Still blocked by Technorati…

I am still blocked from collecting any feeds from Technorati and STILL cannot access their site. I have contacted their support twice and no response. I had an individual contact me as a result of my blog postings about Technorati and still nothing. I was able to get to their site yesterday, but now its same old……403 forbidden error.

If you are a blogger or a person of influence in the blogosphere, I urge you to take note of all my postings about them and rally behind me to see if we can get Technorati to perhaps change their ways of blocking people and customer service.

Get with the program Technorati!!!

Here are my posts for your reference.

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

Post 5

Post 6

Technorati Tags:
blocking, bloggers, blogosphere, blogs, IP address, technorati, access denied, support

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blocking, bloggers, blogosphere, blogs, IP address, technorati, access denied, support

10 marketing resolutions for 2008

****From the Church of the Customer Blog****

1. Vow to do more attracting than selling.
To use a high school analogy: Be the charismatic kid with a winning smile, a charming personality and a good dose of humility. Don’t be the tard who farts and throws firecrackers at cats in that desperate vein of “Look at me! Look at me!”

2. Adopt the 5th P.
If your company relies on the classic marketing model of the four P’s, add a fifth one: Participation. Build a model of how customers, partners and employees can meet, share and participate with the company or with one another.

3. Build a niche.
The future is micro-specific. It starts with people who share highly specific characteristics that defy traditional demographics. Define an ideal customer to the n’th degree, like unemployed college professors who wear corduroy sport coats (with elbow patches) and drive old Volvos.

4. Conduct a word of mouth audit.
Put every customer-facing experience up for review, from reception to the floor person, to accounts payable. Does the customer experience generate good word of mouth, or bad word of mouth? Adjust then measure again.

5. Create a social network.
Do it on Facebook, or Ning or the good ol’ analog way: a customer advisory board. Any form of social network among customers, partners or employees (current or former) is a tangible asset. Treat it as you would your grandparents (respectfully), not as you would your younger brother whom you randomly punch in the head.

6. Vow to eliminate a stupid rule.
You know what it is. Customers (or bloggers) have already told you. So eliminate it already. For extra points, give it a funeral.

7. Create a social media training program.
In 2008, expect word of mouth and customer evangelism to be accelerated by social media considerably more than it was in 2007. What people say online will reach deeper into the B2B world, too, like long-term services contracts and enterprise-wide computer systems. Understanding the basics of social media, how it works and the effects it can have on reputation and sales should be part of annual training programs.

8. Ban use of the word “consumer.”
Nothing says “I’m like Borat” more than using “consumers” to describe your customers, or end-customers. If you call the sales channel your customers, then their customers are your end-customers. To call them consumers is so Borat-like.

9. Raise the ethics bar.
Be a hero to people who still believe in ethics. Make 2008 the year you set higher standards for ethical behavior. Make the standards clear to employees, partners and vendors. Enforce them. Gaming the system is for congressmen and crooked military contractors.

10. Do what you love.
It may be trite but if you don’t love what you’re doing, how can you expect anyone else to?

Technorati Tags:
church of the customer, marketing, resolutions, software, buzzmarketing, word of mouth, social networking, four p’s, blogging

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church of the customer, marketing, resolutions, software, buzzmarketing, word of mouth, social networking, four p’s, blogging

JetBrains Omea Reader vs. Sharpreader

I am an RSS junkie. I have used only 2 news readers in the past: Feedreader and Sharpreader. I have used Google reader for some other feeds/reputation monitoring purposes, but sometimes find it a bit clunky and unreliable in terms of handling lots and lots feeds. I am talking ALOT of feeds. Currently have hundreds and hundreds of feeds tracking hundreds of keywords, blogs and general news stuff. At times, I have over 30,000 items in my reader that I look through. Up until now, I have used Sharpreader and really liked it. Sharpreader did its thing and I went along my merry way.

