Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Go here and view this presentation on the future of marketing by Paul Isakson - it’s really, really good. With thanks to Scott from Attensa for the pass-along.

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I was over on ChiefTech’s blog (thanks for the link, James!) checking on the latest reception for the Enterprise RSS Day of Action on April 24 (it’s been good) and he found an excellent article and illustration (below) on enterprise 2.0 from Fred Cavazza that I just had to post about.

Fred’s 2007 article is extremely well-researched and thorough - it’s a classic if you take the time to read it. For most people, it’s likely TMI, but a great reference piece for many of us. What I found most interesting was the illustration of enterprise 2.0 - replicated here (click on it and you can see it larger).

RSS is clearly an enabling technology for any “enterprise 2.0″ application - and we’re talking enterprise-capable RSS, not merely Google alerts.

So with this foundational understanding and knowledge, I’m about to jump into the “mashup” or “buy” options available for enterprise RSS applications… stay tuned.

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Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb on this one - but after a couple of months of using it, I’m hooked. And I can already see how it’ll be one of the top marketing tools I’m going to use moving forward:

Tool #5 - Twitter

I have known about Twitter since everyone was all atwitter (sorry, couldn’t resist) about it (way back in March or April of 2006) at one of the blogging conferences I was attending. It seems the social media geeks generally portend what the rest of us finally ‘get’ years later.

Why I’m enthusiastic about Twitter as a marketing/business tool?

1) I can get glimpses of the real lives of the people I’m following - which is important when you’re building virtual teams. And whether you’re a contractor working remotely, a geographically dispersed team working for the same company, or even a team with people on different floors, the more we stare into our little screens to get our work done, the more we need to find ways to get to know people from the little screen.

I know, for example, when someone is extremely busy - because their twitters go silent for awhile. Perhaps it’s time to check in with them?

2) I can pick up knowledge from others in a quick-hit fashion. I’ve learned a few gems in the short time I’ve been twittering, just by following other people’s tweets. And you can follow conference news from people who’re on site, twittering live - you get their impressions in the moment.  Blog posts follow, most people tweet their postings.

3) I’ve become more aware of my words. You can only use 140 characters to post in twitter… and that’s a great forcing mechanism to refine your writing.

The convention (for those of you who haven’t been there yet) is to acknowledge other’s tweets by saying something like @thiskat when I’m referring to something she has said.

So here’s a hint - don’t pick a long username like I did. @janetleejohnson is a ridiculous waste of 15! characters. Had I to do it all over again, I’d go under an assumed name like mktgmvn or smrtpdx or mrk8r… think in terms of license plate monikers, and you’re set.

Another hint - check out an URL shortner tool like twurl - which also allows you to track clicks…

Happy twittering…

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As James Dellow over at ChiefTech says:

Put this in your diary: Enterprise RSS Day of Action is coming up on April 24!

The purpose of the Enterprise RSS Day of Action is to help raise awareness for the potential for Enterprise RSS; which I applaud because it’s critical to productivity and intelligence, especially in larger organizations.

James’ brainchild, he’s set up a wiki already, and is tracking blog posts about Enterprise RSS there.

There’s been a call for a logo, and Stu Downes has come up with a cool one already, turning this into a truly global competition.

I’m expecting some collaboration from our friends here in Portland - with Scott over at Attensa, a leader in enterprise RSS systems, and perhaps John over at FreeRange Communications will chime in…

I know we’ve got fans of enterprise RSS here - let’s have an online party for Enterprise RSS. I’ll be there…

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This week I’m going to “do as I say,” “walk the talk,” and (in doing so) get back into blogosphere basics…

It seems I’ve been spending more time on Twitter than blogging lately, which I’ve heard from several people recently. I have come to feel more interest and creativity in creating 140 character blurbs and following others recently, and blogging has seemed more like serious writing as a result.

But it’s time to get serious again, for many reasons.

Last week I challenged the members of our Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) marketing committee to help enliven the OEN blog and spread the wealth of knowledge by sending me the Top 10 Marketing Tools they use - and why.

We figured that entrepreneurs (and our colleagues) would probably appreciate a glimpse into the minds and habits of a bunch of smart marketers - learning about the tools they use. The ensuing conversation and collaboration inside the room was so enlightening that I can hardly wait to share what I learn!

I’m going to start my Top 10 Marketing Tools list with some of what I believe are “blocking and tackling” basic tools. Now, I’ve got a decidedly “online” bent so you’ll want to round out your tools by reading others’ lists - for sure.

Tool #1 - A Smart RSS Reader

Any marketer interested in making their lives easier in collecting information about their own reputations, their products’ reputations, their brand reputations and their competitors’ reputations must have a smart RSS reader in their toolbox.

Why do something manually when you can have a FREE product do it for you?

I define “Smart” as a reader that will do more than deliver persistent search results into your mailbox - although if you have to start somewhere, start with Google Alerts, which will do just that.

I use Attensa’s RSS products. They’re clients, many of the employees there are colleagues, and I’ve always appreciated the work they do in terms of their consistent interface design across platforms, smart enhancements and well-programmed applications.

To me, as Smart RSS Reader will:

1. Search multiple engines in addition to the major search engines and deliver content so you can have another view of where your conversations are happening. It’s nice to have a view (beyond what your SEM tools tell you) of engagement levels on del.icio.us tags vs. Technorati tags, for example.
2. Allow you to ‘train’ the reader as to where you’re spending your attention - so it will filter high-attention results right to the top of your feeds, and the low-attention results will appear down your results lists. That way, your most reader will help prioritize your feed results for you.
3. Let you get your work done beyond simply reading feeds within the application. For example (I’ve blogged about this before), I can comment on blog posts from within Attensa - while my attention is focused on the subject at hand. I can tag articles within Attensa, and it’ll post my tags to my del.icio.us account for me as well - maximizing my work efforts.

Any time you can find a tool that will work for you, learn from you, and enhance your productivity (AND it’s free to boot…), what’s there not to love?

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