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CEOs and Technology : “Why CEOs Shouldn’t Blog” by Joe Queenan.

I enjoy reading the Chief Executive Magazine, but I don’t always agree with their viewpoint.
Joe Queenan’s article has some good points, and also describes the reality of the problems many CEOs face when considering blogging - especially legal issues. Even so,I think he’s [partially] wrong.

The CEO’s primary role is to make sure a company is profitable to the shareholders, and thus the CEO must look at how he best can spend his time to achieve this goal. It can be a difficult task as short-term and long-term objectives will impact the CEO’s actions. My suggestion: Writing a blog MAY be good use of his/her time.

While much of the Internet still is in a 1.0 state, Internet 2.0 requires a different relationship between a company, it’s employees and the general public. A blog is a great way to build such a relationship with a larger audience. Through a blog a CEO can inspire and show leadership on important issues. Corporate Social Responsibility must be taken seriously, and a blog is a possible way to show that a company really care. Of course, it’s also a way to very quickly show they do not care.

Does this mean that very CEO should blog? Absolutely not! If blogging has no value to the shareholders it may not be a priority at all.

Mr. Queenan writes: “Stripped to the core, blogging is a charitable hobbyist’s activity, a public service offered to the public pro bono. But as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Donald Trump and even Matt Drudge will tell you, if you’re not getting paid for it, it’s probably not worth a whole lot.”

hmmm … maybe he is right - but, for those interested, check out The Trump Blog and Donald J. Trump’s comments like: “Someone just wrote a book about me. It’s the biggest pile of garbage I’ve ever seen”

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger to WordPress December 6, 2005

CMO - The Resource for Marketing Executives - Home Page - CMO Magazine

I really like CMO. It has great articles, full of information for anyone interested in strategic marketing.

My last blog entry - a try to recreate parts of the work I lost the other day - was on the silos within an organization, with IT vs. other business units as an example.

So, when I noticed that an article on the CMO web site was on “Debunking the 4 Myths of the CMO vs the CIO” I just had to put another entry into my blog.

The article states: “Some level of harmony can be achieved. But first, each side has to give up its misperceptions about the other.”, then it goes on to list 4 myths about IT and Marketing:

Myth 1 - Marketing Is Art, Not Science
Myth 2 - IT Is a Black Box
Myth 3 - Neither IT Nor Marketing Is Mission Critical
Myth 4 - Two Departments, Two Agendas

For each myth, the author, Christopher Caggiano, performs a “reality check”.

To find out more you’ll have to read the article.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

infoeconomy on “Embedded IT: “IT has consistently struggled to build bridges with the rest of the organization, resulting in misunderstood requirements, failed projects and a lack of trust. Some companies are discovering a solution: plug staff directly into business units.”

The above is an extract from an article included in a recent ITBusinessEdge newsletter I received. While I’m a marketer, I keep being drawn back to reading technology stuff - especially things that discusses where IT and other business units meet.

I guess it’s “in my blood”. My MBA focused on both Marketing and MIS, while my undergraduate degree was on Management and Organizational Development. When I think about it … I did some MIS stuff there too - a course on Decision Support Systems.

After and between studies I’ve managed, researched, marketed, organized, analyzed, changed, trained and sold - pretty much touched on most departments an organization may have. Much of this work while in a marketing position, other parts were done as a part of management responsibilities. Not that this really matter, but it might help my readers better understand where I’m coming from.

In general I’m of the opinion that great marketing doesn’t really matter if the rest of an organization is not “ready”. If sales can’t sell, production not deliver in time and quality is lacking, then the need for marketing is minimal - at least in our emerging Internet 2.0 world where community and honesty becomes more important than ever.

In the same way, IT and other business units must work together. Today they often have different objectives - and the results of that show! While some of these objectives are important to everybody (I can’t see an online marketer not wanting a stable website or e-mail that only works every other day…), it is also important that we look at these objectives and the processes around them with the customers in mind.

There are different approaches. Alastair Muir talks about “Bridging Functional Silos to Achieve ‘Customer Impact” by using a SixSigma approach. There are other approaches as well.

When it comes to the “divide” between IT and other business units Muir’s article points out something really important - the customer. This is where the marketer in my gets really interested. By selecting the customer and their needs as the focus, I believe coordinating objectives, breaking down the silos if you like, becomes much easier.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger to WordPress December 6, 2005

UPDATE : I spoke to Randy last week. He pointed out this was a team effort by the Intrawest e-mail marketing team.

Note: This post moved from Blogger December 5, 2005

MarketingSherpa.com : Practical News & Case Studies on Internet Advertising, Marketing & PR: “Discover how Intrawest’s Email Marketing Director Randy Cuff has achieved the near impossible.”

Intrawest’s Randy Cuff gets great exposure in the latest marketingsherpa. Cool!

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger to WordPress December 6, 2005

Web 2.0 Marketing: “Web 2.0 Marketing >>> The Leading Edge”

I’ve enjoyed reading some of Sean Carton’s ClickZ articles.

His October 31 column was on Web 2.0 Marketing.

It’s great to see that discussions around Web 2.0 is starting to find it’s way into mainstream (at least for those involved in online marketing) marketing reference materials.

The article points out 6 rules for Web 2.0 Marketing:

• Remember you’re part of a community.
• Strike a balance between authentication and anonymity.
• Have some institutional guts.
• Avoid spin.
• Examine your motives.
• Get ready to work.

Web 2.0 is about relationships in a very different way. Honesty, caring and effort will work here as in most other relationships!

roar at roarweb dot com

Marketers, Meet AJAX: “Marketers, Meet AJAX”

In his ClickZ article, Sean Carton points out that marketers will have a measurent challenge with AJAX.

Why? No additional page views! In his words: “That’s right, no page views. The whole site can, in effect, be one huge “page.”

One of the great things with the web - from a marketers perspective - is that activities were measurable. Many people have stayed away from Flash due to the challenge of measurement and Search Engine visability. While we lately have seen vendors developing technologies to measure what happens withing a Flash site, it has taken a long time to get there.

I love Google Maps! And I believe AJAX will have a huge impact on usability. So, as a marketer - and someone who really believes in analytics - I hope we’ll see measurement tools for AJAX coming soon.

Sean Carton writes: “…measurement technologies and serving software will catch up — in time”.

Soon, I hope.

roar at roarweb dot com

Forbes.com Best of the Web: “
Forbes.com Best of The Web Fall 2005 “

The buzz this year is all about AJAX, an html-based way of coding increasingly complex applications into Web browsing.

Technology is great, but the important thing is what it allows us to do! I love Google Maps!!

roar at roarweb dot com

Microsoft’s Model Turns Left - Forbes.com: “At the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco in October, Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president at mighty Microsoft, told a capacity crowd that his company liked being an underdog. Microsoft an underdog? “

TRANSLATION: Microsoft would like to catch up to Google - at least when it comes to business model of web based services!

roar at roarweb dot com

Emily Chang - eHub: “eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.”

Great list!

roar at roarweb dot com