The rise of social media sites has given customers a new avenue to talk about your company and in turn a new way for you to reach your customers quickly.

The general practice when a crisis hits your company, affecting your customers, is to deal with it quickly. Social media sites now give you an outlet to explain the crisis and your response almost instantly.

A tip from the experts at the recent Media140 conference was to not sugar-coat your response to customers in a crisis.

Here is how media training expert, Gemma Tognini explained it:

Authenticity is the only currency acceptable when in a crisis.

So don’t lie to your customers, tell it to them straight and they will appreciate it. If you don’t tell them the truth then they will simply go looking for the truth online.

Dena Vassallo from public relations firm, PPR, explained it as the “surprise and delight factor”. If you fix any problems quickly & openly in these forums through conversation with the customer, then not only will they be surprised at how open you have been but they will also be delighted by the fast response. By resolving these problems so publicly any other followers will appreciate this also and it will likely build more trust in your brand.

Being able to respond quickly to any issues that arise comes back to the 3 principles I outlined last week – monitor, listen & respond. Monitor what is being said online about your company, listen to what these people are saying and respond in a truthful and timely manner.

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However, the analytics capability of for Facebook is pretty limited. So marketers spending all this money on facebook have very little insight into how their fan pages are performing.
Earlier this week I saw a tweet (message on twitter) with a link to Google Analytics hack for measuring facebook fan pages. We tried this hack but it had too many bugs and after wasting 2 hours we gave up on that solution.

As we were struggling with the GA hack, I got an email from Webtrends announcing their Facebook Measurement Capability. So I guess that is going to be our solution for measuring Facebook fan pages and custom apps but I will have to wait and see if it will live up to the expectations.

Here are some screenshots of Webtrends Facebook measurement reports

Here is a press release from WebTrends

“The ability to have concrete measurement on investments within Facebook and compare them apples to apples with other digital channels is critical to marketers,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing, Webtrends. “Our comprehensive approach to measuring Facebook, beyond just applications, allows marketers to understand the broader picture of how their Facebook investment is performing.”

Webtrends can now show you how your tabs, apps, and share features are working.

A few examples are:

• Twitter activity driving to Facebook Fan pages
• Facebook Fan page activity overlaid with corporate blog posts
• Conversion performance if they happen in Facebook
• Custom applications, Facebook page tabs, and Facebook ad click performance

Webtrends believes Facebook is one of the key social channels for brands to invest in and these capabilities will help them validate those investments.

Webtrends Analytics for Facebook
Webtrends’ new Facebook measurement capabilities utilize Webtrends Analytics 9, which combines our powerful real-time analytics engine with its best-in-class user interface. For the first time, marketers can view their Facebook measurement alongside other digital marketing investments such as websites, microsites, blogs, mobile apps, and more. Additionally, using Analytics 9’s RSS overlay capabilities, marketers can easily see the impact of promotional efforts. Tracking custom tabs, applications, and sharing provides the most complete measurement of Facebook available in the market.

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Custom Tabs
Custom tabs and applications have critical differences for data collection, due to Facebook’s Terms of Service and its commitment to user privacy.

• Brands can’t use traditional analytics methods for tracking custom tabs because Facebook does not allow Javascript, and they aggressively cache images.
• To overcome these limitations, Webtrends developed a new method that uses their data collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• In addition to tracking tab views, Webtrends can also measure:
• Tab views segmented by fans and non-fans
• Clicks on buttons and links, such as the Share button and its options

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Facebook Applications

• Applications allow more tracking options both because they allow Javascript and because the Facebook’s Terms of Service allows for collection of user level data.
• Webtrends utilizes their Data Collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• Webtrends can measure any type of application built on the Facebook platform.

The Great Data Giveaway – A Demonstration of Webtrends’ Facebook Measurement Capabilities
To demonstrate their new capabilities, Webtrends created a prototype Facebook campaign called The Great Data Giveaway. Webtrends is using this campaign as a model for their customers’ reference.

“Marketers are wrestling with how to earn and prove ROI from social media marketing,” said Kaykas-Wolff. “We designed The Great Data Giveaway to not only demonstrate our new capabilities in action, but to also show marketers that social channels like Facebook can generate qualified leads.”

The campaign is a drawing for prizes that appeal to Webtrends’ target market, which are data prizes like ReadWriteWeb premium reports and InfoChimps’ Twitter Census Data.

1. Webtrends created an application and placed it on a custom tab on Facebook to explain the contest details. KPIs: views segmented by fans and non-fans.
2. The user becomes a fan first (known as a “fan-gate”), then allows the installation of the app in compliance with Facebook’s Terms of Service. KPIs: Rate of fan interest, number of installs.
3. Once the app is installed, the user can enter the contest via a form driven by our Eloqua marketing automation system. KPIs: Entries, follow-up email opens, follow-up email conversions.
4. The app allows users to post the contest info to their wall. KPIs: Number of shares.
5. Webtrends marketing provides air-cover for the contest by mentioning it on Twitter and in blogs. KPIs: RSS overlay of promotion efforts on views (tab) and visits (application).

“We are so proactive in talking about Facebook measurement because it’s a critical area of growth for our customers. The new capabilities we have developed were shown at our recent user conference, Engage 2010, earlier this month, and we have several implementations underway,” said Kaykas-Wolff. “To meet their needs and keep up with the rate of change in this space, we have a series of capabilities we’re adding to Webtrends Analytics that will be released in the near term and ongoing basis.”

Webtrends Analytics 9 for Facebook Webinar
Webtrends will also host a Webinar in April discussing how companies can take advantage of Facebook measurement in Webtrends Analytics 9. For more information including registration, date and time, please visit us here.

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You run over to check your Twitter account. Then you dash to Facebook to see what’s going on there. Then Linkedin. Maybe your blog. All the while you’re feeling like you’re playing catch-up, that something awesome may have happened, and you missed it because you weren’t online. Sound familiar?

Sure, you can centralize some of your social media chores (great post by Chris Brogan), by using Tweetdeck or Seesmic. But that only helps if you’re online and “in the flow.”

For normal humans that check social media a couple times a day, NutshellMail may become your new favorite social companion. And it’s free.

Like RSS for your relationships

NutshellMail sends you a highly customizable email digest (from 1 to 24 times per day) of what’s happening in your social media spheres, so you can browse and get up to speed quickly, without having to visit several different destinations or fire up your iPhone’s social apps.

Twitter Without the Hassle

Want to know who has signed up to follow you on Twitter today? Who unfollowed you today? All the DMs and @ replies you received in the last three hours? NutshellMail batches it all up and sends it to you in a tidy email at the exact time of your choosing. You can even include Twitter searches in your feed, enabling you to use NutshellMail the same way you’d use TweetBeep, or an RSS feed of Twitter search results.

Handy Facebook Reminders

It’s pretty tough to find a credible excuse for missing people’s birthdays on Facebook. NutshellMail saves you from being labeled an ingrate by reminding you of all the birthdays of your Facebook friends this week. The email also can be configured to show you all new friend requests, status updates from pages that you’re a fan of, as well as photos, videos and links from your friends. Plus, event invites, and photos in which you’re tagged.

And More…

Although I’m not using it presently, you can also configure your NutshellMail to include Linkedin and MySpace content, as well as updates from the Ning groups of which you are a member.

Also, if you have several different email accounts, you can use NutshellMail to automatically combine the emails sent to your secondary and tertiary accounts and forward them together to your primary account.

All the content shown in each email is clickable. So, if you want to see more about a new Twitter follower, you can simply click the name or photo in the email, and instantly visit their bio. You can also manage your customization preferences by clicking links in the email, so visiting the NutshellMail Web site isn’t needed after initial sign-up.

Social Integration in an Instant

One of the outstanding new add-on features of NutshellMail is their Facebook app, which enables Facebook fan page managers to easily add an email newsletter tab to the page. Subscribers then receive a digest of all the content posted to the fan page. I’ve been talking a lot about the integration of email and social media, and this is another example of using cross-functional technology to build content creation and deployment synergies. Note that NutshellMail is funded in part by FBFund, Facebook’s venture capital arm.

