tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30911290765656138342024-02-20T22:23:38.913-08:00Relevant, Creative, Transparent ProductsBuilding rich, meaningful and intuitive technology products for online marketers.Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-54045034171036538882011-06-10T12:03:00.000-07:002011-06-10T12:11:45.516-07:00Content Integration and Product ExperienceThere’s a pretty pervasive meme in the market - the concept of micro-targeted content. By this, I mean creating content that is relevant to not everyone, but to a niche audience. Content is a critical part of the product experience. The challenge often with consumer brands is the audience is ‘everyone.’ From a brand perspective, how do create a brand narrative that has at its core the concept of appealing to everyone? Do you? Should you? What’s the path to targeted content, and is it for everyone?<br /><br />In reality, most consumer brands get more specific about both audience and content strategy – in linking content and experience to an aspiration brand story. Here’s some basic components to getting product content and experience right.<br /><br /><strong>1. Create the aspirational story about the brand.</strong> Take a brand like LivingSocial. You get great local experiences using to social technologies at a deep discount. The nugget? There’s a real sense that you <em>benefit a community</em> of like-minded friends and family and local businesses by using the product – especially during a recession. There’s the aspirational aspect of their brand.<br /><br /><strong>2. Ensure the primary audience and that brand story fit.</strong> At first glance, you might think the product is for everyone. But online, the most pervasive coupon clipping, save a few bucks sort of consumers tend to be women. If you just captured urban 25-40 – that’s a huge demographic, and allows you to focus content – and offers - on reaching that audience. Having already taken advantage of social couponing products like Groupon and LivingSocial, I can tell you – the WOM pass-alongs have - for the most part - been from women friends. If you look at LivingSocial’s press , and step outside the business, venture press, the press highlights are Woman’s World, InStyle, and others. There’s your target.<br /><br /><strong>3. Creating secondary audience personas that are a good match to the brand story.</strong> Think about who is most likely to share and create WOM around your aspirational story. Not only did many WOM pass-alongs for local deals come from women – they came from moms – and many entertainment-starved mom (<em>um, like me</em>) looking for a great deal to offset the babysitter on a date night. The deals tend to have great photography and enticing lead-in copy. In the last 6 months – 6 local offers on friends' Facebook posts specifically saying ‘there’s a LivingSocial Deal from this merchant! Cool!’ But the other secondary local audience I saw pass-alongs? My geeky early-adopter guy friends – specifically, they shared the <a href="http://livingsocial.com/deals/57725?ref=personalized-link-box-15027615&rpi=15027615">2 movie tickets for $9 Fandango offer</a>. LivingSocial’s benefit to both audiences - if they got 3 other friends to buy using their unique share URL from Facebook – their tickets are free. Who doesn’t like free?<br /><br /><strong>4. Ensure the brand experience keeps that aspirational story.</strong> Once you’ve captured that audience’s attention & make it easy to use and share WOM, what continues to makes the product draw you back in? For LivingSocial, offers tend to be intentionally tailored to experiences you <em>want, but don’t need:</em> Hawaiian spa packages, massage + facial, wine tastings, restaurants, yoga, but <em>not </em>tire rotations or tax preparations. It a word – <em><u>nummy</u></em>. The brand is the experience, and lining up business offer that validate that brand is critical – especially early on in building an audience. Once they capture that demographic – there’s a good chance to diversify. There are several business models out there that have done so. Daily Candy for example, has content centered on fashion, travel, home and garden, food and drink. But they started with getting fashion – right. That’s tailored content.<br /><br />For LivingSocial, tailored local deals with enticing content, and rewarded sharable features make it easy - remarkably, <em>did I just spend $50 on LivingSocial last month?</em> Easy.Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-73641698684841312402011-02-22T12:14:00.001-08:002011-02-22T12:29:05.686-08:00Product Launch in a Channel Environment: Listen Up!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-3WcFdnJuD-x_Js_iCgmiGOzTv_ID_5smIZSD-ZB5O5Mb477dipjnk-E5WYIHfG3f-pIF9O5pV935nBL211BpbrXRUycNp1Gm7QTmNbq6GuXyNcSFkNrayeDS3USAUNhl6k4tJ17IwZ1/s1600/listen_up.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 223px; HEIGHT: 127px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576611482557983842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-3WcFdnJuD-x_Js_iCgmiGOzTv_ID_5smIZSD-ZB5O5Mb477dipjnk-E5WYIHfG3f-pIF9O5pV935nBL211BpbrXRUycNp1Gm7QTmNbq6GuXyNcSFkNrayeDS3USAUNhl6k4tJ17IwZ1/s400/listen_up.jpg" /></a><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Recently, I’ve been looking at the product launch process for my own organization. My background is in academia, so naturally I started pulling out all my product management books, and jumped nearly immediately into a project plan to map out the steps that will lead to success. A word of advice? If you are launching your products through a channel or multiple channels? Don’t do this. Planning a product launch allows a great opportunity to look at challenges in the sales channel and address them directly through the launch of a product. </div><br /><div><br /><strong>Don’t lead – Listen. </strong></div><strong><br /><div><br /></strong></div>No matter if you’ve polished your buyer persona, done extensive market research, SWOT analysis, you name it. The individuals who know how to sell into their channels are your sales channel – and it’s critical you sit down and listen to their challenges before you even start a launch plan. The best product launch plans are a detailed discussion and collaboration with all parties. In my own organization, there are multiple channels, in different practice areas, each with unique challenges and needs. So the first thing you need is to sit down 1:1 and start establishing a relationship of trust. If there’s something wrong with sales strategy, collateral, go-to-market strategy, or the product itself, there’s a degree of trust so you colleagues can speak up! Personally this is hard for me to do. There’s tremendous pressure for time to market in product launches – I don’t have the time! But do it – otherwise you’ll be re-tooling your launch plan down the road anyway, and your launch plan won’t be as successful anyway. What’s worse? Because the launch plan may not have everyone on board – your sales may suffer.<br /><div><br /><strong>Establish your Launch Team.<br /></strong></div><br /><div>Decide who needs to be the trusted part of a product launch team! Who should you include? Any part of the organization that is impacted directly by a product launch. This means - product management, consulting, sales, marketing, technical support, and account management, but often there’s more or less depending on the size of your organization, and the complexity. Each brings a different perspective on the challenges in selling and supporting a product when it is launched.<br />Keep the team small to foster collaboration and dialogue. This is a collaborative working group who’s goal to win at selling the new product. It’s the team’s product – and this means that each brings the needs of their own organization into the mix – to sell and sell well. </div><br /><div><br /><strong>Start with “I don’t know” </strong></div><br /><div><br />What’s the biggest risk to a product manager creating a successful product launch? Assuming you and you alone know how to successfully sell to the channel. You don’t – and with all the surveys, focus groups, and presentations – it’s still hard. Start with some ideas, an outline, but be ready to change it often as new ideas, challenges, and opportunities are brought to the table as a team. With your straw-man of a launch plan, start asking the question “Will this work?” “What’s your opinion?” lead with questions that get both better ideas and risks out on the table in the open. </div><br /><div><br /><strong>Set your goals – as a team. </strong></div><br /><div><br />It’s too abstract to have a goal “The product launch was successful” Work backwards toward individuals goals. Start by asking “What would make the product launch successful for your team?” Envision success – we’ve reached our goals, we understand the product, our clients are ecstatic. How did you get there? After you’ve reached consensus on ensuring the teams needs are met with the launch, ensure there tasks and owners are set up to deliver tactical what’s needed for a successful launch. </div><br /><div><br /><strong>Make refinement of the channel strategy part of the course of your product work... </strong></div><br /><div><strong><br /></strong>It would be great if go-to-market strategies just always worked, the reality is that product positioning, channel strategy and ensuring sales are a continually evolving space, where the rules change frequently. Make conversations about successful product launches and channel challenges part of your day to day life as a product manager. </div><br /><div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-31268638104467742232009-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:002009-11-11T16:10:02.868-08:00Social Media Integration - ESP examples from StrongMail, ExactTarget and EpsilonIn looking at Interactive SaaS provider, it's also interesting to see how ESPs are integrating with Social Media platform and networks. In most cases, ESPs are building campaign tools and reporting that bring email, direct web and social channels together. Here's a few examples of how ESPs have innovated from Strongmail and ExactTarget. <div><br /><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6zBx_UyQGHuF7A3-rC6TrapyjWd0KRh4fQr9ZrZ7Xm5VN6Rmz8EH_TRExB2t3MMPepPG5ngYRkEvzE_9RMniQ_J_NmHmw-GmczhW6S1fOtcb2Yj3epgs5x_hGpAt2FEK-F5Njvqee_mYq/s400/Strongmail_social_Influencer.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 233px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402947264719742146" border="0" /><div><b>1. Link email and web sharing</b>. StrongMail's <a href="http://www.strongmail.com/technology/influencer/">Influencer product</a> connects web and social information with email subscribers. How? Not only does the Influencer product allow a marketer to extend their email with SWYN your network functionality, it goes one step further and integrates sharing from a customer website. By connecting sharers with their subscriber status, Strongmail customers can identify which customers are active sharers from both the web and email perspective. From there, a customer can actively target them from their email platform - in the long term, measure the value of the subscribers - and which channel messages and campaigns are most effective at getting the word out.</div><div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXIIAL_ZYd3d_mpDLvMqn5ZtSZZxHFbTBOD81CmLGD_PMbFxC_dzx_06A1QsQem8C1V57QFlevFLEME1QDYyENNNA37OaAvdX5pwymb5vvxBjFzyajA-ZSIxfcDjXdfELLv1WnpiSGhoLy/s400/Exact_Target_twitterintegration.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402948700857435682" border="0" /></div><div><b>2. Dovetail an Email with a Tweet</b>. ExactTarget's platform allows marketers to coordinating email messages with a Twitter status, or <a href="http://email.exacttarget.com/Products/ExactTargetFeatures/TwitterIntegration.html">executive a Twitter campaign</a> along side a tweet. While I kinda cringed at a DM to all followers (just seemed to intrusive, but still follows <a href="http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/18311">the Twitter Rules</a>), it certainly makes it easier to get the message out. They've also integrated bit.ly for URL shortening and tracking. </div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_vI-8tA7XuATKqryS2Ip4DDpTBdq0BLan1IPSUnOoWY-CB9ckgPPX1PDJPQfCx7bxOk5eEt6ipi3XogNTJ327oLXKSJQyXDEwhAZZpJPYgygWLNWWKekuwlHVevMaY5udoSHl6Z9CYi7/s400/3sixty.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 273px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402949297524900258" border="0" /></div><div><b>3. Integrate Email and Community Platforms. </b>ExactTarget has had their <a href="https://3sixty.exacttarget.com/Login/tabid/96/Default.aspx?returnurl=/Default.aspx">online support community 3sixty</a> up for a while, but on October 13th, they've productized their community platform as something for their customers and prospects to purchase. 3sixty allows is a "permission-based online social network to give prospects, customers, employees and partners a forum to gather, exchange ideas, distribute material and engage in discussion." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(87, 87, 87); line-height: 15px;font-family:Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;font-family:Georgia,serif;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Check out the </span><a href="http://email.exacttarget.com/Company/Press/Detail/Default.aspx?id=4034"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">press release</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. For those companies that have their own online communities and forums, integrating email with the community site is a great way to keep the community engaged and measure its success. </span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Integrating Email and Social Media Listening. </span>Finally, Epsilon - a full service ESP has partnered with Alterian to provide social media monitoring and analysis capabilities for their clients. Alterian's SM2 product will provide social media listening data to Epsilon. <a href="http://www.epsilon.com/News-and-Events/Press-Releases-2009/110409-Epsilon-Partners-with-Alterian/p386-l3">View the full press release.</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>(Full disclosure here - I work at an ESP (<a href="http://www.yesmail.com/">Yesmail</a>).</div></div></div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-10727633583492568182009-11-04T12:45:00.000-08:002009-11-11T16:26:28.544-08:00How Omniture & Saleforce Integrate with Facebook & TwitterIf you haven't noticed, there are several ESPs, CRM and Web analytics companies integrating with Facebook and Twitter in smart and innovative ways. These companies have leveraged what is already occuring online - conversations, praises, complaints, prospects and integrating them with existing business processes. In looking specifically at Omniture and Salesforce - there's a great case study in doing integration right for the social media channel.