John Porcaro Consulting

New York for $350

New York for $325

• RT Airfare, Seattle to JFK: $219
• One night, The Pod Hotel: $104 (free Internet)
• RT Subway: $4
• RT Airtrain: $10
• Lunch: 4.50
• Dinner/Breakfast/Lunch: included with meeting
• Dinner: $4.98
• Turkey Sandwich on plane: $8

Around here, everyone is focused on saving money where they can.  While I was looking for a flight and hotel from Seattle to NYC for an all-day meeting I attended, I found a round trip, direct flight for $219.   That inspired me to see just how little it would cost for the entire trip. 

The lowest discount rate at every hotel downtown was more than $300 a night, so I thought I'd check around. For one-night meetings, I've stayed near the airport, so I thought I could find something a little less expensive.  

I logged off our corporate travel portal, and checked out Expedia.  When I searched on price, I found The Pod for $89.  Expedia rated the hotel with 2.5 stars (of 5), but it earned a 4.3 for User Satisfaction, and 94% recommend it.  Add my name to that list.  New hotel.  Good neighborhood, just a few blocks from Times Square.  One block from an express subway from JFK.  A few blocks from the meeting location, and one block from the place we met for dinner the night before (BTW, world's best guacamole, Dos Caminos). 

The Pod Hotel (my new favorite "anti-W" place to stay) is a cross between a very, very nice hostel where you don't have to bring your own sheets, and a very, very small full-service hotel.  The hotel lobby was as nice as many niche hotels in NYC (hip artwork, nice furnature, professional staff, bellman, even a decent cafe).  The lobby had several business travelers in suits, and several college-age visitors. 

 

The rooms themselves had good beds, clean linen, air conditioner, a flat-screen TV, phone with free local calls, a clock radio with iPod dock, a small desk, a room safe, and a trundle-type full-size bed.  It also had a small vanity sink/mirror and a hair dryer.  And free wi-fi Internet. 

Two catches: 1) It was small.  The entire room was (no kidding) 6 feet by 12 feet.  Sitting on the trundle bed my feet hit one wall, and my head the other.  But if you're looking for a place to do a little work and get some sleep, it was as comfortable many full-priced hotels (think Holiday Inn, not Starwood).  2) Shared bathrooms--no kidding.  There are lights in the room that indicate when the bathrooms (four on the floor I was on) were empty.  For the record, I never saw anyone in the halls heading to/from the bathrooms.  And they were very clean (though they had been used by others, evidenced by water in the shower floor and towels in a corner).  In my case, there was a bathroom right next door, very easy to get to. 

Who does The Pod Hotel owe for getting my business?  Expedia, for starters.  And a decent website that made me feel like the hotel was legit.  But ultimately, if there weren't recommendations from people who had stayed there, I wouldn't have made the decision to stay there.  And now, they have one more advocate with a story worth sharing.  In "Purple Cow" terms, the experience was "remarkable." 

Getting to downtown from JFK took a little time, about 50 minutes from the time I walked out of the airport.  The Air Train cost $5 each way, and the subway to downtown (the E train) cost $2.  A direct cab during the day would probably take 25 minutes, but last time I took a cab from downtown to JFK during rush hour, it took 90 minutes and cost $100. 

The catch: 1) Dragging your luggage on a subway isn't fun, but an overnight trip only required a small wheeled bag--not bad.  I usually take the subway from JFK, so I knew where to go.  2) Coming home during rush hour was crowded (I stood most of the time), and it was humid and hot in the subway.  Not as pleasant as a cab with air conditioning taking you from door to door, but it took nearly the same amount of time (it might have even been quicker getting there during rush hour), and cost 1/10 of the price. 

Fiscally sound?  Or a little crazy?  I'm not sure.  But I do have a good story to tell when we're discussing ways to cut travel expenses. 

Addicted to Twitter

Tonight I had dinner with some fellow WOMMA board members in NYC.  I'm always impressed when I have a chance to meet with this group of people.  I got to have dinner with fellow Seattle-ite, Rod Brooks. 

