Anyone who is lonely or bored enough enough to notice would have seen that, a few months ago, my LinkedIn contacts recently went from over 300 to below 270.

Was I suddenly abandoned by almost three dozen contacts? No, I did something we should all do 2x per year: LinkedIn Pruning. (Note: I’ve since climbed back over my original “unpruned” total.)

(UPDATED–See this LinkedIn Answers page for feedback from others on this topic: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/330103-131735)

As a “Virtual VP of Marketing” (a/k/a outsourced CMO or, if you prefer, “marketing consultant”) for growing companies, my policy is to use LinkedIn and Facebook for “knowing” not for “showing.” My criteria for adding/keeping someone on my list is that I know them well enough to reach out to them with a question, introduction or even a favor. With rare exceptions, I do not put people on my list simply because they are well known or have 500+ contacts themselves. (See a tongue in cheek riff on “professional networkers” by clicking the graphic below.)

So from time to time I look at my LinkedIn list specifically with the goal of pruning those with whom I have lost touch or with whom relationships simply did not develop over time as expected.

Try it, it’s quite refreshing!

(By the way I unintentionally coined the term pruning to apply to the act of occasionally trimming one’s social networks. Commenting on a recent Jeff Pulver note about the limits of Facebook friend lists, people used a variation of the word “pruning” eight times after I used it. See http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=25322506668&)

http://www .bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=1562

Once again, John Quelch with Harvard Business Publishing, strikes at the heart of the CMO/CEO issue with this post on “How CEOs should work with customers.”

How CEOs Should Work With Customers

Posted by John Quelch on September 22, 2008 11:43 AM

Customers are the source of all cash flow. Organic growth depends on developing relationships with new and existing customers. And future growth prospects are baked into stock market valuations of companies.

Yet an increasingly high percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs have not come up the ranks through marketing or sales. At the same time, in many companies, the chief marketing officer position turns over every two years. Facing the current economic downturn, companies need marketing skills more than ever. But while every corporate mission statement pays lip service to respecting customer needs, actual customer expertise is typically a mile wide and an inch deep.http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2835

Worth reading even if (or especially if) you don’t see Twitter’s as a business tool.  (I don’t–yet.)

Twitter-ing CEOs: What is the benefit for busy execs?
Posted by Karen OBrien on 09/08/08 under Messaging, Positioning & Value Proposition, Interactive Services

There was an interesting story recently in Business Week on heads of companies and their take on Twitter. Given the amount of information overload and the pressure on CEO’s to be efficient with time, use of Twitter makes a lot of sense given its 140 character limit and ability to give/ get instant feedback.

http://www.achievemarketleadership.com/wp-trackback.php?p=264

Your Networking is Notworking.  (Or How Not to Work a Room)

There’s a highly recommended book called, “The Wisdom of Crowds,” that I have not read.

But hearing “The Wisdom of Crowds,” reminds me of the unwise things people sometimes do at crowded business functions.

Your average business networking breakfast or company event is basically full of insecure people who are forced either by their bosses or by the mortgage on their second homes to show up and attempt something called “schmoozing” with a room full of other insecure people, many of whom are armed with a dangerous thing called a quota.

So understand that no one-repeat no one—is there of his or her own volition.  This forced yet totally unnatural dynamic results in a veritable Petri dish of strange and often boorish behaviors, some of which I will now attempt to describe.

• I have overheard hotel lobby cellphone conversations where full-grown professionals beg their bosses or spouses for permission to return to the comfort of their Lexus sedans rather than through those dreaded fake-wood paneled double doors.
• I have witnessed well-dressed and otherwise polished individuals whisper pep talks into bathroom mirrors.
• I have observed semi-articulate, regionally-accented executives rise to ask a question of a panelist and proceed to deliver a nine-minute preface/soliloquy containing his views on Net Neutrality, Sarbanes-Oxley, the coming of another Cold War and Dilbert, all without taking a breath.
• I have experienced a phenomenon known as Java-Blocking, where someone decides that the coffee station is the perfect place to set up shop and begin to network, thus creating a backup of which the Woodrow Wilson Bridge would be proud.
• I have smelled Nuclear Coffee Breath so intense, even at a distance of ten paces, that it caused carbon dioxide detectors to sound and the fire department to show up.
• I have consoled a colleague who was deemed by a fellow networker not to be Cardworthy—she only had four cards left and didn’t think he merited one.
• I have talked to people who spent the entire 12-minute conversation looking past my shoulder as if they expected one of the Steves (Ballmer, Jobs, Case, Seagall) to enter the room at any moment.
• I have picked up distress signals from associates trapped in an interminable conversation known as a Verbal Bear Hug, desperately seeking a knight in shining wing-tips to come to the rescue.

I hope this column will, in some small way, build awareness of these all-too-common dysfunctional behaviors and contribute to their ultimate demise.  Wishful thinking, I know.

We received a very nice DVD from our son’s sleepaway camp in the Poconos (Lake Owego Camp, if you’re interested) which had a lot of great photos, footage and interviews of kids, counselors, administrators from this past summer.

From the perspective of a CEO interested in marketing, the most notable element of the DVD was the timing of its arrival: Right after we received the bill for next summer’s experience.