Here’s a nice video demonstration of NutshellMail and how it can save you time and social media aggravation.

I’ve been using NutshellMail for a few weeks now, and find it indispensible. (Thanks to my friend Will Smith – the world’s second most popular Will Smith – for turning me on to it).

How can you make use of NutshellMail to simplify your social media chores?

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In the past, I have always divided the SEO landscape into 3 categories: On Page, Off Page and Site Wide.  On Page Optimization refers to aligning the content and Meta data of a Web page with the targeted keyword phrases that the page is relevant to.  Off Page Optimization refers to aligning the link connectivity of the Web site to the keyword phrases that are most relevant for the situation.  Off page optimization is further divided into two sub categories: Internal Off Page Optimization and External Off Page Optimization.  Internal link optimization is concerned with site elements like the global navigation template and breadcrumb navigation.  External link optimization is primarily focused on 3rd party links that point to your site and what keywords are being used in those links.  Site wide optimization refers to cleaning up all the technical issues which can cause problems for search engines in indexing and ranking your site.  Issues like URL structure, 301 versus 302 redirects, flash, Ajax and Java script, rel tags, xml sitemaps and many other details make up our list of Site Wide Optimization rules and tactics.

Until recently, this model was an accurate reflection of the issues that need to be addressed in any SEO campaign.  But as search has advanced and new metrics have been developed that affect search rankings, a new model is necessary to encapsulate all of the variety of new tasks that are important to any successful SEO campaign.  So for 2010, here is the new search periodic table of the Eight Elements of SEO:

1) Discovery

Analytics

Obviously there is a lot more to the optimization process in this new model, and that’s because a lot has happened in the world of SEO in the last couple of years. So today I would like to put some context behind this new model and explain what else it covers.

The first element in the new model is called Discovery.  This part of the SEO process refers to all activities that are required to understand the parameters and goals of the campaign.  The Discovery phase includes keyword research, competitive analysis, understanding the business model and a review of the current analytics landscape including keyword rankings to understand as much as possible the “current state” of the SEO campaign and what the goals of the campaign are moving forward.

Universal Search Optimization refers to all activities that affect rankings for universal search elements like video, images, news, shopping, reviews and local listings.  Activities include but are not limited to optimizing video content and title tags, image alt tags, shopping feeds through Google base, and local optimization through the Google Business Center.

Usability is a separate Web discipline that focuses on user experience.  Until recently, the correlation between usability and SEO was implied but not well defined.  With the recent advent of the Google Web site Speed Test and all of its associated recommendations, the first concrete metrics that tie usability to search rankings have been established and more will follow soon.  It’s in the best interest of search engines to reward sites that have superior user experience, so you can be sure that an increasing amount of emphasis will be put on usability metrics going forward.

Social Media has long been a favorite tool of SEO practitioners for link building, reputation management and user generated content.  But now that real time search has become a prominent feature of the major search engines, the subset of social media activities that affect SEO is worthy of special attention and those activities need to be part of any successful SEO campaign.

Analytics is the engine that allows you to make decisions about your SEO campaign in terms of understanding performance and deploying resources on an ongoing basis.  Having an understanding about the differences in paid and organic traffic, brand versus non brand keyword performance and the long tail performance of your campaign are a few of the basic essentials that must be in place to strategically run a successful SEO campaign.
In my next post, I will describe a two phase process for running an SEO campaign that addresses all of the Eight SEO Elements on both a foundational and continuous basis.

I hope this gives everyone a good foundation to describe the process of SEO.  I will be speaking more about the eight elements of SEO at the Online Marketing Summit here in San Diego later this month as well as SES New York in March.

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One of these folks, Ted Rubin (@tedrubin), exemplifies the energy and effort that is required to make a place for oneself in the social web for business. I interviewed Ted by e-mail recently to learn about the who, what, where, why and how of his social media efforts as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of the Eyes Lips Face (e.l.f.) Cosmetics line. I challenge you to find a more active C-level marketer out there.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself. What is your marketing experience and what is your mission as CMO for e.l.f. Cosmetics?

