New Media Services - Plan

Steps

1. Find tools that scan sources
2. Evaluate which ones provide the best feed through an API
3. Find hosting/AWS, specify environment, language
4. Time-based triggers
5. Program for triggered scanning based on input list
6. Program for processing based on criteria (high priority, good list, bad list)
7. Program to create periodic report
8. Program to create web page display
9. Program to find summary and trends; compare with competitors
10. Marketing / sales

Risks

1. Free services providing some of the functionality

New Media Services - Monitoring

Core: Technology and Authenticity to deal with new media
Monitor => Engage => Influence -> Monitor

Monitoring
Stages:
I. Info Sources: twitter, blog search, youtube, wikipedia, flickr, web search, news search
II. Input Lists: terms of interest, tags of interest, brand, company, partners, domain, new
III. Event or periodic trigger
IV. Intermediate storage as necessary (file, schema, feed, etc.)
V. Processing:
Separate into sections, sort items, prioritize, markup, classify
VI. Output:
Display web page, PDF file, Periodic email report


Engaging users is the "socialcast" tool

New Media Base Offerings

Service and Tool classification: Monitor, Enable, Encourage, Reward, Influence

Monitoring Services

• Search: Twitter, Google blogs, Facebook apps, del.icio bookmarks, LIn
• twitter monitoring; e.g. HealthCare, ep, CMG,
  
• Comprehensive reporting and dashboard

Influence Services
Engagement

Values

• Help customers communicate
• Give back to the community

Questions

• Who are Target Brands?
• How is this relevant and urgent today?
• Can you get great results without spending money?

Activities

• Create base articles
• Create core services
• Find Service Beta users
• Speak at Conferences
• Put up Conferences
  

-

New Media Services

Name
xyz New Media Services

Mission

1. Provide tools and services to help companies successfully navigate new media
2. Share new media knowledge and skills with others
3. New media includes: blogs, twitter, tags, wikis, feeds, social networks, soc. bookmarks

Tagline: Your guide to New Media Marketing

Core Value of New Media Marketing

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Engage with customers and others in the ecosystem
• Generate product ideas
• Lead Generation
• Find, Encourage, Enable and Reward Advocates
• Participate in the conversation and get feedback
• Monitor => Engage => Influence
  

Base articles

• Case Studies: How big brands use twitter, blogs, feeds, social networking
• Article: Integrated brand management for new media
• Case Studies: Good and bad examples of companies leveraging new media
• Article: Recommended Approaches to New Media Marketing; e.g. 10 pitfalls to watch out for in using twitter to promote your brand
• Guide for each media type: what is it, how to use it, strengths, pitfalls, tips, suppliers, tools, examples good and bad

Tools

• Submit to multiple social networks at once
• See what different social media are saying

Services

• Consulting - how to leverage new media
• Temporary content
• Set everything up for a brand
• SEO, design work
• Managed Advocate program (find -> encourage -> enable -> reward)
  

Website Description
Who are we? What do we do? Who needs our services? Why?

Upsell Path

1. Find examples of what users are saying about your brand; contact and offer more
2. Comprehensive look at what users are saying, today, about your brand (paid report, ongoing monitoring service, internal tools)
3. Help addressing users who say bad things
4. Help supporting users who say good things
5. Help you engage users so they say more things
6. Help you influence users to turn them into fans and say so

Books: New Media

Beyond Buzz - Lois Kelly
PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences - Deirdre Breakenridge

Business Plan Basics

Ante
Name, Logo, Mission, Web site, Tag line, Base articles (evergreen, ongoing updates)
Basic value: Specific Services offered, Tools - both free & paid
Mailing list, Newsletter, Weekly/monthly "fix" of value

Raise
Online guides, Printed books, Webinars, Live classes, Speaking at conferences
Case Studies, How-to guides
Significant value: Services and Tools

Additional cards
Find an emerging topic or technology, something that fits within skills and interests
Relentless focus on a specific demographic or audience

Charter Mission

Use existing knowledge of New Media to teach and help others
- Books, Classes, Case Studies, Newsletter
- No blog; enduring article web pages that are regularly updated
- Create services and tools to make a significant difference for new media penetration

Startup Plans

Mission, *USP*/Edge, Position of Strength
Brand, Logo, Web site, Tagline
Mailing list, Newsletter, Blog

Offerings
----------
*Connecting*
Content: Books, Monographs, Case Studies
Strategy Implementation Services
Education: Online and Offline
New Media Consulting
Social Network Services
Authoring Temporary Content, Blogging Services, Tweeting Services
Showcase Site
Productize

New Media Services

Corp New Media Svcs
--------
Sell interim content media services to companies
Set up corporate blog, media marketing consultant

- Consulting
- Software / Tools
- Content
- Showcase site
- Automated Content Aquisition (culled from the web)
- Social Networking
- Blog posts
- Community


