A is for Awareness

Awareness with regards to technology, your brand value, your customers, your competitors, and your industry.  

What are your customers saying? About you? Your competitors? Where are they talking? One of the easiest things in the world to do these days is monitor what is being said about your brand and your company.  I have two different takes on this, and I'll call the first 'The Funnel':

The Funnel is, in my mind, the electronic butterfly net we widely cast via Google, Blog searches like Technorati, Twitter monitoring, Yahoo! Groups, Facebook discussions, to distill for us the very content we seek.  These are strangers, talking about your brand, your competitors, using positive and negative commentary, and all without consulting YOU.  If you are a global corporate brand, you likely employ agencies for PR and Media Monitoring, and these agencies, if they're good, are also monitoring Social media in real time, and have plans in place to deal with both the negative AND the positive posts, comments and commentary.   

My second take on Awareness, now that we understand The Funnel, is The Network:

The Network, in my mind, is the distributed connections that we have through social media, social networking, business networking, business associations, friendships, family, and our jobs, that all contribute to that low rumbling hum that is our news feed of life.  When you want to ask a question about something to do with your brand, you already know what YOU think;  you want to know what others think.  You ask your spouse, your kids (depending on age or relevance), your friends, you might pose a question to LinkedIn or Facebook, or bring it up at Toastmasters or the monthly meeting of the Alumni Association.  You are doing your own primary research, and this can get you lots of results, but you have to weight them accordingly.  

If it's a business problem or marketing idea, you may give more weight to your professional connections, unless it's a kitchen appliance you're trying to market, in which case, you may ask your wife to ask her friends.  This awareness of the thoughts and feelings of your distributed network is what will give you the advantage. Why not use your employees?  If you have a large staff, depending on the industry, they may spend a great deal of time in front of the computer anyway, and likely participate in social sites anyway-- tap this resource, and create an army of advocates.  If they like you, they will be happy to proudly wear the badge of your company, and if they don't, and they want to keep their job, they'll tell you why they don't and you can fix a problem.  Either way you win.  

Awareness is important, because without it, if your are unaware, you risk making mistakes, and meeting challenges blindly.  You give the advantage to your competitors.  Engage your employees, engage your customers, and protect your brand.