Biznology Blog: September 2009

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September 30, 2009

The All-Time Top-Secret Search Marketing Trick

Are you looking for an angle? Do you want to know what all these search marketing experts know that you don't? Well, I can't promise all of that in one column, but I can tell you what I answer when folks ask me to divulge the trick to search marketing. If you want to know, you'll have to read my latest article in Search Engine Guide, "The All-Time Top-Secret Search Marketing Trick."

Posted by MikeMoran at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2009

In Social Media, Adjust, Credit, and Engage

by Eva Lyford

Getting the right tone in your response to social media is tricky. Even the positive stories seem like accidental social media success. So I went hunting this week for examples of positive responses to social media incidents to serve as inspirational examples. Or, at least as an assurance that it can be done.

First example: Brands in Public recently launched with a mission of showing companies what is going on in social media and letting companies manage the conversation. To give people a feel for what they were about, the social media experts there posted 200 example pages, for example for Allstate.

Unfortunately, it looked a lot like brandjacking to some folks, who spoke up about their concerns on twitter, on blogs, and in the comments of bookmarks on social tagging sites for the announcement of Brands in Public on Seth Godin's blog. Ouch.

So what's a social marketer to do? Adjust. Take down the pages that were perceived as looking like brand jacking exercises, and offer to put up a few free pages for selected charities. And, hopefully, institute some internal review processes to get some outside perspectives before the next launch.

Second example: . Sometimes adjusting isn't even that hard. Youtube changed their favicon in response to a blogger's critique. A favicon is a fairly minor part of a website, or at least it was when it was first implemented. Later, favicons evolved into a de facto standard badge that is used by fans of the service to link to their profile or to provide some graphic representation of the company referenced. So they've gone from being a minor luxury on a site to being a representation of your brand. And what to do when someone complains that your favicon is unreadable? Adjust, and give credit where credit is due.

I can hear you now, though--you think that's easy for a big organization or a oft-cited expert to pull off. But even small shops have done it.

Third example: Hardwood Artisians is small company that got some attention with an article by the Washington Post, "Value Added," that generated a lot of comments pretty quickly. What to do about this? Hardwood Artisians could hardly take down pages at the Washington Post, and they couldn't just retool a graphic to be responsive. Instead, they became part of the conversation--the marketing director got in the mix with the commenters, cleared up some issues with the article and contributed her own perspective. Social marketing requires full-on engagement sometimes—adjust, credit, and engage.

Evaluate your own available tools as it comes to responding to social media. Could you take down 200 pages from your Web site overnight if you needed to? Do you have a graphic artist on staff to redo a graphic if needed? Are you up for engaging with public commentators on an article about your company—and if not you, who in your company will be?

Posted by EvaLyford at 2:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 28, 2009

Why Blogs Aren't Dead

You're reading this blog, and I wrote it, so neither of us probably thinks that blogs are dead. But you do hear people posing the question--and not just crackpots, but smart commentators wondering whether the longer form of the blog is permanently facing extinction in the face of Twitter and Facebook updates. If you're a bit troubled about whether the trendy and oh-so-new makes it a time to question the usefulness of blogs, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, "Why Blogs Aren't Dead."

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:19 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 25, 2009

How Much More Internet Can We Take?

by Frank Reed

As human beings we are not limitless in our ability to do anything. The physical laws of nature and the physical limitations of our bodies bind us. We can stretch these laws and test the limits, but to this point in time at least, we have run up against our boundaries time and time again. Of course, that hasn't stopped us from still trying to get past these limits. In fact, it seems to be quite the opposite at times. We want to move past our limitations because we fear that we are missing something. It's something that has yet to be created or discovered. We perceive that it sits in the future waiting for us, that it is better than what we currently have and it's just up to the human race to come and get it. Nowhere is this more true than in the ways we use the Internet--it's a fantastic resource. But when does "more" become too much?

I am starting to feel like we are dangerously close to our limitations in Internet usage already. As an experiment, I went into my Password Keeper section on my Blackberry and counted how many passwords to various online properties I have. This includes personal and business sites that require a password for me to get on them. The total was 179 different username and password combinations. Even I got a little drop-jawed at that number.

