our adversaries and competitors are the means for achieving our goals. That is the raison d’etre of trade or industry organizations: like-minded companies getting together to help one another by increasing knowledge and boosting business rather than fixing prices and stifling commerce.

A rising tide lifts all ships – and a combined effort benefits near and distant participants. When more people put their shoulders to the wheel, the task becomes easier.

People and businesses don't work in isolation: we need to be working together. Our combined relationships form the foundation of an organized effort for change or improvement. Everyone needs people to contribute ideas, take a stand, and get the job done.

We need relationships in order to win allies to our cause. We need to build relationships through which people know and trust us in order to get support from people outside our organizations.

Business partnerships assume a variety of forms. They may be long-term formal, legal commitments or simple short-term ventures to test a market concept. Civil society may form partnerships to promote the Sustainable Development Goals in the local community or champion a human rights issue. Sometimes the reason for seeking a partner is capital, sometimes for expertise and knowledge, sometimes for connections and networking.

Bringing out and taking advantage of the strengths of the individuals or business entities within the partnership adds to the motivation, energy and odds of long-term success. In numbers there is strength.

Partnerships offer a wealth of opportunities for growth – when they occur between the right businesses, organizations or individuals. To succeed, partnerships require more than complementary goals and audiences. Partnerships thrive when their partnership managers themselves get along.

When should you begin? It's better to build relationships and partnerships before you need them or before a conflict arises. However, you can also form relationships during a crisis, and very often a crisis can bring people together. In business, the onset of unfair competition or evidence of graft can bring together local businesses that are competitors. While it may seem unusual, make the most of your organization’s crises. You can build relationships when you are in need because people often want to help.

Building relationships is the groundwork that must be laid before anything else gets done on a project. The bigger the project, the more partnerships you will usually need as a foundation.

Each person or entity in the partnership has individual reasons for participating. Because partners join forces for an assortment of reasons and expectations, sometimes the strengths of each individual may be overlooked. The most obvious strengths will probably be recognized; however, underlying strengths when brought out can often make a big difference in long-term motivation, commitment and success.

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that your business or NGO may need to build partnerships with people of different cultural backgrounds than your own. Don’t shy away from the opportunities. Approach them respectfully by learning about the person’s culture. Your efforts will go a long way in showing that you care enough to find out about the reality of another person’s life.

Put yourself at the center of another person’s culture and even try to attend their cultural events where you are the minority. If you are willing to take risks by putting yourself in a situation in which you might feel uncomfortable, people will be more inclined to want to get to know you.

If necessary, take a stand against the person's oppression. Actions speak louder than words. People who experience oppression need allies to speak out against injustice. Strong relationships are forged when people act courageously on behalf of each other.

As you build partnerships, you will see that you may have to go beyond your normal terrain. Your neighborhood then becomes the globe – a concept that is enhanced thanks to the Internet. Your message finds resonance around the world. Think global, act local now has a mirror application with think local, act global. Your small business and civic organization can reach similar businesses and groups around the world through partnerships.

According to New Geography, “Think globally, act locally” as well as “Think locally, act globally” are slogans that encourage people to think about the global ramifications of their actions while making an effort to improve things locally. 

In ecological terms, the phrase recognizes the fact that environmental protection is a global problem, but one that average citizens can address by making efforts first in their local communities. Beyond its sustainability implications, the phrase has also been adopted by the business world, and more recently by the Millennials. New Geography points out that the phrase exemplifies that generation’s outlook towards implementing societal changes on a direct, local level and its belief in changing the world one community at a time.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #17 addresses the point of partnerships by urging stakeholders to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

For instance, thinking and acting locally, the problem of trash in landfills is an enormous one from a global standpoint, and a single person might feel powerless to address the issue. But by making small changes in one’s own life, such as reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts, an individual or group can do his or her part to solve the problem. By mobilizing community groups and local businesses to pool their efforts on a local level, the effects are magnified.

Sustainable development is one avenue for effective formation of horizontal and vertical partnerships that benefit not only direct participants but collateral ones as well.

