execution | kts consulting :

Microsoft has been a publicity punching bag lately. Here’s a great article about a few internal business practices at Microsoft that are being scrutinized.

They can’t seem to get out of the way of someone blaming them for not being something else (ie. Apple, manufacturers, saviors of the free world, etc). Come on…billions and billions of revenue and business practices that run so deep into consumer’s technology, they were deemed a violation of US antitrust laws.

Hmm…well, that was yesterday. What have you done for me lately?

The lately that is being talked about is mobile/social/SaaS solutions/etc.

Or, another way of saying it: What is Microsoft’s plan for products and services that today’s and tomorrow’s consumers seem to be wanting.

Remember, no consumer said they wanted an iPad. In fact, the concept for the App Store was nearly scrapped by then CEO Steve Jobs. Apple created a product/service (ie. supply) based on what they believed would be a “post PC” era (ie. demand). That innovation is now worth B’s to their bottom line.

What does this have to do with your business?

I would argue everything.

The success and business model that brought you to where you are today will not survive.

After reading the article that is describing Microsoft’s downfall what can you do to continue to innovate? Thrive? Test? Experiment?

You may not know the answer to these questions, but the first step is to realize that what got you here isn’t going to be enough to keep you successful moving forward.

No….I’m not asking if you have a Facebook page, a Twitter account or a blog you post to.

A strategy. A plan. A roadmap.

I recently attending a fantastic conference in San Francisco by Useful Social Media called The Corporate Social Media Summit. A few of the panels spoke specifically to this and there were some great discussions and current case studies showing how businesses are leveraging social media for better customer service relationships. Go check out #csmsf.

How can the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (un-lovingly referred to as “ObamaCare”) help your business? What does it have to do with this blog posting and social media strategy?

Let me start with this story from my personal Facebook page today.

After the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of this law, I posted the following on my Facebook page:

Help: where do you find good information about the current Health Care plan and Supreme Court rulling [sic] that isn’t incendiary, polarizing and full of bias?

Looking to understand.

Within minutes, I had some fantastic feedback and articles to review. There were over 25 comments related to my question and there were dozens of other’s that “liked” my post.

What I found out was some amazingly knowledgeable people who knew much more about this issue that I did, pointed me to great articles to read, of which were specific articles of our US Constitution. What I was able to learn from this crowd sourcing experiment was wonderful.

I now had links to more reading material that I was able to digest in one sitting. Law journals. US Constitutional articles. Unbiased reviews of the law (is there really such a thing?).

Bottom line: I was able to get information from a group of people who I have a higher trust (relationship, connection, etc) in help me.

So, what does this have to do with a Social Media Strategy?

Just imagine if my question was something like:

Help: Who can tell me the best businesses for XXX?

Help: I just had a horrible experience with XXXX company; has anyone else dealt with this?

Help: I hate XX company and want to warn you from doing business with them!

By the way, this is going on right now. It’s always gone on. It always will.

The question remains: does your business have a social media strategy? Do you have a plan? A roadmap?

P.S. If you interested, here’s links that were provided I found very helpful to my Facebook question:

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/krauthammer-why-john-roberts-upheld-obamacare-1.3811639

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause