To borrow a line from Scrooge, “I’m as giddy as a drunken man.” With today’s Apple iPad intro, it feels like Christmas.

 

I was glued to Engadget’s live blogfeed of the announcement. Apple is leveraging its iPhone technology in a new tablet format, adding bells and whistles like unlocked, no contract, and cheap 3G data plans, a keyboard dock and the iBookstore.

 

But once again, as we’ve seen in the past with Apple, the whole may be larger than the sum of the parts.

 

In the tech industry we pay homage to “innovation” as the ultimate springboard for leadership positioning and killer differentiation.

 

Lots of companies make products, but only a few reinvent how we learn, communicate and experience. Remember trying to use a pre-iPod Mp3 player? Mine was a Diamond Rio; frustrated and ticked off are two reactions that come to mind.

 

Remember how you felt the first time you used an iPod? For me, it was the same feeling I get when I step foot in a new country. Wow, this is someplace different, and it’s cool, and a little scary but I’m happy to be here and I want to discover this new place.

 

The iPod wasn’t just innovative because of its simple design and intuitive ease of use. The kicker was the iTunes store – it gave us a whole new way to stay on top of music, broaden our horizons, consume and share at far less cost. The entire experience of finding and listening to music was transformed.

 

I used to think it was de rigueur to be able to stay in touch via e-mail on my mobile phone. But now as an iPhone user, I can’t fathom how I was satisfied with a device that made surfing the web painful and offered little else.

The iPhone gives me a broader, more fulfilling experience. While typing is a little less speedy, I now have - in one device – painless Internet, much better viewing, a decent camera, games, nifty video, all the music I love, instant social networking connections, an e-book reader and access to over 140,000 apps. Nice trade-up.

The iPad isn't perfect (bad name; doesn't multi-task; no webcam; no widescreen; no GPS) but it may hold similar long-term promise.

If I was a newspaper or magazine publisher, I’d be more hopeful. This device has the potential to help reinvent the publishing industry like iTunes reinvented the music industry. As I watched today’s New York Times demo, it reminded me of the Harry Potter movies where animated video moves across “The Daily Prophet” student newspaper. The iPad features drop down context menus; re-sizing of pages with a pinch; and embedded video inside articles. If the content providers and app developers get onboard with this vision, it could be a reinvention of how we read and learn.

It remains to be seen whether the iPad will make it or die a Newtonian death. The lesson I walk away with is that consumer and B2B brands can endear themselves to their customers - and potentially win - if they focus on innovating customer experiences vs. merely announcing feature-rich products. The former is a benefit-laden differentiation that’s damn hard to disrupt.

Here’s what you need to know to effectively persuade:

 
“Corporate Communications and/or Legal (on the customer side) shuts us down every time.”
 
 “Our customers consider their use of our product a proprietary advantage and don’t want to talk about it publicly.”
 
“We have a handful of customers and zero leverage at this stage getting them to be references.”
 
“They like us, but can’t endorse us.”
 
“Only a finite group are referenceable and they’ve been leveraged heavily by many different groups within our company, especially sales. PR isn’t often at the top of the list.”
  
While there certainly are instances where a given customer can’t be a reference, case closed, there are many proven techniques to engage others:  
 
Think micro, not macro – The highest impact customer references are strategically targeted and proactively nurtured. They’re not random “dialing for dollars” occurrences. Analyze your customer base to target particular customers who provide a ‘great fit’ advantage for you, and them. Sort your customers by reference objective. Then go after them individually in a thoughtful way.
 
Leverage C-Level execs – Don’t approach critical potential customer references with junior people. Instead, elevate this outreach to the highest levels of your company. Engage your CEO, Chairman, Board members, CMO and strategic members of your PR firm to explore referenceability. Leverage any personal relationships that exist. This shifts conversational impact to a much higher – and more successful - level.

 

 

 

The CEO sitting next to me the other day heads a very successful company. She understands marketing and gets social media. But when the subject of blogging came up, she went down an interesting path.

 

“I still don’t get why we need to blog. Who’s going to visit our Web site to read our blog? On top of that, we're real busy and don’t have a lot of extra time to write content consistently. I don’t want to start and stop; that’s worse than never starting. So why is blogging so critical?”

 

She may appear to have a good point. After all, some 175,000 blogs are created daily. Technorati estimates the number of blogs at 113 million (with 7.5 million of them active). 184 million bloggers are creating 570,000 posts every 24 hours, reaching 70 percent of Web surfers daily.

 

With all this blogging going on – and the mind-numbing reality of 175,000 new blogs coming to life daily – why is it so important?

 

We’ve all heard the litany of high-level reasons why companies should blog, including:

 

I knew the CEO next to me had heard this stuff before. So I didn’t go there. Knowing she was a pragmatic, revenue-enhancing, lead generating type, I talked, instead, about the correlation between blogging and sales (something you don’t hear enough about).

