I was at a really beautiful wedding this weekend in the rolling hills of Northern California. The service was at sunset on top of a mountain peak overlooking golf greens and vineyards. It was a perfect wedding. The interesting thing about it was, ready for this… no cake. There were cosmo’s, passed shrimp and scallops at cocktail hour, braised lamb and halibut for dinner, champagne and vintage wines.. but no cake. I knew there wasn’t going to be cake because my friend getting married told me a month ago they had decided against it. They considered briefly renting a cake. Apparently you can rent a beautiful wedding cake made of mostly wax that is for decoration, one small piece being real cake that the bride and groom cut in front of the guests. Then they wheel the cake into the back and you guessed it, cut up sheet cake and serve that (much less expensive). But my friends opted for no cake – they cut the cake and replaced it with small cookies and a candy ‘bar’. Here was the problem with that, guests want cake. They want to see you cut the cake, they want to eat cake, it’s also a social cue to guests that says they can leave if they would like. I was always taught you could never leave a wedding before the cake. If there is no cake, there is no cue. In fact, people so wanted cake the announcer had to come over the loud speaker and remark “there will be no cake.” Told you people wanted cake.

Cake may seem like it’s trivial and forgettable, but it’s not. We love tradition and we love cake. Even when I don’t eat it myself I feel better knowing people got cake. My coffee was lonely and the candy ‘bar’ didn’t cut it (this was a no kids wedding so who else was going to stuff their pockets with jolly ranchers?) As I was walking out to my awaiting golf cart that was going to drive me back to my car (did I mention this was California) I noticed a s’mores set up by the outdoor fire pit; marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers and kabob sticks. Rock on! Since I had no cake I drowned my sugar fix in a tasty, gooey, hot s’more. Okay, I can go home now.

I’m attending BlogHer this weekend, should be really interesting. They are expecting 1,000 attendees and with the amount of big brands trying to get the attention of this audience the swag should be killer! Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester went to a cool party tonight (wonder how I get an invite next year) and had some initial thoughts on this new marketing phenomenon. I’m attending the conference for two purposes. For one, I’m a female blogger so I’m interested in the content and meeting other bloggers. The second reason I’m going is to make connections with bloggers for my brand. I’m interested to see how these conversations go. There are so many brands competing for this audience, it will be interesting to see what cuts through the ‘noise’. One product I love to show is Live Writer. I’’m demoing Windows Live Photo Gallery, we are also showing SEO tips, family safety, and Live Writer. Should be interesting. Everyone sounds really excited.

I attended the SocialMediaCamp yesterday in San Fran. There was probably about 200 people. The workshop was a BarCamp event, my first. Interesting format. The entire event is planned and executed by the attendees. People sign up on the wiki if they have an idea for a talk. All logistics (supplies, food, sponsorships, rides) are managed through the wiki. Sponsors buy the lunch and are around for answering questions, etc. Yesterday Yoono was the major sponsor so they gave a short demo on the product. There were some other small start-ups looking to promote their services so they gave talks too. I actually think it’s a cool way to get your product demoed in front of a targeted audience of people that are using Social Media today. Most of the more formal marketing events I’ve been to lately are still covering the basics, 101 topics, so I like being at events where people are already up and using the tools and have smart insights to share. I’ll definitely go again. Another interesting point, I met 3 different PR people. So it’s quite evident all business groups are trying to get smart about Social Media.

I went to the Why Twitter session. I think I’m getting closer to a plan for this. As someone who hasn’t had any interest in personally ‘twitting’ I’ve struggled to find a way to make it work for my Social Media plan for Windows. However, yesterday I met someone from Pandora and she said it’s been great for her community manager. They’ve had a lot of success. Sooo.. I jumped in today. You can find my tweets at http://twitter.com/seattlegirl. Although already I can see how this can be a time sucker but I’ll regulate the speed limit. I’ve got my text set up to send tweets directly from my mobile. I’ll try it this week at BlogHer. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday.

