Comments on: Consultants – do we need them?

By: ericbrown

ericbrown — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:13:36 +0000

Hi Tracy –

Great feedback. Thanks for stopping by!

By: Tracy Diziere

Tracy Diziere — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:31:40 +0000

Yes & no. Depends on who "we" is. Great question from @ericdbrown Consultants – do we need them? | Eric D. Brown http://bit.ly/3Mzjmx

By: tracydiziere

tracydiziere — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:14:31 +0000

Thanks, Eric. I have a lot of respect for both those guys, and it's easy to see both sides. For me the question here is (and has always been) who is the “YOU” we're talking to (and who is the “we” in the title)? For small businesses with assigned in-house marketing resources, I agree with you–and Jay. They probably need the support of specialists in areas such as social media. For microbusinesses without any internal or external marketing resources, they might be better off with a DIY approach to social media (esp. if budgets are thin to null) as Spike suggests BUT as a complement to a marketing consultant who's a generalist. So yes, businesses need consultants–in general areas when they can't staff up and in specialized areas when they need to use new tools/tactics and it doesn't make sense to hire or train internally. (P.S. I like your other post too about turning around the stigma about consultants in IT by solving the problem. After working in SaaS companies who go about it all wrong, it's nice to see that you're educating buyers and getting it done right.)

By: BI Builders

BI Builders — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:14:59 +0000

RT: Consultants – do we need them? http://j.mp/1blm1n (via @maddiegrant)

By: Brenna Holmes

Brenna Holmes — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:27:13 +0000

Amen sir! Consultants – do we need them? | Eric D. Brown http://ow.ly/Ifop

By: ericbrown

ericbrown — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:17:31 +0000

Great stuff…thanks for stopping by!

By: Consultants and the CIO | Eric D. Brown - Technology, Strategy, People, Projects

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:42:12 +0000

[...] got a lot of great feedback on a post I wrote titled “Consultants – Do we need them?“. In that post I argue that consultants are necessary…not a necessary evil [...]

By: Blue Fire Media

Blue Fire Media — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:06:46 +0000

A good example of this comes from the book What Would Google Do? In this book Jeff Jarvis uses the example of Dell. They had terrible customer service. People started posts and web sites complaining about them. In fact, when you did a search for Dell, a blog post with the title Dell Sucks showed up in the top 5 on Google.
Finally, Dell got the gist of it after talking to some social media consultants. They began reading blogs and communicating directly with unhappy customers. They monitor twitter and join in conversations. And, now they also follow through on making customers happy.
My point is similar to yours. Most big companies have no idea how to be human. They think they can just ignore social media, or use it as a soap box and this is not the case. Hiring consultants can do wonders for improving the companies image and in return their bottom line.

By: Eric D. Brown

Eric D. Brown — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:50:58 +0000

thanks to @steveshu for the RT of "Consultants – do we need them?" http://bit.ly/3Mzjmx

By: Steve Shu

Steve Shu — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:27:58 +0000

RT @ericdbrown Consultants – do we need them? http://bit.ly/3Mzjmx