Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with my friend Michael Sampson. He’s a blogger, content author and perpetual student of collaboration technologies and real-use cases for them.

Michael’s recently finished an ebook called The 7 Pillars Analysis of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 where he has ranked it as a collaboration platform on a seven-point scale. Without giving too much away, he said SharePoint failed his collaboration litmus test on six of the seven pillars.

Well, you can imagine the stir that’s beginning to cause…

His post about the eBook was picked up on CRN, and the comments there are pretty typical of the blogosphere fanning the flames of a discussion. One comment, from Andrew Brust, Chief of New Technology at twentysix New York, was especially passionate; and in response, Michael published an Open Letter of rebuttal.

In fact, on his “Effective Collaboration” blog, there’s quite a stream of conversations around the specific merits of his opinions, cause and effect, and even a little ethical drama playing out.

In our chat, I told him it might be interesting to further the conversation at the SharePoint conference coming up next week in Seattle. (That made him just a little nervous… I think.) I also wonder (on my own) what the Jive Software guys would think of the paper?

My bottom line? If you’re going to take a stand in the blogosphere, and (particularly when you) point out the emperor is only wearing socks, enjoy the reaction… ’cause you’re going to get it.

I believe Michael is perfectly capable of holding his own. And I’m anxious to watch the story unfold. Regardless, I hope it spurs sales. Likely it will. Any PR is good PR, after all…

I’m speaking on March 10 at SEMpdx’s SearchFest on managing your online reputation. SEMpdx is an event I’ve been to for the past couple of years here in Portland, and I’ve always learned a ton by attending. I’m happy to pass along a discount from the show organizers to everyone… Here’s how you get it:

1. Register for SearchFest at www.searchfest.org
2. Enter the code SF8SPK in the “Coupons/Gift Certificates” text box and click “Add.”
   (This is at step 3 of the shopping cart)
3. Enjoy your day at SearchFest

Note - registration prices or SearchFest go up another $50 again on March 1 - so be sure to sign up now. This discount will not be available ‘at the door’

I talk a lot on this blog about linking SEM (search engine marketing) efforts to PR efforts - I call it SEMPR - to boost awareness and relevancy online. It’s my opinion that my clients should get the benefit of integrating both efforts, rather than keeping them separate, as most marketing communications teams do.

(I was a VP managing corporate marcom efforts for many years, and I neglected to link them in my organizations. Most of my peers still do….)

In a very passionate post over on Micro Persuasions, Steve Rubel (long time blogger and PR pro) has taken a very pointed view on the subject he calls “SEO Shenanigans” - that of gaming social media solely to improve search results. In his very articulate argument, he states:

“Some respected experts are advocating launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration and genuine communication.

This represents a clear and present danger to the fabric of the community. If you care about the social web, then you should be alarmed.”

Good content and collaboration should always be the foundation and intention of any marketing effort, otherwise, why bother?

Some truths I’ve learned about both SEM and PR:

• Shortcuts in content quality are outed quickly online - who cares about your blog/tweets/facebook profile or your press release if I can’t learn anything about or from you? If I can’t, you’re largely going to be ignored - regardless of your search relevancy or reach.
• Fostering true collaboration will result in meaningful conversations. When I was at Marqui and we [unintentionally] started an ethical debate among bloggers and traditional media, the conversations weren’t always pleasant, but they were meaningful. And, by the way, those conversations without content were dismissed quickly as being without merit.
• Linking search engine marketing and PR efforts are jarring for each profession, usually. I’ve found the people in each vertical to be wildly opposed in many ways - how they think, measure and relate, for starters. On one hand, you’ve got relationship/rolodex-driven folks who measure awareness and reach in months, if not years. On the other hand, you’ve got measurement-driven folks who relate to spreadsheets and percentage shifts in A/B tests in days or weeks…
• But just because it isn’t easy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it… with the right intention (collaboration and conversations) and content (properly written, tagged and optimized) for the best possible results.

Finally, I agree with Steve’s parting salvo:

“….the SEO shenanigans for the sake of SEO has to stop. If you’re going to play in our sandbox, follow the community’s (unwritten) rules.”

…Even though following “unwritten rules” is nearly impossible. Which is why smart marketers will always turn to other smart marketers - even us unruly consultants and those with opposing positions whom we listen to - in order to learn more.

I was fortunate to be quoted in an excellent article called The Tao of Crafting SEM Partnerships by Marty Weintraub at aimClear over on the Search Engine Watch blog. As you may recall, I am to be the maiden sacrificed to Marty at the SEMpdx conference in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, we’ve met via phone and it turns out he’s a very nice guy. AND, an excellent writer to boot.

Turns out Lisa Williams from MEDIA Forte Marketing is also a potential sacrificial maiden on our panel, which deals with online reputation management. Ben Lloyd from Amplify Interactive will moderate the panel, and I have a feeling it’ll be a very fun session.

Looking forward to meeting Marty and Lisa - and expanding my network of potential partners - at SEMpdx.

I’m just plain happy this morning. Maybe it was the lunar eclipse, maybe some great meetings this morning, and maybe, just maybe it’s that I’ve felt terribly productive this morning. I’m pretty excited that my RSS reader - from Attensa (a client of mine) - gives me the capability to tag my persistent search results (and have them appear in my del.icio.us account) and comment on blog posts that reference my persistent searches right from within the RSS reader itself.

I don’t have to follow a link to the site, I just get a little window with the post right in it, and can comment right from there, saving tons of time.

Check it out - hoping the thumbnail shot here will work for y’all. (Just click on it, and you’ll see the whole shebang…)

You can also see that Attensa searches 18 different sites for the most up-to-date mentions of any keyword combinations you want to track. Attensa’s RSS reader is free (as is their virtual feed server for little [1-5 people] groups - enterprises pay, but the increased productivity I’ve seen will quickly pay for itself), and you can download it from Attensa’s site for Outlook, Mac, or web reading…

Eclipses are cool, wherever you find them.