mktg@msft

Raising the Stakes in Viral Video

EA is one of the videogames that understands their customers, has a sense of humor, and is able to create video content that actually is worth sending around. 

This video is in response to customers reporting a "glitch" in the game that caused Tiger Woods to appear to walk on water...

On Being Human

Sometimes we struggle on how much authenticity we can exhibit online.  As an organization, Xbox  is commited to the WOMMA ROI code, and we won't ever say we like something if we don't. 

Today, I posted this to Gamerscore Blog, in an effort to provide my opinion on some new features coming to the Xbox 360.

I’m a Daddy Gamer…

One of the great things about having a blog is that it offers us each a place to give our opinions, and hopefully in a way that allows us to show that we’re more than corporate robots.  Most of you reading posts from this blog understand that we’re employees of a corporation, but we’re also members of the gaming community.  Because of that, we’re going to agree on some things, disagree on others, like some things, and dislike others.  I think it’s what makes our community great.

As a community team, we get to participate in the communities we love: Tony, Chris and Sara live and breathe harcore gaming, Nelson is the poster child for mainstream gamers, and I get to play Daddy gamer both at home, and at work.  Sometimes, we offer our opinions about things we like, or don’t like, to people who are like us.  And as a team, we’ve committed to being honest, authentic, and never say something we don’t mean.

Funny thing is, some of the things I once questioned have grown on me.  When I first heard the concept of GamerScore, it didn’t appeal to me—to my style of gameplay.  I’m not competitive, I won’t play something I don’t think is fun.  Before the Xbox 360 launched, I usually played without signing in at all.  Fast forward a few years, and I’m playing hours longer than usual, just to get a few Achievement Points so my GamerScore isn’t the lowest on our team (see the sidebar of the blog). 

When I first saw a demo of the new Xbox experience, I immediately felt drawn to it.

Because I’m such a visual person, the style appealed to me.  I love the idea of browsing my game library visually, and getting information about new games or PDLC in such a visual way. 

I like the idea of MMOGSGs (massively-multiplayer-online-game-show-games, my own made-up term for live server-based games), though it drives my wife crazy when I watch 1 vs. 100 and run the statistics after every decision. 

I really love the Party System, so I can hang out with my friends or family through several experiences, or chat as I walk through a slideshow of my photos with them (they may not love seeing 300 pictures of our latest weekend outing, but that's another issue). 

Because I have four “pre-teen” kids (and I can’t handle watching Camp Rock one more time), I love being able to watch a variety of NetFlix movies on my Xbox 360.  In fact, I already have Windows Media Center hooked up to NetFlix, so I can watch movies on my Xbox 360, but the new Xbox experience will make it even more seamless.

I like the idea of Avatars.  As I spend time with the developers, I sense the passion they have for every new feature, and I caught the vision they have for extending someone’s persona online.  I’m a Facebook junkie, because it allows me to present myself to my community in such a personal way, and learn so much about my friends.  So I really like the idea of a persistent, visual presence, that I can customize from day to day. It seems like it’s going to hit the sweet spot between being too cute and being too realistic.  Avatars should say something about me, in a fun, personal way, but not be so serious I have to spend hours tweaking to get it right. 

For more about the new Xbox experience, check out an article that was published today by Dean Takahashi, of an interview with John Schappert, where the Xbox LIVE VP describes more about the new Xbox experience. 

"VB: What was the thinking behind the changes to the (newly announced) Xbox Live dashboard interface? It’s your biggest change to what gamers see on the console since you introduced the Xbox 360 in 2005.

JS: We’re happy with the “blade” metaphor that we used in the original Xbox 360 interface. It was the first video game box where you could turn it on and enjoy games right from the hard drive through Xbox Live Arcade. You could buy games on Marketplace. As we added more and more content, it became more difficult to navigate. As we added more features — video marketplace, instant messaging, and video chat – we started to think of where we wanted to go in the future. We wanted to have it be more fun, simpler to use, easier to navigate, and more social. We wanted to think about features like Netflix. We have 20 million people now. They enjoy playing “Call of Duty 4,” “Halo 3″ and “Gears of War.” When we think of the next 20 million, they may enjoy those games but they also might enjoy a different level of experience. What we hoped we accomplished is an interface that the core will enjoy – because of its visual style, better search, more functionality — and more appealing and inviting for the new users buying our console. To me it is part of the puzzle. It’s about approachability, it’s about content, and it’s about price. We will go after all of those areas aggressively.

VB: What was the genesis of the Xbox Live avatars you introduced at the show?

JS: We are all gamers ourselves and we’ve enjoyed our own avatars in a multitude of games. We have had achievements on Xbox Live from day one. We’ve had gamer scores. We’ve had the (single identification) gamertag. People have their own web sites with XML links to our data. To me, avatars are a logical extension to give us countless ways to personalize our own styles. It’s not like we are using avatars to recreate the perfect human body. And it’s not too cutesy. It’s in the middle. It dresses up the core first-person shooter, who can be edgy. And the more casual player can dress up to look friendly."

Company Blogs in the Videogames Industry

Kotaku, a Gawker blog dedicated to videogames, did a nice article on the role of company-sponsored blogs in the videogames space.  Our blog, Gamerscore Blog, was mentioned.  Interesting read for anyone involved in company-written blogging. 

