Buzz Marketing for Technology: October 2006

Blogs are Proven to Influence the Tech-fluential!

A new survey released by Burson-Marsteller that shows 80 percent of tech-fluentials say they read blogs, which is good news for the smart Buzz Marketer!

But Buzz Marketers beware the survey also says a full 64 percent of tech-fluentials fact-check blog entries against news or magazine Web sites, and 44 percent turn to print articles in newspapers and magazines.

While remaining passionate about new communication channels such as blogs, podcasts and social networking sites, tech-fluentials continue to follow and trust traditional media; one-half of tech-fluentials say online news sites (49 percent) and traditional newspapers and magazines (48 percent) are the most credible sources of information about companies. For more information on tech-fluentials visit their website and blog

The survey results further emphasize the importance of an integrated approach to reaching the “tech-fluentials” - a powerful group of individuals who use the latest technologies to generate and accelerate word of mouth.

So what should Buzz Marketers do? While blogging and other alternative media continue to gain prominence, the right mix of traditional and non-traditional media is essential in reaching them. Like I said before – Integrated Marketing is Great but Integrated and Sticky is better!

Is Video in your new media tool kit?

Video may be more important than blogging, podcasting, or RSS. And it’s not just for professionals or amateurs, understanding video’s potential to create interactive, Multi Sensory experiences for clients and prospects is the key to unlocking its value for you.

Why should you care about interactive video? Consider this stat, courtesy of eMarketer: 2006 will be the banner year for online video ad spending growth, posting a 71.1% increase over 2005. And YouTube.com has grown from 58,000 users in August 2005 to more than 12 million in May 2006, according to comScore Media Metrix. In contrast the Wall Street Journal has 2 million print subscribers. Houston we have a problem!

There are three reasons for this growth. First, broadband continues to take hold. Two-thirds U.S. web users now use broadband (per Nielsen//NetRatings), which is the essential ingredient to enjoying rich video content. Second, major publishers like Google, Apple and now Yahoo continue to make significant investments in online video, joining sites like YouTube and iFilm.

But the most important reason why you should care about interactive video is that video helps facilitate a basic desire by users in Web 2.0 for immersion and interactivity. As more of us escape the limitations of dial-up access, we are becoming social networkers, and brand enthusiasts. We don’t just tell our friends we like BMW Mini’s, we upload our self-made commercials.

So what should you do to build the Buzz for your brand? Start building more multi sensory experiential microsites and website filled with rich web content and interactivity like podcasts and videocasts – and don’t forget – integrated marketing is good but integrated and sticky is better!

Listening to your audience with social media tools

Starwood has a new hotel brand, Aloft that will offer loft-style rooms with flat-panel TVs and Wi-Fi Internet access. However, the first hotel will not be built until 2008!

To build buzz, brand loyalty and gain consumer input on design, Starwood opened in September a prototype of the real hotel on Second Life, a social networking space with more than 600,000 registered users.

Aloft Hotels are targeting trendy, tech-savvy 30-year-olds—exactly the Second Life demo, according to Second Life owner Linden Labs. The site's users are 65 percent male and 35 percent female. The average age is 32, and users spend an average of 22.8 hours a month on the site

Starwood will also use Second Life to hold virtual marketing events in conjunction with other advertisers to keep the buzz alive. Starwood also created www.virtualaloft.com, a blog to gather consumer input on the color and style of the real hotel based on their thoughts of the design of the virtual hotel. It's too early to start counting real-world hotel bookings, but Starwood execs are paying close attention to the PR impressions. Since the blog launched on Aug. 7, it's had more than 10,000 visits.

Starwood considers the virtual Aloft blog "added value." Several hundred consumer comments —from "would love to see more artwork" to "too much Jetsons"—are being considered and incorporated into new versions of the virtual hotel—and may change the appearance of the hotels in the real world.

So what should Buzz Marketers do? You have to keep tracking new technologies and try catch them as they move from the early adopters to the masses. The brands that capture that sweet spot will become very successful!

Don't wait for the social media bubble to burst

"YouTube is growing at 20% per month and MySpace membership is soaring past 100 million members. To put that into perspective the Wall Street Journal has a circulation of 2 million. And many marketers are just waiting on the sidelines trying to figure out how to get into the game.

Well stop waiting. The social media bubble isn't going to burst any more than the e-mail or instant messaging bubbles burst. In fact, there is no bubble. Bubbles need an air supply in the form of venture capital and inflated expectations from investors. They also need a payoff. Almost none of that exists in this market!! Few people are going to make much money from social media because there's no compelling business model and little barrier to entry. But that doesn't matter.

The factors that motivate them transcend profits. In blogs, podcasts and social communities, they've found a soapbox, a voice and an audience in a community that matters to them. Most have told me they'd practice their craft even if they didn't make a dime at it.

