SeattleGirl

Microsoft announces Vine.net

What! Another social network. Surely you jest. Nope, I don't. Today Microsoft announces the launch of Vine.

Here is the official statement we received:

Microsoft Vine is a new consumer service that will help people be in touch, informed and involved when it matters. We will inspire people to use it in their everyday lives and have built it upon the tools they use every day, incorporating familiar technologies like text messaging, email, instant messaging, mapping, search and social networking applications. Microsoft Vine is available through a closed beta beginning April 28th, by invitation only, for a limited number of people to participate. During the beta we will focus on learning, so that we can refine the service and release a first version for broad public use. To learn more, go to www.vine.net, take a quick product tour and request your invitation.

Vine is designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communication methods are either broken or not particularly efficient. Times of crisis usually involve a breakdown in mobile phone or other key communication infrastructures, and Vine is designed to withstand infrastructure breakdown and keep people connected. As a person who has lived through a natural disaster (albeit a small one) in 2000 when we had the Nisqually Earthquake here in Seattle, and had family member caught in the chaos of a terrorist attach, my brother walked home on September 11, 2001 over the Brooklyn Bridge I know first hand what it means to be out of touch with family and friends. Both during the earthquake and 9/11 cell phone service was down for hours and there was no way to communicate our whereabouts.

I've signed up for the beta. No word yet but I look forward to trying it out with my peeps!

Technorati Tags: Vine,Microsoft,social networks

Exec day on @MSWindows

About a week ago we added two new members to our @MSWindows outreach team, the Senior VP of Windows, Bill Veghte and the VP of Windows consumer marketing Brad Brooks (my bosses . My execs are very supportive of our social media efforts and agreed without hesitation when I made the suggestion that they join the outreach team. My goals for having Bill and Brad on the outreach team is to increase the credibility of the @MSWindows account as well as have them make some of the 'big' announcements we have coming out this year.

Today we had a bit of fun with the @MSWindows account. We had our quarterly team meeting where all the Windows groups come together and the VP's talk about where the teams have been and where we're going. Pretty standard meeting for companies like Microsoft. Brad wanted to show the larger team our Twitter engagement so we demoed our Twitter account in the meeting.

Before the meeting we posted this tweet:

MSWindows: I'm heading to a big meeting with the whole Windows team. Any feedback you'd like me to share with the team so far about Windows 7? ^BB

Then in the meeting we pulled up CoTweet to shows all the replies to the tweet we sent. We had over 30 replies to that tweet, a few examples were:

Fri Apr 24 15:55:06 +0000 2009

mystyleonfire: Yes!! Need some improvements in the Biometric devices!

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 15:56:10 +0000 2009

m_hardwick: you're probably already aware, but crippling starter edition for netbooks would be a very stupid move.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 15:56:46 +0000 2009

m_hardwick: other than that, so far I am very pleased.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 15:56:58 +0000 2009

cjkm: get response about this "unbeatable" hack for windows 7 we've been reading about

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:00:50 +0000 2009

RebelSean: Pass it on to the team that they've done an IMPRESSIVE job with Windows 7. They all deserve a pat-on-the-back.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:01:18 +0000 2009

gbinder: Just say this to the #Win7 Team: Thank you.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:01:28 +0000 2009

PnTrO: a new redesign theme!

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:01:54 +0000 2009

PienaZupa: listen more to what the ppl say in TechNet forums

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:02:26 +0000 2009

WildCS: regardless of browser (chrome / FF etc), many websites still don't display properly

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:04:36 +0000 2009

o_donor: I can't go back in 1 click to a Word doc I just edited, if I have multiple Word windows open. It's click->find right doc->click

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:06:51 +0000 2009

robertmclaws: Plz tell them that there need 2 be more interim builds delivered 2 beta te
sters. If we get 1 build before RC, what is the point?

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:08:23 +0000 2009

joe_elway: No one I've talked to (incl me, an MVP) has permission to use the "send feedback" system.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:09:40 +0000 2009

y2kprawn: ship it soooon !

