Hello Everyone,

So I’ve now made the step and migrated to my own hosted blog. Please make sure you update your RSS feeds and continue to read my blog posts. I thank everyone for contributing to my blog and taking the time to read it.

New blog: http://ebiz-tomorrow.com/blog/
New RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/EbizByChrisSalazar

WILL SEE YOU SOON!

I’ve previously talked about the basics for building an online community starting with corporate blogs. This is great for building a foundation, but each online community must have an underlying strategy to keep it living. Strategic planning is vital in ensuring online community goals are met and evolving.

Here’s my list of milestones and goals for all online community blogs (within the first few months):

• Integrate corporate blogs in all customer touch points including:
  • Announcements
  • Product Launches
  • Product Developments
  • Support
  • Customer Events

• Create community blogs to foster industry conversations (2-way) and thought leadership

• Encourage Product Marketing to actively participate in the online industry conversation:
  • Watch corporate bloggers and step in when needed
  • Interact with other industry practitioners and build an online social network
  • Provide corporate bloggers with research and ideas from the blogosphere

• Allow corporate blogs to be used as a feedback mechanism to improve products, support/tech help, messaging, and strategy
  • Connect product teams with current customers/users to build better products
  • Connect users with users to solve technical issues and log information in archives/database

• Utilize corporate blogs as sales tools
  • Use blog entries as conversation starters
  • Refer to corporate blogs and/or specific posts for tech help/information
  • Use blogs/bloggers to answer questions from the sales field

• Improve communication with partners and vendors
  • Blogs = reseller tools to promote vendor’s product info and support
  • Another medium to foster communication, product awareness, and channel partner advantages

• Use corporate blogs as a mechanism to keep track of competitor’s successes and advantages
  • Listen to their customer feedback - what are they doing well?
  • How are their customers reacting to your product launches, etc?
    • How can this information help your company improve product and operations?

This is a great list to start off with. It’s general, yet each corporation can prone it to their own liking. Additionally, here are some other thought-provoking posts that can help with your planning:

1. How to sell social media to your boss
2. Social 2.0 and How to utilize it’s full potential in business
3. The 4 C’s of blogging
4. Benefits of corporate blogs
5. Users vs Consumers - Who’s in, Who’s out

Jeremiah posted his eight things, so I’ll post mine here too!

1. I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. TKD has been a big part of my life since I was 7 years old. I actually got beat up before I started, my parents put me into TKD to gain some confidence…well it worked! The next time someone tried to pick on me, I made sure it was their last! Since then, I’ve done boxing and kickboxing too.
2. My first car is a scion tc becuse of Jeremiah. I was stuck on a Toyota Corolla (type s), but he said one day “how about a scion?” I said …”whats that?” I went back to my cubicle, looked it up, then called me parents.
3. Speaking of Jeremiah, I was his intern and believe it or not, I was there when he went from intranet manager to social media evangelist…I witnessed his newfound passion.
4. I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico…moved to San Jose, CA when I was 7-8 years old.
5. My first name is Chris and up until a few years ago, no one called me Chris except for when my mom was mad at me. Everyone else (family and friends) knew me as Anthony.
6. I am a DJ. Although I don’t DJ much, I did for a few middle school dances!
7. Im a pool shark…I love pool…and will hopefully join a tournament some day. I have yet to find someone who can beat me consistently…no one can. Im not being cocky, just no one that I know can.
8. MY LIFETIME GOAL IS…to become a music producer…work in the studio with artists. Not necessarily doing the creative part…but overseeing a music company like Jive Records.

Please, let’s keep this going. Let me know what your eight things are.

Everywhere around me, people talk about being an online community manager and being a community evangelist and how to deploy a successful online community. But, I think they’re (and me too) are getting ahead of themselves. There are some important Project Management skills and knowledge that you must have to be a successful manager.

The 4 Phases for any project/product launch are: Define, Design, Develop, and Deploy. These are critical milestones in every project that must be accounted for and documented in the critical path.

