Tis’ the season for summation of the past and prediction of the future.

In the week between Christmas and New Year’s, oodles of articles about what 2010 has been, and what 2011 will be, will litter magazines, twitter streams, and television programs across the nation.  In 2010 experts weighed in on a variety of fascinating possibilities which included: Expanding location based services, user-interface advancements, a world of screens, and my personal favorite, Gink. Spend 2 minutes looking, and you’ll find no shortage of people asking and answering the question, “What’s Next?”.

It makes perfect sense that it’s a common topic of conversation.

Emerging technologies and applications have changed world of marketing, PR and communications for organizations dramatically in the past 5 years, and the next 5 will bring more of the same.   So it is natural and responsible for organizational leaders to strive for understanding of the technologies and trends that will be affecting their world, right?  I propose that there is a better way.

To ask “What’s Next” can be a helpful exercise, but only to a point.

The problem with this question is that even with unlimited research and wealth, the answers are varied, vague, skewed by trends, and are fundamentally reactive in nature.”What’s Next” is tied to the future of the broader marketplace, not to the future of your organization.

Even in perfect execution the answer to this question yields you nothing more than a first mover advantage, which is a good start, but needs competent execution to be tied back to revenue.  There are only a handful of organizations positioned to benefit much by taking this high risk, limited reward approach.

Want better return on your time and energy? Try framing the convergence of technology and your business by asking the following 3 questions:

1. What problem or objective haven’t I been able to solve or achieve?
2. What technologies/communication media (old or new) could I employ in a fresh way that could help me?
3. How can I implement this technology/communication strategy in a way that:

• fits my budget
• works in concert with current efforts
• leverages momentum to amplify results
• can be tested against established objectives

True innovators are those who take a fresh approach and pioneer a unique prescription to fulfill their organizations’ goals.  They set the industry standard instead of following it.  Their initiatives are custom built around their objectives and challenges, and always have clear ties to revenue.

It’s a subtle distinction but can make a big difference.  Will you spend next quarter scouring the business journals and social media looking for articles about the next big thing, or will you enjoy being touted as the subject of that article?

Questions/Comments? Please feel free to email me at brad.bierwagen@mediasauce.com or follow Brad at @bradbierwagen

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I am fan of vegetables…not just the lovable pop culture staples (raw carrots w/ranch,  baked potato), but the hardcore, traditionally scorned, green vegetables.  Although their deliciousness can be a divisive topic,  few deny they are an important part of a balanced diet and essential to a person’s healthy development.

Disagree?…stay with me anyway – relevance to your organization can be found shortly below…

I credit my parents with my personal affinity for the fresh and green.  With my older sister, my parents took the “You can’t leave the table till you’ve eaten all of your peas” route. It turns out Kristin is almost as stubborn as my father, so by the time the vegetables were choked down and everyone had been fighting for a few hours, it left a literal and metaphorical bad taste in her mouth. She’s picky about vegetables to this day.

Mom and Dad tried a different method with me. I never had to stay at the table till my veggies were eaten – but they did ask that once every six months I give the vegetables I thought I didn’t like an honest try. I couldn’t just make a predetermined decision, stick them in my mouth and spit them out quickly. I had to take a few good bites and really give them a chance.  If I did, I was off the hook.

Little by little I came to like the idea of trying new things, and enjoyed the vegetables more and more.  I believe this same technique holds true for new media and organizational leadership.   It’s our job to guide and inform, not to force ourselves into what everyone else is doing.

As a business developer for MediaSauce, I meet with and speak to a variety of groups, in varying industries every week. Between and within vertical markets, there is a wide spectrum of understanding and adoption of online tools. Rapid Change, Industry Regulations, Technology Infrastructure, Liability Issues, Privacy Problems, Leadership that sees little revenue potential in new tools, and budget constraints are all cited as reasons for avoiding commitment to online as a communications strategy.

If your organization or industry requires that you be more cautious, or you are a later adopter, that’s ok! Organizations in every phase of innovation adoption have good reasons for being there, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each phase. However, much like vegetables, a great online presence is a vital part of a balanced communications strategy and is essential to organizational growth. It is good for you to be connected, and it is something any organization can learn to leverage.

Champions of new media sometimes hurt their cause by forcing the issue within the group, especially in organizations that are slower to embrace new technologies. Their reaction is to list others’ success stories, and when challenged with organizational bottlenecks the value prop doesn’t directly translate.  The trick (like with food) is in the context and presentation.

I encourage you to facilitate a high level conversation around the growth of online communication and how it will continue to affect your organization. Every six months (or more often if possible) bring your leaders together with the objective of simply having an open-minded discussion about the implications of an interconnected, online world.