Now you understand the benefits of building partnerships. But once you decide to reach out and establish them, tell the world about it especially if you’re aligning your efforts with SDG #17. That will certainly add to the mileage that you’ll gain. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable” or “SDG” community with appropriate hashtags about partnerships, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view about reaching out to like-minded stakeholders, explain your success, build followers and become a thought leader about building partnerships.

Tell your local government officials, with which you should create partnerships, and other stakeholders about your plans. Take photographs and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.

Building partnerships is a natural activity for small business and NGO projects.

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business with partnerships and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Sustainability is Good for Your Outreach

It’s virtually self-evident that sustainability is beneficial for civilization today and tomorrow. Going green, protecting the environment, and maintaining the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals or 2030 Agenda will certainly improve our lives and the lives of our descendants.

In case you’re not up on your sustainable parlance, 2030 Agenda was the desired shorthand version of the mission statement because it announced that the 17 goals should be attained by the year 2030.

But if universal altruism doesn’t impress you as an entrepreneur who is tasked with building business every day then you’ll be pleased to know that you can combine both vital matters. You can boost your outreach, build sales, be sustainable and successful at the same time because sustainability is good for your business.

From the 50,000-foot level: “Sustainability, the triple bottom line of economic profitability, respect for the environment and social responsibility: these are the new buzzwords of many a corporate annual report. Global companies everywhere are falling over themselves to declare their adherence to the principles of sustainable development,” observed Chris Boyd, senior vice-president, environment and public affairs, at manufacturer Lafarge, in an online article.

In other words, Boyd noted that “sustainability is largely a question of good business.” He assured his fellow business leaders that there is no fundamental contradiction between concern for the environment or social responsibility and the profit motive that has been the mainstay of the capitalist world.

“Greed is still good for you,” he stated tongue in cheek.

As a matter of fact, Boyd said it is good for your business to act in a more sustainable way, even where the market does not yet provide the appropriate signals.

On the social or community side, he said concern for sustainability is grounded in good business reasons. For example, his company’s cement business would have faced administrative difficulties without the support and understanding of local communities that are concerned with environmentally damaging ventures.

“Acting in a sustainable way can make firms more competitive, more resilient to shocks, nimbler in a fast-changing world, more unified in purpose, more likely to attract and hold customers and the best employees, and more at ease with regulators and financial markets,” he explained.

Wall Street is also taking notice of the positive effects of combining business and sustainability. Boyd explained that between January 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000, the Dow Jones Sustainability Group World Index–composed of sustainability-driven companies including Lafarge–outperformed the Dow Jones Global World Index by 127 basis point in US dollar terms. The index consists of the top 10% of companies seen as leaders in sustainable development. Their value advantage held in both bull and bear markets.

According to the website Robecosam.com, 1,500 investors representing more than $60 trillion in assets under management have committed to integrating sustainability into their investment decisions.

Financial investment analysts have determined that sustainability challenges are in fact shaping companies’ competitive landscape, and firms that take the lead in seizing these opportunities and managing risks associated with these challenges are best-positioned to outperform their peers. 

At the ground level, the same interest in sustainability can be seen with retailers on Main Street, USA.

A recent Nielsen global online study found that the tony Millennials continue to be most willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings—almost three-out-of-four respondents in the latest findings, up from approximately half in 2014.
Furthermore, the increase in the percentage of respondents aged 15 - 20, known as Generation Z, who are willing to pay more for products and services that come from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact was also strong—up from 55% in 2014 to 72% in 2015.

“Brands that establish a reputation for environmental stewardship among today’s youngest consumers have an opportunity to not only grow market share but build loyalty among the power-spending Millennials of tomorrow, too,” observed Grace Farraj, senior vice-president, Public Development & Sustainability, for Nielsen.

But don’t think that younger consumers are the only ones favoring sustainability. Don’t overlook gray-haired Baby Boomers in the quest for new business. Fifty-one percent of Boomers (aged 50-64) surveyed are willing to pay extra, an increase of seven percentage points since last year. This segment will remain a substantial and viable market in the coming decade for select products and services from sustainable brands.

Beyond sales opportunities, sustainable businesses are also more likely to attract good, young talent to their workforce. Reportedly, the highly educated, mobile and tech-savvy age group that falls within the demographic band known as Generation Y wants a workplace that’s like them: urban, flexible, collaborative, environmentally sensitive and unconventional. Incidentally, lifestyle is a sustainable consideration.

