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Archive for the ‘Web Strategy Show’ Category

Bob Pearson (Twitter at bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell invited me out to Microsoft’s Architect Forum to co-lead a session on social computing.

I let my twitter community come up with questions, and I took three from the dozens to pose to Bob, select questions from: Cece Salomon-Lee, Ravit Lichtenberg, and oemporor (can’t find his tweet)

Here’s the questions I posed to Bob, if I could only spit the words out as well as I could write them:

  • Is IdeaStorm increasing revenues?
  • Is social media impacting the bottom and top line of Dell?
  • How Dell has made $1mm in revenue from Twitter.
  • Is social media superficial branding, or does it truly change the company?
  • How does an economic downturn impact Dell’s social media efforts?
  • Is it better for customers to self-support each other rather than calling Dell Support?
  • What’s the URL of your corporate webpage?
  • It’s great to learn first hand from Dell how they’ve used these tools to increase revenues and reduce costs –it’s time we focus on the business aspect of things rather than the feel good branding only. You can see one of Bob’s recent video interviews on the Direct 2 Dell site.

    Or, see this visualization of the same interview by VizEdu

    Katie Paine shares how internal teams use measurement of social media, she’s been doing PR measurement for years, and has evolved to measure social media. She’s often told me “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Of course, trying to manage social media has been hotly debated in my last post.

    She invited me to present at her metrics conference a few months ago, but new hire training took priority. She’s one of the top thinkings and practitioners in the space, so give her your full attention in this video. Learn more about her company KDPaine and Partners, thanks KD for your time.


    You may remember the video blog, Web Strategy Show I used to run at PodTech (my previous employer), the show is designed for those who make decisions for websites, (I call it a Video White Paper) and I interviewed many of the top thought and practice leaders in our industry. These videos tend to be longer in duration, I use a tripod, and we discuss the topics in advance. This is different than my quick “street” video shots I do with my digital camera.

    Having left PodTech, (a great place for content creators, as I get to take my show with me) I didn’t get a chance to publish all my tapes (there’s just a few interviews left), and put out a blog post to see if anyone wanted to publish them on my behalf. Cece, from On24.com, a webcasting and media company for some well known brands, immediately contacted me and followed-up. They have a quite a few other videos focused on IT and Marketing topics, on Insight24. They’ve even created a specific channel for the Web Strategy show.

    Thanks to Cece and the very professional On24 team!


    I had the pleasure to interview with one of the Web Analytics gurus, Jim Sterne, who is the host and coordinator the popular eMetrics conference that takes place around the globe. I asked Jim on the broadpicture of the web analytics industry, and he gave us some specific goals, strategy, and objectives for web analytics.

    Find out how this growing (yet small) industry is getting underway, find out what you can do to get involved and get started into this industry. It’s a small niche and growing industry, so get involved and show interest.

    At 14:00 minutes into it, we get into another discussion, focusing on web campaigns, and answer “How to determine where your resources go in a web campaign”. Many web marketing departments arbitrarily place resources on campaigns, perhaps focused on political reasons, but another way to look at where resources should go is by using web analytics.


    You may remember the video blog, Web Strategy Show I used to run at PodTech (my previous employer), the show is designed for those who make decisions for websites, (I call it a Video White Paper) and I interviewed many of the top thought and practice leaders in our industry. These videos tend to be longer in duration, I use a tripod, and we discuss the topics in advance. This is different than my quick “street” video shots I do with my digital camera.

    Having left PodTech, (a great place for content creators, as I get to take my show with me) I didn’t get a chance to publish all my tapes (there’s just a few interviews left), and put out a blog post to see if anyone wanted to publish them on my behalf. Cece, from On24.com, a webcasting and media company for some well known brands, immediately contacted me and followed-up. They have a quite a few other videos focused on IT and Marketing topics, on Insight24. They’ve even created a specific channel for the Web Strategy show.

    Thanks to Cece and the very professional On24 team!

    I was able to interview Gary Angel, CEO of Semphonic on one of my favorite topics: Measurement. There’s three reasons why Social Media Measurement is important: 1) Proof: Companies deploying social media need to measure, as it’s a ‘new’ type of program. 2) Manage: You can’t manage what you can’t measure proves to be true, and lastly, 3) Whoever controls the measurement for this space drives the revenue, go to Ad:Tech and you’ll realize how important this is.

    As this industry starts to standardize, Gary discusses his ‘functionalism’ framework that he’s put together, it standardizes a measurement methodology for any web template. Can a standardization be applied to any webpage? Gary thinks so. I questioned him if webpages can have multiple functions, hear his answer. His White Paper: Functionalism, A New Approach to Web Analytics (PDF), there’s a dozen templates listed in the framework.


    You may remember the video blog, Web Strategy Show I used to run at PodTech (my previous employer), the show is designed for those who make decisions for websites, (I call it a Video White Paper) and I interviewed many of the top thought and practice leaders in our industry. These videos tend to be longer in duration, I use a tripod, and we discuss the topics in advance. This is different than my quick “street” video shots I do with my digital camera.

