A direct response marketing program – This means we need to avoid the urge to include conversation stopping things like hyperbole, canned benefits statements and a call to action.  Few things shut down a blog conversations faster than “act before Friday…” or some other type of offer.

A press release – PR teams have a very specific role as the “official voice” of the organization for the media and other third parties.  This typically means speaking of your organization in the third person.  In contrast, effective blogging works in the first and second person as you would in a conversation.  This also invites comments, both positive and negative.

An email substitute – Just because your house email list is losing its pop doesn’t mean you can blindly move your promotions to your blog.  Blogs with no obvious value to your audience are spam.  You need to get beyond the facts and tell me something new, fresh or surprising.

A case study – Blogs are great for telling stories but again think in the first and second person rather than the third person.  You have to interview your customer for the case study so why not take the time to capture the narrative as a Q&A or podcast?

Buzz – You are not stupid.  You can see through it when there is no substance.  It is no secret that the best blogs are full of fresh content and interesting ideas. Why bother blogging at all if you have nothing new, original or real to share?

Advertising – If you are a consistent blogger with a thoughtful SEO plan, you can crank up your pagerank and generate significant inbound traffic that can replace expensive paid media.  Again it starts with compelling content that your readers want to read, share and link to.

Viral marketing – Sure a blog post can “go viral” and get shared broadly but you first need to create something your audience cares about and is worth sharing.

- Mr. Tangyslice thanks you for joining us today and wonders which of these things you see most frequently and if he missed anything?

Related articles:

• Top 8 Mistakes Of Blogger Newbs (davidrisley.com)
• The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog (problogger.net)
• 8 things I wish I knew before starting to blog (shoutmeloud.com)

Wake up everybody. The age of plentiful bandwidth is here. This means a streaming radio show can sound like the host is sitting right next to you. Last summer I blogged about my learning from producing a couple of online radio shows.  I created this post as a follow roadmap to help you create your own show.

My guess is that this is a new venture so I am a big advocate of testing new media programs in no-cost or low cost ways to prove the concept before “going big”. So how can we get from idea to fresh online radio show in an agile way? Here is my road map I used twice last summer and am currently employing as I produce a new show here at Novell.

Strategy:

• Write a short creative brief – This should be no more than 3 pages. Remember that the show is the product not the document.

• Sell the idea to the most important stakeholders – You need buy-in but don’t try to sell everyone. The first show (ie “the pilot”) will be your best tool for convincing people to do more.

• Find an executive sponsor – This person can advise the team and protect the idea from the corporate T-cell types that challenge anything new or different. Your sponsor could also be a possibly be one of your first guests.

Operational details

• Decide on a format – Will it be a panel? Will it be a one-on-one interview? Or a combination?

• Pick dates for your first three shows – Without a first show date, all you have is an idea. This creates a sense of urgency and catalyzes the team.

• Decide on frequency – My bias is towards weekly. Unless you have enough content, more than once a week is tough. On the other hand, less than once a week doesn’t give you the chance to develop a rhythm.

• Identify potential guests for your first three shows – The first shows won’t be perfect so you don’t need to call in all your markers to get  superstar guests. Save that for when you have worked out the kinks.

• Get all your technology straightened out. You don’t need much equipment these days to do radio but you do need someone who can plug it in and make sure it works seamlessly. TV/video has even more moving parts so plan accordingly.

• Figure out the streaming/hosting – Where will the show reside? There are a number of Internet radio stations to consider. You can also buy some bandwidth from a CDN and stay independent.

Content

• Find a strong host – I find this the most challenging part. Many people think they can do this themselves but in reality this is a specialized skillset. While I have a hairline for radio and charming demeanor, I know that make a better guest than host. Try to find someone who is a good interviewer and can control the conversation. This can be a difference maker.

• Pick a working title and theme – Don’t worry about perfection. This can be changed easily. In many cases you will learn from your first few shows and make adjustments.

• Have a pre-production meeting – Two days before the show, meet with the host and guests to make sure everyone knows what the theme is and how the program will flow. Also let people identify their role or position on an issue. This can help generate more controversy and a better overall program.

• I prefer a soft launch for the first show – This means emailing people you know will listen and provide honest feedback. Begin promoting the show through social media about 24 hours before airtime. Remember, this is a pilot and will not be measured by audience size for the first show.

The show

• Get everyone together an hour before the show – Like a sporting event, people need to warm-up and get ready.

• Give your team a pep talk – I know we are adults but chances are your guests and host will be a little nervous. Anything you can do to break the ice will make for a better show.

• Take care of your talent – Make sure they all have a beverage and are comfortable.  No brown m&ms in the green room is crucial.

• Double check with your engineer that you are recording the show.

After the show

• Publish the recording – Think MP3. That is the only format that matters for radio. There are a bunch of options for video (Youtube or Vimeo).