The goal is to honestly consider costs and risks of pursuing something new, AND weigh them against the opportunities for success and potential for revenue growth. Think about some of the ways that you can use new tools to create relevance and value in everything you do. Consider the costs of maintaining status-quo. These are the conversations that connect and resonate with executives, board members, and organizational leaders.

What will be the outcome of these conversations? I can’t say. The reality is some of the available tools still will not taste right to your organization and that is ok. But, if you are approaching the conversation around costs and benefits, and making an effort to do so regularly, great steps forward will be a natural outcome.

Be careful though, or you may find yourself pleasantly surprised as a new fan of asparagus, organizational transparency, or Foursquare.

Questions/Comments? Please feel free to email me at brad.bierwagen@mediasauce.com or follow Brad at @bbierwag

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The USPS is has been in the news quite a bit lately as it battles plummeting volume, high fixed costs and massive losses.

Proposing no Saturday deliveries and raising stamp prices merely strikes at the branches and does not deal with the root issue of whether our beloved USPS is still relevant.

The truth is – Saturday deliveries or not – this downward spiral will continue to occur.  When the USPS has to keep increasing fees to continue covering losses, it drives more and more communication on-line.  With such a high fixed cost structure, the Post Office will be forced to continue drive prices higher and send their customer base scrambling to consider more economical modes of communication.

The heart of the issue here is our Postal Service is no longer relevant.

A few years ago I was asked to keynote a national panel of CD and DVD duplicators/replicators about the future of their industry.  Guess what, it didn’t go over too well…

As a tool to measure relevancy, I presented a concept of the “recovery time.” I simply asked the audience to consider the ramifications of eliminating their products and services from the marketplace.   The “recovery time” is the degree of pain the market would endure before the product’s replacement leaves us no longer wanting what we once had.

In addition to its application for the CD/DVD industry, I asked the audience to consider the “recovery time” of the newspaper industry, the corner video store, and the Postal Service.  Think of the long-term disruption if each of these were yanked away never to return.

Think about your own business and more specifically, how relevant are you to your clients and prospects?  If you’re feeling the world would have a short recovery time in your absence, it’s critically important start defining your real value by asking a few questions:

1. What would your 10 best customers say they value most about you, beyond your product and service?
2. What root issue, pain, or gap does your organization’s product or service solve/fill?  (Think transportation not wagon wheels, think editorial content not a physical newspaper)
3. What are your organizations unique talents?
4. What are there things you ask your customers and clients to pay a premium for, because you do them better than anyone else?

By asking yourself these sometimes uncomfortable questions and framing your discussions around them, you are addressing your business challenges at the root, and you may just find the additional relevancy and margin you’ve been seeking.

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Brands are really just a fancy way to talk about a compilation of your customers’ experiences with your business. These customers experience brands a lot of different ways.

As customers’ interactions with companies (brands) are increasingly online, shouldn’t we shift our focus? Why do we still believe traditional marketers should control branding? Why are we afraid to put branding power in the hands of the digitally-driven folks? After all, for many current and future customers, your website is your brand. It’s the hub, the driving force behind all of the experiences customers have with your company. People are spending as much or more time online as they are watching TV these days – and that’s not just the teens and 20-somethings. Digital is already driving brands, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

Online-only businesses are obvious examples, but increasingly, traditional brick and mortar and B-to-B businesses are reaping benefits – and raking in sales – by creating digitally-driven brands.

Let’s review a familiar example: Best Buy. They’re still an electronics store with lots of semi-annoying helpers in blue. The face-to-face experience will never go away. It’s just enhanced by a bevy of online communication tools.

For example, customers can reserve products online (on a phone or a computer) and pick them up in stores.

Once they take products home, they can talk in real-time to Best Buy’s customer service folks through Twelpforce, a group of 2,200 Best Buy employees who answer customers’ questions and solve issues via Twitter.

If customers come up with grand ideas that would make their experiences better (a key component of branding), they can share them at Best Buy’s IdeaX.

Best Buy has tackled everything from creating a streamlined mobile site to customer and employee forums, blogs, and Facebook applications on their fan page. They’re all over digital branding. In other words, they create positive customer experiences through the tools, accessibility and information they provide online.

Now, I know you’re thinking: well of course she believes in digital branding…she works at a digital agency! And that’s fair. As an early adopter and digital marketing geek, it’s easy to see why I’d be a proponent. But there are plenty of people backing me up these days. And there is plenty of new research that supports the theory. An example? How about this Razorfish report about digital experiences driving brands. I think you might like it.

Slide 8 is my favorite:

• 65% of consumers have had a digital experience change their opinion about a brand.
• 97% of consumers say their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.
  

