New Venture Marketing

The Souk & the Supermarket

A favorite client threatened to come to my site today and post a comment to the effect I haven't blogged in too long and isn't that a bit hypocritical for someone who is so enthusiastic about new Internet media.  So with the hope of doing a pre-emptive strike, I am posting today.  Okay, John, the ball is in your court.  How about that new web site?

I will be teaching a course at Stanford Continuing Studies this spring on the Internet and new digital media and I am delighted.

The course will be entitled:  The Souk & the Supermarket:  Demystifying New Internet Media.  The Souk in this instance will be a "new" model for community, chaotic, messy and ever changing, and the Supermarket, my metaphor for a conventional business, highly structured and controlled.  I've wanted a chance to explore the changes I have seen resulting from the impact of the Internet. This is a great opportunity.  So stay tuned.

Intuit Blogging: QuickBooks Online

I meant to post a copy of the nice presentation Paul Rosenfeld, General Manger of QuickBooks Online.  Paul sent me a copy of his PowerPoint after presenting the ATW seminar I recently led.  Entitled, "Blogging -- Why, What, How," I think it a very insightful piece for those who are considering blogging for business.  Here it is now.

Download atw_blog_deck_32006.ppt

Resources on Business Blogging

Getting ready for a panel next week on business blogging, I thought it would be useful to provide some initial resources for those who wish to learn more about the subject.  There are now a great many books and posts on the subject.  These are just a few favorites:

A few thoughtful articles on blogging for business

.  Does Your Company Belong in the Blogosphere?, Katherine Heires, HBS Working Knowledge newsletter.

.  23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers -- Is a Blog Right for You? by Darren Rouse, Problogger.

.  Marketing Challenge:  When its best not to blog, Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll, MarketProfs.

.  The Beginner's Guide to Corporate Blogging, Fredrik Wacka.

.  Blogs level the playing field for small companies by alpha blogger, Steve Rubel.

.  Business Blogging:  Big Companies  and  Business Blogging:  Small Companies  on my own blog.

.  The Flip Side of Corporate Blogging:  Sun Microsystems says blogging helped rebuild its reputation, by Sally Falkow.

.  Business Blog Case Study: Stonyfield Farms by blogger, Rich Bruner.

Blogging For Business

On Thursday, March 23, 2006, I will be leading a panel on "Blogging for Business:  An Insider's Look at How to Use Blogs At Your Company, Business or Non-Profit "for the Alliance for Technology and Women (ATW) at Applera in Foster City.

Joining me will be an outstanding line up of panelists:

-- Paul Rosenfeld, General Manger for QuickBooks Online Edition, whose team blog, QuickBooks Online Edition "expresses news and views about Online Edition by the people who make it."

-- Tara Hunt, director of Marketing at Riya.com whose blog, Horsepigcow, covers such topics as markeing, living on he online life, 'web 2.0' social software technology and feminist theory...

-- John Earnhardt, Senior Manager of Policy Communications for Cisco, Worldwide Governmental affairs, who began Cisco's first blog and is its main author.

-- Britt Bravo, a consultant for nonprofits who writes for at least 4 blogs:  Blogher.org (leading blog and conference for women), NetSquared.org (social web to nonprofits),Yougcaucasus.neweurasia.net (bloggers mentoring project) , and her personal blog, Have Fun * Do Good.  Britt is also the author of a blog about building community and addressing global social issues.

They are a very diverse group of experienced of bloggers.  Come join us and discuss the use this highly debated communications tool.

Email versus RSS

The discussion about email gets a bit more complicated when email is compared to RSS. First, while email is content sent out over an electronic communications system, RSS is a delivery method used for sending out blogs -- and a great many other things. Email travels the Internet by means of SMNP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), blogs via RSS (Really Simple Syndication).  So to liken email to RSS is to compare apples to kiwis, they are not the same kind of fruit .

That comparison also doesn't do justice the growing importance of RSS as a new delivery mechanism for many kinds of content. RSS has been most associated with blogs whose use it fits ideally.  Today RSS feeds alert readers when a new blog post is available. There is no time lost in hunting each site for an update. The use of RSS allows the recipient to follow a great many blogs, reading only those posts of interest.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  RSS is also ideal channel for sending out company news, a software update, or a security warning, and it will alert you when new information is in.  You can then read what you have been sent at whatever time it is convenient. Because RSS is a "pull" medium, the reader can decide or not to pull the RSS feed in.

RSS also allows the reader to choose exactly the information he or she needs and not every piece of information published.  An investor might order financial statements and business news, a distributor, information on a specific product or technology, and an editor, updates on information related to a region or application.   RSS is a new electronic delivery system which offers convenience as well as choice.

