One of the biggest challenges for businesses in this current market is to avoid the temptation to figuratively curl up in a ball under our desk and wish it was 2005. Sure the market is soft and customers are tentative but instead of taking a reactive position we need to be active. There are upsides to the recession- there is less noise in the market and an incredible assortment of digital tools for you to better engage your prospects in a one-on-one conversation. Seth Godin is spot-on in his recent blog post Death spiral!
As Tom Peters says, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness,” and yet that’s what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but they don’t. This isn’t a dip, it’s a cul de sac. It’s over.
Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum… Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else. Buy a new platform. Move. Find new products for the customers that still trust you.
Change is a bear, but it’s better than death.”
2010 is just around the corner- let’s make something of ‘09 while we still can- cause times may not be optimal but this is the only time we have.
At Fireworx Digital one of the ways we give back is through an organization called Y-Malawi. Y-Malawi is a groundbreaking model for partnership between churches in the US and frontline organizations in Malawi, Africa, providing community-wide sustainable development and transformation in the areas of water and food security, healthcare, education, evangelism & discipleship, youth programs, and economic development, including micro-finance.
What I love about Y-Malawi is the organic nature of its growth. Unlike many 501-c3 non-profts, it doesn’t have a big top down organizational staff. It’s largely run by volunteers. I’ve been active in Y-Malawi since its inception and together with my team developed their website www.y-malawi.org, marketing materials, an extensive 30-page “Giving Catalog”, and an online giving store. What’s really exciting though is I recently started a Ning community for Y-Malawi, which now has over 350 active members. What’s amazing is to see how these members are interacting with each other, posting their trips to Malawi, discussing new sustainability ideas, sharing stories and basically doing what you might expect a vibrant community to do. My daughter Jennifer was our third member, didn’t really know much about the organization at all at the time, and now she is leaving tonight with some of her friends for a 15 day trip to Malawi! Does that show the power of a social community?
I know I’m somewhat biased as a major social media proponent and consultant, but I don’t believe Y-Malawi would be seeing this organic growth without the interconnectivity that comes with the social networking technology of a site like Ning. It has taken Y-Malawi’s static web presence and put a real, live, transparent, personal face on it. This organization is in its infancy and we’re excited to see where it will go as we are adding all the other aspects of social marketing to further spark its momentum.