Then last night I downloaded the personal edition of the JetBrains Omea Reader and my RSS/feed addiction has been taken to a new level. Without question, this is the best free reader on the market. Its laid out well and has a ton of features nor normally found in many readers. I especially love the “subscribe to search feed” feature. If you are in the market to switch or just want to try out a new look and feel of your seemingly boring reader you need to check out JetBrains Omea Reader….as you will not be disappointed

Technorati Tags:
rss, rssreader, news aggregator, googlereader, google reader, jetbrains, omea reader, sharpreader, feedreader, aggregation, blogs, reputation monitoring, atom, jetbrains.com

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rss, rssreader, news aggregator, googlereader, google reader, jetbrains, omea reader, sharpreader, feedreader, aggregation, blogs, reputation monitoring, atom, jetbrains.com

Social Media: Online Marketing 101 by Cord

Cord has a great post today about explaining what Social Media is all about. Glad to see he is going back to the basics as we all could use a good “101″ class again. Great stuff Cord.

Technorati Tags:
online marketing, social media, facebook, discussion boards, web 2.0, chat, marketing, software, business, targetting

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online marketing, social media, facebook, discussion boards, web 2.0, chat, marketing, software, business, targetting

Corporate Blogs Suck - Part 2

If I had a ton of money, I would go out and purchase this T-Shirt and send it to all of the Corporate Blogs I find that truly blow chunks.

Hmmmm…anyone want to sponsor me in this endeavor?

Technorati Tags:
blogs, blogging, corporate blogs, advertising

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blogs, blogging, corporate blogs, advertising

Corporate Blogs Suck

Many companies have started to blog. Most suck. I say most cause there are some bright ones out there, but when I look at the posting history, there has been nothing in the last 2 or 3 months. They started with gusto and faded off into the sun like the cubs did this year in the playoffs.

I have seen corporate blogs being promoted on the front page of sites with no postings in 3 months, or with a ton of postings that are nothing but self serving advertisements for their latest product releases or endless drivel about how great they are. Some of these corporations are big and some are small, but all should know better. Some have multiple platforms for people in the company, some are a general dumping ground for a select group of employees to drone on about nothing.

Much has been written about how to start and maintain about corporate blogs, but one of the greatest pieces of advice that I can ever give is that if you start one, stick with it and don’t always talk about you. Talk about the industry you serve and offer up the readership something other than your product advertisements or press releases. Make it issue based and not company or product based.

Bring on your comments and show me some of the best and worst corporate blogs.

Technorati Tags:
blogs, blogging, corporate blogs, advertising

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blogs, blogging, corporate blogs, advertising

TechTarget Online ROI Summit

I am attending the TechTarget online ROI summit today and tomorrow in San Francisco and have been sitting through a number of sessions where alot of industry experts are talking about things from lead nurturing, new media, marketing to CIO’s and predictions for 2008 in online advertising.

After sitting through several sessions and talking with a few vendors today something has become abundantly clear to me.  It has occurred that the IT marketing landscape is in a state of change and either you as a marketer adapt to this change or be prepared to face some tough realities in the marketplace. I work in an organization which has 100+ people dedicated to marketing and while some of these folks have a decent vision of the current marketing landscape and what it will take going forward, I am becoming increasingly disturbed at the fact that some people are not aware, (nor do they care to be) that this IT marketing landscape is becoming more collaborative, transparent and nimble.  That marketing in IT is not about how many “leads” we can give sales. Its not about feeding the funnel and writing a white paper with substandard content and a huge product pitch.  Its not pitching the latest buzz coined thing of “aligning business to IT”.  Its not about giving things away to feed the sales beast with unqualified leads.  Its not about alot of things…….and yet IT marketing organizations still believe that what we did back in 2004 to get business will work today.

To me its so much more……its about identifying the customers pain points and offering a solution to solve that pain point. Its about subscribing to the new media platform such as videos and podcasts to produce relevant and meaningful content so that the audience can identify you as a thought leader.  Its not about quantity, its about quality.  Its giving things away such as knowledge so that organizations can leverage your expertise to their business and not a particular solution set.

I can go on and on and on, but one thing that has come about in my one of being here, that my philosophy of openness, transparency, collaboration, nurturing, new media and relevancy has never been stronger. It was strong before I came here, and I will leave with an even bigger mantra to transform how IT marketing departments approach the world of marketing to IT professionals.

Look out.

NBC is leaving iTunes

It seems as if NBC has decided to not renew its contract with iTunes with what appears to be an attempt to bring everything to hulu.com.

Why kill a revenue stream? I have downloaded plenty of Office episodes on iTunes and liked it alot. Some have the argument, that watching the episodes on an iPod is not what it was meant for, but those are short sided in that I can watch them on my 20″ iMac or stream them with appletv.

