Time For Some Changes

4 09 2011

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, I am about to make a change in focus.  You might have notices that I have not written a lot in the past couple of months.  A few months back I took a Product Marketing job at Informatica (Data Integration).  There, I’m responsible for the product marketing of two fairly-technical products aimed at a technical audience of data integration experts:

  • Informatica Metadata Manager & Business Glossary.  I will write a lot more about this subject, but for now let’s say that MM&BG gives you the visibility and control needed to manage a complex data integration environment. In particular, it is very useful in helping to manage change in that environment.  Simple changes often run afoul of unseen cross-dependencies.  A simple change can cause a ripple-effect of unintended consequences across you data integration environment.  The results can be bad data and bad business decisions.
  • Informatica Data Validation Option.  DVO is a tool to test and verify data after it has been moved or transformed.  It’s a way to detect and prevent damage to the data .
The interesting thing is that the blog has kept up its readership very well without any new content!
This blog has always focused a great deal on social media and the application of social media to the marketing of technology products.  That will continue.  Only now, it will be a lot more personal as I apply social media best practices to my two products at Informatica.
I have had some conversations with people recently who do not see how social media applies in this space.   A lot of people see social media as a way to reach vast audiences.  But, social medial marketing is also really good at “Long Tail” maketing — reaching small, scattered, but well-defined markets.  This also is a topic that I will be exploring in upcoming blogs.
Up next, a few blogs on metadata.  Who needs it and what does it do for me?

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Categories : Business Glossary, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Metadata Management, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Technology

Web Analytics Usage Statistics

14 12 2010

I have always been interested in Web Analytics.  Most of the tools claim to solve world hunger, but which of the literally dozens of Web Analytics tools do people actually use out there?  I stumbled across one pretty interesting analysis of who is using what today.

Here are the Top 5 Web Analytics tools used according to this survey:

  1. Google Analytics.  (57%)  Not surprising.  It’s free to use.
  2. Quantcast Tracking. (18%)
  3. Google Analytics Asynchronous (14%) Also free to use.   More about what this is.
  4. Omniture SiteCatalyst.  (14%) Recently acquired by Adobe.
  5. comScore.  (9%)

The number six tool is down around 3% share.

This is just the beginning of a long analytic tool war.  With the data on the Internet fragmenting (see my previous 12/13/10 blog post) they tools makers will have to move quickly to be able to track and measure activity on the Web.

See Full Report


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Categories : Enterprise Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media Data, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Web Analytics

The Future Direction of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

13 12 2010

SEM is pretty straightforward, right?  You use some analytics software to figure out the search terms that customers are using to find your product or service and then you bid on the right to place ads with those terms.

A new white paper from Forrester looks at the future trends in SEM.  Like a lot of things, the searchable Internet is fragmenting  in many ways:

  • Into new forms of content.
  • Into new uses: Mobile/Social and GoogleTV are examples.
  • Into communities and platforms that are opaque to traditional search engines.  Examples include the Apple iPhone, Android phones, and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.  Search engine technology is going to adjust.  In fact, Bing and Google are already making changes.

But, the bottom line is that search engine marketing techniques and analytic approaches must change as well.

You can download the full Forrester report for free from Omniture (owned by Adobe):  The Future Of Search Marketing

It’s well worth reading.


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Categories : Enterprise Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media Marketing, Technology

Social Media Marketing at Ford

5 11 2010

This is a follow-up to an earlier blog that I wrote about Ford and social media marketing.  They are continuing to do some great things over there.

The Ford Fiesta Movement

Ford launched the Ford Fiesta in this country entirely with social media marketing campaign called the Ford Fiesta Movement.

  • Ford gave 100 Fiestas to online personalities free for six months
  • The personalities were challenged to a contest where they got points for creating online content about the cars
  • Results at the time of launch
    • Over six million YouTube views
    • 740,000 Flickr images
    • 3.7 Twitter impressions
    • 80,000 people asked for more information about the Fiesta – and 97% had never owned a Ford before.
    • 40% Generation Y awareness

All this was done with zero traditional media.  It was a 100% social marketing campaign.

Ford Social Media Marketing Video

(This is really worth watching — all the way through)

Ford is not stopping there

The video here talks about how Ford is now doing a Focus Rally America event for the Ford Focus.

Here’s how Focus Rally America works (and this is creative):

  • Ford will select six teams of two people to compete in an interactive cross-country road rally.
  • The winner gets $100,000 plus 10 Ford Focus cars to give away to the people who help them the most online.
  • Clues to navigating the rally will be published online and the community will have to pick teams and support them by helping them to solve the clues.

Scott Monty, goes on to describe how Ford is using social media as a part of integrated marketing campaigns that have far more impact than traditional marketing campaigns.  These campaigns include

  • Paid media
  • Earned media
  • Owned media

The key to success, as he describes it so well, is: “It’s people talking to people about Ford, not Ford talking to people about Ford.”

The other important thing to take away from this is that Ford is generating user and interest and buzz without being gimmicky, in my opinion.  This is a fun way to generate genuine interest in their products.


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Categories : Social Media Marketing, Marketing Plan, Company Example, Social Media Data, Social Media Company, Social Media, Inbound Marketing, Business Models

Social Media Advertising – Part II

10 09 2010

Just after my recent blog (9/7/10) on this subject, I saw a very interesting article on Mashable that offers some interesting numbers and analysis around social media advertising trends.

Some of the key points of the article include:

  • eMarketer projects that social will account for 6.7% of the total online ad spend this year.
  • The 2010 spending forecast for advertising on social networks is projected at $1.68 billion in the US, up 30%
  • Total social media ad spending is expected to pass $2 billion next year.
  • The big winner in this space is Facebook, with revenues projected to pass $1 billion this year.

In addition to Facebook, the article goes on to describe Promoted Tweets on Twitter where a company can insert a brand-sponsored topic into the trending topics list.  This program is in the early stages and is well worth watching.

Why the Move to Social Media Advertising?

  • The average user is now spending more time on Facebook than on Google according to comScore.
  • Nielson says that the average person spends more than seven hours per month on Facebook.
  • It’s effective 1: Social media lets companies target their audience much with much greater exactness.  The result: context-relevant ads and messages that are useful to end-users.
  • It’s effective 2: Social media lets the community digest messages if and when the want them, rather than interrupting their TV, reading, or radio experience.
  • Location-awareness offers the prospect of making messages even more relevant, helpful, and entertaining.
  • But, maybe most important of all, social media offers the opportunity for companies to engage in a two-way conversation with their communities 24x7x356.

The bottom line is that social media is where people are spending their time.  Social media also offers an opportunity to really engage with customers rather than just “drive-by selling.”


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Categories : Social Media Marketing, Marketing Plan, Enterprise Marketing, Social Media Data, Social Media, Inbound Marketing, Business Models

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