25 Tools yang membantu Konten Marketing Anda.

25 Alat Yang Dapat Membantu Konten Marketing Anda

January 07 2014 | By Ben Mukti W.

Konten marketing membantu merek untuk meraih customer dengna menciptakan konten yang relevan dan bernilai bagi customer. Untuk mengerjakan itu semua, pastilah Anda membutuhkan bantuan. Entah itu untuk menganalisa, mengetahui info terbaru, atau bahkan mendapatkan insight terbaru mengenai dunia marketing.
Untuk itu, dapat dilihat pada gambar di bawah yang diambil dari The Social Media Strategies Summit. Dalam gambar di bawah terdapat lima kategori, termasuk content curation, content creation, finding writers, content promotion dan juga alat untuk menganalisa dan melacak data.
Untuk daftar lengkapnya, simaklah gambar berikut.

5 cara untuk membuat budaya Customer-centric

5 Steps To Create And Sustain Customer-Centric Culture

Posted by Sam Stern on April 17, 2014

• 2Recommendations
• 0 comments
• Print

inShare

Share on Facebook

My latest report, 5 Steps To Create And Sustain Customer-Centric Culture, is now live on Forrester.com. The report answers the question I hear most often from clients: What are the steps in the process to actually transform organizational culture to be customer-centric? We interviewed companies that have successfully completed this transformation, and companies that are in the midst of that process right now. We learned that there are five steps companies must take to create and sustain customer-centric culture:

Step 1: Secure Executive Support (No, Really). We do not want to sugarcoat this step. Customer experience professionals who don't already have commitment from their executives need to either get it or give up their hopes of transforming their organization's culture. Every successful transformation we studied began with a customer experience epiphany by a CEO or COO. If that realization hasn’t happened yet, CX pros can help create the spark of inspiration with executives. For example, Brad Smith, the Chief Customer Officer at Sage North America, established a program where executives sign up to spend time in the call center or join sales teams on customer visits. And he created a new leadership routine of bringing customer stories to their monthly meetings.  His goal was to get senior leaders to see the importance of customer focus.

Step 2: Build A Customer Experience Team To Lead The Transformation. Once executives believe in the idea of cultural transformation, the first thing they do is assemble a team to lead the effort. Art Antin, the founder and COO at VCA Animal Hospitals created the client experience team to drive VCA’s transformation. CX teams must collaborate with key colleagues from across the organization and ensure that the entire organization takes ownership for the transformation.

Step 3: Create A Shared Understanding Of The Intended Experience. Companies must ensure that all employees understand the experience they’re supposed to deliver. That means sharing the vision for the intended experience with them. Cleveland Clinic went so far as to train all 42,000 employees in its patient experience principles. Other companies have created and shared a customer experience charter or vision statement that describes the key attributes of their intended experience. Companies should also collect and share customer success stories as a way of providing tangible examples to employees of expected behaviors.

Step 4: Rally And Align All Employees To The Cultural Transformation. Once employees know what they need to do, CX pros need to motivate them to do it. At this step, reinforcement is critical. Companies must feature their CX principles consistently in corporate communications, and remind employees of their contributions to the overall experience. Safelite AutoGlass went even further. It created a People Powered pledge, detailing its commitment to providing employees with a great work environment that would make it easier for them to deliver great customer experiences.

Step 5: Embed Customer Experience Principles Into The Organization. The final step in creating customer-centric culture is also where companies should start to consider how they’ll sustain customer-centricity over time.  This means providing training, and ongoing guidance and coaching. Companies should also update employee competency models to include CX principles. For example, Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) defined six levels of escalating proficiency for customer-driven focus. Each level includes detailed descriptions of the desired behaviors and examples how they should sound. For example, new employees should “provide consistent customer experiences” and must “take personal responsibility” to get promoted. To be eligible for the assistant vice president (AVP) and VP levels, employees must “create customer strategies and inspired others to be customer focused.”

