Marketing 2.0: Gaming, Widgets, Blogging, RSS, Podcasts and More [con't]
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The Collaborative Web Site: Wikis
Now let's turn our attention to wikis. A wiki is software that enables users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wikis enable you to create a place to store information. Wikis are special in that the organization and content can both be edited. Anyone can add, create, or edit a wiki page. Even nontechnical users can create their own information repositories. For internal use, wikis are an "interactive" repository of information, comments, and insights. They are a simple intranet that can be used by everybody in a simple way. Figure 10.14 features the IBM Super Women's Group for our group of outstanding female leaders in IBM. This internal wiki enables us to share information in a dynamic format.
Externally, wikis are like Web sites, but the interactivity makes the difference. On the outside, there is the risk that people can add content that is not useful or even inaccurate. It requires strong tracking and control. Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis and has a great system to ensure the content is accurate and relevant.
Businesses install wikis to provide affordable and effective intranets and for knowledge management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, Wiki Wiki Web, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work." How might a wiki be used in marketing? To provide information to your sales team or your customers and ecosystem in a constant refresh state.
For example, I produce and publish to my internal and external community an award-winning newsletter. My editor, a brilliant woman by the name of Ally Jimenez Klopsch, sets up a set of links to the SOA wiki that my team manages. The newsletter has no bulk or size to it and is a brilliant piece of art going out the door. The wiki affords me the ability to have information sent without a huge size and to provide constantly updated data and information. I use the wiki for both my internal and external views of the data. In Figure 10.15, you can see the version of our newsletter that goes out to the distribution list of more than 100,000 people.
This newsletter and approach won a MarCom Award for Excellence in Marketing Communications from the Association of Marketing & Communications Professionals. This wiki keeps my ecosystem energized in that it always have access to the freshest content around!
Top Five Lessons Learned for Widgets and Wikis
I combined our top tips for both widgets and wikis as they tend to be similar in lessons learned to date. The following are the focus areas for success:
- Widgets are here to stay: Pilot or play with a use now and learn from it. It can be a powerful extension of your brand and an energizer for your ecosystem.
- Use a professional for widgets: Focus on your core competency of marketing and the content that will entice the ecosystem to come back, and use a professional for the production of the actual widget application
- Brings information to the user: If the widget merely contains a collection of titles and hyperlinks, it is really no more useful than a Web page. Things such as scrolling titles to breaking news, videos that play within the widget, and information tailored to the user are examples of valuable widget features. It should be something that a user can glance at and see that it is compelling.
- Be creative in your use of wikis: Leveraging the power of constant updates and small file size is of value in newsletters and other interactive forms of communication with your audience. Wikis are powerful enough for both your core channels inside your company and outside your company.
- Content is king: In both widgets and wikis, the value is in the content being fresh and new. Don't invest in this vessel for your ecosystem and not invest in the upkeep and passion for the content.
Blogging Including Twitter
Blogging is a Web-based discussion tool that enables individuals or groups to directly and easily communicate their thoughts, experience, opinions, feelings, and observations for all to see! Blogs espouse a worldview with the voice of the author reflecting her ideas (either knowledge or a unique perspective) that might influence perceptions and an overall position of those opinions in the marketplace. Blogs create great opportunities for shaping messages, but they also create risks if there is propagation of inaccurate or proprietary information. They foster discussion, debate, and even a sense of community.
Depending on the source, there are millions of bloggers throughout the world, although the number of active bloggers (those posting twice a week) has slowed a little with all the new choices of Web 2.0 technology available. (Remember that blogging actually began as Weblogs back in 1997.) For example, IBM's internal blogs have posting from those in more than 73 countries and saw 60,000 page views on the main blog story on IBM's intranet. IBM has more than 160 external blogs and group blogs. IBM blogging guidelines are well established across the business world (see Chapter 9, "Influencer Value: The IBM Case Study," for how the guidelines were created).
Blogs can create awareness and buzz. They can create positive word of mouth and interest in new products and establish interaction and relationships with customers or prospects.
They present a new way to frame and influence public discussion and form a new economic and social space for learning and collaboration. As blogs are text-heavy and frequently updated, they can be leveraged with search engine tools. For example, several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere), such as Blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings.
A tumblelog is a type of blog. It is focused on being simple and short versus some of the longer blogs that have become known in blogging. People who write tumblelogs use a lot of visualization, such as pictures, videos, audio, and links. The primary focus of tumblelogs is typically to share experiences and discoveries of the author, not as much to focus on a topic or area of interest. Often there are few words but lots of extras!
Microblogging is also a short form of a blog but more in text form. A lot of the content comes from instant messaging and mp3s or even texting. Often these blogs are restricted to a small set of friends.
