Clearly time is of the essence with wine. Each varietal and vintage is different, though. This is applicable to your company, its brand and your campaigns. The exact time, however, cannot be precisely determined from the outset. The components are planned and you have a general idea, but like wine, you have to monitor and engage in status checks to ensure you’re on track.

So how does time impact your company’s message or brand itself? To explore this answer, let’s look at the new Domino’s Pizza campaign.

For decades they served the same pizza and a drastic change clearly became necessary. Their wine, so to speak, had become sour and distasteful – evident from the focus groups and taste testings. They stuck with the same pizza for too long, allowing for a shift in consumer’s tastes which ultimately led to competitors surpassing Domino’s in popularity. Rather than patch the image and fix “the sour bottle of wine,” they threw it out completely in favor of a new recipe.

So how do you avoid becoming completely out of touch with your audience? How can you monitor the aging of your image to ensure you are achieving the full complexities (goals) you initially hoped to achieve? There is no single answer, but there are some steps you can take to stay focused and engaged.

Define a clear vision from the outset
In project management, the term is “scope creep.” If you do not concisely detail what you hope to achieve through your campaign goals and tactics to reach those goals, it’s very simple to lose track of the goal line. New ideas are great, but compounding your campaign with dozens of new strategies when you haven’t even implemented and monitored the success (or lack) of those strategies, you can quickly get in over your head and lose track of what was the campaign’s original messaging and vision. A lack of clear vision can lead to a campaign splintered with multiple messages firing haphazardly in all directions.

Monitor tactic responses
How is your new website doing – lower bounce rates, higher conversion rates? What are consumers saying about your product on social media sites? By engaging customers directly, does there seem to be an increase in satisfaction? Monitoring these responses will allow you to change your tactics as needed based on which mediums are the most successful for achieving your goals. Additionally, new opportunities that align with your goals may present themselves, and you need to be able to adapt readily, constantly aware of the environment in which your business operates.

Don’t be afraid to do a 180
Domino’s Pizza took a complete 180-degree turn. The signs indicated there was a need for immediate change. They didn’t jump the gun, though. Thorough research and a well-conceived marketing plan have led to success in their campaign. Consumers are giving their pizza another chance – more importantly, people actually like the pizza now! If your campaign isn’t working, if your brand is out of touch with your audience or if technology indicates a shift in your strategy is necessary, don’t let fear keep you clinging to that bottle of vinegar-wine.

So what is your brand’s varietal? The technology industry is quickly changing and improving. Young companies start up and campaigns may be completed and reinvented within a year’s timeframe, rather than decade. Technology companies just might have the perfect grapes for a Pinot Noir. Larger companies, such as Nike, have been running on their campaigns for years – a seriously robust Cabernet Sauvignon.

Your varietal depends on your unique ingredients.

How is your campaign or brand ranking today? Are you in tune with your customers? Is it time to evaluate your position or are you going strong with your Merlot? The competitive environment continues to change rapidly and you might be surprised how your wine (brand) has aged over the years.

Agencies, both large and small, spend countless hours researching consumer behaviors and habits in order to finely tune your unique selling proposition.What are your competitors strengths? What makes your market unique? How is your product finely tuned to address needs of that unique market?

Time, sweat and tears are poured into researching consumer behavior and collecting competitive intelligence. But how are we doing defining ourselves? A recent non-scientific poll of yours truly discovered I in fact had scored a big sloppy “F.” My passion is my clients, but as an entrepreneur, I also need to balance that client-focused passion with a little self-love, so to speak.

So how am I taking the proverbial bull by the horns and making a change in my case of mistaken identity? For me, it boils down to getting out of a “rut” and continually expanding my horizons, as well as not being afraid to be unique.

