Todd Sattersten :: Astronaut Projects

Womma Blog Panel: Session and Questions

We had a great session. I want to thank Deborah and Rick.

We started by asking everyone some questions and the audiences answers:

How may know what a blog is - 95%
How many people read blogs daily - 40%
How many have personal blogs - 30%
How many have company blogs - 20%

Questions:

How influential are bloggers?

How can you tell how many people are reading blogs?

How are big brands using blogs internally?

Talk about corporate blogs, and transparency.

We needed another hour to get close to answers everyone's questions.

Blogging Panel Live - After

Blogging Panel Live at WOMMA - Before

Using Blogs for Word of Mouth Marketing

I am going to be speaking today at the WOMMA Summit in Chicago. I have been asked to participate in a panel discussion on how blogs can be used to do word-of-mouth marketing. On the panel with me is Deborah Schultz from Six Apart and Rick Bruner from DoubleClick.

I wanted to publish some thoughts here for people who are (and are not) attending the event.

I think there are four reasons why companies should be using blogs to support word-of-mouth marketing:

1. Blogging is Personal - The vast majority of blogs are written by a single individual. This is what makes the medium compelling. You are hearing directly from another person what they think and how they feel. People talk about their passions. People talk about their day at work. They talk about just about everything.

The people who are drawn to blogging like to talk. They like telling others things. They like being the authority. Just the sort of people you would like talking about you.

Key point: Get to know the bloggers talking about you and your industry (and I don't mean by sending them press releases).

2. Linking - The use of hyperlinks is an integral part of blogging. Bloggers may reference a news story or the latest video game they bought. Those links are recommendations. They are telling people, "Go check it out."

   By linking to someone else, they also are giving them a gift. Robert Scoble (Microsoft Software Evangelist) calls it GoogleJuice. The more a site gets linked to, the more relevant search engines believe that content to be. Again it is like word-of-mouth--the more you hear about something, the more you start to pay attention.

   Key Points: Make sure your blog posts have permalinks and get familiar with Technorati.

3. Permanance - The trouble with most word-of-mouth marketing is that it is taking place one person at a time. And each conversation has to take place over and over again.

   The "conversations" that take place on blogs are (relatively) permanent. Before I make any purchase now, I check to see if any blogs have had anything to say. I can see if people liked the hotel they stay at or if I should buy the new Mac Mini.

   Key Point: Consider starting a blog to pull together what bloggers are saying about your company and your products (bonus points if you list the good and the bad).

   P.S. people are going to find both sides whether you like it or not.

4. Syndication - You are going to hear alot about RSS. It stands for Real Simple Syndication. RSS lets people subscribe to your blog and get notified when you post new content. This lets your biggest fans find out the moment you launch the new product. What would happen if you broke a story on your blog and simply let your evangelists spread the word?

   Key Points: Make sure you have a RSS feed on your blog and start using a RSS reader (like Bloglines) to keep up with blogs.

I have a great list of blogging links in my del.icio.us account. Start at the bottom and work your way up. You will find everything from what is a blog to how to pitch stories to bloggers. I highly recommend the Fortune article on blogging. It is the best mainstream media piece written on blogging thus far.

On the panel today, we will be giving lots of corporate examples of blogging. I wanted to give you a list of other business blogs you can check out. These are smaller companies using blogs in different ways to talk with their customers.

• Jewelboxing - This is product by Coudal Partners. They have a great feature where they list the cities they shipped to each day. It is a great way to give a nod to customers publicly without creating privacy problems.
• Green Cine Daily - If you like indie films, there is not a better site on the internet to find out what it going on. When they talk about movies, they link to them in their catalog.
• 800-CEO-READ - I am a little partial since I do alot of work for 8cr. Here is another example of a company taking their niche (i.e. business books) and striving to provide an unparalleled resources. With reviews/news, text excerpts, and audio content, they...I mean we are well on our way.
• Atomic Books - This is Baltimore based bookstore. It is a "slice of life" kind of blog, and next time I am in Baltimore I have to go visit them.
• English Cut - A Saville Row tailor talking about his craft and why his suits are better. And he gives lots of reasons...

