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

Don’t pay any attention to this post…….

How often do you pay attention to industry sites ads? Ya…I thought so………I have been hearing alot lately about how online ad budgets are either flat or slightly increasing next year and I am wondering if the money that software companies pour into online advertising is worth it? Do they have an hard ROI on the leads that they generate or are they pie in the sky numbers? What if a company were to find out that they poured $500k into ads for a particular product, generated a ton of leads, but the sales folks got no where with them? I wonder how much the company would be willing to invest in more ads the following go around.

Often marketing departments are so focused on bringing in the leads and looking that the CPL that they tend to lose site of the big picture of what it truly cost them to get that lead in and what happened once it got there. Yea yea yea…age old closed looped issue right?

How about instead of sitting around and talking about it, more companies begin to put a plan of action in place to either eliminate or curb the spend of online ads until they can be truly measured. Sounds deceptively simple huh?

Technorati Tags:
software, marketing, software marketing, lead nuturing, online advertising, advertising, automation, ROI, CPL, CPI, marketing metrics, metrics

Branding For a Software Company

John at Duct Tape Marketing has a great definition of branding that I would like to share:

“Branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable”

So with this definition in mind, how can something like this statement above apply to any software company of any size? Does Microsoft or Oracle need to brand their software anymore than they already have? Some people trust and like Microsoft and Oracle and some people don’t. I think more where this applies to is company’s who have a multitude of products or services and are well known in the marketplace for some piece of software.

Branding takes alot of patience, time, money and creativity. You cant just buy a Super Bowl Commercial and expect that it will instantly brand you. (ok..maybe GoDaddy is a bit of an exception) Buying the back cover of trade magazine is a good start but for some is expensive. I feel that in todays transparent world, a great way to brand yourself is to open up the doors, knock down the walls and show the IT community that you are all about collaborating and solving the pains of their world as well as being a thought leader in your respective marketplace. You can have the best products in the world, but if you play the secracy game with the public, branding will be difficult.

Here are a few (yes a few) ways to build a good brand in software

1. Start a blog. A good blog..not a chest pounding advertisement, but one which adds value to your expertise

2. Hire an evangelist.

3. Build a wiki or a community centered around pain and have that evangelist dedicated to fostering both

4. Educate educate educate through as many new mediums as you can (podcasts, video, white boarding sessions etc….)

5. Do a super bowl commercial (kidding)

6. Do things that are fun for your audience…show them that you are real

7. Monitor your reputation online and comment and acknowledge people that talk about you and your industry.

This is just a start, but if you manage to do the above you are well on your way to branding your organization

Technorati Tags:
web 2.0, branding, marketing, software, software marketing, podcast, wiki, evangelist, community, online communities, IT, word of mouth, buzzmarketing, duct tape marketing, John Jantsch

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web 2.0, branding, marketing, software, software marketing, podcast, wiki, evangelist, community, online communities, IT, word of mouth, buzzmarketing, duct tape marketing, John Jantsch

Can an organization change?

Seth has a great posted entitled the “meatball mondae”

Here is my question..when you work in a organization which totally does not operate with transparency and believes that what you did 3 years ago will work today in technology marketing, how many people does it take to change the feeling of the organization?

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seth godin, new media, web 2.0, collaboration, software marketing, software, marketing, change

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seth godin, new media, web 2.0, collaboration, software marketing, software, marketing, change

People are talking.

Bill at the Buzz Saw on Duct Tape Marketing has a great post on listening to social networks. To me this all ties in with monitoring your brand and understanding what people are saying about you and your competitors. Well said Bill!!

Technorati Tags:
social networks, myspace, facebook, duct tape marketing, buzz marketing, business

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social networks, myspace, facebook, duct tape marketing, buzz marketing, business

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

Growing vegetables with marketing.

Marketing is little like growing vegetables. You need to plant the seed with your prospects and let give them water and sunshine (relevant assets) from which to grow. In fact if you give them alot of love one day they will blossom into something big and delicious. Then they are ripe for the picking and you will harvest something great…which is a new customer.

Don’t lose site on trying to always grow new vegetables. Nurture and care for the ones that are already there. They may not be ready all the time to harvest, but it sure beats starting from scratch with new seeds each and every time.

Technorati Tags:
software marketing, customers, prospects, lead generation, white papers, assets, sales, nurturing, demand generation, lead nurturing, campaigns

Google Reader…

I have been playing with alot of the features within Google Reader these last few days. It makes an excellent companion to providing some services for folks when it comes to reputation monitoring. Thru the use of technorati watch-lists or bloglines searches and feeding them into the reader you can create a web page to feed this info to folks that are less “technical” or “feed or rss” savvy.

I am trying out a few pilots within my organization and should have a full on report/idea on what the heck I am doing in a couple of weeks.

VIVA REPUTATION MONITORING!!

Technorati Tags:
google reader, technorati, bloglines, reputation monitoring, software

What is up with Technorati?

I use technorati to do all of my keyword tracking for reputation monitoring in my company. For the last several weeks, every time I log into my account and check my watch list, I get this message “Sorry, we’re upgrading this feature right now. Please check back soon.” I sent an email to their technical support last week asking about this and I never heard back from them.

Also, it seems as if my watch list words are not totally being picked up thru those guys. This is truly disappointing and I am shocked I have not heard back from them. Looks like its time to switch to bloglines!

Bye technorati……thanks for your efforts over the last several years…but I need to fire you.

Technorati Tags:
technorati, bloglines, watchlists, reputation monitoring, keywords

5 reasons why a company should monitor their reputation online

5. When people talk/write on the web, they want others to see what is written and they want you as a company to see what they wrote about you.

4. If they talk about you consistently, you can peg them as an evangelist. If they talk bad about you, its still an opportunity to get them to rethink and evangelize.

3. Know what you do right as company and continue to do it…and know what you do wrong and fix it.

2. Everyone in the company, from the admin to the CEO should know what people say about your brand.

1. Duh…the obvious….information is golden.

Technorati Tags:
reputation monitoring, monitoring, reputation, information

Reputation Monitor from Distilled

A dude by the name of Will commented and pointed me to a newer reputation monitor available. I just wanted everyone to know that I will be checking out the free version for accuracy and seeing what this is all about. Stay tuned and if any of you are doing reputation monitoring at your organization, check it out with me and let me know your thoughts.

If you already use these guys, let me know as well.

Technorati Tags:
reputation monitoring, distilled,

Your reputation is everything

I have assumed the unofficial role at Quest as the reputation monitor. I track hundreds of keywords and subscribe to well over 100 feeds all with the purpose of knowing that when someone says something about Quest, I will know about it.

I am curious to know if anyone in any of your organizations do the same thing either on a smaller or larger scale? Do you have a team of people looking at what people are saying on the internet? Do you respond?

I think reputation monitoring is not new, but it is fairly new on the internet and as technology conitinues to evolve along with the adaptation of blogging and other platforms for professional and social pontification, reputation monitoring will become a critical aspect to the success of companies.

As always…let me know what you think.