Define

• Define organizational and project objectives - LISTEN to goals, EVALUATE and audit, ANALYZE data, RESEARCH solution, create a NEEDS assessment proposal
• Define success criteria, project benchmarks
• Competitive/Industrial Analysis (if required)
• Define budget and cost
• Develop communication protocols and expectations

Design

• Build prototype or demo to test assumptions
• Develop architecture and navigation (design and look/feel)
• Develop technical design and infrastructure
• Test prototype usability and functionality
• Review progress in relation to project benchmarks

Develop

• Complete design based on client’s feedback
• Develop main sections and subsections from copy provided by client
• Test functionality
• Review progress in relation to project benchmarks

Deploy

• Coordinate offline advertising and marketing
• Deploy statistical tracking software
• Develop Meta tag code and search engine strategy
• Launch site line online
• Provide training and support
• Monitor success

• The comprehensiveness of the work plan
• The correctness of the ordering of tasks and lags
• The accuracy of individual task-duration estimates

Steps to creating a Critical Path:

1. Identify tasks necessary to complete the project.
2. Estimate the duration of the various tasks in the network.
3. Identify task dependencies.
4. Draw a network that depicts the order in which various tasks can be executed.
5. Identify the critical path by adding up the duration of the tasks along each path and determining which path of the network will take the most time to complete.

Some like to not only create a critical path, but an “Adjusted Critical Path” which incorporates a contingency plan as well. This is a great way to help foresee any problems that could arise and allow time for damage control.

Tips on running successful meetings:

• Planning a meeting
  • Set objectives for the meeting
  • Decide how long the meeting will last
  • Provide an agenda beforehand
  • Decide who will attend
• Running a meeting
  • Start the meeting on-time
  • Manage the meeting efficiently and stick to the agenda (do not introduce new topics that will confuse anyone)
  • Assign action items
  • Document actions
  • Summarize key points from the meeting in Meeting Minutes

These are rules and tips that have helped me, but I’m sure you have other tips as well.  Please feel free to share your thoughts with me!

For the next few months, I will be putting on the hat of an Online Community Marketing Manager and pretending as if I’m starting my own from scratch. For simplicity reasons, let’s assume I’ve already got all the back-end server stuff taken care of.

Some questions to ponder about building an online community are:

• who will participate?
• how much time with contributors need to spend on the tool(s)?
• how long does it take to see results and how are these measured?
• how will the online community integrate with other promotional and communication efforts?
• should you allow comments?

Some corporations have only a few bloggers, usually expert thought-leaders, and others have a wide range of employee bloggers (like Sun and IBM). Figuring out what best fits the company’s culture is very important. Either way, here’s a good blog policy to follow (created by sun).

The next important question to ask is why you are blogging. How can you align the blog with the online community and most importantly, the overall messaging of the company. Here’s a few steps to do this:

1. What is the corporate message? Write it down on a piece of paper and figure out how you can achieve this
2. How can you shape the blog to support and coincide nicely with your company’s overall strategy?
3. What trends and topics are hot in your industry? Visit sites like technorati to find out. Using tools like Google Alerts to keep up with the market. You need to be 100% up to date.
4. Who should blog? An individual, a group, or the whole company?

It’s one thing to create tools and push them out there, but its another to have a strategy and a goal for them. They must be part of the value chain that ultimately leads to the corporate message. The blog should spark conversation within the industry, somehow promote the company’s image, and be used as a knowledge base for all.

There are a few important aspects of blogging that serve beneficial and could help jump start other community marketing tools as well:

• Tagging - the method of categorizing information by topic, idea, customer, solution, etc
  • Taxonomy - formal categories grouped by data hierarchy, data relationship, and data type
  • Folksonomy - allowing users the power to define categories to make info easy to search, find, and store (i.e. flickr)
• Webfeeds, RSS - allow sumarries and/or full text entries to be read in feedreaders (MyYahoo, Google Reader)
• Comments - allow all comments, only delete spam. This fosters a dialog between multiple individuals at a time
• Web Analytics - how will traffic be analyzed? Google Analytics is a great tool. What stats must every blog have?