I have just finished my FY09 Social Media plan. I’m shopping it around for feedback but I have to say I’m pretty happy with it. I had a great opportunity this week to preview my plan with Charlene Li, VP of Forrester Research and author of the book Groundswell. I was a bit nervous about appearing to ‘stalkerish’ when I presented to her because I used the principles and research from her book as the foundation for my plan. I believe she said at one point, “that looks familiar.” Ahh, yah.

One of my 3 strategies is Social Media Management. This means monitor and engage in key conversations in the social media sphere related to your brand. I am using TruCast, a monitoring tool created by Visible Technologies, to do this. When you monitor social media conversations it breaks out into three types according to sentiment expressed in the post; the red, the green and the gray. Red is bad, green is good and gray is no sentiment expressed. The next question you have to ask is how to prioritize the posts so you use your limited resources to engage in the most beneficial posts. My thinking on this is; amplify the green and engage with the gray. This may sound a bit contradictory but I’ll explain. Green is great. These people are saying something good about an experience they had with your product or service. I want to make sure their voice is heard as someone having an authentic positive customer experience.  Then you have the gray. These are people talking about a situation where they have a question. “Should I buy x if I use y?” Or maybe, “I bought digital camera x and I can’t get it to work with my program y.” They are looking for a solution, what a great opportunity to satisfy a customer. What’s really interesting is that a customer who had a problem and gets a quick, accurate solution is likely a more satisfied customer than one who never had a problem in the first place.  As for the red conversation, I’m much more cautious. There are two types of red, the ones that are pissed and right and the ones that are pissed and wrong. But really do I want to wade in that water? I think there are some great opportunities to help people that are expressing frustration or anger at your brand, it just requires more thought and consideration. You certainly don’t want to antagonize the situation. Microsoft seems to easily antagonize people just by the legacy of the brand, something us marketers deal with all the time. If you can’t truly add value and help the person out of their frustrating situation then you are definitely flaming the fire. These are good conversations to watch and monitor for product feedback.

According to Web Guild corporate blogs are an unimaginative failure. They bring no real business or marketing value to BtoB companies in particular. I would agree with this statement, but put it in context. It’s only telling half of the story, context here matters. I would also say that the majority of online banner ads are less than successful for most marketing campaigns anymore. No one sees them. We’ve become immune to the skyscraper banners and even the reliable text links are now obviously advertising. So, yes corporate blogs may be ineffective, but so are other forms of marketing.

Don’t throw the technology under the bus because people driving the bus aren’t using it correctly. What we have here is a case of user error (tech talk for ‘it’s the human’s fault’).  The technology is the channel but marketers have to fill the channel with value for customers. We have lots of corporate blogs at MSFT for both consumer and BtoB and the sentiment should be the same for both types, bring value to the customer. I used to work at an architecture firm in NYC. (this was before Web 2.0 when we were marveling at AOL) It specialized in hospitality architecture and historic preservation for clients like NYU, total  BtoB business. If I was their Marketing Director today I would have a blog that cover the status of all current projects. Image being able to show clients and potential clients an ongoing diary of  projects they are interested in, complete with photos and video. I would also throw in some content about upcoming trends on the horizon, local industry events and maybe some fun facts about architecture in NYC. Mixing it up keeps the content from being too one note. I would post regularly, and include track backs to other interesting architecture blogs I think my readers would find relevant. I would be clear about my objectives for the blog and set set expectations accordingly.

I think blogs serve a very powerful tool for New Business Development for BtoB corporations. This reminds me of the guy, Tim, who buys the shiny, new Boflex machine because the dude, Trent, on the infomercial look great. Tim wants to look great like Trent does so he buys the Boflex thinking he’ll get big muscles like Trent. What Tim doesn’t factor in is it takes commitment, time and know how to make the Boflex work well enough to get a body like Trent! So don’t buy the Boflex and then use it to hang your clothes on. Muscles get big and strong  from regular, focused use.