• Decide on your discussion hub – This is where you will engage your audience between shows, test topics and publish recordings. Options include a Facebook fan page, LinkedIn group or blog.

If you are looking for an example show, I particularly like what PJA Advertising has done with their “This Week in Social Media” show.

Full disclosure: I was involved in the development of the show but they have done all the heavy lifting and have built a pretty big audience.

Anyone else dabbling in online media want to chime in? Did I miss anything? Any risks in this format?

I’ve been accumulating news stories and blog posts for a B2B social media training course.  As much as I like Digg, I felt like Delicious was a better way to organzing the articles.

Here is the link

I particularly like Peter Kim ’s wiki with social media use cases.  ** Name drop alert *** Peter, maybe we could grab another giant crab boil at SXSW this year with Mr. Cutler…

I still need to add a bunch of Groundswell related stuff and don’t like any of the conventional articles about measurement as they were mostly written by people who have never marketed anything besides themselves.

Did I miss any obvious ones.

Any ones I should delete?

Thanks and slice you later.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I joined Novell as the Director of New and Social Media back in October.  I am superstitious and don’t like to announce things for 60 days (it is a long story about potatoes and blenders that my wife would be glad to share with you).

Yes, the “summer of Frank” is officially over as I settle in to a new office and working with a new team. I wasn’t actively looking for a full time gig but this was a pretty special opportunity.  Novell has a long legacy with online communities dating back to the Compuserve days and I am excited to help the team get the most out of this generation of social channels. I am also thrilled to be one of seven Sloanies on the team (that makes me lucky, Justin, right?).  I guess I am going to have to make things happen as Troy Monney who runs our Field Marketing team gave me the nickname the “silver bullet”.  How’s that for no pressure?

A couple of quick thank yous to my peeps at PJA Advertising. I learned a ton over the summer from Mike O’Toole, Phil Johnson, Hugh Kennedy, Matt Magee, Andy Kling and the rest of the team.  There are also too many great people to me who made this a memorable adventure including Paige Arnof-Fenn, Jim Storer, Rachel Happe, Bob Collins, Jeff Cutler, Mark Sutton, Matt Grant, and the wannabe food blogger known as Limeduck.  It was great to reconnect with everyone at Experian-QAS including Beatriz Santin and Richard Delahaye.  And finally, I’d say good luck to the graphic designer who replaced me at my previous company.

Please do keep in touch and stay tuned.  I am planning to share more of my learnings and continue to challenge the conventional wisdom of those so called “social media evangelists”.

Thanks and stay tangy my friends.

- Frank

In no particular order:

1. Blog it
2. Tweet it
3. Digg it
4. Stumble it
5. Post in  LinkedIn groups
6. Add to email signature
7. Tweet it again later today
8. Post to Facebook group(s)/fan page(s)
9. Update your LinkedIn status
10. Share in customer forums
11. Reddit
12. Create a one minute podcast for iTunes
13. Record a one minute Webcam video for YouTube
14. Upload your PPT to Slideshare
15. Create a Friendfeed
16. Get your blog listed on Technorati
17. Tweet it tomorrow
18. Update/create your Wikipedia page
19. Post to vertical communities like Toolbox.com
20. Ask friends to retweet
21. Ask friends to “like” on Facebook
22. Beg your favorite bloggers to mention
23. Post picture from announcement party to Flickr

I’m sure I missed some.  Any other suggestions?

So what is tangy these days?  I think it might be time to call the top of the social media market.  I know, I know, people have been doing this since mid 2007 but I think we finally might have the traffic numbers to back this up.  Check out the traffic for what I consider three core social media sites for B2B marketers over the last four months. For some reason, the embedded graphs don’t show September which is flat for each graph so you should click through to Compete to get the full picture.

One B2B site that seems to be growing is LinkedIn.  I guess people are still job hunting.

OK, four months is not necessarily conclusive especially when they span the summer but it makes me wonder…

So what does this all mean?

• Is the traffic migrating elsewhere?
• Are people focusing on job hunting again?
• Do the students now have homework?

I guess we’ll really know we’re at the top when the Twitter guys sell out.  Insiders typically sell right before the crash, right?  FYI, they recently raised another round of VC money so I may be premature in calling the top.

What do you think – are we at the top yet?

A number of recent conversations with clients and CMO friends have centered on what to try next in B2B marketing.  The conversations have gone something like this:

“I’ve cut back PR because I just couldn’t justify the retainer.  Our traditional media buys are much smaller this year because the economy sucks.  We’re doing our one essential trade show this year and have killed the rest. We’re tweeting and have about 500 followers.  Most of my prospects and customers aren’t on Twitter. Our Facebook page has 250 friends but they are mostly employees, vendors and a small group of customers.  Despite alot of knob turning, our paid and organic search has reached a plateau.  And my sales team is complaining about the quality of the webinar and whitepaper leads…  What can I do?”