So tell me: how do your customers experience your brand in this Digital Age?

Miranda McCage is an Associate Digital Strategist at MediaSauce. She’d like to hear about how you’re developing a brand with digital. Contact Miranda at 317-284-5683, on Twitter @mirandamccage or email her at miranda.mccage@mediasauce.com.

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How does a company that desires to break the mold of an ‘agency’ or ‘web design company’ or ‘creative shop’ figure out what to call itself?

A few weeks ago I told the story behind the inspiration that prompted MediaSauce. I promised at that time to also give some insight into how our name came into being.

Looking up the definition of ‘sauce’ in the dictionary gives a wide variety of results, but I’d summarize the overall points to:

1. adding flavor, moisture and visual appeal to dishes – often a unique element to cuisines around the world
2. to give piquance or zest- to spice up the experience
3. to add value and change the ordinary into something unique

The term ‘sauce’ really stuck with us as we looked at all the amazing things our creative team was capable of putting together – and the dreams and ambitions we had for the company in our early days.

Add sauce to the term ‘media’ (derived from the creative team’s artistic background working with ‘media’ of various sorts) and we had an option.

Turns out, the deciding factor was that mediasauce.com was an available domain for us to buy.

Name? Check!

Logo? Oy! A whole other set of issues.

Our original tagline was “tastefully blended digital bits of information” with the steam being a cute assimilation of 1’s and 0’s. A bit too literal perhaps (Hey, I admit we’ve grown our branding experience and team skills exponentially since those early days.), but the concept was on point. In the early days our commitment and belief focused on the fundamental shift in brands, conversion, and commerce migrating to a 24/7 online world.

A good cook once told me that a great sauce must shift to the meals it is being prepared for.

It couldn’t be more true. Today, we’ve morphed MediaSauce into a firm that deals in all forms of media, from traditional to events to experiences, all centered around online integration that leverages digital and social media to create a whole new result.

In a world where commoditization of products and communication has created a high degree of confusion, boredom, and disengagement, having the right sauce is critical. Understanding that every meal (and business situation is different) requires the acumen and experience to adapt those past experiences for the current challenge at hand.

We didn’t know how our business would evolve, yet seven years later the name MediaSauce couldn’t be any more relevant.

What’s in your sauce?

The challenge for your business is to decide what’s in your secret sauce as you transform your company for the digital world ahead. What are you going to blend or create that provides a more flavorful experience for your audiences? A lot of companies are experimenting with new ingredients, but many are failing to lead the way hoping that the same-old ingredients will be enough to get through.

We’re seeing sauces being created all around us: creating new, fresh and inspiring work. The same won’t do. We can’t afford it; it doesn’t resonate, and it’s not what consumers in this Interconnected Age are expecting. I dare you to add a little spice to your business – or risk missing out on the opportunities ahead.

Bryan Gray is co-founder and CEO of MediaSauce. He’d like to hear about the moment of inspiration that sparked your business. Contact Bryan at 317-218-0500, on Twitter @bryansgray or email him at bryan.gray@mediasauce.com.

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Creating platforms to demonstrate and build company culture is an increasingly important strategy in building a work force for our 24/7 economy. With so much uncertainty, being a strong community within our organization is critical as we work to maintain talent, maximize productivity and generate a culture that helps us recruit the right talent for the future.

Last week I visited with the HR leadership and employee culture committee at one of Indiana’s largest and most successful manufacturers to hold a workshop on how  social media and employee engagement can spur a new found desire to become part of your company community.

The  presentation focused on several important topics, including:

• The world is changing – and company newsletters and picnics are no longer having ‘value’ as an organization’s communication tool
• What platforms and tool can help you activate employees to take ownership of their culture and inspire awareness?
• What do your employees really care about in life and work that you can capitalize on to inspire them to connect with colleagues?
• What are the rules for successful employment engagement and activation?
• What makes a company culture viral, in the online world? more

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Several months ago a client of MediaSauce challenged me to consider why he should tell his sales force they have to change following one of the Sales 2.0 seminars I give. As someone who has interfaced and challenged existing sales approaches for most of my career, I was zealous to give input on the topic. The result was a diatribe that finished with our client asking simply, “Could you write that down?”

I did, and later the manifesto was published in The Social Media Bible as part of the contribution MediaSauce made to this important book.  And now, I share it here with our readers of the MediaSauce blog.

Why do we sell the same way we always have? Because it’s safe and reliable. Because it’s what we know. Because we’ve become entrenched in thinking that what we have to say is what our customers want to hear. Because it has worked for the past (insert your number of) years! more

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