New Media Observer

What are you doing wrong?

2011-11-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

If you’re mom was like mine, she was very good at catching you doing something wrong. Sure, I got hugs, too, but she seemed to think it was part of her job to make sure I knew about my mistakes before I made them. If only I had paid more attention.

We don’t do that to each as much in business, but perhaps we should. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone tell you about the biggest mistakes you’re making in your company’s PR efforts? Well, I thought you’d never ask.

Check out this story, courtesy of LinkedIn’s new news service.

New Media Promotional Opportunities

2011-10-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Local businesses face the task of finding creative ways to connect with their local clientele. Fortunately, local Web marketing can offer a variety of solutions to reach your audience. In the November issue of Website magazine, for instance, Allison Howen discusses the three tiers of local web marketing.

According to a recent study by strategy and communications agency Cone Inc., 85% of consumers research online before purchasing services or products so it makes sense to utiize local search-based advertising, such as Google Places and Local.com, both of which offer free services and increase both online visibility and foot traffic into a brick and mortar store. This is the first tier she covers in her article.

For those with a budget, tier 1 also includes Google Adwords Express, a locally targeted advertising program designed specifically to increase exposure to local businesses. Other directory-based advertising platforms, such as superMedia and YellowPages.com, also offer cost effective ways for small businesses to be noticed by their local prospects.

Daily deal promotions are the second tier in Allison’s article. Groupon and Living Social are primary examples of deal promotion platforms. These sites have grown in popularity and are particularly trendy during these times of economic difficulty. The article warns, however, of numerous reports of local businesses collapsing under the overwhelming demands that can go along with a successful Groupon promotion. If you are willing to assume the risk, and are able to convert one-time visitors into steady or long-term customers, daily deal vendors should be a part of your web marketing mix. Website magazine lists popular daily deal vendors online at wsm.co/DealDeluge

The third tier includes social media advertising such as a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn group. For example, creating an advertisement on Facebook is straight-forward and relatively inexpensive and can reach targeted audiences (age, interest or location) with little effort. Twitter is still evolving its advertising options, but currently, with a minimum budget of $5,000 a month, it is not a viable option for a small business.

There are many ways for local business to capitalize on the Web. Local Marketing Source provides useful information and lists 10 Tips to Market a Local Business Online. While the traditional marketing tools still have value in a local market, businesses will need to rely more on Web platforms to stay connected in the current market.

2011-10-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

In a remarkably short period of time, we have all become familiar with the words, “There’s an app for that.” But when it comes to building apps for our businesses, it can be difficult to know which kind of app will best suit your needs.

Diane Buzzeo, CEO and founder of Ability Commerce, discusses in the November issue of Website magazine, three parameters to consider when reviewing an app platform to deliver your message to the largest number of consumers. These considerations are accessibility, performance/features, and cost/profitability. The results of this analysis will help you determine whether to create a native or web-based app.

Native apps are those written specifically for the mobile platform, i.e. iPhone, Android or Blackberry. Some are still being written for Windows Mobile, but we’re not sure how long that will last. Web apps are made to run from the web on any platform using a web browser.

In regard to accessibility, live native apps are a much more functional tools, however, the user has to download each individually, and with three popular mobile operating systems, companies need to commission three different versions of the same app to grasp the largest available audience.

Web apps are more accessible, but at the cost of performance standards. This may be improving with new technology that will work with future devices to eliminate the need to continually update its mobile app for the three major mobile operating systems. The move to HTML 5 may also impact these apps in the future.

When determining performance/functionality needs, a native app is a much more suitable choice for complex or graphics-heavy content, but consider web apps a better choice for broad accessibility and searchability. Web technology may soon close the gap with native apps performance by offering video and animation features through the typical Web browser.

Cost is always a concern with any marketing tool and native apps are a larger investment. They are sold through a centralized location, such as the Apple Store or the Android Marketplace. The drawback to these markets is that they maintain ultimate control over the distribution of your content. Because Web apps are directly accessible via the Web, there is no need to download from a central location.

For a great list of comparative benefits to these two types of apps, visit Jason D. O’Grady’s blog on zdNet.

Although native apps seem to have the current market, it will be interesting to see what the new technology will make happen in the future of web apps.

Fannie Mae speaks to troubled borrowers

2010-08-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Fannie Mae launched a new website today. KnowYourOptions.com offers troubled borrowers options that do not include walking away from an unpaid mortgage. The site makes heavy use of video and includes talking avatars that speak plainly and clearly to site visitors about next steps.

Servicers have been struggling in an attempt to get borrowers who are at risk of walking away from their home loans to come back to the table. Now, it appears that the nation's largest mortgage investor is offering some help and using the webs most compelling medium to do it.

Garth Graham and Bob Sullivan have been telling me for months that video is the answer to financial illiteracy in this country. I recently wrote about their company, Financial Literacy Solutions, Plantation, Fla., over on HousingWire.com. They are providing Internet video learning solutions targeted to the Financial Services Industry.

The FLS flagship product is the “Interactive Video Solution” (IVS) which allows companies to quickly deploy up to the minute educational video information to its customers through their existing website. Completely branded and customized solutions can be deployed in days, allowing FLS clients the ability to better educate their customers through the Internet.

The company recently went live with a solution for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is helping them teach borrowers in that state all about mandatory mediation before they ever get on the phone with a counselor.

FLS won't say whether the video solution Fannie Mae is using is there's or not, but it's good to see the nation's largest investor using the medium to interact with borrowers. It could add a layer of transparency to the industry that is definitely needed. Of course, in Fannie's case, it all depends upon whether borrowers accept the company's message or not.

Using a Twitter Contest to Raise Brand Awareness

2010-06-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Wizards of the Coast, the makers of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, have teamed up with the folks over at UGO.com to host a contest using the Twitter social media tool.

The contest involves consumers watching a website for a specific change in the web copy. When they see the change, they try to be the first to tweet the new copy. The first Twitter user to post wins.

This is a great way to use the tool as it forces a core group of consumers/users to monitor a company web property and then, when they see the copy change, they broadcast that copy (which is a sales message from the company) to everyone that follows them. Brilliant.

This isn't the kind of thing that will work on the B2B side, but I'm very pleased to see companies finding ways to leverage the social networks of their customers to reach out to a wider customer base. That's the way to use these tools. You have to get beyond your current client base and spread the word. It's great if you can get your customers to do it for you. Sometimes you have to offer a reward, but it's worth it.

ORC: HUD gets into the social media game

2010-06-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

According to reporters at October Research Corp., the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will be using social media to promote transparency in its operations. According to the news outlet, HUD is making the move "in an effort to better serve the American people." Well, the American people are using social media.

In the article, reporter Eileen Coleman writes, "As the new generation of information seekers primarily accesses news and other content through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, HUD deemed it essential that the department get up to speed on today's popular channels of communication. After all, 50 percent of Facebook's 400 million users log on every day, according to Facebook. Furthermore, while only 21 percent of Twitter's 19 million users are active, that's still 3,990,000 people to reach, according to Mashable.com, a respected social media news blog."

HUD has also reportedly created its own YouTube channel.

Now you can friend HUD on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HUD, follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HUDnews or visit their wiki page at http://www.hud.gov/wiki. The agency did not elaborate yet on the types of information it would share via these new media websites.

HousingWire conference deploys app for upcoming conference

2010-05-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

We've been watching the intersection between live conferences and New Media for some time. While the concept of totally virtual conferences hasn't really caught on yet, we are seeing more online tools being deployed by conference planners to improve the experience of live events for their attendees. The upcoming REO Expo is a case in point.

HousingWire, the media sponsor of the June conference, is making available both iPhone and Android apps for those who plan on attending the show.

The App Features:

Latest complete program agenda
Speaker bios
Exhibitor listing and information
Expo partners
Up-to-the-minute Tweets
Conference maps
Photo gallery with photo upload feature

HousingWire says the application will allow attendees to "get the most from this year’s premier REO event."

We expect that they're right. Find out more about the event online and visit the app's landing page to download your own.

Dell seeks trailblazers

2010-02-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

It amazes me that the computer manufacturers don't do a better job with social media. After all, we depend upon their hardware to visit these online networking sites. You would think that they would be first in line to jump on that bandwagon. I haven't seen much of that.

I did see a recent move by Dell that I though was pretty late in the game for a company of that size. The company recently initiated a campaign that it hopes will build up an online community around its brands. Instead of reaching out to consumers in general, however, the company is wisely targeting business buyers who are more likely to purchase its larger, more expensive computers.

I'm not sure how well this will work for the company as success in social media typically requires a hands-on approach to community development. Computer and software manufacturers have typically outsourced that function to lower labor cost markets like India. That definitely won't work here. Still, I'm glad to see the company get in the game.

Check out Dell's new Trailblazer program here.

Coca-Cola Aims to Find Worldwide Happiness, with Help from New Media

2009-11-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

Let me take a moment to give Coca-Cola some free advertising here...but only because they're setting an example in new media. Coke has recently come up with what they're calling Expedition 206, a plan to send three twenty-somethings around the world to find out what makes people happy.

The travelers, called "Team The Mix," were voted into the position by Coca-Cola fans after going through an extensive application process. Starting in January, the team will travel to 206 countries around the world (where Coca-Cola is sold), documenting their journeys with blog posts, videos, etc. The site is already chock full of media and the journey hasn't even begun.

Props to Coke for engaging consumers. They have a special twitter account for the project where followers can find updates and they've been pushing it on facebook as well. Thus far, Coke has done a nice job of engaging fans and followers, not trying to buy their fan page from the guys who created it but actually working with them to build a community. This attitude is reflected in Expedition 206 by sending "real people" (ie: not Coke Execs) around the world and inviting their followers to enjoy the journey along with their peers. Documentation of the entire process is promised and they're setting themselves up nicely for follow-up media, as team members are sure to gain the affections of consumers as more personality traits are revealed and life lessons are learned.

For more information and updates, visit www.expedition206.com.

Image Source: Dominic's pics

Are You Getting the Most out of Advertising?

2009-07-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

In a recent post on streamingmedia.com's blog, Dan Rayburn mentioned coverage of MJ's memorial service: the fact that everyone is "caught up in the traffic numbers and the many ways they can turn those numbers into nothing more than a headline." He makes a good point in suggesting more coverage on the business side of webcasts. "Are they trying to sell sponsorships during the event...Are they seeing any success at all when it comes to covering their costs?"

This is a big question when it comes to live events, especially trade shows. Based on my research of two major virtual conference providers, the average cost of a 2-day virtual conference is upwards of $70,000. Most offer up to 5 major sponsors for the event so if you can get each of them to dish out $14,000, you may be in the black - as long as you're willing to work for free to put the whole thing together.

Let's say you can find 5 sponsors who will keep you afloat. How do they then get their message out in a way that stands out from the rest? You'll find them competing for the most flashy ads, the biggest virtual billboard, the most free downloads, etc. But does that really work? I've become somewhat immune to advertisements as we know them and I suspect the same is true for most of America (at least the ones who've learned that it's impossible to lose 30 pounds in one week, short of liposuction and extreme dehydration).

