The little things about marketing, web and strategy – Sebastien Tremblay

I remember the first time I hit a “100″ on a social network. I really felt important. It was on Facebook and I could finally celebrate my 100th friend. For most people, numbers are an indicator of how popular they are. This has always been true. They compare their salary, the size of their house and (why not) the number of kids they have. It seems that having a big house means you are more successful. But does it really work that way ? Appearances are deceptive. This big house you admire belongs to the bank. And, unsurprisingly, will never really be paid.

So what about social networks ? Does having 4 500 friends on Facebook really make you an important facebooker ? No, it’s just numbers. It does not mean that you know all those friends. It does not even mean that you have any kind of interaction with these people. It’s just a number. What really matter is how many of your friends are commenting on your wall and how many are coming to your birthday. That is what you should count. How many of your Twitter followers really care about you ? Just consider how many replied to your last tweet or retweeted it. Social analytics are not about numbers, they are about interactions.

Next time you lose a friend on Facebook or a follower on Twitter, ask yourself this question : what is the impact ? Is it one less attendee for my next party ? One less reply ? Or just a number going down ? How many friends do you really have on social networks ?

There are many things I dislike about teamwork at school, but there is at least one thing I like : I can see how people work and what tools they use. Today, people do not have time to meet, so most of the work is usually done outside school, so we need to learn to collaborate virtually.

The first step is “the email game”. I see it as a game, because we spend so much time playing and responding to each other. Everyone seems to have its own strategy : no response, short response (i.e. : “OK”), endless response, new threat, etc. However, in the end, we never really know who win and who lose. The problem is we also lose so much time. Remember : email is a communication tool, not a sharing tool.

For example, when we work on a project, every time someone update its part, we receive a copy by email. If two people work at the same time on the same version of a document, then the email system fail.  You might also hear : “My file is too heavy, I can’t send it by email”, which gives me headaches every time.

What can be done ? There is no perfect solution. But, productivity should be enhanced by using web-services like Drop.io, where you can upload attachments (up to 100MB) or Google Docs, where everyone can share and work on the same documents. If you like real-time collaboration, you will definitely enjoy Google Wave. The key is to think about sharing and collaborating, instead of simply communicating. How about having only one document to work on, instead of multiplying the parts every time you send a email ? It is a little thing that should make you work differently, but make your teamwork’s life easier.

Today you are taking a big step in your life : you want to build a house. You have enough money in your bank account and you are really tired of living in that tiny apartment. So, it’s time to move ! What is your first step ? You definitely need some tools, help from professionals and… of course, a plan !

This last piece is really important and it might sounds obvious that nobody should start their project without a plan, some do. I’m pretty sure by now that you understand that I will not really explain how to build a house in this blog. However, it may help you to. I want to start this blog with a strong example to show how planning and strategy are important to any project, no matter how big (or small) they are. This is the first step. Don’t buy or use any tool before having one. Some might say that, in fact, it is really hard to know what kind of tools you need if you have no idea what you are building.  Finally, don’t spend all your money on tools. You need to learn how to use them and make sure that they contribute to your plan and strategy. What are your tools and how do they contribute to your project ?