Rod mentioned that he's been addicted to Twitter.  There are days I keep TweetDeck open on my screen, and watch the flow of comments coming in.  During E3 last week, I kept an active search for #xboxe3.  There are other times where I can go a week or two without logging in (although because i use ping.fm to update my Facebook status, it also sends my status out to Twitter, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, and MySpace, making me seem more present than I actually am). 

When I mentioned that there are times I only monitor Twitter occasionally, Rod said he didn't think he could go without it for too long.  In fact, during the meeting we were in, he pulled out his cell phone and asked a few questions we were discussing as a group, and shared a responses he'd gotten after only a few minutes.  Pretty useful, this whole "micro-blogging" thing.

For those that might still be struggling with how Twitter can be useful, there are a few ways it's useful.  TwitterMaven has a good list of links to find out more.  Here's my quick take: 

1. Twitter is a way to listen in on dozens of real-time conversations.  Want to know what people are saying about your product?  Start with Google (or Microsoft's bing!). Want to know what people are saying about your product *right now*?  Use search.twitter.com. 

2. Twitter is a great way to get messaging out to your community, and in some cases, your PR contacts.  Journalists will follow anyone who can help give them insight, and most are using Twitter. 
3. Twitter is a great way to take part in a conversation.  It's rare that when you ask your followers a question, they won't answer.  Even Ashton Kutcher will respond to intelligent questions from one of his 2.1 million followers.  How cool is that? 

Twitter might not be the cool new thing in a year.  But the concept of real-time multi-user, opt-in multi-participant, authentic, unfiltered conversations isn't going away. 

BTW, thanks, Oprah, for making Twitter a household name. 

Who Are These Pre-Teens Anyway?

Lately the topic of Pre-Teens comes up more and more, especially as we develop marketing plans for Project Natal (check out Milo and Kate to see what kinds of things are coming).  I think it's great that my kids can be my very own focus group, and though I'm not "Super Dad" by any means, I spend a lot of time, attention, and--er--money on my four pre-teens (ages 7 to 12). 

One thing I can tell you is that targeting pre-teens as a group is almost impossible.  And not especially effective.  My 7 year old girl (or for that matter my 9 year old girl) is as different as can be than my 12-year old son. 

They don't play the same games. One of my boys likes music games like Rock Band, and the other likes RPGs and FPSs (thank goodness for Parental Controls).  My 9 year old daughter would rather play games on the PC than the Xbox 360, and my 7 year old rarely plays the Xbox 360 (gasp!--I can't even market to her effectively, and I'm somewhat an infuencer in her world--and in the family gatekeeper, her mom!). 

They don't value the same things (pleasing parents isn't at the top of my 12 year old's list of motivations).  My daughter thinks it cool when I chaperone her field trips, and still wants to hold my hand when she crosses the street.  My boy wants to pretend he doesn't know me when I chaperone his PTO activites. 

They don't eat the same kinds of food.  One of our kids is conscientious about what she eats, and tries to avoid too much junk food.  Another can't get enough sugar.  My 12 year old is learning to cook, and he likes things that are homemade more than packaged.  They're actually getting tired of pizza, and their taste is evolving away from McDonalds to towards Red Robin. 

They don't watch the same TV shows.  My 12 year old isn't watching Disney Channel. My 9 year old boy wants to be like his 12 year old brother, but he still thinks Drake and Josh are funny.  My 9 year old daughter would rather play outside than watch TV, but likes iCarly, and watching American Idol with her mom.  My 7 year old still likes kids' shows like Words World, and gets nightmares when she watches scary parts of movies. 

They don't wear the same clothing brands.  Wearing an Xbox 360 shirt makes my boys cooler with their friends.  My daughter will wear Microsoft tee shirts, but only at home when she's playing or working. 