Hey, You Got Video Game Companies In Our Blogosphere

Marketing BY Blogging (vs. Blogging About Marketing)

Just when I think nobody's paying any attention to this languishing blog, I'm notified by a co-worker that I'm listed in Peter Kim's list of "Top Marketer Blogs."  Thanks, Peter!  And thanks to all you who still have a subscription to the feed or are watching this space. 

About once a week I think about posting something here, but with four kids at home, another blog (www.gamerscoreblog.com) that gets jeleaous when I cheat on her, and my extraordiarily busy work schedule, I don't get around her often enough. 

Something about "practicing what you preach," I guess.  I'm having an awesome time actually using all these fancy-schmancy Web 2.0 tools to do some real live brand marketing for Xbox.  I'm working with a passionate group of employees dedicated to supporting bloggers/podcasters who love our products.   I started with this blog, and have been lucky to actually get to be paid to do all the things I'd probably do anyway.  But I'm kind of stuck in "walking the walk" instead of "talking the talk."   

Feel free to watch the blog for my near-daily posts, though most of those are product-specific.  And if you're interested, you can catch our weekly podcast, our nearly-weekly video podcast, and my occasionally-updated Twitter feed. 

Speed Dating Exec Interview Commuinty Mashup

We're always trying to come up with new ways to involve our gamer community bloggers and podcasters.  I wrote up one thing we did at a recent trade show, E3, to get some face time for independant bloggers/podcasters with our executive staff, who normally only speaks with mainstream press.  Originally posted on Gamerscore Blog.

On Wednesday night, we held our first ever “speed interviews” sessions. Because E3 is such a short time with a lot of journalists and analysts, our executives were booked doing interviews or demos from 8am to 6pm, and every night there were meetings, parties, and other events that our executives were expected to attend. There just isn’t enough time in such a short period to include everyone who wanted one on one time with our execs.

We’ve done a few successful “blogger breakfast” sessions in the past, but we decided that doing a big, formal roundtable with several different might not be the best way to give our community members time with our execs. To keep it intimate, only a few sites were invited to the breakfast meetings, and even that format didn’t allow for much of a personal touch. Our community members didn’t get any one-on-one time with the executives, and didn’t let each site ask the questions for their particular communities (or were afraid of getting scooped if they did). The sites we invited tended to be the largest sites that really should be getting full appointments during the day (like Joystiq, Engadget, Kotaku, etc.), leaving out some of our most passionate community podcasters, bloggers, forum posters, and fan site owners. We know we invite everyone we can to our C3@E3 party, and our execs all love hanging out and chatting with community members there, but even a long conversation at a party doesn’t substitute for a formal interview.

We thought through the options, and figured that if speed dating could give you a feel for a possible “love connection” in a few minutes, maybe it would work for us not the love part, but maybe the “personal connection” part ;) ). Whether “speed interviews” was going to be a boom or a bust was anyone’s guess, but everyone liked the idea (at least in principle), so Tony, Chris, and April from our events staff set it up, and our executive staff agreed to give it a try.

Xbox.com posts a 360 degree panoramic view of the room.

We set up eight tables across a room, and had eight executives from different parts of our business sit at each one. The list included Peter Moore, Jeff Bell, Peter Molyneaux, Chris Early, Kevin Unangst, Aaron Greenberg, John Rodman, and Bungie’s Brian Gerard and Frank O’Connor.

We then chose leaders from several community sites, including Xbox360Fanboy, Evil Avatar, GamertagRadio, Achievement Junkie, and active forum posters from sites like TeamXbox, and Xbox.com.

Each group met for four minutes, then took one minute to move to the next table. After a round of eight interviews, we took a five minute break, and brought in eight more groups. I know four minutes doesn’t sound like much, but because each interviewer came prepared with questions, everyone jumped right in, and got to ask some questions nobody else had thought of. I haven’t seen any reports of the meetings, but everyone who participated thought it turned out great.

We hope our community leaders got to know our execs a little better, and gathered some unique information to report back to their community.  We were able to try a format that got as many community members through as we could. Our execs got a break from the journalists and analysts they’d been meeting with all week, and had a chance to get to know some of our community leaders, and hear what their community members are asking.

I hope it gives you a glimpse of the value we all put on the community. We appreciate all your passion, your support, your suggestions, your patience when things go wrong, and even your criticisms. From our executives to all of us who dedicate all our time to supporting community, our games business wouldn’t be where it is without you. For those that couldn’t be there this time, you should know we’re always looking for more ways to involve all of you whenever we can.

I posted a few photos of the interviews on Flickr, and I’ll post links to the stories/write-ups/podcasts as I can.

Gamertag Radio
E307 Coverage: Bungie Interview
E307 Coverage: Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studios Interview

Evil Avatar
[E3 2007] - 4 Minutes with Microsoft Execs

Xbox 360 Fanboy
X3F interview: 4 minutes in the dark with Peter Moore

Twittering

Oh, ya.  I'm Twittering.  www.twitter.com/johnporcaro.

My reader?  Twitteroo. 

Hanging out at Gnomedex

Ya, I'm a geek, and I can prove it.  Today, I'm hanging out at Gnomedex, Chris Pirillo's gathering of tech enthusiasts, bloggers, and web junkies.

We created a "Games Lounge" for folks to take a few minutes to hang out and play a few games.  Sean Alexander from "Addicted to Digital Media" took a few pictures...

The Games Room, with Xbox and Windows stations

The main session room

WOMMA Basic Training

It's being live-blogged at http://www.womma.org/wombat/.  Good overview of some of the most interesting comments coming from the conference. 

