Well this week I have a new reason. Together with my friend, colleague and boss Patrick Ashamalla, we are launching a book this week at the SXSW conference in Austin. BRAND GUILDS takes on the challenge of proactively building the brand you want to have – be it for your company, your organization or yourself.

We are launching a “preview” this week which serves as an outline and insight into what’s to come this year. A “thicker” book is next along with an electronic version and blog discussions. Check it out. And if you want a book, just ask!

So enjoy!  And find something to believe!

• Do what is right for your organization – no more, no less! • Do your homework! Define your audience and write those personas – you’ll be glad you did! • The more people you involve to support your online endeavors, the more imperative it will be to have some policies and guidelines in place to guide content creation. What’s appropriate to blog? Do you have to watch your language because children are listening? Do you have a policy about “tagging” photos in facebook? You get the idea. This is a new world and it evolves fast so your guidelines may have to be reviewed a couple times throughout the year. • Be sure you are getting signed waivers from people who appear in photos and videos both in print and online. • Your Web site may need to be ADA compliant so be sure you and your support team knows what that means and how to do it. • Allow your audience to guide you. If your user community is going nuts on Facebook then spend time there. This isn’t giving in to your users, it’s called listening to your customers!  • These technologies are evolving fast! You will need to upgrade one or more aspects of your online presence throughout the year so plan for it. • Speaking of planning … have a “roadmap” of what you will take on over the next however-many quarters. Not only will you have built-in goals, you will be able to logically fend off anxious board members and executives who are full of advice! • Know your limits. It’s better to do a few things well than many things poorly! • Ask for help! you aren’t the first organization to do any of these things!

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

– Gilda Radner

Woody Boater is a blog written and maintained solely by my friend and colleague, Matt Smith. Matt’s blog is the epitome of what a good blog should be and demonstrates every tip you’ve ever read about good blogging.

Be passionate. Wood boats may do little for me – although I can appreciate the craftsmanship and beauty – but Matt loves his topic and it shows and his readers respond. As a result of this passion and his execution on the next points, Matt enjoys the largest following of any related “publication” (print or online) in the niche.

Focus on a niche. According to Matt, there are only like 20,000 people in the US who care about wood boats. This number comes from those who are members of associations and/or subscribe to the leading publication in the field. Matt’s analytics are twice that. Twice.

Make an impact, have an edge. Matt puts fun and humor at the top of his values for a good life and it shows in his blog. His humorous tone layered on top of his quality content makes his blog fun to read. Not only does he have a loyal following as a result but also is making an impact on the category by appealing to the younger audience who will be the future of the sport and hobby.

Write regularly. Now that his audience is hooked, he doesn’t let them down. Now that he has momentum and a loyal following he writes nearly every day. He also travels to events and reports on what he is seeing several times a day during events. He is his audience’s eyes and ears.

Persevere. Matt is just about the opposite of patient as anyone I can think of, and yet he stuck with it. His impressive following didn’t happen in the first quarter or even first six months. It took about a year before Woody Boater started racking up the impressive analytics it has today.

A good strategy is really a great communication tool. Sure, strategies and business plans have the possibility of leading organizations to great achievements. But really all they are is an effective communication vehicle in which all the important bits are contained. In this package, this critical information may be communicated to managers and doers, investors and board members, partners and customers. And yes, if you can do that, you can keep the organization on track and steering for that great achievement.

Discipline by any other name is still focus. A company truly committed to a cohesive, comprehensive, consistent strategy can ensure this model comes to life. Contrarily, a company creating a strategy because “it has to” will never see the power of the exercise. Done with passion and commitment (not necessarily perfection), strategy development will bind the forces of the company together towards a focused mission.

Scope paralyzes. This can be a daunting task and it does require time. However, it does not require the huge chunks of time and countless tiger teams and consultants that many might assume. It is fairly proportional – the bigger the company or team, the more people will have to be involved, the more time it will take. An emerging company, say $10M in revenue, could truly do this in a weekend. Yes, a weekend. A strategy does not have to be nine four-inch binders. A successful strategy is one that answers all the questions – fills in the model – and does so in a consistent, clear manner with a communication plan. Basically it’s just enough to provide direction to the organization, especially those who will be setting execution plans for their teams.