So how do you get your message across in a way that relates to the audience you're trying to reach? Someone who does this particularly well is Peter Shankman. In his email query service for journalists, Help A Reporter Out or HARO, you'll find a written ad with a link at the beginning of each email. This may sound like a common sense thing to do - put an ad in an email - but HARO ads have a more personal touch. The reader sees that businesses are represented in a genuine recommendation, rather than flashy marketing speak.

That said, screening advertisers carefully will surely be of great benefit. When asked about a policy to "keep it real" in advertising, Shankman replied that they "reject about 10% of want-to-be advertisers." It may seem obsurd to turn down advertisers but the idea of casting a net will only get you so far. When I see a website with ads that seem like scams, the site immediately loses credibility in my mind. Fair or not, that's just how it is.

P.S. This blog post is brought to you by RGA, Rick Grant & Associates ;) and the letter Q.

New Media: Not Just for College Kids Anymore.

2009-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Every day people are discovering more ways to use new media - and the possibilities are endless! Recently, many government agencies began using social media to communicate with the masses and employees. According to usa.gov, "The Columbus, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce worked with students at Ohio State University to use Facebook to announce the opening event of a new restaurant, leading to...the biggest opening day ever for the restaurant chain." Social media sites are becoming a hot ticket for company promos (in fact, before going to dinner a couple weeks ago, I downloaded a coupon from twitter posted by a restaurant). Do a twitter search for "coupon" and see what comes up.

The public is becoming more aware of their favorite brands and people on social networking sites and many organizations are reporting success stories in this area. Anderson County, SC, has decided to take informing the public one step further. The county is looking to increase public safety measures using new media. According to independentmail.com, "The system would use Facebook, Twitter, text messages and other forms of new media to get the word out." Residents would be able to sign up to receive new media alerts whenever something of importance happens. The plan is to "add new media methods and coordinate all of the platforms so that one message is sent out through cell phones, radio, television, social Web sites and more."

We live in an age where convenience is key. With new gadgets abounding, we can have information at our fingertips any time. It's great that folks are taking the initiative to use these resources to help maintain awareness and I look forward to seeing more of this in the future.

Image via Joi

The Long Arm of the Wall

2009-06-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites have been all the rage as of late. We've got an abundance of companies encouraging their employees to leverage these tools to further the business, and just as many businesses are banning them for fear of decreased productivity. It's not new for a company to prohibit the use of such sites, but what about a government?

Recently, the Chinese government has blocked access to many social networking sites, via what citizens call the "Great Firewall." The Chinese government has been blocking and filtering internet content for quite some time, but the social media site ban was in response to the fear of a digital uprising on the 20th anniversary of the 1989 democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. In an interview with Danwei, Michael Anti reported in regards to twitter that "a Chinese tweet can have three times the volume of an English tweet, thanks to the high information intensity of the Chinese language. 140 Chinese characters can make up all the full elements of a news piece..."

Many people consider social networking sites a laughable waste of time for people who don't have "IRL" (in real life) friends. While that may be partially true (ooh, forgive me), it's proven to be useful in getting people organized as well as sharing news and ideas. In fact, twitter is becoming a successful, yet controversial, tool for the US forces in Afghanistan, providing a way to quickly transmit information including enemy body counts. We now have "experts" writing books on how to improve your business using social media. And hey, if the Chinese government is so concerned about it, there must be some relevance to its potential.

Every day I read of new networking sites popping up all over the place with the hopes of being the "next big thing." Where is the future of social networking going? The nay-sayers expect that it's just a fad, and it may be, but a myriad of innovations and the growing concern of businesses and government agencies alike offers a glimmer of "hope," if you will, especially to advertisers and business owners taking advantage of these growing audiences.

And for the Styx song that's probably stuck in your head, you're welcome.

photo credit: edhelien

Interthinx leverages edu-tainment....again!

2009-04-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our friends at Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Interthinx are at it again. If you haven't seen the company's mortgage fraud-related webisodes but you know you need to know more about this important issue, you're in for a pleasant surprise. This company excels at turning material that many would consider complicated and confusing into truly entertaining training content.

In this case, the idea is just to bring some really important issues to the fore, but the way they do it is classic. Interthinx is on the cutting edge and performing well in an area that will be increasingly important in the future. Attracting an audience with engaging content is a prerequisite for the sale, but in the future companies will have to become expert at doing it all online. Interthinx is leading the pack here.

Blogging is back in the spotlight

2009-02-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Orlando Business Journal has an interesting story up today about a blogger in South Florida who increased his business revenue by 20 percent just by writing a blog. I say "just," but it's not as simple for most executives as it should be to get into the blogging habit, for a number of reasons.

First, blogging is considered one of the New Media, and there are still plenty of executives out there who are not familiar with it. Many believe it to be complicated when it's really as simple as e-mail.

Secondly, there are some concerns about compliance, particularly for publicly traded companies. How can firms ensure that the information released through a blog does not expose the company's plan prematurely? The SEC is now allowing blog posts to be used as a method of releasing official company news, making it important to these firms that what is released there is carefully controlled.

Finally, many executives become very concerned when they are informed that the success of the blog depends, in part, upon allowing the conversation to get out of control. If the messages are too tightly controlled, no one will engage with the company through the blog. When the company loosens up, it becomes very difficult to ensure that all comments conform with the company's view of itself, it executives and brands.

During good times, these concerns are enough to stop new media efforts in their tracks. But when the economy is down severly, as it is now, a 20 percent increase in revenue suddenly makes the effort seem worthwhile.

But how can you make it easy? More on that in the next post.

Making financial services video easier

2009-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

One of the more exciting mediums captured under the umbrella of New Media is internet video. While it doesn't have to be expensive, it generally is, especially when companies are desperate to control every aspect of their messaging. When it comes to losing control of the conversation, banks, in particular, have not been eager to face those risks and turning their executives lose to talk freely on videotape is just pretty scary. Now, you can let someone else do it for you.

MindBlazer, Charlotte, N.C., says that demand for its interactive content has been high. The company is a marketing technology company that leverages interactive video and new media for the financial industry.

MindBlazer, says it experienced increased demand in 2008 for its educational, interactive content as more banks and credit unions recognized the need to leverage this emerging channel. We wrote about the company last October.

“It is exciting to see financial institutions empower their Web site media to reach beyond traditional communication, expanding the use and returns of the Internet channel,” Ryan Brown, MindBlazer president and CEO, said. “Financial institutions, like in other industries, are embracing new interactive Web media in a professional capacity as a business strategy to help companies stay abreast of consumer attitude and perceptions, as well as improve communication with the public. For the financial industry in particular, new media can be an educational resource for products and services and a driver to encourage adoption of these offerings.”

In 2008, MindBlazer grew to provide more than 140 financial institutions with a variety of interactive media tools, and introduced MoneyMinutesTV, a syndicated series of education-based interactive videos designed to inform the public about financial products and services, while helping banks and credit unions drive sales and service activations online.

You gotta get their attention

2009-02-10T19:47:00.003-08:00

Some say that with the right marketing message, well targeted to the right market segment with the right value proposition, you can sell anything. Ice cubes to Eskimoes. That might have been true at one time. But that was a quieter time.

Today, there is so much noise in the marketplace, it's impossible to sell anything if you can't first find a way to get your target market's attention.

In the mortgage lending space, the loans are sold off from wholesale lender (who bought it from a broker) to Wall Street conduit to mortgage-backed securities investor. No one along that chain had ultimate responsibility for the value of that individual deal. At least that's the way the business was run until the subprime mortgage crisis melted down the industry.

Today, most loans are sold to the federal government, in one way or another. No investor wants to buy fraudulent loans, so it's important to screen all applications for fraudulent information. But getting lenders to buy the reports requires vendors to get their attention.

Enter Interthinx, Agoura Hills, Calif. To raise interest in the company's offerings, it recently launched a series of web-based video programs, or webisodes. Based loosely on the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 model, the videos are fun to watch, even if they do provide some real information lenders can use. Check out the first in the series here:

A Great Collection of Blogs

2008-07-28T08:41:00.001-07:00

You've been to a car show, right? Beautiful vehicles detailed to the nines and lined up for your inspection. Imagine something like that for blogs. Liz Strauss did and then made it happen. Check out this impressive list of blogs at her 2008 Blog-to Show.

Why business podcasting isn't hot...yet

2008-07-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

I saw an interesting post today over at Podcasting News that brought to light Ian Lamont's insight into the demise of PodTech (well, it's not dead, just sold for a tiny fraction of the money the investors had sunk into it). Lamont is managing editor for The Industry Standard. His comments to the post are also interesting.

I must admit that Lamont knows much more about the PodTech situation than I do, but my experience during the Internet boom and bust of the 1999-2001 tells me that it might be far too early to write off podcasting as a business tool. He writes, and is quoted by Podcasting News:

"This was a hyped business built on one of the most hyped technologies of 2005. Once that faded, reality set in."

No, reality is still some ways ahead of us.

In early 2000 I was hired away from SourceMedia in New York (then Thomson Media) to serve as engineering vertical producer for an internet startup owned by a telecom company and one of the top three television networks. I was one of about 17 trade journalists hired to run online publications presumably to serve professionals working in over 100 industries. I covered ten engineering disciplines from Aerospace to Civil to Systems.

We had a fairly healthy budget and began hiring freelancers and traveling to conferences in order to provide the most up-to-date business coverage for our verticals. Meanwhile, the biz dev folks were cutting deals with all manner of whiz-bang new Internet start up folks in order to secure advertising to support the site. Reality set in when the company learned (a few months after realizing a cash burn rate of about $5 million monthly) that the professionals working in the fields we were covering didn't have a need for the newest whiz bang Internet offering. Worse yet, most of the folks we were writing to weren't sitting in their offices all day reading online articles. They were out in the field, building airplanes and new highways.

Here we are a few years later and people are finally figuring out how to deliver information to business readers online. Checking digg or techmeme or using an RSS reader was much easier for business customers to fit into their lives. Mobile technologies have made it easier and business users just understand these things a little bit better.

And that's the real lesson here. It doesn't matter how cool you think your new tool is, you will not succeed if it does not serve a real business need (if you're targeting a business audience) at the time you launch your offering. If your market doesn't know they need it (i.e. you're ahead of the curve), or it just doesn't fit into the way they operate now, you'll have a tough row to hoe.

I didn't listen to the programs on PodTech and I probably won't now that it's under new ownership. I just don't have an hour in my day that I can sit back and enjoy an Internet radio program. I do know that a shorter (sub-10 minute) program will attract a business audience. That's how we won a podcasting merit award in 2006 from the Foundation for New Communication Research for our Executive Insights podcast series.

As soon as more people figure out how to make podcasting (a wicked powerful tool for business marketing) serve the needs of the business market, reality will set in and it will be a very profitable business.

