Posts Tagged ‘Web Presence Management’



What’s All This Web Presence Stuff, Anyhow? »


| by David Pinto on September 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

Got Corporate Presence + Internet Presence + Social Media Presence?

During engineering school, I landed a short stint as an electronics design intern at Xerox Corp. In 1990, before the Internet ramped up to make things like search easier, we relied on good old filing systems to locate datasheets, manuals, parts, specifications…anything that would help us repair aging or recalcitrant office automation equipment. Life was great and the challenges were fun, except for a couple of managers who didn’t like this young whippersnapper’s “filing” system. Only problem was that the team I worked with could always find anything we needed within seconds…until someone came along and filed away our organized “mess”. Result: Frantic searches and unnecessary service delays.

Enter Robert A. Pease (RAP), Engineer, National Semiconductor. I happened to pick up an issue of Electronic Design magazine lying around the office. Ever since I read that first, and now-classic, Pease Porridge column, “What’s All This Neatness Stuff, Anyhow?”  I realized I was not alone in my filing/search methods. Needless to say, it was great to find a kindred spirit. I quickly learned to ignore any interference and perfected a classic filing method (with excellent turnaround time results). I also became an avid consumer of Pease Porridge over the next decade.

With due apologies to RAP, allow to me to take a crack at “What’s All This Web Presence Stuff, Anyhow?” Here’s one definition (you may want to avoid going to the link, where you’d be obliged to skip the ad): A Web Presence (or Web Site) is a collection of Web files on a particular subject that includes a beginning file called a home page. etc. etc. Amazingly enough, I came across several instances with similar disinformation.

Today’s young whippersnappers might remark, “OMG, that’s waaaay off the mark!” Right. To use the terms “Web Presence” and “Web Site” interchangeably is blatantly inaccurate.

So, what is Web Presence (WP), and why all the fuss? Here’s one formula we propose:

WP = Corporate Presence + Internet Presence + Social Media Presence

Platform/Channel(s)
 Characteristics Players/Influencers
Corporate Presence (Your Website/Intranet) Fully Controlled, Stylized, Branded   Staff/Executives/Marketing Teams Own the Voice
Internet Presence (Traditional Portals/Media Coverage) Minimal Control, Objective, Authoritative Experts/Editors/Analysts Have the Voice
Social Media Presence (New &  Emerging Channels) Clearly Uncontrolled, Community, Participatory Customers/Audience/Prospects Deliver the Voice

 

The trouble is, you can imagine social media flavors  will inevitably and increasingly make their presence felt all the way  back into traditional and corporate channels too.

And that’s the reason for the fuss. It makes embracing a good web presence management strategy, especially an open dialog with customers, imperative for business success. More about that in upcoming posts, along with quick tips for enhancing your web presence.

Meanwhile, feel free to weigh in with your definition(s), filing methods or SoMe insights – we’re open for debate!

PS: Back to RAP, here are links to some of his classics:

- What’s All This Neatness Stuff, Anyhow? (Electronic Design magazine, Oct 1990, includes photo of his “filing” system)
- And, if you need more, here’s the best of Pease Porridge.

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Posted in Audience Marketing, Marketing, Strategy, Web Presence Management



Web Presence Management Lessons from the White Mountain Peak »


| by Bala Gopalan on August 11th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

White Mountain Peak - Man and the Mountain
Last month, some of the bHive core team went on a weekend hike up White Mountain Peak (wiMp, 14,252ft) in INYO National Forest. The third highest peak in California, it is both fair weather and friendly… only insofar as you do not take it for granted. Boy, were there simple lessons learned from this day hike? Certainly, and all are as applicable to practicing Web Presence Management (WPM) as they are to life!

All Sugar and No Salt is as fatal to your Customer as it is to the Hiker
By some miscalculation, we all carried and snacked only on sugary stuff on our uphill hike. Big mistake. The idea was to ease our way to the top on “power” snacks, eat one of those ready-to-cook “real” hiker meals and cruise on the downhill hike. Not only did our systems reject the sugar even before we reached the top, but there also was not one tiny sheltered spot for us to light our backcountry stove. The terrain was barren and winds howling. In hindsight, a few saltines, nachos or even junk food like chips/crisps snacked periodically would have helped a lot.

What’s the parallel here to WPM? Corporate communications are like sugar. Customers, like your system, will reject it to the point of fatality if that’s the only diet they are fed. However, a contextual Social Media (SoMe) practice will keep your Customers trusting and engaged, just like the right pinch of salt snacked periodically keeps the system healthy and balanced. In salt, we trust (in just the right doses, of course)!

