Maize is a staple food in Kenya, but farm families are hard put to survive the months between harvests.

Nuru International, a nonprofit cofounded by Jake Harriman, MBA ’08, introduced the area’s farmers to crop rotation and other modern methods in late 2008 and then offered them loans for fertilizer and high-yield seeds.

This is the story of Nuru foundation, which founder and CEO Jake Harriman attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served over 7 years in the Marine Corps as an Infantry Platoon Commander and a Special Operations Platoon Commander for an elite unit called Force Recon.

using the power of Social Media, Nuru foundation is growing the awareness of their cause and gaining new sympathisers.

Beautifully executed.

How Nuru Works from Nuru International on Vimeo.

The End (Jake’s Story) from Nuru International on Vimeo.

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There are way too many articles about Social media benefits, importance etc.

Even though we all know Social Media can be used for business in different ways (sales, research, customer services, branding, etc) when reality knocks on the door it is a different story.

A simple search on Google will present tons of how/why/when to use Social Media, but (with all respect) most of these guides have been written by users for users.When it comes to selling internally for your company the story changes.

Recent research by EMarketer lists where the level of resistance to Social Media in organisations is higher.

Not a surprise as the higher the executive position the more Social Media Resistance will be found.

You are probably wondering why resistance to Social Media is higher among CEO’s?

My instant response would be, it’s his/her ass on the line. If something goes wrong, they are the first to blame.

People are creatures of habit and CEOs are no different.

It’s just natural for human beings to try to preserve the status quo and to avoid changes leading to  places they don’t know. Fear of the unknown, can manifest in excuses / barriers.

Though 70% of US marketing, management and HR executives say they plan to increase social-media use at their companies, more than 80% say  they are concerned about the risks, and most do not have policies or training in place to avert reputation mishaps or lost productivity.

From a management perspective, the common Global (American) business culture (top-down) might be a tough environment to achieve full social media internal engagement.

Too often I hear consultancy agencies speak about how ’social media’ can be used to achieve a ‘flatter’ organisation. Well, it’s true but the key is to have leaders who understand that they have to adjust their management / leadership habits to allow innovative thinking and to support the process of it, and that’s exactly where the attrition starts.

From MCharts

“Ignoring the need for responsible guidelines can leave an organisation open to unnecessary risk and can impede efforts to use social media proactively and competitively in the marketplace,” said Carol Russell, CEO of Russell Herder.

“Rather than bypass the social media opportunity, organizations should embrace it while taking steps to educate their team about internal guidelines and best practices,”

According to Ethos President David Baer, good social media policies are organisation-specific, but must take into consideration the form, substance, philosophy and culture of the organisation.

Good policies should include “the need to respect confidential and proprietary information; as well as the sensitivity of potential conflicts of interest,” he added.

A recent study by Nucleus Research found that social networking costs employers 1.5% in lost productivity.

Ok, companies should embrace it, but what to do and how to sell it internally?

Companies should be more methodical in their approach to social media, better educating themselves on risks and benefits, and putting into place plans and policies to produce benefits while also minimising risk.

You still need to overcome the internal resistance, how?

From Chris Brogan

“You’re probably the most passionate person in your company when it comes to social media. When it comes to explaining this to your senior leadership, a different approach is required. They’re busy. They have other concerns. They might not be as studied up on the tools as you.

Here are some suggestions.
1) Start strong – “I’m thinking that a blog will improve our marketing efforts and overall SEO. I’ve built a plan that shows rough costs, time involvement, and my predictions of what we’ll get for our efforts.”
2) Explain things from the senior view.
3) Use case studies.
4) Find and keep a senior sponsor for the project
5) Finding your top competitor already using the tools, that’s won several social media enthusiasts the chance to get things going.”

At The Online Circle we always find that showing what competition is doing is highly appreciated by CEOs’.

It does 2 things:

1) It gives them a sense of safety and reliability

2) It arouse their sense of competitiveness

After that we then guide them through a logical process, bringing to the light some normally over-looked aspects (liability, IT, Human Resources, etc)

To break the shell isn’t easy, but approaching CEO’s and high level executives with a different language, with a non clear plan and without a solid real case is almost asking for a big No.

