Webinars continue to be an important way companies connect to customers for education, marketing, sales, and customer support purposes. Yet most companies relegate these tasks to junior staff at the last minute, forgetting a key number of crucial steps and increase risk. While tools like Cisco’s Webex, GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, and Microsoft LiveMeeting and Slideshare Zipcast, (Or Virtual events with On24, INXPO, Unisfair ) offer a variety of technologies, they don’t provide a strategy or a comprehensive checklist on the many components needed.
Get to know the Ten P’s
Master the Ten P’s, and notice that steps one through seven are actually before the actual webinar performance. The Ten Ps include: 1) Philosophy, 2) Purpose, 3) Planning, 4) Professionals, 5) Programming of Content, 6) Promotion, 7) Preparation and Practice, 8> Performance “Showtime”, 9) Pursuit, 10) Post Mortem
Detailed Guide for Download: How To Successfully Produce A Professional Grade Webinar, Webcast, or Teleconference
Download this excel sheet from slideshare by clicking on the embed below.
Review with your team, then assign team members and dates
Place this document in a central location so all team members can see, and conduct regular meetings to complete checklist
If you’re in the marketing or sales arena, the 9th P is crucial. Remember, once the event ends, your job is just starting and you must focus on “Pursuit” for sales followups, don’t just throw a lead least over the transom to sales.
Over the past few years, I’ve been managing these hire mentions, they started out as slow, then moved to monthly, however the industry is picking up and I’m publishing twice a month as this space continues to accelerate forward.
In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007.
People on the Move in the Social Business Industry:
Alex Tripi, Social Media Community Manager, at Volvo
Brad Kenney joins Dachis Group as Client Partner Manage social business intelligence programs
Kelly Colgan joins Identity Theft 911 as Social Media Marketing Manager and will be responsible for the strategy and implementation of all social media plans, policies and activities, as well as creating a measurement system to track and monitor progress.
Corbin Pendleton joins BBDO Atlanta as Social Media Associate Oversee the social media properties and strategies for their client, AT&T.
Mallory Hartline joins BBDO Atlanta as Senior Social Media Manager Oversee the social media properties and strategies for their client, AT&T.
Phil Gerbyshak joins Turning Minds as Marketing Technology Strategist Telling the right stories to the right audience using the right tools for the right reasons
Keith Bates joins uber seo Manchester as SEO consultant Seo analysis and link building
Scott Burkey joins Macquarium as User Experience Strategist Responsivle for guiding clients through the use of social media from their users’ perspectives.
Joe Gallagher joins Jun Group as Chief Revenue Officer will lead Jun Group’s sales and marketing strategy, manage its growing sales force, and oversee relationships with brand, media, and entertainment clients.
Shane Barnhill joins Honeywell Aerospace as Digital Strategy Manager Responsible for directing Honeywell Aerospace’s digital strategy – including social media, mobile applications, online advertising and other digital programs – to achieve business goals.
Last week, I had the honor of keynoting the Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit in San Francisco, to provide a strategic perspective of how mobile –and social technologies work together for today’s top brands. Sadly, we found that most companies are developing mobile tactics. That’s right, tactics. Why? As the latest technology came around, companies would prescribe towards them in a haphazard way, or rely on their agencies to select the app to appease a ‘mobile solution, quickly’.
Instead, companies should evaluate how their customers use mobile technologies across their entire life and brand process. Working closely with the research team here at Altimeter, we were able to structure a mobile strategy based on the customer life process –not just on features and functions, and found quite a few examples of companies spanning the gap.
If you’re seeking a strategic perspective, please watch the video below –and see slides. Caveat: My primary focus is social so you’ll see some crossover between my perspective and how mobile connects. Also, we’re hiring a mobile analyst (and other roles) that will be primarily focused and go deeper than I will have time to, while I’ll continue to focus on customer strategy across many platforms.
Above: Customer Hourglass Framework. Build your mobile strategy based on the entire customer experience –not just on the technologies on hand.
Last night, Altimeter hosted a first in many public roundtables on disruptive technologies. Twenty highly engaged folks that ranged form skeptics, brands, gamification vendor provider (Empire Avenue, Badgeville, Zynga, Gigya) to players of these games. The 1.5 hour discussion discussed how these platforms work, explored business models, how brands can get engaged, risks and challenges, and discussed how case examples are emerging. We had a mixture of Altimeter Roundtables are designed for everyone to participate and explore, challenge, expose risk, and discuss the future of disruptive technologies, and we did just that, below are the event highlights:
Above: Lively discussion on the topic of Gamification for consumers, brands, startups at Altimeter’s HQ, The Hangar
While we were able to live stream for attendees (Scoble, Chris Pirillo, Jim watched and tweeted and called in) we were not able to record the session, you can see some of the tweets tagged #EAshare, and here’s some of the highlights:
Opportunities Abound –But Benefits Not Clear
I lead an interactive Q&A with Empire Avenue (my take here) CEO, Dups, kicking off the event, and the primary focus of the roundtable, and we discussed how the platform works, and his vision. However, we quickly invited Ali from Intel up to share his needs from a brand perspective which were to engage with customers, focusing on reach and advocacy. We explored other potential use cases involving branded goods, couponing, and use brands like Coke as examples of companies that would want to get engaged. Of course, it was important to discuss what’s in it for the users of these tools, stemming from entertainment, connecting with others, or even increasing visiblity and repuation as we heard from Chris Salazar. Dups announced that their second iteration of the API will be released in a few weeks and that Ford will be offering branded virtual goods soon on the platform.
