Sourcing Readiness Assessment (SRA)

Sourcing decision for any organization is a critical one. For any sourcing transaction (outsourcing, co-sourcing or in-house capability) to be successful, you need to have the right plan, necessary competencies, practical experience, background information, knowledge and resources in place. Without these, there is always a risk of failure of the outsourcing relationship and realizing expected benefits.

Sourcing Readiness Assessment (SRA) helps an organization to evaluate exactly that and take the right decision. This broadly includes a detailed evaluation of your outsourcing strategy, an opportunity analysis, a risk assessment and an overall viability assessment of your company’s readiness to outsource. At the end of the assessment, which typically takes three weeks, a gap analysis and an executive presentation are provided.

Following are the areas covered by the assessment:

• Projects Assessment
• Application development Assessment
• Service Management Assessment
• Infrastructure Assessment

The SRA can help an organization in following manner:

• It helps determine if outsourcing is a viable option for the organization at that point in time or in future
• Benefit from an independent assessment of potential outsourcing opportunities and models
• Provide input to the business case for outsourcing to offset preparation investment against expected benefits
• Identify potential benefits i.e. cost savings / productivity gains  that may be realized from outsourcing
• Validate if strategic objectives of the organization are aligned to outsourcing opportunities
• Provide a roadmap to achieve “outsourcing readiness”.
• Provide practical recommendations to improve readiness to execute the transaction, realize outsourcing return on investment (ROI) and measure the performance of the outsourcing relationship

Conclusion:

Sourcing Readiness Assessment plays a pivotal role and a stepping stone for a successful outsourcing strategy for an organization. It not only helps reveal any obstacles in the way of attaining the benefits but also help identify areas for improvement.

Success Factors – Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the medium to access the right resource at the right time of the business. Outsourcing is spread globally & so is the IT spending on it. IT spending is expected to rise in the year of 2013 according to reports. Outsourcing relates to flexibility & scalability these days.  Outsourcing is growing at a rapid pace which is mainly because of the level of maturity has drastically increased when compared to a decade ago. This is mainly due to the changes in the culture & of the fact that many companies are switching to collaborative technologies & tools to manage their outsourcing.

Remote accessibility is not an uphill task these days. Every enterprise is using various different tools in the market which bring the 2 places in the different corners of the world closer. Also the infrastructure facilities are changing, like bandwidth has improved, access costs are more effective, social & technology are globalized & so is the 24*7 support is accessible to all enterprises.

Following are the few base points on which you can setup your successful outsourcing company:

1. Be Global:
   Spread your business across the globe, but before that make sure you have the right resources & capabilities to satisfy everyone in their business needs. Search for the new opportunities & extract as much business you can from all the geographical areas. Look out the local provider partners which can be helpful in your growth & also be able to sustain the relationship with the customer as well as with them
2. Keep track of the Laws:
   The outsourcing laws are changing often due to the maturity level going up. When u switch to globalization you need to keep track of the local laws related to outsourcing. It’s a high risk to your business & it might also hamper your business growth in the long run. There are various factors which contribute towards this risk like – rules & regulations of the local law, privacy policies, intellectual rights, customer loyalty protection, & other liabilities which are part of the privacy violations. This sometimes result into the company deciding to near shore (i.e. outsource within the same geographical area) its business & avoid any legal and cultural comfort levels.
3. Providers as Partners:
   If you outsource your business to a third-party provider, treat the outsourcing provider as your partner. Discuss the plan, strategy & goal of your company with their provider along with your needs so that they get the overall scope & visibility of the engagement. One of the important factors of outsourcing is communication. Maintain a strong level of communication & bond with the outsource provider & treat them as equal as you treat other suppliers. Build a consensus with the provider & involve the provider with their views on expanding your business. Visit the provider’s facility to ensure that the resources are performing as promised. Also sometimes there are instance where there’s more to the provider’s facility that you can leverage to your business & help utilize those for growing your business. Travelling long distance to visit your provider might seem expensive but look at it from the building a relationship with the provider which will help you in the long run.
4. Define & Measure – what needs to be outsourced:
   Before making a decision to outsource, you must, as a company decide & define the things that you need to outsource. Select the services you need to outsource & how will you manage the provider from the other end of the globe. Time zones, cultural difference, legal hindrances, language barriers – these are the few things you need to think of before making a decision. Today, everything can be outsourced from R&D, design, prototyping, testing, manufacturing, services, support, quality, infrastructure to the talent within the IT vertical itself. But before that, you need to set up a process around this, what will be the desired outcome, what will be the KPI’s on which you’ll measure the provider, what will the regulations, set the SLA’s & so on. Capture all of this with the mutual understanding between you & the provider.
5. Go for latest & innovative technology models:
   Select the provider depending upon t he performance value he will provide and not based on the infrastructure, service agreements related to resources & ticket resolution. Check if the provider is adding value to your business with its existing technology tools & how proactive is he in investing in new technologies & infrastructure. This will help lower your CapEx expenditure & allow you to leverage more services from the provider. Select a vendor who’s more involved in providing value adds to your business by ensuring contracts are outcome based & effort & resource based.
6. Risk analysis:
   Ensure that the service provider is a domain expert in the services you have outsourced. Domain expertise reduces your risk to your business. There are also few other risks which you need to be aware of like – does your provider in sync with your business growth? Does your provider have the latest technologies and tools at his disposal which you might need to avail of in the near future? Does he have the enough manpower & experience to support your services in case of an emergency? Is he willing to invest in technologies which are necessary to run your business? Is he able to adapt to the technology changes happening in the industry? Is your provider ready to deal with any disaster & disruption events? Is there a disaster recovery plan? How flexible is your provider in managing his contracts? Will he able to sustain himself in the longer run of the engagement?
7. Going Green:
   This factor is slowing gaining importance although it is not a make or break factor for your business. You have to ensure if your provider follows the norms that safeguard the environment & its valuable finite resources & takes appropriate precautions to adhere to the stringent laws of environmental protection. As they say, it is always better to do business with a conscience.

Offshoring or Automation of your IT

Offshore outsourcing has become the savior of IT departments when it comes to budget & lowering the overhead costs related to the IT programming & saving your balance sheet. The main purpose of offshoring was that it helps save on the expensive projects & also enable to cope up with the IT skills. Outsourcing has worked well for India in the past decade but now things are starting to change. Technology has evolved & companies are adopting to technology for their business processes rather than to offshoring.

Offshoring also brings a certain amount of risk to your business if you decide to outsource. The questions like – about the validity of the offshoring, how will we set up a secure channel for connection, how to do we measure the quality & not just cost-effectiveness. Outsourcing helps you spend more time on your core business but it also has a risk associated with it. It becomes a liability for the company to provide authentication tokens & passwords to the offshore team & also enable them to have access to their corporate systems.

So now the question arises is whether to outsource or not to? Is outsourcing really benefitting in the long run when it comes to quality control & security risks? The only factor that decides this is the economy & the company’s budget. Companies will go in for outsourcing if it helps reduce costs however little risk it might provide like exploiting the company’s code & passwords falling into disreputable hands. These risks are not a wise decision to take but sometimes it becomes necessary for the business.

The biggest challenge now is how to use this rapidly growing technology & programming skills to help meet your business needs like cost effectiveness & most importantly reduce risk. So how to tackle this situation by coupling the technology & automating processes to provide a viable alternative for offshoring.

Many companies are switching to developing tech-based tools which speed up their programming time thus reducing costs. With the lack of skills available in the market it also becomes necessary to reduce development time as it costs a premium. In-house development will help the companies return more on their in-house projects & will also enable to take more near shore projects. Automating the processes will thus help the project managers emphasize more control on the projects & also help reduce the risks. It will also help in time saving & cost saving if the job is being effectively. Companies need the right amount of ammunition in terms of technology & processes for their business to grow & meet targets while minimizing risks.

Few easy steps to social media engagement

Social media is moving beyond contacts and interactions to a culture of community and collaboration for the most engaged and customer-centric companies. Consumers are no longer relying solely on the traditional channels of phone and email. They are interacting online with peers over sponsored communities and over the public cloud via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other networking sites.

Social is more than an interaction, or transaction, it is a culture.  Social is an approach to doing business in a more interconnected way. Social media is becoming the answer for crossing functional and departmental barriers and for collaborating as one business. Social media is the answer to getting that one contact that comes in once a year connected to the one person in the company who has the experience and insight to provide the right insight at the right time.  Social is a philosophical belief that more people working together are better than one person working alone.

