I was at the AIM Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia last week. The Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference was two days filled with so much learning and all geared to marketing, digital marketing and then of course social media.
One of the conference Speakers, Collin Douma had a very interesting talk on How Social Media may be putting an end to demographics. It was most interesting because he focused on how the interests of people may be a more effective way to market to people over demographics.
But that’s not what I wanted to share here. Aside from the hilarious lesson on how Gillette created some videos to help people doing particular online searches, trying to learn the proper way to shave, (See video) he also talked about some very interesting transformations that happened to companies. Their PIVOT.
A pivot being a change, an act of turning or in the case of business a move from one focus to another… Some of the examples he had were a little shocking and I guessed none of them. They were presented as a little quiz – This was XX company and focus, they did a pivot and became…???
Once of his examples was Burbn – a company started as an app similar to Foursquare, which after some tweaking and a pivot, it became Instagram which was recently bought out by Facebook for 1 billion. (You can read more here)
I think many small business owners need to think about whether a Pivot is what they need. Sometimes we are working and struggling and making small changes and still not getting the results we desire. At times like these it may be that small changes and tweaks are not what is needed but a total pivot. A 180 degree turn on to the right path and with better results.
If your business is not falling into place as you wish and clients or sales are not happening, maybe you need to take a detailed overall look at what you are doing and determine if you can make your own pivot. Ideally we all want to make one that nets is a 1 billion dollar sale, but realistically that is not happening. You may need to be happy with a pivot that works to get you the business you have dreamed and envisioned. The success you want.
Are you ready to make your pivot? OR are things working out the way you want? What category are you in?
Having worked with many social media clients in the past few years, it’s been interesting to note a pattern that has emerged. Clients who are more accepting of the need for them to use their social networks and post a good portion of their own tweets and updates, are the ones having more success.