Principles of social computing

2008-07-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a really nice post that succinctly captures four principles of social computing. Not sure I buy into this completely, but I think it may be a good start. Found this on the Communities Dominate Brands blog (another concept I like in theory, but I'm not sure I buy yet).

Read it and leave your comments. I may post again on this in the future as it seems worthwhile to lay down some ground rules when you're working in a new area. I like that these rules make it easier to win the game.

The right way to do podcast show notes

2008-07-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

While online video will continue to get more affordable and more people will develop the skills required to quickly get quality productions online, there will always be a need for well produced podcasts.

One essential element of a good podcast is a blog post for the show notes. These can include biographical information about the speakers, credit for music or production services and links to additional information. One thing they should include is a minute-by-minute description of the information delivered in the podcast. To see what I mean, check out the show notes for a recent podcast from the folks at Anecdote.

People are pressed for time. They want to go right to the information they are seeking. If they find sufficient value there, they'll often listen to the rest of the production. If you don't make it easy for them to find what they are seeking, they may not listen to any of it.

Hunkering down does not mean being quiet

2008-07-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

According to a recent survey performed by Management Action Programs Inc. (MAP), Sherman Oaks, Calif., the nation's top CEOs are adjusting to the tough economy by changing their tactics.

"Given the volatile economy of late, a fresh trend in CEO behavior has emerged, which is shedding light on a new kind of leadership," the company said in a release today. "Many CEOs are refraining from making bold, sudden business moves right now. Instead, they're opting to shift the management gears into a 'hunkering down and building up the business' position."

What that means, according to MAP, is that CEOs are "fine-tuning internal operations by bolstering the quality of company culture, internal communications and customer service."

What a great time to be a corporate communicator! CEOs finally get the importance of communication and there are great new Web 2.0 tools to make it easier and more effective than ever before.

Now is the time to be innovative, to step forward and be heard. No where is this more true than in my own industry, the US home finance business. Hard hit from a number of directions, executives in mortgage finance are not making any big moves right now and they're not talking about innovation. Instead, they are being quiet, releasing only what news they feel is absolutely essential.

I think that's a mistake. This is an opportunity for forward-thinking executives to get famous for leading the industry out of this quagmire. Now is the time for leaders to make certain that they are being heard.

MAP seems to agree. According to Lee Froschheiser, president and CEO of MAP, "the survey results highlight the major significance of strengthening business fundamentals and, especially, communication. Bottom line, clear communication is the most important key to a business leader's success."

Will brilliant financial services leaders step forward? I doubt it, but it might make for a great case study when all the dust settles. There are certainly brilliant people out there, but I anticipate that many of the industry's current leaders will be shuffled off quietly to enjoy their severance packages in retirement. The younger executives they trained will move up and the cycle will continue.

Other industries may have a better chance of capitalizing on this opportunity, combining the leadership and vision of a great CEO with the great new communication tools available today. Leveraged properly, it could allow us all to come out of this downturn stronger than we've ever been before.

Put your head in the sand, and you'll miss out. As Froschheiser puts it, "To properly manage and grow a business through tough times, you must be an effective, compelling communicator."

Why content is king

2008-06-27T11:47:00.001-07:00

We've all heard it and can sing it by heart: content is king in the online world. But why? I believe it's so we have something to talk about. It's like going into a cocktail party without a story to tell or comment to make. You stand around the edges and hope no one approaches you. You have nothing to say. When we come to the party with a story, we welcome interaction. We want to share what we know and solicit the feedback of those who converse with us.

If it's important at a cocktail party, it's even more important when a business wants to interact with customers online. Even so, I see company's making two primary mistakes over and over again, they try to tell the perfect corporate story and they only tell stories about their products and services.

When it comes to the company line, marketing executives have become expert at getting the story down and policing company leaders to read their lines correctly. When these firms go online, they take that perfected story with them, creating websites and online content that's just...well, boring. It's like you're being forced to listen to one of those little, website talking cartoon heads that only spouts company information as if it was preparing a recording for the music-on-hold system. Doesn't work.

Even if you copy all of your written material to the Web perfectly it won't be received by your audience in the same way it would in print. As Patrick Tucker points out in the current issue of The Futurist, the 21st century writer is using an entirely different toolkit, that includes multimedia and a whole lot of "reader" input. This is being driven by the 21st century reader.

And that's fine. Company stories don't have to be told the same way every time. They can be rewritten, reworked and sometimes even messed up. The sooner companies realize they aren't in control of every aspect of their story anyway, the better off they'll be. See this great blog entry from Liz Straus for more on being effective by not being perfect.

The other mistake companies make is acting like all their customers could ever want is embodied in their products or services. That's never true. Prospects may come to your site because they are seeking a solution, but if they stay its because they've found something that interests them.

Here's a great example from National Mortgage News, my old employer. This company is in the business of providing mortgage industry information, perhaps not the most exciting offering for most folks, but they realize that the people they serve are real people. This column from editorial director Mark Fogarty, which has nothing to do with the mortgage business and everything to do with what turns on real music lovers who also happen to be in the mortgage business, is a great example of what content can do to enhance relationships.

Content is king because it opens up a communication channel to those people you need to communicate with. So quit scanning in the corporate brochures and post some material that will attract folks, then talk to the people that show up.

New podcast for real estate agents

2008-06-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you're in the real estate business and you're not deep into Web 2.0 there's a new podcast that can get you started. Real Estate 2.0 is now a featured podcast on Lenderama.

The show provides a quick and lively discussion of New Media tools that can benefit real estate agents. The hosts are great and the information is useful. Recommended!

A Powerful Example

2008-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

New Media will give us the power to change the way we communicate. In fact, by adopting the new tools made available in Web 2.0 and those that will come in Web 3.0, we will be forced to change the way the send and receive information in the business world. It's not just that companies will find it more difficult to lie with impunity. It's more than a change from one-way to two-way, from enabling an outdated one-to-many to evolve into a one-to-one or many-to-one model. It's about finally being able to be authentic as we relate to the people we serve and those we hope to serve.

This is a wonderful example of that. Without any words or even description, Matt Harding showed us how easy it is interact in a meaningful way with people from anywhere in the world. Music and dance have fairly universal meanings for humans and so it they were good choices for his interactions, which, for a few minutes, make it more difficult for us to see the differences between us. How much easier will it be for companies that have spent millions researching everything about their target markets to communicate authentically with them? Probably not as easy as it should, but that's where we're going.

Speaking (or tweeting) up during a conference

2008-06-19T10:50:00.001-07:00

One of the things I always do when I moderate a panel at a conference is encourage, in the strongest possible language, the audience to break in with their questions anytime during the presentation. It's the very best way to make sure that you're providing the exact information that attendees want. Even so, it is rare that people speak up. That may be because I work in the financial services industry and bankers tend to be more conservative, but it still makes it more difficult to gage whether the audience is getting what they came for.

Now, New Media tools are making it easier for conference attendees to be part of the conversation without actually saying anything. While this is prevalent now only at technology- or New Media-focused conferences, many execs are now using Twitter to make comments during the session. A person provided by the conference or the session moderator monitors the tweets during the session and passes the comments and questions through to the panelists.

It may take a while for this to filter down to non-tech-related conferences, but it's already becoming prevalent for online event, such as webinars. In fact, one company, Radian6, has launched a series of twebinars (twitter mashed up with a webinar) hosted by Chris Brogan that allows attendees to discuss the event in real time before during and after the session.

I expect these tools to become mainstream for all conferences relatively quickly, perhaps as early as next year. I base that on my experience at last week's 2008 Predictive Methods Conference in San Diego where attendees were asked to interact with conference speakers by keying in answers to questions on a Funnies-Home-Videos-style keypad. The results were displayed graphically for the forum in a matter of seconds.

People love to interact and when technology makes it easy to do so without saying a word or drawing any attention, it's going to enjoy rapid adoption.

Radio, like Newspapers, must reinvent itself

2008-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

Arbitron ratings indicate that fewer educated listeners are tuning into broadcast radio at work. Podcasting News ran the story I found and pointed out that those listeners using the Internet for music at work has risen from 12 percent to 20 percent in a single year.

I recently posted about how one newspaper's efforts to go hyperlocal were failing because it had not taken the time to intimately know the market in which it was competing. This is less of a problem for broadcast radio stations, which generally have local personalities hosting their shows. In addition, radio stations have done a better job of moving online. The question is, can they provide enough local information to keep people tuned in.

Local traffic reports and lack of true Internet radio in cars, will keep those without satellite radio tuned in over the short term, but at work, where people want music as background noise and don't (or shouldn't) pay that much attention to the personalities, will be a much bigger challenge.

Washing Post: having problems with hyperlocal site

2008-06-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal carried the story today that the Washington Post's LoudounExtra.com website, a site designed to provide hyperlocal coverage of Loudoun County, Va., has lost its chief web architect and much of its tech team.

"Like hundreds of other hyperlocal sites launched in the past few years, LoudounExtra.com reflects a basic premise: Metro newspapers probably can't compete with the Internet or cable TV in covering breaking national or international news, but they can dominate what happens in their backyards," wrote the Journal's Russell Adams.

The problem is that the site has yet to find its audience. Adams says one reason for that is because "the team of outsiders didn't do enough to familiarize itself with Loudoun County or engage its 270,000 residents." He's exactly right.

This is a mistake corporate marketers are making more often as they attempt to move their companies closer to the prospects they sell to without changing the perspective on the lens they use to study them. Hyperlocal coverage requires traditional newspapers to do more than just tell the same old stories to an audience of people that all happen to be listening from the same county. It requires them tell stories that really matter to them.

I've seen something similar happen when companies start podcasting. As soon as the marketing department realizes that podcasts are a great new way to allow its prospects to hear the ideas that set the company apart directly from a top executive, they hand the CEO a corporate brochure to use as a script. But that's not the point. It's not that people are suddenly listening to podcasts instead of the radio, it's that they listen to get new insight.

People who listen to corporate podcasts do it to find out more about the people who are behind the brands they love, not to hear the same brand messaging in a new way. That's like a child coming in from outside and not remembering to switch to his "inside voice."

Getting closer to your customers via New Media communication tools requires companies to set aside the marketing collateral and bullhorns and enter a dialog with their customers and prospects. Those that don't will suffer the same fate as the Washington Post, an otherwise fantastic journalistic enterprise that forgot that getting closer to its readers required than just saying the same old things louder.

1 billion viewers can't be wrong

2008-05-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

How many people will view your amazing Web video? That's a question many B2B marketers have been asking. The answers they keep coming up with have kept most marketing departments out of the online video world, at least on the business-to-business side, but that may be changing.

A new study from ABI Research forecasts the number of viewers who access video via the Web to nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least one billion in 2013.

“The rapid expansion of broadband video creates opportunities across a number of market sectors,” according to senior analyst Cesar Bachelet, who made his remarks in a press release. “A wide variety of actors aim to gain a share of this fast-growing market: not only content owners such as the BBC and NBC Universal, and Internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo!, but also a range of new entrants including user-generated content sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion, broadband video sites such as CinemaNow and Lovefilm, and Internet TV providers such as Apple and Zattoo.”

While most of these players will be seeking out traditional television mass markets and using old advertising models to monetize their efforts, the professional B2B marketer will be working to provide informative and entertaining content to appeal to specific target audiences. Many of these online viewers already have access to broadband at work, but come home to enjoy traditional television, provided by cable or satellite television companies.

The real sea change in online video viewing will probably have less to do with broadband access and more to do with viewers plugging their media PCs and Apple TVs directly into their big screens. There are already a number of online players providing programming. Soon, we can expect one of the Content Delivery Networks, players that today provide faster streaming by parking video content in locations closer to online viewers, to develop a viable online business channel.

In the future, business prospects will come home after a busy day and watch online video from their comfort of their easy chairs. When that happens, B2B marketers will need to be ready to leverage online video that is both informative and entertaining to continue to build out their brands.

LandAmerica webcasts shareholder meeting

2008-04-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:LFG) has announced that it will broadcast its Annual Meeting of Shareholders live over the internet on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at 9:00 AM ET via LandAmerica's website (www.landam.com).

The event will then be archived and available for replay starting two hours after the completion of the live event through June 13, 2008.

For companies that have the ability to stage a competent team of executives, opening up these meetings to the world is likely to do wonders for their share price. Not only does it provide additional transparency, but it's probably one of the best ways to sell the companies core messages to potential investors.

Social sites for real estate finance

2008-04-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

I've been saying for some time now that the first bank that sees the value of treating its customers as part of a community that it serves online will score a major marketing win. A recent post over at the future of real estate marketing blog now leads me to believe that it won't come from the finance side at all, but rather from the real estate companies.

In the post, blogger Joel Burslem talks about a number of brokers and agents that seem to get this whole social media thing. I was particularly impressed with ChaseNation.

Our homes are a huge part of who we are. Financing them is a necessary part of the game for most of us. Companies that learn to provide valuable content around these issues will be in a position to attract virtual communities on the Web. They may, as in the case of ChaseNation, be tied to a real-world location, but for a major national lender or real estate company they may not.

The key will be providing enough value to bring people back. I haven't seen that in many places yet, but I expect to in the future.

Sharing photos for business or pleasure

2008-03-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

People have been sharing photos on sites like Flickr and Google's Picasa for some time now. It makes it easier to share pics of the grandchildren with the folks and embarrass your friends after the New Year's Eve party.

Last week I learned how powerful photo sharing could be as a tool for business networking. Using Utterz, I was able to snap a photo of an interviewee with my camera phone, e-mail it in to my social media site and by the time our discussion was over, I could show them their smiling face on my website. It opened some eyes to the concept of instant publishing.

Later, I was able to create a slideshow with Flickr and post it to my homepage, letting everyone in my market know who was making news at the recent business conference.

Now, Adobe has put a version of its Photoshop application online as part of a new photo sharing site. Now as powerful as the full version (or even Photoshop Elements), it will still allow you to do plenty with your snapshots. While other sharing sites and standalone apps on the web offer online photo editing, Adobe is the professional's choice, which should attract a significant offering to the site.

Can tales lead to sales?

2008-03-27T06:59:00.001-07:00

Another great post on why storytelling leads to more bottom line profit.

Podcasting getting easier

2008-03-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

More manufacturers are now making their microphones with USB connections for use with laptops. This is perfect for podcasters in the field.

Here's an ad from the current issue of Videography for the AT-2020. This is probably my favorite mic for voice recording, now available with USB.

New Media = New Publications

2008-03-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

Custom publishing has been around for a long time. Traditionally offered by trade media or other professional publishers who catered to well-heeled customers who wanted to have their own publications. With enough money, there is no need to share space with competitors.

New Media is making it easier for companies of all sizes to publish their own publications. Using low-cost design tools, Flash and the Web, just about anyone can create a custom publication and put it out into the market.

But smart marketers are careful not to advance material that looks or sounds less than professional. The reputation risk involved is significant.

Professional writers and magazine editors are available and can help companies plan and lay out quality custom publications on a freelance basis.

Coldwell Banker: Embracing New Media

2008-02-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

Coldwell Banker may be the first Real Estate company to fully embrace New Media marketing. Their new campaign makes use of humor, a Youtube.com channel and a blog.

Read all about it on Joel Burslem's Future of Real Estate Marketing blog.

New Study: Tell customers less

2008-02-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

I read about an interesting new study over at brand expert Guy Kawasaki's blog. Researchers found that the more product information a potential customer has, the less likely they are to engage in "wishful thinking" about your offering and the less likely they are to be satisfied. Happy customers, it appears, are blissfully ignorant.

The study was based on consumer perceptions of hand lotion and chocolate. The more people learned about these products, the less they happy they became.

But is this really a endorsement of keeping your customers in the dark, or is it really about having a good story to tell them in the first place. I know lots of folks who get all excited about organic foods and vegetarian dishes because they've heard all the great health benefits and how no animals or plants were harmed in the making of the dishes. But most of it tastes pretty crappy, IMHO. Doesn't make them less happy though.

If you have a good product and you don't have to be ashamed of the way its made or what it contains or what the production does to your workers, then you're probably going to do better by sharing your story with your prospects.

BTW, I'm not disagreeing with Guy. He didn't specifically endorse the study's findings in his blog either.

A New Podcast Series

2008-02-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

If you haven't signed up to be a guest on our new Business & Technology podcast, you should drop us a line soon. The show focuses on technologies that business leaders are leveraging now to do things better, cheaper and faster.

The tools don't have to apply to any specific businesses segment. In fact, we want to have a good cross section of markets so that creative executives can learn from what's happening in other industries.

The shows last only five minutes and always include the answers to three important questions:

1) What is the technology and who does it serve?
2) What is the value proposition to the user?
3) Why is this better than other currently available alternatives?

Want to get on the show? It's easy. Just send us an e-mail and we'll give you a call.

Broadcast Yourself

2008-02-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been telling companies in the Financial Services space for some time now that they must begin thinking like publishers if they want to get their stories told. But not traditional, paper-based publishers. They must embrace every new way their prospects choose to receive information. Increasingly, those methods involve New Media.

This story on Boing Boing is an excellent example of how clever marketers can utilize new consumer technologies to get their information out there. The CharmingBurka is likely to be a bit hit in the West as it allows Muslim women to stay true to their religion without sacrificing the ability to interact with society on our terms. And everyone wants to know what's underneath.

Businesses will have to be more clever than that. Consumers will quickly lose patience with firms that force advertisements onto their handsets. But what about those people at the trade shows who are interested but don't want to get caught up in a lengthy sales pitch. Wouldn't it be nice to just point a cell phone and get the basics?

Just one more reason that every marketing department needs to have someone who is spending time out on the cutting edge of the New Media frontier.

Destroying assumptions

2008-02-08T08:59:00.001-08:00

Excellent post over at the Brand Builder Blog on breaking through old assumptions. In this post, Olivier Blanchard talks about Seven Considerations that are Changing the Game.

Excellent work. I particularly like the part about how News is changing. Definitely.

RGA January Newsletter available

2008-01-29T07:20:00.001-08:00

Fast Company takes plunge into Social Media

2008-01-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

It has been clear to me for some time now that traditional publishing is history. While I made my living at the weekly newspaper for nearly a decade, people don't wait that long for information anymore. And they never will again.

We're now seeing a number of publications launch online components. Fast Company recently opened up a social media project for beta testers. I'm trying it out and will let you know what I learn.

Blogger equals journalist

2008-01-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

President Bush has signed the "Openess Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007" which, among other things, makes it clear that bloggers, podcasters and other New Media professionals are now considered on equal footing with other journalists under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

This is interesting from a legal perspective, but I think corporate bloggers should have already been thinking this way.

First, if you are creating content, you need to be considering your audience, its needs and interests, just like anyone else who writes for a living. Secondly, as people continue to turn away from traditional trade media and going online for news and information about their industries, companies have an opportunity to provide balanced information to their prospects and customers, becoming, in effect, trade publishers themselves.

It's good that the government recognizes "citizen journalists" as equal under the law. But it would be better if companies established communication teams internally that thought and acted like journalists in order to add value to their target publics.

AMEX does video right, mostly

2007-12-18T06:20:00.000-08:00

Another good example of using Web video can be found on the American Express Open for Business website. Short videos from a host of business leaders offer advice to small business owners.

I love that these are very short and well produced. The audio is excellent and the style is engaging. However, it may have been more powerful if the producers hadn't asked these business leaders to focus on such simple concepts.

For instance, does it take a full minute to tell you that the most successful businesspeople combine imagination with a good dose of reality? How about another minute to tell you that if your business involves a design aesthetic that it might be wise to hire a professional photographer to capture it?

I would rather hear them answer one of these questions:

What is the most important thing you did right in your business?
What was the most critical mistake you made and how did you overcome it?
If you could start over today, what would you do first?

Remember, content is king. Every word your listener hears must carry value. Great production values will not save an online video that doesn't provide real value to its viewers. On the other hand, if you have something to say, any DV video camera can do the job.

Freddie Mac: Using online video to fight fraud

2007-12-14T15:40:00.001-08:00

Freddie Mac, a government sponsored enterprise that invests in mortgage loans, is using an online video to fight fraud that the company fears may be perpetrated against delinquent homeowners in the wake of rising foreclosure activity. The threat is real, though in today's market it is not as easy for these fraudsters to find other investors to work with. Even so, if Freddie's 2 minute video saves one home it would be worth it.

Here's what I like about this use of New Media:

It's very short. Just over 2 minutes long.
It's well written, describing the problem and solution in sufficient detail.
It's professionally produced, the video looks good and the audio is clear.
It's promoted on the company's home page, above the fold.

What could be better:

It's probably just me, but the chalkboard graphics give me the feeling that Freddie thinks I need some schoolin'. I know a lot of people don't know all that much about the mortgage process, but they still don't think they are uneducated. The refi-boom of 2001-2003 taught older homeowners a lot about the business. The younger, Web-savvy first-time borrowers are better able to learn from information around the Web. This means that lenders have to be more careful about talking down to consumers.

Secondly, creating this video in association with someone who is trusted for helping borrowers avoid fraud might have made it more powerful. Sure, Freddie is a well known and trusted brand, but when the headlines report that the company is reporting a $12 billion loss and raising the upfront fees it charges lenders for their business, asking borrowers to "call your lender" instead of trusting a local "hero" starts to sound more desperate than helpful.

J.D. Power: Lenders must communicate to succeed

2007-12-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it shouldn't take J.D. Powers to tell lenders that the key to doing business in the current environment is to do a better job of communicating with their borrowers during the loan origination process. In a report I recently read about in a free e-mail from Valuation Review, J.D. Power's latest customer satisfaction study showed that "the key for lenders to keep customers happy is clear communication, particularly regarding the timeframe of the application and approval processes."

I don't want to belittle the marketing research firm's conclusions, but this is kind of a no-brainer. The company did not give specific advice for meeting this borrower need, but did point out some very interesting facts. Among them:

Working directly with a mortgage lender instead of a mortgage broker or online service leads to a more positive customer experience when originating a home loan.
Customers who are provided with a time frame for application approval provide overall satisfaction scores that are 112 points higher on average than customers who do not receive a time frame.
Delays caused by requests for additional information lead to a 95-point decline in overall customer satisfaction.

This isn't particularly good news for brokers, although better technology can help there. I'll blog on that over on the tech blog. But saving the 95 points by responding quickly to borrower requests for information seems like an easy score.

New Media tools like Ning are making it easier to set up social networks on the fly. I haven't seen anyone apply this to the team of various people that come together to close a real estate transaction, but it seems like it would be easy to do.

Whether lenders use open source, Web-based tools to stay in touch with their prospects or just spring for that admin is up to them. Within the next 12 months, it will be very clear which companies found a solution to this problem and which ones went out of business.

Social Media releases defended

2007-11-29T13:30:00.000-08:00

Just read a great post over at PR 2.0 in defense of the Social Media Release. Posted by Brian Solis, the piece explains in depth why the SMR is not a Meatball Sundae. He'll also tell you what that is (hint: Seth Godin).

I thoroughly enjoyed this as his passion for effective communication in a New Media world came through loud and clear. While he admits that continued experimentation and audience segmentation and targeting are essential, he totally slams those that are trying desperately to cling to the wreckage that is traditional PR. I recommend it for those who are just learning about the potential these tools have.

On only one point do my views differ. He writes:

I only propose that they stop talking and theorizing and get some real world experience in the realm of Social Media so we can discuss things as experienced, beaten, successful, and most-importantly, proven peers

We must not stop talking about these important issues and we must not ask others to shut up because they don't meet our standards for a "proven peer." Haven't we all had enough of rule by the intelligentsia? Isn't that what Social Media is really about, giving voice to the crowd, being the medium that levels the playing field? Besides, without their well-meaning but misguided efforts they might never have riled Mr. Solis up enough to give us this excellent post.

Who is leveraging the blog

2007-11-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

Blogs are great tools. Risky, to be sure, but wonderful for SEO, brand building, message dissemination, training, building employee morale and more. It's clear I believe that because I write about it a lot, but who else is on this bandwagon?

Periodically, a journalist will include a few high-profile corporate CEOs in a story about blogging from the executive suite, but for a more comprehensive list, check out the CEO Blogs tab over at CorporateLeaderDaily.com. It might surprise you how many of today's top business leaders are using this powerful tool.

CIT: Getting B2B Online Video Right

2007-11-26T05:47:00.001-08:00

Finally, a great use of online video for B2B marketing can be found on the CIT website. Here's what these guys are doing right, IMHO:

Keeping it short; none of these videos are longer than 3 minutes;
Focusing on the topic; each segment centers on one or two related questions;
Professional production; making it easy to see and smooth to stream;
Backing it up; plenty of related material elsewhere on the page;
Creating a series; the viewer is pulled from segment to segment;
Serving the viewer; nothing about CIT here, it's all about informing us;
Made it easy; it starts automatically...but not until you scroll down.

Very well done and a great example for your own B2B marketing efforts. Click the start button to start the video.

Gartner: Banks will embrace Web 2.0

2007-11-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

According to a story on Bank Systems & Technology's site, Gartner is predicting that 75% of banks will be using Web 2.0 technologies within 5 years.

This makes sense as banks are working very hard to forge stronger links to their customers in the hope of achieving higher share-of-wallet. But BS&T's Michael Ellison makes a good point when he says:

"That's all well and good, but just because your site makes use of AJAX does not mean it's a Web 2.0 site. The key is adding the social interaction..."

The technologies are there to enable the companies to facilitate the conversation. It's the conversation that leads to the relationship and on to the next sale.

SEO versus good messaging

2007-11-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have been watching the SEO crowd for some time now. At first I was fascinated at the interplay. A group of clever web professionals would study the major search engines, deduce their methods for ranking sites and then sell that knowledge to clients. Then the search engines would recalibrate their spiders and the process would repeat. Good business for SEO guys. Similar in some respects to the race for better police radar gun detectors, but with a difference.

There is no good alternative to a good radar detector, save compliance. Either you obey the speed limit or you invest in technology. That's not really true with SEO.

I've said for some time that a well written site will lead people to you as long as you have a niche and you have plenty of content. In a recent post on his Strategic Public Relations blog, Kevin Dugan writes:

"SEO’s effectiveness is proven and it’s an important tool. But a well-tailored message should make elements of SEO automatic."

Well said. I would only add that to be effective, this messaging must be updated frequently (blog, perhaps) and should be archived on the site.

Realtors get Web 2.0

2007-11-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

According to Joel Burslem, one of the Inman News bloggers over at the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, attendees at the recent National Association of Realtors show in Las Vegas seem to be getting social media's promise for marketers. He writes:

"I think most people get Web 2.0 - they understand the power of a blog or a social network, for example. They understand the value of syndicating their listings. They know they should be thinking about video tours for their listings. The what? and why? questions have, for the most part, been answered. It’s the how? that they’re wrestling with more and more now."

This is a good sign. Few industries could benefit as much as the real estate sales industry from New Media tools, for at least two reasons. First, we know that the vast majority of home buyers and mortgage loan prospects are hitting the Internet first before talking to a person about the transaction. Secondly, real estate agents make their living through a personal interaction with their customers. That adds up to a lot of opportunity.

5 Trends from the WOW Feed

2007-10-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

George Dearing has a good post on his blog. He points to five key trends that together may spell death for the old ways of marketing. He points to other folks saying the same thing.

Of his trends to watch, I put most stock in the first one. It's always about conversations. Of course, in the old days it was just consumers having imaginary conversations with or about a company's brand. "This new beamer will make me a god!"

Today, the Web has made it possible for brands to talk back. These are the final days for those that do not.

The informational website as PR tool

2007-10-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

There was a time, a few years ago when it was harder to find information on the Internet and companies were even less comfortable with sharing their knowledge over an open network, when launching a special website could convince some publics that your company really cared about someone you wanted them to think you really cared about. That's not quite as true today.

I cover the real estate finance industry, so I was there when the National Home Equity Lending Association (NHEMA), a trade group made up of subprime lenders who some consumer advocates accused of predatory lending, launched its Borrowsmart website, a tool to help homebuyers with less than perfect credit avoid spending too much on a subprime loan. Be careful about buying our products, they warned. Judging from the current subprime lending crisis, we can assume it didn't work so well.

Recently, the American Land Title Association (ALTA), the trade organization for title insurance agents, launched a site that, in part, is designed to help people avoid spending too much on title insurance. Hmmm. I wrote about that on another blog.

Both subprime lenders and title insurance agents were working to change negative consumer attitudes about their line of business. They were really just taking a page out of big tobacco's play book. Spend 1% on ads telling people not to use your products and they'll forgive you for spending 99% to promote something you know will kill them.

But this isn't intended to be an indictment of bad public relations efforts, or of informational websites, for that matter. I'm just telling you that if you hope to change a negative public opinion by putting information online be aware of how your efforts, no matter how well meant, will appear to others. Save the Internet real estate for stories about how you help other folks, not for information about how they can help themselves by avoiding what you're selling.

It's probably better to think of it like this: when you come upon your friend (someone you really care about) sinking in quicksand, prattling on about the many ways he might save himself is largely a waste of time. Your real options are to throw him a rope or a branch or something and save him, or not.

Law Firm Train Wreck Coming

2007-09-28T09:18:00.001-07:00

All innovation must first pass through a period of massive misuse as people learn how to leverage the new tools to achieve their ends. This is often costly and embarrassing for early adopters. It is sometimes possible to leap frog this step if you are careful to observe how others, particularly those in other industries, are using new tools and techniques. This is certainly true with New Media marketing.

According to this story in the New York Times online, law firms are using online video as a recruiting tool. Hip to the power of YouTube to attract young people who might be suited to be summer associates, a number of legal firms have hired creative agencies to create multimedia in the hope that it will go viral on the Web.

The legal industry is late to the game. PR firms in New York and Philadelphia (among other places) made headlines last year when they created fictitious characters to star in their clients' online media. One high profile case involved the creation of a wandering RV family that traveled from Wal-Mart parking lot to parking lot across the country. A great idea from a top agency, but instead of sending out some kid with a digital camera to troll the lots for interesting folks, they decided to lie.

Lying, of course, is a time-honored technique in advertising, but New Media marketing is closer to PR, wherein we shine a very bright light on your company in the hope that your important audiences will see how good you are. Lying is not good. It has already come back to haunt a number of companies in other industries. I suspect it will soon haunt the legal industry too. The twist here is that those guys really like to file lawsuits. Duck and cover.

Is the VNR in Danger

2007-09-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

There's a lot of buzz around the Web right now about the Federal Communication Commission fining a television station for running a company's Video News Release (VNR) without letting its viewers know that it was paid by the company featured. It's being called the "FCC's Fake News Fine" around the blogosphere and it's got a lot of people worried that the lucrative business of creating short segments for television news producers is about to disappear.

I'm watching this closely, not because I compete in that space, but because I believe a lot more companies will be competing there soon. I'm not the only one. Production costs are dropping, the opportunities for placement are increasing and competitive forces will become more powerful.

I don't think this is going to take away a useful tool, but it will raise the stakes for those companies that hope to leverage it. Some will just lawyer up (and effectively sprinkle poison over their creatives) but others will learn to tell good stories instead of making up fake news. Producers are always looking for stories that will keep their viewers tuned in until the final credits roll.

What the FCC has done, IMO, is raise the standards a bit. That's almost never a bad thing.

New Ways to Share Information

2007-09-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

New Media isn't just podcasts and Internet video, it's about using the power of the Internet to do a better job of getting critical information across to important audiences.

Here's an example. This timeline for real estate technology is interactive. You can grab it and move forward and backward in time. When you find something you're interested in, you can click on the thumb tack and more information is provided, with links to source material elsewhere on the Web.

This is a great example of communicators using the Web to bring information from disparate sources into a new form that is far more useful. Nice work. Thanks to blogger Joel Burslem at the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog for bringing this to my attention.

The Right Way to Post a Podcast

2007-09-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Most blogging platforms now make it easy to insert audio or video into a blog post. This is good, but just plunking a big MP3 file down in the middle of your blog is not a very good thing to do to your readers.

Letting your listeners know what's on the file is always a good idea. Because I produce business podcasts, I like to let my listeners know exactly what questions I ask and how far into the file it happens. That allows busy listeners to get right to the answers they want to hear.

Here's a good example from an unexpected source. I haven't played D&D for a while, but it's good to see the guys are keeping up with the times, at least as far as it relates to good form when adding a podcast to your blog.

Blogging is Good for Your Business

2007-09-07T06:50:00.001-07:00

More information pointing to the positive effect a few blog posts per week can have on your business. This time from bMighty.com, an online sister publication to InformationWeek.

