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.

The New PR: It's all about Findability

I had an interesting exchange with a potential new client, a Finnish high tech company with an exceptional product that is already becoming recognized in its field.  The company has only about 300 potential clients around the world, all at very large companies. Their head of marketing wanted to know what PR could do for them.  Moreover, like many start ups who have bootstrapped their success, customer-by-customer, this company was doubtful that something as mass market focused as public relations could have any impact on them and more importantly their customer.

I agreed.  A traditional PR program which builds credibility and visibility by "influencing the influencers" and extending that base of influence to customers is becoming less and less effective. Both in terms of what it costs to build such an effort and its likely impact today.  In a world turning increasingly to search engines for information and research meetings with analysts and editors, traditional press releases carry less and less weight.

So what does a small company in a small town in far away country with an exceptional technology and highly targeted, customer base do?  I would suggest they start with their web site and see how well it is built to leverage what the Internet has to offer.

RSS is also a micro marketing tool

RSS is also a micro marketing tool.  It allows companies to reach more finely targeted market segments through narrowcast technologies (blogging, podcasting, moblogging, instant messaging etc.) and to tailor content to specific user needs.

This trend a similar change from what BusinessWeek calls the Vanishing Mass Market  -- selling to large audiences through the vehicle of mass media (radio, TV, print) -- to a new model based on marketing one-to-one. 

The shift from "one-to-many" to “1-to-1” marketing would be cost prohibitive if it weren’t for new Internet technologies, which offer fast, effective, highly targeted communications at an inexpensive price.  RSS lets you receive blog post or podcast when you wish it.  It's a highly targeted, highly personal marketing tool.

RSS is a Pull Medium, where TV, Radio and Newspapers are Push

RSS is a "pull" medium. Readers must elect to receive or pull in specific content via a RSS reader. For a company this might mean sending out press releases to those editors or customers who’ve expressed an interest in specific product or technology.

By comparison today's more traditional media (television, newspapers, radio) are good examples of “push” media where the same information is broadcast or “pushed” out to many readers, irrespective of their specific interests. While the concept of this new “pull” media may sound pretty threatening to some companies, its strength lies in the very granting of permission of those who choose to receive it. Those who elect to pull in your content are going to be the ones who really want to read it, and there is great power in that.

Growing Use of RSS and why companies should use it

In my travels online I see a growing acceptance for RSS for use in business, and this is a very good thing.  RSS is a new kind of content delivery technology, similar to email.  Like email, you don't so much need to understand the underlying technology, as how it might be applied.  And as so many of the new digital technologies, RSS leverages the power of the Internet in ways email was never designed for.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a way of delivering or "syndicating" content from your company's web site and of retrieving it over the Internet via an RSS reader.  These readers pull in feeds from any site you are tracking and alert you when a new information is in.  Instead of painstakingly visiting each site to see what has been added, RSS readers do it for you and then report on what has been added.  Its simplicity, ease-of-use and real-time response make it a highly attractive way to receive news.

RSS enables companies to communicate more effectively

RSS enables companies to communicate more effectively with each of its specific audiences from customers, employees, and partners to editors, analysts and investors.  It also has the hidden value of improving a company's online presence and the companies ability to be found on the Internet.  Today many large companies, such as Cisco, IBM or Boeing use RSS in their communications arsenal, but small companies can use it too, and perhaps, to even greater advantage.

Almost any bit of information can be sent out via an RSS feed and in almost any media format.  A company's press release, new software rev or a security alert can be sent out in text form by RSS as can audio content via an .MP3 reader (such as the Apple iPod) or video via, say, your cell phone. RSS feeds and readers allows you to deliver media rich messages that make content more attractive and powerful, says RSS expert Rok Hrastnik, and he is right.

Towards a New Communications Model (3)

The following post also appears on the IAOC blog site where it is part of a week long discussion lead by Elizabeth Albrycht, entitled "Towards a New Communications Model."  Let me know if you agree -- or have some other ideas.

When I first started to explore how the Internet and new communications technologies had impacted our own profession, I was really doing so with the idea of catching up with the industry. I had been too busy with clients to spend much time researching technology for my own business needs.  But the economic downturn in
Silicon Valley, gave me both the time and the opportunity to invest in my own knowledge base.  As I began to understand the true scope of the technological changes that came out of the dotcom boom (and bust), I was amazed.  I felt like the legendary Rip Van Winkle who after going to sleep one night, awoke 20 years later to find that his world had changed.  

Toward a New Communications Model (2)

This week under the leadership of blogging thought leader Elizabeth Albrycht, we will be discussing a new model for communications.   Elizabeth kicked off the week with a reflective exploration of "social practices within the framework of 'cooperation.'"  From her first piece:

... I open our discussion today with this statement, because I believe that "social practices" is what has historically been given short shrift in the world of technology -- and technology-based communications. We professional communicators adopt the latest-greatest tech tools (often rather slowly!) but we don't generally give much deep thought to what these tools mean to those we apply

Towards a New Communications Model (1)

There will be a blog next week, hosted by the International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC) and lead by Elizabeth Albrycht on New Models for Communications.  Several of us will be writing about new models and new possibilities in communications. I hope you will join us.

from Elizabeth's blog:

Towards a New Communications Model:

Over the past few years, many changes have confronted communications professionals due to the Internet, the web, mobility etc (basically all of the new networked communications tools).  Because of these new tools, a fundamental shift in the entire model of communications (including