SUN TZU on The Art of war:

Now the general who wins a battle makes many
calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few
calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations
lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat:
how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention
to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

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Watching GrueTransfer yesterday, they closed the show with the worst ad ever (below).
I don’t think this is the worst Ad ever. Aesthetically can be horrendous however it has its place.

“The beauty of the internet is that no one is a minority. Everyone has a voice.”

There are business just for everyone who is ready to do business and has the courage of doing what is right for their target market using creativity.

Let me tell a quick story.

“Paddi Lund… he’s a dentist in Brisbane that shocked the dental world by firing his clients… he then halved his client base and doubled his profits and works half the time. You see, dentists have the second highest suicide rate of any profession. And one day paddi was going to work depressed as hell, and got to thinking… What do I hate about my business. The answer was most of his clients, the sterile environment… the whole drill, fill and bill process.

So he broke his clients into A, B and C clients. “A” clients loved what he did, paid on time and told their friends. C clients always complained, turned up late and bitched about his fees. So he wrote to all the C clients and told them to find another dentist. He then LOCKED his doors and put a sign up saying… if you’re a client, ring the bell we’ll let you in. If you’re not a client there’s a dentist up the road.

He then took an axe to his business and put in an oven and a cappucino machine.

Now here’s the best bit… The only way you could become a client of Paddis was someone had to REFER you. IN fact the referral bit was a condition of doing business with him”.

You can read more about him here

Please watch one of the videos and let me know are Fred and Sharon that bad?

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Described by Wall Street Journal and Times Magazine one of the most powerful men in the World, Eric Schmidt is not just Google’s CEO (since 2001) and Apple’s board member, but also USA President’s adviser.

Eric Schmidt’s talks to CNBC’s Bill Griffeth clarifying the buzz around Google taking over Twitter and answers interesting questions as:

- Insight on the economic downturn – How does becoming green makes Google more profitable?

- The future of communications systems and mobile advertising,

- Is Google buying Twitter?

- Neither Co-Founders Page & Brin, and Erik were given bonuses

- All forms of Advertising will be affected by financial boom.

What’s your opinion?

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Now and then I check my spam folder for a couple of reasons:

1) in case any expected email went missed there.

2) it gives me some ideas for keywords.

Scanning and deleting I found an interesting one about Persistence;

“Dear Lucio,

One of my favorite quotes is from Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

And never was he more right than now, when in the middle of the worst economy in living memory, when conditions are dire enough to lead to talk of the Great Depression of the 1930s, business owners are battening down the hatches and just waiting to “ride out” the storm.

Waiting for this to end will kill your business. It will be a long, painful wait. It’s as simple as that. You have to be proactive and that proactivity will be driven by persistence.

Yet you’ll notice if you look around you, there are some businesses which are not only “getting by” in these difficult times but are actually growing. I have members of my Platinum personal consulting group who can’t cope with the number of leads coming into their business. All those who do well share the same characteristic: “persistence”.

There’s no doubt about it: Recession is here and we’re in the middle of it. And every day the media is showing you the worst of the worst. This can effect how you feel, day to day. The solution? A commitment to persistence.

And no one is pretending it’s easy. It takes a certain mettle to keep your doors open when business is hard to get. It’s tempting to give in, and let it all fall apart. That’s the easy way out though.

But you can be smart about it. Because YOU know all the marketing tips, strategies, and techniques I’ve shared with you… and you know they work. YOU know how business is a matter of finding out what people want rather than what they need, and then giving it to them.

You KNOW price is not an issue and it’s all about value. You KNOW how to do all this.

You know that if you turn your website into a lead-generation website rather than a ‘sales’ site you can improve your results by hundreds of per cent.
Yet it takes courage and fortitude to “do it all” when everyone else is doing the opposite. It’s hard to plug away with your marketing when everyone else is cutting back.

But, right now, this recession DOES represent a grand opportunity to anyone prepared to stand firm against fear, uncertainty and doubt. Advertising costs are at an all-time low, and all your competitors will have slashed their budgets and be running scared.