Wells Fargo's Winning Webcast

2007-08-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've done some belly aching in this space about the horrendous use many companies are making of webinars and webcasts. I'm getting multiple invitations per day to these online events, which usually turn out to be unsolicited sales presentations masquerading as must-see content for improving my business. Waste of time.

I have to admit that when I was invited to Wells Fargo's webcast and promised that I would learn about leveraging technology for my business, I figured it would be more of the same. My own bank had recently lured me in on the promise of a free check scanner to make depositing my handful of monthly retainer checks that much easier. It was only later that I learned that it would cost me a hefty monthly fee. Did I say my bank? I meant my ex-bank. I expected to spend an hour hearing about Wells Fargo's check scanner. But I didn't.

Instead, I was entertained and enlightened through the use of what appeared to be a professionally produced television program, streamed to me across either Real Player or Windows Media Player. In addition, I was given a second screen for slides and a text box to enter my questions. The presentation was very slick, which gave me the impression it was pre-produced. I did not pose a question so I cannot say whether the Q&a session was live or staged.

What I can say is that while the company did take the opportunity to explain and promote a number of its products, both through an expert on the panel and video vignettes of satisfied customers, the panel also provided actionable information that I can use in my business as promised in the original invitation. And I actually did learn something, making this the best use of my time on any Web-based presentation thus far.

Nothing's perfect, so:

Recommendations: Make it shorter. I appreciate the fact that your experts are covering a lot of ground and you have a well-rounded panel, but 60 minutes is a large investment, even if I can make it without leaving my desk. Secondly, it's good to have the slide show available, but there's no reason to make it industry-standard boring. There are plenty of resources out there to teach companies how to make better use of that white box. If you really feel that we need to see the bullet points, make them available to us afterward in a text document.

The Ever Popular Webinar

2007-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've passed the three Webinar invitations per day threshold and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down. Everyone wants an hour of my time. They all promise to answer the toughest questions and provide valuable insight that will change my business. Too often, the change they have in mind involves cutting them a check every month and the information consists of their accounts receivable mailing address.

Enough. There must be some accountability here. People will not continue to stand by while vendors line them up for hour-long sales pitches. Here are some tips for managing expectations better with this Web 2.0 tool.

1) Set webinar goals in terms of the attendee, not the host. It's not about you getting 50 qualified leads (at least it's not only about that), it's about attendees walking away better informed about something than they were when they got there.

2) Don't turn the webinar into a product demo unless the attendees have signed up for a product demo. If you promise to talk about industry trends, you better lay them out.

3) Quit wasting an hour of our time. Who has an hour to spend on a webinar? If the attendee has that much time on his hands, he's not making any money. Cut them down to 30 minutes, max.

4) If you promise attendees will get a free white paper or other informational product, make it easy for them to get it. Luring them in and then making them complete the Mackay 66 before you give them the link is not cool.

5) Don't let untrained executives run the webinar. Hire someone who can get the program moving and keep it moving. It does not serve the host well to have attendees hang up the phone and sigh in relief. You want them to leave the meeting wishing they had more time.

Is this to say that the host can't have any goals for the webinar? Of course not, but they are secondary to the goals and needs of the attendees or you will get people in the doors once and only once. In my next post, I'll talk about how to make webinars pay dividends for the company that hosts them.

Apple preloads company content

2007-07-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

Apple is making an appeal directly to corporate communications and marketing departments by making it's iPod line of portable music and video players available with pre-loaded company content. Smart.

We've been doing that for some time because giving away an iPod is a great attention-grabbing tactic. Preloading it with your company sales message is just the extension of a good idea.

Keeping the Team on the Same Page

2007-07-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

One of the great uses of new media is keeping everyone inside the organization on the same page. I have seen so many companies with great product offerings and a willing market fall down because the whole team couldn't pull together.

One team that does a great job of this is Oklahoma City-based a la mode. I was out at their annual users conference in Las Vegas recently and was really impressed with the way all of the folks I podcasted with seemed to be on the same page related to the a la mode Labs initiative and its overall mission. So I asked Communication's Director Matt Barr how it was done.

"There's no trick to it. It all comes down to Dave's leadership. Many owners and corporate officers are good at communicating; leadership is communicating what you believe and believing what you communicate," Matt said.

He's right about that. I listened to a la mode's founder and owner Dave Biggers talk to his customers for three days. His message never changed and he was passionate about what his team was doing the whole time.

Matt went on, "Adam [Calvery] and Chris [Low] hear what Dave says about the company and the Labs and then the Lab Fellows hear from Adam and Chris what they'd hear if Dave told them himself. This, incidentally, is where you would start if you ever explored the reasons behind a la mode's phenomenal success as a company over the last 22 years."

Nice plug, Matt. But he's got a point. Leaders have to use every tool available to get everyone in their organization on the same page and pulling in the same direction. I was proud to be chosen by the company to produce some podcasts to serve that end. But the best tools are probably passion and consistency. They are being employed here to good benefit.

The Chivas life includes video blogging

2007-06-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

These were the folks who first took advantage of pervasive e-mail by sending us those little comics. Now, they have fully embraced the video podcast. Some nice work here. Check it out.

http://thisisthelife.msn.com/

Podcasting at a la mode's annual convention

2007-06-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm in Vegas this week for the a la mode Annual Users Conference. The company estimates that close to 1,000 attendees will visit the event for at least one of its three days. I'm on the blogging team for the event. You can find the convention blog here.

Later today, I'll be podcasting with the company's Lab Fellows. These forward-thinking residential real estate appraisers are part of an inititative the company hopes will put better technology in the hands of the nation's only independent auditors of the real estate transaction. The podcasts will end up on the Labs website.

a la mode is one of an increasing number of companies that is realizing that you must make these stories available in a variety of media. The blog, podcasts and the Lab-focused live sessions at the event are all aimed at disseminating a story that is critical to the success of the firm's marketing efforts.

Talking New Media at MBA Secondary

2007-06-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

I made it into New York City for the Mortgage Bankers Association's Secondary Market show a couple of weeks back. I love conventions because it allows me to catch up with all of the folks I've been writing about for years.

I spent some time at the Avista Solutions booth visiting with Ken Ellis. He's been reading the blog and wondered what I thought of Webinars as opposed to podcasts.

I never liked being told when to appear online or on a conference call to receive the same news everyone else was getting by someone who either didn't know what my schedule was or didn't care. Most journalists, at least in the financial services trade media, are under very heavy deadline pressure just about all the time. That was surely the case when I worked for Source Media and October Research. It wasn't very nice to hear that if I didn't show up at the appointed time everyone but me would get the news.

But, as Ken pointed out, companies need to know who is looking at their content if they hope to capitalize on the sales leads that content is intended to deliver. That's true enough.

You can tell who is present on a Webinar, especially if you force people to pre-register. If you just put content out there for free, anyone can pick it up and it's very difficult to track. Making people cough up a bunch of information before you send them to the download page is a sure way to annoy them.

So what's the answer? You have to use a combination of free content--designed to unlock the three golden doors that lead to sales, 1) show them you understand their problem, 2) show them you are smart enough to solve their problem and 3) show them you care about helping them solve their problem--and more secure content designed to deliver the qualified sales lead.

Ken was kind enough to point out a good example:

I think SalesPOP! does an exceptional job of presenting this on their website. They offer podcasts requiring no information, but if you want to hear the longer Webinar there is a form that is required. Their website is www.salespop.biz\home.htm.

By way of disclosure, neither Ken nor I do any business with this company, nor are we affiliated with it, but Ken admits that he knows a SalesPOP founder, Craig Pyne, a previous coworker. Check out the site and think about how you can leverage this idea.

Blogging for Business

2007-06-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

I'm getting more calls from business executives who are interested in finding out more about blogging. In the past, these queries were generally limited to go/no go information intended to help companies make the decision whether to move forward with their investigation of the medium or to abandon it until later.

More recently, I'm getting calls from business leaders who have already decided to move forward with a blog and are now interested in finding out how to do it. I'll be outlining some of the advice I generally give in this space, but I'm far from the only one you should be listening to.

I just downloaded an eBook from Yaro Starak, a self-style blog guru who helps others profit from their blogs. He seems to work primarily with individuals who already have a blog and want to turn it into a day job. The more I read his electronic newsletter, the more I like what he has to say. I'll read his book and review it later in this space. You can find out more about Yaro on his website.

Keep watching this blog and I'll tell you about other folks who have a good understanding of business blogging and might be able to help you with your own.

Fred Thomson to use New Media in bid for White House

2007-05-31T05:46:00.001-07:00

According to a story on Tennessean.com, former Congressman and actor Fred Thompson will enter the race for the Republican nomination for President. In the story, he admits he won't be able to drive his truck across the country as he drove across Tennessee in his successful 1994 run for office. This time, he says, he'll be using the Internet.

Thompson plans to use blogs, video blogs "to cut through the clutter and go directly to the people."

This could pose a serious threat to other Republican candidates who don't plan to use New Media, don't know how to leverage it properly or can't attract a Web-based audience interested in hearing what they say. As an established actor, most recently appearing on the highly successful NBC Law & Order program, Thompson has already proven he can attract an audience.

Spreading the good word...about stories

2007-05-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Communications technology is worthless if you don't have a good story to tell. I don't care how well you understand RSS or Web 2.0 or New Media, if you can't get your listener engaged, you may as well go back to a string and tin cans for all the good it will do you.

But don't take my word for it. If you want to learn from someone who lives or dies by getting people to listen to them, tune in to a preacher. I recently found this great post. Notice rule 5:

"Tell stories. People will tune out unless you engage their emotions."

Now if that's good advice for someone preaching from the pulpit, and I'm sure it is, how much moreso is it for us in the world of business communications?

People don't file into our offices or store fronts once a week to sit down in front of us and try to pay attention for an hour (but wouldn't that be nice!). We have fleeting moments to get their attention, engage them and start forging a relationship.

There is only one way to be successful at that. You gotta tell stories.

How simple is Real Simple Syndication?

2007-05-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

Too simple, apparently, at least according to opponents of a new service called SplashCast. As outlined in this post on the Podcasting News Blog (which I highly recommend -- though I am not paid or otherwise rewarded for saying so), the service lets users set up their own podcast channels and share them via RSS (Real Simple Syndication).

The problem is that in doing so, the service reportedly mangles the original RSS feed somewhat, making it more difficult for podcast producers to track listeners for advertising purposes. There is also some question about how well the links back to the producer's site work after the feed is "Splashed" and recast.

Not sure how this will work out yet. I doubt it will result in everyone filing suit a la YouTube, as most podcast producers don't have that kind of money and extra lawyers milling about. But they do have audience and can make life hard on this newcomer.

Which, I guess, is another example of the circle of life. Podcasters had it tough in the early days, but they bulled their way through in typical high-tech entrepreneurial fashion. They overcame the obstacles and created an audience. Now, they're into the monetization phase. But wait, someone is stepping in with a new way to distribute their content and suddenly it's not about The Man getting hot because you're spinning your old 45 collection on your podcast anymore. Now, it's personal. Everyone move up one seat and the game begins again.