To establish a customer engagement strategy, following steps can be of real help:

1. Keeping an Ear to the Cloud: Companies that fail to monitor the conversations unfolding on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Instagram and other social networks are missing critical opportunities to address concerns and turn criticism into advocacy. Companies can put technologies and teams in place to listen to customers and identify opportunities to create buzz, build loyalty, and resolve issues proactively.
2. Develop a Strategy and Implement it quickly: Social media strategies require sufficient planning, but time-to-market is equally important. Accept that there will be several unknowns, as the social media landscape is still under development. If you try to mitigate every conceivable risk factor, you will likely miss out on several customer opportunities.
3. Collaborate with Other Departments: Feedback is a two-way street. Key dependencies can be understood by sharing the implementation plan roadmaps.
4. Manage the Entire Social Lifecycle: Once the social media strategy is implemented and underway, the capabilities should be expanded to cover all aspects of the engagement lifecycle, including:

• Building online customer communities/forums
• Handling inbound social media contacts
• Handling outbound/proactive social media customer contact
• Campaign management, knowledge management, reporting and analytics
• Continuous improvement methodology

Social networks and community forums are very visible channels for customers to share and discuss experiences they have had with a company. Companies that understand this and establish a social media strategy are better prepared to quickly address customer issues. A proactive and speedy response helps improve customer experience, increase brand loyalty and potentially diffuse the negative impact of any bad customer experiences.

Never say never!

Companies have continued to adopt “best of breed” approaches to outsourcing transactions. They are now seeking to execute multi-sourcing transactions across a number of service providers, each provider bringing its own specific experience and knowledge to the table.

This means that companies need to pay greater attention to how they integrate services across multiple service providers — and, in some instances, across multiple geographies — to keep service delivery intact from an end-to-end perspective.

In addition, governance and change management mechanisms in transition and transformation programs have also become more complex to manage, as several different providers with multiple inter-dependencies are typically involved.

An increase in M&A activity, as well as specific instances of captive centers being divested to third parties, has led to a correspondingly greater need to build effective Vendor Management Program Office (VMPO) to manage external third parties. Previously, companies could rely on internal service-level agreements (SLAs), typically with minimal governance and penalty mechanisms. Now, they require more formal and commercially astute processes.

Advances in technology have seen the introduction of new tools and platforms to manage not only service providers’ contractual and commercial performance, but also their service delivery performance. This, in turn, has led to an increased focus on skill set development and talent retention. In addition, the continuing demand for global outsourcing transactions across geographies, which require companies and vendors to work across multiple cultures, has led to an increased focus on relationship management.

Changes in the economic climate have driven regulators to increase their scrutiny of outsourcing and off-shoring transactions. Regulators may focus on processes adopted by companies to define, manage, and evaluate critical suppliers; information security assessments; contingency plans; business plan continuity; roles and responsibilities related to governance frameworks; and, most importantly, data privacy issues

Changes in both buyer behavior and supplier solutions will continue to evolve in the coming years due not only to technological innovations but also to the changing balance between risk appetite and increasing demand for shareholder returns. The complexities of executing outsourcing and off-shoring transactions are continuing to be offset by a number of leading-practice standards in terms of contracting vehicles and language. However, clients must also realize that the corresponding risks of outsourcing remain. They continue to evolve and becoming more challenging as new services appear and additional geographies begin to supply services. Clients would do well to appreciate and understand that investing in tools and people and building an effective vendor management function now can allow them to manage the risks of today, also suitably equip them with a platform to more effectively manage emerging risks. Such investments should also include flexible and scalable operating models that can allow changes in business demand to be more efficiently executed. The financial and non-financial benefits of outsourcing remain. However, the question also remains as to whether clients are suitably equipped to realize these benefits through a vendor management program office. As stated up-front, “Never say never!” Despite the challenges, outstanding business performance improvement through outsourcing can be achieved.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing offers your business various advantages. It allows you to set up a virtual office to give the flexibility to connect to business from anywhere anytime. With the increasing figures of web-enabled devices used in today’s business environment (e.g. smart phones, tablets), accessibility to data is even easier.

There are many benefits to moving your business to the cloud:

Reduced IT costs

Moving to cloud computing may cut down the charge of running and maintaining your IT systems. Rather than purchasing expensive systems and equipment for your business, you can reduce the cost by using the resources of your cloud computing service provider. The cost will be reduced because

• You are not required to pay the expert staff
• The energy consumption costs may be reduced
• time delays are less

Scalability           

Your business can balance up or down the operation and storage needs quickly to suit your condition, allowing elasticity as your needs change. Rather than purchasing and installing expensive upgrades yourself, your cloud computer service provider can handle this for you. Using the cloud will help you get lot of time to run your business and utilize time for productive purposes.