Concerns on Platform Interoperability
We explored head on some of the challenges and concerns, and Kristie Wells brought up requests for reputation and influence (even points and potentially badges) should be shared cross platform, but we could sense that could create business model conflict unless Badgeville or Gigya cut deals with Empire Avenue for brands like Intel to make these reputation pieces portable. I suggested that influence and repuation is already portable, even if the data is not transferrable and suggested that Scoble shifted his blog influence to Twitter, and then Twitter influence to Empire Avenue just by shifting his community. Teens in Tech founder Daniel Bru pointed out there are new startups emerging that allow for the transfer of these virtual goods, like Klip that will soon emerge.
Skepticism: Questioning on Burnout and User Desire
A few curious attendees indicated that they were skeptical but attended in order to learn new points of view, which we embrace. There were some vocalized concerns that if gamificaiton platforms don’t quickly shift reputation, points or badges to a transfered value like coupons, premium content, or other real world tangible ability some of these platforms would die out. One of the key findings is that the gamification of influence (like Empire Ave) isn’t for everyone, and many people are not driven by reputation and badges –they just want to connect with others and communicate.
Experimentation for Early Adopter Brands Will Yield Case Studies By Years End
We’re in the early days, I’ve only started to hear about this space about 6 months ago from Esther Lim (she’s been on the speaking circuit on the gamification topic), although reputation features in social media have been around as early as Technorati started to track blogs. Many interactive marketers and media professionals see the opportunity for brand engagement, loyalty, and eventually advocacy, there are still a lot of questions if the investment makes sense –it’s not clear to most if it increases consideration or moves revenue needles forward. We’re already seeing brands that are already socially engaged jumping into the gamification jungle, and we’ll see experimentation in 2011 and a few case studies of success, although most experiments will not win. Expect that CPG, consumer electronics, and retail/hospitality to be the first industries to move into this space, although B2B tech has already deployed gamification for internal learning purposes, like Cisco’s sales team at sales events.
See the first ever branded good in Empire Avenue: The “Altimeter”
We’re intrigued to the be the *first* company to have a branded good on this emerging platform, and will use this experiment to learn how other brands can apply this tactic. Physical attendees received the first ever branded virtual item inside of Empire Avenue, the Altimeter, which you can see on my Jowyang Empire Avenue profile, (or if you’re not on the game see this screenshot). Aside from branded affiliation the virtual Altimeter provides Net Wealth Increase of 50.00/day –adding value beyond just a badge.
This was the first in our ongoing series of Roundtables, we want to sponsor community conversations to advance the industry, and our research efforts for our clients. Want to attend an Altimeter Roundtable in the future? We’ll hold these every few months at our San Mateo office, The Hangar, follow our Altimeter Group Twitter account to stay informed.
We are a venture funded startup backed by one of the top VC firms in the world. We are located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, CA, and are currently in stealth mode developing a next-generation social media platform. Founded by a star team of former Yahoo, AOL, Accenture and VCs, we are in the process of assembling a spirited, world class startup team. We are looking for extremely talented people who love what they do and are passionate about developing ground-breaking products with other likeminded overachievers – we look forward to meeting you!
The ideal candidate thrives in a startup environment, is passionate about marketing and all things Web, and can break through barriers to achieve stretch goals. This is a highly visible position. Many significant companywide initiatives are driven from this role so you will have a lot of resources at your command. We’re providing a fabulous opportunity for the right candidate to shine! Job Description
Reports to the CEO
Development of strategic partnerships with major corporations
Development of strategic partnerships with growing online web communities
Outreach to top MBA academic thought leaders
Responsibilities include:
Manage the business development and marketing department
Set goals, tasks, priorities and timelines for team
Hire, train, and develop team
Report results to management
Develop and manage all strategic partnerships
Close deals with key strategic partners
Partner identification, prioritization, and negotiation
Partner financial modeling/analysis
Partner presentations (external, internal – green light process)
Partner contract drafting, closing
Plan and attend conferences and events
Experience Requirements
5+ years of business development experience – closed major deals
Major enterprise sales experience in the areas of HR, Intranets, Portals, Document Management, or Collaboration software
BS and/or MBA (preferred) from a top-tier university
Highly referenceable background
Personality Requirements
Results driven: sets ambitious goals, breaks through barriers to reach them
We are a venture funded startup backed by one of the top VC firms in the world. We are located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, CA, and are currently in stealth mode developing a next-generation social media platform. Founded by a star team of former Yahoo, AOL, Accenture and VCs, we are in the process of assembling a spirited, world class startup team. We are looking for extremely talented people who love what they do and are passionate about developing ground-breaking products with other likeminded overachievers – we look forward to meeting you!
