Forgive the cheesy title, but yes I gave a presentation at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising (TfMA) show last week where I talked about the place of content and in web or digital engagement. Or as marketing put it in the show guide synopsis:  ”The importance of good content management and governance as a [...]

The Center for
Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth conducted a
study on social media by Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson on the usage of social
media in fast-growing corporations. All interviews took place in October and
November of 2009. The 2009 study looks again at the Inc. Magazine 500 social
media usage for the third consecutive year, allowing for a longitudinal study
of corporate use of social media.

In 2007, the study
found that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional and larger Fortune
500 companies in their use of social media. For example, with blogs, the 2007
some research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared
to 19% of the Inc. 500. This difference continued in 2008 with 16% of the
Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39% of the Inc. 500. And it appears the Inc. 500’s
lead in blogging will continue in 2009 with the Inc. 500 now blogging at a rate
of 45%.

This research shows that
social media continues to penetrate parts of the business world at a fast rate.
In all three studies, questions looked at with six prominent social media
(blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards and
wikis).  In 2009, several new tools
were added including Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and MySpace.

Social networking continues
to be the most familiar social media tool to the Inc. 500 with 75% of
respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in
2008). Twitter’s has captured “share of mind” in the first year of being
studied with sixty-two percent of executives reported being familiar with it.

Looking across the three
years, social networking and blogging have have continued to grow in adoption,
the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off
or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a
microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that
52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.

Forty-three percent of the
2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their
business/marketing strategy and 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one
social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008). In addition, as they ramp up
their usage, the Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves
legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by
their employees.

This is consistent with
other studies I have seen in the past two years. It is nice to see the
continued increase in social media use by business. It also makes sense. 

Alterian has conducted its
seventh annual survey on online marketing. This year’s sample covered 1068
marketing professionals worldwide. It found that 66 percent of respondents will
be investing in social media marketing in the next 12 months. Where is the
money coming from in an ear of tight budgets? The survey found that 40 percent
of those investing in social media marketing said they would be shifting more
than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards funding their
social media marketing activities. This supports other statistics from the
Alterian survey that found that the majority of respondents (67 percent) feel
social media is either ‘increasingly important’ or ‘critical to success.’ I have seen similar results in other studies and through my own experience. 

The survey also found
that 36 percent of respondents are investing in social media monitoring and
analysis tools. It is a growing field and I have discussed a number of them on
this blog. This is a significant percentage, considering the maturity of the
channel. It appears to reflect a growing understanding that a social media
marketing strategy needs to be based on listening to customers and prospects
and its ROI needs to be measured. However, the 64 percent who are not planning
this investment may be left behind, as you need to see what impact your efforts
achieve, as well as what customers are saying about you.

The research also
explored the importance of customer engagement, a critical component to success
in the opinion of many, a view I share. It found that over half of respondents
(51 percent) are placing a ‘fair’ or ‘significant’ amount of effort on moving
from a campaign-centric direct marketing model towards multi-channel customer
engagement – in fact only 7 percent are making no effort at all.  This is good news.

The Web and social
media continues to change marketing, whether it is for products or politicians.
The same holds for traditional news media as many long time news providers have
found out too late. It appears that some marketing professionals have awakened
to this change and are making steps to take advantage of it. 2010 will be an
interesting year for business applications of social media, both inside and
outside the enterprise.

Social media is all the hype and for some reason a presence on Facebook seems like a definitive must for most companies. Judging from their Facebook presence many significant vendors seem to be better at talking than walking. Join marketing communication vendor Alterian and their 36 fans without any activity at all or become global CMS vendor FatWire’s 11th fan.

Facebook for business purposes has been heavily debated among experts and vendors alike since around 2007. Last year I asked when organisations would begin to take Facebook seriously and highlighted global pharmaceutical Merck and their less than 500 fans. As you’ll see below, vendors are not much better, even though they claim thought-leadership in social media.