Prior to joining e.l.f., I served as Senior Managing Director of Marketing and Business development for Eastern Union Commercial and RealProspex.com, the fastest growing and most innovative commercial real-estate-listing site in the country. I was also President and CEO of The Black Book and responsible for its turnaround and eventual sale to a private equity group, and have held senior level positions at 1-800-Flowers and Yoyodyne, a Yahoo! company, in addition to running my own internet marketing and business development consultancy which serviced a vast array of online and traditional companies.

As Chief Marketing Officer for e.l.f. Cosmetics, my responsibilities include communicating with and building e.l.f.’s client base, leveraging brand equity through strategic marketing programs, and creating/managing a major thrust into social media initiatives and partnerships. I also focus on strengthening both core products and line extensions, including the extremely successful Studio line and Minerals collection, both launched under my tenure and growing rapidly.

EyesLipsFace.com considers itself not only an e-tailer, but a pioneer of social commerce… a beauty and trendsetting destination site with approximately ten to twelve million page views a month, several hundred thousand monthly visitors and over two million members. I believe the key to continued success is identifying with the customer. Listening is finally getting the respect it deserves through Social Media… listen and adjust your message to make it relevant to your consumer. Brand loyalty declines due to lack of relevance… a direct result of not listening.

Number one is always try to understand who your customer is and stay true to your brand. At e.l.f. we position the brand with a unique approach toward beauty, accessibility, interactivity and consumer engagement.

2. Tell us how long you have been engaged in digital marketing (social media , search etc) and what venues you are currently using.

I have been involved in digital marketing since 1997 when I joined Seth Godin at his online direct marketing company Yoyodyne, which was acquired by Yahoo! a year later. I scaled and continued development of Yoyodyne’s most successful and only profitable product, “Get Rich ClickSM”. My team blew away sales projections from $20,000 in February 1998 to sales in excess of $6 million in the back half of that year – beating projections by more than 200 percent.

Currently at e.l.f. we are very totally immersed in affiliate, search, email, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing… as well as intertwining all of that with a robust earned media presence. In addition we maintain a seven day a week blogging presence and have built a very strong relationship with the Mommy and Beauty Blogging community.

3. Why have you chosen these avenues and are there others that you are considering?

I have chosen these venues because they lend themselves to performance marketing and allow us to either only pay for acceptable results or extend our footprint without the need for a traditional media budget.

We have an extremely high brand visibility and combined with our phenomenal “Affordable Luxury” model we are a great fit with many publishers (and work with most including Hearst, Conde Nast, Hachette Filipacchi, Time, etc.) and websites/bloggers for special features… especially in today’s economic environment.

We are featured regularly in blogs, magazines, newspapers and TV news reports on a daily basis. e.l.f. does not have a traditional marketing budget. The majority of our marketing is through PR, cross promotion, partnership, content sharing, and/or rev share with other websites. We work very aggressively enhancing the e.l.f. client base through hands-on marketing initiatives and are focusing on leveraging and continuing to grow brand equity through strategic marketing programs, partnerships and an aggressive Social Media strategy.

4. You stated in a tweet recently, “This recession, unlike past few, w/hav long term impact on consumr shopng habits. Ignor new valu paradigm at ur own risk. Could you explain what you mean by this?

This recession, unlike other recent downturns, has reached deeper into the wallets and more importantly psyche of most consumers. In addition the effects on the purchasing power of the average consumer will be longer lasting and most have seen the light for the first time in many years about the importance of building a savings base. Due to this, “Value” is now king… “Value” being a combination of price “and” quality. Simply put… consumers want more for less and will insist upon this for a long time to come.

5. Moving forward how do you intend to embrace this new paradigm for e.l.f? What will your marketing efforts look like in 5 years as a result of this shift?

The beauty of our business at e.l.f. is that we were pioneers, trailblazers and trendsetters in this regard. We were doing this when everyone else was raising their prices… even those brands that offered nothing more than fancy packaging for the higher prices.

EyesLipsFace.com is not just an etailer, but a pioneer of social commerce… we have become a beauty and trendsetting destination site with a few hundred thousand monthly visitors and in excess of 2MM members. Check out “the buzz” section on our website… . The majority of e.l.f.’s products are sold for only $1. Our single item price points for our three lines are $1 (our standard line), $3 (Studio line), and $5 (Mineral line).