For more details about how companies can transform their cultures to be customer-centric, read the full report. And please share your comments and questions below.

2Recommend this post

Categories:

cultural transformation
 
customer-centric culture

Save and Share:

 Facebook
 
 LinkedIn
 
 Twitter

• » See more posts by Sam Stern
• » See more posts for Customer Experience Professionals

TRISAKTI SOEKARNO, untuk dijalankan JOKOWi

Sumber : http://politik.kompasiana.com/2013/03/30/trisakti-vs-gbhn--546580.html

TRISAKTI (BUNG KARNO)

Selama dalam masa pendudukan, penghisapan dan penindasan kolonialisme Belanda, bangsa Indonesia berada dalam hegemoni penjajah. Antonio Gramsci menjelaskan, bahwa kekuasaan yang menindas berupaya menguasai seluruh keadaan melalui cara yang paling kuat yaitu hegemoni, baik dalam tataran nilai ataupun tindakan. Intelektual dari Italia ini mengungkapkan berbagai contoh hegemoni dalam catatannya ‘Selection from the Prisons Notebooks’ Hegemoni ini bisa mempengaruhi semua aspek kehidupan. Bung Karno, memiliki gagasan untuk menghadapi gelombang hegemoni dari pihak luar.

Fidel Castro, legenda Revolusi Kuba, pernah mengaku sebagai murid Bung Karno. Pengakuan itu, seperti ditulis Dr. Haridadi Sudjono, mantan Dubes Indonesia untuk Kuba, disampaikan sendiri oleh Fidel Castro kepada Bung Karno. Konon, pengakuan Castro itu juga pernah disampaikan ke Menlu Adam Malik. Bahkan, kata Dr Hariadi, beberapa ajaran Bung Karno menjadi acuan Fidel Casto dalam memimpin negerinya. Dua ajaran Bung Karno yang paling digandrungi dan diterapkan oleh Fidel Castro adalah TRISAKTI dan RESOPIM, RESOPIM adalah Revolusi, Sosialisme Indonesia, dan Pimpinan Nasional dan TRISAKTI adalah Berkedaulatan dalam politik, berdikari dalam ekonomi, dan berkepribadian dalam kebudaya.

