Tom Treanor, Author at Blog Wrike
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Tom Treanor

Tom Treanor

Tom is a former Director of Content Marketing of Wrike. He focuses on project management, collaboration, and social media marketing topics.
6 Fatal Mistakes of Startup Founders
Leadership 3 min read

6 Fatal Mistakes of Startup Founders

Adeo Ressi is Founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, where he and his team mentor hundreds of first-time founders. In addition, over the last 20 years he has founded several successful companies of his own. So when we asked him about the typical mistakes that first-time founders make that could prove fatal to their companies, we listened! Ressi emphasizes that the fatal mistakes are often made in those critical first few months in the founding of a new company. That's when every move can have a huge positive or negative impact on the fledgeling company. During this time the founder needs to make a lot of critical decisions in a short period of time. According to Ressi, there are at least six fatal mistakes that new founders often commit. Let us know other mistakes that you see founders make (or that you've made yourself) in the comments below the post! The 6 Fatal Startup Mistakes Selection of initial team and cofounder — Getting the wrong people involved in your company can lead to ineffectiveness, arguments, stalemates, power struggles, and worse: the death of the company. Add new people very carefully. Structuring of company, cofounder, and team deals — Managing compensation, stock, or options wrongly can set the company up for failure. Also, care must be taken with any initial investors and how their deals are structured. It's almost impossible to undo poorly structured deals. Adoption of technology — If you pick tech which is unpopular or unusable, your company won't grow as fast, you'll have trouble finding good developers, and your product won't be top-notch. Business and revenue models — Selecting a business model that allows the company to grow and (eventually) become profitable is critical. Go-to-market model — Determining how your company will reach customers is a decision that will make or break success. Consider your sales approach, partnerships, and distribution options carefully. Name of the company — Even something like the wrong name can be potentially fatal. If it doesn't communicate the benefits clearly, or is too silly or difficult to pronounce, type, or remember, tread carefully. Hear Adeo Ressi talk about the biggest founder mistakes — start at 20:34 In the genesis of a new business, every decision that the founder makes, large or small, can have fatal consequences. So take care with each of these six points raised by Ressi, and seek help during this important time period. To learn how the Founder Institute can help your startup, visit their website. Have your own story to share? Tell us about other fatal startup mistakes in the comments below.

4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success
Marketing 3 min read

4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success

The Content Marketing Institute recently held its annual conference, Content Marketing World, and also published their B2B Content Marketing Study. Some trends that became very clear from both the survey and the event. We’re going to be increasingly flooded with content from brands Content marketers will continue to hone their skills, so content will get better and better To stand out, your content needs to be both unique and consistently delivered You’ll need a management approach, tools, processes and people in place to have an effective Content Engine To focus on the last point, and to arm your marketing plan for content marketing success, the effective management and operations of the content marketing team requires four things: 1. An Agile management approach to adjust to constantly changing demands from both internal stakeholders and customers. (See 7 Steps to Developing an Agile Marketing Team.) 2. A tool to manage communication, workflows and project management. (Learn more about Wrike for marketing team collaboration.) 3. Appropriate resources and access given to the content creators, designers and web developers to support rapid and regular content creation. 4. A collaborative relationship with the marketers who handle social media, advertising, email marketing/marketing automation. Learn more about the approaching content wave and the key takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014 in our Slideshare.   Standing Out: Content Marketing World 2014 Takeaways #CMWorld Is your marketing team ready? How is your marketing team approaching the increasing need for high quality content? Let us know in the comments!

How I Use Online Collaboration Tools to Run a Marketing Team
Marketing 7 min read

How I Use Online Collaboration Tools to Run a Marketing Team

Coming from a world of emails, overly long meetings, and "tool proliferation." I'm happy to say you CAN centralize your communications with the right processes and online collaboration tools.

Will Your Company's Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic)
Marketing 3 min read

Will Your Company's Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic)

In order to be successful marketing your business in social media, you need to invest time and resources, and understand what is targeting in marketing. This decision tree helps you see if you're ready to launch a full-scale social media effort that will lead to more attention and business leads. Will your company's social media efforts pay off? See the decision tree below. Embed this infographic in your site using the code below: Wrike Project Management Software What ingredients are key to social media success? What do you think the most essential ingredient is for a social media strategy? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing Engine (Infographic)
Marketing 3 min read

10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing "Engine" (Infographic)

Content marketing is critical component of many companies' marketing strategies. For those who are trying to build up what I call a "content engine" or for those who are looking to do a tune-up on their marketing vocabulary, this infographic provides ten areas that need to be addressed. Use the infographic below to understand the areas and to assess your company's situation with regards to content marketing. Which areas need the most attention? You can share this infographic with your team! Share this post, or copy the embed code below to put it on your site: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Which areas are the hardest to fix? Let us know in the comments!