Your customers still have money and most still want what you have to sell… if only you can go that extra distance to show them the value in what you offer.
I’m not talking about positive thinking. We’re backing this up with solid, advanced Marketing and Internet Marketing strategies. But the thing that’s going to get you to IMPLEMENT these strategies when everyone else is moaning is persistence. It always pays off. Eventually when you hit that “sweet spot” in your marketing, you’ll find you’ve cracked it – and your business with grow and grow, regardless of the economy.”

I then received from Jeff Richardson a poem:

“When things go wrong as they sometimes will.
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill.

When funds are low and the debts are high.
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about.
When he might have won had he stuck it out:

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow ?
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out ?
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far:

So stick to the fight when you?re hardest hit ?
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown”

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

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I just finished reading the The Inside Advantage book by Robert Bloom and I need to say I’m impressed and excited.

Excited because, in two weeks time, I’m meeting Mr Bloom himself and interviewing him for this humble blog.

Impressed because this man is just impressive.

A little background.

Robert Bloom was, for a long time, U.S. C.E.O. of advertising giant Publicis Worldwide, responsible for countless marketing campaigns and the direct boss of countless arses.

This man is an authority on business growth. Currently working as consultant, he’s now in Australia for the National Growth Summit 2009.

And it impressed me greatly that Bob (we’re closer now) probably has a tight agenda and yet he’s still stopping by to talk to a blogger. He GETS it!

Hey, big guys and internet experts are you listening reading this?

Anyway, back to the book,

This book offers a four step process for Business Growth.

Each step is broken down into its own components.

The four steps of the big picture are:

1) Find your CORE customers. Beyond demographics; beyond what you may think of when you think of your customers. It is interesting to look at possibilities for the WHO and consider all of the options, such as defining your core customers based on their value, being the best braggers for your product, being the biggest customers, having the longest relationship with you, being the least likely to complain, being the most likely to repeat their business, being the most likely to not repeat and why. Then you may want to identify these same customers in your competitor’s base. Do a little demographic shifting and look at the next step.

2) Discover and deliver your uncommon offering, just listen to your core customers. They will tell you what you do best and why they buy it from you. You will want to examine this from an external and internal base. Writing down all of the ideas and phases people use to describe your offering and distill it down to a statement of 10 to 15 words.

3) Develop persuasive strategies in written statements for action. Grow your business through refining your communication and thought association for your company and it’s offering. For me, this book read like some of the better branding books I’ve read lately, but in a short abbreviated chapter. This is a lesson in statements in action to immediately associate your offering with your company.

4) Imaginative acts. This relates to creative public relations or publicity stunts that are tied to your uncommon offering and for the benefit of your core customers. There are some very good examples of what other companies have done most of which you will be familiar with.

Good, good. It all seems like the old and good USP revisited but in much more depth.

However it’s not just that.

This book provides a simple plan for growth through solid, proven marketing principles and business simplification. Not bad for though financial times isn’t?

Any questions for Mr Bloom?

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Lots of discussion have been around about Social Media and its possibility for businesses to create a new way to communicate with their clients or prospects.

According to my pal James Duthie there’s not such a thing as boreness on the Social Media Land.

However I’d like to invert the discussion a little and explore another view about Social Media.

In our current financial crisis Staff Retention is key to keep businesses going.

I briefly touched bases with the Topic of Social Media and Staff on a Post about Facebook.

A study on workforce trends conducted by Manpower, has revealed the urgency of adopting more effective employee retention programmes to attain both competitiveness and profitability in markets.

Another study from SmartCompany Australia revealed that Staff retention is the second biggest concern for business owners after profitability.

So how to use  social media as a tool for Staff Retention?

Simple answer is, I don’t really know!

I wish I could answer the question however I’m not an expert neither an Specialist on the subject.

Having said that, I’d like to invite you to join me on the HR Futures Conference 2009, organbized by my friend Michael Specht.

Michael is with no doubt an authority when it comes to application of  “Web 2.0” tools and techniques for HR in companies of all sizes.

His Conference will bring together speakers covering all areas of HR, Recruiting and Technology to discuss how social media, innovation, culture and technology empower, attract, engage and evolve employees.

Looking forward to see people like Michael, Steven and Riges talking

Check the event page here.

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

www.twitter.com/lucio_ribeiro

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