In today’s rapidly evolving marketing world I am not sure what we will be doing next year, so five years out is not something I am even pondering. My hope is to continue to build upon what we have done to date with regard to engaging and interacting with our members/customers/prospective customers to build a relationship with our brand that will be loyal and enduring.

6. If you were to give someone who is new to the marketing game a bit of free advice what would it be?

Research the social media/marketing medium and become knowledgeable. There’s nothing better than first hand experience. Later, there are many things you will be able to delegate, but this is the one thing that you need to do. I spent months researching and understanding social media before I made many moves in the space for e.l.f.

Build a following for your personal brand. If you are able to build a sizeable audience for your personal brand then you are closer to developing a social marketing strategy for your company.

Set management’s expectations properly so everyone understands what you are trying to accomplish and how to measure those results.

Build a strategy with measurable goals, such as number of followers, growth rate and interactions, but don’t avoid areas that may not be measured accurately as these are potentially very valuable to the company’s bottom line down the road.

Get your hands dirty… interact with your audience and provide that personal touch that a brand so desperately requires.

7. How important do you think video and interactive content will be in the near future?

I think video, and the ability to put a face to the name of user-generated content, will play a huge role in the growth of social media marketing. When the next phase is complete, and the average consumer can manage the ability to embed a link that can click through to a product from a YouTube or other ubiquitous video platform, the next generation advocate/affiliate will arise and become incredibly valuable to a retailer/brand.

In January 2009 we launched a sister site ASKelf.com that hosts all user-generated content posted about e.l.f. around the web, primarily focusing on video, and will soon be integrating it into our site in a significantly upgraded format as the The e.l.f. Beauty Network.

We just re-launched our site this month with a new design and will be adding the The e.l.f. Beauty Network as soon as the design is ready to fit in and some important upgrades are made.

Thanks to Ted for his time. As noted at the start, he may be the “hardest working man in C-level social media”. If you have any questions ask away. I suspect Ted will be willing to “interact” here at Marketing Pilgrim.

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Simon Dumenco started a conversation by pointing out that many users give up their privacy while on Twitter, telling people where they are and what they’re doing.  Then it’s Twitter, not necessarily the users, that profits from the information, since it’s been able to sell data to both Google and Microsoft.

Dumenco later asked, “All that time and energy spent making virtual connections with friends and strangers, tweeting ephemera, tagging pictures, etc. — does the, say, entertainment value or networking/emotional benefit (e.g., getting to feel ‘connected’) outweigh the opportunity cost (i.e., if you spend 20 hours a month on Facebook, what could you do with those 20 hours instead)?”

After all, although it can feel like you’re accomplishing a lot when sending out friend request after friend request to people you’d have trouble contacting otherwise, it’s worth considering how many sales result.  And considering how much time after the initial click you spend keeping up with the Facebook/Twitter/whatever account.

So use social media as much as you like.  Just don’t get so caught up in it as to forget about any business goals you’ve set.

Rex offers an excellent video from Dan Pink that argues that while rewarding people for many simple work tasks from the 20th century and before might increase performance, doing it for the cognitive tasks of the 21^st century does not work. The reason is that it narrows the focus and does not promote the exploration of options that can occur with other motivations. I have also found that it undercuts the team sprit and sharing that collaborative organizations need.Our recent economic downturn also shows that it puts too much weight on individual achievement even if it is counter to the success of the whole organization.

I think this makes sense.If you try to use performance incentives to promote enterprise 2.0 adoption, you need to be very careful that it does not reward the wrong behavior.It certainly needs to be aimed at overall team success if used at all.

So what does Rex offer instead? He writes, why not fun.Here I am completely onboard. I have often been involved in knowledge management implementations where we introduced fun as part of the awareness campaign.I will work even more if it makes the work more fun, such as meeting new interesting people to collaborate with and finding out more about your colleagues. In a minor way this is why I like to work with music as I get caught up in the rhythms of the sounds and works seems more fun.

