But in an ever changing global marketplace the winners both on and off the field today are those that can quickly and accurately discern a set of variables including customer shifts, competitive pressures, pricing trends, reputational risks, technology disruptions, and talent gaps among other things.

In the past, this was often the purpose of strategic plans and the purview of CEOs. However, the pace of business is such that CEOs are not only decentralizing organizational structures they are also transferring strategic decisions along with day-to-day tactical decisions to select leaders.

Getting back to the gridiron, such moves are akin to the quarterback calling the game at the line of scrimmage or the point of contact. No longer can a game plan or strategic plan be relied on to guide decision-making against a myriad of forces impacting success.

For communicators, this shift in organizational authority is significant. First, it forces us to ensure that all of our effort is being directed at the right targets and goals. And at the right time.

Who is making these decisions within the organization? Are we using communications to help them get smarter about the business? Does our counsel – based on our expertise – guide the right actions to propel the organization toward it’s business goals?

From a Communications standpoint, this new reality is built perfectly for social media from an analytics and programming opportunity. Providing the right metrics and dashboard can clear the road ahead offering a more coherent set of actions to drive results. Further, the insights drawn from such data paint a picture of the future, which is critical to senior leadership in making investments and driving change.

As 2012 unfolds we are already seeing companies scrambling to find their center of gravity.

There’s no better time to truly burnish our value proposition than right now!

What do you think?

Content Strategy
Content can support several business and marketing goals, including:

• Establish and grow community
• Inform prospects throughout the sales funnel
• Introduce a new product or service
• Establish thought leadership
• Strengthen or establish a search presence

It’s finding the right purpose and focus for your content efforts that help a brand realize the benefits of a deliberate content strategy.  Over time, your content strategy can help align disparate programs and ground them around a single purpose.  And, for each program, it can help create a market for your message/content over time.

Addressing the Content Burden
Brands have a lot to think about when they establish a presence in social media.  How long will it take to grow a community?  What kind of conversations will they need to anticipate and be able to address?  How do they grow their presence from a one-way monologue into a two-way dialogue with the people who influence the success of their brand?

All of these are important questions to ask and answer.  But, few are more important and have greater impact across all of them more than addressing the content burden.

Rethinking Content
Addressing the burden of content requires a new approach.  Thinking strategically about content requires the ability to rethinking the content supply chain – the role, format and context of content  – from creative concept through measurement.  When we start to think multi-purpose, multi-medium and multi-format, we can begin to align content resources against the content burden.  And, we ensue we can create a compelling story for the brand in the shareable, searchable formats of the social web.  But, brands are trained and condition to think of content in traditional terms – defined by insertion orders, date lines, traditional news cycles and white space.  When we begin to think beyond traditional limits, we can start to put content in other formats.  Here are a few of the formats of the new storytelling model.

Creating a Content Culture
Unlocking the benefits of the new content reality is creating a content culture within the business.  What may have been the responsibility of the communications team or marketing group now extends to every part of the brand with a story to tell.  The magic comes in finding the relevant and compelling content across the business that can be used to tell a cohesive brand story to each of its audiences.  But, in order to address the content burden, more groups within the brand should understand the role they play in telling the brand’s story.

Generally, education about the changing role of content includes elements of:

• Getting the brand to think beyond single-purpose content
• Educating the brand on shareability and why to put content in the shareable formats of the social web
• Helping the brand understand that it’s not just a consumer of content but also a publisher
• Introduce the concept of curation and the value of looking at the brand in the context of its industry and being a convener and promoter of the discussion
• Knowing what to measure and looking at content strategically and using likes, shares and views as an indication of the interest in that particular piece of content, but not as an immediate indication of the value of content marketing as a whole (low views should help direct content refinement, not to condemn the strategy)

Being able to tell the entire brand story in multiple places and formats is becoming the new norm.  Adapting your brand to capture the benefits of that connected conversation through content will help define the brand in its business context.

It’s for these reasons and others that as we lead our clients, partners, brands from insights through engagement, we focus much of our approach on putting good, relevant — and frequent — content into social media. The challenge for most brands isn’t understanding the role of content in their online strategy. Instead, it’s realizing the burden, having to produce content with the frequency necessary to feed the social machine. Without a consistent stream of good, relevant content, a brand’s social presence becomes stale and ineffective, and the brand becomes irrelevant to both people and the search engines that seek their content.

