Among the first free tax-supported public libraries in Canada, the Kitchener Public Library (KPL) opened in 1884. Its vision is To inspire and enrich for life. In 2017, they rolled out a new strategic plan which will focus on four goals : Work Together Ignite Community Conversations Foster Belonging Bold Leadership I met with Charlotte Prong, Social Media Editor of KPL a few weeks ago to talk about their use of social media. As an organization without a traditional sales model, their use of social media is used primarily for brand awareness. The community needs to know that the library goes beyond books; it’s a place where people connect with each other and to the resources they need.

Stampin’ Up! prides itself on making a difference. Its mission statement is “To love what we do and share what we love, as we help others enjoy creativity and worthwhile accomplishments … in this we make a difference.” And one of the ways it makes a difference among its demonstrators (independent sales agents) is with its hashtags.

Every organization must deal with the management of a supply chain to some extent. Often, the production/distribution of commodities does not operate at the hands of one person or group, but multiple people working together, across different locations and with expertise to produce and deliver a product to the consumer. In turn, with so many people across the supply chain to manage and coordinate with one another, social media has become a powerful tool to successfully organize logistics for any given organization.

What makes up the framework of an organization is the diverse set of employees which holds it together. However, this framework may be significantly weakened if it is not maintained through proper communication between all employees which ultimately affects their own involvement within the organization. Thus, it is also important to consider, whether in the work place or everyday life, how modes of communication are not static, but in flux. From the telephone to the internet, technology continues to transform the dominant ways in which we relay information to one another within the workplace. However, keeping up with the times and adapting to the current, rapidly evolving social media landscape may pose a struggle to organizations that were not born in the current social media era. One organization that is fighting against the odds and keeping up with the times is Dutch airline company KLM. Despite, KLM being the oldest scheduled airline in the world still operating under its original name, the company has successfully integrated a social media strategy internally within their organization to increase levels of employee involvement.

IBM has always stayed ahead of the game. As one of the world’s biggest technological companies, they were forecasting the rise of social media and immediately jumped on the opportunity.  Back in 2007, they foresaw how much of an impact social media was having on the world. They launched Lotus Connections, a product that combined five social networking applications into one package. Since it was aimed at the corporate social and collaborative environment, the apps focused around tools that allowed workers to communicate with each other via blogs, profiles, and common community areas. This was the start of an enterprise-wide integration and employees would have access for more information to collaborate with. IBM LotusLive has become IBM SmartCloud for Social Business. It’s used for business grade file sharing, social networking, communities, online meetings, instant messaging, email and calendar. There is also a productivity center that employees can edit documents in real time. Keeping employees involved has helped with successful organizational strategy.

Microsoft Corporation is one of the biggest technological companies in the world. So, when it comes to future development, they are always ahead of the game. Microsoft has integrated social media through the entire company and has even created social media management software systems. When it comes to their company, future development will only keep advancing because of the social media practices that have already been put in place.

Marketing is filled with many tools, concepts and strategies. Although traditional marketing works, it’s no surprise that Social Media has become a dominant force in marketing, with over an estimated 2.3 billion active users in the world. Social media marketing is essential for any organization. What is Social Media Marketing? Social Media Marketing makes use of social media sites to raise visibility on the Internet and to promote products and services. These sites are useful for building social (and business) networks, for exchanging ideas, and knowledge and to reach a larger or targeted audience. Through branding, company engagement, consumer feedback and more, social media has completely altered the way businesses think about marketing. But what happens when your business is social media? Does that change your marketing plan? How can a social company thrive in the vast online marketplace? I personally used to think of Instagram as a mindless channel. With endless scrolling images of rock-hard abs, and 16-year-olds who have more successful businesses than anyone I have ever met. Yet even in this depiction, audiences of all ages and backgrounds are spending the majority of their time on Instagram, and savvy marketers are using this to their advantage. – What started as a hobby, turned into a career – @beautifuldestinations – an Instagram page that filled the void by tapping the online community to come up with the most beautiful collections of landscapes, cities, seascapes and attractions around the world, aiming to inspire people to get out there and see it for themselves. Founded in 2012 by CEO Jeremy Jauncey – Initially, the account started as a passion project, but little did he know the Instagram page he started had gained millions of followers. A renowned hotel reached out to collaborate, in the hopes of increasing its own social media following.

Domino’s is one of the largest pizza delivery chains in North America. After having success with their “tweet-to-eat” campaign, the company has created a way to have pizza anywhere and anytime. Domino’s Anyware ordering system now lets customers order a pizza through any app as quickly as humanly and technologically possible (Perez, S. (2016, April).With the new integrated system, customers can order through Google Home, Amazon Alexa, office chat app Slack, Facebook Messenger, text, in-car systems, smart TVs, smart watch, Tweet, voice, or Domino’s proproetary Zero Click app. And if that weren’t enough already, Domino’s also promises more avenues for ordering in the future (Haar, J. (2017, November).  The ordering system is a great innovation system that creates customer engagement and gives the availability for sales at anytime and anyplace.