Fortunately, we don't have to worry about all that in the B2B space. It was never about social media with us. It was always about building a brand and capitalizing on it in the marketplace. Most B2B podcasts aren't currently being used to close sales. They are door openers. They are non-threatening ways to get prospects educated so that the sales process goes more smoothly. We like it when someone steals our content and takes it to a greater market, giving us the shivers that come with an attack of viral marketing. We like companies like SplashCast that make it easier for our target markets to hear our voices and want to seek us out.

Does that make us socially conscious dot-com good-niks? Naw, just good marketing folk.

Is Podcasting like DTP?

2007-05-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

An interesting post I found today on Brad Grier's blog is worth checking out. He compares the podcasting wave to the phenomenon we witnessed after the introduction of affordable Desktop Publishing software back in the 80s.

I posted a reply you'll find on his site.

Podcasts are not Audio Brochures

2007-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Marketing folk are starting to get the idea that podcasts can be effecting tools for getting the story out about company products and services. They are marching down this path in exactly the same way the major auto manufacturers did over two years ago.

A top-three auto maker was among the first to try out the new podcast format. Instead of letting an executive (or better, a design engineer) wax poetically about the passion built into the new year's model, the company stripped the audio stream out of a webcast and published it as a podcast. Not only could you not see what the speaker was describing, it was exactly the kind of brochureware that doomed those webcasts to deliver lackluster results.

A podcast is not a chance to read your company's latest brochure to people who are presumably illiterate. For most of us, especially those of us working in the financial services industry, our customers are very literate, intelligent and discerning. That's why they've adopted new media as a source of information about the products and services they want to buy. They don't need help reading your sales material. They don't need to hear your brand name five times in the first 30 seconds.

What do they need? Good question!

There are three things a podcast listener needs from you before they can make a buy decision:

1) They need to know you are a real person, not some extremely highly paid executive hired to speak buzzwords in an appropriately animated tone. Not that there's anything wrong with being extremely highly paid. Just remember that people do business with people they know and like. If you can't be likable at your pay grade, get someone else to do the podcast.

2) They need to know you know their business. This is the heart of the podcast! This is your chance to connect with prospects by letting them know that you know their pain. They must believe that you really understand their situation if they are to trust you to provide a solution.

3) They need to know that you have a passion for serving them. I fancy myself a decent wordsmith and yet my best work cannot come close to describing the honest commitment a good company feels in regard to serving its customers. A little honesty here can be magnified into an extremely powerful sales tool. Likewise, a standard sales pitch will provide the expected results.

The podcast is your chance to start an honest conversation with your prospects. Conversations are the gateway to relationships, which is the only thing that leads to a sale.

Talking New Media at MBA Tech

2007-04-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

Had a great time at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association's Technology in Mortgage Banking show in Tampa. While some argued that the show was rather light on lender attendance, those firms that did their homework ahead of the show seemed to be pretty busy.

For my part, I had a great time catching up with all the folks I've been reporting on over the years. I love these shows for that reason.

On the last day of the show, I got to participate in a panel session on New Media. Fidelity and eLynx spoke about their podcasting experience, Martopia gave a good overview of New Media and the firm's one-to-one video marketing product. I got to speak about leveraging New Media in the B2C space.

If you're interested in my slides, drop me an e-mail.

Talking Web 2.0 at TAVMA

2007-03-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

I got the opportunity to speak on a panel on Web 2.0 at the Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association's annual convention here in Orlando earlier today. I was joined by Raelin Sawka Musuraca, president of Sharp Creative. She's both.

It was a great session. We got to talk about the history of the Web for B2B players, the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, and what it takes to start capitalizing on some of the new tools that available today, including blogs, podcasts, online video, wiki pages, groups, and RSS.

A few of the attendees admitted that their companies were beginning to dip their toes in the water with new blogs, but no one had gone beyond that. No one in the audience was aware of Second Life. But they were interested and eager to learn.

While many of the tools that consumers are enjoying right now probably won't be leveraged on the B2B side anytime soon, plenty of folks in the audience were smiling and nodding, which I take as a good sign that we'll see more New Media activity from these folks soon.

New Media on tap at upcoming conferences

2007-02-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

Those of you planning to attend the upcoming TAVMA convention in Orlando or the Mortgage Bankers Association's Technology in Mortgage Banking show in Tampa, will have the opportunity to hear more about these new media tools and how they are being used in our industry today.

I'll be on a panel at both shows, talking about how these tools can be leveraged and why financial services industry players should be learning how to use them now.

Don't impersonate your customers

2007-02-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

It's not legal for a consumer to pretend to represent a company if he doesn't. Does it make any sense for marketing executives to impersonate customers? In a way, that's what advertising has always done. Now that we're leveraging new tools to get company messages across, some of the rules are changing.

In his blog, Communities Dominate Brands, Alan Moore talks about a new law in Europe that will penalize companies that use New Media tools to pretend to be their customers.

In America, we've already seen some high profile blunders caused by companies and public relations firms that thought they could sneak a company spokesperson into a blog or podcast without telling their audience.

It's one thing to put a smiling face in an advertisement and hope that people jump to the conclusion that they'll be smiling too if they only buy the company's product. Don't try that with a blog or podcast. The results will not be satisfying.

Inman features the bubble bloggers

2007-02-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

Inman is running an interesting series on real estate bloggers who have chosen to write about real estate bubbles.

I think these business bloggers have been successful because they are writing at the intersection of the real estate business and the general public's information focus. People have been trained by the mainstream media to accept a real estate bubble as an important issue even though very few are real estate speculators and most have yet to see any negative home price appreciation. If you were writing a blog about capital requirements for mortgage bankers, you wouldn't get this kind of readership.

While this is a good way to use New Media to make a name for yourself, bubble your site to the top of the search engine listings and engage an audience you hope to sell to, it's gotta be tough for a real estate agent to make a lot of money telling people that the market is going to implode.

I like hearing these stories because it helps get the message across to business that these tools can be useful. When we read stories about bloggers attracting huge audiences, it helps marketing executives take blogs more seriously, because they've been trained to look for big numbers when it comes to media impressions.

In truth, it doesn't matter how big your market is if your product has a high enough margin and you can engage that audience effectively. I know mortgage loan origination vendors that can earn millions on a single implementation. Do they need to attract a blog audience big enough to get on the cover of an industry trade publication? Nope. They can be blissfully ignored as they use their blogs to move their customers swiftly through the sales cycle to the close.

Social Media by the numbers

2007-02-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

Social Media. Need a quick look at the numbers? Check out this blog post and see why it's important that you get a handle on this stuff.

MediaToob goes straight to the phones

2007-02-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

And now we have another easy way to deliver podcast audio and video content directly to mobile phones. If you think iPods are great, the handheld phone/MP3 player/PDA/God-knows-what-else is going to be really great.

Get this podcasting stuff down. All of our content will come to us like this in the future.

Inman: Into the wiki space

2007-02-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

I've got to hand it to Brad Inman and his Inman News company. These guys really get out and try new things.

They were the first trade publication to host a group blog and featured some of the top thinkers in the industry. It faded away as these folks got busy, lack of effective moderation failed to keep the thinkers on track and, presumably, the link between writing and reward stretched thin, but for a while it was a very good read.

Inman still hosts its blog, though these days it's mostly written by Inman reporters. Still, I often find it very interesting and have pointed to it in my own blogs more than once.

Now, Inman is trying something new. Well, new for us anyway. Wiki pages have been around for some time, with Wikipedia being the best known example. The basic idea is that you give a bunch of folks the ability to edit the Web page and a much better (or informative or interesting or even weird) page will result. Inman's new wiki page is online now and I can't wait to see how it develops.

New Media demands innovation from those who hope to benefit from the advantages it offers. Inman, as you probably know, offers its own industry innovation awards every year. This is another perfect example of the company taking its own medicine. Well done!

Trailblazer: The Pinnacle Report

2007-01-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

The Pinnacle Report is an excellent example of how a mortgage lender is leveraging New Media to make an impact in a local market.

Jim Casler, President of Pinnacle Financial, Traverse City, Mich., is using a blog to disseminate a truly useful weekly report. I subscribed to this feed as soon as I found it.

But Casler didn't stop there. He also produces a weekly podcast to tell his customers what this all means in his own words. This is a trailblazer.

The Personal Nature of Business Blogs

2007-01-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

This is a great post by Ben Yoskovitz. He says that even business blogs are personal because you're communicating with someone. Or, as he puts it "blogs are ultimately conversations."

At least that's what we hope they are. Until we can pull a prospect into a conversation (or a partner or employee or current customer, for that matter), we can't really do any business with them. We need that conversation to put another brick in the bridge between us that will ultimately be our relationship. When we have that, we'll be doing business.

The biggest mistake you can make with a business blog, in my opinion, is creating the content in strict accordance with your accepted and approved corporate communications guidelines. You may as well print it into a brochure. More people will read it.

If you have someone in your company that can speak freely and honsestly with your audience, launch a blog today. If you're not willing to have honest conversations with people, skip it.

Solving old problems with New Media tools

2007-01-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, usually. Actually, it's a simple XML file that we use to allow news feed aggregators to pull down content. Web Logs (Blogs) represent one example of how RSS has been used to syndicate content, but there are many ways to leverage this technology.

Some companies are generating RSS feeds to record changes in their websites. Anyone who subscribes to the feed will know exactly what has changed as soon as the changes are made.

So what kind of information do we need to share in the financial services industry? One example are wholesale lender loan product rate sheets. If the rate sheets are coded as attachments into an XML RSS file and brokers subscribe to the feed, they'll get the new sheet as soon as it comes out.

One company is already offering this service. New York-based eStyle Software, makers of the PreQualEngine mortgage loan prequalification, product search and pricing engine, offer an RSS feed to brokers who want to track changes in the rates and guidelines of the lenders who license eStyle's software. Smart.

There are other ways to leverage this New Media tool. Think about it.

Trend: Companies seeing value of periodic shows

2007-01-25T18:58:00.000-08:00

For the past year, Texell has been selling one-shot podcasts to companies in the financial services space. Forward thinking companies have been testing the podcasting waters, but few saw the value of a regular monthly or weekly program in 2006. Even when they came back for another podcast, the idea of a regular show did not appeal to them.

That seems to be changing. In October, we inked a deal through our partner (Martopia) to provide a weekly podcast to the Mortgage Bankers Association, Washington, D.C. Since then, we've had a number of serious inquiries from companies that are starting to investigate the possibility of offering up monthly podcasts to their target markets.

There are a number of benefits companies see when they reach out on a regular basis. Perhaps most important is that the firm can begin to attract a regular audience. This opens up the company to the increased possibility of receiving inquiries from listeners, which can lead to conversations.

We urge all of our customers to include a strong call to action in each podcast. This is vitally important to achieving a return on the investment. When this call is included in a regularly appearing show, the number of responses increases out of proportion to the number of shows it appears in. It's a sum of its parts thing.

