Being a slow news day (thus far at least), I started to look around and a report from July of this year from Network Solutions and some partners caught my eye. It was used to make a point over at Small Business Trends about SMB’s (small and medium business) and social media (a point which is much different than the one here so go check it out). When you take a little deeper dive into the findings it looks like the SMB group as a whole is saying what it says a lot when it comes to the latest and greatest business practices: We aren’t getting it like you think we are.
This is not to say that SMB’s are not using social media. That’s not the case at all. What appears to be all over the map are expectations and what happens when SMB’s, social media and reality intersect. Look at the chart below, which puts marketing barely into the “very important” category AND tells us that it’s not performing well.
That kind of response in a poor economy is reasonable since businesses are hurting no matter what is being tried to pick up the pace. What is interesting though is that marketing is not the top of the food chain for SMB’s – getting money to PAY for marketing is! It doesn’t get any clearer moving forward either.
What’s baffling are the details about using social media for this elusive group that makes up most of the businesses in the US. They always want to play but can’t seem to get over the hump when it come to Internet marketing as a whole.
For instance, if social media is the “wave of the future” why are the responses showing no growth or even some reduction in social media offerings like blogs?
But then in fine SMB tradition, they like to talk a great game and their expectations of social media ‘success’ have increased! Incongruent for sure but this is important to understand about the SMB. They love to talk about stuff but when it gets to doing it the walk rarely lives up to the talk. There is plenty of optimism as always but optimism without action is fantasy.
Here may be the real reason why SMB’s seem to have put the brakes on a bit with regard to social media. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows like the industry likes to portray.
This is another part of reality that the SMB hates to recognize. Oftentimes social media criticisms are very personal because the SMB is a person or that person is the face of the company. The “everything is roses” approach by social media consultants to this group usually neglects the potential risks and downsides. The cold hard facts are that social media takes time and money despite the industry push to present it as free and easy. Oh and it can sting a bit as well if someone wants to take an online swipe at an SMB.
So the world of SMB’s, Internet marketing and social media continues to be a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. It’s hard to pin down. Maybe it’s just time to stop trying to draw broad generalizations about a group that is as diverse as any on the planet. Each SMB has their own signature and fingerprint even within the same vertical but we still try to tell them “This will work because it’s cool, it’s current and everyone is doing it successfully!” That’s just not true.
The reality is that not all SMB’s are suited for the Internet in general and social media specifically. Some are perfectly suited for it but they may not be the majority of SMB’s when it is all said and done.
So what is your take on the SMB and social media? How do you see this huge market that proves to be so elusive? What are the biggest opportunities and / or barriers that exist for this group?
Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!
When I was ready to transition from computer programmer to project manager, my employer, Xerox Corporation, sent me to its huge training center in Leesburg, Virginia. Over two weeks, the people there taught me some of the skills I needed in order to succeed in my new role: managing projects, motivating people, complying with employment regulations, and preparing status reports and presentations. The company also encouraged me to complete an MBA, on a part-time basis, at New York University. It gave me lots of time off and paid for the tuition.
Tech companies in the internet era offer their employees some great perks. But do you think that Facebook, Groupon, or Zynga provide budding professionals with any serious management training? Not at all. Given the way tech companies grow and the HR challenges they face, management training and career development are more important than ever. But few have the time—they are too busy surviving.
Professors Robert Fulmer and Byron Hanson of Duke University’s Corporate Education group researched the management practices of 23 leading high-tech firms. Corporate executives in an overwhelming majority, 89 percent, believed that leadership development was becoming increasingly important for their companies; 58 percent ranked this as a high corporate priority. Yet less than one-fourth of the managers interviewed had a clear roadmap for how they could develop themselves, and more than half didn’t even know who in their organization was responsible for the development of leaders. The conclusion of the researchers wasn’t surprising: many high-tech companies are young, so their systems and procedures for grooming leaders aren’t well developed or firmly established.
Maybe this is why so many tech companies suffer from morale problems, missed deadlines, customer-support disasters, and high turnover. And this may be one of the reasons why so many tech startups who succeed in selling their vision and raising millions in financing are just a flash in the pan.
One of the interesting findings in the Fulmer and Hanson research was that more than 70 percent of the tech executives interviewed said that leadership development in technology-driven firms is different than in other industries. The researchers believed, just as I do, that these tech executives were dead wrong. The lessons that leading companies like Proctor and Gamble and General Electric have learned about management development and training apply as much, if not more, to tech companies.
This means that if you’re a fresh grad joining a hot new tech startup, you shouldn’t expect your managers to train and groom you, or the company to provide you with time off to complete an MBA. You’re on your own. If you are working at some of the more established companies, such as IBM and HP—which do have excellent management-development practices—take full advantage of them. You need to learn all you can.