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:11:50 +0000 2009

Genjinaro: probably one of many but I really like to see W7 starter win on the netbook platform, reconsider app limit for alternate limit.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:23:41 +0000 2009

psaraven: Thanks for the Federated Search and speed improvements. Looking forward to RC

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:23:46 +0000 2009

woden325: Windows 7 is the best thing MS has done since Windows 2000. Hurry up and release it!

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:26:05 +0000 2009

kevin_weiner: Give the team my praise for Windows 7. I'm very impressed at the stability of the beta, and looking forward to testing the RC.

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:32:13 +0000 2009

jkkmobile: Yes, forget the starter edition for netbooks. Netbooks will be the most pirated devices ever if you keep the 3 app limit

about 2 hours ago

Fri Apr 24 16:44:57 +0000 2009

sc137: Yes! Please make the firewall(s) more intuitive. There are three firewall settings in Win7

about an hour ago

Fri Apr 24 17:14:34 +0000 2009

bonsaihigh: I like Windows 7

about an hour ago

Fri Apr 24 17:24:27 +0000 2009

jorget67: Probably the meeting ended anyway but so far so good for Windows 7, I'm using the beta, nothing major so far, keep it up…

about an hour ago

Fri Apr 24 17:34:35 +0000 2009

DisabledKevin: luv 7, i use accessiblity, wish i cud remove search box from start menu so i dont hav 2 used up down arrows

about an hour ago

Fri Apr 24 17:47:53 +0000 2009

After the meeting we went through the replies and Brad responded to quite a bit of the posts so people know we appreciated their comments. The ones that had specific product feedback we directed to Product Management.

People ask me all the time how brands can use Twitter for business purposes. We used Twitter today for two business purposes; 1. we had 1:1 conversation with our customers 2. we got direct product feedback from our most passionate customers – beta users. This product feedback can help create positioning/messaging as well as drive future feature requests. It's gives us a great heads up on how people are responding to our product as we get ready to launch later this year. Good stuff!

Technorati Tags: twitter,windows marketing,social media marketing,customer evangelism,cotweet

Best Practices from YouTube

A few weeks ago I shared best practices for Facebook as provided by my partners at Facebook. Today I am going to share best practices from another great partner of ours, YouTube.

If you are familiar with YouTube you know it works exactly like a search engine. On the left side are the natural searches (unpaid) and on the right side is the promoted videos (paid). The best way to get exposure to your content on YouTube is SEO (search engine optimization). Here is YouTube's guidance for SEO in their own words. Thanks Elliott.
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YouTube video search uses a variety of signals to determine the placement of a video in our rankings, including the video file name, title, and any associated metadata. The more information provided about a video, the better it can be searched. In general, we strive to give the best possible objective video result. That said, here are some best practices that you can use to help your videos rise:

• Add a descriptive title to your video

When users search for a video on YouTube, they will find your content easier if you include an accurate and descriptive title for your video. An engaging title can also help your video stand apart from the rest of the crowd.

• Make your descriptive content clear and specific

Try to determine what content your video contains that will help users find it and distinguish it from other videos. Providing content that is descriptive, accurate, and unique is an important factor. Using complete sentences in your description is also a good idea. For more information, you can reference What should I put in my video description?

• Provide accurate tags

Including tags that users may use when they search or browse videos also helps. However, avoid using techniques such as keyword stuffing which will ultimately hurt your videos rankings.

• Embedded Videos

Embedding videos on websites may make your videos more discoverable and easier to find on the web. For information on how to embed videos, please refer to
How do I embed videos on my website or blog?
Google has also published webmasters guidelines that apply to all sites that embed or point to video content. This document also provides important quality guidelines that webmasters should take into consideration when linking to or pointing at videos.

Technorati Tags: YouTube,social media marketing,SEO,Search engine optimization,user generated content,UGC

Windows Brand Ambassador program launches

I'm very excited to announce the launch of our Windows Brand Ambassador program. The Windows Social Media team is looking for 40 highly engaged, enthusiastic fans to help us tell our Windows story. To do this we're back again with Brickfish. Our first engagement with them last fall (I'm a PC campaign) was so successful we've teamed up again.

This time we are looking to build a longer engagement with a few select fans (full details here). Entrants create a photo, video or blog that showcases why you use a PC and/or should be a Windows Brand Ambassador. The 200 highest scoring entries will advance to the semi-final round where the Windows Social Media Team will choose 40 Semi-Finalists as Windows Brand Ambassadors. During the next 8 weeks, Windows Brand Ambassadors will receive weekly video challenges from Microsoft. Each week's challenge will highlight a different way our Windows Brand Ambassadors use Windows every day.

Brickfish is a niche social network. it's not as big as the BIG ones but it has a very engaged audience that loves creating and participating. The audience is full of what Forrester calls Creators, people who create content on the web. So if you are looking to have your enthusiasts create UGC (User Generated Content) that you can repurpose across your assets Brickfish is a great idea.

Technorati Tags: Brickfish,windows marketing,social media marketing,marketing campaigns,social networks

The Marketing Role of the Biggest Social Networks

I've gotten very familiar with 3 of the 4 biggest social networks. I thought I would share how I think about each of them differently and the role I see them playing in the Windows Social Media strategy.

Stats: 330M UU, 81M in US. 2nd largest search engine after Google.

They are the biggest. I think of YouTube as my breadth play. It's not so much about engaging my advocate or fan base as it is playing to the masses. It's comparable to TV as a channel for awareness. It can also deliver engagement with customers. In our Playlist Section we showcase customers on our channel that are doing cool things with Windows and creating demos. YouTube requires some investment in media to get your channel exposure AND since it's primarily a search engine it requires SEO. You can either pay to get your videos to show up in the Sponsored Videos section on the right, or work the SEO angle and get them to show up naturally on the left (just like Search). YouTube reaches millions with quick, multiple touches. It's about volume.

Stats: 275M UU, 55M in US. 44% are under 24 years old.

Facebook is about connections. It works for brands who build a healthy fan base. You can't browse Facebook the way you can YouTube or MySpace so a brand needs to invest in building a fan base they can then message and activate. It's not a breadth play the way YouTube is, it's a targeted outreach to a set of fans that are interested in your message. Investment is required to build the fan base. Once you have an established fan base the value of messaging to them is the multiple effect it has on their network. You know them, they know 5 people who read their Facebook page so by knowing 1 person you reached 6. To optimize Facebook for your brand (more tips here) you need to understand the relationship between what you do on your fan page and how that action permeates through the larger network. Facebook just added a new metric on their reporting called "Total Interactions". It counts all the shares, comments, likes, etc. Facebook is about the viral network effect.

Stats: 10M UU, 4M in US , majority are 35 and older, 10% are 55-64, 10% are 18-24

Twitter is the fastest growing Social Network. 50% of users have joined in the last two months and the number of unique users increased by 1000% year over year from February, 2008. Twitter is the current 'darling.' But it's quite different from YouTube or Facebook. It's not about breadth or building a BIG network like the size of Facebook (000's). It's about building a following of people (in the thousands) and relying on those followers to amplify your message. Twitter is full of super engaged influencers who have very large networks of their own that you want your message to pass through. Twitter is also about how well you participate. What builds followers is action, posts. And interesting posts.Twitter doesn't work if you have nothing to say. Twitter is also the quickest response mechanism for customer feedback and crisis management. Twitter is about real time response and amplifying your message through the larger echo chamber.

125M UU, 76M in US, 2 in 5 Americans

Admittedly I am not a MySpace expert. I'm quite frankly a novice. But in the next few months I intend to become one because Windows is jumping into MySpace in a big way (more to come on this at a later date). Surprisingly I've had several people ask me "Why? Isn't MySpace dead?" Yes, it's true that the other Social Networks have passed MySpace in growth, however 76M UU in the US is nothing to sneeze at. It's still larger than Facebook in the US. It's quite likely that MySpace's days are number, but not anytime soon. The challenge for MySpace is they haven't evolved their advertising offer as social media has rewritten the book on digital outreach. They have very little to offer me as a brand marketer besides the traditional media buy, and I'm not so interested in that. MySpace revolutionized the music business and I think that remains their biggest asset.

