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January 31, 2006
As I mentioned earlier, Content Week has joined the ranks of tradeshows that don't readily provide Internet access to attendees. Very, very irritating.
That being said, the day kicked off with a solid presentation from Google's Dave Girouard on "content management and user experiences." The presentation was a bit all over the map in terms of content, but I enjoyed his rather humorous list, "The Top 5 Ways to Avoid the New World."
- Restrict publishing to just a few employees
- Require publishers (i.e. employees or other content contributors) to follow strict metadata standards
- Assume if you build it they will come
- Build complex interfaces...and call them "sophisticated"
- When in doubt, restrict access
Not surprisingly, Dave took multiple stabs at tagging, saying it is doomed to fail because it is simply too subjective. After all, how can the average human be trusted to categorize something correctly?
Needless to say, this particular section of the presentation caused some murmuring in the audience, and one attendee flat out challenged Dave to a debate on the topic. (As far as I know, Dave declined the challenge.)
More show feedback later...
January 31, 2006
We've had a few people ask us where we stashed our RSS whitepaper, so here's a link. It's hidden behind the obligatory registration form, of course. I'll also add it to the main whitepaper page in the next few days.
BTW, if you are waiting for the Q&A from our RSS RX Webinar, I promise that will be available soon. Janet and I have been at Content Week this week and the show organizers -- despite coordinating a show on Web content management -- didn't think it was necessary to actually provide Web access.
Argh.
January 24, 2006
Just a quick reminder that we are hosting a free Web seminar on "How to Add RSS to Your Marketing Mix" this Thursday (1/26) at 9 AM Pacific. It's certainly a hot topic for marketers, as evidenced by the 800+ people that have already signed up to attend. More details and registration can be found here.
In other event news, Janet and Chanin Ballance, the CEO of viaLanguage, will be giving a presentation on "Managing the Multicultural Web" on Monday (1/30) at Content Week in Las Vegas. We've also signed up for a booth, so Janet and I are both being forced to spend three whole days there. (Yep, it's a rough job sometimes, but someone has to do it.)
As always, we will blog from the show.
January 23, 2006
Today I had one of Marqui's management team ask me for a couple of paragraphs to describe Web 2.0. Since I'd written about it before for Marqui's World, I said I'd pull something together and (of course) Googled "Web 2.0." My favorite reference there is a white paper that Tim O'Rielly wrote that drills deeply into the concept of Web 2.0. It's great work, but I needed a simple abstract. I didn't have time to pull together something by digging through the whole Web 2.0 white paper.
Enter my next search, at wikipedia. It's my favorite new tool for quick and complete search results. I got not only a nice overview of Web 2.0, but some excellent background on how the concept of Web 2.0 came about.
Next time you need some good reference material, check out wikipedia at www.wikipedia.org. It's a very cool tool, because people around the world work to update each wikipedia entry, keep them well researched and well written.
Hint: THAT's very Web 2.0.
January 19, 2006
Things have been a little quiet at Marqui's World this week since Janet and I are up in Canada sitting in on our annual sales kick-off meetings. It may seem like a no-brainer to some folks out there, but any marketer who is not actively participating in such meetings is really missing out.
Aside from just the bonding aspect of it, these meetings provide a helpful look into what's working (and what's not) for the sales organization. For marketers, this is a perfect opportunity to make sure all programs are in synch with sales needs and are delivering the required results.
This week's event has been particularly interesting since we have a consultant (BJ Bushur, President of Unlimited Results) on site for some "sales optimization" training. In addition to a compelling presentation on best practices in prospecting and lead qualification, she's putting the team through a couple of exercises on cold calling and how to "close the deal."
Now, like most marketers, I tend to roll my eyes a bit whenever I hear sales reps complain about how many leads they are getting and what the quality is. After all, lead generation isn't exactly an easy task and it sometimes seems like sales people only consider a lead "qualified" if it comes with a signed PO.