These are all things a Community Manager must take into account and be ready for. Just the first step in creating a blog, but there’s more. What about other help docs? If I were to create help docs (as few as possible), they’d have the following titles (in no particular order):

1. How to incorporate blogs with Flickr
2. Best Practices for blogging: Blogging 101
3. Blogging etiquette: What should and should not be said
4. How to become social and up-to-date with industry trends
5. Blog Analytics Essentials: How to make sense out of graphs and stats

Last, but not least, the role of a Community Marketing Manager is important. This person must possess certain characteristics in order to successfully evangelize the importance of such tools and to keep a program growing. Jeremiah has the 4 Tenets of a Community Manager, which are very difficult to uphold.

This should be enough for now. Please let me know how you’re doing…what roadblocks are you facing? Maybe we can help each other!

I’ve got and I’ve found it…rather I’ve found the person who have surpassed me by a great deal! Someone who is my age and has already done so much with social media in both his personal and professional life…Dan Schawbel.  His main focus is BRAND…and he recently gave his predictions for Personal Branding in 2008

In the light of the new year coming and my attempt to add value to Dan’s contributions, here are my own predictions for 2008’s world of Social Media:

• Corporations will move past “community” and work to create CUSTOMER UTILITY
  • Yes, corporations should concentrate on providing their customers with a service; whether that be an interactive knowledge base, variety of web 2.0 product interfaces, or a network of online consultants available around the clock
  • Everyone is creating a community, but investing in the customer is important. Common questions to ask: What can they actually use? What’s missing in my industry? Why should customers invest their time with my company?
• Users will challenge corporations to become transparent and real
  • Open-communication is not enough; every leading corporation will have 2 faces (the CEO and the Community guy)
• Job openings in social media will explode - will we see CCOs (Chief Community Officers)?
  • We’ll have two versions of the story, two different types of Press Conferences. One will be on TV and in front of reports, the second will be on a blog “translating” into real terms what’s going on. Nowadays, CEO’s messages are lost in translation…its the CCOs job to keep it real.
• Blogging and Facebook will lose its value and utility
  • I’ve seen it with Facebook already, I’ve been bombarded with way too much SPAM and I’ve lost interest in it. I see other profiles, who I used to frequently visit, and they are filled with so much extra stuff that makes it look like one big blob of junk.
  • Blogging…people are trying to make a living through their personal blog? Too many adwords, too many attempts to make a $1, too many people why to become e-famous. What happened to true, passionate blogging for the love of writing and sharing one’s ideas?

What are your predictions for 2008? Am I on the right track or do you have some objection?

Web Analytics, SEO, and SEM have increasingly become MUST KNOW TOPICS for all web professionals. Yet, quite a few out there still do not understand the importance nor the benefits of analytic tools such as Google Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture, etc. The following is taken from my own knowledge and research of Web Analytics…as I provide a basic overview of Web Analytics and insight on key strategies moving forward.

Web Analytics has evolved and matured within the past 10-15 years and there’s every reason to think the new year will bring several new and important revelations. Starting from the basics, we have two different types of analysis (Logfile Analysis and Page Tagging)

Highlights of Logfile Analysis

• Information is readily available in a raw format
• Records all requests from the web server (both successful and failed requests)
• Logs information from search engine spiders, which is great for SEO purposes
• Log File Analyzer software is available (Post-parsing reporting vs Real-time on demand reporting)
  • Post-parcing analyzers usually require more computer/server strain and are performed on a schedule
  • Real-time can be produced at any time on an “on-demand” basis (Ex. WebTrends)

Highlights of Page Tagging

• Records all successful requests
• Reliable as the JavaScript is run after each page is loaded
• Works with JavaScript enabled browsers to capture data about the user (using cookies)

Companies must decide which type of analysis they want for their site (if not a combination of the two); it depends on the company’s goals, what they offer, what they are trying to accomplish, company’s level of technical expertise, and the number of site they are managing.