OK, so now you see the goal line of this project. But don’t stop planning. Once you decide to become a sustainable business, tell the world about it. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable” community with appropriate hashtags, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view, explain your success, build followers and become a thought leader in the growing field of sustainable businessmen and women.

Tell your local government officials and other stakeholders about your plans. Take photographs and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.

You should also be aware that civil society, which is already active in this mission, can be involved in your business as well.

Many businesses wrongly think of NGOs as adversaries and nuisances, and are quite content if they are not approached by them. Remember the scene from “A Christmas Carol” when Scrooge is approached by fundraisers? Not reaching out to NGOs is a missed opportunity to benefit from their expertise in material sourcing, water treatment and a host of other issues. Civil society can serve as partners in providing you with insights about sustainability and advancing your businesses’ sustainability efforts.

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business with sustainable projects and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Some Yearend Thoughts on Social Media Marketing – ‘EEE’

It is axiomatic that social media are the most efficient, effective and economical vehicles to quickly reach a mass or targeted audience. As a result, it behooves small businesses, non-governmental organizations and their chief executive officers regardless of their formal titles to begin making plans to enter cyberspace.

With an average of 236 million active monthly users, Twitter by itself can help with your outreach. If you add other social media, then you will increase your chances of promoting your mission, projects, goods or services to all corners of the Internet.

As I have written in the past, social media is too powerful of an outreach tool to allow teenagers use to for their youthful exploits. Actually, 22% of Twitter users are over the age of 50. That’s almost 52 million people. Do you see a potential audience in that space?

If you haven’t yet begun tweeting, here are a few ideas about what you should do.

Sheena White, a copywriter and social media consultant, suggests that you should update your Twitter profile with the proper keywords. What is your claim to fame? What is your mojo? What is your expertise? What will your legacy be? Tell your audience what your tweeting mission will be. What will you be promoting?

“It’s perfectly fine (even recommended) to share personal details about your life or interests, but it’s essential to tell Twitter users exactly what you do (assuming you want them to find you for your products and services, that is),” White wrote.

While some experts advise that you create categories for your potential tweets, the serious work of NGOs and small businesses does not require such a procedure. You already know your mission and business plan so focus on promoting them. However, what you should do is track the hashtags that are favored and monitored by your audience, marketplace and shareholders, as well as those who have liked or retweeted your content. Both steps will help you build and nurture your cyber community.

White also offered ideas on how to build a community:

“Start by following the people who follow your competitors or other industry leaders (or similar nonprofits). You can also do advanced keyword searches to find people according to the kinds of things they’re tweeting or find people who have certain keywords in their bios.

“It’s going to be necessary at some point to unfollow people or else you’re going to hit a cap at 2k Twitter accounts. (To go beyond that, you can only be following 10% more people than are following you in return.) Just make sure that when you unfollow, you don’t do so quickly that they don’t have the opportunity to follow you back.”

Engage your audience, marketplace or community with your tweets and ideas. Ask them to join your conversation and don’t forget to join their conversation. When they retweet what you’ve tweeted, their followers have the opportunity to read what’s top of mind for you and thus you boost your outreach even farther.

While you shouldn’t be afraid to promote your business or civic work, also remember to address issues that are of importance to your followers. Offer ideas and advice, and retweet what others have written on the subject. In this way, as I have suggested in earlier posts, CEOs can become thought leaders – the person who will be sought for his or her sage observations. However, don’t polemicize. That is liable to turn off more people than attract new followers. Stay above the fray by showing your expertise rather than your bickering skills.

You should also reply to inquiries and observations about your small businesses or NGOs. Twitter is especially suited to this application because of its real-time character.

Joe Wadlington, another social media adviser, noted: “Twitter is a natural fit for customer service. It moves in real time, making it simple for customers to ask you questions, celebrate your business, or reach out if they need support. This season, a lot of people will be shopping on a deadline — making swift, easy customer service more important than ever. In fact, after receiving a positive response from a retailer, 77% of people on Twitter feel more positively towards that business.”

