No, I don't read all the Micro-bloggers--if I did, I don't think I would have time for much of anything else. But I do read Robert Scoble's and John Pocaro's blogs on a pretty regular basis. Now, both are paid by Microsoft to "spread the faith", as it were, and sometimes the amp needs to be cranked down from 11. But the sheer joy they have in talking about Microsoft products is apparent.
However, after one too many iterations of "ooooh Longhorn" (think bogeyman, not doughnuts) lately, I began think about the late 80's and early 90's, when the prevalent method of sending out information to the computer users (a much smaller group than these days, true) was either mailing lists or Usenet, and at the same time, I also started seeing companies who changed their business model from "what's good for us" into "oh no--how do we deal with Microsoft!", and it came to me:
What a marvelous method blogging and other implementations of RSS will be to keep so many people so interested in a product that's not exactly going to be on the shelves for Christmas!
Because RSS is evolving from something that the early-adopter techies use to much broader markets, and it's going to hop across technology in a big way, more people are going to be plugged into the "gimme-ness" of RSS and getting directed information.
And that information is going to be very hard to ignore. If you're a product marketing person who's watching their back, you're going to be completely freaking out in the next year, there's going to be so much information hitting you from all sides. If you're not sure in your decisions about your own products, you're going to switch from presenting your agenda to your customers, and start making comparisons to a product that hasn't even hit the street yet.
And the question I have--why aren't more companies getting on board with this? There are people at every company--sales, marketing, evangelism, and a bunch of engineers--who are wired to do this sort of thing. Not that Microsoft is overtly telling their staff "go forth, and blog!", but I feel that there are corporations that either actively discourage staff from identifying, or are completely unaware of what's going on "out there".
The flip side also appears to be missing--where are the pointers to the user group blogs, and the blogs of people who are talking about they use your company's products? You can't buy that sort of stuff. Relationship marketing, anyone?
Yep, this one will get more thought....
(And oh yeah, Sally Rand was a well-known "exotic dancer" at the Chicago World's fair back in the 30's. She was best known for being clever about hiding the "naughty bits" behind stragetically placed balloons. If you have a product that won't be out for a bit, you're not going to spoil the surprise by revealing all. But giving out enough "information" to keep the audience interested is always a good idea....)
Posted by lsefton at September 22, 2003 01:08 PM