There is no right way. Yes, I happen to have a framework that I use consistently to ask the questions and fill in the blanks. Yet, for better or worse, there are many ways to uncover the information requested of the model. Volumes have been written on identifying the Core, and goal-setting and market definition and more. Smart, successful business authors and consultants can assist in addressing individual pieces, but the secret is in pulling it all together in a manner that can be presented at the next pizza party. So feel free to incorporate best practices, just don’t over analyze it! The most important thing is to get it done. Your company depends on it.

The wagon wheel had a good run. It properly demonstrated that all elements of an integrated marketing plan have to be connected to a central theme or campaign or set of goals. And those elements – print, web site, social networking, webinars, e-blasts, video, viral, etc. – must all be developed and managed proactively in order to measure and achieve desired results. However …

The flaw surfaces in that those outer circles can look a lot like silos, especially when multiple partners, teams or even clients start to “own” various elements. And pretty quickly the wheel begins to wobble, execution suffers and that integrated plan stops short of having the desired impact on the audience.

So what’s the answer? Layers. Layers and layers of rich marketing elements. Layers of content, communication vehicles and interaction combined in a way that delivers the campaign with texture, discovery and repetition to the audience. Only by envisioning the marketing plan in this way, can you engage and envelop your audience creating lasting impact and measurable results.

This marketing layers approach really forces an audience point of view: Picture a woman walking down a city street. On her way to the subway she passes a sign for an exhibit at a museum. Interested in the exhibit she uses her smart-phone to visit the web site and signs up for alerts. Seconds later she receives a welcome e-mail with links to join the facebook community and to order tickets. She forwards the e-mail to her friend who texts back “yes.” She purchases tickets just as she pays for her stacked deli sandwich while passing a life-sized replica of one of the exhibit pieces. Her purchase is confirmed by text message just as she steps onto the subway.

Let’s recap – print, web, e-blast, social networking, viral, e-commerce, environmental, text. Sounds like a good number of our usual elements, yes? And there are about eight opportunities for messaging in the time it takes to walk to the subway which means repetition. But not boring poster-only repetition, no. Layers of texture and content and call to action and community. In just a city block, this woman became a campaign result.

So the next time you’re faced with creating another integrated marketing plan, get yourself a club sandwich and see if you can’t reinvent the wheel.

Note: This writing first appeared on SmithGifford’s blog in February 2009.

Culture is the secret ingredient to a company’s success.

And for those of you who think culture is that soft stuff that gets employees to want to have drinks together, you’re missing the point. A company’s culture is the sum of the actions and behaviors of the employees when you’re not watching. How do they act when the leadership team is at an off-site? Are you sure the same work is getting done with the same level of excellence? And cultures develop whether you consciously create them or not. The trick is developing self-awareness in yourself and in your company – knowing what you have, what you need to have and addressing the gap in between.

Your company’s success will be directly proportional to the foundation you’ve built.

Want proof? Study a few of the start-up failures and decide if their foundations were sturdy and scalable enough to support their rapid growth. Why do so many fail this test? Because a company’s foundation is a function of two things: culture and infrastructure. Infrastructure in terms of not just the wiring, but the processes, tools, systems and business habits consistently applied and used throughout the company. And culture in terms of confident, empowered, collaborative and decisive employees with a demonstrative sense of ownership.

You want a big house? Invest in the foundation.

Your employees are your most expensive and leverage-able asset. How are you maximizing the output of these resources? Because that’s fine if you say you’re not the warm-fuzzy leader, but you are the bottom-line type. Cool. Then you’ve maximized the back-office, your delivery and you’re kicking your front office in the right direction, but how are you getting the most out of all your assets? Creating a healthy, performance-based culture will improve your bottom-line. I swear. Your talent quotient will increase because A players hire A+ players – they want better for their company and are far from threatened by anyone with a better resume. Your employees will become more innovative and push others to do the same, taking on challenges without being asked, providing client satisfaction always. And the bonus, low performers will often self-deselect, knowing they can’t cut it.

Creating a confident culture will drive your company’s success.

When employees are confident, there is genuine collaboration because no one is threatened and all activities are for the good of the company – empowerment, decisiveness, action and urgency are all heightened. Each employee will take apposition of total-ownership and responsibility and clients will be the winners. In this environment, true diversity – diversity of ideas – is not just desired but demanded. You’ll stretch the best, recognize, celebrate success and strengthen you company’s backbone. Create an environment where everyone’s skills can be fully realized and where teaching and learning occurs organically. Instill a sense of belief, of faith. Your employees must “drink the Kool-Aid” or you’ll need to replace them – it’s that important. Further, you need a sub-set of employees who not only “drink the Kool-Aid” but who know how to make it.