As with most other new initiatives the usual best practice recommendation is that you should only get involved in Facebook, if you can dedicate enough time to manage it properly. Just like with my recent posting on mobile CMS vendors, this might be just another example of vendors not “eating their own dog food”. Still, I wonder why many vendors are not following any sorts of best practices?

Let’s take a look at a few vendors. Judge for yourself whether the vendor is doing a good job.

Alterian
36 fans is not very impressive for a vendor which prides itself on a strong social media offering. Note the complete lack of activity.

Autonomy
Claiming to be the leader in meaning-based computing and enterprise search, Autonomy has gathered only 49 fans. Note the complete lack of activity on the Wall.

Day Software
Unlike most who take Facebook seriously, Day has kept their old Facebook group and not migrated it to a page. Interesting how the wall has been visited by what looks like a spammer.

FatWire
14 fans is not many for one of the leading Web CMS vendors. To keep some momentum, FatWire posts press mentioning to their fans. A good use case for Facebook?

Percussion Software
Similar to direct competitor FatWire, Percussion has no real interaction on Facebook, but simply posts press releases to their group of 46 fans. Perhaps this is the future of press releases?

What can we learn?
It seems like Facebook is an arena in which both vendors and customers still have a lot to learn. Just like the famous Web Pages That Suck site teaches us something about worst practices by looking at bad web design, we can learn from looking at the worst vendors on Facebook.

Clearly to make the most of Facebook you need interaction. Interaction requires critical mass and more thought that just blindly posting press releases.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Box.net.  In case you missed it, I basically called their term for their solution, which I refuse to use again, “market speak” and hype while implying much worse.

A week later, Aaron Levie, the CEO and cofounder of Box.net, was interviewed on Fierce Content Management.  Here he espoused a solid vision for Box’s hosted version of Content Management, though that term was heavily featured, again.

During all this, a very surprising thing thing happened, Aaron contacted me and asked if we could setup a time to chat so that I might better understand their vision.  I accepted his offer.  Our scheduled meshed today and I thought I would share.

Kudos to Box

I just want to send Kudos to Aaron for reaching out.  I wasn’t kind to their term, and to reach out like that, knowing that a second post would likely follow, takes a certain amount of gumption.  For it not to be someone in marketing and be the CEO himself, even more.  The only pre-determination was if the conversation was public or private. He choose public.

That said, character will only get you so far.  You have to deliver and have a direction.  They have a good vision.  They are trying to achieve Omnipresent Content Management now.  They are starting down that road towards realization of that vision.

Oh, they have some rather large hurdles in front of them.  Identity Management is a big massive humongous one, but they, at best, can only be part of the solution as the world at-large needs to have a solution.  They are trying to have the content live in the right places, so that is a start.

Okay, funny part.  I think I sold him on CMIS more than he sold me on Box.net.  My biggest, and probably only, real issue entering the conversation was their marketing term.  Like many, they hadn’t fully grasped the potential of CMIS and how it could actually drive business for them.  The fact that he seemed to “get it” will help them in the future.

Taking it to the Business

It is one thing to enable the populace to share documents with each other.  They’ve already passed Google Docs on that front in my opinion.  It is another thing to support business.  Let’s face it, that is where the real money needed to create a true platform is long-term.

They are trying to establish trust.  They aren’t hiding behind pay-to-play for individual users.  They are also being audited for SAS 70 statement.  That takes a little faith, and a commitment to achieve sound operating standards.  Maintaining that over time, and not letting it be a one-time thing, is important.

Aaron told me that they are seeing solid traction in smaller to medium sized businesses (SMBs), which is think is their current core market.  From experience, non-profits would also benefit.  He also said that they are seeing departmental use in larger organizations.  I suspect that some of those efforts are born out of frustration  from trying to get things done in a bureaucracy (which is itself a solid market niche that can lead to larger footprints).

Is Box.net ready to tackle ECM solutions head-on? No. Are they on the path to get there? Yes.  Will people go with them now because it is simple? Yes.

I wrote a basic ECM checklist back in December.  They are well on their way overall and have basic routing already.  While they are seeking to be broader than ECM and move beyond the Enterprise, and corporate firewalls, they still need to provide the same core technology to serve the broader audience.