<div><br /><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnZ26vz7KaFdnR_HfpDv3_Vv4nrhznFraSqS0TMWh-iXLdaFaAb9RsP8Z7CQfNlSNDqAvMt6fgGcbxoc6B24tebUoMgeaQp96sSjAq92yjC78x4rHWoglhBUpaje2h40bHL_9CbUqI6aw/s400/Omniture_logo.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 69px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400657628640402994" border="0" /></div><div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Omniture Twitter Integration</span></b> - Omniture integrates with Twitter in some obvious ways - like tracking traffic coming from Twitter and other social media sites, as well as: </div><div>1) Measuring overall customer value and customer acquisition with other digital channels</div><div>2) Integrating Twitter conversation and filtering by specific keywords and phrases</div><div>3) Alert notifications for Twitter</div><div>4) Group contributors in the way they impact your brand and track them over time</div><div>5) Segmenting groups on Facebook by the number of followers</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Omniture Facebook Integration</span></b> - Omniture tracks Facebook application as well. Once you have an application on Facebook, Omniture tracks success of Facebook apps by:</div><div>1) Measuring application adoption (which part of the app is getting the best pageviews) </div><div>2) Measuring the viral component of the application (how many people are inviting others to download the app)</div><div>3) Measuring the app back to marketing goals (Linking the application to funnel reports to see which connects Facebook to purchase behavior)</div><div><br /></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0PBMx2Aspu-sDfkcfkJJwSvWs6Ra1_PQrD_NJLPPzoD25EDv_74qmOfVgHPzXrUGLAxsqcuisIKk8esyLkc_rrlmPqkYabrCJPx8x9WOmoIW-XOYn3o9-Sm1hnaoiIr8WmHtod3xAlQ9z/s400/Salesforce_logo.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 67px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400657860398742114" border="0" /><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Saleforce.com/Twitter Integration</span></b> - in March of 2009, Saleforce.com integrated <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihuDh7Imr6I&feature=related">customer and prospect conversations from Twitter</a> into their Salesforce cloud. What's very smart about the Saleforce integration is that it:<br />1) Integrates search into the Saleforce.com experience<br />2) Integrates searchable, pre-built Twitter responses to common questions right from Saleforce.com (making replies easy, pre-built and painless)<br />3) Allows historical monitoring of conversation on Twitter<br />4) Integration of Twitter handles in their contact system<br /><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Salesforce/Facebook Integratio</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">n</span></b> - Salesforce.com has a great cloud application with integrates Saleforce.com with Facebook. Using<a href="http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0330000003z9bdAAA"> </a><a href="http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0330000003z9bdAAA">Faceconnector</a>, users of Salesforce.com can integrate Facebook information and interact in Facebook through the Salesforce.com experience. This includes: </div><div>1) Connect Saleforce.com customers and prospects with connections on Facebook</div><div>2) Integrate conversations on Facebook.com with Salesforce.com</div><div>3) Integrate addition Facebook profile information like employment, birthdates and photos into Salesforce.com</div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-26685734022313819622009-10-07T18:03:00.000-07:002009-10-07T18:43:18.992-07:00Over the Hype..and Into Engagement<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQKCXaUjzyTLYkm2VqQ7HR3DREJhT4NtLleb4wrCs17VS68a_nHHs3TCM6LW2MtxY2vzHgQhCznKmupft-hUBYHebMPW_1j7lIwi7MZaxlDSbvzVNR-W-KLFzyLCT6RWJxd_g5-j3bluD/s1600-h/400px-Gartner_Hype_Cycle.svg.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQKCXaUjzyTLYkm2VqQ7HR3DREJhT4NtLleb4wrCs17VS68a_nHHs3TCM6LW2MtxY2vzHgQhCznKmupft-hUBYHebMPW_1j7lIwi7MZaxlDSbvzVNR-W-KLFzyLCT6RWJxd_g5-j3bluD/s400/400px-Gartner_Hype_Cycle.svg.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390034950446888082" border="0" /></a><br />Gartner is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle">credited for creating the hype cycle</a> for when emerging technologies become mainstream. With triple digit growth for both Facebook and Twitter, the mainstream audience has widely embraced this channel - often at the expense of others. While last year's question may have been 'How do I integrate social media into my marketing plan?," this year's question may be "So I'm on social media sites, now what?"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn3KR3S_2VMAT3lk-Ykl9prDUQQlIGoXUfKymPcoIazIw5iMpJmFqKBUb0uveNsTvbtlPNOq7mDhJoGUsQbUdLobGNBjikM5qpnRrV71y40Y2uThsntjaB6Qd6d8LEQcpZu7Drg1gdrgaf/s1600-h/etail_socialmedia_tools.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 324px; height: 271px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn3KR3S_2VMAT3lk-Ykl9prDUQQlIGoXUfKymPcoIazIw5iMpJmFqKBUb0uveNsTvbtlPNOq7mDhJoGUsQbUdLobGNBjikM5qpnRrV71y40Y2uThsntjaB6Qd6d8LEQcpZu7Drg1gdrgaf/s400/etail_socialmedia_tools.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390034960357097730" border="0" /></a><br /><br />According to the e-tailing group and PowerReviews, 86% of top retailers have Facebook fan pages, and 65% publish on Twitter. What's more<span style="text-decoration: underline;">, </span><a href="http://paidcontent.org/article/419-study-twitterers-more-receptive-to-ads-than-other-social-net-users/"> a recent study found that Twitter users are more receptive to ads than other Social Media sites</a>. So what gives with this unique audience, and how should marketers respond?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Marketers must let go of the illusion of control.</span> Social Media is all about opening communication between customers and prospect with a brand. While you can somewhat control broadcast communication, by opening the conversation, you also let go of some of the control you may have had. This comes for most, with a lot of concern and trepidation. But for many brands, letting go has garnered enormous benefits, from bottom line profit margins, to new ideas in innovations, to moving from an unknown brand to the category killer, social media can be the change agent that makes an organization a phoenix changing from the inside out.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Markets much integrate cross-channel campaigns to social media in uniquely different ways that other channels</span>. You can develop micro-sites, you can have triggered transactional messages based on behavior, but you can't automate conversations, and you can't predict how consumers will respond to social media campaigns. Social media begins with a conversation, a way to participate, to give, to contribute, or respond. Don't plan for the response to be 'oh that's cool,' or you haven't truly engaged this channel.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Marketers must look beyond immediate results.</span> Everyone's heard of success stories from Twitter for Dell, but beyond the immediate sales, social media is about building a broad conversation with your brand and the audience. Measuring beyond followers, and clicks - how well are you engaging your customers? What new insights can you use to change direction in marketing? How about in your product? How will your brand be percieved differently because of your activity in this channel? All long-term questions to keep in mind when engaging in social media.Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-59926663703167656302009-09-23T14:11:00.000-07:002009-09-23T15:47:36.954-07:00Nielsen & Facebook: What's the deal?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFS4HdTGPtKxjkLoRX0XP6KqArkByRWHUwgWpC_ph-ibu34PUt6Tw0HUJCFkjb-msDWRLHOkA-3w7Vb8AkDQYhpuSBAelQZXd7P-ZTYijGvBNb0EaOqhrj58O2rlxwNOdke4uNLZ18r2n/s1600-h/nielsen.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 108px; height: 52px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFS4HdTGPtKxjkLoRX0XP6KqArkByRWHUwgWpC_ph-ibu34PUt6Tw0HUJCFkjb-msDWRLHOkA-3w7Vb8AkDQYhpuSBAelQZXd7P-ZTYijGvBNb0EaOqhrj58O2rlxwNOdke4uNLZ18r2n/s400/nielsen.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384787369097336994" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxASgkxoqcDn9M8bFVmsor8Gm3G2asVCUZ7Eo1XAVetxqob5a8T6pHXzNn_qpfAEvV-paUYpF6o9mY_jEWiQ8RLT5Rd-kYX3H_A9I-UQtq23nXWrCNEP9IRdp8xvP6JzLd_s-PTz6NYew/s1600-h/facebook.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 44px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxASgkxoqcDn9M8bFVmsor8Gm3G2asVCUZ7Eo1XAVetxqob5a8T6pHXzNn_qpfAEvV-paUYpF6o9mY_jEWiQ8RLT5Rd-kYX3H_A9I-UQtq23nXWrCNEP9IRdp8xvP6JzLd_s-PTz6NYew/s400/facebook.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384789788097734930" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br />This week, Nielsen Research and Facebook <a href="http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/september/the_nielsen_company">announced a strategic partnership</a>. From this partnership, a new product (Nielsen's Brandlift) is available which marketers can immediately capitalize on. Here's what it provides:<br /><br />1. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Social Media Focus Groups</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> - With 300M user, Nielsen's market research can have access to a vast and deeply mined focus group of Facebook users to gauge effectiveness of different creative executions of Facebook advertising. All polls are opt-in and no personally identifiable information is shared.<br /><br />2. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Connect the dots with social media advertising and purchase intent. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">One of the biggest challenges to social media is that it's hard to measure impact without immediate sales on the site. By partnering with Facebook, Nielsen can "...measure consumer attitudes and purchase intent from display advertising that appears on the site. There are plans to leverage Brandlift on other online sites in conjunction with Facebook.<br /><br />3. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Measure how engaged Facebook fan pages change consumer attitude and behavior. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The first pilot customer of the Brandlift product was P&G. Through this partnership they found that their campaign had <a href="http://paidcontent.org/article/419-facebook-rolls-out-new-ads-partners-with-nielsen-to-measure-their-effec/">driven an 11% lift in purchase intent overall</a> and a 33% lift in their target demographic (women: 13-18). Very good results overall for their first pilot.<br /><br />4. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Foundational in measuring multi-channel campaign effectiveness.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Nielsen has dominated results in measuring television and online audiences. It's no surprise it's a win-win for Facebook and Nielsen. Facebook gets brand credibility and (hopefully) proven advertising effectiveness, and Nielsen gets access to a new channel audience. The partnership establishes a long-term foundation to realize advertising revenue opportunities and measure effectiveness for this audience.<br /><br />In case you missed it -<a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=553859993303"> here's the video of Sheryl Sandberg's</a> (COO of Facebook) keynote at Advertising Age, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0907/power-women-09-facebook-sheryl-sandberg.html">read more about Sheryl and Steve Zukerman (CEO) of Facebook</a> on Forbes. </span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=553859993303"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 149px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOQEtmTsWX_-w9hfeq35s0_cB1d5LiWNsE6mwhFQBYytj_dW5zOjWTZSFIbtq0qMri7zEqzq4sRcFIvove9Cu73V4aXK3tRNItioMcZ7a2qJFU39ZWrbKzW6MzuXEZWhkPO035k08vcJvj/s400/keynote.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384790693774856146" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;" ></span></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-57926531068647457512009-09-09T14:57:00.001-07:002009-09-09T16:02:13.102-07:00SaaS products: Capitalizing on Social Opportunities<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Watch TV much? No? Did you know that according to Nielson, in July users spent and average of </span><a href="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=138811"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">5 hrs, 10 minutes on Facebook</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">? I missed the last season of Lost, and heard there was a new show about advertising in the 60s, but man, I do know that a few friends successfully weathered the fires in Los Angeles, and that the health of my friends cat is doing much better. I'm a Facebook casuality. While </span><a href="http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/september/us_ad_spending_fell"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">advertising is declining at a double-digit rate</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, the behavioral shift seems to be towards social networks- spending time reading tweets and videos - and some of the money at least seems to be following.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As marketing advertising shifts more to online advertising, email, social media and mobile, SaaS marketing software providers are often one step behind the hockeystick growth - with metrics and execution tools to streamline and report out on the overall success of the social channel. Here's a few things I'm seeing:<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Web Analytic providers integrating social media and emerging channels in digital analytics.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Recently Omniture launched their </span><a href="http://assets.omniture.com/en/downloads/datasheets/09_servicesoverview_cmodashboard.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">CMO dashboards</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Like many web analytic provides these bundle various digital channels: online direct, online advertising, search mobile, and social. Now it's beyond reporting metrics - it's analysis on channel performance - to prove the value of their marketing budgets. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">CRM providers include customers through social networks channels. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><a href="http://www.salesforce.com/crm/customer-service-support/social-networking/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Salesforce.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> integrates communication through Twitter and integrates customers who set up communities on Facebook. They even integrate metrics to measure a communities involvement. Meanwhile </span><a href="http://email.exacttarget.com/Solutions/ByTechnology/CRM/MicrosoftCRM.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Microsoft Dynamics Social Networking Accelerator</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> allows customers to discover online conversation, identifiy influencers, and engage through the Microsoft Dynamic Platform.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3. Email ESPs power social sharing. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Whether it's Yesmail's (where I work) integration with ShareThis, or ExactTarget's Social Forward, or Silverpop's Share-to-Social - the majority of ESPs have social sharing technologies that allow an email to be shared to a social site - and tracked. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">4. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Integrated Marketing Platforms add the social channel. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Recently <a href="http://alterian.com/about_us/techrigy_acquisition.aspx">Alterian's acquisition of Techrigy</a> and <a href="http://www.acxiom.com/products_and_services/digital/social_media/Pages/Social_Influencer.aspx">Axciom's Relevance-X platform</a> brings social media listening in the context of a multi-touch point, integrated marketing platform. These tools add social intellence to the mix to understand behaviorally how customers interact and engage with brands in social media channels - and how they can best leverage this information in interacting with their base. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Convergence - it's what's next</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. As SaaS providers coming from different perpectives all have their unique bent for capitalizing on social media, I'd predict that SaaS providers which complement each other (Marketing Platform + pure emerging channels, for example) will converge to show metrics on social marketing success in the context of evaluating marketing channel performance and maximizing customer value as a whole.</span></div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-62234082254639268252009-09-02T13:11:00.000-07:002009-09-03T15:38:54.291-07:00Social Media - An Essential Component of Multi-channel Campaign Management<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are some great reads on multi-channel campaign management from Forrester's "</span><a href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47639,00.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Campaign Management Needs a Reboot</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">" (4/2009) from Suresh Vittal as well as "</span><a href="http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/oracle/article74/article74.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CRM Multichannel Campaign Management</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">." From both research organizations, there's interesting trends in how social media software companies are beginning to integrate with multi-channel campaign management solutions. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-wwA8akQaCDLn9iRWBVPLtvhjJUXFivYgABGNk4dVhICH1E8_xDU_PHby8-0FbQRgzHQCEnmmYIs0OeUqujaoGAxQpn_NtSAy4pHM8au5eiGp7tbkcqDvwewK7mDqPzclTjMLKqugmOmB/s400/lithium.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 129px; height: 46px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377008821515552338" /></span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span>1. Integrate lis</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">tening into customer touchpoints</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. Customers converse with brands increasing through social networks and social applications. Campaign Management solutions need to be able to view listening from social media channels (networks, communities and otherwise) as new channels to integrate within the context of an existing conversation with the customer. This is a critical component to getting brand kudos in recognizing who your buyers are. Lithium technologies, for example, has partnered with RightNow and Awareness has partnered with Salesforce, Rightnow and Clarify to ensure customers connecting through social media channels are integrated in the pipeline.</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFgBGlcX39lTL9u-W4LrqRhjjJpMJ65wrWYJe64aSBJ6L5Og-kEs7K35EygT18MUvBJz8pVKJcbsj_Z3IwJY03XJ5ijjYwf7RuLk2EmWmtRtnRf5EBc-bsXh-UCjt_Ryi2gX2X8PfuxtR/s400/datran_media.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 104px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377011255490903522" /></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span>2. Realize that consumers choose what and how they communicate with the enterprise.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Companies like Yesmail (where I work), Silverpop and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.datranmedia.com/emaildelivery.php">Datran media are reaching customer in their email and social inbox. </a> Cu</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">stomers increasingly reach out to brands by Twitter, Facebook, and other channels. Sadly marketing and communication channels still are playing catch-up in this channel in keeping their brand top of mind. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCAQXQyXT-3mfL7UZ5WS6oBA268JrlKPvuE_2ZDyggUIq3aN6axlLWjwMccG5F2L_g4pvySaGcCvBGTs7gkqgVFAKA7nbw1yfE-NibE4nfW9sHdN8FG6WcPjGGD2PlOKZnaj3P9-ETvrB/s400/collective_intellect.png" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 80px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377011669292670290" /></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span>3. Ensure multi-channel isn't just digital and offline - it's inbound and outbound too.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Advertising, search, direct mail, email and SMS are fine for delivering outbound messaging, but a true campaign management solution also uses inbound channels from social media, web, call centers and store locations into the mix of campaign management so the interactions with customers have the same face to the brand. Campaign Management solutions should make it easy to distribute content and offers to many channels. Post-launch analysis and reporting from the tool should reflect the multi-channel touchpoints in terms of campaign performance. Companies like Omniture are partnering with social media analysis tools like Collective Intellect to analyse and rank social media contributors within the larger context of web analytics.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkshnYV-h0x87agu7q_R8Nb79FWmRMRv7JiBJ1B8CuNCXlC7dg7MUQpgSYEA_ypQatYERmoQFi2-cPkTFiFGofAEYVThJNSxg_vYQ7aokztzXwNdFNURl_uUoCPpZJV4wCYm-9B51JCOxQ/s400/data_append.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 88px; height: 64px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377011863683002322" /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">4. Customer data append services needed.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Most organizations have a fragmented look at their customer. They know there telephone number, but not their email, and not their Twitter profile, or who they are on Facebook. As customers increasingly get impatient with mass marketing, and more selective on choosing companies that 'know them' - data append services, whether social or traditional will become a critical component in filling in the picture of who a brands customers are - in the various channels in which they live - and having a positive experience with the customer as a result (well.... if done correctly). </span></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-64204656273365233242009-08-26T15:13:00.000-07:002009-08-26T16:21:33.712-07:00Smart Moves on Social Networks<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />It's well know that social media spending will increase in the next few years, and now there are some recent excellent case studies on how retailers are engaging with relevant ways to interact - whether it's social networks, microsites, widgets, or mobile devices. This week highlights some of the stories of interest that provide interesting ways to engage consumers in online and emerging channels. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Placement on YouTube Matters! </span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In an </span><a href="http://www.clickz.com/3634733"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">article from ClickZ</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, when JCPenny launched their back to school campaign online , JCPenney bought "promoted video" placements on YouTube for their Sheckler line. This helped </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">get about 60,000 views in one month. According to JC Penny the click-through-rate of the ad is </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ten times higher than the average promoted video ad on YouTube</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and 33 percent of views are from users are in their target demographic. The </span><a href="http://jcp.com/teen"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">JCP teen page</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> offers a view of the full JCP collection, plus concert tours, scavenger hunts, and more.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIf_gVeCoTXBPq7s-sIqddpaymHM8j7K95ZJ-Kx18VhnRxSrnXcVP_4Wrcq-vTLHAE7O8TRcsfn4EinRG-0a-AS0UCmEHJ2wdMVFA_MEYXY5-MvNuMY2vbJerC5NllWfj0E1fL7U1F3vz/s400/cocacola-b.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 300px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374412452191715826" /></span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "></span>Coca Cola: How a great product is ideal for WOM</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Coca Cola has a new, very cool way to dispense over 100+ beverage options at your favorite restaurant, and it's called the Coca Cola Freestyle. Becuase it is so new and different (it uses RFID to track and manage dispensor operations for example), it's </span><a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=111788"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">an ideal product to spread via word of mouth</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Coca Cola has done just that - launched info about the Freestyle on Facebook and set up a Twitter account to tweet about new available locations. In fact, it seems to be the plan - using social media to " drive traffic to participating outlets." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Last count, their facebook fan had about 1,200 users. Many users are contributing content, and uploading photos of the latest development in drink dispensers. It's even greener than the previous dipensers! </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; "><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgit8uoLQONV1Yqe2RYb1IWV7OwvixkhpDJSMOALmq1xF-C7cMLs7LBZ741mTpqp73iJQb4NtlFX3RpOipgc1SEIvotcS7pdI3HqET6pbuhT17PCRfKeDROQCq3msTvWgQ3WlfsR_zo03LN/s400/GAP_Born_to.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374412325196203218" style="cursor: pointer; width: 243px; height: 242px; " /></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "></span>Ch</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">annel Shift in Spending</span></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">Last week for example, GAP's launch of the "Born to Fit" campaign placed '</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; "><a href="http://www.clickz.com/3634707"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">greater emphasis on Web advertising and social media -- Facebook, specifically -- than any effort in the retailer's history</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">.' The campaign includes invites to "Born to Fit" parties in various cities across the country, and asks fans via a Facebook widget "what were you born to do?" From here, fans could upload pictures of themselves and a caption ("Born to Dance!") to their profile and add it to a mural of GAP fans. This multi-channel digital launch includes a microsite, Facebook page, videos, and widgets, and an iPhone App. Check out the </span><b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/gap?ref=search&sid=553138423.144535015..1#/gap?v=app_146756048744&viewas=553138423&ref=search"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">Facebook page</span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div></span></span></span></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-4503865005507955132009-07-23T09:37:00.000-07:002009-07-23T16:34:51.593-07:00Social Media Events - How things have changed!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryYXJbcGbRlky_CilJkwE_ymxz8L2VTJdNFLJtLDsEPxnNIaI2Fo_24lV9-PXcVFOsCujhZHiwFXeDwOsuTSRdEkPDqTKtqOnbGsWERUe059yJa7jAtMWigchBTqi7x0tuouIDHXWXlBh/s1600-h/CHAPPELLE.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryYXJbcGbRlky_CilJkwE_ymxz8L2VTJdNFLJtLDsEPxnNIaI2Fo_24lV9-PXcVFOsCujhZHiwFXeDwOsuTSRdEkPDqTKtqOnbGsWERUe059yJa7jAtMWigchBTqi7x0tuouIDHXWXlBh/s400/CHAPPELLE.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361759075346986546" /></a><br />Last week thousands gathered via WOM to see <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/15/secret-chappelle-show-dra_0_n_234116.html">Dave Chappelle in my own hometown</a> at Pioneer Square. The Chappelle 'show' was a total success - by accident - purely by the instantanous word of mouth tools like text messaging, Twitter, and Facebook.<br /><br />While Mashable has done a great <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/04/29/events-social-media/">How-To Article</a>, and there's a good <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/happykatie/social-media-for-event-planners-making-the-web-work-for-your-events-presentation">Slideshare presentation</a> on how to do this, but here's my Social Media event planning playbook on how to create and market an event using social media.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Create the killer event.</span> Let's face it - in this economy, WOM won't work if it's just...blah. Create a topic that gives immediate answers that your audience is facing right NOW, or a unique challenge to traditional thinking, or bring in a speaker that is real buzz worthy is critical in stretching out that event message. Who is well... your Dave Chappelle? This is the most critical step in spreading WOM. Ensure you can spread the word- it's worth going!