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace in the New Year and let us know your impressions. If you have examples of creative usage of social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Fundraising

Fundraising is an important facet of the work of NGOs especially during the Holidays. Here is an earlier post about this important topic: http://boostingyouroutreach.blogspot.com/2015/01/fundraising-tips-forngos-fundraising-is.html

In case you missed this resource bonus

Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses that has been popular. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.

Negative Space

http://negativespace.co/

Death to the Stock Photo

http://deathtothestockphoto.com/

Picjumbo

http://picjumbo.com/

Stokpic

http://stokpic.com/

Kaboompics

http://kaboompics.com/

Startup Stock Photos

http://startupstockphotos.com/

Freerange

https://freerangestock.com/

Libreshot

http://libreshot.com/

Fancy Crave

http://fancycrave.com/

Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/grid

StocksSnap.io

https://stocksnap.io/

SplitShire

http://www.splitshire.com/

Life of Pix

http://www.lifeofpix.com/

Pexels

http://www.pexels.com/

HubShot

http://offers.hubspot.com/free-stock-photos-business?_ga=1.185006825.1574500821.1478096542

Gratisography

http://www.gratisography.com/

Jay Mantri

http://jaymantri.com/

ISO Republic

http://isorepublic.com/

New Old Stock

http://nos.twnsnd.co/

Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/

Twitter Again Tops Social Media for Outreach

If you’ve haven’t been keeping up with latest statistics about Twitter usage or haven’t conducted your own reality check on Twitter based on your and your associates’ rapid-fire tweeting, then here’s the latest analysis that you can tweet.

Caitlin Houston wrote in Market Watch that Twitter is the most important social media platform today.

Twitter shares have gained 2.6% in the past month, which is not merely based on purchases of its stock but also an indication of its vast popularity.

There are more than 300,000,000 people active on Twitter and in the US alone in excess of 88 million people visit Twitter each month. That means almost 40% of the adult population (more than 1 out of every 3 adults) are using Twitter here in the US alone.

In the meantime, Facebook has suffered under a tsunami of fake news and amid this debacle, Twitter is at a turning point. Facebook has recently come under scrutiny for the dissemination of fake news that appears through its news feed and the effect it may have had on the election.

Twitter has stayed slightly outside this controversy. However, it is in danger of reaching its crossroads with the banning of user accounts, including the potential to ban President-elect Donald Trump, according to James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt.

To combat its fake news problem, Facebook has suggested third-party verification and using artificial intelligence, reported the Wall Street Journal. But Cakmak said he’s concerned that fake news will still get through and that this could lead to a suppression of news as users report content just because they don’t like it.

On the other hand, Cakmak noted that Twitter is a more democratic platform, which gives you as well as all users and news sources a kind of megaphone to the world. Additionally, it stands out because of the extent to which Trump used it during the campaign and after the election. Indeed, Twitter has a lot of solid, albeit controversial information, as well as deceptive trolls.

“Twitter is probably the most important social platform in the world right now from a societal perspective as the fake news debate lingers on,” Cakmak opined.

Twitter has the power to ban accounts, and has recently suspended accounts of white supremacists and others who promoted hate speech. It said it would ban Trump’s account as well, if his account tweeted something that constituted a violent threat, hateful conduct or other content in violation of the rules, according to several reports.

If Twitter makes the unfortunate decision to block Trump by filtering content, Cakmak said its value will go down “from both a business and societal perspective.”

So if you are using Twitter regularly, take a moment to reflect on the power of that tool. As I observed at the start of my Boosting Your Outreach blog, whether you’re a business or a non-governmental organization (non-profit), you’re still a business and must behave in certain acceptable ways in order to succeed. Your success is based on promoting your mission and attracting new stakeholders or promoting your companies and attracting new customers. Twitter, if used properly, adds exponentially to the odds in favor of your success.

You may be wondering how do I reach even a small portion of those 300 million who use Twitter? Stephanie Nissen, a social media observer, said NGOs, small businesses and entrepreneurs should create and use eight lists in order to boost their reach.

Twitter Lists, as defined by Twitter, are “a curated group of Twitter users.” Nissen pointed out that as a Twitter user you have the ability to create your own lists of users that fit a specific criteria that you choose or to subscribe to a public list created by another user. I’ll explain how in a future post.