Business continuity

Protecting your data and systems is a essential part of business planning. Whether you experience a natural disaster, power failure or other crisis, having the data stored on the cloud ensures it is backed up and protected in a safe location. It helps to access the data quickly and also minimizes the downtime

Collaboration efficiency

Collaboration in a cloud environment gives the business the capability to communicate and share. If you are working on a project in different locations, the files can be shared among different people simultaneously.

Staff augmentation

Staff augmentation is the process of hiring a dedicated team of additional staff to bring better efficiency and effectiveness in the work process. The system takes the wing as more and more companies are growing with their increasing needs. The element of staff augmentation can be visible across every department to achieve incompetence and unmatched standard of working. Normally, it is seen that human resources and sales wings of a corporation is likely to get the first advantage of staff augmentation. However, the necessity of this process cannot be denied in other areas of working too as it could leads to better management for the organization. This is reason why, IT staff augmentation remains one of the most demanding and vigorous marketplaces in the world. There are many reasons for which we will require the process of staff augmentation. Firstly, the abundance of IT resources needs enough manpower to handle. Secondly, declining rates and narrowing margins for companies that require these services. And finally, it leads to specialization in the work. IT staff augmentation allows a company to add staff as needed. A company may easily ramp up and down to meet changing demand without shouldering the cost and liabilities of full time employees.

Pros

• Control over staff: When there is a need to closely manage resources, staff augmentation is ideal.
• Integration with internal processes: Companies can find it more effective to integrate staff augmentation resources with existing business processes than to align those processes with external project teams.
• Leverages existing resources: By adding new skill sets to the team, a company can take advantage of both external and internal resources for the completion of their IT projects.
• Specialist expertise: When project team gaps mainly consist of specialized skills, staff augmentation can efficiently fill those gaps.
• Rapidly changing staffing needs: Companies with staffing needs in constant flux can meet those needs through staff augmentation. It’s relatively easy to add/subtract resources to match demand.
• Reduce cost of acquiring skills: Avoids the cost of investing in internal skill development.
• Reduce employer burdens: Avoids costs and liabilities of direct employees.
• Meet aggressive project timelines: When an active project has a need for more resources in order to be completed on time, staff augmentation is typically the best option, and often times the only option.
• Internal acceptance: Existing employees often times embrace a staff augmentation model more than a project outsourcing model. Existing employees are less likely to feel threatened by augmenting staff with a few individuals than by outsourcing entire projects.
• Ease of adoption: It’s easier to adopt a staff augmentation model than a project outsourcing model. Companies are already used to hiring employees. Staff augmentation is just a small shift from what companies already do.

There is an increasing drive to reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies through technological innovation. This naturally translates into a growing number of IT projects, where success or failure of a business can often hinge on the ability to complete these projects on time, within budget, and to specification. Developing in house capabilities to complete these projects can be a costly and risky venture, particularly when the IT needs of an organization are constantly changing. Moreover, in today’s business world where falling behind the curve of IT innovation can lead to disaster, very few companies have static IT needs.  Even companies who are content with IT business as usual can easily find themselves relying on outdated legacy systems which, upon failure, could cripple a business.

IT as a Business

IT no longer supports the business but, it powers the business. The postdigital era should be great news for IT – a chance to expand their scope of services and reinvent their brand as the business. But the conventional IT process and stems won’t allow IT organizations to effectively deliver on the changing demands of the business.For many companies, running IT like a business requires a new vision. It means advancing the business and enabling meaningful change. And it often requires understanding a new set of basics that:

• It Identifies the opportunities to optimize costs
• Helps in enhancement of operational effectiveness
• Provides innovative ideas for profitable growth in the industry

 

Most organizations see IT as a cost center, which they operate without a sense of what goes into the cost. There also tends to be a “one-size-fits-all” approach to providing products and services, which isn’t the most cost-effective way to provide technology services. To avoid these pitfalls, many companies nowadays, offer a menu of options with a clear price for each product or service. By doing this they are not only  supporting the business but also to enhancing the bottom line by helping  the business leaders make informed decisions on the deployment of technology.So, for example, one of the company providing   “products” is e-mail. They offer a choice of mailbox size, which vary in cost, and they decide which option works best for their business unit or geography. Technical support is another example—the cost depends on whether the user chooses Internet self-service, a call to the Help Desk or a visit by the local office team. Hence , the main goal is should enable company owners to take good decisions, drive optimum service levels and encourage more productive and cost-effective behavior, like steering more people toward self-service.