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Use your existing network - or find one.</span> Whether you own your own business or market for one, where is your network? On Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Do you have Salesforce.com? Maybe your target audience isn't in your digital or social rolodex, - can you find that subgroup in an existing social network? Are they talking on Twitter? How can you reach them? Keep in mind - you want a wide net, not just to send your message to one network, but to many. <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Prepare your message</span>. Get a consistent message and brand it. That means putting the event out on Upcoming, Eventful, Facebook events, messaging in your blog and creating event ads and emails to reachout with your peers to spread awareness. A consistent memorable message about your event can really aide WOM marketing. Get ready with widgets and links including hashtags for tracking - all in a one page 'play book' for your sales team and collegues to link to the event.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Set up incentives.</span> You can start messaging early with hashtags and twitter by offering free event for the first volunteers, discounts for early birds and exclusives for coming through particularly popular bloggers, and more. This will help you fill the event and gauge how effective your different social channels are doing at attracting attendees.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Align your players</span>. By now you have brainstormed on all the ways you can build word-of-mouth about your event. That means you+at least a dozen people who will spread the word on our behalf- in multiple social channels. Match the players with the channels they are best at spreading the word (including blogging, email, and even phone). This may likely mean, you are doing old-school networking - sitting down and selling your event- to have them get the word out for you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrGvRLj2U62DE-4NZXHf0M_bhv-MQHvfED3hQpbuiMDDdAncV2B7Ok9-ExV_gNs7g_TzpEOo_2KIR0LC9MHoDv0EZq7wzY4WwzUpNLsrf5vTgfgYVRVATJEEfAImZErl5FRxHDz94vcx3/s400/WOM2.jpeg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 351px; height: 234px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361761016886314114" /></span><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Spread the word. </span><span>Communicate what the event is, why you should go, what the offers are and how to RSVP, and communicate go-live dates for invites and reminders to your network.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Show the play-by-play.</span> At the event make sure you have asked people to live tweet and blog your events - in advance. Chances are you may be too busy in the AV details and event itself - and capturing the event details are great in creating buzz around the event.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8. Capture post-event highlights.</span> You can also ensure you've captured the buzz with pics on Flicker, and video highlights on YouTube. These help keep the energy and momentum of your event going even after the guests are out the door.<br /></div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-17350334677485703112009-07-08T14:21:00.000-07:002009-07-09T09:23:48.261-07:00Social Media - Features Well Suited for a New Channel<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >This week, Marketing Sherpa's survey found that Facebook PPC spending is on the rise among marketers. In fact, in their survey 17% of search marketers used Facebook for PPC marketing.<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmWYrlnDyaIgWTq97LhX9Ppt5i_bsb8BzEoeG974vMvS3E82DzihiUQcw3RanxnvqYXKeEEscDWcLiw2ueKvH8pWRCzvT4uPs3Sqbq-t8DNN4YCRAG6ODhLJU7mt1dinPFdBWkSsoSE1Mv/s1600-h/Facebook_PPC_spending.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 253px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmWYrlnDyaIgWTq97LhX9Ppt5i_bsb8BzEoeG974vMvS3E82DzihiUQcw3RanxnvqYXKeEEscDWcLiw2ueKvH8pWRCzvT4uPs3Sqbq-t8DNN4YCRAG6ODhLJU7mt1dinPFdBWkSsoSE1Mv/s400/Facebook_PPC_spending.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356212023001299362" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >In addition, Forrester Research came out recently with their <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47730,00.html">US Interactive Marketing Forecast for 2009-2014</a>. They predict:</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLFgH7FRD-px1rYEFa0gZS8eBwbr2fzPGMRqXKn6dHVj9xJhvh3y0CueUMh5b3U7YOUz1LABhhE7v75mN14NcvUerJiqpMtEhTdqh4q1KYqrLsl_VFgOndNiz7R3cGygOQXSdbJJ7tk6Z1/s1600-h/forrester.png"><br /></a><ul><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >1.9 billion in Integrated Social Media Campaign Spending by 2014</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >1.3 billion in agency fees attributed to Social Media by 2014</span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Great news for agencies and those involved in social media marketing management! The challenge? Right now most conversations tie you to the platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and provide little insight into how to measure a brand impact over the entire channel of social media in terms familiar to marketers (segments, lifestage and lifecycle messaging etc). In addition, there are few products out there which streamline monitoring conversation, nor provide a blueprint for improving ROI when investing in this challenging new media. What's needed? </span> </span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Campaign management that spans across social networks</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">. You answer questions on LinkedIn, monitor your brand in Twitter Search, and check posts to your brand fan page on Facebook. All with different logins, and duct-tape monitoring. Isn't it time for a product that monitored these for you - and allowed you to manage these from one place? </span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Tools that make your social media hat a little easier to wear</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">. If you get a brand complaint, wouldn't it be great if a tool auto-recommended an approach on how to handled it? Better yet, had workflow to assign to customer support or sales, regardless of which social network, wiki or website the comment came from? </span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Framework for measuring success. </span> You can track traffic coming from social networks, and you can count new followers, but who are these individuals and how do they differ in frequency, spend, and ultimately profit for all the hours invested in social media? A social media tool should also provide a framework for linking social media to the bottom line, no matter how long thecycle from conversation to purchase - especially in these times. </span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" ></span></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Turn-key data integration</span>. It should be easier to integrate you social media presence with traffic you you website and interaction with mobile and email channels. Any product out there should have open APIs to provide a big picture glance at the performance of the entire online channel. </span></li></ul>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-69981866322760754102009-06-18T16:35:00.000-07:002009-06-18T16:37:16.139-07:00Interview with Jeremiah Owyang<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRa4x4A56mi09OVZfMGdF7OyLkC-t9QjveBX26YLY4tM30NrjBZh7Si9h-GZAMbnL_H_BGNigeZo4GgJpitpuxXC0QCXUMg8ei5bYYFkXGQ8-kEx8T9NrQS85uOcNWeB2bFsUZTBd7LyYI/s1600-h/jko_091.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 122px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRa4x4A56mi09OVZfMGdF7OyLkC-t9QjveBX26YLY4tM30NrjBZh7Si9h-GZAMbnL_H_BGNigeZo4GgJpitpuxXC0QCXUMg8ei5bYYFkXGQ8-kEx8T9NrQS85uOcNWeB2bFsUZTBd7LyYI/s400/jko_091.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348813576388345698" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">A while back when I was at the <a href="http://www.forrester.com/events/eventdetail?eventID=2375">Forrester Marketing Summit</a>, I sat with Jeremiah Owyang, and thought it was worth a post. If you don't know, Jeremiah works at Forrester Research in Interactive Marketing - with a focus on social media marketing. As part of the Forrester Summit, I had a chance to ask a few questions. Here our conversation.... </span><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>1. Some of my colleagues are a little hesitant about the free aspect of Social Media. What do consumers want in return for influence?</b><br />Consumers want to be heard and see that their input has had some effect. Social Media has made major inroads in product innovation in that consumers are gravitating to products they have influence in shaping. There is definitely opportunity in gaining market share by tuning in to what consumer want. The key is to not let suggestions go unnoticed - or you'll be seen as just a social media black hole.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>2. How are marketers approaching marketing in social media spaces?</b><br />There is some hesitation on approaching social media, but is embraced in some capacity by the vast majority of consumer brands. They are setting goals and aligning social networks to meet those marketing objectives (brand perception, sales, promotions, etc). Measurement is predominantly web tracking.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>3.Are marketers thinking in the terms of 'campaigns'?</b><br />Yes, and it's unfortunate because at best it's an ongoing conversation with consumers. (A good study to start with a multi-online approach is Forresters 'Campaign Management Needs A Reboot.') It's unfortunate they think of campaigns because at best it's an ongoing conversation with consumers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>4. Which companies are trying to provide services to marketers in this space?</b><br />Of course, the Listening platforms are having the best traction, but also <a href="https://cotweet.com/" rel="nofollow">https://cotweet.com/</a>, plus integrations in social media with SAP CRM, Salesforce, and Shoutlet. Also in terms of campaign management and widget creation: Gigya, Widgetbox, Clearsping, Newsgator, Rocku, and Slide.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>5.How are marketers measuring social media campaign response on the backend, and what metrics are most critical to track as the channel evolves?</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Certainly traditional metrics are increased traffic to the brand site, clicks, follows, and sales, but there is more strategic moment in tracking the velocity of engagement (time+energy- resulting momentum).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>6.Who typically "owns" the social media marketing responsibility (and budget) within an average organization? Is it a shared responsibility across the marketing organization, or are most companies hiring internal experts or contracting with agencies?</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">It's marketing - but as sales and customer support also are using social media - it's beginning to expand in responsibility and taking a SWOT team approach to customer and prospect engagement.</span></p><p>You can follow Jeremiah on Twitter @jowyang or<a href="http://www.web-strategist.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> his blog.</span></a><br /></p>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-66096884069345070392009-05-27T15:37:00.000-07:002009-05-28T10:32:46.040-07:00Extending Twitter: Marketing-Friendly Twitter Apps<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Twitter's popularity is growing phenomenally. While there is alot of noise, there are also opportunities for marketers to track and extend Twitter beyond 140 characters. Here's are a few marketer-friendly extensions that extend (and improve) the Twitter experience.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwi5AglJ2reVCoPRBO2Pwu3Y7iMnjgziQ8w3nXRAvEwYmgmGdtcEL-CxLCc5eueZ3vh2h31ov1tJXyHxed0WlwmV52YPMHJWn3sDm-NvEicCUssnKhvRRoNSg5aSQsrL9ICUsU7tYQ54KM/s400/stweet.gif" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 52px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340913633474596802" /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">1.</span></span><a href="http://mashable.com/2009/05/09/twitter-street-view/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Stweets</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> a mashup </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">between Google maps and Twitter, Stweet will shows the street from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">where</span> a tweet was ma</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">de! W</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hile it's cool that you can track where people are tweeting, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">what would be more interesting to marketers to advertise businesses nearby a tweet</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">er - a timely offer with a nearby business. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhByZuUqsuFew_KJ28-x7wOcfnqilTANsdCBPbW44VX54eXcuto4A7SwRx6tZV41jM6ntBiVqQ5Chldj_Ff76huuyzLM2uWOf77VMYOaqI9xJ1i_ubXR68-lBnnzuB8OazxmJoVPjFgHfo/s400/twitdoc.png" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 69px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340916408816001906" /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">2. </span></span><a href="http://twitdoc.com/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Twitdoc</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- it's very common to send pics over Twitter, but Twitdoc lets you attach Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF documents. This extends Twitter so that documents can be shared d</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">irectly, without having to go to a website. For marketers, once they start tracking the number of downloads, metrics can measure the subject line equivalent of Twitter - how engaging are your 140 characters to prompt a download? </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjuWYYbs6I7YIouvWZutLFeMCPOYFMY5I4vdVCDSf5tmiuJzXGzEZqAh2WVwvxCdBnNJK7sbQv7jJv-Jje1xKZ9rWkxB2f4GyeLipKqs78EJ7nY16n2roIZn3zg7df2E2KpABdndy0wZa0/s400/twitoaster.gif" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 50px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340923629291126498" /><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;">3. <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.twitoaster.