So what should you be doing? Marketers who stick their heads in the sand and wait for this phenomenon to blow over are making a career-limiting mistake. The bottom line: People are out there talking about your company, your products and your markets. They're doing it because they care, and they will continue to do it whether you want them to or not. If you're not figuring out how to become part of this conversation, you're going to be shut out."

adapted from an article by Paul Gillin in B2B Magazine, to read Paul's blog please go to http://www.paulgillin.com/

Blogs are making your website look bad!

Ok I said it – Blogs and Bloggers are making your website look bad – but how?

Every day bloggers are posting content to their blogs, I have seen as high as 4-5 times in one day and before lunch, worse there is no standards for this yet and there most likely wont be. For me 2-3 times a week feels right, or at least weekly for sure, but not less than that. I mean really – its not like a corporate newsletter you can do quarterly – Who ever heard of a quarterly blog?

So the question is – in comparison – how often do you update your corporate website?

Sure you post a new press release, a new white paper or even a new case study, maybe you even post them to your RSS link.

But in comparison to a blog – your website content is stale – Really Stale! Face it bloggers have changed the content game on the web forever. There is no way you can change your homepage 4-5 times a day – you wouldn’t want to either – it would make your brand look schizophrenic.

So what should Buzz Marketers do? – rethink your content creation process and crank it up faster. What are you doing annually that you can do quarterly, what are you doing quarterly that you can do monthly? Think along those lines and keep that website fresh!

MySpace for IT Geeks

IT Toolbox has launched a social networking feature for corporate techies, giving marketers a MySpace-like platform to reach potential tech clients and prospects right in their office. This latest professional community feature on the IT Toolbox website lets members create professional profiles, post articles, and link to other members of the community to share resources and pool knowledge about topics in information technology.

"We took a look at what MySpace did with personal profiles and community building and thought, 'Why not allow professionals to create their own home pages on the Web?'" said Dan Morrison, IT Toolbox co-founder and CEO.

The community-generated content includes executive blogs, 700 discussion groups and an IT Toolbox Wiki, or community-edited reference guide. The site reports about eight million page views monthly.

"As an IT professional, it is hard to keep on top of changes in software and understand how it can be used," Mr. Morrison said. "They need a place to turn to the knowledge of the IT workplace and connect with the minds of IT professionals."

IT Toolbox has more than a million registered users and hopes to convert those users into profiled members following the launch.

So what should Buzz Marketers do? Online social networking specifically for IT is going to facilitate a lot more knowledge sharing between users. It’s a professional setting for truly valuable peer-to-peer interaction. You need to be monitoring this and looking for ways that you and your products and services can add value to these conversations – before your competitors do!

YouTube catches a Buzz from Google

The summer's best TV show wasn't on television. It was YouTube's lonelygirl15, AKA Bree, and her best (and only) pal, the schlumpy Daniel. The two have been starring in videos posted to YouTube since mid-June. Already, lonelygirl15's videos have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times. Her YouTube "channel" is the second most subscribed to of all time, and each video elicits thousands of viewer comments. Bree and Daniel are proof that a secret-handshake-styled series of short videos can be a bona fide hit.

The videos are earnest, goofy, chaste (Daniel's crush is thus far unrequited), narrated in tight close-up, and largely set in Bree's bedroom. They focus on time-honored teen themes: parental conflicts, social isolation, boy and girl troubles. They are, as the stats suggest, hideously addictive. There are at least two fan sites, and a casual blog search reveals references to lonelygirl15 in six languages, including Russian.

But rumor had it that they were not real. Blog chatter suggested a few theories, such as the videos are a corporation's viral marketing campaign, or a teaser for an unknown major entertainment property. But recently the creators behind the Internet video mystery revealed themselves and their "experiment" in storytelling that seemed to be a perfect fit for using video blogging.

Ok, so where’s the Buzz? Well, just think how successful this little “experiment” has been for its creators. So successful that Google is paying $1.65 billion for YouTube! Clearly, online video is one of the hottest media platforms going - for conventional online ads, viral marketing and relationship building. Begin experimenting with it in your marketing mix as a way to build sustainable Buzz.

Using RSS for Knowledge Management

Overwhelmed by e-mail and lacking the time and energy to surf the intranet for what’s important, employees simply aren't getting the information they needed to do their jobs.

Enter Really Simple Syndication (RSS) as a new model for keeping employees, customers and business partners up to date. Rather than rely on their ability to find information, RSS pushes relevant information to the troops via subscription in two primary ways.

One is inside the enterprise, through the creation of ad hoc groups. Participants subscribe to the group, where they can read and comment on the same core information. Examples include engineers working on a new design or HR staff analyzing the latest standards and regulations.

The second way to leverage RSS is outside the enterprise. You can use it to deliver custom information that partners and customers subscribe to, such as providing the ongoing status of an order or transmitting customer leads to distributors.

Two companies now offer enterprise RSS server/feed management systems: NewsGator Technologies and KnowNow.

Here’s the buzz: As the amount of information increases, you have to let people shape their own world. We need multiple paths to information based on our work styles. That's a key part of the RSS promise.