Dalam pidatonya menyambut Hari Ulang Tahun kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia, pada tanggal 17 Agustus 1964, Bung Karno mengambil judul “Tahun Vivere Pericoloso” yang antara lain mengungkapkan tiga paradigma besar yang bisa membangkitkan Indonesia menjadi bangsa yang besar baik secara politik maupun ekonomi. Konsep tersebut adalah TRISAKTI.
TRISAKTI yang dimaksudkan oleh Bung Karno adalah:
1. Berkedaulatan dalam politik.
Seperti yang telah kita ketahui bersama, bangsa Indonesia dijajah oleh bangsa asing berabad-abad lamanya. Tiga ratus lima puluh tahun dalam kolonialisme Belanda bukanlah waktu yang singkat. Pada kondisi bangsa berada dalam cengkeraman kolonialisme, maka kemerdekaan tidak dimiliki oleh bangsa kita dan pada saat yang sama tidak ada lagi kedaulatan politik karena semua sektor telah diintervensi oleh bangsa lain. Padahal sebuah bangsa memiliki hak untuk mengatur dirinya sendiri. Sehingga Bung Karno menegaskan bahwa kedaulatan politik bangsa Indonesia sudah mutlak untuk diwujudkan dengan menolak segala bentuk intervensi bangsa lain. Bung Karno menyatakan, “Nation building and character building harus diteruskan sehebat-hebatnya demi menunjang kedaulatan politik kita”. Ketegasan sebagaimana yang ditunjukkan oleh bapak Proklamator di atas sejalan dengan konsep kemerdekaan yang dilontarkan oleh filosof terkemuka dari Jerman, Martin Heidegger, yang menyimpulkan bahwa “Manusia sesungguhnya ditakdirkan untuk merdeka”.
2. Berdikari dalam Ekonomi.
Bung Karno mengingatkan kita betapa bangsa Indonesia ini adalah bangsa yang kaya dengan Sumber Daya Alam (SDA) baik di daratan maupun di lautannya. Akan tetapi kekayaan SDA ini belum membangkitkan ekonomi nasional dikarenakan tingkat ketergantungan terhadap pranata ekonomi asing sangat tinggi. Dengan melihat fakta ini maka Bung Karno, mengemukakan bahwa penting sekali bangsa Indonesia untuk Berdiri Di atas Kaki Sendiri (BERDIKARI), dalam mengatur perekonomian demi kesejahteraan rakyat. Ketergantungan yang tinggi terhadap ekonomi bangsa lain menurut Bung Karno, tidak akan menjamin kesejahteraan rakyat justru sebaliknya berpotensi menimbulkan resesi ekonomi nasional yang berkepanjangan. Apa yang menjadi kekhawatiran Bung Karno terbukti, terutama ketika bangsa Indonesia di era Orde Baru mulai berafiliasi dengan lembaga keuangan internasional seperti IMF dan lain-lainnya, bangsa Indonesia tidak bisa menghindarkan diri dari krisis ekonomi yang dampaknya terasa hingga hari ini.
3. berkepribadian dalam kebudayaan.
Aspek budaya bagi Bung Karno sama pentingnya dengan aspek lainnya. Bangsa Indonesia harus menghormati budaya warisan nenek moyang dan menghargai nilai-nilai luhur kebudayaan di masyarakat. Karakter dan kepribadiaan budaya Indonesia haruslah dijaga dan dilestarikan. Misalnya budaya gotong-royong yang melambangkan kolektifitas sebuah komunitas yang guyub dan berbagai karya budaya yang mewarnai dunia seni. Pemerhati budaya Indonesia terkemuka dari Amerika, Profesor Benedic Anderson banyak sekali mengungkapkan kekayaan budaya Nusantara, seperti budaya Jawa yang kaya akan nilai luhur. Misalnya di katakan bahwa masyarakat Jawa sangat menghargai aturan yang formal. Etika dan aturan yang lahir dari keputusan formal pasti akan dilegitimasi secara kolektif oleh masyarakat. Kandungan budaya seperti ini sangat bagus dalam memperkuat demokrasi karena proses demokratisasi pada beberapa sisi mengandung etika dan nilai-nilai yang formal. Ini membuktikan keyakinan Bung Karno bahwa budaya kita adalah budaya yang luhur dan mendukung kepribadian bangsa Indonesia.

Tiga butir Trisakti harus dijalankan secara konsisten.
Ketahanan ekonomi nasional harus dibangun secara mandiri dengan kemauan politik yang bulat. Beras mahal, antri beli beras bukan import beras. Ketahanan pangan nasional harus dibangun. Idealis bukan pragmatis. Sampai tahun 1980, rakyat China berpakaian biru-biru serta bersepeda mengingat pemerintah belum mampu mengadakan barang kebutuhan yang beragam. Tahun 1980-an Televisi di India masih hitam putih, yang terpenting sampai komponen terkecil diproduksi dalam negeri. Pada periode yang sama, televisi di Indonesia sudah berwarna mengingat sifat pragmatis, import saja, toh bisa bayar, kan ada uangnya.
Di jaman Orde Lama rakyat Indonesia harus antri sembako, kran import ditutup, kemiskinan merata, ketahanan ekonomi dibangun menurut skala prioritas. Para pelajar terbaik pilihan Bung Karno dikirim ke Moscow, Peking atau negara Eropa Timur lain guna alih teknologi, dalam hubungan G to G. Waktu itu disebut jaman susah. Secara impirik, jaman susah harus ditempuh selama 2 kali 20 tahun dengan peningkatan kemakmuran yang lamban.
Di sinilah manusia Indonesia tidak tahan mental. Tahun 1990-an pada jayanya Orde Baru, pertumbuhan ekonomi kita mencapai 7% mengalami over heat, kasarnya inflasi tinggi karena belanja sangat tinggi mengingat banyak alat, bahan baku sampai tenaga ahli harus diimport. Bandingkan dengan pertumbuhan ekonomi China yang mencapai 12% tapi tidak mengalami over heat, karena sudah banyak sarana yang dipasok dari dalam negeri. Tahun 2003 LEMHANAS memproyeksi, China dan India menjadi raksasa dunia kelak pada tahun 2020.
Semangat TRISAKTI di atas penting sekali untuk dicermati terutama dalam menyongsong pesta demokrasi yang akan datang. Karena konsep tersebut masih sangat relevan dengan kondisi bangsa Indonesia. Kota-kota ataupun daerah-daerah tertindas yang kita perjuangkan sebagai salah satu basis perjuangan, tentu akan  mendukung konsep apapun yang mampu mengangkat harkat dan martabat bangsa Indonesia, termasuk TRISAKTI yang merupakan salah satu warisan Bung Karno kepada kita semua.