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); ">Twitoaster</span></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - With triple-digit growth, tracking conversations (particularly about brands or a topic) has become pretty tricky. Twitoaster </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> threads your twitter conversations like on a message board. This allows you to understand searches and replies in context to the conversation. </span></span></span></span></span></div></div>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-89593769873729545852009-04-15T09:34:00.000-07:002009-04-15T09:54:49.442-07:00What's Shareworthy: Survey Says...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdCR6dgM2kaGWD5tcD6PMILSW45QY-Cr5TO5EXF-5QM94I5RFhW8eYqJeGJlUc0RNxXyVAlmosaUKX8yfH-dAtvqnlgvgzaJCy0NoQbSWbJSFp1rNWakrLtSYs8OEuz7bimy1qCLOrdyn/s1600-h/surveysays.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 196px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdCR6dgM2kaGWD5tcD6PMILSW45QY-Cr5TO5EXF-5QM94I5RFhW8eYqJeGJlUc0RNxXyVAlmosaUKX8yfH-dAtvqnlgvgzaJCy0NoQbSWbJSFp1rNWakrLtSYs8OEuz7bimy1qCLOrdyn/s400/surveysays.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324961629971849714" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">With <a href="http://www.yesmail.com/news_events/article/62/2009-04-14/yesmail_empowers_clients_to_make_their_email_campaigns_viral_with_sharethis">Yesmail's recent integration of ShareThis</a>, I thought it would be good to do a little 2.0 consumer survey on what types of content is share-worthy on a social network or social media site, and how people feel in general about companies having a shingle on social networks. Because it was mostly those within my network, I had about 50 responses. Here’s what I found:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Sharing is still new - education and simplification is needed</span>. Over 60% of those surveyed said they had <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">not shared an email</span> to a social site, and another <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">11% couldn’t get the sharing tool to work</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Viral content in social media is not necessarily all about sales. </span>In fact, sometimes content that humanizes a brand is what gets shared. Here’s the content that was interesting to those surveyed.<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Cool or funny video</span> (30% responded with interesting, 30% strongly liked it for sharing)<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Insider’s look at a company </span>(30% responded with interesting, 16% strongly liked the content)<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">VERY good sale</span> (30% responded with interesting, 19% strongly liked it for sharing)<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Tie-in with a non-profit </span>(32% s responded with interesting, 11% strongly liked it for sharing)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Consumers are lukewarm about traditional marketing efforts. </span> It’s been said before that traditional tactics don’t work in the social media world. The survey reaffirmed that fact.<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Sweepstakes are not interesting.</span> A strong 58% would not share a sweepstakes or contest, and 33% felt lukewarm (The response was ‘maybe’).<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Neither is a company’s presence on a social network. </span>Unfortunately, a lot of consumers don’t care about a new social media presence. 38% would not share, 35% felt lukewarm.<br />• <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Even loyalty programs are not all that share-worthy. </span>30% would not share news about a new loyalty program, and an additional 52% felt lukewarm about it.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Consumers have accepted finding corporate brand presence on social media websites </span>– <span style="font-weight: bold;">as long as the brand fits the social network.</span> A whopping 85% felt there were types of social media sites that didn’t make sense for companies to have a presence on.<br /><br />5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Facebook rules in terms of company follows</span>. 57% of consumers surveyed said they followed/friended a company on Facebook, while another 49% followed those on Twitter, and 27% on LinkedIn, and 8% on YouTube.<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-80610364450872184992009-03-19T12:52:00.000-07:002009-03-26T13:53:03.886-07:00Social Smarts: Integrating Email and Facebook<span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Let's face it - Facebook has seen <a href="http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-demographic-statistics/?country_id=US&gender=MF&age=0t0&country_id2=&gender2=MF&age2=0t0&country_id3=&gender3=MF&age3=0t0">hockeystick growth</a> over the last year - over 175M active Facebook users last count, if you are a consumer brand, you are probably, like many figuring it out as you go along. Email can be a great channel for spring-boarding your social media campaign on Facebook. Then again, Facebook can be a great way to grow your email list </span><span style="font-size:100%;">organically. Here's a few great best practices in integrating social media and email.</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6p-CVoffjhgiFrRecadGO3WqAeyRXSySqX1yd6tXLQsusogJqE_0wBMnDHvyRzOGBFPj2m0xPWcJAX2IaX8osQ4T0Dv-6cQWLvr__PTiuA0IRUX2Q_2aHla9wxC65gIMmzSK58byqP3M2/s1600-h/French_Connection-Facebook.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6p-CVoffjhgiFrRecadGO3WqAeyRXSySqX1yd6tXLQsusogJqE_0wBMnDHvyRzOGBFPj2m0xPWcJAX2IaX8osQ4T0Dv-6cQWLvr__PTiuA0IRUX2Q_2aHla9wxC65gIMmzSK58byqP3M2/s400/French_Connection-Facebook.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314752734623353506" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >1. Email - When you Go Big: Drive Exclusive Offers for Facebook Fans.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> For French Connection, they offer exclusive news and offers- and track these offers uniquely. Recently, French Connections and others started doing this with Twitter as well.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >2.: Use Navigational elements in email to drive awareness of your brand's social footprint.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> You can see below in the footer from Peet's there's a clear list of social media sites: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube - plus a viral element to forward to a friend.</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2T75kT66FkMxc4bHkVrI7s6D6Vl08ZXWq3oVs1oK786yyURWrLfBmcxE3iVPeoYFobsTYc3YNQO0lAHyIcyyl3K-6qIRX-6m_EztN5EQPwe5GZKf6T4P8KMx_0BVEhVHApRpxbv61BpZ/s1600-h/Peets.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 364px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2T75kT66FkMxc4bHkVrI7s6D6Vl08ZXWq3oVs1oK786yyURWrLfBmcxE3iVPeoYFobsTYc3YNQO0lAHyIcyyl3K-6qIRX-6m_EztN5EQPwe5GZKf6T4P8KMx_0BVEhVHApRpxbv61BpZ/s400/Peets.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314753337658789554" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >3. Message via email - and Facebook. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">If you are looking for a last minute Valentine's gift - it's okay to post updates on Facebook, and with an email campaign - just make sure you track both uniquely.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yBo7Kr3e1aRXz3q3EDNBiqiBbmSIqnlUDd82y8e5tymu9NO2QJdaxUGCU1Sei2FZYnSQvdADaBlWKfeYXOR4bTkzej56MDkpFTQ_aZnQleJmrlvNkXOXAQkxE_yGffFiDoOYoQZfOfEI/s1600-h/Big_Game_Recipe.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yBo7Kr3e1aRXz3q3EDNBiqiBbmSIqnlUDd82y8e5tymu9NO2QJdaxUGCU1Sei2FZYnSQvdADaBlWKfeYXOR4bTkzej56MDkpFTQ_aZnQleJmrlvNkXOXAQkxE_yGffFiDoOYoQZfOfEI/s400/Big_Game_Recipe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314754681065242738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >4. Like email, mix it up, and keep it relevant.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Whether you are CPG product which has a Facebook recipe contest, or a fashion retailer with Facebook fans decked in your finest, fans can help your Facebook presence say isn't about just promotion, - it's about the fans.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >5. Test. Track. Test. Repeat.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Make it part of your practice to uniquely tracks text and logo for Facebook to see which users originated from which email - and which linked from email to Facebook or other social destination site. Having unique email and Facebook offer codes, and link tracking to help you evaluate how well these integrated campaigns work for your business, and which integrated campaigns worked best for your brand. </span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-4397271408298542392009-03-04T15:10:00.000-08:002009-03-04T16:11:37.113-08:00Getting Close Your Market using Social Media<span style="font-size:85%;">Remember 'old school' product management? We got enhancement feedback from customer service, competitive intelligence once in a while from sales/research? It was rated, reviewed, prioritized, and integrated in the roadmap - maybe every 6 months or so. Perhaps you wrote customer surveys to gauge our products, and waited for a few months for feedback? Remember that? You'd have structured survey data..."Good presentation of reporting data" "Fair User Interface" Easy to recommend changes.<br /><br />That's changing - and if you are in product management, it's probably going to be pretty chaotic at first. Here's where I think product management needs to listen to customers -and prospects.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXjTtIWYY3S15xtNnm1QQGeBUSsT3X6sgYbkwBcoxW8OnRWFe-8iTc5Bg7qhqtimn-hUFHPU_hh51zWbIOepW6hWpGSRtKsmt1WiMaSuMwAyDugo1EkC7z-CCG55ujcpwCwZWGpDd2WQm/s1600-h/dell.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXjTtIWYY3S15xtNnm1QQGeBUSsT3X6sgYbkwBcoxW8OnRWFe-8iTc5Bg7qhqtimn-hUFHPU_hh51zWbIOepW6hWpGSRtKsmt1WiMaSuMwAyDugo1EkC7z-CCG55ujcpwCwZWGpDd2WQm/s400/dell.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309488599675070194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >1. Be like Dell - Go Direct.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> You may look to marketing or PR to monitor your products, but often MarCom is lo</span><span style="font-size:85%;">oking at how the brand is perceived, not necessarily the product. What you won't get is 'the industry is buzzing about integrating mobile and social media campaigns.' </span><span style="font-size:85%;">What you won't get is 'Rumor is...your competitor is planning an integration with [leading edge company Y]. The influencers are blogging about the next big thing....is it in your roadmap? The challenge for product management? Set aside time at least weekly for a social monitor check to find the top social media stories in your space, and track the 'big influencers' in your industry. While this doesn't need to dominate your roadmap, it certainly needs to inform it.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheoZK1b_zW13F9nKanSIovE-2kvyytAqUE3ynNCArI0sFEZbfjhpq3bj8lbXauOrzf1m6uLqtTGj6-eiIaDRcB9C7f3BPPV5TZEY3wcUnwLTSwsiE31ldpaVoGofCUVfi0LKa1Og8gzN1q/s1600-h/feedback.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheoZK1b_zW13F9nKanSIovE-2kvyytAqUE3ynNCArI0sFEZbfjhpq3bj8lbXauOrzf1m6uLqtTGj6-eiIaDRcB9C7f3BPPV5TZEY3wcUnwLTSwsiE31ldpaVoGofCUVfi0LKa1Og8gzN1q/s400/feedback.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309488677299359442" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Create Feedback Loops</span>. In other words, learn how to make friends with others that use, could use, or are using competitor products in your industry. Features are not about writing requirements - they are about meeting market need. Using social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, & Facebook, start meeting (albeit, virtually) and commenting on people in your industry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Test you</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">r Assumptions.</span> Think your product has the best reporting- bar non? Use quick (We are talking 5-10 questions, at most) surveys to test your assumptions about your product, and others in your industry, or pose a question via LinkedIn or Twitter. What social media has shown us is that people really do help others. Instead of quarterly (or worse - yearly) surveys, try a few questions every month. This will ensure your roadmap continues to be close to market needs, and not what the market needed 14 months ago.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig-hRPW_ObeX27ZlYk9BYW9-0Dv3bdowJMvDaPrUFu7-73_wDi2_1UUoXeUvNUydpO206H2m0r2g4z8dGKiMeIFv4KiTfUeH-VOg_JuwbPqlBZewopSpHr0Ccfd77uT81s1dGRxJS6Ef72/s1600-h/listen.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 130px; height: 152px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig-hRPW_ObeX27ZlYk9BYW9-0Dv3bdowJMvDaPrUFu7-73_wDi2_1UUoXeUvNUydpO206H2m0r2g4z8dGKiMeIFv4KiTfUeH-VOg_JuwbPqlBZewopSpHr0Ccfd77uT81s1dGRxJS6Ef72/s400/listen.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309488841696914178" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Listen in.</span> Make it part of your monthly list to listen to customer calls and prospects. At one organization, they gave me a 'listen line' to monitor a consumer call center to see if I could translate a good call center rep to an online experience. We did and got better revenue as a result. Sometimes getting to the raw data, and befriending the sales and the support team will have invaluable results -and can validate your assumptions about the market.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Get Consensus. </span>Know what I love? <a href="http://www.uservoice.com/">uservoice.com</a>. It allows you to ensure that the ideas you've uncovered, tested the market with, and gathered intelligence on are actually what the rest of your organization think too! Peers can vote on features to see which rises to the top -or submit additional features you might have not yet uncovered. It's a great way to know if you - and the rest of the organization - are on the same page. You can also open it ups to a few of your key influencers, and see if they have other ideas as well!<br /></span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-67831016447144576582009-02-25T12:51:00.000-08:002009-02-25T14:53:42.027-08:00Hey! You Listening to Me? A Framework for Social Listening (with No Budget)<span style="font-size:85%;">I've been tracking social media for a while now, and have decided that those of us who monitor social media are more akin to anthropologist than marketers. Certainly, you have to decide who and what topics to follow - and why. But like an anthropologist, you have to sit with human beings and understand their behavior, their norms, their culture, and follow that tribe as it changes.