One of the best ways to get a free bump in your marketing output is by coordinating the timing of various activities.  You would assume, in the above example, that the camp’s renewal and sign-up rates are higher among people who view the DVD and get the emotional lift during the time they receive the bills.

Here is a simple way that I have applied this principal to my business.  When I do an e-newsletter, I can either send it when it’s ready and when I have the bandwidth to edit/proof it to within an inch of its life (!), or send it one or two days before a big networking event where I know I will be seeing many of the people on my house list.

The cost of executing the e-newsletter is the same either way.  But by coordinating the timing with the event I get the combined impact of (a) seeing someone in person, (b) having them mention “hey, I just saw your email,” and (c) having something else to talk about that demonstrates I practice what I preach regarding nurture marketing.

And let’s face it: The more relevant things you have to say at networking events, the more at-ease and successful you will be.

From Potomac Techwire’s “Future of Software” event on Friday, September 5, 2008

http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=1492

Photo credit: Tech Bisnow

Yes, it’s getting noticed and maybe people are clicking on it, but Microsoft’s expensive new powered-by-Seinfeld campaign is looking like the dud that many–including me–predicted it would be, both in strategy and execution.

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/09/05/microsofts-seinfeld-campaign-random-h umor-no-vista/trackback/

We suppose the ad makes Microsoft seem less stodgy and uptight, which is the image Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads paint of the company. But we can’t see this going a long way towards reversing the popular impression that Vista is buggy and unnecessary. The ads would probably have to, you know, mention Vista to do that.

Presumed Microsoft Business Goals: Grow revenue, protect margins by increasing acceptance/take rate of Vista.

Presumed Marketing/Comm Goals: Fend off criticism and negative perception of Vista.  Counter the effects of PC vs. Mac campaign which have eroded/pigeonholed image of PC/Windows while boosting that of Mac.

Assessment: How does this execution accomplish the above?  It doesn’t.  Autopsy: First, who should use celebrities? Brands that want more name recognition or those that want to draw attention to a new product.  One could infer that Microsoft gave Seinfeld a bunch of money without fleshing out the actual marketing goals and getting him and everyone else on the same page.  In fact one of the key deal points was probably “free reign” and “creative control.”  After all, Jerry doesn’t need the money. So everyone probably assumed the ads would be clever and memorable.

In addition the spot doesn’t even stand on its own as an interesting piece of entertainment.  It is, in a word, inane.  It’s tone is dated.  So there won’t be much of a viral (pass along) halo except for forwarded links accompanied by nasty criticisms of the ad.

Which brings us to the next point below.  The WSJ quotes two branding executives (”those who can’t sell, market; those who can’t market, brand.”) asserting that the ad has done its job by generating chatter.

This point is supported by the following quote: “Most companies would have to spend a billion dollars on advertising to get this kind of attention.”  First, I think he means most unknown companies would even want this level of attention.  Second, Microsoft has already spent billions of dollars over the last 30 years to get “attention.”

Dear branding experts: “Attention” is not the goal.  “Attention” is not, in and of itself, a positive thing.  Microsoft is globally known and doesn’t need more “attention.”  Microsoft needs (a) great products that (b) create a better customer experience, which in turn (c) results in a better perception.  This campaign does nothing to advance those priorities.

Microsoft is breaking the basic premise of Inside-Out Branding by trying to solve a product problem with an advertising solution.  Unfortunately they can’t just paper over the negative perceptions with a big media spend featuring a waning celebrity.

Critics Say Gates-Seinfeld Duo No Laughing Matter

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122082676065908265.html?mod=2_1567_leftbox

Despite the negative online chatter about the ad, Microsoft has succeeded in getting people talking about the commercial, ad experts say.

“The initial reaction might be on the fence or leaning negative but the ad did its job,” says Dean Crutchfield, a brand consultant. “Most companies would have to spend a billion dollars on advertising to get this kind of attention.”

I guess some companies have so much at stake that they are forced to pull out every stop and encourage suspension of disbelief when they develop ad campaigns.  Or they are so large they forget to run an ad through the approval process.

Microsoft’s recent Vista for Small Business campaign tries to counter the notions that (a) Vista isn’t worth upgrading to; (b) it causes problems with other software; and (c) sometimes it hurts your business.

Their print campaign tries to accomplish the above goals by comparing the risk of installing Vista to some really, really risky behavior that makes the Vista risk pale in comparison.

In addition to the ad below there’s one about a woman who borrowed money from her family to start her business.  Now that’s risk.

But Vista?  Risk, schmisk.

The Viva Viagra campaign has already taken beating from critics and the general public. There’s something counter-intuitive about the premise: A bunch of guys together in a recording studio with nary a woman in sight–or to be more inclusive, there doesn’t seem to be an inkling of romance in the air.  Not to mention the two board engineers leering through the studio glass.

But the one thing no one seems to mention is the Chyron at the upper right of the screen during the ad’s first few seconds: “Nashville 1:22am.”

So let me get this straight: Not only is this bunch of guys singing together (by the way, how did they all just join in seamlessly without ever having heard the song before) about E.D., and doing so mano a mano a mano a mano…but they’re doing this at an hour when they should be home in bed!  In bed where the product being marketed is supposed to be used.

To me, the whole thing screams “loser”–not how a marketer usually wants to portray its customers.