10 langkah untuk sukses bermarketing di Sosial Media

10 Key Steps to a Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Written by Jeff Bullas - 24 Comments
Categories: Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Creating a social media marketing strategy for a blog or a business can be simple or it can be complex.

A personal blogger isn’t going to perform a SWOT analysis or dive into detailed market research and create piles of spreadsheets and documents so large that you can’t jump over them.

A social media marketing strategy can be three simple steps.

1. See – What is today’s situation
2. Think – Define goals and objectives
3. Draw – Map a route to achieving the goals

Using these elements as a template maybe all you need to to create a social media marketing strategy.

Is it World Domination?

If you are considering starting a blog or company that is after world domination (for more on this check out Dr Evil from the Movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me“) in an industry and niche, then you may want to do some detailed research and analysis.

Once you have determined the focus and direction for your blog whether it be for business or pleasure is to map out a roadmap. This means putting in place some informed and researched planning to maximise the chances of success.

So what are some key steps in putting together a social media marketing strategy for your blog?

Step 1: Establish a Clear Focused Vision

If you are a personal blogger brand and you have clarity on your passion and innate ability, then getting the vision clear is the vital next step in the journey. If you are a business and have not created a vision statement then maybe its time to retire to the boardroom and give the neurons and whiteboard a workout!

A vision statement is an inspirational sentence or two that will keep you focused when uncertainty and temptations to take a different course confront you.

Nike aren’t one of the top sports apparel brands in the world because they have fuzzy thinking. Nike’s vision is short and inspirational.

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete”

Focus, motivation and momentum comes from being clear about where you are going.

Step 2: Obtain Commitment from Management

If you are creating a personal blog then that stakeholder meeting will be very short!

If it is a corporate blog then the CEO and Management needs to be on board. It quite often is done without the right people buying in and success is harder to achieve.

In essence it can be an exercise in change management to get the commitment and resources you need.

Some steps to help achieve this are

1. Start with the P&L

Be able to convince the CEO or CFO that it will drive more inquiries, leads and create more sales. In other words provide evidence that resonates with “show us the money!”

2. Get Customers Participating in a Pilot

It can be as simple as a customer writing a review or a comment on a blog post and creating content which increases customer engagement (up to 80% of customers are looking for a review when they come to a website/blog or online store).

The cycle of engagement includes

• Visitors come to the site to read reviews
• More visitors are attracted to the customers content
• Visitors attracted to the customers content become a new customer
• New customer writes a product review

3. Get Employees Participating

How do you keep people following behind as you try to change the company to a social business if they are not involved and engaged?

One method is to apply what is known as the IKEA Effect which states

“Labor undertaken in association with a project – similiar to assembly of Ikea furniture – increases people’s affection for the result of that labor.”