From the beginning, I've been saying that podcasting offers an opportunity for businesses to return to the Golden Days of radio when companies sponsored the shows that entertained, enlightened and sold to radio listeners. Owning the show gives companies complete control of the content. Those that do a good job of offering up a valuable program will reap big rewards.

New Media is Not Just About Tools

2007-01-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

Marketing professionals sometimes break corporate communication down by the tools used. For instance, you may need a press release or a fact sheet or a white paper to get your point across, depending upon the audience and the message. New Media provides some new tools: podcasts, blogs, wiki pages and more.

But don't fall into the trap of thinking about New Media as a new toolset. It goes way beyond that. It's about how the audience gets the message and what they do with it.

Here's a good example. Indie911 is like a MySpace for indie filmmakers and musicians (I'm sure it's much more than that, but that's what it's like for me). On MySpace, a fan can load music into a player on the page and let visitors sample the work. Good. It's like handing a brochure out for someone you like, an old media tool updated and embedded in a New Media platform.

Indie911 took it a step further. You like a band, you want to promote the band, maybe even make a few cents by reselling their content. So, on Indie911 you create a Hoooka. I don't know what that stands for. I'm in my 40s and I'm married so I'm not interested in learning every bit of X/Y-gen lingo so I can fit in or hook up. All I know is that it's a very good little widget that allows you to load a band's music (or your own, or your own videos or photos) into it and serve it up on your Indie911 website. Or MySpace or your blog or anywhere.

Indie911 calls it an "Artist/Label Branded, Consumer Driven, Mobile Music Store." I call it a standalone little multimedia content marketing device that you can load up and make money with by clicking a few buttons. That's New Media! That's the audience taking control. That's taking the producer/consumer paradigm and turning it on its head.

Now, how could you benefit from a little widget like that? Can you create something so compelling that your audience would want to become your distributors? Can you find a way to compensate them for doing so?

Now you're thinking like a New Media marketer.

Wow and Blogger Tagging

2007-01-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

If you're serious about leveraging New Media in the business world you need to know George Dearing of the WOW Agency. George runs a blog he calls the WOWFeed. He helps companies go beyond word of mouth to word of Web (WOW). I've been reading him for some time now and it looks like we'll probably partner up on some projects this year.

Like most of the folks who truly get it, George is a busy fellow right now, but he's not immune to the occasional game. Blogger tagging is something New Media proponents do to each other and George has done it to me. Thanks, George.

Here are his responses and a link to show how this whole thing started. Fear not, I won't bore you with this type of information often (read ever again).

And here are five things you probably don't know about me.

1) When I work alone in my office, I dress like a homeless person. At least that's what my wife says. The jeans are comfortable if ragged and no shoes fit me as well as my 4-year-old Reeboks. Add an old t-shirt and I can write for days.

2) Speaking of wives, I married a gal who used to produce syndicated radio shows in NYC. She dated and was pursued by some of the most famous people of the 80s but she married this farm boy from Missouri.

3) I try to work the word porcupine into as many sentences as possible because is annoys/amuses my four-year-old daughter.

4) My wife worries when I have to drive to Philly to catch a plane to a conference because I refuse to buy a new vehicle until my 1992 Ford F-150 flies apart. I have to drive it because if I leave town with it in the driveway she'll stick a For Sale sign on it when I'm gone. Almost lost it that way once.

5) I'm the eldest son of the eldest son for five generations back and my great-grandmother's bible traces my family line back to President Grant and beyond. He wasn't much of a businessman, I've learned, but he knew how to fight and he never gave up. He turned his completed memoirs over to Mark Twain for publication before the cancer got him so his wife wouldn't have to worry about money.

End of story.

How We Release News

2007-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

There's a battle going on in the New Media community right now about the best way for companies to release news. Brian Solis, principal at Futureworks PR, does a fine job of laying out the battlefield in a recent article.

Two things I'd like to point out about this. First, there's a New Media community. This is great! It means that there exists a group of forward-thinking professioanls who are out there actively working to make the business of public relations (or media relations or new media or social media or whatever) better. I've been quietly watching these folks for a while now and I'm very impressed.

I can say that here because none of them read this blog. I write here primarily for the benefit of the financial services industry and the folks working hard here to effectively communicate their corporate stories.

The second thing about the battle between new media release proponents and those that favor the traditional press releases is that it probably shouldn't matter much to you at this point. In the end, and Solis alludes to this in his article, it won't matter what tool you use to communicate with your audience if the content isn't meaningful to them. In the end, either you make a connection, start a conversation and then build a relationship or you won't achieve your goals.

Solis has a better way of putting this: "Engage or die."

Heh. I like that. For those of you working on the B2B side, traditional press releases are going to be more effective in the short term, if you're targeting journalists. And you have to target them. There are other good tools you'll be using to get to your prospects, but they probably won't include new media press releases at this point.

Now, those of you actually providing banking or mortgage products to consumers had better start looking into these new types of news releases. More folks are turning to press releases on the Web (which are served up free of charge by their favorite search engines) to get their news. If you're still writing the stilted, adjective-heavy press releases you send to journalists (who cut that stuff all out anyway), you'd better start looking at better ways to tell your stories in the news release format.

Interview on Mark Dangelo's site

2007-01-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Effective corporate communication is getting more complicated. It's no longer a matter of getting in the right trade publications or getting your messages into the traditional media. There are New Media tools that are at once confusing to corporate marketers and engaging to consumers.

Mark Dangelo, consultant and author of Innovative Relevance, visited with me recently for an episode of his podcast.

Find out more about Mark at his website. If you don't know him and your working in technology for financial services, you probably should. He's one of the few people working there that truly gets this whole New Media thing. I've found him to be a very open and engaging fellow that will respond to you if you contact him through his website.

CES: It's About More than Gadgets

2007-01-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

National Public Radio has been covering the Consumer Electronics Show out in Vegas. This morning, in a business report, NPR's Laura Sydell talks about how it's not just about the gadgets as large entertainment firms cut deals with New Media companies in an effort to get their content out to digital age consumers.

Visit NPR's site to listen.

Interview in Current Broker Magazine

2007-01-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

I was interviewed and included in this month's issue of Broker magazine. If you are active in the mortgage loan brokerage business, you might have seen it. If you're interested in what I told them about using podcasts to drive new business, let me know and I'll send you a reprint.

Viral Video Beyond the Grasp of Most

2007-01-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I'm sold on Podcasting for the B2B marketplace is that it's a non-threatening way to get people the information they are already seeking. Corporate buyers need to hear about the features and benefits of your offering and if they can hear that you're passionate about serving them at the same time, your company can benefit.

I anticipate that a number of companies will explore video in 2007, hoping to create a viral video phenomenon that will disseminate their messages far and wide. For most, it won't work. We expect more from video than audio, probably because it commands more of our attention. Video requires the message to be more entertaining. Otherwise, viewers will click away. Simply answering the questions on camera--or worse, reading the approved marketing collateral, will not be effective.

To be effective with video involves taking risks most companies won't take. Those that do are likely to be well rewarded. See the clip below for an example of something that will work.

Not ready for that? Fine, talk to us about an audio podcast.

So What is New Media?

2007-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia that we write ourselves), "New Media loosely describes those forms of media enabled by digital technology." Which, if you take it literally, means all media. Newspapers, television and radio--the traditional media--are all enabled by digital technology today and so this definition doesn't get us any closer to understanding New Media. So much for democracy in reference book publishing.

New Media has nothing to do with technology...except that without it the media consumer would never have been put in a position to control both the medium and the message. Which, I guess means that New Media has everything to do with technology.

But what is it?

For the purposes of B2B Marketing, New Media is any vehicle that allows the company to engage an audience in a discussion designed to ultimately create a relationship that will lead to a sale. It has the following characteristics:

It will probably be enabled by a Web-based technology and take place over the Internet.
More of the content will be provided by outsiders than company employees or advisors.
Some of the content will not conform to the marketing department's approved materials.
Some of the content will strike horror into the hearts of marketing personnel and executives.
It will reveal target audiences' real feelings about the company and its products.
It will spawn real conversations that will lead to relationships and sales.

New Media will become much more prevalent in the B2B space in 2007 than it has been in the past. Expect to see more corporate blogs, more podcasts and more wiki-like sites where companies invite their target markets to share in the creation of company content. Expect to see some companies go through a lot of pain as they realize that they really can't control these conversations once they start, no matter how much they spend or how badly they want to.

At Texell, we're starting with podcasts, but we love blogs and think internet video has an almost unlimited potential to change the way companies market their products. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that New Media tools are easy to define. They haven't all been defined yet. More will be introduced this year.

Example: we now have cell phones that can text you when you pass a certain advertiser's hotspot to offer you a special deal. Imagine what will happen when we build wireless technology into t-shirts and the ad slogan on the back changes as the pretty girl walks down the street. You're going to see a lot of New Media coming. It will start this year. Buckle up.

Understanding New Media Metrics

2007-01-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

I could start with my definition of new media communication tools, but if I can't prove that they can serve the marketing needs of the B2B community, who cares what they are. So let's start with metrics.

How many impressions? Pageviews? Clicks? Hits? These are questions that are now (or will soon be) irrelevant. At the end of the day, who cares how many people saw the full-page ad you ran in the trade publication that is now gathering dust on an end table in your reception area? Publishers of trade publications, maybe. Who cares if your podcast is heard by 2 million Chinese nationals who have no desire or ability to buy your product or service? Is that worth more than having the same podcast delivered to 100 top industry insiders who get paid to purchase products like the ones you offer?

Lest you think that I'm just trying to redefine the playing field to increase my chance of scoring, I should tell you that a lot of people are talking about this right now. Jeff Jarvis has a great blog post on this that points to a number of these discussions. I found it through a post on Dennis Haarsager's Technology 360 Blog.

I'm not suggesting that you stop trying to figure out how to determine whether you're getting a good deal on the promotional efforts you employ. Just make sure you're measuring the right metrics. With new media, it's not about throwing your message to the wind and hoping some of it lands in a prospect's ears. It's about telling your story to the people who want and need to hear it and engaging them in a conversation that will lead to a sale and an ongoing relationship.

Getting Your Point Across

2007-01-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

One of the questions I hear most often after a company agrees to let Texell produce a podcast or start them a new blog is, "Who is going to see/hear this?" It's a really good question.

All of us are so busy and so inundated with material that getting our attention is a real job. If you spend your resources attracting the attention of the wrong people, you're marketing communication efforts are bound to fail.

In this new blog, I want to share some ideas with you for using today's New Media communication tools to get your message across effectively...to the right audience. We are living in exciting times. We have the technology to focus our communication efforts. But we still have to do the work of creating effective messages and identifying key audiences.

Watch this space for stories about companies that are doing a great job and for analysis of some of the mistakes we're seeing in the marketplace. Our goal is to help you be more effective at communicating your core value proposition. Our plan is to make this blog a good sample of our work.