So it turns out that having one view of what a "Pre-teen" is could really limit how effective you are at reaching them with the right message.  Come to think of it, nobody matches their "demographic profile".  The trick is finding ways to efficiently reach smaller and smaller target markets with authentic, relevant messaging.  Easier said than done! 

thinks his kids'll get off the couch with controller-free gaming, codename Project Natal http://ping.fm/PNlUN

quotes Time Mag: "The best jobs will be for people who manage customers, who organize fans, who do digital community management." http://ping.fm/2C7uj

Word of Mouth Marketing Association University

I'm at WOMMA's WOMM-U, a two-day deep dive into all things Social.  Halfway through the program, and I already have pages of notes, and dozens of ideas for optimizing our efforts.  You can watch what's happening real-time, at www.womma.org/wommu. 

is heading to WOMMU to get the latest and greatest on word of mouth and social networking...

Yep, We're All Experts

From MarketingSherpa:

Two-thirds of marketers who work for organizations that have not used any form of social media marketing or PR consider themselves “very knowledgeable” or “somewhat knowledgeable” about this emerging strategy. Their overconfidence in unproven ability can doom social media initiatives to failure.

The New Cluetrain Manifesto

I shouldn't speak so casually about the book that has fueled my passion for nearly a decade, The Cluetrain Manifesto.  But in the last 24 hours, my mind has been racing with a new vision of what's possible. 

And it came in the form of a product pitch.  By an agency that happens to be owned by Microsoft. 

Read "Trends in Social Influence Marketing," part of the recently-published Digital Outlook Report 2009 by Razorfish. 

(Full disclosure, I work for Microsoft, but I don't work with Razorfish personally or professionally.) 

Recap of WOMMA Summit 2008

I just finished participating in a 3-day summit of WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and wanted to share some key learnings.  I wanted to be brief.  I failed.  Read on for the key takeaways.  Too tired to add citations, and I hope I got all the numbers right (can't read my notes sometimes...)

 

WOMMA Site

WOMMA Summit Live Blog

WOMMA Summit Presentations

 

Key Takeaways:

·         Focus on Customer Experience is universally cited as the most important driver of success.  Every touch point with a customer, offline or online, is a chance to either build our brand promise, or erode our brand promise.  Zappos CEO talked about the importance of infusing customer experience into culture of the company. Winning hearts and minds doesn’t mean winning “minds.”  We can’t use logic and product features to win hearts. 

·         Bad economy increases need for WOM.  Customers are more careful, more discerning, and will ask for opinions before purchasing.    In tough economic times, the customer with the lowest cost to acquire is the one we already have.  

·         Integrated Marketing as vital to success , according to the biggest companies here (Kraft, P&G, Unilever, Prudential, Pepsi, PBS).  When WOM initiative is part of advertising, online marketing, CRM, community, events, each discipline benefits. 

·         Measurement of WOM activity should focus on organizational goals, not simply reach or page views or clicks or conversions.  Companies that work in silos can optimize for many measures, except customer experience.  Return on “Insight” can be as important as Return on Investment (are we learning from what customers are saying?). 

·         Advertising should target influencers as well as prospects.  Advertising gives influencers the “language of the brand” that they will use in conversation.  Are customers talking about our products in a way that highlights our brand promise?  27% of conversations about Movies is advertising-influenced messaging that continues to carry branded message, and 25.6% of conversations about tech products. 

·         Customer voice needs to be part of every system. 

·         Credibility must be protected/nurtured.  Credibility is gained by Trust, Authenticity, Transparency, Affirmation, Listening, and Responsiveness.  Customers leave a “digital trail” of their customer experience that is permanent, and affects decisions later because of Google, reviews, blogs, etc.  

·         “Fair Exchange of Value” is required for any customer engagement/participation (Customer Generated Content)—if customer doesn’t get value, a program won’t work.  If companies don’t get value, they will stop doing the program.

·         9% of population (Conversation Catalysts) make 22% to 26% of brand recommendations.  New forms of branded messaging are emerging.  NYT is doing branded editorials in Op Ed section—infuse story where influencers are learning/engaging.