As as important, RSS can be read by search engines and will effect a company's page rank or "findability" on Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine.  I can't overstate the importance of this last benefit as it is not one email shares -- and one which is often overlooked. When you send out a press release, product upgrade, security fix out via RSS search engines will be able to see and point readers to it.  Thus, a release sent out over RSS has double value:  There first time it is sent out as news and then on an ongoing basis by search engines that will point to the release again and again as the specific subject is searched.

So the discussion should not be about email versus RSS or content versus a delivery mechanism but rather what you can do with content over the Internet that you could never do before. 

 

Should Every CEO Blog?

I had lunch the other day with 3 friends, and before I knew it we were talking about blogging.  The others had all heard about this new phenomenon.  Everyone wanted to know if I thought there was anything to it.  And, if so, should they be blogging?  Now I do not think blogging in business is a fad but a whole new way of communicating.  But as much as I am a blogging enthusiast, I also feel that the decision on whether to blog, should be predicated on the objective.  In other words, the person should consider blogging only if it enables him or her to do something that they could best do via a blog. 

Blogging for Business
I do not believe everyone should blog, especially every CEO.  First, it requires a great deal of time and commitment, commitment that might be better spent addressing some more important concern.  Second, it requires some comfort with writing and not everyone will have that ease. And third, it means you will be making in yourself more accessible to customers, vendors, business partners, and even competitors. 

How to Compete With Microsoft

I just finished listening to a brief CNBC interview with Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com.  Benioff describes a new generation of companies that are competing with Microsoft, not by maintaining a billion dollar war chest or by applying brute force, but by using the power of the Internet to greatest advantage.  "The Internet," says Benioff, "requires new kinds of technology, product and business models."  The same could be said of marketing and communications.  Today the Web allows companies to sell and promote their products and services in entirely new and exciting ways, at lower cost and greater effectiveness.

This new kind of marketing is online, global, and high-touch. Customers will rely on word of mouth references and use the Internet to search for new products that fit their very specific

Blogging for Business -- Small Companies

Business Blogging offers tremendous advantage for small companies. 

Business Blogging offers tremendous advantage for small companies. While blogging enables large publicly-held corporations to look and act more like smaller, more personal counterparts, blogging gives smaller companies the look and feel of a larger more established firm.
 
Blogging can help a small company establish a market presence hitherto reserved for the big guys, establish its credibility and expertise. More importantly, blogging can help drive search engine rankings which can enable a small company to be more readily found. 

Business blogging builds networks and helps to establish relationships with customers, partners, investors, analysts, press and anyone else who is interested in what your company has to offer.

Business blogging is very cost effective to implement.

Important for a small firm, blogging  requires very little money, though a rather healthy  bit of writing and time.  Many blog hosting services are free of charge or cost only a few dollars a month for extra services, such as analytics or more flexibility with blog site design.

Business blogging offers tremendous benefits for the small company.

I'd like to share my own experience which I think typifies some of these benefits.

Blogging for Business -- Big Companies

A few days ago I had the opportunity to speak about Business Blogs for High Tech Companies at the SD Forum, and have a very rich exchange.  I would say that about 40 people attended, all from the high-tech arena, split between consultants, entrepreneurs, and those who worked or were looking for work at both small and large companies.  Not surprising for a high-tech event, most were familiar with blogging and as many as 40% blogged.

What did surprise me, however, was how few of those were using blogs in their business and the concerns that possibility seemed to raise. 

Business Blogging: High Tech (1)

I'm compiling a list of business blogging for high tech companies and for what purpose the blogs are used.   For this list I'd like to define a high tech company as one that develops, builds or makes a product.  I realize that the definition of "high tech" is a bit elusive as is "product", but this is what I have so far.  I would welcome any additions or comments. 

Sun: many employee blogs & CEO, +JavaOne Conference & Java technology
IBM:  has some 2800 internal blogs & many for developers, product management and other
Microsoft: an enormous number of internal and external blogs on products, technology, communities, in addition to Microsoft Evangelist/Blogger Robert Scoble
Macromedia, 20+ blogs on products, for developers & customers
Google: both official (about search engine, tips etc) and unofficial (rumors, news, opinions)
Yahoo: employees on products, search etc
HP:  perhaps a dozen or so blogs on technical (for software developers) and executive blogs (worldwide marketing, services, alliances)
Cisco: one blog lobbying on public policy issues of concern to Cisco
Apple:  no company blogs on site, but some 20  employees blog and several unofficial ones
Red Hat: executive and developer blogs, they also had a blog on their roadshow, but it was taken down

from own research and some from Jeremy Wright's blog via Commoncraft