Social Means Business, Philanthropy Benefits, The Data-Story Equation

The Strategist picks the day’s most interesting stories for the content aficionados who love the backstory and reading between the lines. Here are he gems you need to kickstart your Wednesday.

6 Ways Social Media Can Drive Business Impact (VentureBeat)
The connection between social media and business strategy is not always obvious. Instead of floundering in a sea of shares and tweets (like the majority of brands), make sure that your company has a strong foundation.

Plan your social strategy, build strong relationships, and plan to scale your efforts as efficiently as possible. Position social as a change agent and growth driver for your brand.

How Your Business Can Give Back and Win Customers (Forbes)
Giving back to the community does more than decrease your business’s tax liability — it’s a power tool for building strong connections with constituents an stakeholders. Make sure to develop a philanthropic strategy that aligns with your brand’s core vision.

Give your employees a say in developing your strategy. Promote your company’s name with branded swag and sponsorships. And pay attention to your content marketing — write about the initiative, impact, and core experience. Remember that connections are core to your PR success.

How Big Data Is Changing the Whole Equation for Business (Wall Street Journal)
Data has the potential to make businesses more profitable, sales more robust, and operations more efficient. Shippers use sensors on trucks to make deliveries faster. Manufacturers crawl thousands of forum posts to understand user sentiment.

Hiring managers are leveraging predictive modeling techniques to forecast candidate success. So what does content have to do with all of this? Everything. At the heart of all quantitative data is a powerful business story.
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