Good times or changing times, it is important to regularly SWOT your professional and personal potential.

If you have ever developed a marketing plan, then you know it begins with the Current Situation or a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Your current situation, which is based on research, experience and objectivity, answers these questions:
• What does your company do and for how long? Or, what are your Five Ws: who, what, when, where and why…and how?
• What is your competition? How do your consumers and publics distinguish you from your competition? How do you know this?
• What are your marketplace problems and challenges?
• What are your opportunities and strengths?
• Who are your current consumer groups and publics? Public is a group of people (three or more individuals) with something in common.
• As a result of your research and a better understanding of your situation, who are your target consumers and publics: new markets, more of your current consumers or both?

You can restate your Current Situation as a SWOT analysis by using the templates and guidelines in these links.

► www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm
► http://articles.mplans.com/how-to-perform-a-swot-analysis. Article by Tim Berry
► www.jmorganmarketing.com/using-swot-for-social-media-strategy. Article by Jacob Morgan

When using a SWOT analysis to clarify your personal and professional situation and goals, it’s critical that you think as objectively as possible. Interview knowledgeable people, explore resources you had never considered, and ask others for feedback about your personal and professional qualities, skills and perceived brand (personal or professional). Surveys and focus groups of family, friends, colleagues and customers can offer invaluable insights. Are you running “on automatic” or an approach that is no longer working for you?

Once you have evaluated your situation, it’s time to establish your measurable goals (you will do what by when?), your strategies/tactics for achieving these goals, and your timeline for turning challenges into opportunities and uncovering your potential.

SWOT is self-discovery.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 7:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.