These are all basic, but key, stats you should be aware of in order to see trends, analyze “peak” days, figure out how many returning visitors you have, and how sticky your site is. Using these keys measures, you must figure out how to improve traffic and user retention rates.

These statistics can be measured using analyzers like Google Analytics to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your site. As changes are made, success can be measured using statistics like unique visitors, bounce rates, etc.

Example of a Google Analytics Dashboard below:

Source

Stay tuned for more in-depth posts that explore more into trends, SEO, traffic, and the “basic statistics.”

Many of us understand and realize that social media is powerful for individuals and businesses. However, there’s a vast majority out there who either disagree or are too old fashioned. Unless you work for a young company, those people are probably your boss.So, I want to start my own community marketing program at my company…how do I do it? Fortunately, I was privileged to follow under the footsteps of Jeremiah, who introduced social media to HDS; we have forums, a wiki, and a few bloggers. Yet, it was far from easy…but I learned from him.

Still its very hard work, so I look up to experts for advice and I came across an interesting article that really sums up how to start one. Only one catch, this article tells how to start one if others in your industry are catching on too…nonetheless, i cant argue with his findings.

I started off this blog with the intention to summarize someone’s thoughts, but instead I’m pushing myself…I’ll give you my advice from what Ive learned.

Here goes…

“In order to sell social media to your boss you must…”

CREATE A NEED

Bosses are busy people…in and out of meetings and/or working on bigger/better things; which is they have no time to waste on worthless projects. So…make social media a NEED, not a want. Make him/her say “We need to have blogs.” Social media is a utility that every company should and needs to somehow get their hands on.

Sounds easy right? But, how do you create this need? Here’s a few ways:

• Show ROI and Success with SEO- One word: proactive. The success of the social media program is in your hands; if you’re not proactive, you will not be able to see ROI. I read about how to show to your bosses that this ‘new media’ program is worth it’s weight, but its missing one important aspect…SEO
  • SEO - Search Engine Optimization is something that every company should be worried about, yet are they? Whether or not its in your scope, SEO can be accomplished by social media (forums, blogs, wikis, etc). Smart and active blogs have the ability to: come up early in search engines, produce incoming/outgoing links, and store a collection of thoughts and information. All of this helps SEO tremendously.
    • Example #1: Everyone knows about the whole DELL SUPPORT finding. When you search “Dell Support” in Google, scroll down, what do you see on the first page? …a link to Jeremy Zawodny’s post: What the F*** is with Dell Technical Support?
    • Enough said, this shows the power of blogging, especially with SEO. (I think before it came up a lot sooner, maybe 3rd or 4th in the search results). How much did it cost? NOTHING, FREE.
  • How much WORK does it take? - Aside from initially setting up the blog, which could take 5-8 hours total for branding, back-end work, etc…it depends on your strategy (which could range from 2-10 hours per week). I recommend blogging 3 times a week to keep your audience interested and subscribed.
    • Each blog takes 2 hours max, blog 3 times a week, that is 6 hours per week
    • 6 hours per week times 4 weeks = 24 hours per month
    • This is all the time you need…if done correctly, your company can use the 24 hours of time to benefit the overall SEO strategy.
    • Example #2: Type in “storage bloggers”…what is the first search result? The storage wiki (referenced above) that Jeremiah started. It might have cost something, but definitely not as much as paid search.

• Illustrate how your company can benefit from “human” contact - one of the most valuable rewards from a community marketing program is the human contact. 10 years ago, this sort of communication was unheard of, but now its part of our life in and out of work. Human contact sparks relationship marketing and relationships build trust. Trust in every business activity is very important and difficult to achieve. Social Media is the hub for open communication and a new way of “marketing”
  • Social Media allows for all types of communication - prospects to prospects, prospects to customers, customers to customers. More importantly, this is all happening in YOUR space…you can listen and participate openly and freely.
  • Can be used as a sales tool - bloggers should be subject experts and because of this, the sales force can use it to their advantage.
    