Started out the day talking about ethics.  The Word of Mouth Marketing Association talks about "The Honesty ROI."

• Honesty of Relationship
  Say how you're associated with the company.  Don't say you're not if you're being paid to share your opinion online.
• Honesty of Opinion
  Don't lie, don't say something's great if you don't think it is.
• Honesty of Identity: Say who you are
  I guess "Mini-Microsoft" doesn't score too high here.

I'd say that most Microsoft bloggers adhere to this kind of policy.  And as a company, I'm sure that most of our "word of mouth" marketing does too.  I wonder how something like "I love bees" fits into "say who you are..."  :)

WOMBAT

So for months I've wanted to get more involved with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), so what better way to jump in than to offer to do a case study at the upcoming conference in San Francisco? 

Join me there to hear about what we're doing in Xbox to make sure we're staying close to our best customers.  I'll present a case study about the thinking behind the big launch party we did (Zero Hour), and talk a bit about the Online Community team I lead. 

I think we're doing some really innovative, yet obvious (at least to me) things.  I have a strong position of always being genuine, and to try to make things as organic as possible.  Nothing kills good community participation better than talking "to" customers instead of talking "with" them. 

WOMBAT (WOMMA's "Word of Mouth Basic Training" conference)
June 20-21
San Francisco, CA

Has it Really Been Two Months?

Dang!  I've been a blogging fool over at http://gamerscoreblog.com, and I've neglected this (left brain) blog.  My wife's on a business trip in Nashville, and she ran into someone who mentioned this blog, kind of made me feel guilty about neglecting it. 

So much has happened in my little work world.  I'm doing a job I'm 110% totally passionate about, and it's given me a new lease on my 15-year Microsoft career.  I need to debrief a bit on what we're doing and why I think it's so amazing, yet so logical.  I'd start tonight, but I'm off to LA tomorrow for E3.  It's going to be an exciting/crazy/frenetic/exhausting week! 

Stay tuned to Gamerscore! 

PR and Blogs and Integrity and Passion

Edelman’s A List Blogger Extraordinaire (at least in my book), Phil Gomes rants about why he Hates the “A-List” Mentality.  For those of us in PR who also blog, there’s a very interesting dynamic that occurs as we try to balance meeting professional objectives with personal objectives.  In some cases, there’s even a battle between blogging about our products, and blogging about our passions.  In many cases, they’re the same thing (I love gaming), but often, they’re not. 

This blog started as an effort to reach out to customers, so I could learn more about what makes them tick (so I could be a better marketer).  It quickly turned into a way for me to explore some ideas I was struggling with personally, namely management dynamics and the culture of Microsoft (though I was never as openly controversial as Mini-Microsoft!).  As the blog evolved, I began writing a bit about online marketing, and the dynamic of customer evangelism. 

As my job became more PR focused, I found myself writing about the products I represented (Xbox and Halo 2, for example), but because it just didn’t feel genuine to the flavor of the blog, I quit posting regularly, and took a year or so off.  All the while, I was having conversations internally about how blogging and community would help us with our marketing goals. 

About four months ago, I was “officially” given the job of developing our online community team for Xbox and Games for Windows.  I worked with Edelman (including Phil Gomes) as we began to define our online program.  As I began recruiting someone to manage the community program, I began to blog regularly about Xbox and the industry to show everyone what could be done with a blog.  And my personal blog evolved to be nearly 100% about Xbox. 

After a few months, we were ready to unveil our team blog (hosted on msdn.com), and I got the guys on my team to help with some posts.  When we finalized getting a unique URL (gamerscoreblog.com), I made the last “Xbox product” post to my personal blog.  And it sits there until today. 

Every now and then, someone will send an email to ask if I am going to return to posting about Microsoft culture, management best practice, even my kids/family.  Trouble is, with 2-3 posts a day expected on the team blog, the personal blog quickly becomes a luxury. 

Problem with two blogs is that I am a gamer, and the industry/news/product info is important to me personally, but the other passions haven’t gone away.  I miss the community I built on my personal site, the conversations I had, and the topics I explored.  I need to take time to re-ignite my passion about non-Xbox issues (in addition to continuing the Xbox team blog).

Phil brings up a related point in his post:

So, hear it from Mr. Technorati-Rank #19,520:

The day you start caring more than two squirts of whizz about your ranking or A-list status is the day you have lost control of your blog — and, with it, your online identity — since that desire to achieve and maintain status will inevitably color what you write and how you write it!!!

But, is who you are and what you write about — your credibility — worth changing in order to achieve this? Because that's what is at stake if you ever think to yourself "I believe [X], but I'll be less popular if I write it. The best thing to do is [Y], but people will hate me and I'll never be an A-lister EVER!!!" 

My personal blog would get 500 hits a day fairly consistently, and I remember the days getting a link from Scoble or even my biz-hero Tom Peters, when I’d get 1,000 hits, maybe 2,000.  But I noticed when I’d write about Halo 2 (before its launch), that number’d creep up to 2,000 or more.  And I’d experiment with news stories that I thought would gather more hits.  And when I did that, I’d write a post that I didn’t care passionately about. 
Now our new blog, even in its infancy, is getting several thousand hits a day, but for those that have been along since this blog started back in 2003, you’re not hearing a whole lot of my “voice” in the news I post on the other site. 