The ideal candidate thrives in a startup environment, is passionate about marketing and all things Web, and can break through barriers to achieve stretch goals. This is a highly visible position. Many significant companywide initiatives are driven from this role so you will have a lot of resources at your command. We’re providing a fabulous opportunity for the right candidate to shine!
Who You Are:
EXECUTION FOCUSED – you want to do things “right” and you coined the phrase ‘the devil is in the details’
You’ve not only helped companies build great online communities professionally, but you’re a rockstar on several consumer communities yourself
Nobody has ever needed to ask you to be more ‘goal orientated’ or ‘self-directed’
People describe you as having an outgoing, fun, and assertive personality
Responsibilities:
Own community building initiatives, which includes blogging, community outreach, PR, promotions, and internal programs
Chief evangelist (second to CEO), becoming part of the highly visible face of the company both online and offline
Collaborate with CEO and product team to enhance the product’s community interactions
Develop and implement marketing plans in conjunction with outside grassroots marketing consultants
Create new sources of customer acquisition channels through innovative thinking, ideas and business development relationships
Lead feedback loop with product team to continuously innovate the service
Recruit additional web marketing talent
Requirements:
Strong Executor: Strategic and analytical in your thinking, but even stronger in making it happen with panache
Vision: Constantly looking beyond the horizon and shaping our company to address our users’ evolving needs
Scalability: Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a new startup environment and grow as the organization expands
Experience: Has done this before either at a startup or a new division in a large company
We offer a casual fun environment with competitive salary and GREAT benefits
We offer ABOVE market salaries and significant equity for stellar candidates
Web Strategists, I wanted to thank you all for being so involved in the comments, reading, and sharing the Web Strategy blog over the past years. As you often hear me discuss how orginizations must involve their own customers and marketplace involved in their feedback loops, I want to also live that as best as I can. I’m embarking on yet another blog redesign, working with Engage Sciences (Design), and Mitch from StudioNashVegas (Development, in the next phase), to build the next generation of this website. As I’ve done in the past, I always want to involve you, the customers, as part of the feedback loop.
I’d love your feedback in the following three comps, using discussion points loosely around the required JJG’s Five Elements of UX which I’ve adopted many times:
Look and feel: Branding. Out of the three comps, which one best fits my brand and that of the community?
Interface and Interaction design: Does it look easy to use some of the interactive pieces to find and navigate to information?
Information Design: In the classical IA sense, is the information displayed in a way that makes it easy to read, find, and consume?
The other 2 elements (content and strategy) remain constant from previous posts, but you can see the below comps have a greater focus on the content assets (speeches, reports, webinars, slides, infographics) beyond just text.
Here’s three distinct comps for your review:
(note: I updated so when clicking on thumbnail you are advanced to full size image)
Wireframe 1: Professional personal brand. This design would feature more of the ‘personal brand’ or ‘career brand’ as I prefer to say, and could have more pictures of me. While I’m a bit bashful to push that too hard (as I’d rather have the focus be on content, not me) it’s a concept the team wanted to try. You can see this variation that has images as the BG, but I worry about sending the wrong message (larger than life ego) and of course readability.
Wireframe 2: Corporate Ready: True to my business focus, and those I serve in the world’s largest corporations. The navigation elements are easier to use and centralized, and there’s dedicated features for reviewing content assets towards the bottom. Also notice the decreasing ‘content funnel’ with the latest post in largest form, then they reduce in size as older content decrescendos.
Wireframe 3: Fresh and Friendly. This one is a real departure from the others shown, or anything done to date. While the color palette can easily be changed, the goal is to really allow fresher perspective that’s warmer and inviting, and using a different layout. Assume the ‘colored fan’ would be replaced by a graphical element suitable for the overall brand, that’s just a placeholder.
I really look forward to your feedback below, I’ll read and respond to as many comments as possible, as well as the design and development team. We’ll make some final tweaks based on your feedback then move into development cycles and prepare for dev testing then production launch.
This show, ForeCast discusses the future of technology, and I was able to give a prediction they’ve not heard before that “URLs and Domains as know them go away”. We discussed pushed the thinkiing and talked about how devices disappear, and fade into the background.
Click to advance to show, featuring: Tom Merritt, Scott Johnson, Joshua Caleb and myself
Love to hear your comments below, on the future or the web, devices, and work.
