“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” ~ Charles Darwin

There are 22 Selling Days in August and 43 remaining in the Quarter!!!

The pace of change on the web has always been fast. Even frenetic. In fact change is one of the few constants these days in marketing, media and PR. If things didn’t change that would actually be more shocking than if they continue to.

When I talk to communications and media professionals lately, there are really just two reactions to this: excitement, which leads to inspiration or fear, which leads to a head in the sand approach. Because no one is ambivalent to change.

So if you’re in any facet of communications (on the media or marketing side) you have either already come to love the evolving, improvisational nature of how we connect or you haven’t. And if you haven’t it is past time you did, because if not you are going to be forever fighting the future. But how to embrace change, stay at the edge and enjoy doing it?

1. Fear nothing: test, tinker and try new platforms, networks and tools
2. Plan for change: develop a digital strategy that is platform agnostic
3. Don’t be static: foster a culture of experimentation and iteration
4. Get data-driven: don’t guess, use analytics to really understand – thank you Steve

If you’re not the one pushing and trying to make things better, then you’re likely just trying to keep pace with those who are. It’s actually a lot easier if you make the decision to create a culture which thrives on experiments and iteration. Now you’re the one pushing what’s next instead of always playing catch-up. If you are within a culture that can’t just do this, it’s even okay to create a structure behind how experimentation should be done so it’s tried in the first place. Then you can remove the boundaries when people get comfortable.

Are the current waves of change on the web affecting your business? To what extent? Do you even know? Everyone on your marketing team should at this point using some data to make decisions. Further, by keeping your finger on the pulse of your marketing analytics you can clearly see how valuable, conversion-oriented traffic sources are performing. Now you know what to adjust and why and can make confident choices about where to shift focus.

I know what some of you are thinking: yeah, we get it: embrace change. But is it really so obvious to everyone?

It still appears to me that the default for most is to cling to the days of old. It’s part of the lizard brain Seth Godin loves to describe. So while the intrepid of you are out there embracing a world in flux, most are not. I fought the entire Twitter – Facebook -Blogging thing long enough hoping that it would fizzle out – but there is some value even though I scoffed at the entire concept because I did not want embrace change.

But what could anyone possibly gain at this point through fear? I think it is a always a better mindset to embrace what’s new and view it as  infinitely compelling rather than to fear it. Why would anyone logically not take this approach?

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

Communication is the lifeline of every small business as we all know.

Gone are the days when you would have to fly down to another city if you had a client meeting. Modern technology makes it possible to communicate using email, fax, video conferencing, instant messaging and other such electronic media, besides the phone. However, a majority of the communication still takes place in writing, and has to be captured and stored in the form of documents. As documents carry crucial business related information, keeping them safe should be your top priority. This article gives you some small business advice on how to keep business records and store documents safely.

In spite of technological advances, most businesses still depend on paper to record, store and manage information. As a small business grows, it tends to accumulate tens of thousands of documents of various kinds over the years; e.g. books of accounts, invoices, copies of checks, statements, agreements, letters etc. For many of the documents, multiple copies are made and filed away only to be forgotten about. The documents are stored in a document archive or at an off site location like The File Room in Saint Louis, MO. In fact, storing documents in paper form could be dangerous in certain situations, some of which are discussed below. So then, how to keep business records secure? Switch to electronic document management – there are compelling reasons to do so. 

• Immune from wear and tear: Paper is vulnerable to adverse climate conditions as well as wear and tear caused by frequent handling. It can get moist, soiled and even get destroyed in case of exposure to rain or snow. When you stored documents offsite, you have even lesser control, as the conditions might not be as favorable as in your own office. As digitally stored documents are not vulnerable to wear and tear, it is far better to store documents like customer data, contracts, and accounts etc. in electronic form.
• Easy backup and retrieval: You may ask,”In the event of a natural disaster, even computers can malfunction or be destroyed completely. How would my documents stay secure in such a situation?” It is very easy to back up documents online. Most Windows-based document management software allows you to do this. In case of a disaster, as soon as your computers are back up, you can retrieve your documents in just a few clicks. There are several online backup services with inexpensive plans you can choose from. It works out far cheaper – and more secure – than having to build your document archive all over again. In fact, you can easily create multiple copies/backups of all your electronic documents – something which would be very expensive or almost impossible to do with paper documents.
• Maintaining business continuity: As it is very easy to back up documents stored electronically and retrieve them quickly, in the event of a disaster your small office can get back to work with hardly any time lag. This creates a favorable impression of your business in the eyes of customers, vendors and other parties you deal with. They feel confident doing business with you because they know that even if a disaster strikes, their records are safe with you.

In fact, if you store documents in electronic form it almost makes them permanent and indestructible (unless you choose to destroy them or have not backed them up). Switching to an electronic Document Management System (DMS) is possibly the best small business advice you could ever receive on how to keep business records safe other than storing the items in an off site record management facility.

As a Record Manager you have to think not only about hard copy storage and destruction but about items that stored daily on your servers – your computers and yes now your phones. Technological innovation, tighter regulation, and a variety of new content channels have all increased the demands placed on electronic archives. Today, archives must address a range of challenges that go beyond its traditional function as a storage facility for email. Archives must serve multiple purposes across all enterprise content, which includes deriving value from information, automating business processes and facilitating compliance and eDiscovery. Therefore, archiving today requires advanced strategy and technology to help you be intelligent about how you manage your enterprise content.

There are many issues that The File Room has to take into consideration as they help companies develop and implement a very specific archiving policies and practices, including:

• Handling all document types and formats, including email, rich media and social media
• Auto classification
• Retention Management and Content disposition
• Corporate governance and Legal mandates (federal/state/local laws and industry regulations)
• Legal holds
• The impact of the Cloud
• End user access and Mobility

These are just a few elements that face all record managers today, issues that we did not have to face 10 years ago or even 5 years ago for that matter. So the questions are: have your reviewed your current policies? Do have a written policy? Are you even following and enforcing that policy? These are critical questions that must asked and answered in the world we live in today so that you remain ready.