That being said, cold calling -- or even warm calling -- isn't easy either. And I have to say I was more than a little relieved that it wasn't my name that was selected to do a mock cold call in front of half of the Marqui staff.
But then maybe it should have been me. And perhaps all marketers should spend a little time hitting the phones to see first hand what resonates with prospects. It would definitely provide a different perspective on things.
Anyways, that's just a little food for thought. The sales trainer is starting to stare at me right now so I better stop typing and start paying attention.
BTW, if you want BJ's contact info, drop me a note and I'll send it along.
January 13, 2006
I was lucky enough to represent Marqui on a panel on business blogging yesterday in Tacoma, WA for the Puget Sound chapter of the PRSA. It was an early morning meeting full of enthusiastic communications professionals interesed in blogging, and well worth the time to be there.
The other two panelists were smart, articulate and well prepared. Kevin Pedraja, VP, CMO of Sterling Communications, and Mark Briggs, The Tacoma News Tribune's interactive media content strategy manager - managing six bloggers on staff.
I thought I'd point out the reference I made to Tara's post about comparing wire services here, for those who might want to see it.
On the drive home I had two conference calls, and another three conference calls that afternoon. I grossly neglected my e-mail, and was fretting about it to my acupuncturist last night while trying to relax with needles in my stomach, legs and arms. She said (in her wonderful Mexican accent),
"Janet Johnson! You've had a very busy day already. Give work your brain, not your blood."
Now, I recognize the irony hearing this from a very talented woman who sticks people for a living.
And then she quoted Oscar Wilde, who once said (when asked why he hadn't written for awhile):
"I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works."
I picked up e-mail this morning, and indeed, the world went on without me quite well while I was 'gone.' Leaving the virtual world for the day was actually delightful. Once I got over worrying about what I was missing online.
Some genius, eh?
January 12, 2006
I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to listen to these two gentlemen present at an AMA luncheon this week on "Building Brand, Buzz and Business with Direct Marketing." In case you aren't familiar with these guys, Chris is the CMO and Co-Founder of Exact Target (the big e-mail solutions provider) and Richard Rosen is the CEO of AlloyRed (the award-winning interactive agency).
A large portion of the conversation focused on how the various disciplines of marketing are starting to converge. Chris and Richard both strongly believe that marketers need to stop viewing everything in silos and start leveraging all activities in a more unified manner.
Some other highlights of the conversation:
- Richard made an excellent point about the importance of empathizing with a target audience. He says many marketers think they are doing this by simply rattling off a list of pain points, but that in most cases they really aren't building any sort of emotional connection with their audience.
- The word "respect" also came up quite a bit in the discussion, with Richard and Chris urging marketers to really think through their programs and make sure they were relevant. Chris also reminded companies to "talk" in a more authentic voice, saying "People like to buy from other people."
- Both Chris and Richard believe that e-mail marketing is best used for relationship-building, NOT acquisition.
- On a somewhat similar note, Chris loathes the use of the word "campaign" and believes marketers must stop thinking in terms of campaigns and more in terms of "relationships."
- Chris also provided some interesting insight into his budget at Exact Target. He says his budget is completely dynamic and that he has tasked his third-party agencies with simply generating as many quality leads as possible, using the tactics they think are most appropriate. Agencies are then paid based on how many leads they can deliver, the quality of those leads and how many actually convert to deals. This model is likely to make a lot of companies squeal, but Chris predicts that in the very near future "dynamic budgets" will be the only way to go.
If you get a chance, you might also want to check out Chris's blog on e-mail marketing. He has a lot of good stuff in there -- in fact, it was named one of the 10 best blogs of 2005 by Marketing Sherpa.
January 11, 2006
Hugh MacLeod's posts are almost always amusing but yesterday's "Top Ten Blogger Lies" is just priceless.