 

 

Before explaining how blogging plays a central role in generating sales leads, I emphasized the need to get search engine optimization (SEO) right. That’s where the journey should begin. SEO and blogging go together; they're buddies. Once the SEO foundation is laid, a company can move forward with blogging which is one of the best ways to create pages that are keyword dense and optimized.

 

If you write compelling content that people naturally search for, they will discover you, visit your site, probe and (hopefully) become engaged. Just don’t make the mistake of writing myopically about your company, products, services and promotions. Build a higher-level voice based on topics people (who don’t know you) will search for. Whereas the majority of Web site content is static, blogs are alive with fluid, current thinking.  

 

Remember that blogging isn’t an occasional thing; you need to do it often enough to build an authentic voice and aura of authority. That typically means daily or at least weekly. Nothing looks worse than a withering blog without a post for weeks or months. 

Blogs directly impact sales because they drive traffic back to your blogs and Web site, including traffic from referring Web sites. They're one of the best ways to increase linkage (links) which is critical to broadening readership.

Another way blogs can stimulate sales is by gathering periodic "best of" compilations. Select 4-5 of your company's best posts and send them to a targeted e-mail list and social networks (LinkedIn and Facebook are good places to start). This way the content they may have missed by not searching or visiting your web site is delivered to their desktop. Do this every month or every other month to create a consistent flow. And don’t forget to tweet your blog posts.

My CEO friend asked one more question: “Does it matter that our company isn’t selling our products and services online?” I told her it doesn’t; we’re talking apples and oranges. Even if you’re not selling online, people are finding you online.

Thanks to search, the function of marketing shifted (awhile ago) from one-way push to many-to-many pull. Now, thankfully, a direct connection occurs, and it’s coming bottom-up - from prospects, customers, friends, fans, etc. - vs. top-down.

 

 

 

  
Tip # 1 – have a crisis plan ready to go. Rather than scurrying about when a crisis hits, it makes a lot more sense to have a game plan in place ahead of time. Start by determining what can happen (make lists of scenarios) and then assume it will. Crises fall into two categories: (1) uncontrolled crises (fire, employee injury, deaths) and (2) controlled crises (layoffs, takeovers, major product changes). Decide what you will need to do; frame the action items. Create a crisis portfolio and think through what events could set them off. Align the action you will take with the crisis level. When the crisis hits, work the plan.
 
Tip # 2 – build the crisis support infrastructure.  Assign authority and responsibility ahead of time. Build the crisis response team; get an adequate number of professionals involved. Prepare content. Identify all your organization’s publics, not just the obvious ones. Figure out how and where you’ll establish information centers. Identify the chain of communication for crisis notification. Predetermine the way you’ll assemble the team. Constantly train the team by simulating various crises; practice the plan once or twice a year and modify as needed; change scenarios each time. Look for things that don’t work; refine the process. 
 
Tip # 3 – speak with one voice. When a crisis hits, you can’t have 10 different people running around speaking on behalf of the company. This is a formula for a damaged reputation. Instead, identify one central spokesperson – at the highest possible level – and make certain this individual has the knowledge, sensitivity, interpersonal skills, authority and public demeanor to speak on your company’s behalf. Make sure this person is very accessible. Strive for consistency in what is said and how it is said. Make sure there’s a clear chain of command.
 
Tip # 4 – be prepared before you talk. Invest the time – proactively - to anticipate key questions before they get asked. Know the details. Understand what you can, and cannot, say. Deal honestly with all your publics, but only divulge what’s required. Don’t volunteer damaging information. Only use confirmed facts; don’t speculate. 

Tip # 5 – remember social media. Twitter is a phenomenal real-time communication channel, and a great way to keep people informed, make alerts and be continually proactive. Facebook is an excellent two-way medium to monitor what people are thinking and post frequent updates from your company.

Tip # 6 – be there. When a crisis strikes, you can’t maneuver your way through it in your office. Get out there. Be at the scene. Be visible and available. Don’t allow information voids; keep communication flowing. Never surprise anyone. Deal with rumors quickly. Minimize speculation.
 
Tip # 7 – fall on your sword. This is the # 1 mistake companies, organizations and even venerable institutions consistently make… despite decades of “how not to do it” examples. Don’t fall into this trap because it’s the most debilitating of all. Nothing damages a reputation more quickly than stalling, deceit and bamboozling. Acknowledge the problem. Express concern. Take responsibility. Express a sincere desire to cooperate with others to solve the problem. Be human.

Tip # 8 – protect the record. Monitor everything that’s said and written including social media. Have a system in place to correct incorrect facts to avoid recirculation of erroneous information. Make sure your organization gets public credit for positive actions taken to address the crisis.
 
Tip # 9 – keep reading the situation. If a crisis becomes extended, continually measure changes in public opinion. This real-time monitoring will enable you to modify your crisis plan and communication as needed.
 
Tip # 10 – don’t go quiet. If nothing new has occurred, don’t fall into a black hole. Keep communicating even if the status quo is unchanged. Be proactive in your communication. Always be concerned about the reputation of your company, organization or institution.