Month: November 2010

Linky

3 Internet Marketing Tools for Business Owners to Plan and Organise

Recently I published a blog post on my linkymerwe.com blog to share 3 essential internet marketing tools that will help you to plan and organise your online marketing efforts.  I received many comments of appreciation from the readers who have found it to be practical and helpful.

It is aimed at small business owners who have websites, but who are not actively marketing their businesses on the internet and those who are starting out with internet marketing.   These internet marketing tools are invaluable and you will find action steps that you will want to implement immediately.

As a project manager I am really passionate about Planning and Organizing.  This turns out to be a very valuable skill when you are starting out with Internet Marketing.  Here are 3 essential internet marketing tools, to use from the beginning:

1. Marketing Plan

Every business needs a marketing plan, right?   Marketing is one of the essential skills you need to develop (if you’re not a natural or experienced marketer) when you venture into the online world of marketing. To achieve this objective of having a marketing plan that you can refer to regularly for implementation.

It will remind you of your goals and the monthly tactics that you need to implement to reach your goals. I have been using this for the past 2 years and I recommend it to all my clients.

2. Tracking Sheet

Starting out with marketing your business on the internet, you need to build a presence on many sites that would generate exposure for you and your business. Similar to buying add space in your local news paper or magazine.

When doing marketing on the internet, you will find yourself registering as a user on many websites and social media platforms. To organise yourself better, you need to create a Tracking Sheet as a reference guide to all the URL’s, user names and passwords that you have to create in the process. You can also group all the websites into categories (website management, social media tools etc).  I have created such a template, that you may download and use for free.

ACTION: Download the FREE Tracking Sheet (Microsoft Excel) and start using it immediately.

3. Password Manager

When you start registering as a user on multiple sites, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of multiple passwords. And if you lose that piece of paper on which you wrote it down, you need to go through the annoying process of resetting your password or waiting for the email with a new password to arrive.

One of the best Password Manager products out there and recommended by many top internet marketers, is Roboform.  RoboForm password manager securely stores online and offline passwords and makes it effortless by automatically saving your usernames and passwords, then completing it the next time you logon.  You will not need to remember another password as long as you have this software.

ACTION: Get the RoboForm software at a price that suits your needs. RoboForm: Learn more...

Today you have learned about 3 essential Internet Marketing tools for planning and organizing your marketing efforts on the internet.

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Linky

10 Ways to Build an Exceptional Brand as a Project Manager

exceptional branding

Recently I came across an interesting article by Karin Deacon, Managing Director of PMideas. She talks about professional Project Managers creating their own exceptional personal brand.

E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N-A-L Branding

When the word exceptional is viewed as an acronym, it contains several clues about how to set oneself apart.

1.      Education and Experience make you ‘Xcel’

Project managers can excel through education and experience. According to Deacon, education develops “figure-it-out” resourcefulness and experience reduces risk, as project managers can apply the lessons they’ve already learned.  Therefore, project managers should never stop acquiring new knowledge and skills in their quest for an exceptional brand.

2.      Excellent Communicator

Communication has been identified as possibly the most important reason behind a project’s success or failure.  Project manager should always be aware of the conversational styles of other parties, cultural issues, relationships, personalities as well as the overall context of the situation.

3.      Being Ethical

The question of ethics is really all based on who you are when no one is looking.  Some questions to ask are: “Am I treating others with respect?”; Am I being honest with myself and others?”

4.      Being Passionate

Great leaders do only demonstrate passion, but they also connect their passion to their purpose with the end result always being greater performance.  This is the role that passion plays in building an exceptional brand.

5.      Team-builder

Project managers who are team builders, create teams that are motivated by the right things, challenged, have the ability to gain mastery over their set tasks and who are self-directed. You know you have built a great team when you see synergy from team members working together to achieve greater results as a team than they would have individually.