·         Jupiter reports 70% of people won’t buy without reading customer reviews.  Customers share opinions online to help others (94%) and help companies improve (84%). It’s altruistic.  User reviews are overwhelmingly positive.  Across industries/products, user reviews average 4.3 of 5.  

·         70% of WOM happens offline.  But online has a 5X ROI because of less expensive reach.  Offline and Online WOM often take different trajectories, but videogames are closely correlated (interesting). 

·         Mobile is emerging as a key communication channel.  91M people in US use SMS, 36M use mobile WAP, 40% have access to mobile web. 

·         Best meat-inspired vehicle: The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. 

·         Worst Hotel.  The Rio.  Internet was flakey.  Rooms were old and smoky.  “Discount rate” was almost 2X the walk-in rate. 

·         The Cake Isn’t A Lie.  Despite the fact I spent my birthday away from home, I did get cake and the happy birthday song at the Voodoo Lounge.  J

 

A Few of my Favorite Best Practices

·         Petco: When Petco incorporated user reviews and moderated Q&A on product pages, conversion increased 72%.  Canadian Tire (Costco-type store in Canada) saw 67% decrease in support call volume when frequently asked questions had 3 user-submitted answers.

·         MESH planning is using mobile phones in the UK to track all “brand touch points”.  Participants text a message when they see one of several brands, report when/where/emotion, then fill out diary later.  Allows tracking of brands and sentiment across multiple media (OOH, radio, TV, conversation, online, mobile, print).

·         Pepsi worked with Keller Fay to measure impact of Superbowl advertising, together with online media and Pepsi Rewards Loyalty program.  They drove an additional 23.8 million conversations (online and off) about Pepsi in the 3 days after the Superbowl. 

 

Word of Mouth Marketing Ethics

As a member, Microsoft has agreed to the WOMMA Code of Ethics.  I'm firmly committed to them, have been for years.  In a nutshell, that means we agree to:

·         Be completely honest about our Relationship (transparency/disclosure), Opinion (won’t express an opinion we don’t share, and don’t tell consumers what to say) and Identity (no false identities, no anonymous misleading posts, full FTC regulation compliance) in all WOM marketing

·         Proactively encourage the same with anyone who is participating with us or sharing our message (press, community, vendors, partners) 

·         Respect the rules of the venue (that means knowing them).

·         Protect privacy and permissions of customers. 

·         Manage relationships with minors responsibly (and don’t include anyone under 13 in any WOM program). 

Video from Today's Panel Presentation

Gotta love UStream... 

Speaking Today at WOMMA Conference

I'm excited to be part of a panel today hosted by my friend, Sam Decker.  Hopefully we'll hae a lively session, share some ideas, and make a little sense of this important area of marketing. 

You can watch a live feed today and tomorrow, or check out the live blog.  I'll try to get a summary when I can. 

Brands Speak: Secrets of Prioritizing and Growing Your Social Marketing StrategyBrands Speak: Secrets of Prioritizing and Growing Your Social Marketing Strategy

Moderator: Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice
Panelists:
• Christine Morrison, Social Media Marketing Manager, Intuit
• John Porcaro, Director of Customer and Community Relations
  Management, Microsoft, Xbox Global Marketing
• Sarah Superfon, Director of Interactive Marketing and Direct
  Response, Philosophy

The biggest social media challenge brands face is figuring out what to do first. Then, of course, there's the matter of blending WOM initiatives with traditional marketing activities. This panel of social and online marketing executives will explore how they go about prioritizing and sustaining growth with social strategies. You will learn how they harness the power of community and influencers, how they have developed their strategies, integrated them into their marketing operations, and the results of what they’ve executed so far. These initiatives include creating “authentic” marketing messaging, ratings & reviews, customer storytelling, tapping into social networking sites, blogs, videos, customer idea/voting, and more.

This panel will also explore the following quesitons:
• How do you weave social media into the marketing mix?
• How do you bring voice of customer into the message
   and purchase decisions?
• How do you prioritize marketing spend on social initiatives?
• How to think about or measure ROI on these initiatives? What
   are results so far?
• What does management really think of these initiatives, and how
   do you get their engagement?

Oh I Wish...

The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile is here at WOMMA.  I remember the jingle from my childhood.  I'm not sure my kids do, though.  And we eat a lot of hot dogs. 

 

Raising the Stakes in Viral Video

EA is one of the videogames that understands their customers, has a sense of humor, and is able to create video content that actually is worth sending around. 

This video is in response to customers reporting a "glitch" in the game that caused Tiger Woods to appear to walk on water...

Getting a Job in the Videogame Industry

What are your employees telling people about your company?  They can be some of the best (and/or worst) recruiters, and with the rise of social media, everyone will get some camera time sooner or later. 

Rio Pesino is a gamer, and runs The Reboot, a site for videogame enthusiasts.  He did a piece that was fun to watch, and interesting.  And not done by a corporation for recruiting purposes.  Where'd I find it?  It found me.  On my Facebook news feed.

Alex's Surgery

Thanks for everyone who wished my son Alex well, on his hydrocele surgery yesterday--not serious, but not fun.  He's up and running around already (even though his doctor would hate to hear that). 

We had a GREAT experience at Children's Hospital in Seattle.  Great doctors, nurses, staff.  Fun waiting rooms.  Very kid-friendly.  And they knew how to put Alex at ease. 

Summing Up the Past Week

I took this picture on my drive home last week.  Perfectly summed up the week I had. 

Not all s**t storms are caused by nature... 

More on Liquid Manure Application Methods from the Colorado State University Agriculture Extension.

Online PR - Can We All Keep Up?

A few weeks ago, I was involved in what amounted to an “industrial accident” when we released some confidential information before its embargo time, despite pledging it wouldn't happen, and being very careful.  In my career, this has happened only once or twice, and it's always extremely painful. 

As I was describing what happened, it made me realize how much has changed in such a short time. 

We're nimble.  We're evolving.  We created a “Video News Release” as part of our communications plan.  In a short video, we summarized the news that we were going to announce at the biggest trade show for our industry, E3.  The plan was for it to go live immediately after our press conference, with our official press releases. 

About 30 minutes prior to our press conference starting, we're backstage at the auditorium, making preparations.  My co-worker gets a text message on his phone, and his face goes flush.  One of our community members tells him that we just leaked some confidential information.  You know that feeling when the blood rushes to your head, and you have to work to catch your breath?  I hope you never do.

The next two hours were a blur, as we tried to find out what happened.  We ran to our laptops, to plow through a flood of text messages and emails, and assess the damage.  And as soon as I knew what happened, I had to inform everyone I work with what had happened.  All as the press conference was happening a few steps away.

We didn’t do a blog post.  We didn’t publish any links to the video.  It wasn’t even on our “channel” page of the video host site. We didn’t email a link to anyone. We hadn’t even set up a blog post where we would embed the video, because we didn’t want the off-chance that it would leak.  What happened? 

Because it took time to upload the video, we pre-staged it on our host site, and set it to go live at 12:30.  Turns out, the video host server is on Eastern Time, and we’re on Pacific Time.  And we set up automatic pings to Twitter and iTunes when we post new videos.  Someone saw the notice on Twitter, opened the link to the video, and notified us. 

Maybe nobody would notice, since everyone who would report the news was sitting in the auditorium of our press conference, right?  Turns out most of the media sitting in the auditorium had laptops connected to wi-fi, or had cell phones with Internet access.  All it took was 6 minutes for someone to watch the video, pull out the major announcements, and post the news.  All before the press conference started.

Within a few minutes of the video going “live” on the host site, there were posts on the two biggest videogame blogs, Joystiq and Kotaku (>1 million daily views each), outlining some of our biggest announcements.  Luckily, we kept details of our two biggest announcements out of the video, in the event of a leak.  Good thing. 

