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What makes an effective Digital Strategy and Planning?
Open Planning comes associated with the concept of a solid Digital strategy in a social business environment. Being the definition of Digital associated to the idea from strategy: the process of specifying an organization’s vision, goals, opportunities and initiatives in order to maximize the business benefits for its digital investments.
In the fields of strategic management, marketing strategy and operational strategy Open Planning is a new concept we want to present as a way of preparing an effective planning of digital efforts for a given business. These efforts can range from an enterprise or organisation focus, which considers the broader opportunities and risks that digital strategies potentially creates. A solid digital strategy and planning has to include a solid insight into customer intelligence, collaboration processes, new product/market exploration, sales and service optimization, the right enterprise technology architectures, a clear and open innovation and governance. Having this in consideration can augment the results of Planning.
Open Planning some areas to highlight in a Digital Strategy
In order to have a strong digital strategy and aim towards the concept of Open Planning some areas to highlight:
1. Be focused to a given audience, network: Identify and find its key influencers and map it;
2. Understand the interactive DNA of web and social networks as a basis for planning;
3. Understand how to match the design of a given message with the perception and network of its audience;
4. Focus in creation, evaluation and implementation of ideas which delivers results;
5. Measure analytics, data, its value and what it is exactly worth;
6. Work in the long term engagement loop and how to exploit it;
7. Develop a regular calendar and programme for continuous activity and its improvement;
8. Evaluate clear KPIs and the way to ROI and ROA achievement.
A good Planning for a Digital strategy seeks to bridge the gaps between technology, the creative idea, in order to reach the right user. This has to be done with well-defined business objectives and a clear undertansing of the brand story telling.
In the present digital realm, individuals, brands, corporations, governments all participate. Social Media technology is converting viewers into active users. Thus any user is a potential advocate. Though advocacy doesn’t come with risk and responsibility, and it is not free. The creation of value comes associated with a compelling evangelism. Ultimately a digital strategy is planning the best way on how to reach an audience and have them stand to a given purpose.
The objective of Open Planning
Failling on planning a process is a problem that stops building a brand and its business. Failling in planning will not enable effective participation and utility to consumers. So the objective of Open Planning for a strong digital strategy is to create an order to unlock the value for brands. This process has to define the creating of a generous interactions for brands, businesses and their products and services.
So planning an effective Media needs to be driven by the language of actions and demands clear input on what is being required to people to do with the brand and its ideas. This in an open way that the social media graph ultimately highlights.
Identifying the digital strategy for a business and its engagement is a powerful opportunity thus it requires:
1. Understanding the business purpose that the digital planning can help solve
2. Be open and listen to consumers who talk about and use brands
3. Identify consumer needs in a given category/brand and define the role it wants people to play in its ideas, and the role of digital within the mix
4. Find the best solutions to the business problem, focusing on end user value and participation.
5. Listen, listen! to the consumer needs and reaction(s), and analyze previously defined participation paterns and metrics
Open Planning is about creating the best digital strategy for the right empowerment of a given industry, its customers and do it though the open business DNA that engages employees, the consumerization of technology, and grass-roots-based, tech-enabled innovation and solutions.
The subtle charm of Pinterest
CommentSince March 2010, Pinterest has been attracting millions of users, who use the site to share and explore their interests by ‘pinning’ all the things that they find interesting on their profiles in a way that both allows for visual self-expression and helps users to organise and display what they think is worth sharing. The website has no visible advertising such as pop-ups and banners and creates a safe environment for sharing information, which is probably the reason why Pinterest’s referral rate is reportedly higher than that of Google+, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and MySpace combined (as written by Meghan Casserly for Forbes). The posting of “pins” is easy and not as time-consuming as blogging. The visual and expressionistic way in which the users can share their information creates a sense of community with a subtle charm that the bigger social networks such as Facebook seem to lack. The main difference here is the sense of trust that Pinterest appears to inspire in its users, which has only been mildly shaken by the recent revelation that the site embeds tracking codes into the links that the users post to affiliate commercial websites to generate profit from the sales resulting from its referrals.
Whilst advertising on Facebook is a relatively simple task due to its openly commercial nature, Pinterest’s strength lies in its non-threatening character, where users can recommend items, but don’t feel the need to keep their guard up against aggressive advertising. It creates an atmosphere of openness and sharing that is almost intimate. From a business perspective, this very quality of the website is what makes it so unique. How then to collect and utilise this precious consumer data without compromising Pinterest’s charm and without antagonising its users?
One of the ways in which businesses can potentially profit from the website is to utilise the very quality that makes outright advertising on it an unviable option. Pinterest allows people to explore their interests and to comment on each other’s findings. This gives a wealth of opportunity for companies to ask customers some questions about the direction in which they should take their services or products. For instance, as Pinterest is an intrinsically visual medium, it could help collect valuable customer feedback on product design. This of course requires the kind of openness that a lot of businesses may still shirk from, but the potential benefits could be significant. Sharing information and publicly asking users about what they want on a public forum such as Pinterest can help to build trust and improve products as well as brand awareness. Also, since user profiles reflect their general interests, and not just their opinion on a particular brand, it might be a brilliant opportunity for a company to see what appeals to the public about its competitors and to get an honest assessment of how to improve its product or service.
Pinterest, if used carefully, can potentially become a fantastic marketing tool that can help to develop products and services collaboratively with the other users. The crucial point, however, is to utilise this network whilst respecting its unique intimate character, without attempting to aggressively market or advertise a busines