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">There are numerous blogs out there that can give you <span style="font-style: italic;">tools</span> on how to track social media <a href="http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools/">for free</a>, <a href="http://mashable.com/2008/12/29/brand-reputation-monitoring-tools/">and paid</a>. In most cases, the free version of listening to your social media audience can involve multiple tools including <a href="http://www.twilert.com/">Twilerts</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/alert">Google Alerts</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/">Technorati</a>, <a href="http://www.backtype.com/">Backtype</a>, and others. These are tough times, and you may need to make the business case before you spend a dime on a listening platform.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NqATAxV_VAbwSa1Vg1Mzp9SKncrMjztEsGvupBRyAWka5a1msljJqYja8RWlK6FAJfjmtIyJg-EesfK5ixtoCLqGsAOq7Xt4JkRPlFT-v30wWNm2mVF6lC5dUKnAc2LmE68X0VquA5ms/s1600-h/Triangle2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 146px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NqATAxV_VAbwSa1Vg1Mzp9SKncrMjztEsGvupBRyAWka5a1msljJqYja8RWlK6FAJfjmtIyJg-EesfK5ixtoCLqGsAOq7Xt4JkRPlFT-v30wWNm2mVF6lC5dUKnAc2LmE68X0VquA5ms/s400/Triangle2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306860948919154610" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Soo...just as important (if not more so) than the tools themselves is a framework to make sense of the all the noise. Here's four steps to getting some insight from listening to social media. (Feel free to click on images for better readability).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Drink from the fire hose (sort of). </span>Using a free listening platform tool like <a href="http://www.techrigy.com/">SM2</a>, <a href="http://www.filtrbox.com/">Filterbox</a>, <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/">Yahoo Pipes</a> and/or <a href="http://www.socialmention.com/">Social Mention</a> - identify where there is a good deal of conversation around your target audience. This will probably take a few weeks, and many track back historical data - which may get you there sooner. What you are looking for is this: common social media sites (networks, blogs, micro-blogs, taggers) and individuals that come up - again, and again. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">(Keep in mind, in social media - these sites and influencers can change often). You might already know a few movers and shakers in your space - now might be the time to check out their digital footprint.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtv3Rm2oO5wxyXMz8PdTVmh8dYJZxcBuvYp4YtZM3Ocaq0zwY6lr3-O8L_P4ueW86gOnwjLrovxqq4CXaXiHoOUZAweGpcTqaD_9NviGkd-mWlIfYIdMMtb768AAbcZvjl9rDyWAABNvTD/s1600-h/influencer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtv3Rm2oO5wxyXMz8PdTVmh8dYJZxcBuvYp4YtZM3Ocaq0zwY6lr3-O8L_P4ueW86gOnwjLrovxqq4CXaXiHoOUZAweGpcTqaD_9NviGkd-mWlIfYIdMMtb768AAbcZvjl9rDyWAABNvTD/s400/influencer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306861950928152898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Take a deep breath - and jump in.</span> Who are the influencers? Who gets linked often, mentioned often, re-tweeted often? What are common topics that are viral? What are the concerns of these communities? You can use my handy guide (images from <a href="http://www.ilovemrmen.com/">Mr. Men and Little Miss</a>) as a benchmark on identifying influencers.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLnlaJKaeSp-sFnMrJhSbfuPb8lBNdiuAHPX4tYe0JxoPScNIfnkZAs1zM71OR8MpOPazhWIK7WRgYlEz2O9-foyLIX978i2KY_yS_iHd3GEa_P9qyIyM2Eb3he0mNa5tHj58eIe3mSVz/s1600-h/whereyouat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 148px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLnlaJKaeSp-sFnMrJhSbfuPb8lBNdiuAHPX4tYe0JxoPScNIfnkZAs1zM71OR8MpOPazhWIK7WRgYlEz2O9-foyLIX978i2KY_yS_iHd3GEa_P9qyIyM2Eb3he0mNa5tHj58eIe3mSVz/s400/whereyouat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306865514560860002" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Compare yourself -and your competitors in these exchanges.</span> Are you given relevant content, insight, and spaces to encourage dialogue? How strong a presence does your company vs. your competition? Who's involved in social media at your competitors? How big a 'social footprint' do they have?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. How can you be better?</span> Now comes the tricky parts. I like brainstorming using the <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html">POST method</a> from Forrester- along with sweat equity 'free' research to create a relevant preliminary strategy for social media. Be prepared to answer the question: Now What? When? Why? Be sure to set realistic expectations, and to <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090218_335887_page_2.htm">debunk a few social media myths</a>. </span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script><br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-2672702149842235802009-02-18T15:02:00.000-08:002009-03-03T09:30:06.964-08:00Four Easy Ways to Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing<span style="font-size:85%;">In several social media white papers and presentations, there is this concept that email marketing is purely a 'push' mechanism to share information from a company to a consumer. Working for an email marketing ESP, I find that this thinking is long antiquated. Our best clients already use and integrate social media content in their email marketing campaigns. There's a few examples I came across which provide some easy ways to get started in integrating social media content in email campaigns. Numerous studies have shown that consumers trust information from other consumers - much more than from companies that send them email. Integrating more user generated content will bring your brand and it's advocates closer together.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje87CudvKgwXi4ZJ2MghKmUxpi36DxbNTDD1BwhEKPYH61yrINIeLvvPTbah_vayOMsPGf08iCuWKjFWBevPYZ0k9St7jIm4Rx1o3NiIsaG7V2Nq9ZA8S0JdEn_PQ-XaUkg486_LX4DAry/s1600-h/David_example.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 186px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje87CudvKgwXi4ZJ2MghKmUxpi36DxbNTDD1BwhEKPYH61yrINIeLvvPTbah_vayOMsPGf08iCuWKjFWBevPYZ0k9St7jIm4Rx1o3NiIsaG7V2Nq9ZA8S0JdEn_PQ-XaUkg486_LX4DAry/s400/David_example.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304294662469518434" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >1. Leverage 'creator' content in how to best use your product or service. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">If for example, you manufacture shoes, you can leverage 'best pairing' blogs on</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> how to create new looks for spring. The example to the left is from Kraft's member newsletter.<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpAvnnx1_-hTZMx2eQ8dfRnhSe4eGzy0PUA5YNjAiGv5wV8ljGaQJzCYikuvqui33UOS_4phOBGJDzeSdyQwBaIEcId7AYS81uN40WCp81znnmcO0X_beptEaofFqVzdNDfdGZ-GVUIoqx/s1600-h/member_forum.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 273px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpAvnnx1_-hTZMx2eQ8dfRnhSe4eGzy0PUA5YNjAiGv5wV8ljGaQJzCYikuvqui33UOS_4phOBGJDzeSdyQwBaIEcId7AYS81uN40WCp81znnmcO0X_beptEaofFqVzdNDfdGZ-GVUIoqx/s400/member_forum.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304294817128831362" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >2. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Add Links for User Ratings,and common Q&A</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" > to your newsletters.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Knowing what's a five star product from Sephora for example versus a 3 1/2 star product is tremendously valuable. In this example, member questions are included in an email newsletter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUtoTFYPaFEbzOFkP278cHgbvdcFXyB9YyhnznEqmgs39tpM1SUOdiGxMKBHPL9mFC-4ycknHKunkiY5W04FdvqpXbCQOlZRIgqm0PnceUdFNv5jv_RRXgz_XiKDtbkvZGXfV6in8B9mH1/s1600-h/peets_footer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 60px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUtoTFYPaFEbzOFkP278cHgbvdcFXyB9YyhnznEqmgs39tpM1SUOdiGxMKBHPL9mFC-4ycknHKunkiY5W04FdvqpXbCQOlZRIgqm0PnceUdFNv5jv_RRXgz_XiKDtbkvZGXfV6in8B9mH1/s400/peets_footer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304295017853792562" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >3. Provide ways for your subscribers to connect with you - and each other.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Do you have a Facebook page? Are you building a 'follow' audience on Twitter? In your email footers, you can provide links to where to find you company in Social Networks. Peet's Coffee and Tea for example, provides links for social networks, and blogs allowing recipients to find more about them, and become fans or followers.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGC7nf1yi4rnMrj9AtBBzRhBlCq4_ZUPmDViqb80gIbFd6f7F6Ish1uJCRH_iXcMOdJGlqwD3puCI-xzHPP4YXHzXlQfWxJmGsGrspXWP2_Fz6WuL5VSEZI_lJQTfuB0RN5ykFifVb_IT/s1600-h/subscribe.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 251px; height: 40px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGC7nf1yi4rnMrj9AtBBzRhBlCq4_ZUPmDViqb80gIbFd6f7F6Ish1uJCRH_iXcMOdJGlqwD3puCI-xzHPP4YXHzXlQfWxJmGsGrspXWP2_Fz6WuL5VSEZI_lJQTfuB0RN5ykFifVb_IT/s400/subscribe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304298736867567826" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >4. Provide tools for sharing, bookmarking, and publishing your email content.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> This viral tactic moves your content beyond the inbox for others, including potential new subscribers, to find it. The example above is from Read Write Web. Better to have someone follow you in their RSS feed than not at all!<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script><br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-1768114915652335622009-02-11T14:34:00.000-08:002009-02-13T09:37:14.738-08:00The Power of Twitter - Leads<span style="font-size:85%;">Recently, John Harrison, (<a href="http://twitter.com/johncharrison">@johncharrison</a>) the SVP of Product Strategy and Client Services began drinking from the fire hose that is twitter - and he got... leads.<br /><br />Keep in mind, we have a suite of products from small business to enterprise, but the majority of our buyers have one thing in common - they want to market their products and services online using email.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Using Twitter Search</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />John typed in "Email Marketing Companies" in the search terms for Twitter. Here's the </span><span style="font-size:85%;">exchange (minus, of course, the lead's phone number).</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpdpJhCBbfY36Fz_pibFMWXGbD2Td7nvvEJ6J9JWKQoPhNGYgtW6VDt4CfX51RCHuxdQ7a4iZEveTfyiVSEXFWjhr76hHJjfOqusXC8b_JM9ZpHejcrbBWHF2-Mzq2e7_2JDDCtgouvTY/s1600-h/twitter_lead.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 471px; height: 354px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpdpJhCBbfY36Fz_pibFMWXGbD2Td7nvvEJ6J9JWKQoPhNGYgtW6VDt4CfX51RCHuxdQ7a4iZEveTfyiVSEXFWjhr76hHJjfOqusXC8b_JM9ZpHejcrbBWHF2-Mzq2e7_2JDDCtgouvTY/s400/twitter_lead.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301688322116010706" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />It was very quick, conversational, and effective, and points to great opportunity for Twitter and business. Even if Twitter <a href="http://blog.twitter.com/2009/02/nothing-to-report-just-yet.html">doesn't end up charging subscriptions for corporations to post</a>. Matching potential buyers<span style="font-style: italic;"> at the moment they are looking </span>with the companies that have the services has tremendous opportunity.<br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-81171831359125179102009-02-02T13:57:00.000-08:002009-02-03T12:51:40.180-08:00Social Media - 4 Tools to Start Making Sense of the Clutter<span style="font-size:85%;">As part of product management at Yesmail, I'm looking at emerging technologies and how they can complement email marketing technologies -including Social Media. As such I've had to explain how social media works in relation to other marketing channels. I hope you'll find these tools useful in presentations to many who are new to social media. Below are four visual representations of social media seen through the lens of traditional marketing: audience sizing, demographic reach, and analytics.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kOFh5rlfHg7IDn_6AOtjXEcY6O5VqVLDxPo2xayUulGkred2JxOFPygz9dS7o-E05G7jyC-T5WaPkhtlk11hRm8KX9317mJFg8zDnPYHdwUZG3-Uo-K3u2Os_tM5D1wiBgwNBUnHHkNw/s1600-h/SocialNetworks11-08.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kOFh5rlfHg7IDn_6AOtjXEcY6O5VqVLDxPo2xayUulGkred2JxOFPygz9dS7o-E05G7jyC-T5WaPkhtlk11hRm8KX9317mJFg8zDnPYHdwUZG3-Uo-K3u2Os_tM5D1wiBgwNBUnHHkNw/s320/SocialNetworks11-08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298324255735154754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >1. <a href="http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/social-media-11-08">Top Traffic sites in Social Media</a></span><span style="font-size:85%;">. This quick & easy graphic provides a layout of social media types (Platforms, Blogs, Networks, Micro-blogging, etc) and their unique traffic numbers based on Comscore/TechCrunch for November. You can play around with the graphic </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/social-media-11-08">here</a>. This is useful when answering the question "Just how big is this channel? How many users are using these technologies?" Keep in mind, there's overlap in users on social networks, blogs, etc.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >2. Demographic Differences for a Few Social Networks.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDdJKuMrJYr709aXlD4RnARzAXXEp_hrhplWvUj2sMWCsA8F75Lak2GRbFssVSot0nDkOR66hkUguSy8aLL9FHKYXuYpQY0Cjz1IZDqy1Yw2ouh1qFRv8nkYxUtXSw1_gPiBVz2EXI77mB/s1600-h/matrix-social_media_examples.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDdJKuMrJYr709aXlD4RnARzAXXEp_hrhplWvUj2sMWCsA8F75Lak2GRbFssVSot0nDkOR66hkUguSy8aLL9FHKYXuYpQY0Cjz1IZDqy1Yw2ouh1qFRv8nkYxUtXSw1_gPiBVz2EXI77mB/s320/matrix-social_media_examples.