Just a few years ago, none of this could have happened.  Look at the situation then:

• We didn’t publish news releases to a web site
• We didn’t have a way of notifying anyone when something was posted
• We weren’t actively working with community sites/bloggers
• We weren’t doing video news releases at all
• We weren’t posting any video content to external sites
• We didn’t do a “Social Media Release” or blog posts about our news
• We didn’t have a team Twitter account (for that matter, there was no Twitter)
• The media couldn’t react “real time.”  Most news was run through writers and editors before it went live
• Nobody could get online at press events.  The people attending, even with laptops, were offline. 
• Even if they could get online, nobody would have time to download a video, write a news story, and get it published, without spending at least a few hours.
• Even with a leak, there weren’t enough people online on a weekday morning to spread the news very far, critical mass would take hours.

Wow, a lot has changed in a short time.  What will things look like three years from now?  One year from now?  In six months? 

What the F**K is Social Media?

What The F**K is Social Media?

view presentation (tags: socialmediamarketing marketing web2.0 socialmedia)

Finally got around to looking at Marta Kagan's presentation. Best f***ing presentation I've seen in ages.  I LOVE this style of presentation.  And some very good points made throughout.   

On Being Human

Sometimes we struggle on how much authenticity we can exhibit online.  As an organization, Xbox  is commited to the WOMMA ROI code, and we won't ever say we like something if we don't. 

Today, I posted this to Gamerscore Blog, in an effort to provide my opinion on some new features coming to the Xbox 360.

I’m a Daddy Gamer…

One of the great things about having a blog is that it offers us each a place to give our opinions, and hopefully in a way that allows us to show that we’re more than corporate robots.  Most of you reading posts from this blog understand that we’re employees of a corporation, but we’re also members of the gaming community.  Because of that, we’re going to agree on some things, disagree on others, like some things, and dislike others.  I think it’s what makes our community great.

As a community team, we get to participate in the communities we love: Tony, Chris and Sara live and breathe harcore gaming, Nelson is the poster child for mainstream gamers, and I get to play Daddy gamer both at home, and at work.  Sometimes, we offer our opinions about things we like, or don’t like, to people who are like us.  And as a team, we’ve committed to being honest, authentic, and never say something we don’t mean.

Funny thing is, some of the things I once questioned have grown on me.  When I first heard the concept of GamerScore, it didn’t appeal to me—to my style of gameplay.  I’m not competitive, I won’t play something I don’t think is fun.  Before the Xbox 360 launched, I usually played without signing in at all.  Fast forward a few years, and I’m playing hours longer than usual, just to get a few Achievement Points so my GamerScore isn’t the lowest on our team (see the sidebar of the blog). 

When I first saw a demo of the new Xbox experience, I immediately felt drawn to it.

Because I’m such a visual person, the style appealed to me.  I love the idea of browsing my game library visually, and getting information about new games or PDLC in such a visual way. 

I like the idea of MMOGSGs (massively-multiplayer-online-game-show-games, my own made-up term for live server-based games), though it drives my wife crazy when I watch 1 vs. 100 and run the statistics after every decision. 

I really love the Party System, so I can hang out with my friends or family through several experiences, or chat as I walk through a slideshow of my photos with them (they may not love seeing 300 pictures of our latest weekend outing, but that's another issue). 

Because I have four “pre-teen” kids (and I can’t handle watching Camp Rock one more time), I love being able to watch a variety of NetFlix movies on my Xbox 360.  In fact, I already have Windows Media Center hooked up to NetFlix, so I can watch movies on my Xbox 360, but the new Xbox experience will make it even more seamless.

I like the idea of Avatars.  As I spend time with the developers, I sense the passion they have for every new feature, and I caught the vision they have for extending someone’s persona online.  I’m a Facebook junkie, because it allows me to present myself to my community in such a personal way, and learn so much about my friends.  So I really like the idea of a persistent, visual presence, that I can customize from day to day. It seems like it’s going to hit the sweet spot between being too cute and being too realistic.  Avatars should say something about me, in a fun, personal way, but not be so serious I have to spend hours tweaking to get it right. 