Here are two cutting edge things that I have seen more progressive marketers testing:

Social media lead generation – I know this may be heretical but try using social media to actively engage people.  People  are using one of the social media monitoring tools like Radian6, Scoutlabs or Trackur.  The obvious rules of social media apply (ie don’t be an idiot, be considerate, join the conversation, etc).

Online Content Syndication – There are about 10-20 social media sites that have any traffic and really matter to the average B2B company.  Once you establish your presence on these sites, you can use tools like PingFM and Tubemogul as well as RSS feeds to push content.  The idea is to use tags based on your most important SEO keywords.  Again, I know this isn’t “joining the conversation” so you need to be actively monitoring things to participate and engage prospects.

Can you suggest any others that I have missed?

Also, for those of you didn’t get the 80’s one hit wonder reference in the post headline, here is the video for the song by the  bad Haircut 100.  Enjoy and stay tangy.

In the past, I’ve discussed the benefits of applying agile project management to marketing programs without actually discussing the details of how it works.  Based on the suggestion from a regular reader of the the ‘Slice, here is the agile process I frequently use for managing marketing projects.  Keep in mind, that this is not great for projects with many hard deadlines like tradeshows, direct mail or print advertising.

1. Assign roles – The key stakeholders are the “scrum master” (the person who runs the daily scrum meetings), “program owner” (clearly articulates the goals for the project), “chickens” (people involved in the project from an informational standpoint), and “pigs” (the people who will do the heavy lifting for the project).

2. Decide on the duration and frequency of the sprints – In the world of agile project management, the idea is to break the work into smaller digestible chunks (ie sprints) and meet frequently to discuss progress on the specific tasks.  I prefer two to three week sprints.  In a perfect world we would have short scrum meetings daily but most of my agile marketing projects have meetings every other day.  The scrum frequency depends on the work velocity.

3. Set goals for first sprint – The first one is the most difficult.  I suggest first convening a “sprint planning meeting”.   Before starting the sprint, we discuss the theme, review tasks and estimate time requirements.  We’ll then put these tasks on post-it notes on a dedicated wall.  I prefer Post-its to note cards to avoid the need for pushpins.  Finally, we segregate the Post-its into the current sprint (what we will work on for the next two weeks) vs. the sprint backlog (what will come in later sprints).  If there is time, we’ll also discuss who will handle specific tasks.

4. Sprint meetings – I put the scrum meetings in the calendar for all the stakeholders except the “chickens”.  I’ll send the birds an email letting them know about the meetings and welcoming them to join us.  My logic is that this is an open meeting but only the people with real tasks responsibilities are required to attend.

5. Discuss, discuss, and discuss again – We basically run through the Post it notes on the wall and sort them into “in process” tasks vs. the “spring backlog”.  We then close the meeting by asking the “pigs” “what have you completed”, “what are you working on next” and “what are the risks”.  The goal is to quickly identify risks.  These meetings should be short (under 20 mins) so there is nothing wrong with taking issues offline to keep things moving.

6. Move the Post-its – When tasks are completed, move the cards to the done column.

7. Sprint planning (again) – As you approach the end of the sprint, it is time to think about the next one.  This meeting will review the last sprint’s results and look at what is next.

It is sort of like the instructions on the shampoo bottle … lather, rinse, repeat as needed…

I hope this is helpful.  Please let me know if you have anything to add.  I am by no means a scrum or agile expert and would value people’s suggestions on ways to improve this process.

About ten years ago corporations often blocked Hotmail and AOL from employees. It is amazing how many times in the last month I’ve heard about this same behavior going on with social media.  I know that looking at pictures from a neighbor’s BBQ on Facebook is quite dangerous but let’s get serious. Using this logic, then corporate IT should also turn off all access to Web browsing, blogging and personal emailing.

I wonder when businesses will get comfortable with these new media and trust that employees can act responsibly?

The tech marketing holy trinity (ie webinars, whitepapers and tradeshows) still rule for most of the B2B marketers I meet.  That doesn’t mean that they aren’t thinking about ways to test the waters with new/social media.  While their customers may not be gathering and connecting in great numbers in these channel (yet), opportunities still exist to share content and start the conversation.

Here are three fresh things you can try:

Update Linkedin – Make sure your company profile is up-to-date and check out a few groups where you think your prospect are chatting.  If you feel ambitious, start a couple of discussions.  While the groups are a little spammy, there is a also a ton of action.

Do a Google blog search – Check out what people are saying about you or your competitors in the blogosphere.  Even better, setup a Google blog alert for your top 5 organic search terms.  This gives you the opportunity to comment on relevant posts.

Peek at your Web referrer logs – I am always surprised to find new sources in my organic web traffic.  It often gives me fresh ideas for online content and campaigns.

Any other super simple things you have tried?  How have they worked?