High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype

What's up with Virtual Desktops?

There's renewed interest now with the introduction of Windows 7 to evaluate desktop virtualization.  This "trend" though is no surprise to Timothy Stammers, senior analyst at OVUM.  Tim, along with his colleague Steve Hodgkinson, authored a comprehensive report on the virtual desktop market this summer, Enterprise Virtual Desktop Alternatives:  A Market Scan.  

Coming on the heels of VMworld and Citrix Analyst day, we caught up with Tim to discuss trends in desktop virtualization for the latest in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this segment, we talk to Tim about how mature a market opportunity desktop virtualization presents and where the cloud fits into all of this.  

As Tim mentions, coming out of VMworld and the Citrix event, there was more of a renewed focus on desktop systems.  Tim elaborates on the "Battle for desktop virtualization" which he sees began in 2007 when Citrix and VMware launched their first solutions. He goes on to talk about how far we've come and how both Citrix and VMware have large install bases with Citrix claiming more than 7,000 customers and VMware more than a 1,000,000 seats.

In this new era of virtualization as Tim describes, the market is mature and he is definitely seeing demand. We've gone past the point where "it's going to happen" as Tim says. He adds that one of the sticking points is persuading users of the cost savings as he feels the costs can be hard to predict.

He goes on to talk about what he is seeing in the market around use cases and how, from his perspective, there is a mix of three architectures around traditional thin clients, streaming and VDI or, as he says, is probably better labeled as hosted virtual desktops. And, there can be no discussion around virtualization where implications for the cloud aren't raised. Tim closes with his thoughts on virtual desktops and implications for the cloud.  As Tim sees it, there are still concerns around security and network latency but he notes how IBM has promised to host desktops in the cloud.

We hope you will enjoy this podcast. Please feel free to share your feedback as we welcome your comments and thoughts.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes

Beyond the Hype - Episode 13

Podcast: In marketing, cadence is critical

The following is the second part in our Beyond the Hype podcast series with Bob Maness, Vice President, Marketing, for Pillar Data Systems, an LP&P client. We sat down with Bob recently to discuss the evolution and incorporation of social media into Pillar’s B2B marketing efforts.

Bob begins with a healthy discussion on tracking and measurement. In particular, he focuses in on how to effectively measure social media impact on overall marketing initiatives. As Bob notes, while capturing data for quantitative analysis is important, don’t overlook the qualitative aspect, in particular looking at trends. Too often, as Bob explains, marketing gets caught up in moments in time, particularly for events. An event may cause a spike, everyone pats themselves on the back and then the marketing team moves on to the next event. From Bob’s perspective, cadence is critical.The ability to create a steady cadence and keep to it without overcomplicating the message and/or activities will lead to success. Often times, you may get conflicting perceptual issues but at the end of the day, you can capture and measure success by the influence you have on buying behavior. When customers consider and ultimately purchase a product or service, that is the ultimate form of measurement and effect.

Bob closes with reflections on the recent success of the Pillar Cash for Clunkers program which played off on the Federal Government Car Allowance Rebate System. As Bob noted, while the Pillar program had a gimmicky element to it, the fact they had a key financing partner participate and that they were able to pick up where the Federal Government left off with its own program, made the overall program a success. For Bob, the hook was clear and his team was able to tap into a simple, obvious event to create a broader perception of interest for the company.

We hope you will enjoy this podcast. Please feel free to share your feedback as we welcome your comments and thoughts.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes

Podcast: Social media creates a 'paranoia of omission'

The following is the latest in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this segment, I sat down with Bob Maness, Vice President, Marketing, for Pillar Data Systems, an LP&P client, to discuss the evolution and incorporation of social media into B2B marketing efforts.  Bob believes that paranoia, fear and omission too often lead to me-too marketing and confusion.

Our conversation kicks off with Bob discussing how the paranoia of omission can lead to four challenges and how they can further hinder your efforts at differentiating your company, products and services. The four challenges Bob discusses are:

1. over-complication
2. constant fiddling and tweaking of the message
3. fuzziness from what makes you different, and
4. issues with perception

From there Bob goes on to discuss what he does both formally and informally to help focus on differentiation. As Bob mentions, what marketers want to do is make their efforts positive, but by complicating processes they end up overworking tasks and activities. Bob goes on to talk about how marketers need to look outside the box both literally and figuratively and tap their networks both inside and outside their respective markets. This is one way that social media continues to drive the 1:1 marketing efforts and to help make his marketing efforts successful without large, formal programs and budgets.

Bob concludes part one by discussing how the fear of thinking prevents us from going through any process to get to the obvious. More often than not, he knows his efforts will be successful when someone says, “Why didn’t I think of that?” It’s the obvious, simple and uncomplicated that lets you know when you have stated something of value.

This is part one of a twopart discussion. In part two, I talk to Bob about how to effectively measure your social media and marketing efforts.

We hope you will enjoy this podcast. And, of course, we would love to get your feedback on this subject here.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes

A conversation with Peter Shankman

We are pleased to bring you the latest episode in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this podcast, I sat down with Peter Shankman with HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to discuss the best ways to approach reporters and bloggers from a public relations standpoint. Peter is very vocal about PR professionals' use of social media tools to connect with journalists. His view -- and one that we share as an agency -- is to listen to the conversation first before adding to it. This is especially true given that anything shared via social networking sites is public and tends to spread quickly so being especially careful with what you share is a good rule of thumb, to say the least. According to Peter, we can figure out that you are an idiot much quicker now than ever before.

Peter and I initially met at SXSWi 2009 and I was especially interested in picking his brain after hearing his SXSWi panel presentation, "Are PR Agencies a Dying Breed?" We kicked off our conversation with a discussion around how reporters like to receive information and how he has seen this evolve with the introduction of social networking into the mix. From Peter's point-of-view, most PR pros still don't understand that the same pitching etiquette applies when done via social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.

From there, the conversation moved to talking about self-proclaimed social media gurus -- and a point we both agree on -- if you have to say that you're a "social media guru," you are more than likely not one. Peter's advice? As long as people continue to do a good job, others will take notice and that is one of the best ways to build your reputation.

With more than 75,000 subscribers, the goal of Peter's HARO service remains to be a resource for both reporters and PR professionals to proactively meet each other's needs by providing a mutual platform of shared ideas. While the service will remain free, Peter's only request is that, as a PR professional, before using the service, ask yourself: Is this response really going to help this journalist, or, is this just a way to get my client in front of that reporter? If you have to think for more than three seconds, chances are, you shouldn't send the response.

We hope you enjoy this podcast and would love to continue the conversation on this subject with you here, as well as on Peter's blog. 

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.

Content marketing: For B2B companies and taco trucks

This is the second part of my conversation with Lois and our client Ed Brice of Lumension Security.  In part one, we discussed the impact that social media is having on B2B marketing.  Our conversation started with a look at short-term vs. long-term thinking, then explored how marketers should start thinking about social media as a way to enhance the identity of a company. 

In this podcast, we discussed the importance of creating content that is personal and conversational in order to connect with the buying community.  In particular, Ed spoke about how he has gotten resources committed to creating memorable and high-value content on a sustained basis to drive a content marketing effort.  He said that the Internet has fundamentally changed the traditional approach B2B companies have taken to marketing where they have controlled its message with an iron hand.  Instead of being focused on a sales process, B2B companies need to be focused on and understand a customers' buying process.  Once they understand that, then they can create content that is value-added to the customer at each stage of the process.  He feels that combining this content marketing combined with social media tools as a delivery mechanism will allow marketers to take advantage of word-of-mouth and search engine optimization in a much better way.

Lois added to this that the opportunity for companies to be self-publishers is particularly important because of the shift and consolidation in traditional media.  Part of this opportunity is for a company to create more of a persona, which allows the buying community to connect with them easier.

Ed illustrated how effective content marketing can be by talking about Kogi, a small food business serving a fusion of Korean and Mexican food via roving vans around LA.  Kogi uses Twitter to communicate with its followers and let them know where the trucks will be.  It has been extremely effective for them as a basis for word-of-mouth and is growing a passionate following.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this podcast. We'd love to continue the conversation on this subject with you here, as well as on Ed's blog.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.

How B2B marketers should think about social media

We are pleased to bring you the latest episode in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this podcast, I sat down with Lois Paul and Ed Brice, SVP of Worldwide Marketing for Lumension Security, an LP&P client, to discuss the impact that social media is having on B2B marketing. Ed is a big believer in social media and blogs regularly about how it is changing the game for marketers.

Our conversation started with a look at short-term vs. long-term thinking in terms of marketing strategy, with Lois and Ed discussing the results of a recent survey of 300 CMO's conducted by Spencer Stewart. The research revealed that a majority of marketing chiefs are focused on short-term planning versus long-term strategy. Lois summarized the survey, which she also blogged about recently, by stating that while most CMO's are in good shape to drive growth when the downturn subsides, it is concerning that they also are measuring success by how much they are cutting expenses. Ed added his perspective that every marketing leader is under pressure to deliver more with greater efficiencies.  This is leading to a shift in tactics where he is investing more in online marketing, and optimizing the mix of offline and online as a way to achieve efficiencies now and to be set up for growth in the future.

From there the conversation shifted to how marketers should start thinking about social media as a way to enhance the identity of a company. Ed discussed how B2B marketers are getting frozen by figuring out what tools they should be using. His recommended approach is to first answer the question, "Do I want to have a conversation with my ecosystem -- my partners, my customers, my prospects and even to a certain extent my competitors?"  He feels that for most B2B tech companies, customers or prospects will talk about them online, and even if there is a negative or derogatory comment, Ed sees that as an opportunity and not something to avoid. In terms of ROI, he feels like marketers shouldn't get consumed with it, that you don't need to have an ROI for having a conversation. Ed also discussed how the various social media channels his company has established work together to "give their message more lift" and that's what delivers the return.

This is the first part of the discussion. In part 2, which we'll bring to you tomorrow, Ed and Lois talk in more depth about the role of content marketing in this new paradigm.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this podcast. We'd love to continue the conversation on this subject with you here, as well as on Ed's blog.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.

The Evolving Industry Conference

 
Vendors are canceling customer conferences and replacing them with virtual events.  I received an e-mail from Computerworld today touting their own online conference.  The economic climate has had the same impact on conferences as it has on other aspects of our industry.  Social media has had an impact as well.  This changes the way companies should leverage these events, both in terms of how they use them for news, as well as for networking and lead generation.

This was the subject of the latest segment of our Beyond the Hype podcast series.  I sat down with Lois and Bill McLaughlin to discuss how trade shows and conferences in our industry have evolved in the current economic and media landscape.  Our conversation ranged from how the media are covering shows to how conferences are changing the way they produce events to harness more attendee participation.

We hope you enjoy this podcast.  We'd love to hear about your own experiences at recent conferences and your observations in the comments.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.

Podcast: The Groundswell and The Campaign

This is the second part of episode 8 of our Beyond the Hype podcast series.  Our senior vice president Suzanne Moran continues her conversation with Josh Bernoff, Forrester analyst and co-author of Groundswell, the best selling book on social media released last March.  In this part, Suzanne and Josh talk about how the presidential candidates have leveraged the Groundswell.

In the first part, they discussed how companies think about using the Groundswell during tough economic times and as well as how they can overcome executive concerns about embracing social media technologies.

We would love your feedback not only on the discussion with Josh, but also on what you think of the book (for those that have read it).

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.

Keeping it clean

Earlier this week, LP&P collaborated with Xconomy on a podcast with several participants in the 4th Annual Conference on Clean Energy. In the podcast, host Wade Roush asked the participants about the state of VC funding in the sector as well as their thoughts on what an Obama or McCain win means for clean tech. You can give it a listen here.

UPDATE 11/3:  Wade Roush published a post on Xconomy this morning with the podcast.

A chat with Groundswell author Josh Bernoff

There have been several books written about the impact that social media technologies can have on business, but to date the best I have read is Groundswell by Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, formerly of Forrester and now with the Altimeter Group. I had a chance last week to sit down with Josh and ask a few timely questions about the Groundswell.

We are posting this in two parts. Today's podcast talks about leveraging the Groundswell during tough economic times and overcoming executive concerns about embracing social media technologies. On Monday, we'll post a portion of the interview that includes Josh's perspective on how the two presidential candidates have used Groundswell technologies.

We would love your feedback not only on the discussion with Josh, but also on what you think of the book (for those that have read it).

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast series through the Podcast Ready button in the right sidebar, or via iTunes.