Good news for me (at least) is that the more I’m involved in my (relatively) new job in PR, the more I’m passionate about the “PR stuff” I write about.  So I hope it’s going to result in goodness all around.  But Phil reminds me to be true to “my blog,” so I’ll try to write more about the evolving field of PR, and how online is changing everything.  Ought to be interesting (heck, at least to me).  Take it from Mr. Technorati-Rank 25,777 (hey, that’s not so bad!).

In the meantime, if you want to hear secrets about Halo 3, check out the “other blog.” 

Microsoft Research Dives Into Blogging

Today, Lilia Efimova, an PhD intern working for Microsoft Research wrapped up a project about blogging at Microsoft.  She and I had a few conversations a few weeks ago, and hearing her present her findings today brought back my desire to keep this blog going.  Lilia toplines some of her findings on her Mathemagenic blog.  Very smart woman.  Very interesting topic. 

As I told her, I started blogging to stay closer to my customers, and through the experience of writing about my job, I found I had more to say about the way we work than the products we work on.  I'm glad that there are those like Larry and TriXie who are carrying the torch for our products.

Even though I've been heads-down in planning for the launch of Xbox 360, I haven't lost the desire to hear from those that actually use our products.  I continue to read (and forward) a lot of blog posts, and lately I've been downloading a lot of podcasts and listening to them on my Smartphone on the way into work (my favorites include Major Nelson, of course, and GeekSpeak Radio, DreamStation.cc and The Week in Games). 

Recently, I've been asked to get a little more involved in our online PR efforts, and I'm looking for ways to make it easier for those who write about Xbox, Xbox games, and Games for Windows online to find information on our products.  Thinking through all the options has reignited a desire to get this blog fired up.

Through it all, I still remain passionate about customer connection, brand marketing, management excellence, and a desire to cut through the crap and streamline processes.  It's going to be verrrrry interesting to see where this blog goes over the next few months...  (as long as it's somewhere!).... 

"Oh, you're sure to [go SOMEWHERE] if you only walk long enough..." 

Don't Bore Me With Your Blog

MarketingProf's Susan Solomon writes an article called Don't Bore Me With Your Blog.  She offers sound advice for business bloggers (though I'm sure she'd berate me for too many pictures of kids, and not enough real content. 

The best bloggers already know to become an expert on something, be topical, and know your audience.  But you might not have thought about keeping your blog from looking boring, or making sure you have passion about your topic. 

I like this tip best:

Finally, be truthful with yourself. Before hitting "send," read the blog entry and make sure it excites you. After writing the entry, are you jazzed about floating the information in the blogosphere? Will you feel the urge to constantly check for commentary from interested readers? Those are sure signs you're writing inspired copy.

Great article with some good reminders. 

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the kind words, well wishes, thoughts, and prayers.  Please know they are appreciated, and I know they've helped with my recovery! 

My doc tells me I'll make 100% recovery with no scarring.  In fact, I think I ended up looking younger, since I got the basic benefits of dermal abrasion, all covered by insurance!  Not sure I'd recommend it, though...

I'm actually back at work, slogging through thousands of emails and trying to get caught up with work.  As you might imagine, the month or two prior to E3 (and GDC a few weeks ago) is a very busy time for a games marketing and PR team. 

Diggin Omar's Blog

I was searching for an app to do a quick copy to a DVD (I'm making sure my photos are archived while I have a bit of time home from work), and found some great tips from fellow Microsoftee, Omar Shahine.  In fact, looks like (at least for some time) he worked in our Mac group, part of the Home & Entertainment Division. 

Looks like we share a love of gadgets, a sense of being part of a bigger tech community (none of that us and them that you often get), and an attraction to the human side of doing business.  From his blog:

"I think this is the kind of stuff that makes me feel like Google is a human company. How cool and fun is that. It made me smile :-).

I love the fact that the Google logo occasionally reminds us that it's okay to have a little fun. 

Happy Birthday, Scoble!

It's not often that someone who attends a party described widely as "cheesy" has such a good time, but when Robert Scoble turns 40, some amazing folks turn out to sing Happy Birthday.  Robert writes about it, and Chris Pirillo submits an overview, along with Photo Story of the happenings. 

I understand now that Robert's ulterior motive to including me on the invite list was to get me drunk so I'd spill secrets of Xbox plans, but since I limit my drinking to sodas and juice, their plot was foiled.  Mwah ha ha ha. 

I'm not the social maven that Robert and Maryam are, and normally I don't enjoy parties where I'm expected to socialize with strangers.  But the guests were so fascinating, and the atmosphere so genuine, that I ended up staying several hours after I thought I would. 

It's always fun to put faces to blogger names.  I got to meet Josh Ledgard, one of the first Microsoft bloggers I ever read, and his wife Gretchen Ledgard (author of the widely-read Technical Careers @ Microsoft blog).  I didn't speak with, but got to see co-HED (Home & Entertainment Division) employee Steve Lacey.  And I saw again JP and Garrett.

I finally got to meet (and hang out with a bit) Halley Suitt.  She's in town for the Blog Business Summit show happening Monday and Tuesday in Seattle.  I've written about Halley a few times, and I was super excited to get the chance to meet her.  I've always been impressed with her writing, whether it's for HBR, Worthwhile magazine, or the inimitable Halley's Comment.  I was just as impressed with her in person as I am from afar.  While I didn't have my own fortune told with Tarot Cards, I watched her give readings to several folks.  I hope to meet up with Halley before she heads home to the northeast. 

