Igniting the Revolution...

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Rise of the Social Media Aggregators...

Fair amount of hullaballoo (at least in the virtual circles in which I run) about the social media aggregator sites.

The leading candidates

• FriendFeed
• AlertThingy
• SocialThing

Each promises to pull in "streams" from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to give you one place to get all of the updates on your networks.

Staying on top of the info isn't easy and my award goes to....

SocialThing

Why?

Well, I believe that the person is the channel and it is the only one that centers the updates first by person, then by chronological order. This gives me a chance to see what that person is "broadcasting," thinking about, etc. It provides context, which matters.

The others are nice (though I don't like the interruption of AlertThingy, reminds me of Outlook's new mail notification, that is nothing but a distratction), but it's more of a "stream of consciousness," James Joyce-ian experience.

I need a bit of order, so that's what works for me.

SocialThing doesn't have all the big services yet, but it will with time...and that'll just make it better.

Brands Worth a Weekend...idea re-blogged

Let me admit upfront. This isn't my idea at all.

I'm lifting it wholesale from Virginia Miracle of OgilvyPR who has a brands worthy of a weekend category.

Why?

Because I think it is a great litmus test for the value you are delivering.

It's a good one for you as a consumer and your relationship to brands...and the flip-side, for yourself as a brand. Are they/you worth the time?

If the answer is no, how do you stand out in a noise-filled marketplace?

On a micro-level is the brand of my friend, Jason, working on getting his story right.

On the macro-level, Microsoft, trying to get its CRM story right.

And everything in between.

As a "raving fan" or "true fan," where would you spend your time, voluntarily, helping the companies you love?

The question for those companies...how  do they find you, the proverbial needle in the haystack?

Part of the answer: they need to listen. This is one of the promises-and potentials-of social media. To facilitate the interaction and connection of like-minded individuals.

Some of mine are:

• E*Trade. I do everything on their site and wish they could do more
• Seth Godin. He's my marketing guru (here's my raving fan pic)
• Israel, definitely in need of re-branding.

• and possibly Metamucil, despite the ups and downs of our relationship. (ok, maybe I'd ask for free samples for this one, so not fair) and probably only because the raw entertainment value of thinking about the challenges of marketing/branding Metamucil!

Some of the folks I follow on twitter or whose blogs I read (see blog roll below right), but interesting how more and more, it's the people who are the brand (along the lines of this post)

And even more interesting...there aren't that many I can think of that are "worth a weekend."

So, which are your "worth a weekend brands"?

Price vs. Quality Perception...

Do Price and Quality go hand in hand?

We know that they don't, but as consumers, we aren't always rational.

When lacking other information, our minds have been conditioned to take the mental shortcut.

Higher price equals higher quality.

Was watching DVR of Top Chef the other night (I've used this show as a reference before as a guest blogger).The  blindfolded contestants had to identify which of the comparable ingredients were higher quality.

On the screen, however, we were flashed only the item name and it's price.

The assumption is that the more expensive item is higher quality, of course.

True?

Who knows?

Who cares?

Potential lesson: remember this when pricing your product or service.

Can Your Brand Survive the Hit?

Let's assume for a minute that you are trying to build a unique 'global micro-brand.'

You know that every single interaction with another individual matters and can increase or decrease the value of your brand.

But, are there times when you can (or should) consciously take a hit to a portion of your brand so that you can increase the overall value?

We'll use a corporate example, but the same could apply to an individual situation....

Say, for example, that Microsoft decides to start really investing in an online experience in an attempt to avoid Google from becoming the Web OS.

And, to do that, MS had to decrease investment in some aspect of Windows or Office (maybe MS given its huge resources isn't the best example, but you get it).

As a result, let's say that current sales of Windows or Office suffers or maybe the product lacks a certain feature, etc. in the short-term. Maybe the stock suffers.

In the long-term, though, let's say that Microsoft does make inroads against Google.

Is it worth it?

Obviously, you never know, but is risking your brand equity something that is smart or stupid?

Transparency in the Ad Market

If you are buying advertising, how do you know you are getting "a good deal?"

There's no market clearinghouse for advertising a la Nasdaq that allows you to see what the prices are across the web.

Well, my friend Amar Goel just pinged me with the launch of his new service, an AdPrice Index to help answer that question. 

An interesting addition to the transparent Web...

(Add me to your RSS reader)

Laying down the gauntlet...GOOG v. MSFT

It's been a few years since I read Sun Tzu's the Art of War, but Google's announcement yesterday of an App Engine that scales using Google Infrastructure is nothing less than a full frontal assault at Microsoft's server business.

The attack on the desktop business is well underway with Google Docs, but this moves go at MS' bread and butter in terms of the corporate market.

A somewhat technical (9 min) video is below.

Now, the gloves are off....it's going to be fun to see how Ballmer and Co respond.

What are you saying on Twitter?

Make yourself a Tweetcloud (here's mine).

Good chance to take a look at HOW you are communicating using twitter. Are your words adding value? Making an impact? Or just making noise?