Rex closes with a great video from Volkswagen that seals the deal. It shows how if you make one channel more fun it will trump the easier, formerly more popular, one.We should add the spirit of this approach to our enterprise 2.0 implementations. It should only help. 

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Since it may be hard to get everyone collaborating at once, how do you segment this into meaningful groupings? He offers some possibilities such as by geography, departments, and user created subgroups. Perhaps you might segment by feature sets or functionality, as well as. In this case certain people get wikis or microblogs.

I think the answer is all of the above. Most importantly, people in large organizations should have the opportunities to form their own groups. This approach has meet with great success at Booz Allen, for example.  Rather than organize collaboration along existing organizational charts than are subject to change, they organize it around communities of interest that reflect the capabilities of the organization and the needs of the market it serves. This allows for organic growth.

Since people can join more than one group they should also be able to collaborate in the many ways they form groups within the enterprise. In some cases, this might be by geography or department. A number of the collaboration suite allows for multiple ways to look at content and connections.

I think that feature or role use should be governed by task rather than role or position. Océ takes a proper approach as they try to educate employees on when to use what enterprise 2.0 tool for what purpose.  Booz Allen takes a similar approach with their change management efforts.

The challenges in implementing enterprise 2.0 are more around question such as the one Jacob raises to take proper advantage of the new capabilities the tools offer. 

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On the other side, those who work on these programs make a more idealist argument - that companies can do well and do good at the same time. That doing something positive for a community or for the planet at large is not mutually exclusive with making money. And even if it were, that the duty of organizations to do this should be seen as a necessary cost of doing business. This is not a debate that is likely to be resolved anytime in the near future, but my position is that I am a big believer in the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility. I teach a marketing course at Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact and have worked on dozens of CSR programs in my time managing marketing campaigns for clients.

Unfortunately, CSR is in a state of crisis today. To a large degree, this crisis is self inflicted - with many brands simply jumping on the bandwagon of popular causes such as the Pink Ribbon campaign for breast cancer simply because they were fashionable. Other brands have been exposed for “greenwashing” as a way to simply tell a story of being better or more ethical without actually living up to it.

The point of this article, though, is not to focus on the negatives of CSR or to lead anyone to the conclusion that it cannot work well. Instead, my aim is to try and offer a vision for how brands and the nonprofits they work with may be able to get past some of these barriers to collaborate on some real groundbreaking CSR programs that not only deliver results in terms of a positive impact on the world, but also can be viewed within a marketing team as having a value, effectiveness and ROI worth maintianing an ongoing investment in.

To that end, here are five fundamental keys to creating successful and believable CSR programs:

1. Forge a real strategic connection. By far the biggest mistake that brands and nonprofits make is creating partnerships of convenience rather than strategy. An airline supports feeding the hungry, A clothing retailer supports more technology in schools. A bank supports breast cancer. This is not to say these aren’t worthwhile causes, but the strategic link to a brand can often be missing - and without it, realizing real marketing value from a CSR program is difficult. Before committing to an effort, a brand needs to honestly assess whether the cause is the right fit … or not.
2. More upfront involvement and ownership from causes. Though it is tempting to blame this lack of strategic vision solely on the brand, there is an element of blame for nonprofits as well. When it comes to crafting a CSR program, a nonprofit cause often takes a subordinate role because of the perception that they are getting “a favor” from the brand working with them. This is a mistake for several reasons, but most importantly because often the nonprofit is in an ideal position to advise on what people truly care about in relation to their issue and what is likely to influence their opinions. For any nonprofit that simply agrees to a do an ill-conceived campaign from a brand - not only will it not generate strong results, it may also impact your ability to get future funding and support from that brand. So if you’re part of a nonprofit, get involved and be a vocal partner to the brands you work with. In the long run, they will appreciate working with you much more - and the results of your collaboration will be much stronger.
3. Shift to long term focus versus short term. It is certainly no surprise that the inclination of most marketers is to think in terms of campaigns rather than longer term partnerships. This is particularly true when you consider the average CMO’s tenure is about 18 months. With all these barriers, it can be tough to do something that lasts for a long time, but when you switch causes and allegiances every year or two then it is very difficult to build a perception in the consumers mind about what you stand for. The most successful CSR programs that are held in high regard and have returned enormous value for both the brand and an associated nonprofit (if there is one) are more longstanding efforts.
4. Commit more than just financial resources. Giving money to someone is actually the easiest thing to do when it comes to CSR programs. Writing a check takes relatively little effort - what requires more effort (and belief) is TIME from the people that work for a brand. Yet this time is what makes a commitment real. Having real people working on a cause from your organization is what can inspire your people with a sense of purpose. It is also the real proof point that any customers or critics can point to as a demonstration of your real commitment to a particular cause and the fact that your commitment is real and not just greenwashing.
5. Integrate programs instead of operating in silos. In many large organizations, CSR remains its own branch on the tree - which means opportunities for integration are often missed. Yet the stories that come from a well defined and executed CSR program can help to reinforce marketing messages, offer useful talking points for customer service, and great fodder for content creation for social media groups. The point is, CSR is best utilized if it is treated as a resource that is available to the entire company to help spread the story about. This can also help to combat the perception within many organizations that CSR efforts should not be actively talked about because this would mean “patting yourself on the back.” While too much self congratulation can backfire, this should not prevent brands from talking authentically about the things they are doing.