This morning is one of those we Seattlites dream about. The sun is glowing, the water is blue and the mountain is out in full force. It’s these types of days that get Seattlites through the gloom and doom of winter (and this year spring). I can’t think of a more perfect day for Bill Gates to ride off into the sunset. His house has a western exposure with a spectacular view of the lake. He will go home this evening and be able to sit out on his deck, look around at his children and enjoy the spectacular sunset we have waiting for us tonight. I don’t know if he is the bbqing type, most of us are. Maybe someone around his house will crank up the grill and throw a salmon on it. Maybe it’s Friday night gin and tonics by the pool. However he chooses to spend tonight I, for one, wish him well.

A retrospective of his legacy is attempted in the New York Times today.  But remember, he’s only 52. What he can now do for world health organizations and philanthropic causes everywhere is still yet to be written. You can take your shots at Microsoft, where it’s been and where it’s going. You can say BillG doesn’t have all the social graces that other CEO’s do (he doesn’t answer ‘dumb’ questions no matter who the person asking is). But there are few people on the planet that can say they have made as great a contribution to society. Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, MLK. Hopefully for Bill the best is yet to come. We should all be so lucky.

A great reminder from the folks at Brains on Fire on what will make a successful social community work for your brand.

We are about 3 weeks away from launching our new Windows Live community. Social communities will work when they are based on the benefits of the customers, not the corporation. I want happy customers; happy customers use more product, tell more people and will defend your brand when called upon. The best way to ensure happy customers is to put their needs at the forefront of your plan. Do you know what your customer values?

Give it away and it will come back in ten fold (something the airline industry has clearly lost sight of).

After my post yesterday where I ranted my frustration at not being asked if I wanted to have the SpeedDate app applied to my Facebook profile I got a private message from them that read the following;

Hi Marty,
We read your blog post and wanted to apologize for your frustration related to the What Color app.  We decided to transition the What Color quiz to an app that makes it easier for users to meet new people, including friends.  We've been working really hard on the SpeedDate product for a long time - we believe it can revolutionize the way people meet on the internet because we introduce people via webcam, audio, and instant messaging.  Unfortunately, for some people including yourself, it no longer makes sense to have the app on their profile, and we apologize for the sudden change.  If you have any ideas on how to make such a transition easier, please let us know.
Thanks,
SpeedDate

Let me tell you they got it right the second time around. Here is what I love about what they did.

1. They obviously have some sort of web crawl service that is instantly notifying them if someone (like me) is blogging about their company name. By doing this they can timely and personally reply to customers (in my case, a not so happy customer).
2. They apologized in the first sentence. They give a bit of detail for why they did what they did but first and foremost they gave me an apology. Classy move.
3. They asked for feedback or suggestions on how I could make it better
4. And finally, they didn’t take the opportunity to self promote themselves on my blog. They could very easily have replied in my comments section with exactly the same text they sent me in a private message but by sending it to me in a private message they let me choose whether or not I wanted to share it. Bravo!

Social media is hard. It’s not always clear on how to engage, and it so easily can go very, very bad, very, very quickly. I’m about to embark on a Social Media engagement program with Windows and Windows Live. I hope to be as  successful as SpeedDate was here.

I just got an email from SpeedDate. I don’t know what SpeedDate is but I looked at the email address that sent the mail and it’s clear it’s from Facebook. Here is the email copy I got;

This email was sent by SpeedDate. You can disable emails here.
---
Hi,
You have a PRIVATE note. Click here to read your note.
Thanks!
Update: What Color and SpeedDate apps are now combined (and called SpeedDate). Check your note now!

Here’s the thing – I’m married. I didn’t add a SpeedDate app to my Facebook profile. I was pleased to see they offered me a link in the very first line of the email that allowed me to disable the app from my Profile but what I want to know is why in the hell was it added in the first place??? The link took me to the edit your apps page and low and behold SpeedDate was listed in my apps list.

