Overdrive SEO -- Boston MA

I was having trouble reaching a vendor I’d worked with in the past — Harry Gold at Overdrive.  Went to the site, filled out a form to get a briefing…. couple of days and no response.

I’m in a hurry to help a client get up to speed on SEO — and Harry’s firm does a great job at that.  He’s got a great reputation — but I guess his presence dimension needs some attention.

I posted an inquiry to a mutual colleague’s “wall” on FaceBook… and before I went to bed last night Harry had gotten back to me to offer to set up the briefing.  Don’t wait to start building your “Swirl.”  Interconnect your networks.  Establish your presence.

good advice #1

Originally uploaded by sarah …

I have worked with many technology companies over the past twenty years, and most of that time in marketing or product management roles. As a result, I have had oh say 5,000 meetings with journalists and industry analysts, so I have seen how they do what they do as a big honkin’ large vendor, a small startup, and unknown restart.

Young analysts in particular have an interaction style that I find almost insulting. It is a way of managing a conversation with a vendor that suits the analyst’s need to appear broadly knowledgeable, but which after dozens of like interactions I now realize is purely a rhetorical avoidance trick.

The interaction goes something like this:

Me: “Hello — I’m Tim, and I’m with TechnoSphere — we have some exciting news this week and we’d really like to let you know about our company and our business strategy.”

Early thirty-something analyst, professionally dressed and confident looking: “Hi I’m from Intelligenter Than Thou (ITT) Group — I cover your product area. Tell me what you guys do.”

Me: Here I roll out the elevator pitch. “We are a software company in the [pick your industry analyst-defined category and insert here] space. We are only in the market a few years, but our product has a key differentiated capability which we think will…”

Early thirty-something interrupts: “So you are like MacroCo. Sounds like you’re in the same space as NeetoTeam is heading next quarter.”

Me: “Well we are actually trying to illustrate a limitation in current approaches, and how our innovation might disrupt the current market land…”

Another interrupt: “Yes, I here Gargantutron talking about their aradigm 5.0 strategy — have you read that?”

You get the idea. Interrupt, namedrop, divert and distract — all the while believing you are projecting expertise.

Well it doesn’t work with this client-side guy — and my advice would be that ambitious youngsters think about the following:

1) listen.

2) track your reactions and points of interest.

3) thank the vendor for their thoughts, and offer your thoughtful feedback and pointed comments.

Analyst firms will improve their brand, and vendors will feel someone understands that it’s still important to show basic respect.

Originally uploaded by TimDD

Interesing bit of positioning / sales work today from John Chambers, Cisco CEO, at the Gartner show today during his “brainshare,” or “mindmeld” or whatever it was called. Oh — just checked the program, it’s called a “mastermind” session.

He mentioned “telepresence,” which used to be called video conferencing, about 20 times. Clearly this is one of the key new revenue drivers for Cisco in the next three to five years.

In itself, not so interesting — CEO uses big stage in front of probably 9,000 to indicate what he wants them to buy.

Interesting to me, though, because of the name. I have been evangelizing a new model for marketing management, based not on the principals of “awareness - consideration - preference,” but on the concepts of “presence, authority, reputation.” The notion that these aspects are in a dynamic balance in the web 2.0 world (yikes i just typed web 2.0! Acch!) — and define the brand in this new world.

The role that video (live and otherwise) will play as part of your “presence” strategy and plan cannot be questioned, and I applaud him for the choice of term.

Here’s the paper I originally wrote about presence, authority, reputation: “Marketing Unbound.”

Walt Siegl Builder

Originally uploaded by TimDD

I spent this past leaf-peeping weekend in Harrisville, NH — an extremely scenic destination in southern New Hampshire between Peterborough and Keene. A magnificent and classic New England mill village.

Walt Siegl chose Harrisville as the bucolic destination for his erstwhile New York City-based custom motorcycle business. An attractive story in its own right, and worthy of an article separately — but I want to further proof positive of the incredible power at the intersection of so-called “social networks” and real live business on the web — what I refer to as “the Swirl.”

During our visit to Walt’s shop, I took the picture you see here. He was describing how a local artist’s emblem would be added to one of his custom bikes’ gas tanks. Walt was madly working to get ready for a big show in NYC, so we didn’t waste much of his time.

I worked on the photo a bit (more on that here if you are interested), and posted to flickr. I added tags, and an appropriate title, a text description, and the usual “good hygiene” for web search engine optimization.

By today, a search for “Walt Siegl” produced a link to this image on Flickr as the 4th listing of over 30,000 pages on Google. I get juice for my photostream, Walt gets juice for his site (because I have a link to his site on flickr — you get it.