1. Showing a little personality. I’m a no nonsense, let’s get to business kind of gal. However, I also love a fine glass of wine and conversation with random strangers at the bar. So how do I let my hair down while still commanding a professional presence? Well, just let me know how I’m doing over the course of the next few months…
2. Not being afraid to tackle challenges that are less than underwhelming. We all have the tendency to let emails collect in our inbox. You know the ones of which I speak – those “chores” that are a) slightly mundane or b) a step outside of your comfort zone. Find those challenges and tackle them – immediately. But not all at once. These challenges not only build character, but force you to continue growing various business skills. Challenge yourself to expand your horizons and you just might discover a skill that becomes an added value to current and prospective clients.
3. Spending time learning and networking is time well spent. With a finite number of hours in the day, business development and extended education tend to take the back burner. Sure clients are priority and deadlines must be met, but don’t rush through that RSS feed, take notes during the webinar and categorize those bookmarks! It’s okay to spend 15% of your time networking and attending lectures or webinars. There is a vast amount of information out there, and so many phenomenal resources offering tutorials and white papers. You spend time finding those trusted sources, so why wouldn’t you spend time studying what they have to offer you?

What’s holding you back from building your company? You might not need a full-time agency, but a qualified consultant can help you address the root of the problem. Is your sales team too lean? Would new software help track inventory better to decrease losses? Does your internal marketing team need to brush up on new Internet marketing techniques?

Sometimes the question can best be answered by a pair of fresh, external eyes.

Companies have repeatedly invested millions of dollars in the latest technological advancements, only to find the large outlay of capital had little to no impact on the company’s profitability. Why is this?

Let’s consider the fact each company has a core competency; whether this be superior customer service, cutting-edge innovation, superior human resource relationships or manufacturing excellence. These competencies drive the direction of the company. Technology, however, does not. It may be a symptom of success, but is not the prescription.

It’s true technology can make life easier, increase productivity and ultimately may help management to focus on larger issues pertaining to profitability. Unfortunately, new technologies can often become championed by individuals who have lost sight of the company’s competencies.

For instance, let’s consider an insurance company who provides superior customer service and timely settlement of automobile claims by emphasizing the empowerment of staff. These employees have the ability to make decisions and judgment calls while in the field. An expansion of services or product lines to increase customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth referral would need to be tailored around this core competency of superior service and professional expertise. New technologies may or may not enhance this competitive advantage. The key is to assess improvements which in fact improve your staffs’ ability to improve claims handling and improve customer relation. If, following research and competency assessments, technology is deemed to be beneficial, then new technologies may be implemented. What if, however, these new technologies didn’t help with improving customer satisfaction and only increased administration expenses? How would the purchase of these new systems have helped to increase profitability?

Bottom line, technology should not be the driving factor; the business itself should. Technology can be wonderful, but it may also be overwhelming and have negative impacts for a business whose competencies are not dependent upon the newest upgrade.

Consider your business needs before jumping on the bandwagon. Remember, not every new gadget is applicable to your field of business, just as every social networking site may not be advantageous for building your brand.

How much of that power is maintained by consumer relationships, and how quickly can that power be ruined by poor marketing communications?

Poorly managed communications can lead to negative word of mouth advertising, the most powerful form of marketing. In this instance, brand loyalty will only carry a company so far as a mismanaged campaign spins out of control.

Social media and online marketing has proven itself a powerful source of monitoring consumer goodwill, or lack thereof. Online monitoring of blogs, social media sites and news feeds, can assist with research for the development of your marketing communciation message.

Pros of Using Social Monitoring

Real time tracking of social opinions, feelings
There are numerous software platforms for tracking comments and social interactions on any given topic. Companies have the option to track what individuals (consumers, trade, competitors, etc.) are saying real-time. Traditional mass media often offers a delay in such feedback. As industries become saturated and increased competition turns to cannibalism, the advantages of targeted, insightful feedback can be translated into competitive advantages.

Cross-analysis on multiple online platforms
Technology allows companies to compare noise across numerous digital platforms: blogs, news sites, micro-blogging sites (Twitter), social community sites (Facebook, MySpace) and social bookmarking sites (Digg, De.li.cious). Analysis of mentions and conversations across these different platforms can assist in determining where marketing communication efforts may need to be adjusted. For instance, a product press release may become popular on a social bookmarking site. This exposure may seem beneficial, but if the campaign was directed at high-profile blogs, the effort may have missed the mark. Historically, these public relations efforts have been difficult to track.