Anyway..sounds like NBC is getting greedy and doesn’t want to play in the sandbox nicely with everyone.

Hey NBC……I have a saying that I tell alot of people: “Pigs go to slaughter and hogs live forever”

Seems like NBC is being quite the little pig.

Technorati Tags:
nbc, itunes, office, contract, business, hulu.com, downloading, heros, tv shows, apple, appletv

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nbc, itunes, office, contract, business, hulu.com, downloading, heros, tv shows, apple, appletv

How to run a corporate blog.

The Wired How To Wiki has a blurb taken from Steve Rubel about how to run a corporate blog.

I think I would add into those thoughtful comments:

A. Engage in a 2 way conversation with the readers

B. Find out and interact with those who read your blog and invite them to guest blog with you.

C. Collaborate. Collaborate. Collaborate

Technorati Tags:
corporate blog, blogs, wired mag, steve rubel, edelman, micro persuasion, collaborate

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corporate blog, blogs, wired mag, steve rubel, edelman, micro persuasion, collaborate

A complete list of Web 2.0 Offerings

Do you have some time to kill? I mean..do you have like the next 3 months straight to do nothing but explore Web 2.0 technologies? If so or if you want to see a really complete list of just about everything out there nicely laid out in a directory style, then visit GO2Web20.net

Crazy long list, but worth the visit.

Technorati Tags:
web 2.0, applications, go2web20.net, bookmarking, collaboration, chat, community, media, photo, share, mapping, blogging, network, podcast, email, communication, skype, sms, aggregator, search, rss

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web 2.0, applications, go2web20.net, bookmarking, collaboration, chat, community, media, photo, share, mapping, blogging, network, podcast, email, communication, skype, sms, aggregator, search, rss

Flotzam

Ever hear of Flotzam? Its a Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and RSS mashup. You can either have the app or the screensaver.

Kinda of a cool concept if you are a social network freak. Its not for me, but I am sure there are a ton of folks out there than can get some benefit from this.

Technorati Tags:
flickr, twitter, facebook, rss, mashup, screensaver, application, flotzam, tweets, pokes, web 2.0, social networking

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flickr, twitter, facebook, rss, mashup, screensaver, application, flotzam, tweets, pokes, web 2.0, social networking

Web 2.0 Marketing is not a bunch of things

Web 2.0 or marketing in Web 2.0 is not just doing a bunch of things: collaborating, community, blogging, youtubing, wikis etc……

It is a state of mind and an evolution that your company is going to need to adopt. Its being vulnerable, transparent and giving open access to those people you deal with. Its alot more than that, but this is a start. Web 2.0 first needs to be recognized in a companies marketing department and then the entire culture where this organization lives needs to adopt a new way of thinking to gain access to the marketplace.

I had several discussions recently about Web 2.0 and marketing within it. One conversation began like this “So…this Web 2.0 thing..can we get into it?” I almost lost it.

Starting a blog isn’t web 2.0 marketing. Starting a “community” (ugh…I hate that word) isn’t web 2.0 marketing. Heck..web 2.0 marketing shouldn’t even be in your vocabulary…just eliminate it from your brain.

Its too bad that alot of people don’t get it or want to get it…..but I am here to change one mind at a time…..its ok….you wont get harmed in the process.

Technorati Tags:
web 2.0, marketing, youtube, wiki, blogging, community, software

What not to say in software marketing…

what the hell does this mean?

“BSM Routes to Value are exactly that—targeted solutions that help IT drive business value, with defined milestones that guide and measure your progress from basic achievement to higher levels of maturity”

I am still trying to figure it out and I think I get it, but if you remember from a few of my earlier posts, I am all about simplicity. As a man of average intelligence I am having a hard time relating to this piece of marketing glob in trying to figure out what this actually means…..in plain English. I understand driving business value, but what the hell are defined milestones and what is basic achievement to high levels of maturity mean? Does it mean that if I apply this particular piece of software it will mean that my environment will become more mature.

Plain speak please. Don’t cloud your message with buzz-barf and expect the common man, let alone an educated IT person to understand what this means.

Here are 2 other examples of some of this buzz-barf that I found on this page…again..plain English please!

“integrates service impact management with event processing automation to build a service model that maps IT components to the business services they support, consolidating, enriching, and correlating events, as well as determining root causes and the impact of events on business services.”