Some may disagree with me, especially those leaders who are looking for a way to justify their bad behavior.   Those who use “passionate” to describe themselves, I have to ask you if that really is a code word for tyrant?  Those who say they are being “direct and honest” when they tell someone they are stupid, isn’t that really just sugar coating what they are really up to, which is just being rude?    I have found that leaders, who behave badly, fool themselves into thinking they are justified in their actions because they believe they are brilliant.  It is time for leaders to stop drinking their own Kool-Aid and to start to understand people will out-perform for a leader who inspires rather than creates fear.  So who are these inspirational leaders?  Just look around you, every organization is filled with them.   They are not necessarily the people with the biggest personalities but those leaders who are quietly inspiring and building great teams of individuals that are getting the work done.

An important lesson to be learned from Steve Jobs’ biography is that he was successful despite his bad behavior not because of it.

But in addition to the promotion and voting, there’s something special about this “democracy”.  In the large (but small) social media community, the SXSW panel picker has become a reflection of not only the direction and transformation of our industry, but also an ideology of sorts- not just where we are, but where we’d like to go.

Here at camp WCG, we’re proud to showcase our fearless nominees, speaking out across a variety of industries and technologies:

• Ultimate Healthcare Reform – Reshaping Our World – Bob Pearson, WCG’s Chief Technology & Media Officer, sits down with Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD and Sharecare, for an epic discussion on how the technology leaders at SXSW can take people from information to action to create healthier world.
• Social Media…A Responsibility of WHICH Department? –Matt Snodgrass tackles the elephant in the room during this solo presentation that will dissect various industries and companies to examine where social media responsibility should lie.
• Friending Pharma: Patients, Industry & New Media – Last Monday was a big day for pharma too. WCG Director Brian Reid joins a sundry team of health influencers including Pfizer VP Ray Kerins, Cancer Health Activist and Patient Expert Alicia Staley, and diabetes bloggers and patient advocates Kerri Sparling and Allison Blass as they examine the risks and benefits of connecting patients and biopharma companies online.
• My Doctor Poked Me. Giggidy! – Anecdotal evidence suggests that health care providers’ use of social media is in the early stages of an explosion.  Social media analysts Andy Booth and Naimul Huq sit down with long-time MD and leading blogger Dr. Bryan Vartabedian to explore how social media is changing the future of the doctor-patient relationship.
• Social Networks are Killing the Company Org Chart – Every company has an org chart – but we all know intuitively that work is done based on relationships and connections across the organization.  Mapping those connections can reveal a whole new world to smart corporations. Greg Matthews (a former HR exectutive) and Humana’s Director Learning Innovation Brian Foye explain how social media can map and measure the real corporation underneath the org chart.
• Inside Out: Internal Social Media & Big Business – Industry leaders Brian Snyder, Jonathan Mast and Blair Klein join WCG Director Brad Mays to bring together the collective insight of some of the biggest corporate brands on best practices for using social media for internal collaboration and productivity.
• Future of Location Marketing: Dummies Perspective – 2012 marks the three-year anniversary of Foursquare’s launch at SXSW.  Location-based gurus Aaron Strout and Mike Schneider will walk through the 5 golden rules of location-based marketing and how to leverage the “there” there.
• Social Media Strategies of Top Tweeting Businesses – WCG’s Ricardo Guerrero understands the business of Twitter- if fact, he created most of Dell’s Twitter accounts, which generated $6.5M of revenue in their first 2.5 years.  During this panel Ricardo will examines the top 1,000 business Twitter accounts to analyze whether or not Twitter success translates across social media channels.

 1.      Tell me about A4CWSN- how did you get started?  What is your goal?                                                   

Apps for Children with Special Needs was started to help families with children who have special needs save time and money.  As a father of 6 children, 2 of them with special needs, I know only too well how much everything costs and that includes things like Apps and the iTouch and iPad.  From day one, I had a very strong feeling that the iPad, and Apps offereed, had the possibility to change lives for children with special needs – including my own.

I thought it would be great if people could see these Apps up close on video before buying them. Some of these apps cost as much as $300-$400.  As a parent, I found it hard to believe that someone would spend that much on an App just by reading about it on iTunes.  So I started the website and began doing video reviews of Apps.  Looking back to the beginning (January 18^th 2011) the first videos were not that great.  However, four months later – and with over 350,000 site visits – they have evolved quite a bit.

The site changes every single day – collaborations and friends have a huge impact on what happens on the site.   We now have friends in over 40 countries that we stay in touch with – including an amazing following in Australia.

My goal is simple – help everyone who needs it in any way I can. For example, I give developers a voice in the special needs community.  I give the community a way to learn before buying.

2.      You seem to be actively using social media to engage with your audience – can you tell me about your approach there?

Well, to be totally honest, I didn’t even know what Twitter or Facebook were all about.  Sure, I had played with them and seen them being used in many different ways, but I still had no idea how powerful they really were.