I read the email again and it says at the bottom as an update What Color app, which I did have, and SpeedDate apps are now combined. Ummm, what? Just because I had someone send me a What Color app and I decided to add it to my Profile DOESN’T mean I want to have a dating app. For whatever reason the company that hosted the What Color app was killing that app so instead of losing those contacts altogether it made sense to them to roll those contacts over to their dating app. Not the right call. I agreed to a What Color app, not a Dating app. You don’t get to decide for me if I want what you’re selling now. I do.

Although it’s hard to believe sometimes, Social Media as a channel for advertising and marketing is still not even close to main stream. According to a panel of high level ad execs who spoke Tuesday at the Under the Radar Conference (Odd name because if' it’s under the radar doesn’t that mean no ones talking about it. How do you have a conference about stuff no one is talking about?) Social Media is not considered a focus for advertising dollars because big brands still like spending their money on traditional ads (TV). Of course having an ad exec tell you Social Media isn’t main stream is like having an oil exec tell you natural resources aren’t in diminishing supply. If it were true that would leave the state of their business model in jeopardy. Ad Exec’s are not going to back Social Media until they understand how their traditional advertising model is going to make money in this new world. What’s the new world for advertisers?

• DVR’s make tv ads irrelevant
• YouTube means anyone can show your brand next to anything, anytime to millions
• Internet time is growing, tv time is shrinking
• And the biggest one, the largest audience, Gen Y, does EVERYTHING differently than has been done before

I enjoy a good tv ad as much as the next guy, but the difference is I don’t make my purchase decisions by them anymore. If I’m going to buy a digital camera, computer, DVR, or even CD I read the reviews on Amazon. Today too many messages mean the consumer gets to chose the ones they listen to. The difference between yesteryear and now is there used to only be the advertisers messages so you had to listen to them. Now everyone has a voice.

The Washington Post reported today that Facebook has pulled out of a deal with Google to be a main partner in Google’s new Friend Connect. I have to tell you not being privy to any information other than what is publicly known, it seems quite bad business to me for Facebook to agree to a partnership with a product that they say they never saw before launch. If you believe their story Facebook says the first time they saw Friend Connect was when it launched. I just find it incredibly hard to believe Facebook would do business like that. And if that’s not the case, it means they changed their minds, which is a different story. Between Google and Facebook I think Facebook gets the egg on their face for this one. If by some strange comedy of errors Facebook and their privacy team didn’t review Friend Connect before agreeing to the partnership, shame on them. They say they’ve pulled out because Friend Connect infringes on privacy regulations. 

Friend Connect is an interesting service if you have a web page. You can sign up to be part of the private beta here. Watch the demo below. It’s a great way to add social feature to your website and will definitely help increase traffic. The way it works; you sign in with your Social Network account (it doesn’t current offer Facebook or Windows Live), once you are signed in you can rate and review content, post photos, etc depending on what modules the web page owner has selected.  Those activities will then show up on your activity feed in your social network site so friends can see what you’ve done on other sites. If a friend clicks on the activity link it will take them to the site you just posted your review on. There-in lies the controversy, it take traffic off the Social Network site (thereby taking away eyeballs, which equal page views, which equal ad revenue). But what it does allow is for the Social Network user to update his or her network automatically, which is what happens when he/she does something within their Social Network walls.

As the acting Community Manager for Windows Live I will occasionally share my thoughts on the product, good and not so good. For my first post on this I wanted to start with Spaces, my personal favorite of the Windows Live products.  I love the What's New feed. You see this as your Spaces homepage when you are signed in to your account. I think the product team has done a great job of making this a complete snapshot of what's happening in your network. It looks like this;

I can see what my contacts have recently done on their Spaces page, as well I can invite friends my contacts have become friends with. You see this feature on the third topic down on the screen shot where it says Community Manager is now friends with.... then there is a link that says "Invite as a friend". Clicking on this link automatically sends a friend invite to that person. That person then gets an invite to approve on their Space. As an example, we had a new team member join recently and I didn't know her Spaces URL. Since someone else on the team had added her as a friend it showed up on my What's New feed and I was able to invite her as a friend without knowing her Spaces URL.

It also works the other way to notify my peeps when I've added a blog post, photo or friend. I never go to people's Spaces URL, I rely on my What's New feed to tell me.. well... what's new.

Gen Y are the children of the baby boomers. They are the largest group of consumers on the planet and that makes them very interesting to marketers pushing products. The really fascinating thing about this group is that everything about them is game changing. Full report here. The highlights look like this;

• They are connected ALL the time (cell phone, ipod, PS3). What does that mean for marketers? They don't see or hear your messages.
• They consult their friends and parents for buying decisions so your ads don't matter
• They are closer to their parents then any other
• They are more interested in lifestyle when choosing a job and aren't as motivated by money.
• They expect their web tools to connect them at work as well as home. Gen Y connect with their friends all the time all day via instant messenger and social media sites. Companies that don't use Web 2.0 technologies will be left behind.
• They expect transparency with brands they love
• Good news; they are forgiving. Make a mistake, own up to it and they will give you a pass.
• Good news; they are socially conscious. They will demand the same from employers and brands they do business with

I find this group of consumers fascinating. I'm a Gen X'er. My generation is vastly different from this group. I don't remember ever consulting my parents for opinions before I buy.  But make no mistake, this very large group of consumers will change the way marketing is done. Since kids and parents are so tightly connected marketers will have to figure out how to appeal to both groups of consumers.

eMarketer came out with a very interesting report today that shows some staggering growth for online communities. It reports almost 50% of all Internet users participate in some form of online community. Hobby-oriented and Social communities are the most popular. The community I launched this week would be considered a hobby-oriented community because people are sharing about things they like to do in their free time, photo sharing, blogging, movie making. I also agree that as the social graph continues to evolve websites will get smarter about aggregating people's content. I should be able to have one place where I keep my profile data and I should be able to automatically input that data into any community I want to participate in. I don't want to upload new photos and write new favorite things list every time I join a new online community. But if I'm participating in a professional community I would have a different profile than if I was participating in my fashionista community so I want the option to change profiles. But either way I should be given the change to use my existing profile data from my blog, Facebook page, or whatever.  The back-end support for the Window Live community that will be live in July is an aggregation model that pulls existing data from people's Spaces profile page. If they ever want to update their profile data they go to one place and the data syncs across all the different properties they have chosen to participate in.

Today I'm really excited to announce the community program I have been working on for the better part of ten months is taking it's first baby steps. As I've mentioned many times on this blog I am a true believer in the power of the community, the voice of the customer. Communities have been around for centuries in many different forms. And today with the tools available on the Internet it's become easier than ever to bring together people who share common interests, goals and passions.

What first started me on this road to build a Windows Live community was last summer when I was focused on Spaces. I was constantly amazed at the creative and innovative ways people were using Spaces to build businesses, connect with family, share family photos and babies first steps. Many of these Spaces are hugely personal websites where people share the most important part of their lives with the people they care about the most. It occurred to me that the Spaces customers were the ones who knew Spaces the best and the experience they had would benefit other people who may want to do the same things but maybe don't know how.

Today I've asked a small group of Windows Live customers if they would like to share their experiences and expertise with the larger Windows Live community. My hope is people will learn from each other and find inspiration from the community. I believe our customers are our best advocates as well as the best way for me to learn what we are doing right and things we can do better. My role will be primarily as an enabler letting the conversations flow between consumers. I look forward to working with them honestly and openly. In the coming months as we get things up and running look for more information.  As well I'll share learning's along the way. It should be an interesting and exciting ride.

I had an agency I work with ask me this yesterday. In the spirit of true Social Media, also known as Generation C (consumer, connected, community, creative, controlling, content) rather than create my own definition I found a great presentation on Slideshare.  My short answer to the agency is Web 1.0 was about traditional media, adding another channel for brands to talk 'at' people. Like TV and radio Web 1.0 was a medium to spout brand messages and product info. Web 2.0 has brought about a new media, Social Media. Instead of a monologue there is now a dialog. The conversation is two way between consumers and brands. This huge shift in media calls for a new marketing strategy. It's not sufficient or effective for that matter to use traditional media tactics in this new social media.

