Perspectives on the Digital Marketplace

Attending, speaking, and exhibiting at WOMMA-U in Miami yesterday and today.  This morning was kicked off by Bob Pearson from Dell, VP of Conversations and Communications (note the title!).  He opens with stats about the grow of the internet and consumption of online content and its continued assent.  Then some learnings about content created in other languages.  Only 1/3 of total internet content is in English.  Dell is focused on listening and communicating in customers’ 1st language - guess what - that’s what customers like - imagine!  Also, there is need to recognize that communities are like countries - i.e Facebook, My Space, Twitter.
Great quote from Bob - “Leaders will enter and become relevant in conversations that occur everyday everywhere all over the world about your company or product”.  The question for marketers that Bob presents is - Are you or your brand present in the places that consumers are researching and having conversations?

Key Learnings/Actions from Dell:

- Engage in relevant conversations with our customers online 24/7 worldwide in all major languages

- Blogging is global..blogging is multi-lingual..blogging is a community of passion

- Join the conversation

- Would you rather do a focus group of 10 people or listen to 100,000 people debate ideas?

- Start with Listening

- Customers are partners

- Communities are more powerful than individuals.  Communities want to help each other improve.

- Online experience at work should be similar to online experience at home

- Join your customers communities

Dell has actually recognized revenue via Twitter - $500K thus far by offering discounts/specials via Twitter.  One of the first revenue conversion stats I have heard about Twitter from a large company.

Great job Bob!  We are honored to be but a small part of enabling Dell’s monitoring and outreach in social media.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies  

This is such bad customer service that the email alone speaks for itself. So much for trying to introduce my son to Major League Soccer. Pay particular attention to the highlighted sections.

IMPORTANT ADVISORY: JUNE 8TH NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION GAME RESCHEDULED!

Please be advised the New England Revolution vs. FC Dallas game originally scheduled for Sunday, June 8th @ 3:00 pm has been rescheduled. We are pleased to announce that Brazil, winners of 5 World Cups and currently the #2 ranked team in the world, are returning to Gillette Stadium on Friday, June 6^th. As part of a special doubleheader, the New England Revolution face F.C Dallas at 6:30 PM, followed by Brazil vs. Venezuela at 8:30 PM.

Ticket prices for this game have significantly increased as this is now part of an international doubleheader, and we do not have the option to simply allow you to remain in your specific seats. As New England Revolution customers we are keen to ensure you get the best possible resolution to this issue and we have worked closely with Ticketmaster to devise the following solution.

Ticketmaster are going to refund your ticket price and service charges for your June 8th purchase. Your Order processing fee however will not be refunded. Please note that this refund will not show up on your statement for a couple of days, but you will be refunded. If you have any questions regarding your Ticketmaster refund, please call 617-931-2222.

If you are still interested in attending this game and would like to purchase new tickets, please call us on 1-877-GET REVS. Tickets go on sale to the general public tomorrow morning, Friday May 9th @ 10:00 am. However if you wish to call us today, we will be happy to help you secure tickets for this doubleheader. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us on 1-877-GET REVS.

We won’t be calling them back for new seats. Clearly, neither the Revolution or Ticketmaster understand the implications of treating customers with such disregard, especially at a time when the team is trying to appeal to new fans.

If you’ve been in the Web marketing and communications business for more than a few years it’s hard not to roll your eyes in meetings when the same questions surface now that many of us have answered time and again about what many people perceive to be the next so-called passing trend - social media. We’ve all been there.

Here’s a few other previous “Web trends” a great deal of people thought would not be sustainable over time, all of which I vividly recall having to defend as not a passing fad. This is similar to what’s going on today with social media.

1) The WWW. Yeah, crazy I know, but between 1994 and early 1996, there were many doubters that this “Web thing” was all that big a deal. How many of us spend time trying to convince friends, colleagues and clients that those three letters would change everything? I wish I had kept all the voice mails from people who called to ask if having a Web site was really necessary.

2) E-commerce. Raise your hand if you knew people who said they would never, ever buy anything online for any reason under the sun? It would be hard to find some of them admitting they said that now.

3) Blogging. I know people and companies still in denial on this one. The first time they ever heard names like Boing Boing, Engadget and Scobleizer they broke out in laugher. I haven’t heard much laughing about blogs in the last few years.

So social media is the new second class citizen to join the list. Get used to it. People don’t often embrace change. And while I agree with many out here that the term social media will fad away over time, the underlying ideas, concepts and technologies that drive what social media is all about are here to stay.

Mike Spataro

The latest Seattle Start Up Index is out. Thanks to Marcello Calbucci from Sampa for his latest update. We managed to remain in the top 100 again this month. It is interesting to see the number of consumer plays that continue to gain traction like our friends at Wetpaint, ImageKind, Widgetbucks, Mpire, & Payscale. Keep up the hard work Ben, Kelly, Matt, Dean and Joe.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

Recent example of an emerging social media tug-a-war between Engadget and T-Mobile over the use of the color magenta for mobile products/services. Engadget launched their mobile product as Engadget Mobile (logo magenta) which got the T-Mobile marketing teams fired up see story below.

| View | Upload your own

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies