John Porcaro Consulting

Corporations and Web 2.0 Adoption

I just added CRM for Xbox and Games for Windows to my responsibilities (in addition to Online Community), so I'm in the mode of catching up--it's been a while!

Everyone I talk to about my new role as Director of Customer and Community Relationship Management (that's a mouthful, tell me if you think of something better!) is intrigued by the idea that social networking, blogging, influencer marketing, WOM can actually live side by side with CRM and "traditional" Marcom.  I've been describing it as the infusion of targeted content and the machine of CRM.  The biggest challenge in WOM is distribution and reach (especially when most corporations are using the toolkit of traditional advertising), and the biggest challenge of good customer messaging is targeted, relevant content.

One of the few newsletters I allow through my mile-wide firewall at work is the Harvard Business Publishing's email update.  Josh Bernoff published something I've been talking about with co-workers on our Global Marketing team--Why Web 2.0 Is No Bubble: Corporations Are Willing to Pay for It. 

I am talking about companies that serve corporate social application needs. ...in many of these companies, the technology itself is positively mundane. But the startups grow because they deliver value for which they can charge a premium and get customer loyalty. The customers of these companies don't defect when something shiny and new comes along, because they like the service they're getting."

Jeff also outlines a handful of companies that are building tools to help push-start efforts, and prove the ROI.  It includes my friend Sam Decker's company, Bazaarvoice, and others that are helping companies get their arms around making sense of this new space. 

Every company is--or should be--grappling with making sense of what this all means to their Integrated Marketing efforts.  Some will approach it using existing strategies and tools, with limited results.  Others will ignore it, to their peril.  Hopefully your company is going to stay ahead of the wave.  My prediction is that it's only going to be possible if you're paying attention to what's going on, hiring the right people, partnering with the right firms, and investing appropriately.

April 30, 1990

15 years ago today, I joined Microsoft as an Associate Marketing Manager, working on the US Marketing Team.  Everyone was in the final stages of the Windows 3.0 launch that would take place 6 weeks later. 

There were around 4,000 employees at the time, and though we were well known as the maker of MS-DOS, Windows was still in its infancy. 

I was hired to help with the marketing of LAN Manager and SQL Server.  It was only a few years later that I joined what was then called the Consumer Division, as Product Manager of some of our multimedia products, including Musical Instruments, Dinosaurs, and several others. 

Over the years, I've seen the company grow from a largely U.S. company to a global enterprise.  I've seen personal computers go from being largely unknown to pervading our daily lives.  And I've seen my family grow from being the two of us living in a small apartment in Redmond to seven of us living in a rural town. 

A lot has changed in 15 years.  One of the reasons I like being part of the Xbox group is that it retains the feel of a small company with a lofty mission. 

15 years.  Hard to believe. 

Instant Messaging at Work

One of the things my team is responsible for is collaboration between employees in our division. As part of our rollout of SharePoint 2.0, we’re encouraging employees to use Windows Messenger. Those already using Instant Messaging get why it’s a good thing. Increasingly, I’m able to get things done using Messenger at my desk or in meetings, rather than using email. In fact, I’m monitoring incoming email less and less, and relying on IM more and more.

Those that have been using IM for a while know there’s a separate set of rules for instant messaging. And it’s pretty easy to spot those that are new to it by the way they use it. So how should IM be used in businesses?

David S. Marshak, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group recently addressed this exact topic, in an article called Instant Messaging at Work: Key Policies and Practices for Leveraging IM in Business.

“More and more businesses are beginning to see the use of instant messaging (IM) as an interesting—if not compelling—way to make their organizations more responsive and effective. By using IM, particularly its presence-awareness features, companies can significantly reduce the time it takes to deal with customer issues, sometimes resolving them in real time. Effective use of IM can also eliminate much of the internal churning (emails, voice mails, walks past someone’s office) it takes for one employee to get information and assistance from another. And for many companies, IM provides a direct mode of communications with their customers—a mode that enables far closer relationships than we’ve seen since electronic communications became the norm.”

David recommends that companies establish policies in several areas: Expectations of privacy and responsiveness; Logging in; Availability; and Courtesy and Respect. I’ll summarize many of his thoughts (I’ve starred those), and add a few of my own.

1. Load the client when you’re online and working. Collaborative software doesn’t work if everyone doesn’t use it.*
2. Use the Status features of your client: Available, Busy, In a Meeting, On the Phone, etc.* David’s got some great tips on this topic.
3. If “available,” reply promptly (David recommends 2-10 minutes, depending on your business). *
4. It’s okay to say “I’ll reply later” or “Sorry, not now.” *
5. If you leave a message, and someone becomes “busy” without responding, and you get your question answered, reply “never mind”*
6. If you have more than a simple request (“is the document you sent final?”), “knock” by saying “got a minute?” or something similar.*
7. Don’t use IM to replace email. If you need to include more than a line of text, use email.
8. Don’t use email to replace IM. If it’s a quick question (“ready for lunch?”), don’t clog up their Inbox.
9. Don’t be too chatty. If a conversation is taking more than a few responses back and forth, pick up the phone.
10. Don’t be afraid to end the conversation if you got your answer. “Instant” messaging should be quick in and quick out.
11. It’s good to end the conversation with “bye” or “cya” or whatever you choose.*
12. If someone’s typing (you can usually see they are with a status indicator), wait for their response before changing the conversation.*
13. You might choose to turn off “notify when someone comes online” unless there’s a need. As the technology gets widely adopted, you may get a bunch of these, and if everyone’s online, you won’t need to see their status until you need to IM them.
14. I have separate clients for work (Windows Messenger) and personal (MSN Messenger). I have both running at work (though when really busy I’ll only have work client running), but on weekends, I only load my personal client.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to this, and if you have tips, let me know!