Warning: While this one is pretty clean, some of Hugh's posts are...um... kind of colorful. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, I am very sorry if you stumble across anything you find offensive.
January 10, 2006
In case you didn't see the press release yesterday, I am delighted to announce that Michael O'Connor Clarke (a.k.a. The Flackster) is now a member of the Marqui team.
Michael has even agreed to add his two cents to Marqui's World now and again, so folks will get a break from having to constantly put up with just me and Janet.
Welcome, Michael!
January 6, 2006
I know at first blush it sounds like an oxymoron, but unplugging the Internet is all the rage - enabling people to get information anytime, from anywhere. Once upon a time we were forced to get this information only from our PCs. Suddenly that's so 2004.
Just look at Yahoo's announcement in USA Today (there's some irony there for a long-term technology veteran - to have USA Today covering a technology announcement) at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Vegas today.
Promoting free content (it's all about content management, after all) like photos, movie listings, and blogs delivered to your iPod, television, mobile phone, etc. is a major theme I'm seeing everywhere these days.
So what does that mean for marketers? Another distribution channel to worry about? Another technology to learn?
Actually, there's good news all round. One of the enabling technologies in this shift of content to the 'real world' revolution is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. As Tara noted yesterday, Marqui plans to make RSS meaningful to marketers in an upcoming web seminar on January 26. We invite you to sign up here to join us.
There are many marketing tools out there (Marqui is one of them) that will allow marketers to push content out to the world beyond PCs. The only thing marketers will really need to worry about is the quality (oh, that familiar theme!) of what you're delivering. Let us show you how.
January 5, 2006
Then sign up for Marqui's January 26 web seminar on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and find out how. Janet will be presenting along with Jon Maroney, President of FreeRange Communications.
As always, our Web seminars are free of charge - and free of boring techno-babble. Anyone who attends will also get their hands on a copy of our new whitepaper, RSS Rx.
Come on, you know you wanna sign up...
January 4, 2006
Janet gave a presentation on blogging to members of a local chamber of commerce bright and early this morning. Not surprising, one of the first questions asked was where to find topics to blog about. This is a great question and it comes up in every single presentation we give.
Usually, Janet and I recommend the following sources:
- Other relevant or popular blogs
- Business, trade or vertical media articles
- Industry events (tradeshows, user groups, web seminars, etc.) -- in fact, Janet and I frequently notice a boost in readership when we blog from tradeshows
- Start incorporating mini polls into any event you host and then blog the results
- Analyst reports or other industry research
- Your own experiences or ideas
However, I received an e-mail newsletter from SmallSiteNews yesterday that contained an article by Wayne Hurlbert on this topic and it had a few more suggestions. The article (which is titled "Blog Posts: Out Of Topic Ideas?") doesn't seem to be available online (very silly!), but here's the most relevant section:
Instead of worrying about what to write about, often ideas appear when least expected. During the day, as you blog hop through other blogs or RSS feeds, jot down the posts that deserve post length comment beyond those left on the blog itself. Even the comments on other blogs, or on your own blog, can generate some very powerful posting ideas.
Other bloggers often provide powerful posts that are virtual launching pads for posts on other blogs. Citing the other blog, and properly linking to it of course, will often lead to you providing another entirely different angle on the subject.
Some bloggers develop an idea file. When topic ideas become hard to find, they simply dig into the topic box. Posts appear like magic. In fact, a tour of a topic file will often keep a blogger filled with ideas, and their spinoffs, for weeks.
Re-examine older postings. In your blog archives dwell a goldmine of potential post ideas. You could think of them as once and future posts. Many older topics are begging for follow up, and some may require an entirely new focus. The angle you took on one issue will most definitely not be the only one. Turn an older post around, and look at the subject from the opposite direction. You will most likely find a week's worth of ideas in that single post.
Start a blogging series. Write about the same topic each day for a week. When you do a series, be sure to offer teasers about the next installment.
Good ideas, Wayne!
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