That Pesky Term

I did concede one thing to Aaron.  I said that I understood why they used the offending term and why it is a good marketing term.  They are a cloud-based application residing in the SaaS layer.  There is no denying that or the current fashionable use of the word cloud.  They provide Content Management functionality.  I’ll give them that, though it is more Document Management at this point (I think CMS Watch might agree) than Content Management.

I can only hope that the winds of change will force the evolution to a new term in the next couple of years so we can all be spared.  If the term sticks, I will have to get out of Information Management.

Besides, CCM already means Component Content Management.  OCM is cool, but as I said, nobody is ready to offer that yet.

The correct term will be obvious one day.  It just isn’t now.

Disclaimer

Just so it is crystal clear, to you and the FTC, Box.net has given and promised me nothing aside from time.  Aaron did say that he was considering what it will take for me to type or utter their marketing term outside of my nightmares, but that hasn’t happened and it was in jest.

Besides, EMC is a partner of my company and their reps will buy me the occasional beverage.  It doesn’t stop me from issuing a regular dose of brutal honesty to them.

In today’s economic environment business and marketing professionals are having a difficult time justifying technology spending- and that includes the purchase of a brand new web content management system.

The justification for this major investment might seem hard to make, but delaying the purchase or piecing together an in-house solution can cost you more in the long run and severely impact your brand. Here are four rock solid points to help you make the business case for an investment in an enterprise web content management system (WCMS).

1.  Demonstrate Increased Revenue

By streamlining and centralizing content creation, a new or revamped WCMS boosts your revenue by allowing content reuse and re-purposing across multiple websites, channels, and, if you’re a global enterprise, in multiple languages.  Additionally, a WCMS simplifies workflow and provides robust analytic measurement capabilities to keep you focused on the timely updates of content that makes you money rather than wasting it.

A best-in-class enterprise web content management system will also have an integrated suite of online marketing tools that will help you achieve business objectives, like increasing conversion rates and building brand loyalty. Here are a few examples:
Brand management tools Email campaign tools Target audience marketing Website personalization Another revenue generating benefit of a top-rated WCMS is faster time to market.  Imagine launching a multichannel marketing campaign or a new product in just a few days, rather than a few weeks or even months.  What would this mean to your business in terms of increased sales or leads/

2.  Demonstrate Decreased Operational Costs

With the right WCMS, you will spend less money on updating your website and avoid the inefficient practice of copying and pasting content across various pages. Centralized design elements and templates can be created once and then instantaneously integrated across your website. WCM helps you save money on labor, protect your brand and get it right the first time. Most enterprise web content management systems are easy to use.  One of the major reasons organizations invest in web content management is because it empowers content creators (marketing teams, for example) to create, manage, modify, and publish content themselves- without IT involvement.  Consider the savings of hundreds of IT hours on an annual basis, not to mention the increased efficiency

3.  Calculate Probable ROI

Due to the economic environment, the concept of ROI is on the tip of everyone’s tongue when discussing technology investment. Don’t worry: an best-in-class enterprise web content management system almost always provides a sizable ROI. In addition to saving costs and boosting your revenue, a good WCMS interface comes with a high degree of usability. This means you can accelerate and simplify projects such as site development, implementation and content creation.

4.  Think Beyond ROI

In addition, a WCMS can provide benefits that supersede ROI.  Next generation web content management systems can really help to protect brand equity online and across multiple channels. For large companies, branding remains one of your most important assets and good customer perception is integral for continued success.  A next generation WCM system allows you to build and maintain your brand with minimal hiccups. Even if you come up with initial ROI figures that are lower than you want, maintaining your brand equity and providing the ideal user experience across multiple channels is enough to make the business case for updating your WCM strategy today.



I smiled at this the other day -”Software Developers: The New Rock Stars of Marketing” - it comes from the article  ’Out of the Box’ published a few weeks ago in the UK Financial Times, that talks about the role of technology in marketing in the new media age. The smile is because this is pinned up [...]