Showcase site -
Professionally Designed
Columns and Depts
Targeted micro-niche
Very specific target audience
Daily publication of content
Income: Ads, Affiliates, Surveys, Tools, Subscriptions

Research Topic Followup

Research Dimensions for any Web 2.0 field
------------

Impact of Web 2.0 on that field - the 4Cs
Implications of Mobile devices and mobile web
Top articles on the topic
Top ongoing resources in that field
(web sites, blogs, vendors)
Define and Describe Industry trends

Usage
----
Blog posts
Destination article for web site
GKnol article
Image search

Posts

Blogging simply documents the journey, in an informative and interesting way; by itself, it is not the journey, except for a small number of professional bloggers.

SA Research
- Analyze an industry, compare options/solutions/products, charts, trends, speculation about the future
- Actual research can be outsourced

Creating Corporate Content

Content Services for Companies

- Focused on non-content-oriented businesses and services
- Temporary content for corporate (or major) blog - e.g. blogger taking vacation
- Turn-key corporate blog: informative, interesting, related, clean, high-level
- Articles optimized for SEO and external links, both outgoing (nudge) and incoming (linkbait)
- Additional supplemental content for filling out a blog
- Speed-blogging, to create keyword-rich sites
- Ghost-writing
- Research services
- Moderation for corporate communities and forums
- Create articles with backlinks to be submitted to knol, wikip, EZine directories (premium, well-researched, well-supported by references)
--> Reuse existing explored resources from current blogs
- Launch a new Corporate blog
- Sell how-to E-books

Consolid. Content Svcs; Corp Content Svcs

A Plan for Website Optimization and SEO

1. Traffic
Submit all posts, along with lots of other articles, to all the top social networks:
Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Propeller, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, Fark, Slashdot, Kaboodle, Newsvine

2. Backlinks
Submit key posts, with the appropriate keywords, to independent blogs that allow doFollow to generate backlinks.

3. Content
The best long-term solution is to create original, great content! Also, posts for wikip, knol et al.

4. Conversion
Add affiliate links.

5. SEO tools
Check out tools from Wordtracker, SEOMoz, SEOBook.

Tiered Business Plan

Tiers
Content Business
Ecom Store
Ecom Consulting
Univ comm startup

Content Business
Relentless Focus on a Specific audience
Multiple selling to the same refined demographic
Cross-sells, Upsells, Subscription (repeat) sales
Partner content and products

Content Business Ideas

The three legs of a Content business:
Write - Promote - Convert


Typical Actions
--------------------
Jump on any argument bandwagons that may be going on
Book reviews, Product Reviews + Conversion Link ("Buy Now")
Interviews + Conversion Link
Start income stream, then bootstrap for more content
Add self links in posts
Read books/articles and paraphrase
Affiliate Links


SEO possibilities
------------------------
Notes in Squidoo, Wikipedia
Connect with other bloggers
Links to other blogs and blog comments
E-Zine articles, Guest posts
Forums

Seven Steps to a Revenue Site

Starting a web site or blog to generate revenue in seven simple steps:

1. Find an area of personal interest and a meaningful name to describe it.
2. Get the corresponding domain, a ".com" if possible.
3. Create a blog where you can post regular information about your topic. Point your domain to the blog.
4. Write informative and interesting posts about your topic; add lots of links to other blogs.
5. Find affiliate products related to the topic, preferably ones with high commissions. Sign up with the corresponding affiliate vendors.
6. Associate the products to the posts in a way that makes sense to the reader; the affiliate ads should add value to the content, rather than distract the user.
7. Apply SEO principles to gather meaningful incoming links from other sites/blogs. People should want to link to you for the content, rather than for money or as part of a link exchange.
   

Iterate repeatedly on items 4-7. That's it!

Plan for two bizs

CF:
Blog, services, products and consulting for E-Commerce retailers
Who: Owners of small-medium E-Commerce web sites

SA:
(a) Technology bookstore (b) Publishing house
Topical & Timely Lists, Specialized Bundles, Loyalty programs, low-cost, great service
Focused on Technology and Success literature
Reading advice, related solutions and (affiliate) products
Repeat sales based on interest
Book Reviews, technology blog
Continuous interaction, memberships

- Start with Amzn links and CJ affiliate items
- Eventually, sell books and publish custom books (topical & timely)
Buy other niche web sites/blogs as needed

Who: Young technology professionals focused on career and business success
[More specific: 25-40 year old SW professional who wants to start his/her own business]

Referrals InStream -> Conversion -> Upsell/cross-sell -> Purchase -> Repeat Business -> Back to Conversion

SEO Tools

LinkVendor.com

Researching/tracking Keywords:
WordTracker, Keyword Discovery
inventory.overture.com
Google AdWords tools

Affiliate Merchants:
Clickbank, Commission Junction

Target Demographic is very important

Key Strategy:

You must have a very clear picture of target demographic and satisfy that person's needs.