I started to look at the sites that I had entered and realized that most were done for the sake of research or for the sake of a momentary need. I also realized that I actually use about 10 percent or so (at the most) of those sites on a regular basis. I then realized as well, that all of those online entities, including the 90% of the sites that I simply don't use any more, include me in their numbers for total accounts. I wonder how many more of me are out there when it comes to creating one time, hollow accounts that beef up a site's numbers?

The point of the matter is this. We spend so much time trying to race to the next outpost on the Internet superhighway that we really don't even know what we have on our hands. We keep adding more and more information and data to people who are likely to be overloaded already.This is the reason that there are not more social media and social networking sites the size and scope of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. People can't handle any more. There is likely to never be more than three major players in this space because people can't deal with more than that. Look at the decline in MySpace numbers over the past few years, as Facebook and Twitter shove them to the back of the line.

Sure, there will be niche networking opportunities out the wazoo for people to pick from but ultimately they will have to choose which one, two, or at most three communities that they will truly be engaged in, because we, as human beings, can't handle more than that and do it well. There will be exceptions to that rule, but the exceptions will never be the rule. People are going to start making hard choices about where their valuable time is best spent. God knows we waste enough time now as it is. No wonder the US is falling behind in so many critical measures of success. We've overloaded ourselves into an information coma. Nice move. Next stop: flatline.

So what does it mean for the Internet marketing community? That's the question du jour. No one knows, but I suspect that every Internet marketing "expert" and practitioner is going to have to make a choice as where they will concentrate the bulk of their efforts. The most important decision a marketer will make is what community will they concentrate on and really dig into. You cannot be all things to all people, so why are we even trying? Those who go too wide will perish because they will lose their true brand or identity because of the "all things to all people" approach. It doesn't work. Personally, I don't want everything, so stop trying to be my buddy!

Ultimately, the pendulum may swing in the other direction. Like people who have taken a minimalist approach to material possessions there may be a minimalist approach to information. Sure, information is power, but at the end of the day power is a sickness. It corrupts and destroys ultimately. I don't want to take in too much data so it makes me sick.

I'm starting to push back from the table and concentrate on the things that truly mean something rather than pursue those that claim to be something. It's my survival mechanism in this Age of Excess. Less is the new more for me.

Excuse me, now, while I step back from the computer and play with my kids. Thankfully, I can never get too much of that.

Posted by FrankReed at 8:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 24, 2009

Stop Paying for an Intranet

Medium to large companies often have elaborate intranet Web sites that employees use to collaborate with each other on information too sensitive to be public. While this approach has worked well for over a decade, it's no longer the best to way to protect confidential data nor the best way to provide access to the data that you really want shared. Find out what you can do instead by reading my latest post on Internet Evolution, "Stop Paying for an Intranet."

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 23, 2009

Coordinating Your Digital Marketing Teams

I had so many appearances last week that I am still posting things I did last Thursday. I'm finally caught up today by posting my slides from last week's Webinar on bringing digital marketing teams together. For anyone who has a business large enough that the Web team and the search team and the e-mail team don't get together as much as you wish they did, my advice is to focus on common goals (driving sales is usually a good one), common governance (no, escalating disputes to the CEO does not suffice), and a common attitude (your messages should not sound like they come from different companies). If this sounds helpful in your situation, check out my slides on "Coordinating Your Digital Marketing Teams."

Posted by MikeMoran at 6:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 22, 2009

Opportunity costs in social media

by Eva Lyford

I recently read Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and was happy to read their descriptions of customers taking charge and speaking out in their own voices about the service they receive. Last week, I was delighted to stumble upon news that a South African company used a pigeon to transmit data between two offices to highlight issues with its ADSL service. Telkom SA's response? It breaks my heart. A mumbo-jumbo string of corpratese that parses out as: we're not to blame. "Several recommendations have, in the past, been made to the customer but none of these have, to date, been accepted. It must also be noted that Telkom is not the customer's core service provider."

Would an apology have been so difficult? I've had waiters apologize for burnt offerings that they clearly had no hand in charring. If that waiter can summon up empathy after standing all day and handling other people's dirty plates, I would think a large organization such as Telkom SA could as well. Even if they actually aren't strictly to blame remember- if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Looking a little deeper here saddens me further. Kevin Rolfe, head of information technology at Unlimited IT said: "Look, we don't blame Telkom or Neotel, or any of the other Internet providers," says Rolfe. "Those guys, the providers are doing the best job that they can. But we are saying, fine, let's sit down and think out of the box and figure out how to improve South Africa's telecommunications."