WOMMA Summit - Day 1

Here are my notes the first day of the WOMMA Summit:

Dave Balter, CEO of BzzAgent

4 Keys to WOM

• Community of Influence
• Experience and Training
• Coummunications
• Analysis & Adjustment

Why do people share things via WOM?

• Helping/Educating
• Proving Knowledge
• Find Common Ground
• Validating Our Opinion
• Pride

80% of WOM occurs offline.

Value of Negative WOM:

• Learn by Listening
• 50% of Negative WOM is result of injustice
• Wake up your quiet advocates

George Silverman, author of the Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

People take action on 1 in 15,000 ads they see
People take action on 1 in 3 recommendations they receive

WOM is 5000X more powerful.

WOMMA Ethic Guidelines - Lots of Talk. Key tenet in the Guidlines is the Honesty ROI.

• Honesty of Relationship - Say Who You Are Speaking For
• Honesty of Opinion - Say What You Believe, Don't Shill
• Honesty of Identity - Say Who You Are

There was an interesting discussion around the developing area of WOM metrics. Too much to summarize.

Pete Blackshaw and Jim Nail had a great session on how the customer is in control. Check out HybridBuzz.com and BlogPulse. They have research that shows after WOM the next two most trusted sources for consumers are websites and email they receive. I found this amazing.

Here are Guy Kawasaki 10 points on Selling the Dream:

1. Make Meaning
2. Niche Thyself
3. Don't Be Paranoid
4. Localize the Pain
5. Let 100 flowers bloom
6. Look for agnostics, not atheists
7. Enable Test Drives
8. Provide a Slippery Slope
9. Make them feel a part of the team
10. Don't ask anyone to do something you wouldn't
11. Be a mensch

I attended a panel on WOM in the music industry. So-so.

I am now attending one on using WOM in specialty markets. Greg Stielstra, author of Pyromarketing is talking about Purpose Driven Life, the 22 million copy bestseller. I just said critics are as important as praisers. They help frame the market for your product.

Friendster is using its network to start WOM campaigns. They chose members whose interests matched that of the campaign. They have done things with Apprentice 2 and The Aquatic Life.

Last session is brands using WOM. Interesting stuff from Jake on the stuff he is doing with Lego.

Michael Wiley is talking about the GM blogs. He gets it.

Enough for today. I need dinner.

Tools of the Trade

You don't hear people talk much about what makes a good physical environment for doing business. And I mean everything from the chair you sit in to the lighting over your desk. I think it also includes things like the stapler you use and whether or not you have photos of the family.

I posted a couple of posts on the subject over on the BizLinkBlog. Kevin Kelly had great post on how to create marker boards walls and Mike at Rohndesign talks about his obsession with pens (the comments show it isn't just him).

So here is the potential meme:

Describe your office however you like. What the room like? What furniture do you have? What is sitting on your desk? What works and what doesn't. I think we take for granted this space that we spend alot of time in.

Here is my shot at it:

I work out of my house. My office is on the first floor of our home. It has a large window looking out onto the front yard. The opposite wall has a built-in bookcase nearly full (big surprise). The carpet is the same beige as most of the house and the walls are white. The final object of note is the large orange recliner in the corner where my black lab sleeps most of the day.

We have three tables that make up the work surfaces in the room. There is one in the middle of the room that I work from. It is covered with galleys, audiobooks (I just got a huge box from Random House), and magazines. The space left is just enough for my Powerbook and wireless mouse. I know I need to get a handle on the clutter.

The other two tables sit behind me in an L-shape. They hold three printers, the old PC, and more books, magazines and bills. I am thinking about removing two tables from the room because they pretty much act as clutter accumulators.

Outside of stamps and envelopes, I don't use much else. I keep a pen and notebook handy for taking notes on calls and keeps to-dos, but I am inconsistent with their use. The next personal book I am going to read is Getting Things Done. Too many people are talking about it to not check it out and try it out.

What is your space like?

NBC's The Office or The Importance of Telling a Good Story

I think telling good story is hard. Robots was bad because it was a poorly told story.

NBC's version of The Office I think is going to have the same problems. It was really hard to watch tonight. I know part of it is because I just got done watching the original. They are using alot of the material from the BBC version.