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298327381273611218" border="0" /></a> using demographic data from <a href="http://business.rapleaf.com/company_press_2008_07_29.html">Rapleaf's July numbers</a> - this illustrates differences between Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and LinkedIn in terms of key demographics (gender and age). Of course, you can further select targeted demographics and keywords within these social networks for advertising, but you can see self-reported data using pie charts. You can download Rapleaf's full report and pull demographic profiles from a host of social networks.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FjvPSiBo0JWsmPW2qTKsRotTBiHP4OtD_KIhR5cVbyefK-vPwkvLn_oxsGAIVxWEabeU4TamfhP25NtSvpricHBjSNnn4JEGM1Zd3_KXuCjoW0ieDVntjJajr7bO4OZtPzjJpH30kgKJ/s1600-h/SM2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FjvPSiBo0JWsmPW2qTKsRotTBiHP4OtD_KIhR5cVbyefK-vPwkvLn_oxsGAIVxWEabeU4TamfhP25NtSvpricHBjSNnn4JEGM1Zd3_KXuCjoW0ieDVntjJajr7bO4OZtPzjJpH30kgKJ/s320/SM2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298354233559312450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sm2.techrigy.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. </span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">Social Media Analytics - SM2 by Techrigy</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></a> SM2 provides a good user interface for monitoring general buzz in social media. You can easily drill down to get a sense of what made buzz, and where it came from. SM2 allows you to select custom searches on competitors. Plus, it's free for the first 1000 keywords. Here's a <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/listening/sm2_techrigy.html">profile of them</a> from the Groundswell blog. Includes graphs, sentiment, demographics and custom search.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://search.twitter.com/">Search.Twitter.com.</a> As a quick illustration, this tool is very effective at getting a sense what's being said on twitter about your brand, and how often in c0mparison with the competition. If there are doubts that no-one talks about your company - try this!<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script><br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-77026341720849707292009-01-22T14:43:00.000-08:002009-01-29T13:41:08.634-08:00Business Twitter 101<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.slideshare.net/pdxreda/Twitter101b"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 174px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hqocSP5eelc5q2vlEAXXr40uaAl6B0vyLvG1gj9IjXco0SIqKr8aU0BnYefIFWpTSiz5ipAa2BJs-45p_wYhZfLFVe3ePbQ3elluQU9c2eoysaBr5DXerNUZdv7nQFF35GtgW1re4Lcq/s320/twitter101.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294265060442700802" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Recently I was asked to give a presentation on how I use twitter in product management. When I first used twitter, I was a bit skeptical. But after I got a great recommendation for a feature rating tool (thanks to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/twitter.com/IdaApps">@idaapps</a>), a local social media chapter (thanks to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/twitter.com/brittanysims">@brittanysims</a>), and numerous bits of market research by following my tweeple, I'm a convert.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pdxreda/Twitter101b">Here's the presentation.</a> This short presentation includes an overview of how to get started, etiquette, and links to additional information.<br /><br />Here's a quick cheat sheet from the last slide, since SlideShare doesn't seem to let you follow hyperlinks:<br /><a href="http://delicious.com/wss23/twitter101">Best Practices When Starting to Tweet </a><br /><a href="http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/2009/01/16/twitter-power-150/"> The </a><a href="http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/2009/01/16/twitter-power-150/">Twitteratzi</a><br /><a href="http://twitterholic.com/top100/followers/"> top 100 </a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/mrtweet">Mr. Tweet </a><br /><a href="http://danzarrella.com/rtm-most.php">Retweeting</a><br /><a href="http://danzarrella.com/rtm-most.php"> ReTweeting Stats </a><br /><a href="http://search.twitter.com/">Search Twitter </a><br /><a href="http://twitter.alltop.com/">Twitter on Alltop</a><br /><a href="http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php">Twitter </a><br /><a href="http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php">Streamgraph</a><br /><br />And in case your curious, here is also a great <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/osview/canvas?_ch_page_id=1&_ch_panel_id=1&_ch_app_id=13112520&_applicationId=1200&_ownerId=82952&osUrlHash=ajkw&appParams=%7B%22view%22%3A%22canvas%22%2C%22page%22%3A%22show_slideshow%22%2C%22slideshow_id%22%3A%2250416%22%2C%22from%22%3A%22share_slideshow_url%22%7D">overview & 'how to' on corporate blogging</a> by one of former collegues - Janet Johnson. </span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-91543138120333064702009-01-19T14:31:00.000-08:002009-01-29T13:49:02.018-08:00Dr. Scrum: Agile and Making It Work in the Real World (Part Two of Two)<span style="font-size:85%;">In the real world of Agile development, you may be pulled a thousand different ways - and not just by development. Here's a few tricks I've learned to make working with an agile team a bit easier.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Plan your stories and epics in advance</span>. Even though the development team is looking at the user stories on the very near horizon, plan a roadmap for what you will be working on over the next 4 quarters. By documenting a high-level iteration plan, it will inform the team on what's coming next, and will help you make adjustments when new user stories are requested. What I've often done is write out high-level user stories several iterations in advance in a spreadsheet (not the acceptance tests- yet). That way I can look at what's coming 5 iterations from now, in both managing my time, and making changes to iterations as they are needed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Keep User Stories Lightweight.</span> At Yesmail, user stories are very simply and include acceptance tests. That (for the most part) is it. By keeping them straightforward and clear in the acceptance test, you'll have less questions from engineering, and more time for managing the product.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXfKY_rmfDcXbi2ua6E8gCPMiw2hIakYejneGwGxEW4BR5sHVu9LSh6czZi4myVfWaT4oO6c_ScGUk4ItVm3ROkvPiARfYlyHKpyMj_vo-D3DNSTYbE_vXTRHirtay8WSF6M_ZPQBnLc8/s1600-h/Dr_strangelove4.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXfKY_rmfDcXbi2ua6E8gCPMiw2hIakYejneGwGxEW4BR5sHVu9LSh6czZi4myVfWaT4oO6c_ScGUk4ItVm3ROkvPiARfYlyHKpyMj_vo-D3DNSTYbE_vXTRHirtay8WSF6M_ZPQBnLc8/s320/Dr_strangelove4.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293137491794217330" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Be Flexible in the Outcome</span>. When you write user stories and acceptance tests, you probably have a fairly good idea of how the product will look in the UI. My advice? Allow there to be several solutions to one user story - and choose the best as a team. There's nothing worse in really hampering creativity than a product manager with a 'my way or the high way' point of view. That being said, do ensure you communicate the users needs and technical expertise<span style="font-style: italic;"> well</span>, so the users needs are well understood.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Assess ROI and Market Need. </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Set time aside</span> to validate your roadmap and backlog with ROI and market need. In my experience, nearly all developers are 'okay' if I communicate that I need time to ensure the user stories are in line with market demands. Practically speaking, this means that I try to make myself available for a few hours to help with product development, but I do say "I will be working tomorrow morning from 8:30-11:00 on a revised market assessment(or other product management task)." Most developers are okay with with working with your schedule.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Ensure continual communication about development estimating.</span> In planning the roadmap, I've worked with several development teams to ensure realistic timetables for a product roadmap were communicated. The roadmap answers two questions 1) What do we need to do (and why?), and 2) When do we need it? Ensure that development is on board, and plans for product iterations are realistic. For me, there were standing weekly meeting about iteration planning and estimating. This helps in both building trust both with development teams and executives.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Use Steering Committees to Validate the Backlog.</span> What has helped tremendously in agile is monthly explicit communication to the executive team about what's coming in the next few iterations and what's in the products backlog. This may be contained in JIRA, or a confluence page - or a spreadsheet. What's most important is that the team knows the scheduled priorities of the product, and the order in which they are released.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihpE-60cCkzFkp_rzujpZp61AdYRzGTUJKF8dLdLi7uca9Umlq-k1uUi83Lz26O2fobbKvfCiCVf2kfpfsAS0qK2ZGoZyXl84frXDZ2_7xYSpDLWhAXDwy6drJVc2P6pBjIiWMDlN6FPYM/s1600-h/Dr_strangelove3.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 116px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihpE-60cCkzFkp_rzujpZp61AdYRzGTUJKF8dLdLi7uca9Umlq-k1uUi83Lz26O2fobbKvfCiCVf2kfpfsAS0qK2ZGoZyXl84frXDZ2_7xYSpDLWhAXDwy6drJVc2P6pBjIiWMDlN6FPYM/s320/Dr_strangelove3.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293137353391103698" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Enjoy the ride (and the people you work with)</span>. Agile is about daily communication and collaboration. Soo... get to know the development team well. Soon you'll be making a great product with a development team that delivers great solutions and superior products. Agile and agile methodologies are likely to be here a while. So buckle up and enjoy the ride! </span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-2382231547022776602009-01-13T15:09:00.000-08:002009-01-29T13:50:24.361-08:00Dr. Scrum: Or How I Learned to Love Agile - Part One<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJ0gldq99egvtjNvlwnIFbaa0Hn4d1uHx-0QpQqxFrLRhk32QvznUd_FLOPci3yph1RJYKPLIONjYcFHTTavge9PIflWdrRPVzbJUFFlMPdFigZOfLntJ9E4acdGF4H79Yjf2MfubFNWW/s1600-h/dr_strangelove.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJ0gldq99egvtjNvlwnIFbaa0Hn4d1uHx-0QpQqxFrLRhk32QvznUd_FLOPci3yph1RJYKPLIONjYcFHTTavge9PIflWdrRPVzbJUFFlMPdFigZOfLntJ9E4acdGF4H79Yjf2MfubFNWW/s320/dr_strangelove.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290928612631022930" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">I've been noticing a lot of product management blogs that begin "Aack! Development has gone Agile!" Recently I came across "<a href="http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/6/5/vol6iss5.pdf">Spotting Fundamental Flaws with Agile</a>" in Pragmatic Marketing's magazine. You'd think we product managers had yet another business challenge and roadblock in front of us because now the development team is getting all needy because they want 'product owner.' Now, truth be told, it's a software methodology, but for us PMs sitting and collaborating with development on the latest products, these changes can have significant impact on our lives.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Agile is much better that what came before it. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I've been doing product management for about a decade now. Remember what became before it? Pages and pages of PRDs, detailed technical requirements specifications, 9 month Gantt charts detailing in excruciating detail the development of your product? Do you remember? It was like entering NASCAR with cement wheels. A chasm the size of the grand canyon between product and development. I was directed to talk to the project manager, not development. The black box of months of development/QA/beta testing, that you'd beg to 'get a peak' at before launch. It was awful. My only way to help products get better was to try to forge relationships directly with the development team (beer helped), and talk about the product, and the users, and how great the product could be, then sometimes I'd be able to collaborate better, sometimes my IM would pop up and I could 'get a look.' Then, user testing (if there was any) was so long at the end of the product launch, there wasn't really a chance to change it before the launch date. It was bad. Soo...here's why I like agile.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Agile al</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >lows you to respond to market changes quickly. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">In SaaS software, your 2009 roadmap could completely change by March. Competition, new technical partnerships, business models emerge that may make you rethink what your organization is doing next month. You </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >can </span><span style="font-size:85%;">completely chance course 2 weeks out in agile, and this was very hard before that. Agile allows an organization to be nimble in responding to market opportunities - and that can make a huge difference.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Agile forces you to think about what's important. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">One of the key tenants of agile is 'satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.' Guess who's job it is to ensure what is valuable, and that it's delivered first? Product Management. This doesn't mean you don't have a roadmap, but it does force you to make tradeoffs so the needed features are the next iteration, and the 'nice-to-haves' are in the backlog.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Agile forces you to refine your communication skills about what the product needs</span>. In creating user stories and acceptance tests, you need to both ensure what functions are critical for the next sprint, and what are not. It's light weight, but that forces you to be crystal clear on what you want the product to do. In PRDs, often what was critical was written along side with what was nice to have.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-1CD7EWia1jLmEMaeOQbZGwmJK_pfhE_Cf1TnPVH9ThyQKKMLxJGrVdng0kr0jA-4bAlPIgQQuQc8x6ZuETQJ4HEhe1EhEMevGMwZQ3nff7r_-laNYGaLoi02uB_orN67KvhqJVnoQhY/s1600-h/dr_strangelove2.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 138px; height: 105px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-1CD7EWia1jLmEMaeOQbZGwmJK_pfhE_Cf1TnPVH9ThyQKKMLxJGrVdng0kr0jA-4bAlPIgQQuQc8x6ZuETQJ4HEhe1EhEMevGMwZQ3nff7r_-laNYGaLoi02uB_orN67KvhqJVnoQhY/s320/dr_strangelove2.