day 805: Sign Up. Follow. Share.

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations..."

If we tried, it would be hard to find a successful consumer focused company that does not have a social media strategy. At the end of the day and all the talk about search engine marketing (SEM)and search engine optimization (SEO), both of which are important to understand and have an expertise about, nothing will work unless you have people who will sign up with you (in whatever form you choose them to do so), then follow you, and finally share with others what they have learned or like about your company. It comes down to those three simple concepts. And, of course, for that to even remotely work we must have a product or service that is worthy of consumers spending their time, energy and social capital to sign up, follow and share. We would all be wise to stop and consider what it is that we are asking others to sign up for, how easy we can make it for them to follow and what are we making exciting and compelling enough for them to want to share.

This past weekend at my church in San Francisco, http://www.cornerstone-sf.org, (you may need to copy this into your browser as Blogger link insert is not working correctly), our Pastor asked me to share a few minutes about how we could use social media to get the word out about a new service and location in the city. We had created a small insert card for the weekly service handout and it was detailed about how to Sign up, Follow, and Share. As I was preparing for the short talk I was going to do it was not lost on me that what we want to have happen in Social Media, is the same message that Jesus gave us about how we are to live and express our faith. He asked us to sign up with Him. He then asked us to follow Him, each and every day of our lives, and He asked us to share the good news of His message and gospel. Thousands of years since Jesus walked the earth, we are still being called to do the same things with technology that could never then been imagined. God is calling each of us to Sign Up, Follow and Share. How are we doing in that calling?

Reference: Matthew 28:19 (New Living Testament)

day 730: Strategic Decisions, Part 2

"Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress"

When faced with strategic direction decisions we really have one of three decisions to be made; To lead, follow, or get out of the way. Part two of this three part series is about following.

When we are told there is only room for one of anything, that's not entirely right. There's actually room for more and for the sake of the argument, let's say there is room for three of anything significant. One will be high quality/high service/high cost, the second will be good quality/good service with a better price point, and the third will be a value play with lowest cost but reasonable service/quality. Cases in point; Car rental companies, airlines, soda pop, cereal companies, mass market home builders, computer hardware companies, etc. Even when we think a company has a market sewn up and dominating there is room for a number two if positioned correctly. We are seeing that today with the tablet market as a bunch of companies are trying to figure out what they need to do/be to be number two or number three behind Apple and the ipad. It's not always wrong to follow as a company still strives to find a place of leadership. It's about knowing who we are as a company/product/service and then playing to your strengths to carve out our place in the market.

God challenges us all the time in our work and personal lives to know who we are and then follow. Yes, He wants us to lead and yes, sometimes, as we read yesterday, He wants us to get out of harm's and our own way, but He is also very happy if we learn to follow what He has taught us and to use those talents, gifts and treasures that have been given to us to ensure that we complete and excel at the tasks given to us. If we are to bring glory to God in all that we do then sometimes we need put our head down and pay attention to the tasks that have been given to us.

Reference: 1 Timothy 4:15 (New Living Testament)