I really didn't laugh. As I was watching, I kept thinking there was no appreciation for timing of the jokes. The mock-doc is too produced. Too many tight shots were you miss how the other characters are reacting. They left no time for the romance to develop between Tim and Dawn. I seem to remember the first episode was pretty much David and in the new show they are too concerned about involving the whole cast right away.

Just watch this clip. You'll know why the original is brilliant.

I beg you to watch the original before you get turned off to the whole thing. I don't want you to say to yourself, "I don't know why everyone thinks this is so funny."

Enough said.

PR vs. WOM

I think we can say that the Oprah Winfrey Pontiac G6 Giveaway worked for Oprah but not Pontiac.

There is alot of hubbub over a Detroit Free Press article today that says G6 sales are 30% below expectations and they are using a lot of incentives to move them now. It must have made the wire services because I heard the story on the radio this morning.

The giveaway was PR that GM hoped with turn into word of mouth marketing. It got people talking about how Oprah gave away cars (Jim Carrey joked about it when he was on the show). It really didn't get anyone talking about the car. As a matter of fact, an audience member tried selling theirs on craigslist.

Update: Brand Autopsy also has a post on this too.

Stories We Tell Ourselves

I have been thinking alot about Seth Godin new book All Marketers are Liars. He has a blog devoted to the book and the lies we tell and are told.

Another anecdote from the visit to the dietician is about milk. Most people think they are doing very well for themselves when they switch from whole milk to 2% milk.

Whole milk is 4% milk.

Did you know that? I had no idea.

And more so, I have no idea why I never questioned it.

Working on the Right Thing

I visited with a dietician on Friday. I was searching for advice on how I could reduce my cholesterol. I am just not keen on taking drugs for the next 50 years to solve this problem.

Cholesterol is a leading indicator for developing heart disease. It is cholesterol that attaches itself to the walls of the arteries, calcifies, and forms plaque. It is restrictions in the arteries that causes heart attacks and strokes. So the relationship has always been:

Treatment -> Reduce Cholesterol -> Reduce Heart Disease

Heart disease and cholesterol have become permanently bonded in the public conscious. The trouble is that some treatments for high cholesterol don't necessarily show reductions in the occurrence of heart disease. My dietician says drug therapies can be used to control cholesterol, but they have never been proven to reduce your chances of having a heart attack. That really struck me.

Statins -> Reduced Cholesterol ? Reduced Heart Disease ?

We talked alot about the Portfolio diet. This is range of foods based on the Mediterran diet. It has lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and fish. What is significant about this diet is that it has been studied and proven to lower the chance of developing heart disease and heart related incidents.

Portfolio Diet -> Reduced Heart Disease

I think there is a corollary here for business. Companies often develop measurements to track success. These are often internal measurements meant to promote certain behaviors in the organization. I think often companies don't research and study what (if any) impact these measurements will have on their goals. They don't appreciate the systemic issues surrounding their overall goals.

I have always thought that on-time delivery was one of these types of measurements.

Eliminate Causes of Late Deliveries -> Improve On-Time Delivery -> Improve Customer Retention (Happier Customers)

You can definitely make a strong case for correlation between on-time delivery and customer retention. Customers won't put up with bad promises for very long and take their business elsewhere if they have to.

When people start to look at the causes of late deliveries, they see all sorts of things. Typos in the order taking. Freight company takes an extra day to get it there. Material shortage. Change from product development group. Failure in quality testing.

Fixing any one (or all) of these things will improve the delivery metric. I would make the argument that none of those fixes really improved your customer retention. You simply improved a measurement.

Eliminate Material Shortages -> Improve On-Time Delivery ?Improve Customer Retention (Happier Customers)?

You have to look at the company on a systemic level. If you want to improve on-time delivery, you need to get your lead time to as close to zero as possible. The whole company has to change the way they do business to enable that change. Product Design. Factory layout. Vendor Quality. The systemic improvement in performance will undoubtedly improve customer retention.

Reduce Leadtime -> Improve Customer Retention (Happier Customers)

To bring it back to the cholesterol story, in some ways, people are fooling by taking medication. The need to take a systemic approach to their problem. They to stop smoking. They need to exercise. They need to change what they eat.

So, measure the right thing and figure out the rights things to impact the measurement in business (and in life).