Talking Points!!!

Usability

Sanjay — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:16:04 +0000

Got a new Nokia handset. The function keys are slightly different from my earlier handset (again a Nokia). Making me go mad!!! When I want to view my dialed out calls, I end up switching off the phone.

Imagine, what we might be doing with our web site visitors. Last week we were having a discussion to change the position of the search box on a web page… not any more!

E-Learning Program on Online Marketing

Sanjay — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:09:41 +0000

Looking for e-learning programs on Online Marketing. Unfortunately did not find one available in India. And the ones available in the US and Europe focus more on workshops or sell in-company training, which is way outside my budget…

Anybody interested in partnering?

Email Authentication Help Center from DMA

Sanjay — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:40:55 +0000

DMA has launched Online Email Authentication Help Center. Loads of helpful stuff.

I spent lot of time tackling the deliverability problem for my campaigns. If this center was available a year and half ago, I would have saved lot of time and effort.

Technorati Tags: email marketing

Microsoft People Ready Business

Sanjay — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:33:24 +0000

While viewing this post from John Battelle’s Search Blog, I realized how companies like Microsoft and Cisco are using social media for their marketing campaigns. While, I had read about this and seen lots of examples of hiring Bloggers to create the buzz, this effort stands out as:
1. it allows the bloggers freedom to express their own views. No endorsing.
2. the banners allow interaction and let people post on to the microsite. Encourages participation without being intrusive.

This is a nice way of creating buzz around new concepts – “People Ready Business” or “Human Network“.

View the campaigns:
People Ready Business from Microsoft on Federated Media
Human Network from Cisco. Again on Federated Media
Search for Better Search from Hakia

Technorati Tags: search, web 2.0, social media, online marketing, microsoft, people ready business, cisco, human network, hakia, search for a better search

Guruji

Sanjay — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:26:56 +0000

Pretty cool. Guruji is one of the best local search engines for India and City yellow pages I have come across.

The Big Picture on CNet

Sanjay — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:12:30 +0000

Cool… this can do wonders for big sites in B2B space. Imagine IBM with a similar thing!
Technorati Tags: web 2.0

How to structure the Online Marketing Team?

Sanjay — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:50:11 +0000

Grappling with this problem. No answers in sight. Have spoken to my friends. But everyone seems to have a structure which is based on Organizational constraints. Is there a best practice around?

Who should own the technology piece? What about the infrastructure? Should there be a separate team for Infra? How about maintenance? Is BPO an answer?

Thoughts anyone?

McKinsey Quarterly: Web 2.0

Sanjay — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:51:12 +0000

McKinsey Quarterly has published the Global Survey on “How Businesses are using Web 2.0“. Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing come on top!

[Update: Arona has mentioned that my post is not complete and I have not highlighted the main findings.

Arona, I think you are referring to the fact that executives are still wary of web 2.0. I agree, I should have mentioned that in my post. However, what I meant was collaboration/knowledge sharing are the top use for web 2.0. Anyways, all the headlines talk about executives being cautious ... I think we can live with a positive post! Thanks any ways.]

Technorati Tags: Mckinsey Quarterly, Web 2.0

Is the Banner Back?

Sanjay — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:25:09 +0000

Fred says “the banner is back“. Well, the banner never went out to be back again. In fact advertisers are facing inventory shortage. My experience is in line. To get the right inventory is very difficult and often it is booked months in advance.

As mentioned in my earlier post, the acquisition will enable better targeting for the advertisers and better rates for the publishers.

Brand marketers will get the opportunity to put there message in a context, which was not easy earlier. We would buy section sponsorship to match the context. Take all the impressions on Technology section for an IT services company. With this acquisition, we can hope to buy the context along with impressions, just like search advertising.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Technorati Tags: google, doubleclick, online marketing

Press release 2.0

Sanjay — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:29:52 +0000

Insightful. Don’t kill the press releases, just change the messenge(r) « The Community PlayBook: Intuit’s Online Communities and more

I am sure everyone will agree with whatever the post mentioned above talks about. But the bigger challenge is collaboration. Collaboration betweem PR and Online Team (Point 2 does mention this).

In big organizations execution becomes a challenge. For example: who puts the keywords? The online team? Or the team which generated the content for the press release? Or the PR team itself?

I feel the onus is on the Online Team to achieve this integration/collaboration. And the starting point is educating the PR team.

Technorati Tags: Online PR, web 2.0, online marketing