Quick response to potentially detrimental rumors
Pardon the weak analogy, but rumors spread like wildfire on the Internet. Capturing false accusations or rumors at the start may help to curb the nightmare of crisis communications. On the other hand, not all rumors are disastrous. Dependent upon the industry and the context of the rumor, some white lies may actually enhance a company’s brand. For instance, the rumor Apple is in talks with Verizon to launch the iPhone on their network has helped to increase awareness for the product itself. A word of caution: don’t start rumors internally to create hype. This can easily backfire.

Social Monitoring Pitfalls to Avoid

Difficulty in separating target audiences or publics
Identification of different target audiences becomes increasingly difficult on the Internet. The anonymity of individuals can lead to clusters of unique audiences within one social sphere. The increased ability to reach all of the individuals is powerful, but remember the targeted messages are unique. When monitoring an individual’s opinion, careful analysis of the messenger must be taken into consideration. An opponent of your product may be loud, but not within your target. You’ll want to soothe relations to mitigate damage caused by that individual, but changing your product’s message probably isn’t ideal. This person isn’t a consumer and may never be a consumer. You can’t win them all, so you must understand the motives of each online community member.

Noise may be louder than actual universal opinions
This item is very similar to the separation of target audiences. Some individuals are very, very loud. Their voice may be much louder than their influence. This factor must be taken into consideration before responding with internal or external changes to your messaging. Remember the majority is often quiet. If universal opinions have not changed, you may have merely discovered a way to tap into the opposition. Perhaps a different campaign can be directed at the opponent audience, but your other messages may still be on mark.

Too much emphasis on trivial details
Trends become apparent very quickly within the online community. Many of these trends disappear just as quickly as they arrived. Daily monitoring of the blogosphere can often place too much emphasis on trivial details. The big picture must always be driving the goals of your company. The microenvironment, though important, isn’t indicative of the macroenvironment. Monitoring for trends is key. It’s when trends turn into something larger and longterm that you may need to start adjusting the tone of your message.

The Internet offers an opportunity to enhance a company’s product or service through rich digital analysis. The rules for offline marketing communications apply in full force to the digital media. The different is the potential for information overload.

The informal nature of social media must be monitored. Your brand is represented through the actions of each of your employees. While you may not view those employees as the official mouthpiece of your company, your audience might.

Effective social media campaigns must balance the fun, informal, social aspect of the medium with the need to remain professional. Think of social media as an after hour trade association mixer. Would you jump on the bar and scream obscenities, all the while with your company logo on your t-shirt? I hope not.

Clearly social media presents some dangers to your brand. Behind your computer you may feel invincible. It may be tempting to voice your true opinions if you are having a bad day. Your best bet, however, is to immediately log off your social media accounts and steer clear of any damaging remarks. Once posted, those remarks become indicative of your brand.

Although an employee may not be an official brand ambassador, they may be perceived as such from an outside perspective. Below are some topics to avoid when representing your company officially or unofficially.

1. Negative Comments about Company or Products
Individuals often voice their frustrations about work and coworkers. While these types of conversations are normal with friends after hours, posting comments such as “my coworkers are idiots” or “this company is such a waste of time” might not be the best use of your employees’ time during company hours. Monitoring your employees’ accounts, without being a control freak, is advisable. Official company guidelines may help, but balance the need for control with the need for employees to enjoy themselves.

2. Confidential Information
News and commentary spreads quickly through the social media networks. Update confidentiality agreements to include social media. A mindless slip from one coworker to another is connected to the rest of the world. Make sure your employees are not using social media for discussing proprietary work-related items.

3. Competitor Name Calling
No one likes mean-spirited individuals; in your case, this individual may be representative of the company. Whether this is true or not, it’s worthwhile to ensure your employees are not degrading the competition. Within the global environment, situations change quickly and your competition may become  a key ally. Competitiveness is encouraged, but there is a line between fun competition and inappropriate commentary. Additionally, modesty and respect are admirable qualities worth achieving.