It sounds like Telkom SA just missed a big opportunity to partner with Unlimited IT and address a systemic issue that plagues them both. It is time to step up your game. Let's imagine for a moment an alternate universe, where Telkom SA's response looks like this:

Media Centre

That would be quite a difference from something that sets the cat among the pigeons. Your customers will be your strongest advocates and promoters if you let them. Don't miss the opportunity presented when one approaches you with an issue.

Posted by EvaLyford at 1:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 21, 2009

How Is Social Media Changing Your Business?

Thursday was a great day for me as I spent some time at the digiday:SOCIAL conference in New York City. I listened to speaker after speaker and panelist after panelist talk about what companies are doing in social media. And during the breaks, I heard from attendees, too. What came through loud and clear is that social media is changing businesses. It's not some new thing coming in the future. It's here now and it's changing the way we think about our businesses.

I was part of a panel discussion moderated by Stephenie Miller on how to measure social media, which is an interesting topic in itself. Think about what that means, if we need to measure social media--it is obviously going mainstream. When social media was breathtakingly new and leading edge, it was exciting just to talk about anyone able to do anything with it. If we need to measure it now, that must mean a difference in the way business sees it. Social media is no longer the next big thing, it is an important tool in the here and now, which businesses must adapt to their own purposes.

I was also lucky to have a 15-minute speaking slot where I discussed how to create a listening organization. Listening to what's being said about you in social media is no longer optional, and you must distribute the insights gleaned across your whole organization. That way, those parts of your organization can engage in customer conversations when needed, and can take action on what they learn.

But I missed the highlight of the day. I had to race home to attend a College Fair with my daughter and could not attend the award dinner that evening. Later, I was pleased to learn that my company, Converseon, won the SAMMY award for Best Social Media agency. I can't take much credit for it, but knowing the people I work with that really did the heavy lifting—it's well-deserved.

Adding up this whole event, I realized that businesses are changing because of social media. They are measuring it, just like the grown-up marketing tactic that it is. They are transforming their organizations to engage and take action on what is said about them, and social media is important enough for someone to create an award for the agency that does it best.

None of these things were happening even a year ago, so if your businesses is behind on using social media, this might be the time to start.

Posted by MikeMoran at 4:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 18, 2009

CMOs Are Climbing a Burning Rope

by Frank Reed

How many years would you say it takes to become the CMO of a company? Now mind you, I am referring to the person who has paid their dues and performed every marketing function under the sun and not gotten there because their Dad happens to own the company. No, I am talking about the true blue Chief Marketing Officer that has reached the pinnacle of their profession and apparently starts a clock ticking down the 23 or so months they have to right the ship that was floating rudderless by the last poor soul whose 23-month time to live expired?

Would it be fair to say that it can take a minimum of 10 and more likely closer to 20-plus years to get to that level in most cases? When you see the 35-year-old CMO, it raises a few eyebrows because they seem so young to have that much experience, right?

So where am I going with this? Let's get back to the burning rope in the post's title. Imagine you have worked your entire career to get to the top of a corporate rope rather than a ladder. Ever tried to climb a rope? It's hard. I have awful memories of physical fitness tests in gym class that could expose the weakest part of the strongest people. It's hard to climb a rope. Now imagine that as you climb that rope has been set on fire from the bottom and is catching up to you rapidly. You climb faster and faster to escape the flames but eventually they will catch up and then what? You fall and there is nothing to break your fall but the ground and the accompanying broken bones that will inevitably result.

So get to the CMO part, right? Today's CMO's have likely cut their teeth in a world of old,  traditional media that was about eyeballs and agencies. There was schmoozing that needed to be done and cigars to be smoked in leather chairs around mahogany tables. There were TV ads to create and get all giddy over because they were so creative and entertaining. And measurements? I can hear it now, "Ha! This is marketing, son! We don't really measure anything here! We just figure that if enough people see our stuff and we entertain them enough that surely someone will buy it! Oh, and that Internet thingy that showed up before the turn of the century....just a fad."