Watching over Halley's shoulder with me was Erik Hansen.  He is Tom Peter’s “Minister of Culture,” responsible for Tom’s “global brand.”  He heads up www.tompeters.com, and rumor has it he’s the one that got Tom blogging.  He shared some stories of working with Tom, and since I’m a huge Tom Peters fan, I ate up every word.  (One of the regrets I have from taking a hiatus from blogging is that I missed Tom’s introduction and continued postings…).   

Later, I butted in on a conversation between Halley and Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels.  Somehow the conversation drifted to online privacy, and Halley wondered if all the information Amazon’s collected could be used to find the perfect partner.  Problem is, how do you know why someone ordered what they did?  Is that book about having the perfect relationship for someone who wants to develop and maintain a great relationship, or for someone who is needs instruction because he is so bad?  Hmmm.  As for me, my wife and I often share our account.  So my profile would show that I’ve bought business and marketing books, classic rock CDs, digital gadgets, potty training books, Barney videos, and books about women’s nutrition, spirituality, and angels.  I don’t want to know the kind of mate that profile would attract. 

A bit later, Buzz Bruggerman came to the party.  It's not often someone lives up to lofty expectations.  I had expected Buzz to be vivacious and smart and personable.  He was all that and more, and I look forward to having lunch with him later this week. 

Buzz and I were talking about Xbox and videogames and the impact on culture and education, and Buzz insisted I speak with David Gall, Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  David often speaks to schools about science and oceanography, and often opens talking about Halo 2 and how playing Halo 2 is a lot like modern science.  You work as a team, you explore strange new worlds, you use joysticks to control your player or a robotic submersible.  Fascinating! I really need a whole blog post about our conversation.  I left wanting to change the way our education system works…  David introduced me to a colleague with the title “Underwater Archaeologist.”  Being a budding geologist myself, I was fascinated with stories of sunken treasure and 400 year old vessels. 

As we were wrapping up our conversation, ex-Softee Linda Stone popped by to say hello...

I wrapped up the night (as Robert reports) being grilled about future plans for Xbox.  As much as I love talking about my job, I really want to keep it.  So as much as I hated to, I found myself repeating the PR catchphrase: “I cannot comment on rumors or unannounced products.” 

Great night with great people.  I think I ended up getting the gift.  Happy Birthday, Robert!

(Photo: Chris Pirillo shows winner of most creative cheese contest, a block of mozerrella in the shape of a SmartPhone.  Taken with my Audiovox SMT5600.)

Speaking for the Company

Nothing like a good "blogging" conversation to get motivated to write a little more.  I was in a meeting with a group of marketers today, and a good portion of the conversation was about the good (and inevitably the bad) of having employees write about their experiences with a company.  Some of these same employees were asking what a blog was a year ago, and now it seems that it's moving more and more into the mainstream. 

The topic turned to blogging, and "employees speaking for their company", and where the line should be drawn.  For the record, the folks I was speaking with (for the most part) came down on the side of thinking that blogging was a good thing. 

Funny that there's still this black and white distinction between the people who work for the company, and the company itself.  Among bloggers (or any who's caught a clue-train), we know that a company is made up of individuals--indeed, it's humans who made every single aspect of any successful (or unsuccessful) product or project. 

Every choice we make is made by humans, based on human emotions or human logic or human egos or human fear.  Humans develop relationships with the journalists we showed early builds of a product to.  Humans decide the amount of money we spent on our agency, or which agency to work with. Individuals decide whether we'd attend a meeting where plans are discussed, or (maybe most importantly) whether they'll speak up in a meeting where their opinion should be heard.  It's a human who decides what computer code to use, what chip to buy, what color a piece of hardware should be, what developers we hire or partner with or compete against.   Today, we were joking about "they," as in "they want us to take this training before we have access to the budgeting tool.  Even "they" (in this case "finance") is made up of people doing the best job they can, for what they feel is the best good of the company (or their team, or their boss, or their own ego). 

Should an employee "speak for their company"?  Or for that matter, can a company really speak for its employees? 

But I ain't telling you anything you don't already know. 

Among this group, there was talk about some new blogs from employees who work in the Xbox group.  So in addition to Major Nelson and Michael Wolf, you'll hopefully have something new to chew on (just don't expect too many secrets--the word about blogging is out, and believe me, we're being watched more closely than ever). 

They Don't Call Him the Scobleizer For Nothin'

Today I had the opportunity to have lunch with a couple of guys I really admire: Robert (you all know) and Bill Taylor, founder of Fast Company magazine. Bill is in town working with some innovative Seattle companies, and made time to look Robert and me up for a quick bite at one of the Microsoft cafeterias.

The conversation centered on blogging (of course!), but jumped from Channel 9 to Xbox to Scoble's visit to the vineyards of Northern California. The common thread through the discussion was the power of authentic voice, and its role in starting conversations that connect people (and even products and companies).

The topic at one point turned to the way blogging can actually empower employees. How better could someone who is known as an expert with his co-workers extend that out beyond his role at work than becoming a prolific blogger? Blogging can offer someone recognition for achievement and expertise that often (usually!) is missing in a 9-5 day job, since most managers rarely give regular, direct praise and recognition.

Beyond that, I've found that blogging makes me a lot more interested in seeing what's going on in the marketplace, staying current on trends, reading business books and magazines, and staying connected with others who share my values. Every day I go through my Newsgator folders I find information that makes me better at my own job.