Still questioning the value many are squandering at the intersection of blogs, social networks, traditional web sites? You shouldn’t be…

We are in a vortex of uncertainty. Markets are exhibiting volatility that must be horrifying for the naive or even novice investor. While the US presidential election outcome is becoming more and more clear, the degree of change promised by an Obama presidency is only fueling the uncertainty. Whatever your native political view, this statement is certain.

The media fans are hard at work feeding the embers. Whom shall we blame today? What did he vote for and when did he vote for that which started this whole flippin’ mess?

“Life is Good” developed a slogan for t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers: it’s a picture of an eight ounce glass containing four ounces of water, and under it are the words “half full.” Right now we are so deep into the half-empty, blamestorming, rear-view-mirror looking mode that the bottom is going to shatter any second and then we will really have a mess on our hands.

We need innovation in how we drive and lead the global economy — there can be no doubt. But so many aspects of the media infrastructure which enables if not drives cultural change will work at odds. Can we turn our attention away from the quest to name the evil dark root cause force (Bush / Republicans) and the shining glowing beacon of good hope (Obama / Democrats) to find a path? If Bush represents the war and all things evil that didn’t work; if Obama represents the government bailout and all things good that didn’t either.

Come on. The hot air is producing updrafts that could collide with the cold front and produce a funnel cloud. I’m not sure what that means but it sounds good and it made me think we’ve got to get off our lazy and partisan tochasses and find a better way.

Read Friedman on the topic.

Oh yeah — go Red Sox.

Originally uploaded by TimDD

Chalet Hotel Hornberg, Saanennmoser, Switzerland

Originally uploaded by TimDD

Culminating six months of effort rebuilding business and product strategy, and reconstructing the brand from the ground up — I participated in RSD’s global kickoff at this fairy tale of a hotel in the Alps high above Montreux, Switzerland — near the swish ski resort, Gstaad. About 1400 meters… reasonably thin air. Not too tough.

Great team, with a new and energized vision for their future. New website, logo, tagline, blog: the whole package.

As the prevailing state of things economic and political is “excitable,” and as we are nearing the typical year-end planning cycle for many companies, it’s time to start sharpening our rapiers and getting ready for another vicious round of “blamestorming.”

You know — when we get to see the worst in our colleagues and bosses as the scramble for attention, budget, and self-esteem reaches fever pitch.

With a US Presidential election, market turmoil, and just plain bad weather as an overlay — this calendar Q4 should be a doozy!

“The message isn’t resonating.”

“Our story isn’t working.”

“Look at what IBM did with those servers sprouting all those flowers.  That is cool.”

Like the post-season in baseball (once again without either the Ynakees or the Mets, thank goodness), the turning of the leaves, setting back the clocks and the formal launch of seasonal affective disorder — sales teams all over North America are preparing to do battle with marketing.

Can’t wait!  As a consultant (at the moment), I get to observe these absurd skirmishes with a fabulously fresh objectivity.  And will share here as the season heats up.

Goldsmith Autumn Skyward

Originally uploaded by TimDD

On 9/11/2001, I was in the midst of a job search.  I was up almost all night trying to understand what had happened and why. Never a television watcher until that time, I was glued all night.

I had an interview the next day — late round meetings at Netegrity. A few weeks earlier, I had spent a fantastic afternoon and early evening meeting with Barry Bycoff, the CEO, and Jim Hayden, the CFO. These were very pleasing folk with whom to think about doing business.

Just as I was leaving my house, the news outlets had begun publishing names of victims. I saw James Hayden from Westford MA crawl by… and thought to myself, “not a common name, and Westford’s not a large town.”

It was the Jim Hayden I had met a few weeks prior. Furthermore, I learned that day, Barry was at the gate, gate door closed, but plane still at the end of the jetway, demanding to be allowed to board the plane.

They did not allow him to board. He lived. Jim died.

Colon(y) Music Center, NYC

Originally uploaded by TimDD

Same day as prior post: and here is an example of some of the risks of outdoor!!!

I stopped laughing out loud long enough to capture this “message” — is it about the hot dogs?

Go! Speed Racer

Originally uploaded by TimDD

I was walking north from downtown on Manhattan island… to an appointment with a consulting prospect. I was stopped by this outdoor (a mural, painted on the side of an office building in lower-Manhattan, as I recall — perhaps midtown).

Fantastic visual –that spiral track creating such a fantastic 3D effect, combined with simple copy: Speed Racer in the vortex; “Go! Speed Racer” at the bottom. Any doubt that this movie is a special effects thrill ride? No doubt at all and that’s why it’s great “outdoor.”