RSS, Blogging & Podcasting-Opportunities to Connect People in New Ways

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RSS, Blogging and Podcasting Opportunities to connect people in new ways. 1

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This presentation was give to the MN Women in Communication organization on April 19, 2007. The presentation is focused for an audience that is not yet familiar with all of the context around blogging and podcasting and the presentation sets the context and then goes into explaining considerations and how to get started.

Transcript of RSS, Blogging & Podcasting-Opportunities to Connect People in New Ways

  • 1. RSS, Blogging and PodcastingOpportunities to connect people in new ways.1

2. The Big Idea: Communicating with Your Customers Engage in the conversation:There is no substitute for a genuine focus on customers. Give them a chance to hear about your business oraspects of it and allow them and even invite them to respond. If they are engaged with you in a human to humanmanner, they will want to support your business. Indirect Marketing:Provide value to listeners, readers or watchers. Let them experience the value you can bring as an individual orbusiness through the content. You can market yourself and build a community around your business. Yourcustomers are already a community, reaching out in this way allows you to have more interaction with them andpotential new customers. A Silent Sales Force:Adds tools with a global reach to your sales toolkit. If customers like the content, they will refer friends. Its wordof mouth with a global reach.2 3. What Im Going To Talk About TodayStepping Back Lets Talk BloggingA Bigger ContextHow the social media explosion has enabled people to use toolslike blogs and podcasts to connect with people and shareinformation in new ways.Who, Why, HowA breakdown of who blogs, why you should join the conversationand how to get started.But What IfStep It Up WithSomething Bad PodcastingHappens The PodcastRisks Things to consider before getting started and resources to get youIts good to look at all angles of this before jumping in with boththere.feet..... PublishingResourcesA Bigger ContextMore on all of thisIve heard the term, but I dont know what the relevance of RSS isBooks and links to help you get more information and get startedto me.with your blog or podcast. 3 4. Stepping BackA Bigger ContextHow the social media explosion has enabled people to use tools like blogs and podcasts to connect with people and share information in new ways. 4 5. A Bigger Context Social Media Explosion YouTube (video sharing) Flickr (photo sharing) LinkedIn (my space for adults, etc.) Sharing specic sets of information with chosen groups of people or the public in general is easy Simple distribution, lots of reasons to connect5 6. A Bigger ContextWeb 2.0Companies Companies popping up all over theplace in this new market. Having a presence is important. A perfect storm Technology Culture Shared Values Sharing Open Networked6 7. A Bigger Context-How Its Affecting Business Books that help to frame the emergence of connecting. ClueTrain Manifesto came out with radical ideas about how companies needed to engage in conversation with customers. Technology enabled conversations Markets are conversations What Blogs and Podcasts do enable Blogs are easy to set up. Blogs allow conversations (when comments are on) Conversations happen with or without the blog Be part of the conversation Naked Conversations started as a blog and became a book. builds on ClueTrain and shows through a series of interviews how blogs canchange the way you talk to your customers.7 8. Convergence Technology Enables New Opportunities to Engage WithCustomers Business Must Evolve to Meet Customer Expectations Sounds great, whats the downside? ?8 9. But What If Something Bad HappensRisksIts good to look at all angles of this before jumping in with both feet.....9 10. Before I Start...What about the FUD Factor? What if people are negative? Wont I give away my biggest secrets? How will we pay for this, is it worth it? Wont I give my competitors an advantage? What about disgruntled employees saying bad things in public? Heres what the CEO of Sun Microsystems says:Blog Post on March 28, 2007:I Don't Believe in Walled Gardensfrom Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog by Jonathan Schwartz (For those interested in Sun's organization charts (which are, in effect, an expression of my priorities), what's below is the message I sent to all of Sunearlier today. Keeping everyone up to speed on where we're headed is a big part of my job (I'd argue, one of my biggest) - so if you're interested insuch things, read on. (And yes, I thought about simply posting this on my blog this morning - but I didn't want folks inside Sun nding out about anorganizational change via an external source - thus, the courtesy of an internal email rst.)______________________________________To: All of SunFrom: Jonathan SchwartzSubject: Announcing a new business, and a new leader (or two) I announced a few organizational changes this morning, and I want to be sure everyone hears directly from me about my motivations andexpectations. As you know, we've opened a world of opportunity by ensuring Solaris is available on Dell, HP and IBM hardware. We can now talk to what weretraditionally non-Sun customers. Similarly, our moves to build an x64 systems business, and bring Linux to the SPARC platform, have made usrelevant to non-Solaris customers. As of today, I'm seeking to repeat that effect with our Microelectronics, or silicon investments. I'd like to see ourchip business grow beyond Sun's own systems, and more broadly in the marketplace..................................10 11. Before I Start...What about the FUD Factor? What if people are negative? Wont I give away my biggest secrets? How will we pay for this, is it worth it? Wont I give my competitors an advantage? What about disgruntled employees saying bad things in public? If an organization is open, addressing these things publicly might not be such a negative thing. Negative