I've been fairly quiet in my blog lately, because my work is keeping me 100% focused on doing my part to support the marketing of our division's products (including our new mice, keyboards, consumer software, and of course Fable and Halo 2). Focusing completely on my work has been invigorating, but I've really missed the introspection and the conversation I have when I blog. At lunch today I realize that I've missed thinking and writing about creativity, branding, leadership, culture, and all the things I tend to focus on with my blog.

Blogging and SharePoint

One of my qualities/faults is that once I get passionate about something, I dive in with both feet. I did it with blogging. Now I'm doing it with SharePoint. I've made blogging my "sharepoint widow" (and also my wife, I think). Thanks in very large part to Amanda Murphy, (and with help from my co-worker Russel, and a few others along the way), I'm neck deep in webparts and sites and listings.

I've been spending every single waking minute either working on our division Intranet site, or thinking about it. We've made some significant progress, but still have a ways to go.

Once I get to the point where I'm not so under-the-gun, I'll step back a bit to write about my SharePoint adventures in Xbox Land.

My favorite things I've found out about SPS and WSS:
1) How to integrate WSS into SPS (best tip was using a WSS page as a "template" for an SPS area to fool the Portal site into linking to a WSS site).
2) Listings have gone from a thing I hated to a thing of beauty.
3) Amanda helped me crack the code on the News web part. Using the "Change Area" link to get listings to show up how I want them to.
4) Using FrontPage to edit SPS and WSS has saved me a TON of time.
5) I'm just experementing with Front Page's Data View web part, but it looks very, very promising.

Things I'm still a bit stuck on:
1) Now I have Listings figured out, I want them on a WSS site.
2) Still looking for a good RSS reader web part that can be customized quite a bit (filter content on the fly, etc.)
3) Still having trouble importing content from file shares, especially with being able to add non-existant metadata, but keeping current metadata.
4) I'm a bit rusty on security, I think I need to look more at Cross-site groups.
5) Haven't used Topic Assistant or Audiences as much as I could.

Along with Amanda's help, Bill English's book "SharePoint Products and Technologies" has helped immeasurably.

Anyway, thanks to all those that have stayed tuned, and especially those that have helped me technically. It's all a geeky marketing guy could want...

Dinner with Steven Vore

Tonight I had the chance to finally meet up with fellow-Xboxer, Steven Vore. At first, I thought we'd end up talking about Xbox and maybe blogging, and was pleased when we had a great conversation about kids (his two boys are about 5 years older than my two boys), business culture (working for a big ole company like Microsoft or HP has its advantages and disadvantages), communicating with team members and building trust, and working with corporate IT to build LOB apps. But probably the most fun for me (believe it or not), was some a bit of SharePoint.

One of the reasons I've been slow blogging for the past six weeks is that I've been immersed completely in trying to figure out the intricacies of SharePoint. Steven explained that he's trying to do some of the same things I'm trying to do (set up better employee communications, collaboration, "KM"). It's amazing to find people out there who I meet because of one thing (in this case Xbox), and get to know really well because of another (similar jobs, same struggles, same passions).

I think people are more similar than they are different. And whether CMC (computer mediated communications--online) helps expose more about a person than they would face-to-face, or just allow people to more easily find others like them I don't know.

Anyway, after a day of prepping the room for hosting 200 Xbox and PC Retail sales folks in our two day session later in the week, we're ready for the fun to begin...

Cheskin Bloggers Rock!

Christopher Ireland has a couple of great posts recently. Cheskin is a good example of companies that use blogging to generate business (and be more human). Our group (Xbox marketing) works with Cheskin, but I haven't met Christopher yet. Regardless, I'm hoping to meet up with her next time she's on campus--not because I need to hire a market research firm, but because I want to meet Christoper. In the meantime, I bet next time I need to hire a market research firm, I'm going to hire one where my (new) friends work.

If you don't think blogging can help drive business, think again.

Ben and Mena Trott

By the way, Ben and Mena Trott, founders of Six Apart came by Microsoft today and gave a lecture. Interesting couple. I wish I would have had a chance to meet them in person.

I love TypePad.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Last week, I got a chance to visit a cocktail reception for the Social Computing Symposium put on by Microsoft. I wasn't able to attend any of the sessions (next year!), but many of the talks are online! After attending our worldwide sales and marketing meeting, I met up with Scoble who introduced me to some folks unwinding after the first day. I spent a lot of time with Josh Peterson, discussing Microsoft culture, families, and social computing. I got to meet Marc Canter (we talked about online gaming, and promised to meetup at E3).

I went there to meet one of my biz heroes, David Wienberger. He is one of the co-authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, and the author of another great book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined. His JOHO blog is a must-read.

I told him the story of when I introduced my son Steven to the Internet. I had just finished reading Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and when visiting the website, I saw David has posted a Kid's Version of Small Pieces Loosely Joined. It was great to sit my (then) six year old down, and explain how the web can keep us in touch with people from all over the world. That day, we set up an MSN email address, I set up a (parentally-controlled) account on MSN, and he's been sending email to his cousins and surfing the (Nickelodeon and Disney) web ever since.

David mentioned that he doesn't often get comments on that ebook, and appreciated hearing my story. I told the story to Halley Suitt, a friend of David's, who hadn't heard of the kid's version of the book. She wrote about it on her blog, Halley's Comment. It's cool that I can actually teach a thing or two to a blogging goddess!

No, Thank YOU!

Thanks, Amanda! It's great having a group of friends (who might even happen to be customers) who share the same challenges and adventures I do. I've learned more from Amanda than she's learned from me, trust me.

She wrote about some suggestions she and her co-worker Steve Clarke were discussing about how to improve Microsoft.com, and I forwarded the blog entry to that team (I love that it's so easy with Newsgator). Within hours, there were several emails being traded among the team responsible. It's great to see co-workers who care as much about being responsive to customers as I do.

Amanda wanted to say thanks, but it's Microsoft who should be thanking her (and Steve, who actually wrote most of the suggestions). It would be easy for customers to grumble and complain to each other, or to simply be frustrated and not do anything about it. But because Amanda and Steve took the time to write out their thoughts, and post them on their blogs (that many of us read), we were able to take some action. And as marketers, we know that the Amanda and Steve speak for more than just themselves--they represent thousands of customers who feel the same way and don't say anything.

As Robert Scoble pointed out a while ago, having a thoughtful, well-written, and helpful blog post carries a lot of weight--not just because it contains some great idea, but because it's written in a public forum. If the blogger has credibility because they are articulate, professional, have a lot of readers themselves, and aren't simply whining and complaining, we take notice.

Post 500!

After almost exactly a year, I've reached a real milestone, my 500th post. My first and second blog post--Microsoft, Ever Think Some of Your Customers Hate You?--were both posted on March 31, 2003.

Since then, I've figured out RSS and Trackbacks, moved from Blogger to TypePad, changed the name of the blog from "Random Thoughts of a Marketing Guy" to "mktg@msft", moved from the HRD Retail team to the Xbox PR team, moved office buildings, moved houses, met a bunch of great people, and still managed to keep my job. Not bad.

And while I don't doubt there are customers that still hate Microsoft, I hope there are a number of you who are reading our blogs and getting to know our employees who think maybe we're not all that bad.

The Non-Billable Hour

If I had to hire a lawyer, I'd hire someone like Matthew Homann. His blog gives me the sense he's well-read (not just because he reads my blog :) ), passionate about his work, careful with his client relationships, professional, and most of all human. I like this guy, not just because he has a blog, but because he has a voice that appeals to me. I could never get that from a Yellow Pages ad.

I found him in my referrer logs. And through him, I found Michele Miller's blog.

Listening In

I just got back from a Geek Dinner with Robert, JP, Anita, Korby, Mick Stanic, and some new faces.

Of course I couldn't help into a discussion about using blogs as a way to listen to customers.

One of the tips Robert talked about made a lot of sense. He occasionally gets product suggestions sent by email. He mentioned that he encourages the customer to write about their ideas in thier blog, then he'll send a link to the blog entry to the product team. Having something "published on the web" has a few benefits: 1) It's public, and carries some weight because the discussion is in the open, it can't get shuffled away or lost in an Inbox; 2) it allows others to join the conversation either through linking or commenting; and 3) it allows everyone to follow the conversation, to "listen in."

Just hours after having that conversation, I checked out Sean Alexander's blog. He did exactly that when he encouraged Corey Gouker to blog his suggestions for Windows Media Player. Corey offers specific suggestions that will help our developers make good tradeoffs when designing future versions. Thanks, Corey!

Mars Rover Blog

My buddy, the Mars Rover, has her own blog! Check it out!

February 13, 2004

I beat my own driving record

"Since I am healthy again, I continue to set new records. I beat my own driving distance record by driving 80 feet in a single day! I have driven 188 feet total, the most that any Rover has driven in the entire World (Mars)! I am now sitting in front of some rocks called stone council (digi pics to follow soon). Later, I will be driving over to Bonneville crater to look inside."

posted by Spirit at 11:42 AM EDT

Vented

After my whiny post the other day about some of the crud we corporate drones endure, I got a few comments from some of you that really helped me, not just emotionally ("hang in there"), but very specifically. Chalk it up to reason #27 that I love blogging.

A few of the thoughts that were spot on:

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity."

"The key to bridging that traditionally nasty gap between the product/functional group and the product/customer group comes down to having the right people in these roles that facilitate communication and negotiation rather than fight it. You need good two-way people that can see more than one perspective and work together to achieve what's good for the company/product from both angles - yet still drive through on progress."

"Your team should not just "listen" to customers, they should SYSTEMATICALLY listen to customers. Otherwise it's just a bunch of anecdotes."

"i know how it feels like when a crisis looms. although, i think i'm weird. i get extremely bored when the challenge at work is too simple or too achievable. hmmm..."

The Corporate Blog Tipping Point

Richard MacManus forsees weblogging and wiki technologies enabling bottom-up Knowledge Management in his company, but wonders along with all of us what it's going to take to make it go mainstream.

As I think about that, I admit that my blog has very little to do with interacting with "customers" for my company. But I think in either case, it comes down to one thing: the most important thing is having a conversation with customers.

How can you take the "best" blogging has to offer and use it on a corporate website? I don't think you need to publish blogs. What you should do is:

1. See The Cluetrain Manifesto. Markets are conversations.
2. Post information on your company or product website that is: A) relevant, B) current, and C) written in a human voice. If there's a reason for customers to come to your site, they'll come.
3. Offer a way to ask for and collect feedback.

I don't know if blogs (in their current form) will ever "cross the chasm". I don't think RSS or ATOM will change the way most consumers will get information (in the short term). I'm not sure major corporations will ever adopt blog tools in their current form.

