Social media has changed the game for marketing profressionals

Data management software and systems

I’m several posts into this new blog now and it feels like I am overdue on a statement to clarify what the blog is about and why I started it.  This purpose of this blog is to share my perspectives about data management software and systems – both generally and specifically about the IBM portfolio.   I will not be making general sales pitches about IBM products with no broader context.  But I will also not be  apologizing for writing about them or trying to cleverly hide them within an “industry generic” perspective.

Which brings me to the topic on my mind this week… why I started this blog.

Bringing your audience to you… or going to them?

I have been in the business software marketing game for more than 10 years – and it has changed quite a bit.  The difference between the early days of the Internet – initial product websites and traditional media publishing articles online – and today’s use of social media, is dramatic.  Those early days were about extending the reach of traditional models.  That meant attracting the audience to a place where we could share information that we wanted them to know – a site, a publication, an event, etc.    The hasn’t gone away, of course.   But with the evolution of social media, there is a new wrinkle that requires us to reverse the thinking.

We now have the opportunity – and frankly the imperative – to bring our message to where our audience is already engaged on topics that matter to them.  And to bring our messages into their community in a way that is helpful to their discussions.  Done well, this can make us helpful members of the community where our information adds value.

Connecting to developer communities

I had an interesting discussion about this just yesterday with Stephen O’Grady from Redmonk.   Building on a discussion we started at the Information on Demand conference this year, he has really helped me see the importance of this point with respect to introducing the value of our portfolio to application developers.  There are various developer communities that are increasingly aware that data management choices for their needs go well beyond “the answer = Relational Database system only.”

What I plan on doing is to have this blog serve as a source of information about the IBM portfolio and its strategic direction that is helpful to the many communities where our clients and future clients are already engaged.