I hate to say it, but I feel like I’ve been slacking on this blog for some time now.  Ever since the beginning of October after my whirlwind trips to CJU, BlogWorldExpo, and then the Social Media Marketing Summit and the notes I was able to post from there, I’ve kinda let things go into auto-pilot, with only a few really good posts that were original content.

I also tried to work on a new blog, Beach Front Office, a chronicle of working at home and telecommuting.  However, I’m not so sure if I should be separating that information into a new blog or including it into this one.  My original intent for TrishaLyn.com was to be a whimsical look at marketing and my career as a young woman.  I feel like I really do have a unique take on most things as I am learning as I go and don’t have a marketing degree – just a theatre arts dramatic writing one.  So, I ask of those kind readers – which would you prefer?  I keep my work at home stuff separate at BFO, or integrate it here into my whole experience as a young woman in Affiliate Marketing who telecommutes?  Any opinions are welcome!

All that said, I feel better!  And here’s a recap of some of the more interesting articles around the blogosphere that I read this week.

• Lisa Barone live blogged the Effective Affiliate Strategies session at PubCon this week.  Good notes!
• Another take on PubCon from an affiliate standpoint was the faithful Shawn Collins with his PubCon 2008 Recap. I’m sure either Manda or Brandy will post a recap of their PubCon experience once they get back to Texas next week.
• For my blogger buddies out there, DailyBlogTips posted a handy article 50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers.  I need to work on this myself, I admit.
• Black Ink Project 2.0 is now available for the low price of $97.
• Back to Lisa Barone, she also posted a recap of her entire PubCon Liveblogging Coverage.

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This presentation focused mostly on Cisco’s launch of a new router ASR 2000, but they parlayed a singular product launch into an entire social media network for Cisco for uber users of networking tools that brought fun into the mix.

• LaSandra Brill, Manager, Web & Social Media Marketing, Cisco.

Wow… the computer she was using prompted her to restart now or later for automatic updates and she clicked Restart Now, so there was a hiccup in the program, so to speak.  I have to give her props that she totally knew her presentation and continued on, even citing accurate figures, and just picked right back up.  The entire audience groaning “ooh, noooooo” when she clicked Restart Now was amusing.  But as I said, she held her own and recovered very well.

I saw an interesting tweet that someone came just for this presentation because they possibly have a less sexy product that this tweeter has!  Good point – making a networking router exciting is quite the feat.

Bullet Point Review!

• Marketing in a web 2.0 world is much different than traditional marketing.
• Foundation of the campaign was the uber user – created a micro site to gather registrations for the launch event.
• Normally this happens a week or so ahead of time, but they instead used fictional characters to say something a bit more vague while being fun and interesting.
• Traditional campaign leveraged on a social media level.  Used videos on YouTube, Facebook, etc.
• They created a Facebook group to leverage for this launch, but also didn’t want to make it toooo specific because they wanted to utilize it later.
• Group continues to grow even after the product launch.
• it is a long tail, but they feel that it’s worth it.  They don’t pay for the sponsored group, but utilize the free group to minimize investment.
• Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.
• Created a game (Edge Quest) and used it with a tournament to create buzz in the blogosphere.
• Leveraged Second Life as well with a pre-event live concert, launch event countdown calculator.
• They did research before venturing into Second Life and found that they did have a big audience within SL.
• Created a video of the launch event on SL and posted that on YouTube and Facebook to leverage and cross publicize.
• Created a widget that became viral with an embed code for bloggers and social media.  ProBlogger picked it up.  Free advertising is awesome.
• Because the widget is hosted on their servers, they could update it whenever and it’s syndicated.
• Built up anticipation and speculation about the product to entice bloggers to write about them through teaser releases.
• Vaguness kept speculation fueled and buzz going.
• Leveraged the concept of a social media release – clear & simple, ensure accuracy, build community, easy access, attention-grabbing, embed code for sharing.
• Saved a ton of money by having a virtual product launch over an online only product launch.  Only had to utilize John Chambers for an hour of his time instead of half a day.
• Reached 128 countries with a prerecorded launch video.
• Lessons learned:
  • Avoid hidden costs – ensure roalty free access to videos so that content can be re-purposed on social media sites.
  • Test, test, & more test – widget was a new tool so the embedding perfection took more time than anticipated.
  • User generated content – the UGC on Facebook was the most active discussion with the “Top 20 Signs you’re an Internet Addict” thread.
  • Edge Quest ASR Design Craft content was a bust – the promotion for this was lost in the promotion for the tournament itself.  Lesson – stick to one message.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Cisco has a big voice, so how does this translate to smaller business?  You have to make it sexy, a router is very routine and they made it sexy – was in their top 5 product launches of all time.
• Most costs were soft costs – human time, engagement.

Overall a great session – at first I admit that I was worried it would be a snooze fest but it was actually really interesting to see how well they leveraged many different venues of social media to launch this product and the success they acheived with it.

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Tomorrow is officially the first day of Summer.  I know here in the SF Bay Area we’re definitely feeling it – yesterday it reached over 100 I was told and my handy Weatherbug extension is telling me it’s 86.2°F outside right now – makes me very glad I’m in this nice air conditioned office.  Definitely one advantage to NOT working at home with no AC on a day like this!

• My blog has tied for the top review from April/May at Joy O’Hare’s Blog Reviews site. Congrats to my fellow top reviews!
• DailyBlogTips.com has posted The Bloggers Glossary.  Good timing for glossaries I guess!
• Firefox 3 Download Count is over 8 Million, and it hasn’t even been available for a week yet. I downloaded and installed it and I’m loving how fast it is… I just wish some of my beloved plugins would have geared up for the change (ahem I’m talking to you del.icio.us!)
• ABestWeb blew up on Tuesday about the formation of the PMA… a lot of vitriol and I haven’t even had a chance to finish reading the whole thing & weigh in.  So go beat me to the punch!

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