Social media is about building relationships, and it can be used in a supply chain to build and grow communications among trading partners. Information and knowledge gathered from the use of social media by supply chain partners can provide insight into various issues. Social media allows supply chain participants to monitor supply chain events and transactions to keep everyone up-to-date with current situations, such as a delay in shipping or a carrier failed to pick-up a shipment. Providing companies with more timely and insightful information about risks and events, enabling them to make corrective action sooner – minimizing the impact of a supply chain disruption. Despite all the major advances in supply chain management and technology in recent years, most restaurants and their suppliers still don’t have a single, integrated, real-time view of supply and demand when working together in an enterprise. The lack of visibility creates a fractured supply chain; one in which the restaurant operator and its suppliers do not operate in sync, resulting in bloated inventory, excessive waste, supply uncertainty, and poor customer service for all parties concerned. So in many ways, the restaurant industry is defined by paradoxes. Consumers want quality food at affordable prices. Product freshness is a must, regardless of seasonal variability. Cost and customer service come bundled – not à la carte. Here’s how procuring works at a typical restaurant. At the end of dinner service, the chef or sous-chef compiles a list of everything they will need for the next day’s service. Once there are tallies, the chef calls and leaves messages with orders for delivery. Some restaurants order from separate companies for produce, meat, fish, dried goods, and cleaning supplies. Others make one call to a large all-purpose company, such as Sysco or Gordon Food Service – (you know those big trucks you see across the country). Although these companies may get the lowest prices and deliver everything at once, they rarely have the best product.

Founded in 2016, CharterClick is a young startup based in United Arab Emirates, envisioned by its creators as a universal platform for yacht cruise rental. CharterClick is an online booking service that lets you book yachts, speedboats, and fishing trips all under one site. The main feature of the system is that it works in real time – something that no vessel aggregator has done before. CharterClick first approached Eminence in December 2016 wanting advice on their social media strategy, finding that their main challenge was targeting the right people. Their main objective was to grow their social presence online and generate sales through social media. CharterClick knew they wanted to target a wide range of both locals, tourists and expats from around the world, starting with Dubai expats. The challenges: Attracting more people to click through to the website to book a Charter Generate Awareness of CharterClick online Prove digital marketing is effective Directly targeting the right people Eminence began looking at a strategy for their social media channels by analyzing the behaviour of the target market and the direct competitors. With yacht rental being a highly competitive business in the UAE, however none of these companies had an easy to use website, that allows yachts to be instantly booked without calling the company itself. Eminence found out that the target would be interested in a variety of charters, and a content plan would need to be put in place in order to generate results from the right target audience. CharterClick was provided with a comprehensive social media strategy for their marketing team to follow. Eminence sourced a range of local influencers who were managed, and selected through their followers based on the needs of CharterClick. These influencers posted and wrote about their experience, producing remarkable results. The efforts were focused on the timings, days, and different types of campaigns that generated engagement from new and existing followers to both CharterClicks Facebook, and Instagram.

After being listed as number five on Fast Company’s Most innovated social media company of 2017, Taco Bell is making a way for itself by focusing on the customers for product development and research. To reach customers in a more personal sense, Taco Bell has been using social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to review customers complaints, ideas, and creativity. “Instead of sitting behind glass and listening to a focus group, we now have access to 20 million consumers and can be inspired by them and connect with them and have real relationships with them (Lacy, L. (2016, November)”.

Born in 1981, I am an in-betweener, or a Xennial;  I am able to identify with members of both Gen X and Gen Y.  As a Xennial, I have the unique experience of living in both realities of the X’s and Y’s – the advantage is that I have lived, experienced and functioned in a world without internet and instant communication. I understand the need for the occasional digital detox, and often miss life without a smart phone.  Additionally, I have the advantage that I belong to one of the first generations to be taught “computers” in school.  As a result, I am comfortable working on a computer. In this blog post, I will examine the link between Slack, a social media and collaboration tool used in businesses, and higher levels of performance in the workplace.    

Organizations of all sizes have seen immense success in the use and integration of social media. The tools, data, and many other capabilities that these platforms provide, have shown to deliver significant benefits for any organization’s overall performance. Despite all the known qualities social media platforms have to offer, the true reason these organizations see positive results is because of the proper application, structure, management, overall strategy and its effectiveness when it comes to integrating social media across the whole organization. We have seen how social media can benefit organizations in a variety of areas, but once social media has been integrated across the whole organization and working in unison, we can also see more powerful and substantial results.