    Having left PodTech, (a great place for content creators, as I get to take my show with me) I didn’t get a chance to publish all my tapes (there’s just a few interviews left), and put out a blog post to see if anyone wanted to publish them on my behalf. Cece, from On24.com, a webcasting and media company for some well known brands, immediately contacted me and followed-up. They have a quite a few other videos focused on IT and Marketing topics, on Insight24. They’ve even created a specific channel for the Web Strategy show.

    Thanks to Cece and the very professional On24 team!

    Although filmed a while ago, Jason Baptiste and I get together at Miami’s WeMedia conference, and discuss the future of the social press release. There are several PR firms that are adopting and implementing them, although there’s been some criticism about it. (Brian has a lengthy counter)

    Upon further inspection, Brian Solis has a guide on the SMPR, but sadly, I don’t see a very clear one sentence definition.

    I realy enjoy speaking with Jason from Publictivity, he’s clear, articulate and knowledgeable on his topic area, thanks for the patience on posting this video! I’m meeting with some potential folks who may publish my archived videos, stay tuned.

    Here’s one of the last Web Strategy Show videos that will be published on this round (new readers: I interviewed the top web and marketing leaders in the industry at PodTech, see archives). Josh Hallett is known in the web marketing and social media fields, and is frequently seen at conferences speaking, sharing, or just taking pictures. Based out of Florida, he’s become a personal contact of mine, and he recently visited me at PodTech in Palo Alto.

    Josh shares with us at the WeMedia conference on the topic of Citizen Journalism, (1:10). He discusses how we both witnessed Shel Israel pissing off the traditional journalists in the room who are holding on to the old publishing model in a new world. The challenge of monetizing the social sphere continues to come up (although I’m very aware of how elite bloggers are cashing in). Find out about the tools used in Citizen Journalism. Josh has designed some of the top blogs out there, when he named off the list, it was many of the blogs that I’ve read. He’s sure right about mastheads for blogs need to clearly state what the blog is about, you only have a few seconds to impress upon visitors that they get the context.

    Speaking of blog design, this blog was heavily modified by me, I tweaked an existing template, created the banner, and shifted the style sheet. In the spirit of practicing what I preach I actually polled my community to give me feedback about this blog design.

    I had the opportunity to interview Joseph Loong of AOL’s Community Connection (which has blogs, forums, photo galleries, social network features) at Miami’s WeMedia conference at the University of Miami. He’s one of the community folks at AOL Blogs and helps the community become more efficient bloggers and communicators and shares with us the challenges to big media corporations like AOL and what the future holds.

    Thanks Rocky for editing!

    I got a chance to interview the insightful David Parmet, one of the PR bloggers in the social media space that ‘gets it’. David reviews the classic cases of business blogging for small businesses, such as Stormhoek and English Cut. If you’re not familiar with these case studies, they used social media for their marketing efforts as the primary way to communicate, rather than traditional marketing.

    I asked David “What should companies look for when finding a social media consultant”? Tune in to find out his answers.

    I had the pleasure of interviewing Rafe Needleman, the editor who runs WebWare (CNET), a fantastic and analytical blog focused on Cool Web Apps. I sat down with Rafe, and asked him about the future of the internet, where is it going. Hear what he had to say about desktop vs web, the changes in the industry and important trends he’s seeing.

    It’s always a pleasure hearing Rafe, on stage, at his blog, or on this video interview.


    There are quite few challenges for online newspapers, ranging from the reality of multiple authors and the usual workflow issues to creating editorial process. Christina Wodke, of Public Square, discusses some of the challenges facing digital newspapers (find out what she means by “Boxes and Arrows”).

    An Overview of the U.S. Army’s Web Strategy

    Categories: Web Strategy ShowPosted on September 4th, 2007


    John Robinson, the chief of Media Services Center, manages the United States Army’s official Website. This is the fourth largest government site in the U.S., and the largest military site in the world. John shares with me the intention, features, and community reached at the Army’s site.

    Imagery tied to a brand will still remain important to the corporate marketer, Is your irrelevant corporate website needing a refresh of it’s marketing images? Lucky Oliver uses pro-amateurs to fuel their image library, where they explain it’s about building a concept or image. Recently zooomr has entered the pay-for-image, but it’s suggested that Lucky Oliver has rights and prosumer quality unlike public sites.

    I’m pleased to have the opportunity to interview a real Web Strategist in the field, Intel’s Internet and Marketing Strategist in Portland at the ISF conference. It was pretty unique opportunity, I had colleague, friend, and famous blog/vlogger as my cameraman (you should know who that is). I’m able to ask Bryan Rhoades a number of questions, from concept, practice, to best practice on business blogging and what it means to a Fortune 1000 company.