For more about the new Xbox experience, check out an article that was published today by Dean Takahashi, of an interview with John Schappert, where the Xbox LIVE VP describes more about the new Xbox experience. 

"VB: What was the thinking behind the changes to the (newly announced) Xbox Live dashboard interface? It’s your biggest change to what gamers see on the console since you introduced the Xbox 360 in 2005.

JS: We’re happy with the “blade” metaphor that we used in the original Xbox 360 interface. It was the first video game box where you could turn it on and enjoy games right from the hard drive through Xbox Live Arcade. You could buy games on Marketplace. As we added more and more content, it became more difficult to navigate. As we added more features — video marketplace, instant messaging, and video chat – we started to think of where we wanted to go in the future. We wanted to have it be more fun, simpler to use, easier to navigate, and more social. We wanted to think about features like Netflix. We have 20 million people now. They enjoy playing “Call of Duty 4,” “Halo 3″ and “Gears of War.” When we think of the next 20 million, they may enjoy those games but they also might enjoy a different level of experience. What we hoped we accomplished is an interface that the core will enjoy – because of its visual style, better search, more functionality — and more appealing and inviting for the new users buying our console. To me it is part of the puzzle. It’s about approachability, it’s about content, and it’s about price. We will go after all of those areas aggressively.

VB: What was the genesis of the Xbox Live avatars you introduced at the show?

JS: We are all gamers ourselves and we’ve enjoyed our own avatars in a multitude of games. We have had achievements on Xbox Live from day one. We’ve had gamer scores. We’ve had the (single identification) gamertag. People have their own web sites with XML links to our data. To me, avatars are a logical extension to give us countless ways to personalize our own styles. It’s not like we are using avatars to recreate the perfect human body. And it’s not too cutesy. It’s in the middle. It dresses up the core first-person shooter, who can be edgy. And the more casual player can dress up to look friendly."

Company Blogs in the Videogames Industry

Kotaku, a Gawker blog dedicated to videogames, did a nice article on the role of company-sponsored blogs in the videogames space.  Our blog, Gamerscore Blog, was mentioned.  Interesting read for anyone involved in company-written blogging. 

Hey, You Got Video Game Companies In Our Blogosphere

Fanboys cry w00t!

"Fanboy" was just added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (along with a personal favorite, "Mental Health Day"). 

w00t!

Wanna Job Doing Social Media? Do You Measure Up?

Andy Sernovitz posted a "job description" for someone expected to do social networking for a corporation.  He asked for suggestions on Twitter, and posted a response from Todd Defren.  How do you measure up?

1. A person who blogs or understands blogging and participates in social networks and online communities, has an understanding of web TV, podcasting, wikis and social bookmarking sites, and can translate that knowledge in to recommendations for the Company.  The experienced individual should understand the importance of ongoing monitoring and response speed in social networks. 
2. A person who is comfortable teaching social media to others. (Some internal evangelizing will be required.)    
3. A person who enjoys engaging in conversations, both on-line and off. 
4. An excellent writer. 
5. An independent thinker and task master. 
6. An insistence on honesty, transparency and integrity. 
7. A quick thinker and witty conversationalist/writer. 
8. The ideal candidate should have a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and should have his or her own blog already. 
9. The candidate would be expected to create a private Content Calendar so that s/he has material to talk about based on the Company’s announcement schedules.  Of course, s/he can blog about lighter topics along the way.  The candidate should have the authority to conduct written or video interviews w/ execs and/or the occasional guest blog post.  S/he should have companywide authority to track down anyone at any level to get answers that have been posed outside the Company. 
10. The candidate should be focused on content creation,  but s/he will also work w/ the PR Team and PR Agency to develop overall communications strategies and rapid response plans. 
11. Recommended reading: on Twitter, the candidate should start following @Comcast_cares, @RichardatDell, @Zappos, @JetBlue, and @Southwest.  The candidate should also subscribe via RSS to Jeremiah Owyang’s Web-Strategy blog as well as other PR and marketing-oriented blogs found in the AdAge Power150.