Well, that rope that was climbed to get to the top of the marketing food chain has been set on fire in the past five years by social media and the Internet in general, and I suspect that many CMO's could be a little worried. The sweetest three letters that anyone could speak in old marketing terms belonged to ABC, CBS, and NBC. Now the only three letters that matter to a marketer are ROI.

Today's CMO faces scrutiny unlike ever in the past. The word accountability is now just as important to the CMO as it has always been to the CFO. Just for C-suite kicks, I bet more than a few CFOs elbow the C marketer and chuckle "How's it feel?"

Thus, the corporate ladder has been replaced by the corporate rope. A ladder implies the chance to at least make a descent without being scraped off the pavement. The CMO rope is one where the trip down is fast and furious. There is no safety net in marketing's new world order of social media, brand decentralization and the kind of messaging chaos that birthed the expression "herding cats."

So what's an old school CMO to do? I suggest they hold on to the rope they have left and stop the fire below you. Roll up your sleeves and get back in the classroom to learn how this Internet thing works for real—not just in theory. Stop playing house and commit to the new reality of the digital marketplace. Otherwise, start figuring out the best way to cushion your inevitable fall from grace as the Internet marketing young gun takes the reins that you let go long ago over a meal and a media buy.

Posted by FrankReed at 12:01 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

September 17, 2009

What's Your True Conversion Rate?

You probably check your Web metrics system frequently, and focusing on your conversion rate is a big part of what you do. New research from Sun Microsystems casts doubt on whether many companies are calculating their conversion rates accurately. Should you be worried about how you're doing it? If so, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, "What's Your True Conversion Rate?"

Posted by MikeMoran at 4:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 16, 2009

When Marketing Isn't Enough

Seth Godin likes to say that all marketers are liars, and the question for us is whether we can keep that up. The Web increasingly prevents lying from working. Whether it's because customers investigate your claims or because they tell each other their experiences with you. It gets harder and harder for you to pull the wool over their eyes. I had a chance to speak on this topic last week at the New Jersey chapter meeting of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and thought you might be interested in seeing my slides, "When Marketing Isn't Enough."

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 15, 2009

You Can Stick Social Media in Your Hat

by Eva Lyford

Many of us spend enormous amounts of time working to get a measurable impact from social media. But some of the best examples of the power of word-of-mouth marketing begin unintentionally. Last week, a positive tweet from British celebrity Stephen Fry about David Eagleman's Sum, "If you read it and aren't enchanted I will eat 40 hats," prompted a 250,000% improvement in Amazon's Movers and Shakers list and an additional print run from the publisher. And, I added it to my Christmas list. But why did this happen?

Stephen Fry might not be well-known in the US, but he's almost a national treasure in England. He's a rarity, in that he is both a celebrity and an intellectual. Fry's entertaining QI show and wide-ranging intellectual interests have devoted followings. He is a Man Who Knows Of What He Speaks when it comes to an intellectual's fare. So an endorsement, however flip, has the weight of authority behind it.

But what makes his statement about Sum different from his prolific blurbs that appear on so many dust-jackets? It was authentic--an off-the-cuff and apparently unsolicited bit of praise. While plugs from Fry have been sought after for some time, none have generated this kind of response. People can tell when the compliment is authentic and when it isn't.

Is there a lesson here? First, Eagleman owes Stephen some hats. Second, if you're expecting this kind of response from an artificial and contrived endorsement, you need to reconsider. People can tell the difference between a from-the-heart compliment and a paid friend. Instead, figure out who the authorities are in your market and make it very, very easy for them to get their hands on your best offerings.

Perhaps it all started when someone at Pantheon Press sent Fry a copy of that book. If so, I nominate that person for the newly-created Forty Hats Award, and a round of applause from their peers. Well done, anonymous publishing worker!

Posted by EvaLyford at 7:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2009

The Hardest Thing in Social Media Is Shutting Up

Everyone's talking about social media and how you get yourself "out there." Even if you still think that social media is a little too "out there" for you, you might be surprised that the first step has nothing to do with making yourself heard. If you are willing to be quiet for a little while, check out my latest post on Internet Evolution, "The Hardest Thing in Social Media Is Shutting Up."

