john {WEB}ster

Don’t get me wrong, buying a commercial content management system (CMS) does have a few advantages, not the least of which is commercial support and well-defined service agreements. Plus, you may find a commercially available CMS ready-built for your needs and will likely be faster to implement than open source. Documentation for a commercial CMS product is usually better than for an open source solution. The average person also assumes a certain degree of safety with commercial software as opposed to open source. All of these PROS do come with a price — A HEFTY PRICE. If your organization can’t find another place to use $30,000.00 then a commercial system is probably your best bet.

Open Source Content Management Systems

On the surface the only reason to try an open source solution (I was once in this boat) is price. Deploying an open source CMS will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than a commercial CMS. As is the nature with open source software, the code is “open,” making the opportunities for customization greater than they are for commercial solutions. However, if you dig deeper you will find that having no software license fee will free up your budget customize the solution for your group. Depending on your specific needs, there may very well be an existing open source CMS that has been built to address your niche.

When I walked into my local mobile phone store the other day, asking about the new Blackberry phone I was excited about, I found a coupon for a FREE latte at the coffee shop down the street. Being the coffee junkie that I am, I went down the street for my latte. You wouldn’t believe what I found on the counter at the coffee shop, a coupon for $50.00 off a new mobile phone at the store I had come from. These two shops were sending traffic to each other; they had created a strategic business alliance. In the wonderful world of marketing, this is known as Fusion Marketing.

The entrepreneur has been taught “if it’s going to be - it’s up to me”, but you’d be amazed about the synergy available by collaborating or aligning with others. Fusion marketing can propel your business to levels you never thought possible.

Those that are likely to benefit from fusion marketing alliances are called power partners. A “power partner” is a business that is targeting a similar market as yours but doesn’t compete with you. Examples of this are a funeral pre-planning and a life insurance salesperson; a dog groomer and a dry cleaner; a real estate agent and a mortgage company; a bridal company, a caterer and a disc jockey. It’s easy to see when you look at these examples where we are going with this. The number of power partners or fusion marketing alliances is only limited by your creativity.

Social media can be an incredible tool for your business, providing you with more customer insight, direct communication channels and the ability to measure the effectiveness of these conversations very closely.

However, to many business owners and marketing professionals, the social media industry is a big question mark. Some are not sure if this media constitutes a new, largely underutilized advertising medium, or if it’s simply a variation of traditional online advertising. Others question how a serious brand could succeed in the sometimes unpredictable environments of popularized consumer-oriented online communities. And some are uncertain about creating campaigns for social media, perhaps mistakenly believing that it requires a radical change from their current marketing approach.

The result — most are not capitalizing on social media and the opportunities it provides for making high-quality connections with consumers. According to a recent report by market research firm Compete, Inc., more than 71 percent of consumers who use social media are more influenced by user-generated content when making purchasing decisions than by information from brand advertisers and marketers.

But as the impact of social media grows, participating could easily turn into a giant time suck without some sort of structure behind it. With that in mind, I’ve put together 5 key steps for getting your company’s social media marketing program off to a successful start.