White Mountain Summit - bHive Team

“Done that Altitude” is PAST, “Must Do Attitude” is PRESENT
Our hiking team has had its moments. Latitudes stretched, longitudes tested. And, some record altitudes attained, all in good health. All, however, in the past still did not adjust our attitude, what’s a wiMp by any other other name?

What indifference! Continue to be stuck in the past on the only ways you have talked to Customers, taking them for granted, and rest assured the wiMps will become IMPs – InsurMountable Peaks (or, Problems). What worked then is past. What must be done today is to engage in each uphill task with full transparency and deference (or, empathy). Always respect the Mountain, high or low. We need to Listen and Learn from our Customers – and give them a Voice — daily … today, everyday!

White Mountain Summit - Register

The Curious Case of Turtle Tao
We met a septuagenarian on our climb. He was on a solo road trip from Colorado to hike in Utah and California. Let’s call this gent Turtle Tao. He was ahead of us in the morning when we were driving from the campground to get started on the hike. He was driving slow-and-steady on the single-lane dirt road. Needless to say, us can’t-wait-to-calculate-return-on-investment-(ROI) types “forced” him to yield so that we could get there sooner. We started the hike much ahead of Tao. Surely enough, he caught up with us within the hour! He gave us company for the next 1-2 hours and then moved slowly ahead even as he seemed to accelerate without increasing his speed – walking or breathing. Finally, when we reached the summit Tao was there, again pleasantly inquiring after us. Offered me a sandwich bite and did take some summit pictures for our ROI. We lost sight of Tao shortly thereafter in our downhill delirium. He was the proverbial Tortoise, seemingly slow but surely steady and earnest. We were the insolent hares…already at the finish line with ROIs and dashboards!

There seems to be this raging, current fixation on SoMe ROI. Hopefully, we all do not forget that the main goal of Social Media (and WPM in general) is the trusted ongoing engagement it facilitates. Not the arrival at any specific end points or summits. To twist a famous traveling quote: “the point of this WPM journey is not to arrive.” Instead, the engagement and participation it enables are to be enjoyed, to be learned from, and ultimately… to be continued.

White Mountains - On the return

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Posted in Web Presence Management, Work-Life



Web Presence Need a Good Ol’ Smack? »


| by David Pinto on March 20th, 2009 | No Comments »

Sunrise - Sernabetim Beach, Goa, India

So I’m smack in the middle of my vacation with the extended family (intentionally without cellphone/laptop) enjoying the rustic scene at  in Goa, India. Then, disaster strikes. My faithful Sony camcorder, with which I’ve captured many memories/antics during our travels, starts to act up for no apparent reason. Of course, this had to happen miles away from anything except palm trees and the clear blue sea. I should be relaxed in sheer bliss, but now I’m stressing out trying to get the *&^% thing to work. And hey, I’m an engineer, so I’m consumed with finding an immediate solution to the problem (driving the rest of the clan crazy in the bargain). My four-year old is going on his first ride on an elephant, and I’m getting a “C:31:23” error…

What’s all this got to do with Web Presence Management…and what is WPM, you may ask?  There was a time when your brand’s web presence was on a simple multi-page, static brochure-ware website. You built it and visitors/customers came. But then traffic that mattered tapered off, despite your best efforts to keep things dynamic. So what happened? Fast-forward a few years, and you find that of the important “fish” are now in their own favorite ponds. Your customers – and potential leads — talk about you “out there”.  Often enough to spread the word – good or bad – about you. Perhaps some of these words catch your attention. More likely, though, the conversations may never reach you (or even worse, spiral out of control and come to your attention too late).

Back to the beach. Luckily enough, India has leapfrogged an entire telecom generation, avoiding laying out swathes of fixed-line copper infrastructure. So while most folks across the country have no idea about DSL/broadband access except in the major cities, you’ll come across locals in the remotest corners of the country abusing their mobile phones to the utmost. My mobile warrior was Anthony, one of the colorful local fishermen (in the photo) whom I had befriended for our daily source of fresh nutrients, and who supposedly used his connection to get local weather and find out where the fish were en masse. Before you could say the words “fresh fish!”, Anthony had me connected to outside world and (whew!) the Internet. Normally, if technical difficulties had struck  in one of the big metros, I would’ve called a Sony service center and got the camcorder repaired under warranty by a technician. Given my remote location, I went to the Sony website for help. This was like trying to find a specific seashell somewhere along the seven miles of beach stretching out on either side of where I sat with my toes in the sand.