Data is eating the world and search is the key to finding the data you need. The enterprise search industry is consolidating and moving to new technologies. In the next few years we’ll see nearly all search become voice, conversational, and predictive. Search will surround everything we do and the right combination of signal capture, machine learning, and rules are essential to making that work. Fortunately, much of the technology to drive this is available to us today. Monster Worldwide Inc. is a global leader in connecting people to jobs, wherever they are. For more than 20 years, Monster has helped people improve their lives with better jobs and employers find the best talent. Offers services in more than 40 countries, providing some of the most sophisticated job seeking, career and talent management, and recruitment capabilities. Monster’s global network sees 29 resumes uploaded, 7,900 jobs searched, and 2,800 jobs viewed every minute.

If your brand is not on Instagram, it should be. Instagram is beautifully simplistic and the most personal of the mobile platforms. It’s full of potential with people eager to connect with a brand on a more intimate and tangible level. Creating content for Instagram can be a challenge, it’s true. The importance of visual imagery is key to tell a brand’s story, any brand. Regardless of the industry, any company can create campaigns to utilize this platform to reach their targeted audience, sharing alluring imagery and creative captions. There are many companies getting it right, using this platform to share their story, their background, and their vision.

Airlines are leading brands in their own right on social media. They work really hard to develop high quality campaigns and a strong presence on social media, and it results in excellent outcomes. Airlines have performed particularly well in the latest Travel Social Media Benchmark results and dominate the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram league tables, helped, in part, by their global customer base. However, brands are also benefiting from a rising interest in the aviation industry and capitalize on this growing trend with behind-the-scenes content and information – from aircraft unveiling to flight schedules and trackers. Growing international airline Emirates is one of the travel industry’s fastest growing social media brands in the world serving thousands of passengers every day, according to the latest Travel Social Media Benchmark results from talkwalker analytics.  

Each year we print four billion flyers that are read by 81% of our readers, making them the most used source of local shopping information.  For Metroland Media, their competitors and readers, these numbers are astonishing. Supply chain management is now more relevant than ever in terms of any organization succeeding. Products need to be properly designed, developed and distributed, while still being cost effective, easily adaptable to changes in the product or market and remain at a high-quality level for customer satisfaction. Metroland makes it apparent that the products they produce find there way into the customer’s hands with the same quality it left their organization. They know that improving their network of organizations and people involved in these processes enhance a variety of factors within their supply chain. Metroland Media is an excellent example of how an organization should run their supply chain and how it can be managed and improved.

Damco is one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain management and freight forwarding services. For more than 100 years, They have been providing customers with logistics solutions that support the way they want to do business, wherever they are in the world. Their strategic approach and hands-on services are extensive and tailored; whether it’s a competitive rate for an urgent shipment or a strategic solution to create short-term efficiencies and build up long-term competitiveness.  Damco  is part of the Maersk Group. More information on Damco and Damco services can be found on http://www.damco.com.

Need for Development in the Cosmetic World A commonly shared fear held by most makeup enthusiast is having mismatched foundation, especially for people with skin that falls outside of the centre of the colour spectrum. People have different skin colours, textures, undertones and preferences as to how they want to wear their foundation. The variation of skin makes it increasingly difficult for brands to come out with products that could please the masses. According to one of the creators of MatchCo, “94 percent of women struggle to find a precise shade.” Point being, foundation matching is frustrating. Some experts have seen a shift in preference, as there is an increasing demand for more product information and a more customizable approach to foundation. For many people, a product that is sold on the counter just meet their expectations and usually a more accurate match of foundation is sought out. Besides the match itself, there is a charm to the idea of having a custom product unique to you. For foundation, it all comes down to how accurate the shade matching is. Product Development & Design MatchCo is a simple application that would allow you to find a perfect match within seconds, no makeup artists, human interaction, and no mismatched foundation. An invention that would enable you to find a foundation that fits you. Digital is driving beauty brands to get more personal than ever before, and that is exactly what the makers of MatchCo hatched with the help of personalization and technology experts, David Gross and Andy Howell, who have created a wide range of custom product programs for some of the world’s top brands. The rapid pace at which innovation in algorithms and colour matching technologies is taking place could be the key to making these services more accessible. The only drawback of the product is that there is only one patent formula that accommodates for individuals who are looking for a medium to light coverage. According to the creators of MatchCo, they were deliberate about creating one formula to master the perfect blend before entering the colour cosmetics arena.

In the midst of this Social/Mobile Marketing Era, business has changed its focus from being all about maximising a company’s financial return, to real-time connections, and social exchanged based on relationships driven by the consumers. An industry that understands and uses customer engagement as a tool is the beauty industry.