Only thing I'd add is that the person should be a good on-camera spokesperson who will resonate with your core customer (or at least the target of the content you create). You won't see me in too many of the videos on our Xbox blog because I'm a 45-year-old--not exactly someone that an audience of 14-28 year olds would identify as a "gamer." :)

The Evolving Role of Online Communities

I had an interesting conversation today with some co-workers about the role of enthusiast communities in the videogame market.  We all recognize the value of our most passionate customers who spend their own time and money to build online community sites like Evil Avatar or Gamertag Radio or Talking About Games.  In fact, the last three employees I've added to the team have been bloggers or podcasters.  Their desire to gather information and share it has helped make the Xbox community what it is today.

As we move into a world where every company has a blog, every journalist has dozens of RSS feeds for instant access to news and inside information, and every customer has a Facebook or MySpace page, we're left considering how best to support these influential community leaders, and how to create and distribute information that resonates with our most engaged customers (while supporting our brand goals).

Several years ago, it was inefficient to share information with customers.  It was hard to create, requiring agencies and executive reviews and legal reviews, etc.  It was expensive to share, buying mailing lists, paying for advertising, pitching stories to magazines that served millions of people.  As online tools developed, customers were quicker to respond than companies. 

A few years ago, there were lots of bloggers and small sites hosting forums and discussion groups who were scrappy enough to find bits of interesting information and publish them.  Individuals appreciated the targeted information, and loved having conversations about something they were passionate with others like them.  As publishers, we found that there were lots of community sites full of passionate customers who loved hearing any kind of news about an upcoming product, so we created our own blog.  Perfect match: community with leveraged distribution model who only lacked information, together with a company with lots of information but no easy way to distribute it. 

Then along came the Wal-Mart of videogame blogs: Aggregators who were good at finding information from lots of smaller community sites and publishing it quickly.  Joystiq, Kotaku, and Destructoid became the "department store" of the videogame community, publishing rumors, reviews, opinions, news, a dozen or more times a day.  Pretty soon, Joystiq joined sites like Engadget that re-defined how information is delivered, and began increasing their reach into the millions of daily readers. 

Companies like ours began treating sites like Joystiq more as news sites than as a blog, and they soon learned that they had access to official and employee blogs usually reserved for community enthusiasts, as well as invitations to PR events, access to executives and pre-brief information reserved for official news sites. 

Fast forward to today.   I'm seeing fewer and fewer links from big news sites to smaller community sites.  I'm seeing more and more publishers creating their own content, rather than the old method of distributing assets and press releases to press sites in advance.  And I see individuals selectively sharing information they stumbled across on YouTube or Twitter with very small groups, maybe just a handful of Facebook or MySpace friends.  I've seen podcasters realizing that it's almost impossible to grow beyond a few thousand listeners (after 63 weekly podcasts, my team realized that, and we're rethinking how best to meet the goals we originally set for that kind of content). 

We've seen video become the preferred way to consume content, and we've seen the software and hardware required to create videos become available to almost anyone.   

Harkens back to my days in Business School, studying perfect competitions and supply/demand curves.  What happens when there's lots of information supply and everyone has access to publishing tools?  In information, the only differentiator is going to be quality.  Who is going to be the best at creating high quality content?  Publishers.  Who is going to be best at delivering high quality content?  Sites with enough money to pay a full-time, qualified staff, or a few charismatic, talented, or hard-working individuals who will be the cream to rise to the top. 

The next 6-12 months are going to be fascinating to watch. 

Happy Fiscal New Year!

We live our lives around Fiscal Years, here at Microsoft.  Hard to believe it's FY09!!! 

w00t!!