Many people are born with an innate sense of vision; they readily learn new technologies and master them. Some are very good at communicating and inspiring others. But you can’t be born with the skills needed to plan projects, adhere to EEOC guidelines, and prepare budgets and manage finances, or to know the intricacies of business and intellectual property law. All this has to be learned. Some skills can be developed on the job, but this is usually through trial and error.
I usually recommend that engineering students who want to become managers and CEOs complete a fifth year of education. There are one-year long engineering management programs which cover such subjects as marketing, finance, intellectual property, business law, and management—similar to the key courses in an MBA program; plus tech-oriented subjects like innovation management, operations management, and entrepreneurship. One such program (and there are many) is the Duke Masters of Engineering Management program, at which I teach.
For experienced tech workers in Silicon Valley, Berkeley and Stanford both have excellent MBA programs. Berkeley Haas School dean, Rich Lyons told me over dinner, last month, of his plans to make his school the premier training ground for Silicon Valley executives. Boston’s Babson College is also launching a program in San Francisco.
But not everyone needs to spend two years doing an MBA. Berkeley’s college of engineering is creating a much shorter program targeted at Silicon Valley techies with leadership potential. Under the aegis of Fung Institute Chief Scientist and Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, Ikhlaq Sidhu, the school is developing a professional program in Engineering Leadership. This will meet one evening a week for six months and teach subjects like product management, entrepreneurial thinking, leadership and finance. It will also teach team building, business management, and motivation.
The new Berkeley program is highly selective however. It will only accept 25 candidates in 2011, based on recommendations from senior executives in the valley. Sidhu says that he hopes to address the “symptoms of engineering without leadership”—which include organizational indecision about new products and services; unresolved conflict between product management and engineering; and superficial technology strategies. Berkeley will likely expand this program significantly over time and add many others. After all there is a great need.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwaand find his research at www.wadhwa.com.
FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad <b>...</b>
iLounge news discussing the FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Wednesday <b>News</b> « The Confluence
In news related to Michelle raising more money, the GOP seems to be short of it. Gosh, other than 8 years of a failed presidency, and then attacking the popular candidates and their supporters just as the Dems are doing, I can't imagine ...
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
robert shumake
FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad <b>...</b>
iLounge news discussing the FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Wednesday <b>News</b> « The Confluence
In news related to Michelle raising more money, the GOP seems to be short of it. Gosh, other than 8 years of a failed presidency, and then attacking the popular candidates and their supporters just as the Dems are doing, I can't imagine ...
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Being a slow news day (thus far at least), I started to look around and a report from July of this year from Network Solutions and some partners caught my eye. It was used to make a point over at Small Business Trends about SMB’s (small and medium business) and social media (a point which is much different than the one here so go check it out). When you take a little deeper dive into the findings it looks like the SMB group as a whole is saying what it says a lot when it comes to the latest and greatest business practices: We aren’t getting it like you think we are.
This is not to say that SMB’s are not using social media. That’s not the case at all. What appears to be all over the map are expectations and what happens when SMB’s, social media and reality intersect. Look at the chart below, which puts marketing barely into the “very important” category AND tells us that it’s not performing well.
That kind of response in a poor economy is reasonable since businesses are hurting no matter what is being tried to pick up the pace. What is interesting though is that marketing is not the top of the food chain for SMB’s – getting money to PAY for marketing is! It doesn’t get any clearer moving forward either.
What’s baffling are the details about using social media for this elusive group that makes up most of the businesses in the US. They always want to play but can’t seem to get over the hump when it come to Internet marketing as a whole.
For instance, if social media is the “wave of the future” why are the responses showing no growth or even some reduction in social media offerings like blogs?
But then in fine SMB tradition, they like to talk a great game and their expectations of social media ‘success’ have increased! Incongruent for sure but this is important to understand about the SMB. They love to talk about stuff but when it gets to doing it the walk rarely lives up to the talk. There is plenty of optimism as always but optimism without action is fantasy.
Here may be the real reason why SMB’s seem to have put the brakes on a bit with regard to social media. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows like the industry likes to portray.
This is another part of reality that the SMB hates to recognize. Oftentimes social media criticisms are very personal because the SMB is a person or that person is the face of the company. The “everything is roses” approach by social media consultants to this group usually neglects the potential risks and downsides. The cold hard facts are that social media takes time and money despite the industry push to present it as free and easy. Oh and it can sting a bit as well if someone wants to take an online swipe at an SMB.
So the world of SMB’s, Internet marketing and social media continues to be a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. It’s hard to pin down. Maybe it’s just time to stop trying to draw broad generalizations about a group that is as diverse as any on the planet. Each SMB has their own signature and fingerprint even within the same vertical but we still try to tell them “This will work because it’s cool, it’s current and everyone is doing it successfully!” That’s just not true.
The reality is that not all SMB’s are suited for the Internet in general and social media specifically. Some are perfectly suited for it but they may not be the majority of SMB’s when it is all said and done.