Nissen recommends the following:

1. Your Team

If you’ve got employees, contractors, consultants and other team members who are also on Twitter, create a list to keep up with them and retweet their tweets.

2. Your Customers

Your customers are the only way you stay in business, right? So stay connected! (The same pertains to your stakeholders and advocates, if you’re a non-profit.)

3. Industry Influencers

Every industry has thought leaders and influencers that help move us forward. This Twitter list will help you keep up with what they’re tweeting about, help you to easily engage with their tweets, and get on their radar if that’s a benefit to your company.

4. Your Partners and Affiliates

This would be another private list to keep but it’s an important one to make. Partners and affiliates that support your business should be on a list all their own so you can not only support their efforts but also look for additional ways to partner based on their tweets.

5. Your Competitors

We always want to know what our competitors are up to in the cyberspace. This list should absolutely be kept private and it’s not meant for you to engage with these profiles.

6. Networking and Event Attendees

Personally, I’ve had great success with networking and event attendees lists. Create a list of people you meet at a local networking group and also at large conferences. You always exchange business cards, don’t you? So don’t just chuck them in your desk drawer. Incidentally, does your business card have your Twitter handle?

7. Content to Curate

A Twitter List with content you can curate is a huge perk for businesses because it will help you to never run out of content.

8. People Who Retweet You

When people retweet your content, add them to a list so you can keep up with them. If someone has shared your content once, they are more likely to do it again.

As I have encouraged you to do, tweet, retweet yourselves and retweet what others have tweeted. Invite people to join the conversation. Soon, the message will encircle the globe.

Share your ideas about boosting your outreach and we can discuss it online.

Something to consider for your New Year’s resolutions.

For additional advice, I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

CEOs as Thought Leaders Reinforce Brands

A CEO, chief executive officer, owner, entrepreneur, chairman/woman/person, director, boss or anyone with a desk nameplate that reads “The Buck Stops Here” today is entrusted with more tasks than just running the company, paying attention to growing business, harnessing the best ideas to improve the business, driving sales, tending to quarterly profits, keeping tabs on competition, satisfying staff members, ensuring the longevity of the institution and others.

If those aren’t enough, today, the leader of a company, corporation, small business or nongovernmental organization (nonprofit) must also serve as an ambassador – the person who stands at the summit; the beacon that attracts others.

Karen Tiber Leland, a branding expert, elaborated this role by designating the CEO as the chief brand ambassador regardless if he or she wants the title or not.

One of the reasons for this direct correlation between the CEO and the business or nonprofit is that public and other stakeholders view it as such. Industry research has shown that 49% of a company’s reputation is attributed to the CEO’s reputation. You are your company and it is you.

Consequently, the CEO must maintain his or her official reputation on a blameless level while building a leader’s image separate from but connected to his or her occupation. Some have called it a symbiotic, parallel brand.

 “All CEOs have the daily opportunity and obligation to build their personal brand in service of their own and their corporation’s reputation,” observed Leland.

A recent survey by Meltwater Outside Insight titled “Fast Food Brands, Trends, Influences” is the latest study that highlights this valuable and important dual role of the person in the corner office.

“A company’s CEO is sometimes cast as the human representation of the brand. When Starbucks makes a commitment to values, Howard Schultz addresses the public with conviction and doesn’t shy from the camera. He reminds us that even the most noble set of corporate values and initiatives needs a person backing them up, not just a logo. As a result, he enjoys rock star status with his audience,” the report noted.

Among the clamor of corporate declarations, those that add a new perspective to the discussion, rather than disrupting, can be considered thought leaders – the holy grail or golden fleece of leadership. In a complex business or civic world, in which many things are considered at lightning speed, providing true thought leadership can be as valuable to a brand, company or NGO as the products, services or mission it is promoting. The thought leader sets the company or NGO apart and paves the way so that colleagues and subordinates can fulfill the mission statement or plan.

Establishing an individual – CEO, chair or director – as a thought leader requires consistent, diligent effort. Thought leadership success is based on a cumulative effect. Although thought leadership can and should have tactical elements that reveal the evolution of an idea from concept toward implementation, all thought leadership should be strategic at the onset. Thought leadership should be about a big idea that changes how people perceive the institution and world.