Should We Have This Meeting? (Infographic Decision Tree)
Leadership 3 min read

Should We Have This Meeting? (Infographic Decision Tree)

So many corporate employees spend their workday bouncing from meeting to meeting. In many organizations, the de facto method of getting anything done has been: "Let's meet about it." In the spirit of eliminating unnecessary activities to increase productivity, use this handy meeting "go vs. no go" decision tree. And please share it with your manager or overly-dependent-on-meetings colleagues! Share this infographic on  your blog with this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike You can also download the PDF of this infographic to print or share with your colleagues. Which meeting do you plan to eliminate? Let us know in the comments; we support you!

Project Management Templates: #PMChat on PM Templates Discussion Recap
Project Management 3 min read

Project Management Templates: #PMChat on PM Templates Discussion Recap

Learn from the experts in this recap of the recent Project Management Twitter chat hosted by @PMChat. Topics include: Whether project managers have a standard set of templates for each project Recommendations about what to include in project status updates What types of templates PMs use for each project Project Management Templates: #PMChat on PM Templates Discussion Summary View more lists from Wrike Team What else would you add to the templates discussion? Feel free to add your ideas in the comments!

6 Steps to Managing the Marketing Chaos Using Workflows (Video)
Marketing 3 min read

6 Steps to Managing the Marketing Chaos Using Workflows (Video)

The chaos is real: your marketing team is working on complex, long-term plans while new requests keep streaming in. Meanwhile, a global conversation is happening online involving your brand and your industry — yet another thing to track. In addition, your team must be constantly learning new strategies and integrating new tools into what is marketing management for your organization. On top of everything, you need to interface with a variety of internal groups and outside vendors to make it all work. So how do you tame this mess? Watch the video below to discover how to best control the chaos using repeatable workflows: As you just saw, marketing workflows can help your team by making internal processes predictable and easy. What are Workflows? Workflows are repeatable steps that your team members follow each time they start a routine project. It's a formula, a tried and tested recipe. Here are some examples of things that could be turned into standard workflows: Creating a new infographic Launching an email campaign Developing a new web page or section of your website Running a paid marketing campaign Planning and developing a new feature Setting up a customer event See our Marketing Workflows Infographic for a list of workflows and common steps for each. So How Do Workflows Help You? Workflows allow you to: List the standard steps, timing, and approvals needed for each deliverable Know who's responsible for each step Stay up-to-date on the status of the project It's the same process every time. And because of this, you know the handoffs, approvals and timing of each step. This allows your team to focus less on the process and more on being strategic and creative. Setting Up Workflows in 6 Steps To set up workflows for your team, follow these steps: List the major processes that your team completes regularly Document the steps, responsibilities, and approvals Set up those steps in a tool like Wrike (using custom workflows) Manage each process in your project management tool Get status updates within the tool and via notifications Eliminate the extra status request emails and meetings, and focus on getting work done within your project management tool Does Your Marketing Team Have Workflows in Place? Does your team have standard workflows in place? If so, how has it saved you time? If not, which process would you turn into a standard workflow first? Read next:5 Essential Marketing WorkflowsAccelerate Your Business With Custom WorkflowsWrike for Marketing Teams

The 4th Phase of Project Management: Interview with Peter Taylor (Video)
Project Management 3 min read

The 4th Phase of Project Management: Interview with Peter Taylor (Video)

I recently interviewed Peter Taylor, also known as “The Lazy Project Manager" as part of the Wrike Thought Leadership Series. If you don’t know Peter, he’s the author of 9 books, including a new one, Real Project Management. He’s also a prolific speaker who’s delivered over 200 presentations in more than 25 countries. With over 25 years of project management experience, he offers a wealth of knowledge for both veteran and new project managers. In the following interview you'll learn about: The Fourth Phase of Project Management and the dangers for companies that don’t clearly link project management success to company strategy Why orphan and stray projects can be costly to organizations What has recently changed about project management and the implications for today's project managers Whether project managers are better (or worse) than they used to be and what bad habits Peter sees in the industry Whether PMs should be industry-focused or generalists (and how that impacts their training) The new definition of project success — and how it's changed over time How interest in Agile Project Management has impacted the field The different roles of the PMO and how they help companies and organizations stay on track How to effectively manage virtual teams, including several tips for managing cross-cultural teams Click 'play' to get all the details, straight from Peter Taylor himself:   What were your biggest takeaways?What did you learn from the interview? What additional questions do you want to ask Peter?Where do you see the future of project management heading?  Read Next:  20 Lessons from David Allen on Succeeding at Work, Life, & GTD (Video) 5 Must-Have Skills for the Project Manager Resume in 2015 23 Project Management Books for All Experience Levels

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