Posted by MikeMoran at 1:19 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

September 11, 2009

The Plight of the CMO

by Frank Reed

The biggest issue for Chief Marketing Officer is that the average CMO lifespan is right around 23 months, a short time put your stamp on a company's marketing efforts. That was brought to mind for me by my week at the CMO Summit in San Francisco, presented by the Aberdeen Group. If you are an executive level marketer I would recommend you consider taking in the event when it shows up in your neck of the woods. The two-day lineup consisted of top marketing minds from Levi Strauss, Intuit, Polycom, Aon, Burt's Bees, Symantec, the SF 49ers, and more. (Perhaps the 49ers could hand out helmets to the rest of the CMOs.) It was interesting to just hear speaker after speaker give a glimpse into some of the issues and concerns that C-suite marketers face on a day-to-day basis.

Interestingly enough, though, is that despite all of the change with social media and interactive marketing as a whole, the issues don't seem any different than they have been for years. As you may know, I have a lot of experience on the sales side of the corporate world. Marketing and sales have never played together like they should and sadly I am not sure that has changed at all despite all of the "progress" that is supposedly taking place.

There is so much talk about marketing automation and more and more data, but the reality is that simple conversations about how marketing and sales can best facilitate company success are uncommon. Why not? I have no idea, because it makes perfect sense. Maybe it's egos. I don't know.

The CMO Summit is a great concept that alo makes sense. I would like to see Aberdeen do an Executive Marketing and Sales Peace Accord. Have an event where the top executives in each discipline are educated by people from the other discipline with a final meeting that brings the parties together after the learning. They are then required to hammer out a treaty and find a way to win together. I think it would be interesting and productive for all involved. Could be pretty darn interesting to watch as well.

On second thought, maybe the Middle East would be an easier target for this kind of effort.

Posted by FrankReed at 12:26 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 10, 2009

The Danger of Internet Marketing Autopilot

One of my kids approached me, book in hand, asking, "What's the difference between a possum and an opossum?" I was busy doing something else, so I languidly replied, "They are the same, but opossums are Irish." Yes, I could have Googled it to find out. I could have told him I didn't know and told him to look it up. I could have at least engaged. But I was too distracted or too lazy to do it. It was autopilot parenting. Luckily, my son shook his head and went off to figure it out on his own (because he knows his father too well). But it made me wonder about all the things we do on autopilot, including Internet marketing (because everything makes me think of Internet marketing).

I think a lot of us approach our Internet marketing this way. We undertake a flurry of activity to create (or redesign) our Web sites, but then leave it languish. We don't watch the measurements. We don't make changes. We don't experiment. We don't really pay attention because it isn't causing a problem. No crisis, no attention.

And for some of us, this even seems to work sometimes. If we've created a halfway decent Web site, we might still see some leads or some sales coming in. We might even see those results improve over time, even though we aren't really doing anything to cause it. And we come to the conclusion that we don't need to do anything--that autopilot works and that Internet marketing just doesn't need our attention.

But it's wrong. Just as me continuing to ignore my kid will someday have some severe relationship problems, so will ignoring your Internet marketing. First off, you will probably have to deal with the day when the results stop going up, because time has passed you by. You haven't kept up with the way the Internet has changed and your competitive edge has suffered.

Or you might just be seriously under-performing but never know it. Perhaps your results could have been far better if you were actively managing and experimenting with your Internet marketing, but you never put in the effort to find out.

Worst of all is when you find a serious shift in the market occurs and your competitors are all over it and you have been sound asleep. If you leave your Internet marketing on autopilot for too long, you might go from playing possum to actually being dead.

Posted by MikeMoran at 8:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 9, 2009

Best Practices in Search Are Where You Start

When someone says the phrase "best practices," I won't mind if one of your eyelids goes a bit droopy and your chin slowly starts to nod toward your chest. I know that it's an overused term and that it increasingly means, "I'm a consultant and I learned that calling my advice 'best practices' makes you believe me." And if best practices generally has become a catchphrase rather than something with real meaning, it's even worse in Internet marketing (and search marketing in particular), because it's so unclear from day to day and from company to company which practices are best. If this rings a bell with you, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, "Best Practices in Search Are Where You Start."