 

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For those interested, I'm participating in a free American Marketing Association webcast next month. The topic is Unlocking Social Media’s ROI through Engagement & Participation. I'll be talking with Peter Kim, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research and Blake Cahill, Sr. Vice President of Marketing, Visible Technologies. You can register here.

I was at the now semi-famous Twitter session this week at Web 2.0. You can see some interesting discussions by Des Walsh and Jeremiah Owyang on the subject. I commented on both discussions.  For me the Twitter session confirmed my opinion that while entertaining, there isn't a clear business value on Twitter as a stand alone channel. I definitely believe monitoring Twitter conversations for discussions about your brand should absolutely be a part of a Social Media monitoring plan. But that isn't specific to Twitter, it's listening to conversations across the entire social web. This Twitter session had the Twitter feed showing up on the big screens so everyone in the audience could see what everyone else is saying. This was hugely distracting. The Twitter feed took center stage of the session and anything the panelists said was trumped by what the audience members were saying to each other about stinky people sitting next to them or that Robert Scoble walked into the room.

What the session did prove is Twitter can be useful as a backchannel tool during group presentations. It would be difficult for a speaker to monitor Twitter herself if she is presenting, but if it's a panel or a group of speakers someone can be monitoring the Twitter feed and make needed real time adjustments if needed. That was pretty cool because I did see one of the sessions I was in getting a lot better once the moderator started taking feedback from the audience via Twitter.

I just completed my first day of sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo. Definitely a bit of brain overload but overall I've been underwhelmed.  Only one session I attended today talked specifically about business goals. Groundswell authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff gave a great presentation based on the material in their new book. They did a great job of driving all strategies back to business goals. According to them the last thing to consider in a social media plan is the technology. It's crucial to understand and be very clear up front what business challenge you are trying to solve for. As basic as this sounds, very few people are talking about this. I sat in on a Community panel session this morning and the majority of the discussion was around tactical elements; How do you get the traffic? How do you moderate the posts? What I wanted to know was what business objectives they were trying to accomplish? Are they trying to lower support costs, raise brand awareness, upsell check out carts?

I have to say I've seen Twitter used in an interesting and productive way. Two sessions I was in the panel moderators were monitoring Twitter feeds to get real time feedback on the session. They were able to take questions from the audience and get at least one session back on track that was getting very dry. I still haven't seen a clear business reason for a brand to create a presence in Twitter. I definitely see value in monitoring tweets and responding when a brand can offer help and assistance to customers. But that doesn't require a brand to have a presence in Twitter, that's part of a comprehensive social media management plan where brands should be listening to all different online channels of discussion, not specific to just Twitter.

On a somewhat amusing note the amount of social networking opportunities is comical. Here are all the possible links a Web 2.0 attendee could participate in; Twitter, Blogtropol.us, Facebook, Crowdvine, Fireball, Backchannel, Flickr. I've checked a few but not much conversation on them. I have yet to see the value of at least half of them. As one keynote presenter said today, don't innovate just to be innovative. Make sure there is a business problem you are trying to solve. I'm pretty sure we don't need 7 different social media sites to find out where people are having beer after the keynote.

Hope better for tomorrow.

In honor of Earth day yesterday I thought I would take a minute to share the things I do with my kids to make sure we are aware of our earth and natural resources.

1. I have a new rule I only allow myself to drive to work 2 days a week. The good thing about this is I condense what errands I would need to do in those 2 days I have the car. The other days I either carpool, work remote, or take our fabulous MSFT shuttle.
2. We recycle 80% of our trash. We are very lucky in Seattle to have such a good recycle program. We rinse out most all packaging (cream cheese, ice cream containers) and recycle
3. I send my kids lunch to school in Tupperware, not plastic bags. They never have garbage after their