All modern CMS vendors claim to be capable of delivering content to mobile devices. Some even offer additional modules to make the implementation faster and easier. However, as a customer, how do you separate marketing from reality? We decided to explore how seriously the vendors treat mobile devices and took a look at their websites through a mobile device. As expected, the results were quite mixed.

Even when I used to work at a CMS vendor myself back in 1999 – 2002, customers would regularly require to have content delivered to mobile devices. Back then most customers did not go ahead and implement mobile services, but that has certainly changed today. The arrival of the iPhone in particular has made this development spiral. The mobile Web has rapidly moved far beyond the early adopters.

To be fair to vendors, some customers may still not know exactly know what they want and are simply “ticking the box” when they ask for mobile support. Still, it seems reasonable to expect vendors to “eat their own dogfood” now that they claim their product supports mobile devices so easily. I can imagine several use cases where customers might want to visit a vendor website on a mobile device, eg. for contact details and to read news.

Here’s the vendor and open source project websites that we visited:

It would seem like a clear majority of vendors still have a long way to go. Congrats to Plone, Sitecore and WordPress on jobs well done.

For additional details on mobile delivery, including some specialized products, CMS Watch analyst Apoorv Durga have written a posting on Content Management for Mobile Delivery

Thanks to @athraen, @BrianBentzen, @jdavidhobbs and @s2d_jamesr for helpful input.

NB: Yes, I recognize that this blog and this site does not look pretty on most mobile devices. We’re working on it

Last week I attended the Webtrends Engage 2010 event in New Orleans. See this weekend for my reports on eating and live music in New Orleans. I covered some of the sessions on this blog. While there I had a
chance to speak with their CEO, Alex
Yoder, on an individual basis.  We
went over some of the major directions for the company.  Alex started by saying their core
principle was openness.  They are
culturally open as a company. They provide direct access to everyone, including
himself.

As part of this directive of
openness they recently provided access to their knowledge base to the general
public. This included how-to-dos for their products, bugs, fixes and other
company information that had been behind a firewall and only previously
accessible to customers. Now it is available to anyone on the Webtrends site.

They are also sharing the
lessons that they have learned inside their company. Alex said that they deal
with many of the same issues that their clients face so they can learn from
each other. This sharing also helps to build a stronger sense of community with
their clients.

On the technology side they
partner with a number of providers to round out their capabilities. These
include Radian 6 on the front end and Teradata on the back end. Alex said that
things are moving too fast for one firm to say that they can do everything. It
is often better to partner than to build.

They are also open from a
technology perspective. They provide open APIs for both data extraction and
data collection, one of the few firms to do both. On the data extraction side they
allow for integration of their data into other tools within the enterprise.
This helps Web analytics to get out of silos and into executive dashboards for
greater visibility. Their data on customer activity can also go into CRM
systems to allow for more complete customer records. Their findings can also
trigger action-based emails to employees to promote proper responses.

On the data collection side
Webtrends can incorporate data where Javascript cannot go. They can look at
anything that is digital, such as the records of in-store transactions, to
provide a complete record of customer activity.  They can also work with certain mobile devices.

Looking in the future Alex
said that Webtrends will continue to further optimize customer interactions.
There is a lot of marketing money flowing from traditional media into social
media. Webtrends wants to expand its support in this growing space. Mobile
devices is another growth area where they are working to enhance their
offerings. As marketing people need to work across a broader array of channels,
Webtrends wants to provide for better campaign management and coordination
across all of these channels.

Alex brought up gaming
consoles as another device where there is both marketing and analytic
possibilities. He recently received a Playstation3 for Christmas. It has a
large hard drive and an Internet browser. He can do email and chat and play
games remotely with others. Communities are developing around these games and
these communities will be fruitful targets for related marketing activities.

Alex said that his gaming
console has also taken away the need for cable TV as he can get what he wants
online. I have many friends who have also dropped cable and use their laptop
for TV through services such as Hulu.  When people watch TV through an online device there is much
greater opportunity to collect data and interact with viewers than the
traditional TV set. Alex said that the gaming console will likely become a channel
for direct response ads in the near future. It already has some ads and related
product information.