My next step, which in retrospect  should obviously have been the first one, was to type in “C:31:23” in my search engine of choice. Voila…links to scores of discussion forums and communities/blogs with people sharing the same problem. A quick glance at the top few results seem to suggest the BEST SOLUTION is to remove the power and — I quote verbatim from just one of the threads here: “…This may seem silly, but it worked for me. Try smacking the side of the camera relatively hard with the palm of your hand. Eject the tape and reinsert. You may need to do this a couple of times.” I was a bit leery about whacking my $1000+ camcorder with what was clearly not a very “engineering” solution, but hey…I was ready to try anything. After confirming that several users also shared the same opinion (no doubt with varying degrees of success) I directed a fair share of my pent-up frustration on the hapless machine. Yes, this has a happy ending! I was immediately back in business, again capturing loads of video action (much to family’s chagrin, but that’s another story…).

Take Away: It’s time to acknowledge the changing reality around us and do something about it. Sony has a lot going for it, but a lot of bad buzz floating out there too. It’s never too late to smack your web presence back into shape so it does what it’s intended to do: Bring in the best leads, help monitor  — and quickly respond to — the good (and any bad) buzz around you, and ultimately improve your brand image and bottom line. If you agree, sign up for a free consultation today. See how you can create and implement an effective strategy for your web presence going forward.

PS: At the very least, you now know of a low-cost (and low-tech, albeit therapeutic) method to repair any of your seemingly high-tech electronic gadgetry that may malfunction in the future.

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Posted in Audience Marketing, Campaigns, Consumer, Web Presence Management, Work-Life



When SEM can be injurious to your health »


| by Shyam Subramanyan on February 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

SEM seems to be that magic pill that’s exactly what the doctor ordered.  The thinking goes like this.  Google seems to be making fistful of dollars on it, so it should be working for businesses that use them.  The competition uses SEM and “we can’t be left behind”.  If people click and come to our site, “we have a qualified prospect”.  It only cost me “pennies”.

SEM in a bottle

SEM Warning!

Like the warning on the medicine label, SEM can have be downright injurious to your health if taken on an empty stomach.  What do I mean by that?  Before you spend money on SEM, put yourself in the shoes of your prospect.  Your prospect is not going to get “sold” by just visiting your website, however impressive it may be.  She is going to look at validation from the external web – your web presence that is beyond your own website.

In order to experience your web presence yourself, do a quick search on your own business and see what comes up.  Hopefully the first hit is your own website (If not, you have some serious SEO work to do).  If the next few entries are:

a) Your own aborted entry in Wikipedia marked as “maybe an advertisement”, or

b) A press release from 2003 announcing a version 1.01 of your product, or

c) A link to a LinkedIn company page that does not show a strong team, or

d) An industry article or blog entry that mentions your product with negative comments (or even worse with no comments), or

e) A discussion forum showing disgruntled customers, or

f) all of the above,

you might be ingesting SEM on an empty stomach.  Your prospect, now aware of you, thanks to SEM, is now put off by what she finds (or doesn’t) about you.  She’s a blip in the radar, never to be found again.  Your pennies spent on SEM now cost you a bundle by chasing a perfectly good prospect away – maybe for good.

So before you take the SEM pill, make sure your are not doing it on an empty stomach.

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What the bleep is Web Presence Management? »


| by Bala Gopalan on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

What the Bleep ?!?

What the Bleep ?!?

Web Presence Management (WPM) includes, but is not limited to:

  • E-mail Marketing
  • Websites – corporate site, program sites, micro sites, community sites
  • Events – Live and On-demand; Online and Online-components of physical events; Virtual Conferences; Webcasts, Chats, Podcasts
  • Social Media – Blogs, Wikis, Forums, Ideas
  • Mashups and presence in Social Networks (aka “Watering Holes”) such as Facebook and vertical communities such as Storage Forum
  • Web Content Management for multi-modal content – Web articles, pages, PDFs, Files, Videos, Webcasts, Podcasts, blog posts, Feeds, etc
  • CRM Integration
  • SEO, SEP, Directory Listings
  • Analytics

At this point, I will leave this definition simply at the level of the enumerated list above.  But suffice to say that thats a lot of sh*t to be managing seamlessly and efficiently. And, to be tracking metrics with a coherent, 360° optics.

It is our belief that the WPM space is in transition presently and there are pain points worth solving that will bring back the e (read, efficiency, ease of use, and elasticity) that has gone missing in marketing.  And, it is on this venture – to address these pain points – that we have set out as bHive Software.

Wish you all a Happy New Year and the Very Best for 2009!

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