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 8, 2009

Content, Community, and Context in Internet Marketing

by Eva Lyford

In the early '90s, the hottest screen saver product around featured flying toasters, which has since come to symbolize the triumph of marketing for a product that no one really has to have. But what about your marketing? Focus on the three C's of Internet marketing: Content, Community, and Context. Marketers that take these principles to heart can do more than shine, they can go supernova.

It's the fortunate marketer who has input into product design and technical details, and who bases that input on market research and real, live, customer interaction. I think of those product specifications as content--the sum total of what you get when you get the product. But sometimes, for some products, that ability to influence content isn't available to marketers. The product is what it is and the marketer has to figure out what to do with it. What do you do then?

Who, for example, wants an outlet wall? For an outlet wall to sell it has to have the right community. It has to be in the places where people who want that will find it interesting. For that product to succeed it has to be in a place where people get excited about all that electrical goodness, a place where the tech questions can be answered and the excitement can build so that the product moves from being a curious oddity out of place somewhere to being a must-have in its niche.

Internet marketers have a unique opportunity to find communities for products in completely new ways. Niche communities such as Hacked Gadgets surely would salivate over the prospect of all those available outlets. Every single product has a community out there which would be receptive to it, you just have to find it or make it and then and nurture it. Once place to get great advice on how to do that is the FeverBee blog.Got your community? Next, provide some context.

Context comes from anticipating answering the so-what? question from your target community about your product. Again, the Internet is superior in its capacity to offer customers a variety of contexts for your product.

• Show it in use with a video. Just how many things can we plug into that outlet wall? How about lots of battery chargers?
• Play an audio file of it in operation (just how quiet is that ultra-super-quiet dishwasher anyway)?
• Post reviews from customers talking about their lives with the product. Post tweetbacks and blog mentions to acknowledge product buzz.
• Offer listings of accessories and options.

There's plenty of products out there that looked like dross until the community was found for them and the context provided. Who here was using a computer in the 1980s? Screen savers were trivial oddities then. By end of the decade they became personal expressions of humor, or even astute ways to guard a personal investment from dreaded Burn In, and something people shelled out cash for even though it was by definition unproductive and repetitive software. The community of home users was where screen savers went wild. Context was provided through comparison to the dreadful CRTs we abused our eyes with at work; we much preferred flying toasters to green pictures drawn with letters and numbers.

If you find yourself stymied by lack of influence over the product content, take a glace at community and context. The opportunities there might be more numerous than the opportunities to influence the product. And definitely they're more fun.

Posted by EvaLyford at 6:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 4, 2009

Twitter's August '09 in Review

by Frank Reed

Hello everyone. It's been a while since a Frank Friday has rolled around but it looks like we are back on schedule. So how has your holiday / vacation time been? Frankly, I haven't had any so it's business as usual for me. As a result I have been watching the latest and greatest, the comings and the goings, and the general spin frenzy around social media and in particular everyone's darling Twitter. Let's look at August 2009 and get some tweet-spective on things.

August 1 - Twitter starts the month hot on the heels of a new homepage design

August 4 - Reports surface that the United States Marine Corps eliminated the use of social networking tools like Twitter from its networks

August 4 - Numbers show that in June of '09 Twitter topped 44.5 million visitors. That number is widely regarded as low for overall usage since many Twitter users access the service via third party tools like TweetDeck and Seesmic.

Aug 5 - ESPN bans Twitter usage by its staff as it relates to sports events. Apparently the network still acknowledged that their employees might actually have a private life so they invoked a mercy rule of sorts.

Aug 5 - More data to say that "Teens Don't Tweet"

Aug 6 - Twitter goes down as a result of a DDoS (distributed denial of service) and struggle to maintain its footing

Aug 8 - British soldiers are encouraged to tweet and use common sense in their social media usage

Aug 9 - Gartner's report shows that microblogging may be on the downhill side of hype that surrounds emerging technologies.

Aug 11 - Twitter goes down again and admits there is lingering fallout to the DDoS attack

Aug 14 - Retweets are talked about as being added as a regular feature of the service. Funny thing is most people thought it was since they never actually used the Twitter page version.