In the meantime, you can IM me at johnporcaro@hotmail.com (or my work email if you’re using Windows Messenger behind the Microsoft firewall).

See SPOT

Ya, I got me one.

All (and I mean other than the clock part) I use it for is to see when my next meeting is. Useful to know what room it's in without opening my tablet. Not sure it's $150 and $10/month useful, but it's really, really cool in a nerdy way.

More to the Mac Story? Check the Blog

Nice story ran today in the Seattle PI. Since their products are sold primarily through retail, my team gets to be a part of their marketing process. From the article:

The Mac lovers of Microsoft

In the most surprising place: 'I Don't Do Windows'

"People sometimes stare when Microsoft Corp. executive Tim McDonough opens his laptop in meetings. But that's probably to be expected when someone uses a Mac PowerBook in the center of the Windows world.

I can get challenged to see my employee badge," he says.

At Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit are Lyne Brown, Tim McDonough, Jason Blankman, Brent Peterman, Mary Starman, Jennifer Cockrill, Scott Erickson and Geoff Price. Employees in the roughly 160-strong unit make Microsoft software, including Office and Virtual PC, to run on Macs."

Of note in this story, however, is the last line:

"FOR MORE INFORMATION See Todd Bishop's blog for updates and additions to this story."

At Todd Bishop's weblog, you can get a lot more information, including a link to the Mac-only features in Office.

Microsoft Researchers Create 3D Images

Researchers Use Artificial Stereo Vision to Create Mars Images in 3D

"Artificial stereo vision emulates the human ability to see the world in three-dimensions using two eyes. The NASA Web site has provided these shots as an "anaglyph," designed for viewing in 3D with red-green glasses.

"We emulate what the brain does in converting the two views into 3D by a technique called stereo matching. This enables us to produce novel views of the scene, and hence the movie in which the camera seems to move around the 3D object and back again," said Andrew Blake, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge.

This technology is being developed to enhance video for teleconferencing in several ways:

- Improved eye-contact
- Environment substitution, which is replacing the environment of the speaker with an artificial one
- Automatic camera pan/tilt/zoom to frame the talker"

Protect Your PC!

We've published a Virus Alert for the Mydoom Worm:

Why We Are Issuing This Alert

W32/Mydoom@MM spreads through e-mail. This worm can disguise the sender's address, a tactic known as spoofing, and may generate e-mails that appear to have been sent by Microsoft. Many of the addresses Mydoom uses are valid addresses that are being spoofed for malicious purposes.

Technical information about the virus is available from antivirus vendors participating in the Microsoft Virus Information Alliance (VIA). The Mydoom worm is also known by the names Novarg, Shimg, and Mimail.R.

If you ever receive a questionable e-mail message that contains an attachment, do not open the attachment. If you cannot confirm with the sender that the message is valid and that the attachment is safe, delete the message immediately. If you receive a questionable message that purports to be from Microsoft, you should be aware that Microsoft never distributes software through e-mail.
Bottom line... use caution when opening e-mail attachements. Please let your friends and family know about the dangers associated with doing this. Let's keep everybody as safe as we can.

MSN Toolbar Beta (with Popup Blocker)

http://toolbar.msn.com/

Women Buy More Tech Than Men

I wrote last week about Microsoft's efforts to create games for women. And Amanda Murphy points to a CNN report that shows women actually buy more tech products than men.

In a trackback, Jenny Berger writes that she's getting rather tired of the apparent marvelling going on. I agree with her--I'm not sure why it's taking Corporate America so long to figure this out. With bloggers like Halley Suitt, Amanda Murphy, Rebecca Dias, Denise Klarkin, Rebecca Schwoch, Dina Mehta, and Jenny Berger, I'm convinced the tide might be changing. Although, I'm the first to admit, even my blogroll is mostly men.

In the current issue of Fast Company, Shoshana Zuboff discusses the recent business scandals, and she claims they have less to do with corrupt individuals than a narcissistic--and male--organizational culture. She says:

"Male managers didn't want to serve female customers. From the time men left home for offices and factories, buying stuff was redefined as the wife's job. Most managers did not want to serve in public the women they dominated in private. They retreated to their inner sanctum, defining managerial culture as male culture, though it cost them a front-row seat to the market. It still does."

Amanda agrees:

"Amazing however that I still get treated like I have the IQ of Lemon Jello whenever I walk into an electronics department / store...probably a reason I buy so much stuff online."

It's hard for me to understand how bad things are when I work with so many great women. Women who are smarter than I am, more emotionally intelligent than I am, and very, very good at what they do. I'm spoiled to work in marketing, a place where the majority of employees are women.

Back On Line!

The Starband installer came late last week, and installed two-way satellite Internet. Even though we're only a few miles south of town, we don't have cable, DSL, or any other way of connecting except dial-up. It's painfully slow to do blogging without broadband, so satellite became the only option for high-speed, always-on Internet.

So $700 worth of installation later, and with a hefty yet unreasonable fee of $59 a month, I get uploads of about 40K, downloads of about 600K, and 2-4 second latency with every web request. Still, it beats dial-up by a long way.

After a bit of experimenting, I got Starband working with Microsoft Wireless Base Station, using Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing. Now I can seamlessly log in with my laptop!

Not promising a dramatic increase in my blogging, but the chances of getting online more than a few times a month is improving!