Marketing Roadmaps

Susan Getgood

Multiple Choice Part Two: Why we did a blog

by

My client Software Secure has a small but very satisfied client base of educators and educational technology specialists at schools and universities across North America that have adopted campus-wide laptop programs or made a significant investment in ed-tech, often in a CMS like WebCT or Blackboard.

The company wanted to find a way to give voice to these happy customers – let them share their experiences with others, and in the process, get the word out about Software Secure. More brand awareness combined with a great product equals more customers, more revenue.

In the “old days,” our marketing strategy probably would have been to develop case studies for the Web, collateral and PR, and try to obtain speaking engagements for our client evangelists.

Well, we will still do all that, but as we were doing our marketing research, we discovered that there weren’t many online resources that focus specifically on developing a secure learning and testing environment. There were lots of big general sites, with lots and lots of information. Sometimes too much information.

We also found lots of blogs by educators — from superintendents of schools to professors to instructional technology managers – that were already creating vibrant conversations in the educational community.

Since we knew that our customers had great stories to tell, which could start a great online conversation about the issues of online learning and testing, we decided to fill this information gap with a collaborative weblog written by our customers and other educational experts. 

The people who really know the scoop are the ones on the front lines. Their experiences and stories are far more valuable, and interesting, to other educators than anything we could write. And preaching to the choir here on the Roadmap, but we chose the form of a blog because it offers two-way communication, which makes it a meeting place for educators tackling security issues, versus a static resource page.

Educators speaking directly to educators. About issues faced by educators when integrating technology in the learning and testing environment – technology evaluations, practical advice on holding faculty workshops, information about new tools that might be useful etc. etc. Not just information about Software Secure.

And so you have Multiple Choice:

Multiple Choice brings together educators who are leading the way in building secure online learning and testing environments at schools and universities across North America

Our sponsor is Software Secure, developer of technology that secures the computing environment from cheating and digital distractions.

The sponsorship is clear, the bloggers will be posting directly to the blog (no company review) and they can write about whatever they like within the topic of secure online testing and learning. I certainly hope they will mention the company once in a while but even if the educators NEVER DO, it will be fine.

The company will post from time to time, mostly news roundups and company news, and just by being there, more people will learn about Software Secure and its products.

Once I get the word out, that is. Which is the stage we are at now. Our contributors will all be starting next week, all the infrastructure stuff is done (for now), so there’s nothing left but to get the word out about Multiple Choice.

Like in this post J  I do hope my Roadmaps readers will check it out and let me know what they think. And of course, please do tell your friends and family in the educational community all about it!

Introducing Multiple Choice, a collaborative weblog

by

Part One

As I have mentioned here a few times, I believe that collaborative weblogs are an excellent choice for a corporate blog. Multiple voices means no one person has to post everyday; it is much easier to manage the workload, and there is the vibrancy of conversation among the posts as well as in the comments.

I am an even bigger proponent of collaborative weblogs that speak the voice of the customer, not just the company. For the past two months, I have been working on a collaborative weblog to be written by a company’s customers as well as company reps. We are now in what you might call a public beta – the blog is live and there are posts, but we won’t be officially launching until early May.

But, we are slowly getting the word out, so it seemed the time was ripe to tell my Roadmaps readers all about it.

The client is Software Secure, a software company that develops security software for computer-based and online testing. In a nutshell, its products prevent students from cheating on exams. The weblog is called Multiple Choice and it will be written by our customers and other educational experts. We have three clients signed up to blog and are continuing to recruit regular contributors. If you know any educators or educational technology experts who might be interested in blogging with us, please let me know (sgetgood@getgood.com) They do not have to be a Software Secure client. We want articulate people who are actively engaged in the issues. It is a volunteer position. We want folks who want to help their peers.

I am very excited about the potential of creating spaces for customers to speak directly with each other as well as with the company about topics that are at the intersection of their mutual interests. Resources such as this perform a valuable service for the community while also serving the company’s interests. It is “doing good by doing good,” and what could be better than that?

I welcome feedback from Roadmaps readers about the Multiple Choice blog, but I would ask that you leave feedback about the blog as a marketing tool, here on Marketing Roadmaps or in private e-mail to me at sgetgood@getgood.com

If you do stop by Multiple Choice, of course feel free to leave comments on any of the posts, but I would appreciate it if my Roadmaps readers would respect that this is a client project. Comments about secure online testing, education, learning technology, Software Secure, are all fair game for Multiple Choice, a blog about secure online testing and learning. Marketing feedback belongs here on the Roadmap. Thanks!

Next: I will post some of the background thinking that went into the decision to do a blog.

What’s a blog?

by

Shel Holtz posted a plea to the blogosphere to Stop defining blogs:

"I’m getting tired of people insisting that blogs are one thing but definitely cannot be another."

Me too Shel. 

There’s room for more than one approach. I think that to insist that there is only one right way is well, clueless.

I also take offense at the idea expressed by some bloggers that those of us who allow for more than one right way to blog, to engage, to go to market, should get off the Train. That we are wrong.

That attitude strikes me as simply replacing one bad model, the much maligned old-style corporate marketing fortress, with another equally intransigent one:

"You can see the politics of ‘being right’ throughout most organizations. People win arguments- and thus secure their position in the hierarchy- through the cutting remark, through megatonnage of evidence, through agreeing with industry consultants, and through the smug refusal to ever admit being wrong."

– from The Cluetrain Manifesto

Hmmm. 

Flogging a dead horse & BusinessWeek

by

So, did you hear? BusinessWeek just did a cover story on blogging 🙂

By and large, it was a good article, and definitely a nice overview for someone who had heard a bit about this "blogging thing."

At the risk of being accused of "flogging" a dead horse, I really only took exception to one thing — the somewhat misleading definition of fake blogs:

"FAKE BLOGS, SOMETIMES CALLED FLOGS
Fake blogs created by corporate marketing departments to promote a service, product, or brand. The flog’s writer often uses a fake name. Derided by bloggers, fake blogs are an increasing trend. McDonald’s created a flog to accompany its Super Bowl ad about the mock discovery of a french fry shaped like Lincoln, while Captain Morgan created a fake blog in March for its Rum drinks."

This definition perpetuates the problem that Neville Hobson identified last week — inconsistent definitions of what we are talking about when we say fake blog, character blog, fictional blog.

It also perpetuates a negative stereotype of corporate marketing departments, almost making it sound as though all blogs created by marketing would be fake blogs. Not at all true. We have already seen some good examples of corporate blogs – among them GM FastLane and Stonyfield Farms, both covered in the BusinessWeek article. Not to mention: an individual could just as easily create a fake blog, as a Roadmaps reader pointed out last week.

So how should we define these different types of blogs — fake, character, fictional etc. Neville’s definitions are a good start. Here they are (from the same post linked above):

"A character blog means a blog which appears to be written by a fictional person. An example might be a blog that’s authored by a toy – Barbie, let’s say. Or by a brand – Captain Morgan’s Rum may be a good example.

A fake blog is one that appears to be like a character blog yet the conversation is fake in that comments (for example) are not what they appear to be nor written by genuine people. An example might be the McDonald’s Lincoln Fries blog."

And here are my additions:

The main characteristics of a fake blog are:

  • the author creates a persona, although not necessarily under a fake name;
  • there is an attempt to deceive. Either or both of the following apply: the persona and/or the sponsorship by a company is not disclosed;
  • fictitious comments;
  • Examples: aforementioned LincolnFry; a blog surreptitiously sponsored or funded by a company — paid opinions without disclosure.

The main characteristics of a character blog:

  • a fictional character "writes" the blog and interacts with visitors;
  • the fictional persona is disclosed, as is any company sponsorship;
  • comments are left by the audience, interacting with the character(s);
  • Examples: Barbie, Captain Morgan, Moosetopia

And here is my third category: the fictional blog. These really don’t exist much yet, but I believe they will. A fictional blog will use the form of the blog, but have more of the characteristics of a roleplay game or novel:

  • fictional characters write the blog and interact with each other in the main blog. This creates a story for the readers;
  • there may be a message board for the audience to interact with each other, but they probably won’t be interacting with the characters;
  • the fictional nature is clear as is any company sponsorship of the experience.

For me, to apply the label "fake" requires an intent to deceive. Whether the person is "real" or not doesn’t matter, if the details are disclosed.

Enough flogging.