The following name should strike a warm chord in your memories. Walt Disney was a brand ambassador of historic proportions before digital technology. His name personified the company that he formed even after he stopped drawing his memorable cartoons. Disney became a thought leader about wholesome, family entertainment.

Leland, author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy,” opined: “All CEOs have the daily opportunity (and obligation) to build their personal brand in service of their own and their company’s reputation. In addition, many companies are beginning to realize that their executives need to have polished personal brands that highlight their expertise and knowledge to an outside audience.”

The personal brand can be the institution’s reputation, products, logo, image, sustainability plans or health policies, multicultural ideas, etc. The personal brand may not have anything to do with the institution’s primary business or reason for existence but it should be a concept that is valued by the audience or marketplace.

Being a thought leader, quite frankly, is a bestowed rank – the possessor earns it. CEOs and directors may aspire to be thought leaders, but the consumers of their speeches, rhetoric, writing, interviews, tweets and posts ultimately determine if they are or not. Organizations, be they civic, public or private, retail or Rotarian or nonprofit, need to have thoughtful leaders. Because of their positions, individuals creating perspectives and content have a leadership role and what they choose to do with their platform defines how they are viewed by consumers.

The most important commandment of thought leadership is “Thou shall not sell anything except ideas.” Selling during a thought leadership presentation, discussion, tweet or post is the number one sin, and conversely, not selling is the number one virtue. The latter leads to success and to being regarded as an expert by peers, marketplace, competitors and other stakeholders.

Other considerations are:

Thought leader is a person or firm that is not only recognized but also who profits from the recognition of authority.

According to Forbes, “A thought leader is an individual or firm that significantly profits from being recognized as such.”

Thought leader is an individual, company, or organization regarded as an expert in a specialized area or industry.

Thought leader is recognized by colleagues, competitors, customers, prospects and other stakeholders as having progressive and innovative ideas and as having been successful in effecting change.

Thought leader is one you think of first. The “go to” person.

Thought leadership should be an entry point to a relationship. It should help start a relationship where none exists, and it should enhance existing relationships.

Thought leadership should intrigue, challenge, and inspire even people already familiar with the company.

Thought leadership is simply about becoming an authority on relevant topics by delivering the answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience.

Thought leadership should be about a big idea that changes how people perceive the world.

To achieve such a vaunted status, the CEO must devote time to scouring the internet, searching for relevant issues or ideas, joining conversations, initiating new conversations, inviting others to join the conversation, and offering new ideas – but not polemicizing.

Making the CEO’s idea viral, that is enveloping the world or at least the marketplace at lightning speed, is the goal of those that want to become thought leaders. As the Meltdown survey noted: “A viral conversation is like lightning. You don’t know where it’ll strike, and it rarely strikes in the same place twice. If you want to capture it, your gear needs to be optimized and ready to shoot, because it’s not a subject that’s going to stop and pose just for you.”

Leland elaborated: “Any time day or night, you need only turn on CNN or check out Twitter to see how wildfire-fast information (and disinformation) can spread. As the lines between company and CEO reputation blur, and increasingly ridiculous amounts of information on individuals become readily available in just a few clicks, CEO reputation management is a mandate.”

Linda Forrest, another branding expert, alluded to social media’s important role in this process. Leaders of startups that evolved into well-known leviathans of today did not enjoy the benefit of social media. “The difference is that now, with social media so pervasive in both our personal and professional lives, it’s more important than ever to appreciate that business partners, shareholders, prospective customers and investors could be watching. Today’s indiscretions or meltdowns could be tomorrow's headlines. Or even headlines years from now,” she said.

Leland urged all CEOs and directors that have chosen the path to thought leaderships to participate in social media. “In our continuously connected, always-wired world, customers, employees and shareholders have a constant hunger for – and access to -- information about a company and its executives. Being a social CEO is a necessity for any leader who doesn’t want to get left in the online dust,” she wrote.