Currently I use Twitter to connect/follow people who provide good information and that way maybe I can learn from their ideas or comments.

Facebook is a different kettle of fish and is much more personal.  I am building relationships with people by becoming friends or liking their page.  This again, was purely by chance.  A few weeks back I decided to see if people who liked my page on Facebook would be interested in getting free codes for iPad or iPhone Apps.  The response speaks for itself:  I put this together in 24-hours and, with the very generous contributions of some of the top developers, we gave away over 300 Apps to our Facebook community.  The next day I was surprised to see that posts on our wall were viewed almost 600,000 times in 24 hours.  I was blown away and realized that we could reach a very large audience by doing this and help many, many families all at once.

3.      I noticed on Facebook you are promoting an “App Party” on June 11^th.  What is it exactly?  Who should participate?  

Well, following on from the last question, an App party is an event I host on my Facebook page, in this case it’s for special needs and education.  I approach developers and ask them if I can promote their apps at the party and on my site and, in return, they donate some free activation codes for me to give away at the party.

The Party on June 11^th already has some very major Apps and developers participating and we already have over 1000 Apps to give away.  The people that I am aiming to help – those that should consider participating – are parents, therapists, schools, and anyone else involved with special needs/ educational matters. (Note: I ask people attending the party not to take a code if they really do not need it.)

4.      What advice would you give a parent of A4CWSN who is not tech-savvy?

Well the first thing I would like to say is, I am ready, waiting and willing to talk with, listen to, and help anyone who needs it. My advice is, if you can’t find the answers on your own, then talk to me.  You can Skype me (a4cwsn), like me on Facebook , or contact me via email at: Gary@a4cwsn.com.  

 5.       Have you heard any negative feedback about kids already spending too much time in front of screens?

This is a tough question as I think this dilemma will exist in some form for the rest of our existence. Obviously, just like any other infatuation, children need to be monitored by the parent.

6.      Do you have a favorite app?  

Wow, this is a tough question and I would like to plead the 5^th.  What I will say is that the best Apps are those designed for a purpose other than just to make money.  All Apps should work from day one, without any issues.  I cannot stress how much developers really need to spend time with focus groups and have the App tested over and over and over again.  One bad review just because of a simple fault can kill your reputation.

7. Courtesy plug time – what one group/person/app/company would you like to give a shout out to here?

I would like to give a shout out to all the parents/educators who are dealing with a child or children with special needs.  These are the real heroes, and, if we join together and support each other, then we will accomplish great things.

I would also like to say a HUGE thank you to all of the amazing developers out there that are doing this for the right reasons and I think you know who you are.

8.        Anything else we should know?

I am always on the look out for great Apps to video and put on the site, there is never a fee for me to do this.

I also have a page on the site called iPads 4U – this is where I raise money (or you raise money) and every single penny goes into buying an iPad for a special needs child.  I have given 2 iPads away since January and have almost 300 people on a waiting list, so if any major sponsors would like to help with this, PLEASE contact me – you would be changing a life forever!

Finally, I will be giving away 1-2 iPad2’s at the APP Party on June 11^th.  These will be loaded with 200 Apps from my website.  The winners can choose which 200 Apps they would like.  

I hope you enjoyed this and will help spread the word about A4CWSN.  Please let me know what you think.

One was the uDraw for Wii. A very cool tablet that lets you draw/create “on screen”. You can then save, print, etc. Neat technology that my kids have compared to the smart boards used in their schools. On the downside, I think the pen/stylus is a bit clunky and I think my son would like it much more if the tablet were operational by touch.

Another gift he received this year was a Flip cam. This he absolutely LOVES. He has shot countless hours of clips in the last few weeks and has quickly mastered uploading the files from the camera and creating mini movies – complete with cleaver titles, music, etc. This was, by far, the big hit gift of the season. And while it’s fun for him, there may be a practical value here as well — I’ve mentioned before that it can be a challenge for my son to take pen to paper and write a creative story/paragraph for school. In the last few days, I’ve been thinking he might be able use his camera to create a story (thus helping him through his homework). An area to explore…

So the Flip was a hit, but, in retrospect, I wish we had considered an iPad as there are some terrific apps out there for people on the spectrum (for some great info on this, check out this post by Shannon Des Roches Rosa). On the plus side, as we heard out of CES this week, there are a bunch of new tablets coming out this year and that will surely lead to the development of even more apps targeted to those on the spectrum…. so a tablet may not be is not too far off for us.

Beyond the iPad/tablet love in the air, what other new technologies are you aware of/would you like to see explored to help people on the spectrum?