4. Tell Your Stories

This final step gives your employees a pulpit and voice within the organisation to tell their story of how they are assisting in transforming their company to a social business. It could be the product development manager presenting or communicating via a newsletter on how they have taken onboard customer comments and fine tuned products or services that better meet the needs of the market.

Step 3: Perform Research

In your area of interest or industry you need to sit down and do some research, it could be simple to complex but it will provide you with the foundation to identify opportunities to position your blog.

The research could include the following depending on time and resources

• Identifying trends
• Market and competitor analysis …what are the bloggers in your industry doing?
• What are the various key segments in your target market and which one do you want to pursue
• What are they doing well and what could you do better – this will assist you in determining what will make you unique or what is sometimes called your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

From this you can determine the potential readers, prospects and customer personas

Some questions to ask about your prospects

• What do they read or view?
• What are their problems?
• What social networks do they use

Step 4: Create and Prioritize Goals

It is important to know what you want to achieve. If you are a captain of a ship you need to determine where you are going before leaving harbour.

• Do you want to improve brand recognition
• Capture more inquiries
• Increase sales
• Drive more traffic to the blog

Which are the most important?

Step 5: Create and Design Tactics to Achieve Goals

Once the goals have been determined then you can create the tactics on the platforms where you audience is.

• Drive traffic to a landing page that captures emails and basic customer information
• Increase Facebook likes – putting your brand and content in front of more people in their Facebook news feeds and ticker
• Publish content on your blog and promote it on Facebook and Twitter and Slideshare to position your brand as experts

This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many different tactics that are only limited by your imagination and creativity. The implementing comes down to resources and how deep are your pockets

Step 6: Determine the Cost and the Budget

This where the priorities determine where you spend your money and what you actually implement.

Some  tactics to achieve your goals will be more expensive than others

• Creating a landing page for your blog that is well designed to capture leads could
• Creating a custom welcome tab for your brand on Facebook that drives traffic to your blog
• Paying for a Facebook marketing campaign to increase your Facebook “likes”

Other tactics and tasks can be free and done quickly and easily

• Implementing a Facebook “Like” Social Plugin on your WordPress Blog is easy and free
• Installing a Tweet button for easy sharing
• Placing a Twitter counter button to display social proof

Create priorities for your goals and implement the important ones first in order of priority

Step 7: Resources Purchased and Allocated to Achieve the Goals

Implementing these tactics and building the web assets requires the right resources to be found and bought.

1. Money – this doesn’t require any more explanation except you may need to do one of these three!  ”Beg” (this is usually not a pretty sight), “Borrow” (this is where that special friend who is a designer or programmer comes into the equation) or Steal (just don’t get caught!)
2. People – finding these can be a challenge but if they don’t have all the skills hire “passion” and a “go get attitude”. They can be full time, part time or a consultant/contractor
3. Tools – these can be both free and paid. A WordPress template that doesn’t require a designer can be had from about $45. If you require a really in depth social media analytics tool such as Radian 6 or  Meltwater Buzz start from about $500 a month

Step 8: Plan and Create Content

Content needs to be created that communicates and tempts your audience to engage with you. If you are aiming at becoming the resource for your industry then in depth articles videos and ebooks are a must

• eBooks
• Videos
• Blog articles
• Facebook updates

Could also include polls, surveys and competitions. In a multimedia world content needs to be in a variety of formats and not just text.

4 Key Media Formats

1. Video
2. High definition images
3. Power Point Presentations on SlideShare
4. Audio -Podcasts

More reading: 9 Steps to Compelling Contagious Content

Step 9: Publish and Promote on Social Networks

Creating the content is just the start, marketing your content continuously and consistently is vital!

Building your tribe and networks on Twitter and Facebook should be a priority so that you have a ready made audience when you launch your blog.

Promoting it on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn is a good place to start for B2B’s. If you are targeting a consumer market the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube would need to be seriously considered in your social media network selection.

Organic social media marketing will take time so it is sometimes a good idea to use Paid Social Media marketing on Facebook or LinkedIn to be a catalyst to accelerate your marketing campaign. Just like you would use Google Adwords to accelerate being found online until your organic SEO starts to produce results.

Optimizing your Content

One other important element that should not be forgotten is to optimize your content on your blog and social media networks for “search” and “sharing“.

Search – Write articles using key words and phrases that customers would use to “Google” you. Also if you are publishing images on Flickr, Videos on YouTube and presentations on Slideshare (or any other social media channel) then make sure that you optimise the content by writing a headline, including a description, enter tags (Keywords)

Social – make sure you have social media sharing buttons wherever you have content. You want people to share. Don’t make it hard for customers to share and spread your great content!

Step 10: Measure and Monitor Results

You are not going to get your marketing right every time so you need to measure and monitor your results.

Tools such as “Google Analytics” and “Facebook Insights” can be used to measure and monitor the elements that tell you to ensure you are moving towards your goals

Make changes to what is not working and keep doing the activities that are producing results.

Be patient it will take time as your build your blog traffic and remember your vision and goals.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/12/02/10-key-steps-to-a-successful-social-media-marketing-strategy/#TaDJwzqjJFMxQxgL.99

Pesan Paskah 2014 bagiku: hidup baru dalam kebangkitan Nya.

“Maka terjadilah gempa bumi hebat sebab seorang malaikat Tuhan turun dari langit dan datang ke batu itu dan menggulingkannya lalu duduk di atasnya...malaikat itu berkata kepada perempuan-perempuan itu: ‘Jangan kamu takut; sebab aku tahu kamu mencari Yesus yang disalib itu. Ia tidak ada di sini, sebab Ia telah bangkit, sama seperti yang telah dikatakan-Nya. Mari, lihatlah tempat Ia dibaringkan.” (Matius 28:2,5,6) Dapat dibayangkan bagaimana perasaan mereka ketika mendapat kabar bahwa Guru dan Tuhan mereka itu bangkit. Mereka takut tetapi juga sekaligus sukacita. Mereka berlari cepat-cepat, seolah tidak sabar, untuk memberitakan kepada murid-murid yang lain. Namun, sebelum mereka bertemu dengan para murid yang lain untuk memberitakan kabar gembira itu ternyata Yesus menampakkan diri kepada mereka dan memberi salam, “Salam bagimu!” Mereka mendekati-Nya dan memeluk kaki-Nya serta menyembah-Nya. Perintah yang sama yang telah didengar Maria sekarang diucapkan sendiri oleh Yesus, “Jangan takut. Pergi dan katakanlah kepada saudara-saudara-Ku supaya mereka pergi ke Galilea, dan di sanalah mereka akan melihat Aku.”

Perhatikan kata ini “jangan takut!” Rupanya kata ini menjadi pesan utama berita malaikat dalam Injil. Bila kita cermati seputar kehidupan Yesus, dari kelahiran sampai berita kebangkitan pesan itu terus disuarakan. Ketika malaikat Tuhan memberitahu Maria bahwa ia akan mengandung Yesus, malaikat itu mengatakan, “Jangan takut.”(Lukas 1:30). Pesan yang sama juga terjadi pada Yusuf ketika ia mempertimbangkan untuk menceraikan Maria, lantaran sudah mengandung (Matius 1:20). “Jangan takut” juga disampaikan kepada para gembala oleh malaikat Tuhan ketika memberitakan kelahiran Sang Juruselamat (Lukas 2:10). “Jangan takut!” ditujukan Yesus kepada Yairus yang begitu cemas lantaran anaknya sakit dan hampir mati (Markus 5:36). Dan, masih banyak lagi pesan “jangan takut”. Konon ada 360 kali kata “jangan takut” dalam Alkitab dan ada orang yang mengaitkannya dengan kalender Yahudi. Dalam kalender Yahudi satu tahun ada 360 hari, jadi lengkaplah sudah bahwa setiap hari manusia selalu diperhadapkan kepada ketakutan.

Setiap hari kita merasakan ketakutan - ketakutan yang berbeda ragam dan kadarnya. Tidak hanya terkait keseharian kita, bahkan kengerian kita melihat kondisi di luar kita. Pemberitaan yang begitu terbuka, mengenai beragam peristiwa membuat kita ngeri melihat semua nya.

Kebangkitannya mengalahkan maut membantu kita mengatasi ketakutan yang kita hadapi. Ingatlah senantiasa, bahwa kita adalah anakNya , yang telah ditebus darahNya, dan tiada kuasa yang dapat mengalahkan kita bersama Yesus. Selamat Paskah saudaraku.

Orang sukses, bangun pagi.

Want to Be More Successful? Revamp Your Mornings

 BY JESSICA STILLMAN  @ENTRYLEVELREBEL

Author Laura Vanderkam reveals how highly successful people put their pre-breakfast hours to use and explains how you can be more like them.

2.8k SHARES

The day may have 24 hours of equivalent length but author Laura Vanderkam says not every hour is created equal. Drawing on her own research, surveys of executives, and the latest science on willpower for her forthcoming ebook What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Vanderkam argues that making smart use of the early morning is a practice most highly successful people share. 

From former Pepsi CEO Steve Reinemund's 5 a.m. treadmill sessions, to author Gretchen Rubin's 6 a.m. writing hour, examples of highly accomplished folks who wring the most from their pre-breakfast hours abound in the book. What do they know that the average entrepreneur might not have realized yet? 

"Seizing your mornings is the equivalent of that sound financial advice to pay yourself before you pay your bills. If you wait until the end of the month to save what you have left, there will be nothing left over. Likewise, if you wait until the end of the day to do meaningful but not urgent things like exercise, pray, read, ponder how to advance your career or grow your organization, or truly give your family your best, it probably won’t happen," Vanderkam writes.

"If it has to happen, then it has to happen first," she says.

But what if you're a night owl by inclination and you go pale at the thought of setting the alarm for even five minutes earlier? Vanderkam explained to Inc.com that there is hope for nearly everyone.

"Around 10% to 20% of folks are confirmed night owls. Screwing up your schedule is not wise for these folks--and they may have to choose professions and ways of working and ways of dealing with their families accordingly. Everyone else is in the middle--and my thesis is that there are real advantages to training yourself toward the lark side," she said.

And luckily, you don't have to rely on sheer force of will to make the switch to earlier mornings (though some of that is, no doubt, required). In the book, Vanderkam lays out a five-step process to help you make the change with the minimum of pain:

Track your time. "Part of spending your time better is knowing exactly how you’re spending it now," writes Vanderkam, who recommends you, "write down what you're doing as often as you can and in as much detail as you think will be helpful," offering a downloadable spreadsheet to help.

Picture the perfect morning. "Ask yourself what a great morning would look like for you," suggests Vanderkam, who offers plenty of inspiration. Shawn Achoruses the early hours to write a note of appreciation. Manisha Thakor, a personal finance guru, goes in for transcendental meditation. Randeep Rekhi, who is employed full time at a financial services firm, manages his side business, an online wine store, before heading off to work.

Think through the logistics. " Map out a morning schedule. What would have to happen to make this schedule work? What time would you have to get up and (most important) what time do you need to go to bed in order to get enough sleep?"

Build the habit. "This is the most important step," writes Vanderkam before explaining how to gradually shift your schedule, noting and rewarding small wins along the way.

Tune up as necessary. "Life changes. Rituals can change, too."

Check out the short-but-useful ebook when it comes out later in the month for more details on becoming more of a morning person, as well as additional ideas on how to put those reclaimed hours to use.

What's your morning ritual?