In the digital age, thought leaders must be involved in all traditional outreach venues as well as cyber ones, such as Twitter, Facebook, websites, etc., with their names prominently featured in the titles and URLs. They must be prepared to post, tweet and creatively retweet their ideas several times a day in order to boost the chances of reaching as many followers and soon-to-be followers as possible.

CEOs of corporations and corporate-type NGOs have the luxury of staffs to assist with this important task. Other entrepreneurs, owners or activists must add to their daily troughs this essential assignment.

Something to consider for your New Year’s resolutions.

For additional advice, I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Don’t Forget Importance of Social Media Strategy

Since launching this blog on how small businesses and non-government organizations (or non-profits) can boost their outreach, I touted the benefits of tapping the distinctive attributes of social media and encouraged readers to take advantage of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, Pinterest and other venues.

Additionally, I simultaneously advised my audience about the importance of developing a social media strategy before venturing into cyberspace. My guidance was understandable. Any serious plan or project that entrepreneurs and civil society leaders are contemplating must be preceded by a comprehensive strategy discussion beginning with addressing the question “why do we need social media to boost our outreach.”

Among the questions that you have to decide for your organizations are:

1. Why do we want to be involved in social media?

2. Which platforms are best for you organization?

3. What do we want to say to our readers, stakeholders, customers, audience and how often?

4. Who will comprise the social media team?

“Social media can be helpful but we have to know why we want it and have a plan. Wanting it because everyone else has it is not enough and can be detrimental. With a plan, social media won’t turn into a plaything. I also think that senior management should be prepared for it and familiar with the concepts and lexicon so you can hold your own during the discussion, launch and implementation. One tweet is not enough, you should join the conversation and invite others to join your conversation,” I wrote in a February 25, 2015, post.

For a refresher you can refer to that post as well as those on March 1, 2015, and March 4, 2015.

I recently read a similar article advising businesses – and by association non-profits – about the need to create a digital marketing strategy. Liz Alton, writing on an IBM marketing website, noted that with the wide array of marketing solutions can lead to greater opportunities to connect with the marketplace, advocates and other stakeholders. However, she continued, without a clear strategy “it’s easy to invest a lot of resources and money without any tangible return.”

Citing a surprising statistic, Alton wrote: “A study by Smart Insights found that 47% of businesses are doing digital marketing without a clear strategy, which makes it impossible to successfully navigate today’s integrated omni-channel and real-time-data-powered digital environment.”

Alton recommended that entrepreneurs and NGOs consider the following points:

1. Align your digital marketing with your bigger business goals. 

2. Get your team focused on what’s important. 

3. Prioritize your technology investments. 

4. Dedicate the right resources. 

5. Focus your customer intelligence initiative. 

6. Minimize duplication and waste. 

7. Build a better customer experience. 

8. Continually improve your performance. 

9.  Experiment with new approaches. 

10. Integrate and optimize your digital marketing. 

“Digital marketing is no longer optional. Customers are looking for brands online – from seeking basic information to looking for support and interaction. Don’t become one of those brands that’s failing to make an impact because it’s being pulled in too many directions. Create a strategy that will let you define your goals, focus your resources behind your most important business objectives, and reap real rewards from your digital marketing efforts,” Alton concluded.

  

Send your examples

If you have examples of creative usage of social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

In case you missed this bonus

Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses that has been popular. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.

Negative Space

http://negativespace.co/

Death to the Stock Photo

http://deathtothestockphoto.com/

Picjumbo

http://picjumbo.com/

Stokpic

http://stokpic.com/

Kaboompics

http://kaboompics.com/

Startup Stock Photos

http://startupstockphotos.com/

Freerange

https://freerangestock.com/

Libreshot

http://libreshot.com/

Fancy Crave

http://fancycrave.com/

Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/grid

StocksSnap.io

https://stocksnap.io/

SplitShire

http://www.splitshire.com/

Life of Pix

http://www.lifeofpix.com/

Pexels

http://www.pexels.com/

HubShot

http://offers.hubspot.com/free-stock-photos-business?_ga=1.185006825.1574500821.1478096542

Gratisography

http://www.gratisography.com/

Jay Mantri

http://jaymantri.com/

ISO Republic

http://isorepublic.com/

New Old Stock

http://nos.twnsnd.co/

Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/