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Are these new-fangled technologies for me?

By Rubesh Jacobs

Social media is all the rage. Conversations about how to leverage technologies such as webcasts, webinars, YouTube channels, podcasts, blogs, Slideshare, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, ad infinitum are probably going on all around you. With an eye towards managing their brands, engaging their clients, and enhancing their reputations as innovative brands, firms such as Vanguard, Putnam, and TIAA-CREF are experimenting with at least one of these ground-breaking technologies.

In fact, kasina is notorious for engaging its clients in discourse about how best to use these technologies to improve sales, marketing, and services.

However, we sometimes recommend firms delay these investments in favor of focusing on essential online services instead.

Would it not appear irrational were a firm whose Web site barely allows searching and sorting product performance information to place prominence on video updates from their chief economist? What about tweeting when your last thought leadership piece is a month old? Or spend an inordinate amount of resources on business-building tools for advisors when the advisors complain about remembering their passwords? The scenarios are endless...

The root causes are somewhere in the organizational structure, culture, strategic planning process, etc. Rarely is it a result of lack of competency, creativity, or savvy. Many firms that are experimenting with social media now have spent years getting the basics right.

So, if you are considering the use of these new technologies, I urge you to first consider the following:

1. Are your customers' basic, most important needs fulfilled now? If the answer is not a resounding "YES," then examine what you can improve.
2. Have you built support for your idea around the organization for the investments in new technologies? If you can't convince yourself that you have, then you need more time.
3. Can you articulate why some of these technologies make sense for your business? The answer should at least make sense to start a serious, fact-based discussion.

Don't let me dampen your spirits. The message here is this: be prudent about where you place your bets. The next big thing is not always the best thing for your business.