Not only is the above a run on sentence, but it is so fragmented I am still trying to comprehend how the word “enrich” can be in the same sentence as some of the other fairly technical jargon that we are obviously supposed to understand. In addition, I am also on a power bar high at the moment..so my brain is at maximum capacity.

Here is the other nugget of fun that we need to decode.

“provides a proven suite that adapts to processes to align identities and access requirements, offering capabilities that include user administration & provisioning, password management, Web access management, directory management & visualization, federation, audit and compliance”

Another run on sentence…there is a shocker. It also appears that that this piece of software does alot…I wonder how much it is and how long it will take to implement to get all of what they say it will get me. Chances are, by the time I implement it, this piece will obsolete and it will become shelf-ware.

While I will not call out this company publicly, I will say this. Please for the love of all that is Holy…simplfy your message to the market. This goes for all of the software companies out there. Please stop the buzz, incoherent, ramble barf that is so prevalent in large software company environments.

I welcome your comments.

Technorati Tags:
BSM, IT, software, marketing, software marketing, enterprise software, buzz marketing

I love technorati….

I have to say this..I love technorati. It affords me to do so much and with the hundreds of keywords I am tracking and darn near thousands of feeds I am tracking…its almost overwhelming. Thanks Technorati for what you do..but more importantly thanks for becoming in recent years a new thing for me to obsess on.

I only wish I would be able to put in master technorator and have the masses understand it. By the way….can you become a master technorator?

Technorati Tags:
technorati

The Dark Side of Blogging

There is an excellent article written by Michael Stelzner at Marketingprofs.com about the dark side of blogging and how it can be addictive.

While I do find that sometimes maintaining a blog can be time consuming, I find it extremely rewarding both professionally and personally to exercise my thoughts. Sometimes I have alot to say and others not so much.

Thanks Michael.

Technorati Tags:
marketingprofs.com, blogging, addiction

America: The Growing Digital Divide

Duncan Riley at TechCrunch has a great post on Americans use of Web 2.0. I would classify my use as elite - productivity enhancer. What are you?

Technorati Tags:
techcrunch, web 2.0

Jott.com

Chris has a post that points us to jott.com.

Thanks Chris…I think I am going to check it out. Heck I am a way better talker than a writer

Technorati Tags:
jott.com, raw stylus, speak, blogging, productivity, software

Word of Mouth Marketing…whats the latest…

Ron McDaniel points me to a worthwhile posting on the latest word on word of mouth marketing.

Good read.

Blogger Outreach Program

I was chatting with someone recently who mentioned that they have a blogger outreach program in their organization. I am curious to know if their are companies out there currently who have a full-time person dedicated to blogger outreach and if so describe in detail what exactly they do. (offer incentives, free product for the blogger to try with the hopes of them posting something) Also does this person do anything else in the org, or is it that blogs have become so popular and it really can prove fruitful for your organization.

Technorati Tags:
blogger outreach, blogging, soliciting bloggers, incentive program to bloggers, software, marketing, IT, buzzmarketing, viral, word of mouth

How to Make Your Technology Brand Famous Via Podcasts, Blogs & Games: 12-Month Viral Marketing Plan

I ran across a great article from marketingsherpa.com in their case study section that really sums up what I would like to focus my efforts on at Quest over the next 12-18 months.

You can find it here:  http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29871

I think there is about a week or so left for open access.

Promoting an internal blog

I traveled yesterday to our Columbus office for a series of meetings and other things. I will be here till Friday and really like coming here. People are friendly and they all know me which is great. However, I do have to question the ability for the Columbus folks to remove snow and not go into a snow panic. The have this level 1,2,3 emergency system and it seems that the news was all consumed about this snowstorm they got and managed to shut down the entire city, including our office yesterday. When I arrived there were only 2 brave souls in the office and it seemed like a ghost town. Anyway, I digress….

In between the series of meetings and such, I have made it my personal mission to promote our own internal blog to the marketing folks here in the office. I have resorted to putting things in their mailboxes and little cutouts on their keyboards while they were out of the their offices and cubicles. Let see if it works because my entire team has worked on the internal blog alot and I really want it to gain some traction. The adaptation of our marketing group to blogging has been less than stellar, but I am here to turn it around. Lets see if my ancient 80’s style guerrilla marketing technique works.

As always…let me know what you think.