In my last post, I suggested that Microsoft embraced social influence marketing (which includes participatory marketing and word of mouth marketing) in a bold and unique way with the launch of www.windowslive.com.  This post will provide some detail on the solution that was developed. 

As demonstrated by the proliferation of Microsoft product team and employee blogs, the MSDN Community, XBox Live, and other social media outlets (including the Windows Live products, themselves), Microsoft has recognized the value of social media for some time.  But, with the re-launch of www.windowslive.com, Microsoft is demonstrating a much stronger commitment to social media as a strategic interactive marketing channel.  Led by Marty Collins, the Windows group assembled a dedicated team to focus exclusively on social media marketing.  Along with the Windows Live marketing group, Marty engaged my team at Avenue A | Razorfish in late 2007 to help define the social media strategy for Windows Live and develop a web site and services platform to support it.  Let's start with the goal, as stated by Marty: 

We really want to connect people who are doing cool things with Windows Live to other people who may be inspired to try creative things of their own. By giving engaged customers a place to share their experience and knowledge we hope to inspire others while recognizing those that have been great customers. In addition to inspiring people we will look to the community for product feedback to help us continually improve our products. The main goal is to simple: get closer to our customers.

To support this goal, we designed a custom solution enabling Microsoft to engage community members, aggregate, rate, and syndicate their blog content, and recognize and reward their contributions.

Engaging the Community

Through email invitations and posts on product team blogs, Microsoft initially invited over 10,000 of the most active Windows Live users to join the "Community Clubhouse".  The Community Clubhouse is the main hub for community interaction.  Members of the clubhouse are asked to:

• Tell stories about how Windows Live makes their everyday life easier and more fun.
• Share tips & tricks for using Windows Live products and services.
• Help "newbies" (new users) learn how to connect and share with Windows Live.
• Respond to challenges to blog about specific topics, such as new beta products.
• Rate and tag each other's posts.

In return, members are recognized for their contributions and rewarded by having their posts showcased in front of millions of users.  Members activities and contributions are tracked by a reputation system and awarded clubhouse points and achievement badges. 

A key objective of the clubhouse strategy was to make participation as easy as possible.  Rather than requiring community members to maintain separate blogs and post content in multiple systems, members contribute content by adding posts to their existing blogs and including technorati-like tags in the post.   Posts that are tagged appropriately are aggregated into the clubhouse through RSS feeds.  Each clubhouse post must have at least three tags – the word 'clubhouse', at least one Windows Live product/service name, and at least one content type (technical 'how-to' or inspirational 'story').   Members are encouraged to add additional tags to identify other topics covered in the posts - whether they are product related or not.  (Examples include 'wedding planning', 'sports', 'college', 'photo stitching', 'red eye', etc.)

Members visit the clubhouse site to read and rate all the content contributed by the community.   Posts are rated three ways: they can be flagged as inappropriate, given a qualitative star rating, and given a content level.  The content level suggests whether a post is appropriate for new users, everyday users, or power users.

Marketing with the Community

Many companies are, respectably, working to create or foster active communities.  Most do so by appending a "Community" tab/menu to the primary navigation and sending users to a section of the site, or a separate site altogether, that is focused exclusively on community content.  They maintain very clear and distinct barriers between their brand/marketing voice, and the community voice.  This keeps the brand safe from "rogue" community members or content.  However, with this approach, customers have to explicitly seek out the community perspective and navigate away from the more structured editorial content they might also be interested in.  This barrier reinforces the "marketing-speak" mentality. 

Microsoft, on the other hand, pushed to blur the lines between marketing and community perspectives.  A fundamental component of the strategy was to tightly weave community and editorial content throughout the site.  Recognizing that social influence is more powerful than marketing influence, incorporating relevant community content should elevate marketing message authenticity and trust.  Community members control a good portion of the content that is displayed throughout the marketing site.  In fact, there are only two pages on all of www.windowslive.com that do not include user-generated content (UGC). 

The tags in the original posts and the ratings that were applied in the Clubhouse are used to dynamically route posts to various sections of the www.windowslive.com marketing site.  While all community content is visible in the clubhouse, only content that has received a certain number of ratings and exceeds a minimum average rating threshold is promoted to the marketing site.  This assures that the community content displayed on a marketing page is contextually relevant, appropriate and useful.  As you can see from the image below, the tags also drive other parts of the UI, such as the "Featured in this post" module.

While Microsoft is engaged with the community, they are not moderating the content.  The community is responsible for self-policing.  Microsoft will not edit or remove valid content - even if it represents negative opinions.  While that is a scary proposition, Microsoft has confidence in its products and respect for its community.  In turn, Microsoft hopes to cultivate community trust and support.  The value of that trust will outweigh the risk of occasional un-flattering posts.  If there are legitimate concerns, Microsoft wants to know about them. 

In addition to being integrated throughout the marketing site, community content is syndicated out through RSS, advertising placements on MSN and Live.com properties (Hotmail, Spaces, etc), Windows Newsletters, and Hotmail email footers.  This provides reciprocal value for Microsoft and Clubhouse members.  The community provides valuable content assets and generates word-of-mouth for Microsoft and, in turn, they get exposed to millions of users.  One community member received over 10,000,000 views on their blog in one month from a single post that was featured on the www.windowslive.com home page and syndicated through ad placements.  For bloggers looking to grow their readership, this is a great opportunity.  And, obviously, we felt this was a great opportunity for Microsoft to generate positive social influence and word-of-mouth. 

The response from the re-launched www.windowslive.com was much stronger than we expected.  It exceeded the traffic projections and server capacity we had planned.  So we had to struggle to support the load for the first month.  But that is certainly one of the better problems to have.  Marty has already announced that the program is being expanded to support www.windows.com, and the entire Windows family of operating systems and online services. 

On medissembly.com, I've published the first in a series of posts on how Microsoft has embraced social media and social influence marketing with the re-launch of WindowsLive.com.  I spent he last 10 months working on that site and the strategy behind it.  I admit I'm biased, but I believe Microsoft has set the standard among its competitors for social influence marketing. 

For the greater part of my 15-year career I have worked with large interactive marketing agencies, building high profile solutions for online marketing, e-commerce, and Internet-based businesses.  I started with US Web (formerly Ensemble Systems, later marchFIRST) and, until recently, have been with Avenue A | Razorfish.  These, and similar, agencies focus on Fortune 1000 clients that are able to fund large projects at high rates.  With substantial project funding, they can produce outstanding and sometimes groundbreaking solutions.  I have had tremendous opportunities creating industry-leading web sites and Internet solutions for companies like Microsoft, Dell, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, ServiceMaster, JC Penney, and many others. 

However, in my heart, I am an entrepreneur.  I grew up in a family of small business owners.  I have a true passion for the environment, challenges, and opportunities that are unique to new ventures and small businesses.  Consulting has been rewarding because driving projects through the process of defining a vision, forming a strategy, designing a solution, and creating and executing a plan has many similarities to entrepreneurial business ventures.  But, ultimately, these high-value, high-dollar services are only accessible to large enterprises.  The services are worth the price they charge.  I will continue to recommend Avenue A | Razorfish to large businesses.  But, along with other big agencies, they are priced out of reach of most small businesses and new ventures.  

I'm starting Mediassembly to provide digital, interactive, and social media insight and strategic services to small and medium sized businesses.  I hope to leverage my experience to bring some of the strategic thinking and services provided by big interactive marketing agencies within reach of startups and SMBs, as well as provide insight, resources and solutions that are uniquely suited for smaller businesses. 

Mediassembly is actually a company I formed several years ago while developing a digital media-related consumer software product in my very limited spare time.  The name is derived from media + assembly.  With assembly defined as "a set of pieces that work together in unison as a mechanism or device", I think the Mediassembly name is still appropriate.  Successful interactive marketing strategies require engaging customers through multiple channels and assembling solutions with a wide array of technologies.  So I'll stick with the name and expand the original vision.

I will continue blogging on this site, but will likely blog more frequently about Mediassembly-relevant topics at www.mediassembly.com.  I encourage you to follow me there, and to share the site with any small/medium business leaders you may know.  As a startup small business owner myself, I would very much appreciate the referrals! :-)

Bruce Eckel and coauthor Jaime King have posted a sample of their upcoming book: C# Query Expressions and 3.0 Features

From the authors:

It's become more common for authors to offer a few pages or sometimes a chapter of their text to the public as a means of marketing. Our aim is to not only provide a sample, but also a useful stand-alone text. By itself, this sample provides any C# 2.0 programmer a foundation in C# 3.0.

This is intended to be a useful mini-book on its own, not just a teaser: it's 239 pages long and includes 82 exercises and solutions. The full book is filled with many more exercises and solutions.

The book covers:

• Extension methods
  • Inheritance vs. extension methods
  • Utilities for this book
  • Extended delegates
  • Other rules
• Implicitly-typed local variables
• Automatic properties
• Implicitly-typed arrays......
• Object initializers
• Collection initializers
• Anonymous types
• Lambda expressions
  • Func
• Query Expressions
• Basic LINQ
• Translation
  • Degeneracy
  • Chained where clauses
• Introduction to Deferred Execution
• Multiple froms
• Transparent identifiers
  • Iteration Variable Scope
• More complex data
• let clauses
• Ordering data
• Grouping data
• Joining data
• Nested Queries
  • into
  • let clause translations
  • let vs. into
  • joining into
  • Outer joins
• Other query operators

Download the sample here.

The Expression Design, Blend, and Encoder products each let you change properties with incremental values by clicking on the text box and dragging the mouse up or down.  I think most people know that.  But what I didn't know, is that you can hold [Ctrl] to slow down the rate of change and [Shift] to increase the rate.  That makes this feature much more useful. 

Microsoft recently published a Software + Services Blueprint for using Silverlight with Sharepoint.  The blueprint includes six samples demonstrating basic tasks like using Silverlight in a Sharepont web part, to advanced tasks like displaying a social network diagram using active directory. 

http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/ 

Each sample includes a video, code walkthrough, setup instructions, and a Visual Studio solution that can be downloaded separately or as a single package.

The full open source blueprint source code is said to be coming soon. 

The common mentality with respect to creative and technology process integration involves a relatively solid line that separates the two disciplines and work streams.  Creatives do their concepting, draw up wireframes, create visual assets, and then toss them over the line.  Technologists pick these up, create the front-end HTML, create the back-end code, and wire them up to create the system.  That is an extremely over-simplified description of both sides of the line - but it represents the general perception of many clients and peers in our industry. 

The agile movement has made great strides toward integrating project teams.  But the focus here has been on bringing business and end-user representatives into the process and advancing the project through small, iterative cycles.  (Again, a dramatic over-simplification.  I'm a huge Agile proponent.)  The iterative cycle keeps all disciplines (plus business stakeholders and users!) engaged throughout the project.  Great progress!  But, within an iteration, the line often remains.  Both the creative and technical teams are tightly engaged with the business and user representatives.  But they're only loosely engaged with each other. 

There are many reasons for this.  On a given project the creative and technical teams are often from separate internal organizations - at best.  At worst, they're from separate companies altogether.  Beyond that, they often think, talk, and act very differently - making it hard to relate.  Right brain, left brain stuff.  There is hope, however. 

One of the most satisfying things about working with Avenue A | Razorfish is experiencing the blurring of the tech/creative line.  As a company with strong marketing, creative, and technology capabilities that are integrated on many projects, we've learned through experience how to work and communicate with each other.  That is one of our strongest value propositions to customers.  We've proven that the line can be blurred and there is significant value in doing so.  However, it is within the last year that I've seen the most substantial fading of the line.

This can be attributed to the popularity and demand for rich Internet applications.  RIAs require a much greater level of cross-discipline understanding and cooperation.  Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML have done the same thing for desktop applications (and the web, with Silverlight).  There is a great whitepaper on the WPF designer/developer workflow entitled The New Iteration.  Definitely worth a read.  It specifically addresses WPF, XAML, and the Expression tools, but many of the points apply more generally to RIAs, as well.  The value proposition is well stated:

"Ultimately, the new collaboration means that iteration of a project can now happen in a much more fluid way. There is no longer the “one-way street” where a change to a specification downstream means a radical reworking of the entire application. The result opens up new possibilities for collaboration between the designer and developer, where a kind of dialogue is possible with the potential to foster greater creativity."

It is that last point - the potential to foster greater creativity - that excites me the most.  Technologists are often in a restricting role.  We have to set boundaries that the creative team must work within so that we're able to deliver on their promises.  Rather than promote cooperation and collaboration, this can create an "us versus them" mentality.  However, with RIAs I have noticed a great change.  Technology and creative teams are pushing each other to expand the solution horizon, rather than constrain it.  Both teams are equally invested and sharing their unique perspectives, which results in far better solutions. 

It may be intuitive that a shared sense of ownership, varying perspectives, and close collaboration will have positive results on a project.  As a consultant "back in the day", when the Internet and HTML were new, I saw the same level of enthusiasm and collaboration between technical and creative teams.  But as technology and creative techniques matured, the tech/creative line solidified.  As a result, the solutions became somewhat cookie-cutter.  That's not to say companies weren't launching sites with great creative and technical work.  But truly remarkable solutions are conceived when both the technical and creative limits are stretched and combined to produce something truly unique.  I'm thrilled to be back in this sweet spot.  The industry as a whole seems to be following suit.  But unless a deliberate effort is made to avoid falling into comfortable patterns, truly remarkable solutions may once again join the endangered species. 

Microsoft released a hotfix for Visual Studio 2008 that addresses several bugs and performance issues. 

The hotfix is available here.

From Microsoft:

Issues that are fixed: We have fixed several bugs in this hotfix. All bug fixes are listed below.

HTML Source view performance

• Source editor freezes for a few seconds when typing in a page with a custom control that has more than two levels of sub-properties.
• “View Code” right-click context menu command takes a long time to appear with web application projects.
• Visual Studio has very slow behavior when opening large HTML documents.
• Visual Studio has responsiveness issues when working with big HTML files with certain markup.
• The Tab/Shift-Tab (Indent/Un-indent) operation is slow with large HTML selections.

Design view performance

• Slow typing in design view with certain page markup configurations.