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First, because decisions have generally been viewed as the prerogative of individuals—usually senior executives. The process employed, the information used, the logic relied on, have been left up to them, in something of a black box. Information goes in, decisions come out—and who knows what happens in between?

This is, of course, a critical issue and one of the reasons I push organizations to adopt decisioning technology. The ability to log exactly how a decision was made, the steps that were taken, the analytic models considered is something that comes with the use of technology like business rules management systems. Beginning to create a history of how and why decisions were made puts you in a dramatically improved position when it comes to conducting systematic analysis. Tom’s focus in the article is on ways in which organizations can make manual decision making more explicit, but the potential for decisioning systems to play a role should not be forgotten.

Second, unlike other business processes, decision making has rarely been the focus of systematic analysis inside the firm. Very few organizations have “reengineered” their decisions. Yet there are just as many opportunities to improve decision making as to improve any other process.

Absolutely. Like Tom I believe organizations should conduct some kind of decision discovery – indeed this is the first step in my Decision Management methodology. Decision Discovery helps organizations to identify decisions and see how they impact strategy, balanced scorecards, KPIs or other operational measures. Identifying the decisions that will make the most difference and then classifying, understanding and prioritizing them puts organizations in a better position when it comes to improving manual decision making as well as adopting decisioning technology. And just like other re-engineering opportunities the power of technology to maximize the value of re-engineering is real with organizations that adopt decisioning technologies as well as a thoughtful approach to decision making seeing tremendous results.

It’s a great article and there’s lots I agree with. For instance several times in the article Tom talks about institutionalizing better decisions. One way to do this is to embed these decisions in decisioning technology so that it the right decision is available to everyone – right down to front line staff – and yet still determined by those with the relevant expertise and experience. He also talks about formalizing the consideration of decision alternatives and the use of adaptive control techniques – part of a phase I call Decision Analysis – is critical in both designing and then executing and learning from experiments. His warnings to ensure that the assumptions behind models are understood and his push for managers to have enough analytic/mathematical understanding to use such models are equally valid. Finally I really like his closing comment to the effect that if you are not measuring the impact of your decisions, of your choices, you are most unlikely to get any better at it. And you need to.

Tom is a little too negative on automated decisioning for my taste. He describes automated decisioning systems as hard to develop and implies they can be hard to change. My experience is that it is getting easier and easier to develop automated decisioning – easier than Tom thinks – and that the use of flexible business-centric technologies like a Business Rules Management System makes it easy to change and evolve the decision criteria even when these are embedded in automated decisioning systems. I also happen to think the book Neil and I wrote, Smart (Enough) Systems, has some good stuff about decisioning in it – though I like all the books he lists too (Competing on Analytics, Blink and Super Crunchers are all ones I have reviewed).

I recommend the article both as a general one on decisioning and for those of you thinking about how to improve decision making  in your executive and management teams.

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