Today, running IT as a business means:

• control of IT’s cost structure and making that cost structure fully transparent to business stakeholders
• running an efficient and effective IT “plant” by managing  IT costs and services to take maximum advantage of scale, vendor partnerships and new technologies                              (e.g. virtualization)
• Specifying, managing and delivering IT projects with predictable cost, delivery time and the expected functionality. High performance IT organizations do this through well-selected vendor partnerships
• Bringing new technologies to bear in the IT plant and to delivery it as soon as the technologies can deliver on their promises.

Thus, running IT as a business in these dimensions earns a seat at the business leadership table, and the trust of business stakeholders.

 

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, is a set of recommendations used by companies to help structure how IT supports business.

An IT department run according to ITIL should create a precise map that links IT resources to business operations. IT should be run as a business not with the intention of making a profit but of providing accurate prices. But in most ITIL implementations, this crucial step is not taken.“A lot of CIOs don’t want to risk this kind of exposure”.

They don’t want to take the risk of their predictions being inaccurate. So they oftentimes are not willing to have a system which is so transparent to the users and also to C-level executives.

When implementing ITIL, IT departments get bogged down with service support functions such as the service desk, problem management, change management. The business-to-IT financial map is lost.

Of course, it is hard to run IT as a business. It takes work and deep understanding to map all the transactions, marketing and other activities to the IT resources they consume. For instance, a company building a new Web site may launch a marketing campaign that dramatically increases transaction volume. If the company made good use of the CMDB to map components in applications to the servers that deploy them, the demand management model in ITIL could project the amount of IT required to support increased transaction volume from the new marketing campaign.

The lack of understanding of how IT impacts business makes IT vulnerable. IT departments are going to have to make a prediction about prices, even if they turn out to be wrong. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to understand the link between IT and business activity. This is where IT departments are weakest. Another factor is the fear of scrutiny. When you first create a demand management model, inefficiencies often surface. A thorough analysis of IT costs and their relevance almost always gives rise to some serious problems.

Hence, implementing ITIL properly is a major change. But finishing the job and completely implementing ITIL in a way closes the loop between business value and IT which is a big win.

Lastly, we can say that using IT as a BUSINESS from being only used for “Managing projects” can be achieved by Standardization, consolidation, virtualization and automation. By doing this a company can transform itself from being “Budget driven” to “Value driven”.

 

Conference Call Etiquettes

A conference call is a telephone conversation in which more than one party is involved to discuss on a well planned objective.

Call Readiness
Prepare an agenda item before setting up a conference call
Setting up an agenda beforehand will give the meeting a clear structure and purpose, and everybody set to be involved in a conference call should be emailed a copy of this agenda in order for them to prepare relevant discussion notes. The agenda should also include all the relevant phone numbers, passwords, access codes and clear instructions on how to dial in, even if this means stating the obvious. Be mindful of time differences if it is an international call and factor this into the planning stage to ensure people know the correct start times. When the call gets under way, one person should take it upon themselves to formally start and finish proceedings, as well as invite the people involved to introduce themselves one at a time. Distribute the dial-in number, pass code to all the concerned members – Make sure you include any access details when you announce the call, when you send out the agenda, and the day of or the day before the call to make sure everyone has what they need to get on the line.
Following are the points to DO and Not to Do when one is in a conference call –
You Can
• Find a quiet place
There is nothing bad on a call than surroundings noise. Typing is heard, a side conversation is going on, the background noise kills the motto of the call and is simply rude. It is easy to be distracted on a call but just make sure your line is muted.
• Have a moderator for the call
Rather than all speaking on the call it always makes sense to choose a speaker from the team to communicate with the other concerned parties during the call. The Moderator is someone senior and is assumed to know everything about the process and system
• Have a structure to the call
Not only is it required to set an agenda but it is also important to distribute the agenda to all the concerned parties, it gives the agenda a direction. Also plan the sequence in which the speakers will speak the amount of time to be spent on each topic etc.
• Announce yourself
Two advantages of announcing you first the person know who is talking on the phone. Secondly it eliminates the scope of Interruptions.

• Be Polite and punctual
Being on time gives a good impression about yourself and the company, just as you would do it in a face to face meeting. Do not talk over another person as it is a very rude gesture and also the participants will not be clear of who is putting which point forward.
• Get Everyone involved
Everyone is there for a reason and everyone will want to say something or ask a question. Agree at the start of the call when questions will be asked and answered and ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to speak.
You Can’t
• Don’t use cell phone
Try to avoid taking a conference call from a cell phone as it adds a lot of background noise to a conference call. If the cell phone is only choice then mute the line whenever you are not required to talk.
• Never use hold button
Never use hold button during the call is on as it disturbs the conversation and flow of thoughts. The moment you press the hold button the music is played which is extremely annoying to hear when the call is on.
• Do not eat during the call
Resist the temptation to eat or drink during the call as it will reflect the kind of professionalism you have and your approach towards your colleagues. There will be plenty of time to eat after your call is over.
• Do not interrupt
Interrupting people is a curse of conference call. It is a very rude gesture. It can be very confusing for the people on the line as they get to hear two intellectual thoughts at the same time. Wait till your turn comes or the host invites you to talk.
• Don’t Shuffle paper, Pencil tap, Hum or other distracting noisy activity
One very infuriating thing that some people do on a conference call is shuffle papers. It sounds very piercing on the phone. Other small potentially noisy habits to avoid are : continually clearing your throat, tapping your pencil, drumming your fingers on the desk, etc.

Outsourcing Social Media – Should You Do It? The Pros & Cons

Managing social media for a business can be time consuming. Given the investment of time required, and the need for someone with expertise, many companies opt to outsource their social media marketing to a consulting agency or individual. In this post, we would examine the pros and cons to hiring an expert vs. keeping the social media marketing in-house, and provide tips for making the right choice for the business.

Why hire an expert?

1. Expertise: Staying on top of social media news and updates can be a job in and of itself.

For this reason, consultants offer the advantage of having insight into what works and what doesn’t. In case the business is small with just a few employees, or just for an individual, one may not have the necessary time to devote to staying on top of social media best practices. Here are a few questions a social media manager has to answer on a regular basis:

• What are the new social media channels and are they suitable for the business?
• How often should the posts be published and what time of day gets the best engagement?
• What’s the best type of content to share?
• How can the social media success be tracked?
• How can the followers and traffic to the website be increased?

2. Time
We often come across something that really grabs our attention on Facebook and think, “Wow, that’s clever!”? Odds are, it took the person who posted it a bit of time to come up with it. It’s a type of advertising, after all, and good advertising takes careful consideration. Sure, one can share a discount or offer on Facebook, link it to their webpage and be done, but that may not get the best results. For the highest engagement, posts need to be witty, appropriate, and considerate. Balancing the business needs and community needs is an art that requires time for creativity.

3. Save Money
Yes, hiring a consultant definitely save the money. If you have, or are thinking of having a current employee manage social media (and by manage it means it should be really managed – not post once a week), consider how much that individual is being paid, and what other tasks managing social media is pulling them away from. What is the value of those trades offs for the company?

Why Manage Social Media In-House?

1. Access to Content
Any social media manager that a company hires will need the support of someone inside the business to access new content and learn about new updates, events, and the like. However, when the social media is managed in house, there isn’t a relationship between both the manager and the lag time to share new updates or content.

2. Sincerity
Yes, sincerity. No one can be more sincere about the company’s business than the people who actually work there!

When you know your business and your customers well, you can express news and updates with a genuine sincerity that is hard to mimic for even the best social media managers. Social media communities appreciate sincerity and transparency.

For instance if you add a post to your Facebook page today thanking your customers for something they’ve done, whether it be a good review, a donation, or even just a purchase. Or try sharing some humor that relates to your industry and add commentary. You’ll be amazed with the number of interactions you can get.

Good social media engagement requires a personal touch and no one else is better to give that than the individual.

3. Marketing Integration
If the social media is being managed in-house, it should be ensured that it’s well integrated into the company’s email marketing website, events and other marketing channels. A link from Facebook back to the company’s website only works well if the content of the webpage is updated and current. An email subscriber can only share the content to their social networks if the email gives the option to do so. Integration is an important key in the overall marketing plan. Typically, when there is an update for the website (ex: a new press release), it’s something that one would also want to share on email and social media. By managing them all together, it is ensured that all the channels are updated and working in harmony.

If the business is small, one probably does not need a big agency with heavy fees. A small business social media services provider can be tried in such case and it can be decided to keep the social media in house. In such case, the company must be sure to have a clear social media plan, place someone in charge of doing it and allocate the time necessary to achieve the goals.