The conclusion is that Social Networks do different things. A complete social media engagement would include them all for different reasons. Be clear about what you want to accomplish in each and how they compliment each other.

Technorati Tags: Myspace,facebook,twitter,youtube,social media marketing,windows marketing,social networks

Allow me to introduce your customer

Today is my 2nd guest blogger. Tony Hines is a friend of mine. He spent 9 years at Microsoft and has recently started up his own agency Promethium Marketing. He agency is focused on building and evangelizing customers for brands in the gaming industry. They have quite a niche and I'm exciting to see what they do next. Here is Tony in his words offering his perspective on the value of your customer.

______________________________________________________

I'd like to introduce you to someone who can help you with your business. She is high-energy, she's a great communicator and she already cares as much about your brand as you do. She's never put together a resume, and probably doesn't care about your corporate culture or benefits package, but once you get to know her, I guarantee she will be your most important strategic partner.

She is your customer.

I've been working in evangelism for almost a decade – recruiting, empowering and listening to the most vocal power users of technology products, first for Windows, then Office and most recently for Xbox. I just launched a social media agency specializing in igniting customer passions, so I like to think I'm a pretty good partner, but nobody will ever come close to the raw energy and power potential of your customers.

We've all been power users of one product or another, and over our lifetimes we've probably written a letter to the editor here, or placed a call to a customer service line there. Technology now allows customers to provide feedback immediately, and with nearly limitless amplification. We're in an era where opinions are trickling UP as often as down and where customer complaints are just as likely to end up on Engadget as they are to end up in a call center log. If one customer has one bad experience with your brand – and she happens to be a decent writer – a blog post about it on Facebook could get picked up by a large blog, and eventually wind its way to USA Today. (I've seen it happen).

Now that I've stated the obvious – your customer is important, and louder than ever – let me point out a few ways in which your customer's voice can be a huge boost to your business.

Customer Service
Customers WANT to help each other. In the technology space, there's no more cost effective way to provide widespread customer support than to arm your customers with the tools, access and information they need to help each other. Customer support forums, power-user programs, fan certification, and good old fashioned meetups over waffles can help provide the sense of community that urges your fans to offer a helping hand to other users. I still think my time with the MVP program at Microsoft provided some of the most long-lasting financial benefit for the company.

Honest Feedback
As much as we want to think our colleagues will be straight-shooting and unrelenting in their quest for constant improvement… we have to accept that as insiders we will always have a blind spot when it comes to some product flaw or brand promise unmet. While working on the community program for Xbox, I came across a power user by the name of Chris Paladino, who ran his own video game podcast. Chris was vocal, well respected, and not shy about pointing out the things about our product he wanted to see improved. His views gave us early warning about issues that the broader customer base would eventually raise a cry about. So valuable were his insights that my boss hired him onto the team.
User Powered Content

As much as companies have relied on big budget PR campaigns that seek to influence A-level journalists and "thought leaders", they've been missing opportunities to harness the collective power of the thousand smaller voices permeating the public discourse. Opinions are no longer passed down from on high. Especially in the high tech industry, we've seen the last several years produce new taste-makers almost weekly, as previously anonymous users find their voices on Twitter or in the comment section of a major blog. Increasingly these customers are eschewing the approved messages coming from the polished, professionally produced media, and are making their own. In July of 2006 Nelson Rodriguez powered on his Xbox 360 for the first time. 6 months later he was producing the fastest growing video game podcast, and his Xbox-centric show featured on the front page of iTunes. Whether we liked it or not, tens of thousands of people were enjoying Nelson's entertaining take on our product, often skipping our own "official message".