6.      Influence and Power

Influencing is a strategy focused on the sharing of power and reliance on interpersonal skills to influence other to co-operate together to achieve certain goals.  Exceptional brands influence their teams by leading by example, clarifying how decisions will be made while using flexible interpersonal styles that adjust to suit the audience.

7.      Organiser

A project manager must be organised with the ability to handle multiple tasks with the appropriate focus.  There needs to be a balance between being people- and task orientated when organising your time and attention.

8.      Effective Networker

Building effective networks is also an important part of the job.  A true networker stays connected, in tune and in touch at all times.

9.      Awareness

Applying cultural, political and environmental awareness are also key to success.  The skilful use of politics and power helps project managers to be effective.

10.  Leadership

Project leadership is all about focusing the efforts of groups/teams towards a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. It also translates into the ability to get things done through others and builds respect and trust. Emphasis is always placed on communicating the vision, as well as motivating and inspiring the team to achieve high performance.

Journey from Mediocre to Exceptional

The journey from being mediocre (just another project manager) to being exceptional is purely a matter of choice and discipline.  Start with the personal brand you wish to live and breath.  Lastly, remember that the exceptional brand is a journey and not a destination.

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Linky

How To Setup a Project Governance Framework as a Best Practice

A more recent article on Project Governance can be found here:

Best Practice: Project Governance Framework

Wikipedia defines project governance as follows:

“Project governance is the management framework within which project decisions are made. Project governance is a critical element of any project since it provides a framework for the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organisation’s capital investments (projects).”

Therefore, the role of project governance is to provide a decision making framework that is logical, robust and repeatable to govern an organisation’s capital investments. In this way, an organisation will have a structured approach to conducting both its business as usual activities and its business change, or project, activities.

Absence of Governance

In today′s business world, the absence of “governance” is equal to fraud, mismanagement and even scandal.
Project governance is fundamental to ensuring project success and control.

A Project Governance Framework

Guy Jelley, CEO of Post Vision Technology, believes that the most desirable scenario is creating a project governance framework that allows projects to be fluid and move ahead – as opposed to those that are hindered by too much red tape and unnecessarily scrutinised at every opportunity – but, to implement this framework together with a mechanism that provides visibility on current projects and their governance status, so as to understand and manage risks.

“The framework should provide a logical, robust and repeatable management decision making process, with the purpose of governing an organisation’s projects. And, although I advocate that project governance should be simple and straightforward in order for projects to flow, its importance must not be underestimated,” he says.

According to Jelley, project governance is underscored by the overall strategy of a business and, consequently, project managers must understand the objectives and vision of a business in order to understand and appreciate the project governance framework.

“That is, analyse what the governance processes should be delivering and measure these against the business value that the implementation and monitoring of these provide. The bottom line is, your project governance framework is dependent on your organisation’s holistic requirements and should thus be business- and not technical oriented,” says Jelley.

“Important, however, is to be aware that project governance is not a part of IT governance, but is a set of rules and regulations under which projects fall, irrespective of their type,” concludes Jelley.

Elements of good project governance

Wikipedia lists elements of good project governance which include:

  • A compelling business case, stating the objects of the project and specifying the in-scope and out-of-scope aspects
  • A mechanism to assess the compliance of the completed project to its original objectives
  • Identifying all stakeholders with an interest in the project
  • A defined method of communication to each stakeholder
  • A set of business-level requirements as agreed by all stakeholders
  • An agreed specification for the project deliverables
  • The appointment of a project manager
  • Clear assignment of project roles and responsibilities
  • A current, published project plan that spans all project stages
  • A system of accurate status- and progress-reporting including time records.
  • A central document repository for the project
  • A centrally-held glossary of project terms
  • A process for the management and resolution of issues that arise during the project
  • A process for the recording and communication of risks identified during the project
  • A standard for quality review of the key governance documents and of the project deliverables

The setup of a project governance framework during the Initiation Phase of any project, is considered a Best Practice to ensure project success.

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