So what is your take on the SMB and social media? How do you see this huge market that proves to be so elusive? What are the biggest opportunities and / or barriers that exist for this group?
Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!
When I was ready to transition from computer programmer to project manager, my employer, Xerox Corporation, sent me to its huge training center in Leesburg, Virginia. Over two weeks, the people there taught me some of the skills I needed in order to succeed in my new role: managing projects, motivating people, complying with employment regulations, and preparing status reports and presentations. The company also encouraged me to complete an MBA, on a part-time basis, at New York University. It gave me lots of time off and paid for the tuition.
Tech companies in the internet era offer their employees some great perks. But do you think that Facebook, Groupon, or Zynga provide budding professionals with any serious management training? Not at all. Given the way tech companies grow and the HR challenges they face, management training and career development are more important than ever. But few have the time—they are too busy surviving.
Professors Robert Fulmer and Byron Hanson of Duke University’s Corporate Education group researched the management practices of 23 leading high-tech firms. Corporate executives in an overwhelming majority, 89 percent, believed that leadership development was becoming increasingly important for their companies; 58 percent ranked this as a high corporate priority. Yet less than one-fourth of the managers interviewed had a clear roadmap for how they could develop themselves, and more than half didn’t even know who in their organization was responsible for the development of leaders. The conclusion of the researchers wasn’t surprising: many high-tech companies are young, so their systems and procedures for grooming leaders aren’t well developed or firmly established.
Maybe this is why so many tech companies suffer from morale problems, missed deadlines, customer-support disasters, and high turnover. And this may be one of the reasons why so many tech startups who succeed in selling their vision and raising millions in financing are just a flash in the pan.
One of the interesting findings in the Fulmer and Hanson research was that more than 70 percent of the tech executives interviewed said that leadership development in technology-driven firms is different than in other industries. The researchers believed, just as I do, that these tech executives were dead wrong. The lessons that leading companies like Proctor and Gamble and General Electric have learned about management development and training apply as much, if not more, to tech companies.
This means that if you’re a fresh grad joining a hot new tech startup, you shouldn’t expect your managers to train and groom you, or the company to provide you with time off to complete an MBA. You’re on your own. If you are working at some of the more established companies, such as IBM and HP—which do have excellent management-development practices—take full advantage of them. You need to learn all you can.
Many people are born with an innate sense of vision; they readily learn new technologies and master them. Some are very good at communicating and inspiring others. But you can’t be born with the skills needed to plan projects, adhere to EEOC guidelines, and prepare budgets and manage finances, or to know the intricacies of business and intellectual property law. All this has to be learned. Some skills can be developed on the job, but this is usually through trial and error.
I usually recommend that engineering students who want to become managers and CEOs complete a fifth year of education. There are one-year long engineering management programs which cover such subjects as marketing, finance, intellectual property, business law, and management—similar to the key courses in an MBA program; plus tech-oriented subjects like innovation management, operations management, and entrepreneurship. One such program (and there are many) is the Duke Masters of Engineering Management program, at which I teach.
For experienced tech workers in Silicon Valley, Berkeley and Stanford both have excellent MBA programs. Berkeley Haas School dean, Rich Lyons told me over dinner, last month, of his plans to make his school the premier training ground for Silicon Valley executives. Boston’s Babson College is also launching a program in San Francisco.
But not everyone needs to spend two years doing an MBA. Berkeley’s college of engineering is creating a much shorter program targeted at Silicon Valley techies with leadership potential. Under the aegis of Fung Institute Chief Scientist and Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, Ikhlaq Sidhu, the school is developing a professional program in Engineering Leadership. This will meet one evening a week for six months and teach subjects like product management, entrepreneurial thinking, leadership and finance. It will also teach team building, business management, and motivation.
The new Berkeley program is highly selective however. It will only accept 25 candidates in 2011, based on recommendations from senior executives in the valley. Sidhu says that he hopes to address the “symptoms of engineering without leadership”—which include organizational indecision about new products and services; unresolved conflict between product management and engineering; and superficial technology strategies. Berkeley will likely expand this program significantly over time and add many others. After all there is a great need.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwaand find his research at www.wadhwa.com.
robert shumake
FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad <b>...</b>
iLounge news discussing the FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Wednesday <b>News</b> « The Confluence
In news related to Michelle raising more money, the GOP seems to be short of it. Gosh, other than 8 years of a failed presidency, and then attacking the popular candidates and their supporters just as the Dems are doing, I can't imagine ...
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
robert shumake
FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad <b>...</b>
iLounge news discussing the FileMaker releases FileMaker Go updates for iPhone and iPad. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Wednesday <b>News</b> « The Confluence
In news related to Michelle raising more money, the GOP seems to be short of it. Gosh, other than 8 years of a failed presidency, and then attacking the popular candidates and their supporters just as the Dems are doing, I can't imagine ...
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
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