I'll admit we enjoyed his content so much we hired Nelson onto our team as well – ok, so we REALLY like our customers. I'm not asking you to hire your best customers. I'm asking you to listen and to break down the glass wall standing between you and them. It's no longer OK to just watch and study them. Engage with them. Ask them questions. Amplify their voices, even when you don't like what they're saying. I promise they will repay you by spreading the message that you are genuine, trustworthy and that you love your customers.

Technorati Tags: Windows marketing,customer evangelism,marketing,social media marketing,Microsoft,XBox

Best Practices from Facebook

I'm heading down to San Francisco today to spend some time with my partners at YouTube and Facebook. Both of these companies have been great partners for the Windows Social Media team. We sync every few months to see what's new and upcoming with the platforms. This trip we'll also be focusing on FY10 planning and my Win7 launch plans.

My chums at Facebook recently shared with me some best practices for the new brand pages on Facebook and I wanted to pass those along. In case you haven't familiarized yourselves with the new brand page layout yet I'll give you the high level features;

1. Brands now have status update functionality. If you update your brand status it feeds into your fans newsfeeds (their homepage now) the same way the fans see the updates from everyone in their network. This is really cool.

2. Updates made on Brand pages now also feed the fans newsfeeds. This is cool too but can get overused. When the new brand page first launched I was getting a ton of updates in my newsfeed from Xbox. I love Xbox but didn't necessarily want them filling up my newsfeed. I was sure XBox didn't know that as a fan they were having this effect on my newsfeed but since Facebook amped up their viral feeds from brand pages it was becoming overkill very quickly. Beware how many times you are updating your page, you could be over-spamming your fans.

3. Tabs are organizing the content now. We are still getting used to this. One request we have for Facebook is to be able to rename the tabs, you can't do this today. The 'boxes' tab is a weird name and not very compelling. This is where all the stuff brands used to have on their homepage went. Homepages are now the newsfeed.

Here are the best practices directly from Facebook for using the new brand pages on Facebook. Thanks Carrie.

5 simple things to consider:

1) Relationships take time – start small, learn and scale!
Having your posts show up in your fans' homepage is powerful. Give your fans some time to adjust to this and don't overwhelm them right away. There is no "first-mover" advantage in communicating with your fans. They are already your fans. How frequently should you update your Page? How frequently do you email your users? How frequently do you have something interesting to say? Just because it is seems free doesn't mean it is – if you over do it, fans may leave and the cost is agitated customers. Start slow – say once every few days or weeks – when you have something interesting to share, and see what happens from there.

2) From monologue to dialogue – are you listening and responding?
The days of the megaphone are over. Do you write in a way that encourages fans to respond? Do you respond to their comments? Are you monitoring stats to try to understand how to optimize for your goals?
Of course, you don't have to respond to each comment, but addressing general trends or recognizing contributions from fans may go a long way to motivating your fans to be evangelists!

3) "Brand-centric" vs. "Fan-centric" – what's in it for me?
What's the difference between an ad, a press release, and a post on Facebook? Well, for an ad, you paid for the consumer's attention – so you it's all about you. For a press release, the editor will filter and make the content relevant to his/her audience. For a post on Facebook, you have DIRECT access to your fans! While they are fans, if there isn't a relevant benefit to them in the communication, it might feel like spam and you may have less fans!

4) Global brand has global fan base on Facebook.
Facebook is a global platform, with users in over 200 countries, available in dozens of languages, with over 70% of users are outside of the US. A typical brand's Page has fans from dozens of countries using the site in dozens of languages. Consider posting items that have more global appeal vs. a local promotion. For the local promotion, send a targeted Update.

5) Promote to get more Fans!
Facebook's "Become A Fan" Engagement Ad makes it super easy for users to become your fan with just one click without leaving their home page. You can also use Facebook's Standard Ads to drive users to your Page to become a fan.

My last Facebook tip for today is my favorite Facebook blog. Check out Inside Facebook. Cool stuff.

Technorati Tags: Marketing,Windows marketing,social media marketing,facebook,digital marketing