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291230144803789314" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Agile seems to help the creative process of product development.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> I've been in two separate agile teams at separate companies and even working with different locations, Agile brings a certain level of creativity to development and product that wasn't their before. Being lightweight, it allows better collaboration and creativity with the end product. I think that's a good thing. The best software engineers I've meet have 12 different ways to develop a feature, and have suggestions on how to make the product better. I think Agile gives a process to collaborate creatively on product development.<br /><br />Again, agile is a software methodology, and in many cases we have a new hat as a 'product owners' (Unless you are a very large companies and have analyst act as product owners). Unfortunately, agile is not by itself, the defacto rule of success in developing great products. We can arm/aid the development team to paint an accurate picture of the user of the product, their technical expertise and needs, and ensure there is adequate end-user feedback, market research, etc to validate the product user stories. Most companies don't have a list of checkboxes to answer "Are you an agile shop?" there's cultural and process changes that need to happen to make it work.<br /><br />Next up? How I've tweaked my work life and communication style to develop successful products using agile.<br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script><br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-6138337812426015902009-01-07T14:42:00.000-08:002009-01-07T15:22:04.729-08:00Top Social Networking features I hope someone makes in 2009<span style="font-size:85%;">I've been buried in research over the last few days, and I've got a few ideas of features that I think would make a tremendous difference to social communities - and consumers- and um...me. This is the 'if I were in product at X social networking site, this would be on my roadmap.<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Social Network epicenter</span>. I'm lazy. I don't like to have to login to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Plaxo, etc, just to post the latest product trend I just found. Think of it like a consumers social networking mini-CMS with a few shared features. Post once, and select where to publish. Phew! My life just got alot easier.<br /><br />2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Google-like social network search.</span> Why do you have to do a "#" in front of something on Twitter to track it well? (So much for '<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231368613&sr=8-1">Don't Make Me Think!</a>) You should be able to search social networking sites exclusively as well as search multiple social-networking sites at once. Like Google Images and Video, you should be able to search *just* social media sites for things like "Twitter+Virus." Right now, many of the social networking sites don't communicate effectively at all the key asset they have - buzz.<br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">My Groupies.</span> Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, - you know about me. I've published it (and published more). Can't you use that content to suggest groups that make sense to categorize people, rather than just leave it to us? Like "Would you like to create a Product Management" group?" Who knows? You might even find better revenue streams for advertising if you do. At it's social n<span style="font-style: italic;">etworking</span> - you could suggest other people I might be interested in.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tag the Influencers - and spread the word. </span>There are people out there that say some pretty smart stuff - on everything from how to eat (well) locally in January, to the best way to do behavioral profiling. Right now finding those influencers is like going fishing, and a continual follow and unfollow. Yuck.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Share the love (and my contact lists).</span> Social Networking sites are used by different people for different things. Many have APIs that are open - and I'd like to sync my contacts in each website. So how about using my contact on Twitter to extend to Facebook and vice versa. I don't have email addresses. I have www.twitter.com/lotsofpeople. Make it easier to link them.<br /><br />Eh-hem. Stepping down from my soapbox. Somebody make these? Please? </span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3091129076565613834.post-29812854261952137252009-01-05T09:50:00.000-08:002009-01-29T13:50:45.132-08:00Doing Market Analysis - Easy Right?<span style="font-size:85%;">For anyone involved in product strategy, one of the key milestones to accomplish is market research. At it's </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >best</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, it uncovers that diamond in business and market research - an opportunity for a strongly profitable product. At it's </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >worst</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, it's a bunch of statistics in a sales presentation - after the product has launched because it seemed cool to build at the time.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Looking at the definition of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research">market research</a> on Wikipedia, and you'll get a generic look at primary and secondary research to 'discovering what people want, need, or believe.' That's great, but how do you do it? </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">Market Research Frameworks</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Before you begin digging around and buying a bunch of research or conduct your next customer survey you may investigate available frameworks in providing market analysis. Here's a review of a few I've tried...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Approach #1: Just dig around and find something good...</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br />Also know as 'What Framework?' This 'dig and report' method is what I started with in product management. It begins:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Executive:</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> "Do some market research around the product."<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Me:</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> "Okay. I'll report on what I come up with."<br /><br />Then for about 3-4 days or more I'm digging through literally hundreds of pages of research on the [Insert Industry here] Landscape , market trends, market dynamics, competitors, and the technology, product and/or consumer landscape. Not only is it haphazard, the outcome is more a business report on "I found out that there's a bunch of information out there, and we have 20 competitors, and have a big market opportunity." While interesting, it is neither providing an opinion on where the product roadmap should be, nor validates some hunches on where a product should strategically be positioned.<br /><br />Finally, it ends in analysis paralysis - my head spinning with charts, graphs, and statistics. This is why I sought out a framework to investigate market research.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Approach #2: SWOT Analysis</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZuyMuUpgLw0WvS420gVO2_KgekEOC8HWHvS_V_7ytvep5BSrYje-J49F6RtadM-5oQ0_Rbfp_EbA57LyeldSP6CRWnDS1OepRPcYAsofGZoznEjQmueuoIa4VKcVKkf7BOcoXGXKdSPG/s1600-h/SWOT_en.svg.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZuyMuUpgLw0WvS420gVO2_KgekEOC8HWHvS_V_7ytvep5BSrYje-J49F6RtadM-5oQ0_Rbfp_EbA57LyeldSP6CRWnDS1OepRPcYAsofGZoznEjQmueuoIa4VKcVKkf7BOcoXGXKdSPG/s320/SWOT_en.svg.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287870511932604130" border="0" /></a>Organizations have used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis">SWOT analysis</a> to assess a product in its competitive landscape. This 'quick and dirty' planning method is great to whiteboard a realistic picture of where your product is, as well as where the competition may head next.<br /><br />I use a SWOT an analysis to generate and assess the assets and liabilities of a product. So Let's say I have X product. I would look at our product and the top competitors and ask:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Strengths:</span> What are the product strengths that differentiate it from the competition? What organizational strengths do we bring to the table?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Weaknesses:</span> Where are the features lacking or underdeveloped? Are their alliances or organizational weaknesses that erode market share?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Opportunities:</span> Where can we differentiate the product? What strategies can we put in place to gain greater market share?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Threats</span>: How could this product fail? What factors in the market or the roadmap can bring it to obsolescence or loose market share?<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">In my estimation, SWOT tends to focus mostly on your product and the competitors around it. This framework is bit too </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >close</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >, in looking purely on how an organization can meet objectives set for a product and </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >narrow</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"> in looking only your product vs. the competition. Often market research is sought in determining the objectives themselves, and this is where it can be limiting.</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">. .Often the organization looks to product to</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" > set the objectives of the product</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"> - or at least recommend them. SWOT will not help you set the product objectives because it assumes they have already been set.</span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >Approach #3: The 5 and 6 Forces Model</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kL0FeEQRE38RJimAW_3JhfV0rqiSEHfulmCMhIISbpyCl3hvmk6XdBgfYSEHQMPWeJcbx8rM6Dx4xXkTwqQsmpM0wPRbYQtMPz_qsePpq9BgwOX_5wbYTVe2e__5LgV1MIn1znIMJq9N/s1600-h/Porters_five_forces.PNG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 187px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kL0FeEQRE38RJimAW_3JhfV0rqiSEHfulmCMhIISbpyCl3hvmk6XdBgfYSEHQMPWeJcbx8rM6Dx4xXkTwqQsmpM0wPRbYQtMPz_qsePpq9BgwOX_5wbYTVe2e__5LgV1MIn1znIMJq9N/s320/Porters_five_forces.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287917397172535202" border="0" /></a>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_5_forces_analysis">5</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Forces_Model">6 Forces Model</a> look at product as 5 (or 6) key forces that shape a business strategy.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br />This framework goes deeper into the market dynamics of where you are investigating a product.<br /><br />Each of the forces are used to evaluate the competitive intensity of a market. If there is intense competition there is both strong interest from potential buyers to purchase a product, and business model(s) that ensure companies make a profit to meet this demand.<br /><br />The forces include:</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br />1) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Competition</span> for your product</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >.<br />2) <span style="font-weight: bold;">New entrants</span> that would compete in your space, often with new business models.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >3) <span style="font-weight: bold;">End users/Buyers</span> and their bargaining power on influencing price, integration, and concentration</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >.<br />4) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Suppliers </span>of raw materials, components and services for your product and and their bargaining power on business strategy.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br />5) </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Substitutes products</span> and those factors that influence it (cost of product, perceived value, cost to switch, etc)</span><span style="font-size:85%;">.<br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">6) </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Complementary products/ The government/ The public</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">. This 6th factor takes into account either strategic alliances are put in place, and how the government or public can influence business strategy for a particular product.</span><br /><br />This is a great framework to investigate what is out there in an industry for a potential product. It's a great whiteboard exercise as well in that it lets you reference the dynamics that are shaping the product strategy.<br /><br />There are some drawbacks to this approach, however. For example, it doesn't see the relationships in how buyers, suppliers, and competitors work together to influence the business environment. In technology and software for example, there are a myriad of strategic alliances that may cause a buyer to switch - not because of your product feature set, but because your product "plays well with others" (Salesforce.com might be an example). Secondarily, the value of the product seems to be in creating barriers to entry by competitors in this framework, which is not always true (take the iPod for example, low barrier to entry in MP3 players, yet they gained tremendous marketshare).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What Next? </span><br /><br />For market analysis, I do both the 6 forces and the SWOT analysis as a framework to start my market research. I'm not by any stretch a purist, but both approaches can uncover some market dynamics that can shape your product strategy, and uncover where market research is needed. This realistically may keep your head from spinning in a bunch of research! Usually the 6 forces first to look for the product opportunity, and SWOT too more closely look at the competitive landscape for a product. These usually uncover where additional market research is needed in investigating a product strategy.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=2baa5ffa-442c-487c-9670-7edb54d64181"></script><br /></span>Julie Anne Redahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06563974638631249488noreply@blogger.com4