Marketing & Sales Roundtable New Media 101: Acquiring and Building Customer Relationships the “ New Way ” May 2005

Marketing & Sales Roundtable

New Media 101: Acquiring and Building Customer Relationships the “New Way”

May 2005

2©2005 Remacle & Rodriquez

What is New Media?

A complex set of low-cost, Web-based tools and technologies that enable users to directly converse with others

The most popular tools today are RSS Blogs Wikis Podcasts


Why Startups Should Consider New Media

Cost efficiency and ease-of-use – new media is well-suited for startup environments

Customer focus – new media enables businesses to directly converse with their customers, partners, others

Competitive advantage – most startups still do not understand the world of new media


Unmediated Dialog

The Cluetrain Manifesto – the philosophical touchstone of the blogging revolution:

“Markets are conversations.”

New media facilitates direct conversation with customers and partners, without the filter of traditional media


Transparency

We are living in the age of corporate transparency, where the brand of a company is valued significantly on its ability to speak truthfully and openly with its various constituencies.

Trends--Post-Enron consumer cynicism--Corporate compliance (Sarbanes-Oxley and other frameworks)--Proliferation of watchdog networks on the Internet


Collaboration

The opportunity: a company today can differentiate in the marketplace by enrolling its various constituencies to collaborate in the creation of product, service and experience

Collaboration is not just about marketing. It’s about overall corporate strategy.


RSS: Platforms for Distribution

“If you read a dozen or more online news sites every day, managing them all can be difficult.”

Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal (May 2005)

RSS enables the producer to directly connect with the reader in the age of information overload


RSS – Tools and Tips

Create feeds from your blogs and corporate site Train employees and external audiences on RSS readers

Approaches Browser-based: Firefox, Safari, IE (with FeedScout) Stand-alone: FeedDemon, Awasu, NetNewsWire,

NewsGator Web-simple: Bloglines, PubSub, Feedster Web-simplest: MyYahoo!


Blogs – Platforms for Self-Publishing

Key attributes-Every post is a searchable page (SEO benefits)-Rankings are dependent on content and links -Content provides opportunity for differentiation -Links provide opportunity for community-building-Can be private or public-Can be individual-driven or collaborative (group blogs)


Blogs – Tools and Tips

Two basic “professional” approaches Installed: MovableType Hosted: TypePad

Key features Links Permalink Categories Tagging RSS Feeds Search tools: Technorati, Feedster


Wikis – Platforms for Collaboration

Key attributes-Collaborative Web sites where participants can write and edit shared content-Can be private or public-First developed as a collaborative tool for workgroups; now developing into communication tool-Organic group structures – wikis tend to take the shape of the shared task-Wiki technology is combining with blog technology – at some point they will merge-Scalability: See Wikipedia


Wikis – Tools and Tips

Approaches Installed versus hosted Proprietary versus open source Vendors:

Socialtext JotSpot EditMe

Uses Workgroups “New media training” Internal marketing management External communications


Podcasts – DIY Broadcast Media

Key attributes

-Time-shifted broadcast for high-touch, personalized, customized communications

-Not limited to mobile media players; mostly for use on desktops and laptops

-Low-cost tools for production

-Limited use today in the enterprise, but this will change

-Future: video capabilities


Podcasts – Uses

Traditional media: ABC, NBC, BBC Executive communications: HP (Agility Radio) Podvertising: Disney, GM, Warner Brothers Records Politicians: John Edwards, others


Who is Using New Media?

First wave – early adopters in technology

Second wave – big business aware of potential for branding and advertising

Third wave – small companies now making the leap, but most are unprepared


Best Practices in New Media

Blogs: MSFT, SUN, Groxis

Wikis: PC Forum, Socialtext Customer Exchange, TheNewPR/Wiki

Podcasts: HP


Sample Blogs – Three Ways to Brand

Robert Scoble, Microsoft. Credited with humanizing and “rebranding” the technology giant.

Jonathan Schwartz, SUN. Aggressive blog that speaks to customers, competitors and competitor’s customers

Grokker Group Blog. Collaborative site designed to collect feedback on new product that is challenging the current UI model in search.


Sample Wikis – Innovations in Collaboration

PC Forum Event Space. Innovative public site designed to connect people before, during and after annual conference.

Socialtext Customer Exchange. Private collaborative site the enables company to converse with customers about product features and use cases.

TheNewPR/Wiki. Popular collaborative site for PR industry owned and managed by independent vendor.


Sample Podcast – High-Touch at Low-Cost

Nora Denzel, Senior Vice President, Adaptive Enterprise, Technology Solutions Group. This appears to be the first instance of podcasting by a senior executive in technology. Nora comments on a wide range of topics – personal, business and technology-related.


Corporate Issues in New Media

--Employee blogs. Does anyone get fired for blogging?

--Corporate Policy

-Brand & Culture

-Compliance and the Law

-Security


Employee Blogs – The Mark Jen Story

Perception: Mark Jen was terminated for blogging, which was against Google culture and policy.

Reality: He was terminated, among other reasons, for using his blog to disclosed privileged information about Google financials.

Outcome: he is writing a corporate blogging policy for his new employer, Plaxo.


Corporate Policy

Brand and culture Your blogging policy should be an extension of your overall

communication policy Policy should reflect corporate culture. More participants means more media training.

Compliance and the law: The moral of the Mark Jen story -- new-media training may need to encompass rules governing compliance and other regulatory frameworks

Policy should be written collaboratively Examples: Thomas Nelson publishing, Azul Systems

Security: Businesses will almost certainly look for solutions Vendors: InBoxer, IPLocks, Vidius


Blogging – Ten Tips for Getting Started

1. Decide on your audience 2. Select author(s)3. Choose topic(s)4. Study your blogging community5. Write a policy 6. Select a blogging platform7. Design the blog 8. Test-market internally, post publicly9. Promote the blog (write to peers, comment on their

blogs)10.Blog well and blog often


Advice to Startups

Start now, before your competitor does Start simply (RSS and internal tools) Develop a policy, collaboratively Integrate new media into your Web site to drive traffic and SEO Be bold and be different – don’t just emulate, innovate

Closing example: Groxis “elevator pitch”


Key Influencers in the Blogosphere

1. Doc Searls – http://doc.weblogs.com/2. David Weinberger – http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/index.html3. Lawrence Lessig— http://www.lessig.org/blog/4. Jim Romenesko – http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=455. Jay Rosen – http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/6. Jeremy Zowodny – http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/7. Dan Gillmor – http://dangillmor.typepad.com/dan_gillmor_on_grassroots/8. Tom Foremski – http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/9. Silicon Beat – http://www.siliconbeat.com/10. Blogspotting – http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/


PR/Marketing Blogs

1. Robert Scoble – http://scoble.weblogs.com/2. Steve Rubel – http://steverubel.typepad.com/3. Seth Godin – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/4. TheNewPRWiki – http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php5. Mike Manuel – http://mmanuel.typepad.com/media_guerrilla/6. Elizabeth Albrycht – http://ringblog.typepad.com/corporatepr/7. Shel Holtz – http://blog.holtz.com/8. B.L. Ochman – http://www.whatsnextblog.com/9. Jeremy Pepper – http://pop-pr.blogspot.com/10. Eastwikkers – http://www.eastwikkers.com


Presenters

Rosemary Remacle, Consultant

Market Focus

408-244-0412

[email protected] Giovanni Rodriguez

Eastwick Communications

650.480.4021

[email protected]

Documents

Marketing & Sales Roundtable New Media 101: Acquiring and Building Customer Relationships the “ New Way ” May 2005