Hypnotic Writing...

If we're truly in the "attention economy," then a book like Hypnotic Writing could definitely be a competitive advantage for any of us.

I liked the concrete suggestions on how to improve your writing, the recognition that it's not a "quick fix" to do it, and that there are MANY complex parts to a well-written story.

What I didn't enjoy so much was that, well, to be honest, I didn't find the book all that hypnotic. I wanted to be enraptured the way I was with,say,Kite Runner, but that didn't happen. In fact, it's taken me about 3 months to finish it (ok, we had a baby-liveblogged birth here, but still).

At the end of the day, good writing, like anything else is a discipline. It requires practice, refinement, and hard work. That much, I got out of this book.

If you (or I) am not willing to make that investment, it's probably not worth the read.

Here's a Story about a CRM product...

  Which comes first? The story or the work?

The story or the product?

Seth Godin raised this theoretical question (and gave an answer) in yesterday's post.

Today, in chatting with an MS sales rep re: the challenges of selling Microsoft CRM [CRM=Customer Relationship Management software], I had a real-world example staring me in the face.

I've been calling it Microsoft's "Cool Hand Luke" problem for a while now and this is no different.

"SalesForce," he says, "starts off a customer call with the F-18 cockpit view of your sales and marketing situation. It's a dashboard, there are lights. People get it."

"We start off with 'this is how CRM integrates into Outlook. We talk about features. It's a completely different approach."

Microsoft's CRM may be a superior product in many ways, but the company is having a hard time telling the story about it.

When I sold SQL Server 2005, I never started off with all the reasons why it was better than Oracle or DB2 or whatever. No, I said..."every presentation will start off with a screenshot or demo of Balanced Scorecard Manager (now Performance Point), because within 20 seconds, any executive in the room will say, "I want that! I NEED that!"

And they did.

Microsoft has the pieces of a great story. They just need to be woven together.

If it's happening to Hillary, it can happen to anybody.

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times, no company, no individual can "control the message anymore."

This is the fundamental shift of marketing today.

Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell drive this point home in their book "Citizen Marketers", but if this video (a spoof on the Jimmy Kimmel/Sarah Silverman/Matt Damon) doesn't drive the point home, not sure what will.

HT to GBrandonThomas for the link.

The Best Time to Look for a Job....

is of course, when you have a job.

And, the best time to "work your network" is when you don't really need your network.

Quick story from today to illustrate the point.

Got a call from Jason Schwartz, one of the more intelligent people I know.

He's moved into a new career (which, truth be told, should have been his first career....sales training and career coaching). He's a natural for it....but he's not necessarily a natural at marketing himself...yet!

I hadn't heard from Jason in about 2.5 years and now, when he's moving into a new career, he's reaching out, looking for advice and leads.

Nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong, however, is to "go silent," "submarine," or "get myopic," in your current job. You can't let your network nurturing strategy (mine now has 2 parts) go on the back burner. Yours doesn't have to be that elaborate, but it needs to be conscious.

Do you want to be known for

• witty status updates on Facebook?
• intelligent links via del.icio.us?
• great blog posts?
• occasional emails just checking in?

It doesn't matter (well, it does, but you get my drift) so long as you stay present (in a relevant and interesting way) to your network.

Then, when the time comes to leverage it, you will

1. not be an "out of the blue" call (and with today's social networking sites, etc., there's less of an excuse to be out of the blue)
2. be better positioned to tell your story and have your network help you.

Jason is going to succeed.

No doubt, but he's learned a valuable lesson...it's easier to work a network that has been consistently kept warm than, like an engine in winter, rev one up that has been idle and cold for a while.

Comic Relief: Building your brand through word of mouth...

Call out to my cuz, Ben, for this one.

A Social Media Go-To Market Strategy...

Ok, so let's say you are a brand manager at P&G or a product manager at Microsoft...

Or let's say you are a sales executive at a professional services firm...

And let's say that you believe 100% that traditional marketing is dead and that social marketing is the way to go.

But let's also say that you have a quota to hit. After all, if you don't sell stuff, you're not going to be in business long...

So, what do you do?

Good question.

At the end of the day, marketing yourself, your product, services comes down to doing a discrete set of activities, measuring them, refining them, and tracking them towards revenue.

I'm wondering if we can draw parallels between some of the traditional activities and the social media marketing activities? Not an all inclusive list

we already know we have to embrace Social Media. What we need to know is how.

Building Credibility...

Few things build a person's credibility with me faster than honest feedback.

Met Bill from Neudesic last night at a Microsoft partner networking event.

He said: "hey, I've been on a call that you hosted before" (maybe same one as Veronica?)

I said: "so, did you get value out of it?"

Bill: "No, I hated it."

Yes, I was taken aback, but as we proceeded to chat, I understood why. He wasn't being mean for the sake of being mean. He was just saying what he felt.

Did it hurt?

Of course, but it will hurt more if I continue to give partners like Bill (and readers like you) less of what you want.