4. Inter-office Gossip
The tendency to gossip is everywhere. Your employees see each other more often than they see their families. Different personalities forced to coexist can cause friction. Inter-office gossip and drama should be kept off social media. As representatives of your brand, your employees embody the true personality of the company. Companies which try to foster team work and successfully manage internal turmoil are better equipped to avoid negative branding via social media. You don’t need to hold pep rallies and turn the office into a cheer leading squad, but management should be aware of internal conflicts and be trained to respond to damaging situations.

Social media is supposed to be fun, but your company’s brand must be managed and monitored closely. An internal approach of respect toward employees is a positive step toward embodying a responsible brand.

These words are money to the ears of a web developer, and should be tragedy to every online marketer. All too often business owners don’t hire the right team to develop their online brand.

In 1997, the development of a website was relatively straightforward. Since that time, Google has come to the forefront, monitoring online trends and categorizing pages with regard to the science known as search engine optimization.

Your website is much more than pretty pictures and appealing content. In order to be competitive and successfully maintain visibility on the Internet you need a team of qualified individuals, each surgeons in their respective fields. Your ideal team may look something like the following:

• Project Manager
• Art Director
• Programmer
• SEO Technician
• Copywriter
• Consumer Behavior/Functionality Specialist
• IT/Security Technician

Unless you are a medium-to-large company, you don’t have the resources to maintain a staff of this size, much less even hire these individuals for a short-term web design project.

Now that I’ve beaten you down and implied to you that your website is worthless without this support staff, there is a silver lining. While the above team may be the ideal team, you’re not Microsoft. You can have a successful website by keeping in mind the following rules.

1. Google doesn’t read pretty pictures.
Yes, your site may be a splendor at which to look, but let’s look at its organs (the structure and back-end coding). Search engine optimization best practices won’t get you on page one of Google for competitive keywords, but it won’t expel you from the solar system either. Your best competitors have already employed the best practices, and Google likes this…a lot.

Understanding the function of CSS, alt tags, title tags, keyword density, anchor links and a whole host of other optimization terms is critical.

Do your homework and make sure your web developer employs these best practices. These are not an added value, they are a must; just as contact information is a must for any website.

2. Content assists with driving traffic
If your website doesn’t say anything, how will people find you by using common keywords in a search engine. “If you build it they will come” does NOT apply.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve had someone insinuate that all they needed was a website to be successful.

That’s as insane as me assuming a shop in the middle of the an Arizona desert specializing in child-safe sandboxes will have instant foot traffic. Not going to happen. Aside from the fact it’s a stupid business model, no one is going to find me. Plus, who wants to purchase a sandbox when your competition (the desert itself) already has you beat?

Keyword-rich content is the driving factor. Google is able to index your content and rank the content according to its relevance with regard to users’ keyword queries.

3. Navigation and organization remains
If you entered a grocery store to find toilet paper and cosmetics in the produce section and raw meat in the toothpaste aisle, I don’t think you’d be visiting that store again too soon.

This is the essence of your website. Easy navigation, clear signs and site maps all serve to direct your visitors. You may have a wonderful product or service, but if your customers cannot locate any of the items, you lose.

Before developing any website, outline all the pages, categories and items within a wireframe format. This approach will help to mitigate headaches when the development process begins.

4. Your online roadmap directs traffic
Customers can’t find you if you haven’t built a road map. Online marketing activities such as pay-per-click advertising, backlink development, blogs, press releases and social media help place your website on the map. Any retail location must develop a marketing campaign. Why is your website any different?

The answer is it’s not any different. The medium and tools have changed dramatically, but the principles are the same. You must market and advertise your products or services.

Your New Team
I’ve summed up your team into four individuals:

1. Search engine optimization specialist (your developer should have one on hand)
2. Proficient copywriter, knowledgeable of your industry
3. Web developer skilled in organization and wireframe
4. Marketing or public relations specialist to develop and manage your campaign

Although your budget may not be large, you must incorporate these four necessary items. Many individuals encompass more than one of these skills. It’s your job to ask the question.