There seems to be somewhat of a shock wave going around the web, due to the startling revelation that 68% of small businesses have no plans to adopt “Enterprise 2.0″ initiatives.

Here’s a look at a chart from the Forrester report.



I know what you’re thinking. Wow, 51% of employers with 20k+ employees are already planning to adopt Enterprise 2.0, yet only 20% of those with less than 99 employees are planning the same.
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Building a well known brand and a sustainable business model in a competitive marketplace is challenging, but if you break things down into pieces and do something every day eventually you win marketshare.

People who become successful have large goals like “become the leading source in our market” or “increase profits 150% year over year” but most people who actually achieve those types of goals set smaller goals and work toward achieving them every day.

One of my better habits is writing a to do list. When I scratch things off the list there is a sense of accomplishment which drives further activity. Sometimes the accomplishments are moral victories, learning how to create a little bit of code, or improving the graphical interface of something, while other projects are much more complex, like writing a book or hundreds of training modules. As long as growth is sustainable then all is well. If you stop growing in a growing marketplace then you need to evaluate what you are doing wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Personally, I am still debating whether I consider the current economic slump a recession or just a media-created frenzy around a hot “emotional” topic for a mass audience during a big year in politics.

But beyond my personal debate, there is certainly a feeling in the business markets that a downturn has or will occur and therefore many marketing departments are reconsidering their budget allocations. A concept I find particularly interesting to explore but off topic for this post.

MarketingSherpa released an excellent survey providing some insights about how marketers are managing in the downturn. The twenty some page executive briefing (free for a short period of time) is titled, “Marketing During a Downtown: Part 1 – 10 Insights Into How Marketers Are Handling the Slump” uncovers some excellent points. Hurry though because normally the free download ends after ten days and it was originally posted on April 2nd.
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