Aug 17 - Report that Twitter is gunning for spammers that include companies that claim the ability to help you buy more followers

Aug 20 - Twitter's attempt to trademark the term tweet looks like it is featherless considering three other requests are ahead of it and, well, it was just a stupid idea from the get go

Aug 21 - Twitter reports it is looking to upgrade its location ID capabilities

Aug 21 - Twitter announces a plan to create commercial accounts to possibly, gulp, make money

Aug 25 - the Center for Media Research shows that most company executives are more afraid of social media than they likely need to be

Aug 31 - TechCrunch recognizes that Twitter conferences are sprouting up all over

So there you have it. Funny thing is that this is not even an exhaustive list. There's more that happened during August relating to Twitter. Still many of the same basic questions remain unanswered like "How is it really best used for business?" and "How do you measure success relating to Twitter efforts?" and "Will these guys make money which means that they may be around for a while?". I think that when we have a month that answers these questions then there will really be something to review.

Posted by FrankReed at 7:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 3, 2009

The Internet's calling, you need to step up your game

Complacency is deadly. From an evolutionary perspective, every creature with a brain stem knows this intuitively. Yet time and again corporations, that most evolved creature of human organization, seem to become complacent in regards to their customer service policies. The Internet exposes complacency in a way unimaginable before the days of social media and citizen journalists. Whether or not companies have actually become more complacent or not is immaterial. The fact is that complacency before could be hidden, disguised, or compensated for. Nowadays, if any part of your organization is complacent that part will be exposed quickly, and virally, to everyone. And it stays exposed, for months and years via the magic of search engines and social media.

Example the first: United Breaks Guitars is a rant from one musician, Dave Carroll, who dearly loves his Taylor guitar. I couldn't hope to relate the story in as entertaining a manner as he does, so watch the video to get the summary of what happened. This video has had 5,342,399 views today. That's 5 million. Five million. How much would United have to spend to reach that many people and engage them for 4:36 minutes a piece? Out of curiosity, and because in some reptilian part of my brain there lives a direct marketer, I tried to figure out what conversion rate Dave Carroll had achieved with this. I added up all the blog posts, Google hits, YouTube comments and ratings, and determined that 12% of those who viewed the video responded in some way. Any direct marketer with that kind of response rate would squeal like a little girl. At least I would, in a scaly reptilian way.

Dave Carrol doesn't hesitate to call United out on his site: "The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims." I personally doubt that the savings generated from such a system of denials would be equivalent to the cost of running a direct marketing campaign to reach 5 million people with a 12% response rate. Step it up, United. The Internet's calling.

Example the second: Dooce vs. Whirlpool. Self-described mommyblogger Heather Armstrong issued an epic vitriolic screed against Whirlpool for their handling--or, rather, lack of handling--her warranty claims on her brand new washer. Carroll reached 5 million people in 8 weeks; Armstrong reached 1 million and counting in 1 second and I suspect this screed will have a longer half-life. Armstrong is more direct than Carroll, but who hasn't been in her place from time to time? "I AM NOT SATISFIED. I DEMAND BETTER SERVICE. PERIOD."

You know how call centers also announce that they record the calls for quality control? Armstrong reports that the customer service rep she spoke with said "Ugh" to her at one point. I so want to hear a recording of that "Ugh."

Example the third: YOUR NAME HERE.

Do not sit idly by, secure in your complacency, and sympathize with Carroll and Armstrong (or United and Whirlpool, if you are so inclined), thinking how very, very fortunate you are that your awful customer service policies have not been dragged from the back of the closet where they've been moldering away with last weeks gym socks to see the light of day. It is only a matter of time.

Posted by MikeMoran at 8:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 2, 2009

Google & Facebook Could Tip Enterprise Software Scales

Enterprise software might not seem like a hotbed for innovation, but it soon could be. While we weren't looking, born-on-the-Web companies such as Google and Facebook are poised to rewrite the old enterprise software rules. If you think that IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft are competing only with each other, check out my latest post on Internet Evolution, "Google & Facebook Could Tip Enterprise Software Scales."

Posted by MikeMoran at 7:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 1, 2009

A Month Off the Grid

For those of you just tuning in at home, this is my first day back at work after a month off. I've never taken a month off since I got my first part-time job as a junior in high school. And I wondered, in last month's newsletter, whether it actually requires more discipline to take a break than it does to keep working at this insane pace that we set for ourselves as Internet marketers. I now have my answer. It might not be your answer, but you will probably have to discover that for yourself.

For me, it did take some focus to pull myself away from what is happening, which might seem counter-intuitive. But after thinking about it, it made sense to me. I was really breaking a habit--a deeply seated one at that--of these constant twitches to check my e-mail, to look at Twitter, to check phone messages, and more.

And I probably set things up so that it actually made it harder for me to break the habit, because I had promised people that I while I was on vacation and "off the grid" (mostly), that I would continue check my e-mail every couple of days, and I did keep my office phone forwarded to my cell in case a client or a colleague really needed me. I think getting the occasional phone call (I got just four the whole month, because I don't encourage phone calls generally) and checking my e-mail every few days drew me back into the loop in a subtle way, and it would have been easier to go cold turkey and disappear.

In the end, I am glad that I did it the way I did it, because I learned that the world won't fall apart if I am gone for a month. Sure, there was some fallout. My blog ranking dropped about 100 in AdAge. Interestingly, my Twitter Grade went up even though I did not tweet at all, leading to the conclusion that people like me better when I am quiet. (I can't promise that going forward.)

I had a few speaking engagement opportunities that might have closed had I followed them up more aggressively. And I am sure that I'll learn about a number of client situations that might have suffered due to my absence. But what I gained far outweighed what I lost.

Sure, I could prattle on about what I did with my wife and kids, and that was the motivation for the whole idea. One of my four kids is starting to look at colleges, so I know that soon our family will be entering a new phase where we won't all be together for big chunks of time. We had a great time this past month and I am returning refreshed and ready to work. They are returning to school refreshed (but not at all ready to work, I dare say).

I expected all of that, but what surprised me is that in my time away I recognized some changes that I can make to my work life:

• More contemplation. I am resolving to spend less time instantly answering e-mail and more time thinking. Yes, I will clean out my e-mail every few days, the way I always did, but I don't want to obsessively check it constantly. The pace I set during my vacation seemed to work just fine, and although I will need to quicken it a bit, I don't need to return to where I was. And I can check Twitter and other inputs less frequently, too.
• More structure. I'm going to set off-limits time in my week to do longer-term projects, such as writing my next book and revamping my Web site. I have been thinking about things for a while and I want to stop leaving important things on my to-do list and start getting them to-done.
• Slower pace. I slowed my pace dramatically after I left IBM, but I want to gear down even more. I keep finding that I can move more slowly but get more done if I am willing to reduce interruptions and focus on the most important things.
• Be more organized. My wife is a born organizer, while chaos is my natural state. I've learned a lot from her over the years, but we spent one day of our vacation reorganizing my home office, and I am resolved to do mini-reorgs every couple of weeks to keep my desk clear of clutter and to make sure things are filed where I can find them. I've never been willing to spend the time to be organized, but that has to change if I want to be more relaxed and stay at the pace I want. I've always relied too much on my memory, but my memory is not what it was and relying on it causes more stress than I need, and prevents me from using my brain for things that I really need it for.

Several people pointed out to me that taking a month off was an example of following Stephen Covey's seventh habit of sharpening my saw. I am impatient, so I never got to the part of the book with the seventh habit. I'm still intending to write The Two Habits of Highly Distracted People, but other things just seem to keep coming up.

So, if my saw seems a bit sharper now, that's good, but I don't want to wait another year to sharpen it again. I want to operate at my normal high level but without being so intense about it that I wear myself out. I am not sure whether I can keep the old neurons from firing, but I am going to try.

One of the things I did yesterday was to send a quick e-mail to the wonderful contributors to the Biznology blog, asking if they might be able to increase the frequency of their contributions. One is considering it, and I am on the lookout to add new contributors, too. I've found that my contributors are every bit as interesting as I am, so if I focus a bit more on my book and focus more on editing the blog than having to do all the writing, that works for everyone, including our readers.

I want to take more approaches like that, and will use my think time to come up with more of those ideas. So, while I hope you missed me a little bit this past month, you might have to miss me again next year, because I think I'm going to do it again.

Posted by MikeMoran at 1:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack