Marketing today

Monday was the launch of our Windows Live community. The whole experience has been amazingly positive along with huge lessons learned. I figured it would be valuable for readers of this blog who are interested in how to build a community to hear some of the biggest questions I get asked. I’ll continue to update this blog as the community grows. To start here is a list of the most frequently asked questions I get:

Q: How did you recruit the community?

A: First we send out an email to our 10,000 most engaged Windows Live users. We got a good response from this but with email open rates being as low as they are we didn’t feel like we reached enough people with this initial outreach. The next thing we did was put a post on our product blogs. The post on Spacecraft got picked up by LiveSide and between the traffic from the blogs and the mention on LiveSide we got a lot of interest.

Q: How did you communicate with the community?

A: We set up a private Space then community members ‘friended’ the Space and all updates and correspondence with the group was through the Space. They would get updated on the What’s New feed in Spaces so they would know when there was new content to look at.

Q: Will Microsoft censor any content created by the community?

A: There is a terms of use statement that all community members agree to. This terms of use covers guidelines against inappropriate and disrespectful, offensive material. Other than respecting those guidelines Microsoft will not edit or remove any material by the community regardless if it is less than positive for Microsoft products. This is meant to be an open conversation with our most engaged users about the great things they like as well as opportunities we have to do things better.

Q: How will you handle offensive material?

A: As part of the design, the community has the final say in what content gets pushed live to WindowsLive.com. The community votes in the Clubhouse on content created by members and content that gets 3 good ratings gets pushed live. Any content that is offensive or not appropriate for WindowsLive.com as decided on by the community will not ever be seen by the public. There is also an offensive material button in the Clubhouse so any members can flag content they feel is offensive. Offensive content will be pulled down and the community member warned.

Q: What platform did you use?

A: We didn’t. The technology is built on an aggregation model. Our agency Avenue A/Razor Fish built the web site using  RSS feeds to pull content directly from community members Windows Live Space. Anything community members post to their Space and tag with the appropriate tags will show up in the Clubhouse for the community to vote on. 

Q: Why the confusing tagging? How do people know what to tag?

A: Tagging isn’t always the most intuitive thing but it was the only way we could pull content directly from people’s Space. It seemed a better trade off than having to ask community members to re-create content on a separate domain. We have a detailed tagging guideline document that outlines the steps to take posted in the Clubhouse as well our community manager Marcus  helps members one on one when they need it.

Q: What is your goal for the community:

A:We really want to connect people who are doing cool things with Windows Live to other people who may be inspired to try creative things of their own. By giving engaged customers a place to share their experience and knowledge we hope to inspire others while recognizing those that have been great customers. In addition to inspiring people we will look to the community for product feedback to help us continually improve our products. The main goal is to simple get closer to our customers.

The big day is finally here, and I’m excited and a little nervous, because now it’s time to let go. With today’s re-launch of our revamped WindowsLive.com we’re sharing control of the site’s content with the people who know our services best - our customers.

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, I am a true believer in the power of community, participatory marketing and giving customers a voice. I agree wholeheartedly with a recent Conversation Agent post : “People will gravitate towards peer-to-peer communities to get advice and information. Peers first, experts second.”

Our community members are creating much of the site’s content, usually by showing how they are using various Windows Live services in everyday situations (read here how Windows Live Messenger saved someone’s life… sort of). We’re also making it easier for members to share their experience. Once they join the community, all they have to do is post on their Windows Live Space where they’re already spending their time, and tag it for the community. Their multimedia stories, tips, advice and comments are automatically aggregated by an RSS feed into the community, where it’s shared with, and rated by, members. Content with the highest ratings is then showcased on WindowsLive.com.

We began developing this community-driven site about a year ago with some pretty basic questions: How can we help our customers help each other? How are they using Windows Live in creative ways that make their lives better and more fun? In the process, what can we learn about making Windows Live better?

We think we’re on the right track with the new site, but what’s your opinion? Got any ideas or suggestions to take this even further? Love to hear them!

This past week things have not been quite business as usual around the office. It’s been long understood by Vista marketers that we have a serious perception problem around Vista. So what if we showed it to you but you didn’t know it was Vista? What if you saw a new operating system without any preconceived notions about what other thoughts? (Tasters Choice ring a bell?) I’ll tell you what happened because that’s exactly what we did. We showed a new operating system called Mojave to customers participating in focus groups in San Francisco. After they saw a demo of whatever features they asked to see we asked them what they thought of it and 90% said they would absolutely try it. Then we said, Well…. this is Vista.  They were all shocked. I know, I was there. There's more about the study on the Windows Vista blog.

The first buzz of the experiment was covered on Thursday by CNet. It’s been getting some good viral growth through the tech community, including threads on Twitter. This morning we’ve posted the first videos of the experiment.

The challenge for this campaign is to make it into the mainstream press. Vista gets lot of attention, good and bad, from the technical community. They are always our biggest critics, rightfully so. One thing Vista has struggled to do is market to the consumer. Tell real stories to real people. Vista is vastly different if you are running it at home to store photos, recipes, taxes, etc than it is if you are an enterprise company running multiple systems across global networks.

Anyway, take a look. Some of the videos are quite funny. This is just the beginning. More to come. Would love to hear what you think.

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).