    Intel has deployed a few blogs, most uniquely the IT @ Intel blog, Intel Software Network, and community evangelist, Josh Bancroft, in the spirit of an organic blogger (it was just something he did).

    Although Intel is my client, I wasn’t directly involved with their blogging strategy (we help with audio and video podcast), so they’ve really started to embrace social media as part of their culture. Why is social media important to Intel? We should look at it the other way around. The products that Intel creates power and fuel my laptop, 3G card, my modem, cell phone, camera, video camera and all the other digital media tools I use to build my online brand.

    If you want to learn more about Bryan, I’ve done a text based interview with him a few months ago, check it out. If you want to see other Web Strategy Video shows (these are 10 minute video white papers) use the tag called “Web Strategy Show


    Social Media in the enterprise, there’s so many companies, departments, and individuals deploying it differently. With this comes integration issues, as well as different adoption rates. In this interview with my friends from Mary Alice Colvin, senior marketing consultant and Kendrick Efta, founder and practice manager of Allyis, we’ll learn some best practices in helping both digital natives (those that grew up with technology) and those who are learning how to adapt (Digital Immigrants). Are you a social media consultant or offer services or products to companies? Then learn about how to deal with clients in addition to your own internal employees.

    I have dozens of other videos on the topic of Web Strategy, check out the archives.

    If you’ve read the Cluetrain Manifesto, you’ll know how the internet empowers individuals and smashes barriers. I had the opportunity to interview Rey Ramsey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the One Economy Corporation, he shares his passion for his program to deliver access to the internet to low-income communities.

    One of the outputs of the One Economy corporation is the beehive is a community website that provides resources as:

    “We created the Beehive to be the place to go for information and resources around the things that matter in our lives: money, health, jobs, school and family. And, we’d like you to have a little fun while you’re here so, we’re throwing in some games and quizzes to keep it interesting.”

    Townhall, a medium for civic journalists, community advocates and youth to engage provides “It uses technology to make it easy for people to share ideas, discuss topics and learn about issues.”

    Tim Kopp from Webtrends, one of the largest and oldest Web Analytics companies, shares with me the goal to measure Engagement, a term I’ve tried to define for some time. According to the news page on the Webtrends site, they are launching “WebTrends Unveils the Power to Measure Customer Engagement with Launch of WebTrends Marketing Lab 2″. They new product? It’s called “Score”.

    “WebTrends Score is the industry’s only patented solution that measures and reveals which visitors offer the most potential value to your business. It’s a revolution in the measurement of visitor engagement that gives you the power to target your messaging, improve your conversions and build long-term loyalty.”

    Engagement is a difficult attribute to measure (but highly coveted as the advertising dollars shift from TV to the web. For other videos, check out my interview with Eric Peterson or Avinash Kaushik of Google Analytics.


    Brian Oberkirch has become a great social media bud over the last few years, and explains how communities, developers, and people make a big difference. So listen in, learn from his wisdom on the topics of web development, building great products, marketing and small good things.

    Dell’s blog champion, Lionel Menchaca spends time with me to talk about some of new programs that they’ve put out over the last year. From the Dell blog, IdeaStorm, and how they’re adapting to the needs of customers.

    This video is a bit outdated, as Dell has done a few other things since I filmed this, so be sure to see the chronology at the Dell Social Media Saga Timeline.

    Questions I asked regarding IdeaStorm: “Isn’t getting product requirements for the computers the role of the product team? Not the web team?”

    What has Dell done that’s so great? Over a year ago, they were getting beat up very badly on blogs, support, and exploding laptops. Now in 2007, they’ve launched a blog, are creating videos and sharing, and have even created the revolutionary “IdeaStorm” website that lets customers tell Dell what features they want on their products. The most shocking? Many of them said they don’t want Microsoft Windows (A strategic partner of Dells) on it, what did Dell do? Watch the video to find out.

    Dell is quickly leading the social media space for corporations, as they’ve really embraced the changes, have empowered customers to make decisions about products. That’s revolutionary.


    I was able to interview Jake McKee, the Community Guy, in Austin Texas. He shares some key strategies on building a community program, finding consultants, and the do’s and do nots. Jake’s background?

    “Jake McKee is an evangelist for online and offline community building, social media, and customer-company interaction. He has been working with online communities, fan groups, and consumer groups since the early days of the Internet, and has a rich background in Web development, community management, business strategy, and product development.”

    Although I turn my phone off, and ask others to as well, I apologize for the cell phone interference noises, I suspect that was from others around us.



    The word is out: corporate websites are dull and irrelvant and they need to adapt community features quickly.

    I got a chance to catch up with Eric at SXSW this year. I cruised the show floor to find companies that can help corporate website improve. Pluck is one of those companies, and Eric Newman VP and General Manager helps us to understand how these tools work. I was a bit tired when filming this interview, so bear with me.

    What’s the Web Strategy show? It’s for web decision makers, a “video white paper” learn more about the show.

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