Marketing today

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.