• Who are you selling to?
  
• What are you selling?
  
• Why will they buy? When will they buy?
  
• What do these users look like, in detail?

Sticking To It - 2

Had another crisis of confidence last night - what do I really know about the E-Com biz? Should I try something else? The current economic climate, with the recent stock market collapse, is brutal. [There are many who think this is likely to be a *long* downturn:
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=477k3d8mh2wmtpc4b6h07p4hy9z83x18
]

But I'm sticking to it. E-com can only grow worldwide in the next 10 years. And all those sellers will need services, consulting and products to help them, especially in a downturn.

To heck - I'm sticking with it!

Additional Ideas

Second Business: The SAb Tech Bookshop
-------------

Initially, the books are image/text links into Amazon; later, can sell and even publish books.
Create a set of lists that expands and gets link-love: list of "Books to Read During a Recession", "Books to Read for Learning ", ...

============================================================

AltBiz

Another business I should start is an E-Commerce store targeted at a very specific segment of the population. As a VP of Marketing at BMW said - "our buyers tend to be fast-track young people who achieve success early in life". Now that's a specific demographic (and a very lucrative one!).

Startups - Concentrate Your Resources!

I was watching a documentary about the "101st Airborne" - a tough paratroops division - on the Military History channel today, and it suddenly struck me that a startup usually has to act like shock troops rather than a regular army. By definition, a startup has a small amount of resources. The reason shock troops succeed is by applying a large amount of force targeted at a point or a small area so that they can overwhelm a much larger enemy at that point and break through. This is the principle of concentrated resources.

Sticking To It - 1

The good news is that the overall target/business plan hasn't changed much in about three months. It's still about enabling targeted customer contact in various forms and with specialized features.

The target domain has been narrowed down to Ecommerce and the specific value to be provided starts with web and iPhone Marketing specials (coupons).

This is very different from where I started at the end of 2000, where the goal - after reading the signature Rich Dad book - was to simply "have a business, rather than a job". I've tried many different directions since then, but couldn't stick to anything long enough - this is the farthest I've gotten. The "golden handcuffs" of a well-paying job reduce the urgency. The only two things I've tried for long periods (~2 years) are options trading and blogging, both of which are ongoing.

Also, the biggest change in perspective has been to focus on the Sales and Marketing perspective, rather than on the product or service provided.

Creating web site pages

One of the early tasks is to put up a web site for the new company. I started in on it two days ago, and put together the basic PHP site in a few hours, much to my surprise (I thought it would take a week or two). So now I have the company name and web pages.

The next step is to get the domain, host the pages, create a blog, point the sub-domain "blog" to the blog itself, and set up email addresses - which will create the cohesive whole. The other part is to write some interesting blog articles.

Additional steps: (a) write the basic FAQs, and (b) define core ideas for services, E-books and blog posts.

Blue Ocean Products

Over the past few weeks, I've been seeing first-hand the advantages of the Blue Ocean philosophy. At my job, I see a whole lot of operational and even tactical mistakes as we get more bureaucratic with increasing company size; but the momentum from our primary blue-ocean product helps us glide over these issues and carries us forward. Sales continue strong - for now. But we can coast for only so long, competitors are now nipping at our heels.

Having a blue ocean product can help a company overcome short term issues with operations and even strategy!

The Startup Journey

This is the personal online journal of a first-time Entrepreneur - it will chronicle both my personal journey in business as well as the march of a brand-new startup.

About me: I've wanted to start a company for several years now. Although I've been reasonably successful as a software engineer and manager, and somewhat successful at stock/options trading, it is my fondest wish to work for myself and to create something of lasting value in the business world. Partly, this is for the money, of course - generated equity can be quite valuable - but partly it is also for the challenge involved and the opportunity to contribute!

The story so far: I've thought of many different ideas in the past few years, and also pursued some of them in my own fashion, which means that I invest time and effort, but am unwilling to commit any significant money to them. This time will be different; I intend to invest real amounts of my hard-earned salary into my startup.

There are two other differences: first, this time, I will be actively seeking one or two co-founders (my past efforts were all solo); and second, I shall be seeking market confirmation first through market research, focus groups, customer conversations, and so on, before any of the Engineering work is started. Of course, I still have to think about implementation in order to gauge feasibility, but it stops there.

The immediate idea I'm working on, is the creation of a customer-messaging infrastructure that can be used in many different contexts. The point is to create a general-purpose architecture, but to sell services for a variety of applications built on top of this architecture.

Let us see how it goes. Feel free to follow along with me, and to post comments if you agree or disagree. I'm primarily writing this for myself, not for generating a readership; if it helps anyone else, then that's a big bonus.

Happy Startup!