But the concept of what blogging is is a huge step in the right direction: making markets conversations. What can you do right now to make your current company website be more relevant, current, human, and conversational?

Comment Spamming (or "Sorry, Wrong Number")

Over the past few days I've more than doubled the amount of hits on my site, and I thought I'd share my secret! Is it being linked by Scoble? No. Is it being linked by Lockergnome? Ya, that did it, but it wasn't sustained. Was it being a wise, witty, prolific blogger? Not even close.

The trick is allowing comment spammers to post links to, uh, non-family-friendly sites, and leaving them in long enough for all the search engines to grab the link.

I have several hundred hits from Google every day, linking to a (from what I can gather) popular adult site.

Why someone would look for that kind of site, and click on a link with a title like "Ballmer Speaks..." makes me wonder what they're searching for...

BTW, I'm the number two link below the actual site...

How Do Blogs Help Your Company?

Someone asked me how blogs help companies, and I've been giving it some thought.

My first response is that it makes me better at my job, and it connects me with others that care about the same things I do. I’ve met a number of passionate, skilled, smart people that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I’m learning from almost all of them. And in the end, I am more engaged in my own job because of it.

As a marketing manager, I find that my blog helps me stay “on top of the game,” and forces me to focus on a topic I’ve been pondering long enough to write about it. Often, the conversation that follows by other bloggers leads to changing the way I think about things. Ultimately, it’s about being engaged in my field and building a community as much as it is about “attracting customers.”

I started my blog because I believe in the clarity that comes from carefully listening to customers. I believe marketing comes down to understanding customer needs, and creating products or services that meet those needs. The best way to understand what customers need is listening to them. And I’m convinced that really listening (and appropriately responding) leads to a more trusting relationship.

Blogs offer a way to start a conversation. I’m amazed at how much more involved I am in customer issues from the hour or two a day I spend blogging. Most of the time is spent reading what our customers are writing. Because the best blogs are so current, and because they link to other blogs, I find I can easily follow a thread, and get a great deal of information about what everyone’s buzzing about.

Perhaps more importantly, blogs offer a great way of aggregating comments, asking questions, and addressing issues. I’m often amazed at the insight I get on a topic I’m pondering when someone posts a relevant comment.

As a company, I think Microsoft is doing some great things by encouraging technical blogs. Even though we’ve never hired anyone just to blog, blogs are growing organically because it makes it easier for people to share ideas. MSDN blogs are a great way for the tech community to share ideas, tools, even code.

One of the key benefits of blogs is that they connect people as individuals, rather than rely on thinking of customers as an indefinable mass of “users.” Robert’s blog helps me understand the issues our customers are concerned about (good, bad, or otherwise!). And putting a “human face” on Microsoft helps build trust, and hopefully helps customers know that we’re listening.

I’d love to see more product marketing folks like Sean Alexander blogging about products they’re involved in. I think it’s a great way to get the most actively engaged customers insight into upcoming products. It gives us a chance to ask what things customers care about the most. And sometimes they help spread the word about a little-known feature, service pack release, add-on utility, or upcoming event. I learned about Photo Story 2 on Sean’s blog, and got great feedback when I posted the link on my blog.

From a purely internal perspective, I love it when I get a piece of email from someone else in the company—someone I never would have met otherwise—who reads something I wrote that’s helped them with their job. Sometimes it’s a tip about listening to customers, sometimes it’s a book recommendation, sometimes it’s a notice of an upcoming seminar or webcast, sometimes it’s a tip on how to work with a manager or write an employee appraisal.

While I don’t see many “internal only” blogs that are successful, I think they could grow into an effective way for managers to post ongoing instruction to a team, for executives to maintain more of a connection with a large organization, and for technical teams to share details of their work. I also think it could lead to establishing “communities of practice” across the company—ultimately replacing many of the public folders or discussion forums that exist today.

How are blogs helping your company?

Seattle Bloggers Meetup!

Last night was my first! Anita does a great job covering it on her blog, and ThenYouDiscover has a photo and a list of everyone who attended.

I got to hang out and talk about Xbox with Robert and Harry, and blogging and career growth with Curt, and RTC stuff (I'm looking into this for our division's Intranet) stuff with JP, and the "good old days" at Microsoft with Anita, and blogging and marketing with Betsy.

It was fun! I think I'll have to make it out again.

Maybe not so far away, next time? Monroe is a bit of a jaunt from North Seattle...

Business is Personal

Jennifer Rice comments that she's working to make her blog more personal. Darren Rowse, Wayne Hurlbert, and David St. Lawrence pick up the conversation. Like me, they're finding it challenging to strike a proper balance between professional, relevant and personal, human. I know I probably don't write enough about my own motivations, frustrations, challenges, or mistakes. I know my management team (occasionally) visits my blog, and I know regardless of my personal feelings, I represent my company to some degree (dispite my disclaimer!).

When it all comes down to it, I'm not sure we can (or should even try to) disconnect the personal from the business. Brands are about reputation. Business is about trust and reciprocation. Contracts are covenants. Marketing is communication. Selling is a dialog. Business partnerships, even at a transactional level are about shared goals, common vision, commitment to each other.

The thing that appeals to me about blogs is that they allow a deeper conversation to occur. They reveal the person behind the words. The motivation behind the advice. The human behind the company.

To me, the biggest pro