John Furrier

Silicon Valley Upswing - Computer Hardware Maker Going Public - Go Rackable

As the saying goes ..."Nice Rack".   A computer company in silicon valley is going public.  Rackable makes innovative servers that power some of Google searches. Now, it may break one of tech's longest droughts.   

John Battelle points to an interesting piece in B'week online on how this hardware company prospered by building servers for Google and Yahoo...the company is set to file for an IPO shortly...

Tom Barton has done an incredible job as CEO of Rackable.  This is a good sign for high tech.  Watch out Dell and HP.

Lead Generation Vendors - The Leader in Lead Generation - The Future of Lead Generation - Lead Generation Products

The future of lead generation will be about CPL and targeting.

It's no secret that cost-per-click (CPC) advertising (Google, Yahoo!/Overture, and the like) has become incredibly appealing to marketers. You don't pay unless the person clicks. Pay per performance. Pay for results!

Well...not exactly.

CPC isn't truly "results-based." Unless the result you want is a click. No, for you as a B2B marketer, the "result" you want is some specific action that results in a qualified lead: Downloading a white paper or case study, signing up for a webinar, etcetera.

Think of Google and other leading CPC networks as "traffic redirectors." They can get you in front of your audience, and hopefully that traffic will click on your ad and arrive on your website. But what happens when they get there? That's up to you. It's up to you whether the clicks you're paying for are going to have any value.

Here's what this all means. If the goal is to deliver better and better targeted leads at a lower cost per lead (the proverbial "holy grail" of lead generation, right?), then a cost per ACTION approach is necessary. Paying for results, not clicks.

And this is why the use of targeted "contextual networks" will become critical for lead generation.

"Contextual" means your message is getting in front of the exact people you want to reach at the time when they're looking at or in need of the type of information you provide.

The CPC approach does provide contextual targeting. Someone types in a search phrase related to your business, and hopefully your ad will come up in the sponsored results. But with targeted contextual networks, that "context" has wider and deeper reach.

"Networks" refers to pushing your message out over the web to as many places where your very specific audience not only happens to be, but keeps going to. What places might those be? Think vertically-oriented websites and specialty blogs. One, vertical sites attract repeat visitors. Two, vertical sites attract targeted visitors. Like a website or blogs for accountants. Or a site for IT security infrastructure professionals. Or an online service that matches biotech professionals with biotech employers.

So "contextual networks" is simply defined as a collection of vertical sites. It means that you're getting your message out to the right people in the right places, on an ongoing basis.

For example, someone who publishes a site about broadband technology might earn extra money by being a part of a network and so allowing ads to be broadcast on his or her site. Those ads reflect the "context," the keywords on the page, so if there's content on a given page about "Wi-Fi Hotspots" you might see an ad for "Hotspot Billing Software."

Unlike cost-per-click networks, think of contextual networks as the next innovation in online advertising. It's taken farther than CPC, because instead of paying for each click, you're paying for each action. An IT security professional who sees your white paper ad on a site she frequents has to not only click your link, but then fill out your qualification form. So it is well suited to lead generation.

And as those contextual networks grow (with more and more targeted blogs and sites sprouting up), your company message or ad will reach more and targeted people at a lower cost.

NetLine is a new solution now available for b2b marketers. 

Influence Marketing - Endorsement Marketing - Getting Paid to Blog

Marketing with Blogs  -  Influence Marketing

New technologies like blogs and podcasting are changing how companies evaluate new markets, launch new products, communicate to their installed base, find new customers, execute marketing communications campaigns, manage public relations, and sell products and services. 

Yahoo, Microsoft, and other leading companies are hiring blog marketers and executing blog-centric marketing campaigns to interact and influence their target customers within Internet community. 

Additionally these innovative corporate marketers are deploying infrastructure like RSS (Real Simple Syndication) to enable and establish more effective communications and interactions with their prospects and customers. 

Understanding Marketing with Blogs – Two Views Emerge

Over the past year I've spoken with or consulted for executives and companies about the paradigm of “real time marketing” using blogs and podcasts.  Most top marketers agree that the role of creating and distributing content to their prospects and customers are important.  “How to do it with blogs?” is the biggest question on their minds. 

In looking at blogs two major views emerge: 1) the publishing view – getting content published and 2) the platform view – getting the content distributed to the right people.

Today blogs are confusing to most corporate marketers. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to understand how to execute both views at the same time.  However if executed correctly the resulting benefit creates a long lasting direct communication relationship with prospects and customers.

It’s safe to compare blogging to email.  On the surface they may seem similar but they couldn’t be more different.  Blogging is simply just another form of intimate communication. Yet blogs are more robust and dynamic than email.  Similarities to email include the ease of publishing and distribution. Blogs are different is in their impact and utility. The validity in blogging is in the inherent “chain link reaction” between interested parties.  Blogs provide authentic information distribution within interested and targeted environments.

A Simplistic View – Controlling the Watercooler Conversation

Think of blog marketing like bringing marketing messages and information to the “virtual watercooler”.  By bringing authentic product, support, company information and marketing messages to a collection of individuals, blogging creates an instant “real time collaboration” effect.   What happens with that information is the power of blog marketing.  It is where individuals unite and form opinion(s) and credibility.  The resulting bloggers form action oriented groups that react and shared the result to a mass “always on” and listening community.   This is influence marketing in action.

How to Get Started

For corporate marketers I recommend a five point plan.

1.      Understand what blogging is and how others are using blogs in their marketing mix.

2.      Understand the trends, know the demographics and psychographics of bloggers and their readers, and know the underlying benefits and risks involved.

3.      Know in advance what relationship you want to create with your prospect or customer (e.g. is the goal information distribution, branding, sales literature, corporate messaging, ..etc).

4.      Outline a marketing and IT deployment plan – understand the nuts and bolts of what is involved to execute blog and Influence Marketing campaigns.

5.      Experiment and test run a handful campaigns.  Gathering data is key to future planning and budgeting.

The above five point corporate Influence Marketing plan is the best starting point in order to get a feel for the benefits that blogging and Influence Marketing provide.  Afterwards companies will be in a better position to integrate Influence Marketing with blogs into their overall marketing mix.

Influence Marketing – A Strategic Imperative

Companies deploying online marketing with email marketing and electronic newsletters campaigns must develop a strategic imperative to evaluate and execute Influence Marketing with blogs into their marketing plans.  Developing plans now will prepare marketing executives to more immediately drive higher sales and edge out the competition.

   

About the Author

John Furrier is the founder and CEO of BroadDev.com, management consulting firms specializing in helping marketers understand and execute marketing and business plans using blogs.

More information can be found on John’s blog at at his firm’s website at www.BroadDev.com

Venture Capital Financing: Term Sheet: Protective Provisions

Another good post from the Brad Feld college of venture financing - part three in his series. 

The protective provisions are often hotly negotiated.  Entrepreneurs would like to see few or no protective provisions in their documents. VCs – in contrast – would like to have some veto-level control over a subset of actions the company could take, especially when it impacts the VC’s economic position.

While one could make the argument that protective provisions are at the core of the “trust” between a VC and entrepreneur, we think that’s a hollow and inappropriate statement.  When an entrepreneur asks “don’t you trust me - why do we need these things?”, the simple answer is that it is not an issue of trust.  Rather, we like to eliminate the discussion about who ultimately gets to make which decisions before we do a deal.  Eliminating the ambiguity in roles, control, and rules of engagement is an important part of any financing – the protective provisions cut to the heart of some of this. 

Patriots Dynasty

What's the debate?  The Patriots are a Dynasty.  They don't need to win the Superbowl at this point.  These past two games against the Colts and Steelers puts this discussion to bed.  Brady: clutch in big games and undefeated 8-0 in postseason with two superbowl rings already, Belichick is undefeated 9-0 in post season with the Patriots and also 14-0 in rematches with quarterbacks, and the team can flat out play football and any kind of football.

The Patriots are good, and I mean really good. They are amazingly well coached, and they are even more amazingly united. They simply come to play every Sunday. They embrace their game plans, and they do everything in all their individual powers to execute those plans.

A week ago they were supposed to lose to the highest-flying offense in the league. The Colts didn't score a touchdown that afternoon.  Last night they were supposed to be in a street fight with the top-seeded 16-1 Steelers. They turned it into a case of assault and battery.  The Patriots trampled the Colts last week and mauled the Steelers last night, more than matching their well-publicized physicality.  That won them the right to represent the AFC again in the Super Bowl and they accomplished it the way they should have -- by beating up the two best teams in the conference. Well, the second- and third-best teams, because the best team was and remains the defending Super Bowl champions.

The best team, the one that drove loyal Steelers fans into the frigid night long before the game was technically over but long after it was finished, was the Patriots. Just as they were a year ago when they embarrassed the Colts in a similar AFC title game before a dramatic last-second win brought them their second Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Time for the final statement in Jacksonville on Feb2.  The Dynasty debate will finally be over then.

A Day to Miss New England - A Blizzard of a Champoinship Game

Today is the kind of day that a native Bostonian misses home.  A northeastern (Nor'easter) blizzard is hitting town and the Patriots are hitting Pittsburg for the conference championship.

How bout them Patriots.  A World Series and a Super Bowl just 3 1/2 months apart?  From the Red Sox first World Series victory in 86 years and now the local footballers are inching toward dynasty status, threatening to win a third Super Bowl in four years, which would put them in the pantheon of pro pigskin powers alongside Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers of the '60s, Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain of the '70s, the San Francisco 49ers of the '80s, and the Dallas Cowboys of the '90s.

Dormouse and the best technology writer in Silicon Valley John Markoff

Had a great chat with John Markoff last night at the Churchill Club for a session that he was moderating with Yahoo, Sun, and Oracle. 

John is all excited about Dormouse prospects.  Can't wait to see it.

John's a great guy originally from Palo Alto.  We still can't believe there are Mountain Lion sightings in Palo Alto.

Technology behind blogs - Ontologies are all the rage.

I have been a fan of ontology based models for some time now.  The danger here is that the ontology and AI paradigm has been around for sometime and with that "perceived" expert opinions on how to apply ontologies to the blogosphere and semantic web can and will be flawed (even by the most respected technical gurus). 

I believe that a new model and approach will emerge.  One that will reflect the current environment and future needs not pandering to old academic papers and theories.

One area that I see clearly are new tools that will automate the ontology "seed" process. Having built nameservers in the past for keyword search and navigation I can tell you the taxonomy issue is HUGE.

RSS and new syndication technologies combined with search capabilities (not paid search) then overlaid ontop of an always on network will have a profound effect on user experience.

"What you saw in first-gen solutions [was] Ask Jeeves—fragile ontologies that required tons and tons of human labor to keep them updated. The next gen has succeeded because they have a more automated way of keeping the taxonomy up-to-date and being able to give a consistently good-quality solution to the end customer."

This important addition to already developed ontology paradigm will change the nature and definition of "search eninge optimization"

http://furrier.typepad.com/john_furrier/2004/12/search_engine_o.html

RSS Open Syndication - Rising Tide Floats All Boats by Dave Winer

Dave Winer takes the 'rising tide floats' all boats approach to a budding problem - disparate RSS subscription mechanisms.   Dave oversimplifies the problems but is right on. 

I support Dave on this one create a centralized registration or open syndication model. 

This is the next Network Solutions for blogs.  My only comment is that it must be a non-profit otherwise greed will overcome the pragmatic approach proposed by Dave.

I will kick in some resources to support this.  Nice job Dave - it will be hard to pull off but I'm in if you need support.

Jeremy and Dave go at it in a Blogcat fight

I think that Dave makes a point here. In terms of user experience (which Yahoo says they care about) this idea has merit in principle. Yahoo was successful by making a confusing Web simplier. Why not support that same vision now.

Blog Marketing and Blog PR - Using Blogs in Marketing and PR

People ask me why blogs are relevant to the future of markeing and the future of how we communicate.  Well rather than post my view on this ...I'll list the top ten reasons why blogs should be part of marketing and PR by Bob Cargill of Yellowfin Direct Marketing who nails it.   Great Job Bob!  I have more to add but this is a ton of great stuff right now.  More in another post.

1. Blogs are Interactive. In many cases, marketing is a monologue, a well-choreographed sales pitch to an audience of passive prospects. But one of the key attributes of a blog is that it allows readers to provide honest, public feedback that is posted below the author’s spiel. It involves your audience. By granting the opportunity to respond almost instantly to any and all posts, a blogger is building a mutually-beneficial relationship with his or her constituency. As the level of confidence grows between a blog and its readers, so does the potential for lucrative, new business activity.

2. Blogs are Humanizing. A blog may be dependent on cold, Web-based technology for hosting and distribution, but its success depends on the ability of its author to come across as honest, credible and down-to-earth. There is no spinning of the truth in the blogosphere. The idea is to break through the corporate-speak and to put a fresh, trustworthy face on your organization. Like a good newspaper column or editorial, most blogs are written in one strong, opinionated voice and don’t shy away from controversy and difficult subjects. Some of the best business blogs in existence are some of the most candid.

3. Blogs are Inexpensive. In most cases, the only cost to the author of a blog is the value of the time and talent required to create and maintain it. Sure, some hosted services, like Typepad, charge a modest monthly fee. But there are plenty of free, ad-supported blogging services and tools available. My blog, A Fine Kettle of Fish (written under the aegis of Yellowfin Direct Marketing) uses perhaps the most popular one of them all, Blogger. It doesn’t matter which service and tools you use to publish yours, however – the financial barriers to entry are so few and far between, you almost can’t afford not to establish a presence in the blogosphere.

4. Blogs are Immediate. A blog makes it possible for the everyday communications professional to distribute newsworthy, thematic content to a large, like-minded audience – without many, if any, layers of approval – almost instantaneously. If timeliness is a critical element of your publishing plan, it’s an irresistible platform. A blog allows you to draw out invaluable feedback, too, without having to lollygag through the traditional rites of business courtship. Comments from readers are akin to free market research. If your goal is to establish an open, online dialogue with prospects and influential people who might otherwise not give you the time of day, a blog just may be your entrée – it certainly is a unique ice-breaker.

5. Blogs are Infectious. Like any good viral marketing campaign, the content of the best blogs is passed from reader to reader, extending the author’s reach – and influence – exponentially. Bloggers are notorious for linking to other blogs that they recommend and respect. And other related sources of news, information and opinion – even offline, traditional publications – won’t hesitate to pick up an interesting post and republish it. So, in effect, a blog gives you the power of a syndicated columnist. What’s more, search engines such as Google are all over blogs, especially when they’re updated regularly. Blogging results in more top placements than you ever could have imagined for you and your organization.

6. Blogs are Empowering. Today’s consumers and business prospects are desensitized to the sales pitch. They’ve seen and heard it all. Such rampant skepticism reared its ugly head in a recent Gallup survey, which ranked people in advertising very low for their honesty and ethics. Ouch! At the very least, we may as well accept this much: we have lost more than a modicum of control. However, because a blog is such an open, grassroots medium, unadorned and unplugged, its trust factor is high from the get-go. The format alone is engaging and empowering. With RSS (Really Simple Syndication), the audience decides what they want and when they want it. They have the upper hand. And by giving recipients the authority to post their own comments, it’s easy for the public – and fellow bloggers – to hold advertising, marketing and PR pros accountable for their claims. Think quid pro quo.

7. Blogs are Enjoyable. There are many sound business reasons to blog, but let's not forget how much of a pleasure they are for both author and audience. Seriously, the fun factor should not be underestimated. Most blogs are quick and easy to absorb, and a refreshing change of pace from typical marketing riffs and age-old corporate-speak. Bloggers aren’t just writers, they’re also publishers, opinion-leaders, risk-takers and entrepreneurs. They’re people who are inclined to live by the mantra, carpe diem. They’re passionate about their craft and evangelical about their content. And in many cases, their readers are just as fanatical.

8. Blogs are Authoritative. We’re not talking about those cathartic, diary-like blogs kept by moody, meandering teenagers. We’re talking about the most sophisticated among the blogosphere, the ones owned and operated by today’s savviest business people. Written by the heaviest hitters in their fields, these blogs go a long way toward formalizing their authors’ knowledge, insight and overall sphere of influence. Ideally, your blog will provide readers with plenty of fresh, premium content they can’t find anywhere else. But you had better think twice before posting. If you haven’t done your homework, your readers won’t hesitate to call you out. On the other hand, if your commentaries are consistently on the mark, your blog may soon become a frequently visited destination and raise your industry profile to unprecedented, new heights.

9. Blogs are Valuable. A blog is tailor-made for storing and managing your intellectual capital. It’s a centralized repository for experience and expertise, an incredibly easy way to disseminate key, timely information to an audience of readers who are already interested in what you have to offer. The cost to set up and maintain a blog is practically nil. And the dividends – for those on either side of the equation – can be priceless. As Jeremy Wright, author of the business and technology blog, Ensight, says: “Anything which can get the right info to the right people at the right time, empower your company to become a thought leader and let you know what your customers and the industry are thinking about you in real time is something that has massive value.”

10. Blogs are Popular. As recently as five years ago, there really weren’t that many blogs in existence, but today the blogosphere is growing so rapidly that it’s only a matter of time before this revolutionary, new medium reaches the tipping point. If you use press releases, newsletters and bylined articles to promote your products and people, blogs are the next better thing – now. In 2004, the word, blog, topped Merriam-Webster’s list of the ten most looked-up words. And blogs received wide acclaim in The New York Times Magazine’s recent Year in Ideas issue. Blogs are here, there and everywhere to stay.