The most popular service is called Twitter. Twitter is free social networking and microblogging site that enables users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: Web form, text message, or instant message. Twitter is interesting in that the younger generation is enamored with it! A friend's son uses it as an "efficient" way to keep track of his "crew." They use Twitter to log what they do all day, and then instead of calling each other, they check out Twitter to keep up to date on their friends' lives.
The increase in the use of Twitter is amazing. Web visits have increased eight times in the last year. Compete shows about 900,000 U.S. monthly Web site visitors. Comscore puts the worldwide number at 1.3+ million unique monthly visitors. Twitter can be used to virally spread information to your intended audience and provide them with simple instructions about how to sign up for a free account and follow your stream. Customers, prospects, partners, and colleagues can view your updates. It is a good idea to follow those who follow you in turn because now that you have a portable broadcasting channel, you can do a variety of things.
For example, given the opt-in model Twitter uses, and because people choose to follow a Tweet stream based on the quality and relevance of its content, Twitter presents an ideal way to reach and foster a real-time community of brand evangelists and key influencers. Because IBM Lotus also drives to raise the brand's legitimacy and relevance in the world of Web 2.0—making the case that "IBM really gets it"—it is imperative that our efforts to market our own social software products embrace such emerging communities and channels.
A recent example is a trade show where Lotus Connections scored a big win with its customers. We were able to keep the chatter going and push the story to our fellow Tweeters, and the groundswell of follow on blogosphere and press activity served as a proof point to Twitter's capability to help us build a story's momentum. Lotus had about 350 followers on Twitter, with more following each day. As Jeff Schick, IBM's vice president of Social Software commented, "We have learned that Twitter can play an important part in our communications efforts and can be a keystone as we raise brand and product awareness/credibility in these nascent communities of purpose." Goals of blogs vary for marketing purposes, as you see in Figure 10.16.
Some blogs are used for sharing knowledge and to inform. Some blogs tee up key issues and discussion areas. Others are used for extending your brand reputation or, most importantly, to build relationships and put a face on your company. Subject-matter and product-expert blogs help drive traffic, product awareness, and brand loyalty. They can be used internally, for the market, or even drive public-relations activities. They serve as tools and extend networks to collaborate and share knowledge.
Blogs have an impact on businesses. They often beat the mainstream media to major stories and serve as corporate watchdogs and quality control. Overall, they serve as an alternative source of information and company viewpoints. For example, IBM started a group blog called HeathNex. It is a group of IBM healthcare and external experts discussing the transformation of medicine and human health. It is often covered in the news and has led to the awareness of IBM's significant involvement in healthcare technologies.
From my viewpoint, blogging is an innovative PR media with strong influence when the bloggers are part of the community/group you need to influence, inform, or seduce. In Figure 10.17, we see a sample from IBM Lotus's blogger Ed Brill. Ed helps Lotus' 46,000 customers with their sense of community and commonality and refutes its competitor's fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). He shares news and information about Lotus and has decreased the distance between IBM and its customers.
The key challenges you face are similar to the other vessels we discuss. How do you get people to your blog? How do you keep your content fresh, relevant, and exciting by combining different techniques, methods, and vehicles? Creativity is again one of the secrets of success! One example of how to get your blog read is to subscribe your blog in different directories to help disseminate and improve search engines so that more people will get to your blog. I have been a blogger on IBM's blogsphere for about two years and still host one of the top ten blogs. I use it to share information with my readers and linkers. It is part of my marketing mix where I disseminate messages, especially where other bloggers link into my site. My channel loves my blog, and I receive e-mails from around the world about the topics that I choose to focus on.
Top Five Ideas for Better Blogging
The top tips for blogging can make the difference in your success in the marketplace in leveraging this area for better marketing gains.
- Identify your key bloggers inside and outside your company: Work with the bloggers to influence the marketplace. Set up your own blog through Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, or other blog-hosting services. Setting up your own blog will teach you "on the job" how blogging works, the technology behind it, and get you involved in the community.
- Content is king: Note this trend on a lot of the digital media types. This is one reason I have started hiring writers. The digital world needs great communication and creativity skills. If using Twitter, share bites of knowledge from events and receive other people's impressions.
- Use multimedia types: Videos, links, and pictures make your blog more readable and fun. You can broadcast meet-up places on Twitter and provide an online streaming video or audio channel for those who are not on the ground to join you live. (This is a nice touch for customers.)
- Be personal: Bloggers share personal tidbits about their lives. Remember that your blog gets you closer to your customer. It strengthens the relationship.
- Think through it: Try out Twitter or just blog. Voice your opinion and participate in the conversation. You can't see the impact until you start, but make sure whatever you write is fit to go on the front page. Because anything out there could end up on the news, use it as a tool to gather feedback on your reports from the road by asking questions and interacting with your audience.