feedback: This is good. You can identify the problem and x it.Giving away biggest secrets: Be smart and tell your employees to be smart in their communication too.Paying for this? Dont force the activity, some people will want to do it and it will fee natural, others will not be interested.Competitors and advantage: Starting the conversation is better. Be active and engage with your competition.Disgruntled employees: What you put on the Internet stays around. If an employee is negative, they may have relevant feedback. To date, occurrences of this have been so minimal that the numbers of those incidences are considered insignicant.11 12. Before I Start...How Sun has faced the FUD What if people are negative? Wont I give away my biggest secrets? How will we pay for this, is it worth it? Wont I give my competitors an advantage? What about disgruntled employees saying bad things in public? Trust, Common Sense, Freedom Heres how Sun Microsystems has dealt with some of these situations: People were negative but they were respectful: Jonathan apologized to a startup. Giving away biggest secrets: Shared ofcial Sun internal email with the world Paying for this? 10% of the workforce blogs at Sun. They blog because they enjoy it. Some of it is very useful to the business but it is also a great opportunity for an employee. Competitors and advantage: Sun may have an advantage as they started this several years ago. The competition has been getting involved in this space but does not have the same level of participation. That many more conversations are happening with Sun employees and who knows what that could bring to the business over time. What about disgruntled employees: This hasnt really happened. In fact, when there were some layoffs last year, the invitation was extended to them to continue blogging on a Sun blog property. A site was created just for that at community.sun.com12 13. Before I Start...How Open? April Edition of Wired Magazine calls it Radical Transparency. Google is not a searchEngine. Its a reputationmanagement system. Byenhancing transparencycompanies can manage theirimages as never before. You cant hide anythinganymore anyway. You cant go open halfway. 13 14. Before I Start...Cant Keep A Secret Anyway... Recent Examples of Secretsbeing exposed Sony embedding spywarerootkit on CDs that madecomputers that played theCDs vulunerable Microsoft paying people tobuff up their wikipedia entry Diebold voting machinebeing shown to be vulnerableby a college professor(300,000 YouTube views)14 15. Transparency - A Proactive Response Examples of Transparency Conversations are happening. It is better as a business to be involved in that conversation than to be separate from it. Amazon product ratings.The customers participate in telling the story about the product. This is a much more trusted network ofwriters than any marketing material could ever be. It is authentic and that is what people want to knowbefore they buy.Ebay Value comes from the transparency of the community. If someone sold something and didnt deliver, you can see it on the site.JetBlue and YouTubeMicrosofts Channel9Sun Microsystems CEO and almost 10% of Suns workforce voluntarily blog at blogs.sun.com/jonathan and blogs.sun.com 15 16. Considerations How Open Am I/How Open is My Business? What am I comfortable sharing? Where are the lines? Im ready for this, lets get started....16 17. PublishingWhat is RSS?Ive heard the term, but I dont know what the relevance of RSS is to me.17 18. What is RSS? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication RSS is a delivery mechanism RSS can be received in different ways applications browsers email phones (SMS) network devices more......18 19. RSS stands for really simple syndication But what does that mean? Blogging-delivered via RSS (Feeds) Podcasting-delivered via RSS (Feeds) Enables Come to Me Webhttp://www.personalinfocloud.com/2006/01/the_come_to_me_.html The content comes to the person instead of the person visiting the web site. Its much more focused on the person. In the future, RSS feeds could be targeted based on location of the individual. Delivering an RSS feed essentially means you are becoming a publisher.19 20. RSS: Message sent, but how is it received? RSS Readers Desktop Applications Netnewswire Feedreader: http://www.feedreader.com/Feedreader 20 21. RSS: Message sent, but how is it received? RSS Readers Online ApplicationsGoogle Reader Bloglines.com my.yahoo.comGoogleReader21 22. RSS: Message sent, but how is it received? RSS Readers Browsers Flock Firefox plugin: Sage http://sage.mozdev.org/ Flock22 23. RSS: Message sent, but how is it received? RSS Readers Network Devices23 24. Lets Talk BloggingWho, Why, HowA breakdown of who blogs, why you should join the conversation and how to get started. 24 25. Who?---141 Million Americans Online Internet Activities: http://www.pewinternet.org/trends/Internet_Activities_1.11.07.htm39 % Read someone else!s online journal,web log or blog(January 2006) 8 % Create or work on your own onlinejournal or weblog (February-April 2006) 12 % Download a podcast so you can listento it or view it at a later time (August 2006) Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Surveys, November December 2005 and February April 2006. For sample based on bloggers, N=308. Margin of error is 7%. For sample based on internet users, n=4,753, margin of error is 2%.25 26. Who Are The Bloggers Bloggers: Summary of Findings at a Glance New voices to the online world. Only 11% of bloggers say they focus mainly on government or politics. Young, evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse. Relatively small groups of bloggers view blogging as a public endeavor. Creative expression and sharing personal experiences two main reasons to blog. Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite original sources. Bloggers are avid consumers and creators of online content. Bloggers are heavy users of the internet in general. Bloggers are major consumers of political news. About half of the bloggers that consume political news prefer sources without a particular political viewpoint. Bloggers often utilize community and readership-enhancing features available on their blogs. Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Surveys, November December 2005 and February April 2006. For sample based on bloggers, N=308. Margin of error is 7%. For sample based on internet users, n=4,753, margin of error is 2%. 26 27. Blogs Starting A Blog What is the Focus? What Should I Consider Ahead of Time? how much to say, whento say it, what i will andwont reveal, where aremy lines, etc. Who is my Audience? 27 28. Blogs Where to Get Started TypePad: http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/index WordPress: http://wordpress.com/ Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/start Its about Conversations-leave comments on Write regularly. You might not need a tight publishing schedule (every morning at 9:30 am CST) but you should not write so infrequently that the conversation becomes anemic.28 29. Blogging Success Stories Using Delivery Vehicles for Business SuccessConversations are happening. It isbetter as a business to be involved inthat conversation than to be separatefrom it. Microsoft Changed Perceptions - Moved the Compass Thomas Mahon, Saville Row Tailor Blogging about his love of his craft brought him success29 30. Step It Up With PodcastingThe PodcastThings to consider before getting started and resources to get you there.30 31. Podcasts Any audio recording can become apodcast. A note of consideration as to why a blog might be more successful than a podcast: Usability Text is scannable Text is faster and easier to consumerSearchability Text based content Ways to helpMake the podcast scannable. Break the podcast into chapters to easily locate information. (Think DVDchapters in a movie) Let people read the transcript if they dont want to listen. Someone can get the information they require eitherway. You should enable either method. Add text to your podcast. Include the actual text of the transcript if possible but at a minimum include keywordmeta data. 31 32. Didnt Starbucks try this and Fail? Why It Didnt Work Too corporate Too boring Too much like an infomercial Why It Could Work Real Stories Baristas, (employees) tell stories about the store, the customers, the regulars Customers, what have they seen happen there and on the street outside whilepeople watching, what has happened to them while being there Talk to coffee conisseurs. Coffee has as much history and variety as wine, peoplelike to learn about these things from experts.32 33. Podcast-Getting Started Know your audience & let them interact with you and your content Guest spots Allow comments Stay Engaged over time Be Prepared Use a script-ow, tell a good story, tell them what you are going to talk about, bepassionate, be personal (don't sound canned or articial), if you are interviewing-askleading questions, etc. Do an intro: include who you are, what is the podcast, pre-announce, thank theaudience, tell them what's up for the next podcast Casting-bring in interesting and relevant people, theme songs are a good idea-itwarms people up, they are used to receiving content that way, be careful ofcopyright, podsafe music, myspace pages-usually just ask, use an outro as well Good Equipment Pre-amplify (mic signals are low, they need amplication) Edit Well33 34. ResourcesMore on all of thisBooks and links to help you get more information and get started with your blog or podcast.34 35. Resources Marketing & Measurement & ResearchIf you get customers talking to each other and to you, thats an opportunity lled rststep. Word Of Mouth Link to other blogs, comment on other blogs, participate in the blogosphere and get your blog known Technorati Currently tracking 75.2 million blogs Wheres the Fire Feedburner Media distribution and audience engagement services Helps bloggers promote, delivery and learn how to monetize content BlogPulse Automated trend discovery system for blogs. Pew Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/index.asp 35 36. Resources Books The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel The Starsh and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom36 37. Resources RSS Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(le_format) What is a Feed? http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/feed101 More on Feeds http://www.sixapart.com/about/feeds Yahoos RSS publisher guide: http://publisher.yahoo.com/rssguide Nitty Gritty Techie Details: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2175271 37 38. Resources Blogs Wikipedia Entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs Sun Microsystems online blogging policy http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/blogs/policy.html Starting A Blog How To Start A Blog from Phil Windley of ITConversations: http://www.windley.com/essays/2004/how_to_start_a_blog Online Blogging Policy from Working Smart: http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/2005/03/corporate_blogg.html How To Start a Blog from Michael Hyatt of Working Smart: http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/2005/04/how_to_start_a_.html38 39. Resources-Podcasts, Business Resources Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting Podcasts for entrepeneurs from Wall Street Journal http://startup.wsj.com Podonomics http://podonomics.com/ from Leesa Barnes, Business Podcasting Expert and President, Caprica Interactive Marketing Blogburst Brings publishers and media companies together to provide relevant content for blog reading audience. http://www.pluck.com/products/blogburst.html Article: David Armano: It!s The Conversation Economy, Stupid http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2007/id20070409_372598.htm 39 40. Resources-Podcasts, Directories Directories PodcastingNews.com PodcastAlley.com PodShow.com Podtech.net ITConversations.com ITunes 40 41. Questions & Thank You Jennifer Bohmbach Contact Info http://www.theimagelab.com Reference Web Sites & Blogshttp://www.sun.comhttp://blogs.sun.com/evoljenniferhttp://blogs.sun.com/c2 Slideshttp://www.theimagelab.com/presentations.html41