From presentation to the Web (2.0) - Get RRREEEEAAADDDYYY

I only touched on presentations in the last few articles.* This was done to give a starting point to the core subject of the blog: marketing with Web2.0 techniques. One of the first steps is to take existing material, first I will start with a presentation, which will be cut and modified to fit Web2.0 format. Doing this in real life is probably the best way to get started. With Web2.0 most of the tools are easy to get started with. Blogs, wikis, social networking, personal pages, and resource linking is available in many shapes and flavors. The popular services and tools also have million of examples. If you are not familiar with these, I would suggest that you go and get familiar. The best way is to actually sign up for these services and get your own "page" or "listing" started. Writing a blog or developing a wiki takes lots of work. Writing the content may actually be the simplest of the parts. If you write and create presentations on a regular basis this is not going to be your hardest task. But even if you write regularly, you will find out quickly that Web2.0 is essentially an "infinite resource". You can write, draw, sing, play, link-to, communicate... as much as you want. This means that you need to focus on exactly what you need to communicate. Work out a strategy and tactics to develop an ongoing program. Than roll up your sleeves and make it happen.

---

Whatever method works for you, my observation in people who started with Web2.0 tools can be successful in doing one of these:
• Just Do IT: simply go to an application and start it up.
• Learn and explore: pick one or more application, sign-up, but just look and learn.
• Buy the book, take a class, do the tutorial: this helps for some who need that first push.
• Get a tutor / guide: sit with someone and go through the basic steps: this always helps get over the "fear of starting"
• Get into a group: start commenting on a blog before you have one, add a page to a wiki in an area of your expertise, get invited into Linked-In by a friend, etc.

Web2.0 Tag Cloud - already too many tools and services...

Whatever your "style" I would suggest a few things to get you organized. Simply start thinking as if you are already in the groove and going.

• This means gather the material that you need, get your plan started, outline actual articles or even edit existing material to fit into the format you will need.
• If you work with schedules: deadlines and milestones, start sketching out your work.
• If you like organizing in a project format, make this an active project with all the related documentation and tasks involved.
• If you are in a corporate or government environment and you need to do more formal planning, write a proposal, and solicit agreement to secure resources (funding, headcount, equipment) than go ahead and start there. Whatever method works for you, get started.

Web2.0 is not just an experiment or a technology fad. Actually, it is a huge trend in the use of the Internet. Tim O'Reilly actually coined the term by observing how things were developing in the real world and than crafting a theory around the "outside world" of core computer development world. This type of observation is not a common way of doing things in the computer/Internet world. Until now, ideas, uses, products, essentially "technology" always came from the technologist world. The proverbial "young gun" / "hot shot" isolated "genius" crafting a new product in the form of a site. Essentially, Tim O'Reilly noticed that the "new web" enables users to be the real "content creators". Internet developers has hoped for this since the very beginning of the Web. But the applications and the technology did not develop as quickly as expected. But now, we - the marketing professionals as individuals and leaders of small organizations**, have the means to do what only large teams of programmers, editors, and web-masters.

---

Thinking strategically about marketing with Web2.0

What that mean to technology marketers is the beginning of an opportunity to get in touch with a whole new market using new tools. First of all, since the technology and the behavior of the market is new we can track it and adjust our way of working as it is developed. Second, we can lead competitors and partners in innovating. Not the innovation that just comes from a new technology, but the innovation into areas which have stayed static. This includes: positioning, message, target market, packaging, and even pricing. Changing marketing strategy is not a strange concept when new form of marketing distribution channel. I call "marketing distribution channel" anything that is the method a marketing message connects a technologist to the market. The Internet has had at least two big innovations in "marketing distribution channels". The first came with e-Mail and early networking (pre-web era). This shift in general terms was not as visible as the next one, but in the technical world marketing with e-Mail, BBS, and News groups was nothing less than a revolution. Many companies gained a huge advantage over others with the early Internet technology. Just like the more popular Internet (i.e. web) technology change, the early technologies really separated the quick to adopt from the slow ones. The same happened with much bigger effect when the current Web technology hit. We all see how people buy books at Amazon, how Dell sells computers, and Yahoo provides e-Mail service. Web2.0 is just starting out, currently MySpace, Facebook, Linked-In, Blogger, WikiPedia, are getting lots of media attention. But in the business world, especially in technology marketing, these tools are not being used. But this will change, as these tools become more robust, reliable, and popular, their use will grow quickly. This is one good reason to think about Web2.0 as a strategic investment in marketing.

NEXT TIME: Industry examples from Web2.0 technology.

---

*   If you need more information or training on creating and giving presentations take a look at blogs and books in this area. I believe that you can never give a "good enough" presentation. I also see that in the technical world, both technical and business people need more work in this area. This is specially true in creating presentation material. This area could use a whole blog series by itself.
** I call marketing small organizations because relatively to other corporate roles marketing is still mostly the smallest effort in MOST companies. Please excuse my generalization if this is not true for you or your organization.