    “Our product has XXX and it can be integrated with XXX solution, which is why we are the leaders in our industry. For more info, you can see XXX blog post on this…”

This list will continue to grow as I learn more about these new mediums.

Also, I’ve left out some important parts…but now its your turn!

The Washington Post reported that the Defense Department has blocked soldiers’ internet access to a total of 13 sites, including MySpace and YouTube. Why? Fear that these sites will take up too much bandwidth.

Let’s look at these implications for a moment. By blocking access to MySpace/YouTube, they are pushed away even more from the rest of the world. They are out there fighting for their country, why not give them some free time?

Let’s examine more closely what MySpace brings to the table, that no other site does:

MySpace Benefactors:

• Allows open communication around the world
• Provides a 24/7 anywhere-accessible platform for the following:
  • To keep in touch with family members
  • Meet new people
  • Rekindle lost friendships
  • Exhibit creativity in creating a unique L&F
• Access to current, top 100, and underground music in just about any genre
• Ability to upload video files for the world to watch

Why keep soldiers away?  It’s shocking to see this.

It’s amazing, how MySpace has managed to reach several different audiences.  Although, what’s Facebook’s response?  Why doesn’t facebook create a section for those in war?

Today’s life of constant give and take redefines the “user/consumer” role in business. Think about how business in general has evolved–several hundreds of years ago, it was the job of the engineers/managers to decide what is made. Slowly, the “market” decided how businesses work. But that’s not enough. Within every market, there’s individual micro-communities with very unique needs.

Fast forward to the “user-generated media” era of today. The keyword word here is “user” …we’re users create media. This means we’re in charge of what we see, do, and have. In a way, the market is for the people and run by the people; which is the beauty of social media.

However, we’re moving past this idea quickly. B/c not only are we just created or generating media, but we are consuming it at an increasing rate. From blogs to podcasts to vlogs we are consuming tons of content each day. No longer do we just use data, we consume, learn, store, and express ideas. It’s important how the roles are shifting here and businesses must take note of this.

The life of a consumer:

• Social Bookmarking: Tools like delicious make it easy for users to consume information at any time of the day no matter where they are (at home, work, or from their mobile device). Not to mention, you can share your delicious links with other users using tags. Again, we aren’t just creating content, we are consuming it and making it easy for others to consume as well. Its quick, fast, easy, and non-techy. It’s social bookmarking, NOT technical bookmarking.
• RSS Feeds: Similar to bookmarking, RSS feeds can be read through a feedreader, like Google feedreader. Today we want instantaneous updates on the fly! Feedreaders bring all of that to you. Subscribe to an RSS feed, keep it stored, visit the link in the future. Consuming information from multiple sources is easy and quick!
• Social Networking: Everyone is involved with this…whether it be MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or online dating sites (match.com). Everyone has an account! Again, the easy factor comes into play here…plus all of these tools provide users with the opportunity to consume candid information from their family, peers, or even people of the same interests around the world.
• Blogs: Plain and simple, blogs drive social media. The majority of the tools I mentioned above all grab content from blogs or some sort of repository for information. First, being able to store information/thoughts in one place is great, but sharing it with the world at large is remarkable. Im contributing to the world…im offering my own candid thoughts for others to consume.

There are several other components that drive the lives of consumers and as technology moves forward so will the tools. For now, its important to understand why this is so important.

Consumers are engaging with their peers, neighborhoods, and the world. Before social media, we only had school, work, and clubs to engage with others locally. But, the conversation has moved globally now.

Although, how can we measure the effectiveness of these tools? Here’s what I think:

• Word of Mouth
• Increase in the number of users
• Comments/User Feedback
• Innovation of new tools for users
• What’s missing?

I’m positive measuring the effectiveness of a community marketing program will always be difficult.  But, hey, at least it gives us something to talk about.  I’m curious as to what other strategies are for measuring if your community program is engaging enough?