The same injection of
intelligence is occurring as people switch to Kindles and other online readers
such as the new Apple iPad. When you drop a print newspaper on a front door you
have no way of tracking what people do with it. With online readers there is a
whole range of data collection opportunities.

Alex closed by saying that
Webtrends is defined by its relationships. These include customer
relationships, relationships with the broader community, and the relationships
that its customers establish with their customers. Having grown up in New
Orleans I added that people here really appreciate the help that comes through
bringing events like Engage to their city. Alex said that this event is also
part of their plan to better support communities.  They have moved a number of the Engage activities out of the
hotel and into the city. 

Last week I attended the Webtrends Engage 2010 event in New Orleans. See this weekend for my reports on eating and live music in New Orleans. I covered some of the sessions on this blog. While there I had a
chance to speak with their CEO, Alex
Yoder, on an individual basis.  We
went over some of the major directions for the company.  Alex started by saying their core
principle was openness.  They are
culturally open as a company. They provide direct access to everyone, including
himself.

As part of this directive of
openness they recently provided access to their knowledge base to the general
public. This included how-to-dos for their products, bugs, fixes and other
company information that had been behind a firewall and only previously
accessible to customers. Now it is available to anyone on the Webtrends site.

They are also sharing the
lessons that they have learned inside their company. Alex said that they deal
with many of the same issues that their clients face so they can learn from
each other. This sharing also helps to build a stronger sense of community with
their clients.

On the technology side they
partner with a number of providers to round out their capabilities. These
include Radian 6 on the front end and Teradata on the back end. Alex said that
things are moving too fast for one firm to say that they can do everything. It
is often better to partner than to build.

They are also open from a
technology perspective. They provide open APIs for both data extraction and
data collection, one of the few firms to do both. On the data extraction side they
allow for integration of their data into other tools within the enterprise.
This helps Web analytics to get out of silos and into executive dashboards for
greater visibility. Their data on customer activity can also go into CRM
systems to allow for more complete customer records. Their findings can also
trigger action-based emails to employees to promote proper responses.

On the data collection side
Webtrends can incorporate data where Javascript cannot go. They can look at
anything that is digital, such as the records of in-store transactions, to
provide a complete record of customer activity.  They can also work with certain mobile devices.

Looking in the future Alex
said that Webtrends will continue to further optimize customer interactions.
There is a lot of marketing money flowing from traditional media into social
media. Webtrends wants to expand its support in this growing space. Mobile
devices is another growth area where they are working to enhance their
offerings. As marketing people need to work across a broader array of channels,
Webtrends wants to provide for better campaign management and coordination
across all of these channels.

Alex brought up gaming
consoles as another device where there is both marketing and analytic
possibilities. He recently received a Playstation3 for Christmas. It has a
large hard drive and an Internet browser. He can do email and chat and play
games remotely with others. Communities are developing around these games and
these communities will be fruitful targets for related marketing activities.

Alex said that his gaming
console has also taken away the need for cable TV as he can get what he wants
online. I have many friends who have also dropped cable and use their laptop
for TV through services such as Hulu.  When people watch TV through an online device there is much
greater opportunity to collect data and interact with viewers than the
traditional TV set. Alex said that the gaming console will likely become a channel
for direct response ads in the near future. It already has some ads and related
product information.

The same injection of
intelligence is occurring as people switch to Kindles and other online readers
such as the new Apple iPad. When you drop a print newspaper on a front door you
have no way of tracking what people do with it. With online readers there is a
whole range of data collection opportunities.

Alex closed by saying that
Webtrends is defined by its relationships. These include customer
relationships, relationships with the broader community, and the relationships
that its customers establish with their customers. Having grown up in New
Orleans I added that people here really appreciate the help that comes through
bringing events like Engage to their city. Alex said that this event is also
part of their plan to better support communities.  They have moved a number of the Engage activities out of the
hotel and into the city.