Setting up the series

I am working undercover these days with a company that since launching last October, now seriously threatens the business model of their competitors. As an example, one competitor is a top player and highly profitable in their space which is a subscription based traditional technology website, I will call this player, Old School (Old). My client is a free site, all advertising based, built with Web 2.0 plus technology and attitudes, I will call them New School (NS). Today, NS now provides more services, in more languages, to a faster growing audience than Old.

A simple example. Old has not changed their website in 8 years and has taken 1 year to implement a new mobile feature. NS changes their “skin” every three months and implemented a mobile solution in 8 days. So how does NS do it? In this series I will give you seven core themes that drive the team at NS. One final bit, the team at NS are very seasoned web veterans coming out of other successful ventures, so these themes come from lessons learned and applied.

The series titles will be

1. Don’t Spin Your Own Fan
2. Great Development
3. Strong Infrastructure & Design
4. Small is Best
5. The Gold is in the Rest of the World
6. Company purpose is Community Purpose
7. Valuation Depends on What You’re Buying

I hope you enjoy this. I know I am having a ball.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR. How to use news releases, blogs, pod-casting, viral marketing & on-line media to reach buyers directly. David Meerman Scott. 2007. ISBN9780470113455. This book could change your approach to the web. After devouring this book it has a record number of post it notes attached to pages. The “new style ” of writing books first in a blog and then into print is starting to generate more books like this one, chock full of very useful information and methods, vs academic tomes with thoughtful but less tested ideas. So many great ideas in this book, but one that comes up early is that Press Releases are read as much by buyers than any other group out there, due to search engine retrieval long after the release is out there. So you need to write your releases as much for your buyers as to media, and make sure they are always posted on your site media centre. This reinforces the need for all your web content to talk to buyers in their words about their issues, not how great your company or product is. One more reinforcement of the core research findings behind our Precision Sales and Marketing approach. A library keeper, but a working book, not just a reference.