HTML editing

• Quotes are not inserted after Class or CssClass attribute even when the option is enabled.
• Visual Studio crashes when ServiceReference element points back to the current web page.

JavaScript editing

• When opening a JavaScript file, colorization of the client script is sometimes delayed several seconds.
• JavaScript Intellisense does not work if an empty string property is encountered before the current line of editing.

Web Site build performance

• Build is very slow when Bin folder contains large number of assemblies and .refresh files with web-site projects.

With Microsoft's recent bid to acquire Yahoo!, there will be a plethora of Internet doomsday concerns.  Those are to be expected.  But there is at least one aspect of the deal that intrigues me... integration of their respective social media products and perspectives. 

User frustration in navigating between the wide array of social media sites has resulted in a new product category some say will be the killer applications of 2008:  Tools for Managing Multiple Social Networks.  There certainly is a need for such products today.  However, that category should have a relatively short life-span, as it addresses problems that should be eliminated. 

Many industry experts consider social media to be the defining element of "Web 2.0".  I believe that to be true.  But the current state of social media platforms reminds me of the AOL and CompuServe heydays.  Ultimately, the closed, proprietary nature of those networks conflicted with the open nature of the Internet - which led to the failure of those platforms.  I expect the same will happen to the current batch of social media networks if they don't open the platforms for integration. The good news is there is evidence of this realization by Yahoo! and Microsoft, and many of the other players. 

Yahoo! recently launched support for Open ID, which provides users with a single digital identity that can be used across multiple, unrelated sites.  Microsoft has a similar but proprietary solution with Live ID.  Microsoft representatives have told me they were looking into Open ID integration, but didn't have any specific plans or timelines.  Hopefully, this merger would elevate Open ID's relevance to Microsoft and accelerate Open ID / Live ID integration. 

Microsoft recently announced it was joining DataPortability.org, which promotes standards for data portability and exchange (such as friends lists).  Plaxo, Facebook, and Google have announced support, as well.  But Yahoo! has not.  Hopefully, the Microsoft merger would elevate DataPortability.org's relevance to Yahoo!.

If the merger results in both Microsoft and Yahoo! supporting Open ID and DataPortability.org, it would be a huge win for social media integration.  This should create tremendous momentum for both movements and influence other organizations to follow suit.  People can certainly conceive of negative consequences of the deal.  But I'm a "glass is half full" kind of guy.  And there is evidence that both parties see relevance in open standards.    

Avenue A | Razorfish (my employer) held it's first-annual technical summit in Austin today.  With this event, we invite clients from around the country to spend a day with us and get our perspective on the current state and future direction of Internet and digital media technology.

The keynote speaker was Tim Bray, who is the Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems.  His speech was entitled: Understanding, Deploying, and Integrating Web 2.0.  He had several interesting comments regarding "Web 2.0 and the culture of contribution".  He provided a great quote by one of Sun's founders.  (Who's name I unfortunately don't recall.)  The quote is:

Wherever you are working, all the smartest people are somewhere else.

The point he was making is that companies should harness the power and influence of communities on the Internet, rather than try to compete with them.  He highlighted Sun's employee blogging policy.  On blogs.sun.com, you'll see:

Welcome to Blogs.sun.com! This space is accessible to any Sun employee to write about anything.

That is a pretty darn open policy.  Many companies are still struggling with the idea that relinquishing control of communication is a good idea.  Microsoft has a similar policy with blogs.msdn.com.  Microsoft and Sun each have thousands of employees blogging and are thus having very active and intimate dialogs with their customers. 

Apple, on the other hand, maintains a death-grip on any sort of non-sanctioned communication.  I find that quite ironic, as the common perception is that Apple is a very customer-centric organization, while Sun and Microsoft are technology-centric.  Apple is a great company and certainly has a marketing leg-up on Microsoft right now.  Even Microsoft employees can't help but laugh at the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads.   But I expect the close relationship Microsoft is cultivating with its customers through this informal communication channel will become a strategic advantage over time.  The quote above might appropriately be rephrased as "Don't think you're smarter than your customers". 

Apple and other companies may invest heavily in focus groups to understand customer needs and behavior.  In doing so, they may feel appropriately connected with their customers.  But the quote still rings true.  Whichever customers you engage through focus groups, the most important or influential customers are likely somewhere else.  I think the point is you should leverage all available channels to understand and build relationships with your customers.  There may very well be unpleasant communication trends or threads of discussion in employee blogs.  But if they are isolated to a few, they will be lost in the crowd.  If they are not isolated, they are likely highlighting legitimate problems or opportunities that should be addressed.  That information is extremely valuable.  It is much better to hear both customer and employee complaints or pain-points and address them, than to pretend they don't exist.  Both will give you their trust and loyalty if they see that you're listening and acting on their feedback.