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New podcast for big ideas in tech

New podcast for big ideas in tech

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Here at OrionX.net, our research agenda is driven by the latest developments in technology. We are also fortunate to work with many tech leaders in nearly every part of the “stack”, from chips to apps, who are driving the development of such technologies.

In recent years, we have had projects in Cryptocurrencies, IoT, AI, Cybersecurity, HPC, Cloud, Data Center, … and often a combination of them. Doing this for several years has given us a unique perspective. Our clients see value in our work since it helps them connect the dots better, impacts their investment decisions and the options they consider, and assists them in communicating their vision and strategies more effectively.

We wanted to bring that unique perspective and insight directly to you. “Simplifying the big ideas in technology” is how we’d like to think of it.

Thus was born our first podcast/slidecast series: The OrionX Download™

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The OrionX Download is both a video slidecast (visuals but no talking heads) and an audio podcast in case you’d like to listen to it.

Every two weeks, co-hosts Dan Olds and Shahin Khan, and other OrionX analysts, discuss some of the latest and most important advances in technology. If our research has a specially interesting finding, we’ll invite guests to probe the subject and add their take.

Please give it a try and let us know what we can do better or if you have a specific question or topic that you’d like us to cover.

Packaged Solutions from OrionX

Packaged Solutions from OrionX

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We are excited to announce 8 new packaged solutions designed to address several common requirements. Here’s a link to the press release we issued today.

One way to see OrionX is as a partner that can help you with content, context, and dissemination. OrionX Strategy can create the right content because it conducts deep analysis and provides a solid perspective in important technology developments like IoT, Cloud, Hyperscale and HPC, Big Data, Cognitive Computing and Machine Learning, Security, Cryptocurrency, In-Memory Computing, etc. OrionX Marketing can put that content in the right context by aligning it with your business objectives and customer requirements. And OrionX PR can build on that with new content and packaging to pursue the right dissemination, whether by doing the PR work itself or by working with your existing PR resources.

In all cases, the interactions among these three areas makes OrionX especially effective.  Strategy is aware of market positioning and communication requirements; Marketing benefits from deep industry knowledge and technical depth; and PR can create engaging content that is not just interesting but also insightful, etc.

Having helped over 50 technology leaders connect products to customers, we have seen several common requirements. It is different in every case, but business objectives are similar and the process can be substantially the same. Over the years, our solutions to these requirements have developed into what we can now unveil as packaged solutions: well-defined, targeted, and easy to adopt.

New Packaged Solutions

The packages being introduced today are:

  • Market Sizing
  • Customer Sentiment
  • Message Testing
  • Value Proposition & Messaging
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Go-To-Market Health Check
  • PR Essentials
  • Video Deep Dive

We are also offering a free consultation with one of our partners. In almost every occasion, we’ve been told that such consultations have saved our clients time and money and given them new insights. It’s been a good way for us to show our commitment to your success, and whether or not it leads to business, it has always led to new relationships and good word of mouth.

Please take a moment to look at the new packages and let us know what you think.

OrionX: a New Model for Strategy, Marketing, PR

OrionX: a New Model for Strategy, Marketing, PR

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Welcome to Orion and OrionX.net!

When we formed Orion Marketing more than 6 years ago, our vision was to offer a technology marketing capability that would cover the entire spectrum from the board room to customer programs. We anticipated that marketing as a function would be transformed in significant ways: more technology, more data, more social, more blending of arts and sciences, more integrated with every other function, and ultimately more critical to the organization.

This required a new model.

If marketing was to be so important, it needed first to have a deeper understanding of global trends, business strategy, services, technologies, sales, human resources, law, finance, operations, and geographies.  That is a big task, but it is what it takes to begin to do great marketing.

So from the beginning, our focus has been on the new world of marketing. That means depth, breadth and quality. It means synthesis that must follow analysis to create great content. In short, it means everything that must be in place to “connect products to customers,” as our tagline said.

That was the right focus, and thanks to that and our wonderful customers, Orion Marketing grew, which enabled us to codify and hone our core marketing services.  We also started a systematic program to build additional capabilities.

Today, we are ready to launch a significant expansion of our services based on a few years of work.

We have developed, delivered, and are now formally launching two additional services: Strategy, and PR services. This expansion warrants a new brand that recognizes our heritage and points to a future of innovation and customer value in the digital era.

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OrionX continues the same unique model: bringing together business acumen, technical depth, insightful industry perspective, high quality work and counsel, and a natural focus on customer success.

Marketing has come a long way in the last decade. Just as companies have a well-practiced understanding of what it takes to build a great product, they now have a growing appreciation of why marketing is essential to their business and what it takes to do great marketing. They recognize that marketing is the glue at the center of the organization, and must have high quality content at its own center.  Nearly 25 years after Regis McKenna’s article in Harvard Business Review, finally Marketing is Everything!

As we embark on the next phase of this journey, we strive to continue to deserve your support, advice, participation, and business.

Thank you!

One Chart to Rule them all – Infographic Shootout Part 2

One Chart to Rule them all – Infographic Shootout Part 2

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As some of you know, I’m a visual learner. Point being, I LOVE infographics! A few years ago, my colleague wrote a short blog about Infographics for Beginners. But a lot has changed online and I’d like to give a walkthrough of all the cool new tools available if you need to convey lots of information in an easily readable, bite-sized infographic — or maybe you just want to have some fun stuff to post on your social media channel! I made a quick infographic using each of these sites to demonstrate their capabilities with a brand, so keep that in mind before you begin to ask where I got the following images from. So without further ado, here we go:

1. Canva

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Do you… Dare to Dream… or Dream to Dare

Canva is the first on our list of free infographic or just general graphic tools. When you first open the program it’s a little confusing as to what exactly you should do. Many of the options are listed as premium only, meaning they cost money to you. The cost for the options are cheap however, so that’s a plus. Once you do figure out which options are free and begin realizing that you can just drag and drop images from your computer straight onto the canvas (haha I see what they did there), the program really begins to show potential. The ability to import images directly from Google Drive and Facebook definitely helps. Canva is also one of the only programs that immediately gives you the correct sizing for different mediums, whether it be for a Facebook/Pinterest Post, a presentation in PowerPoint, or a physical print poster. However, as an infographic tool it kind of falls short compared to the other options. I could not figure out how to import actual raw data to generate accurate charts. In spite of this, for a free in-browser graphic manipulation software it’s pretty solid and I definitely will be using it in the future for general graphical work.

2. Visme

infographic-p2-rock-200x405Steps to Starting Your Own Rock Band

Visme is an interesting program. It uses a very straightforward user interface that makes me feel like I am using a photo manipulation program like Photoshop or a document editing program like Pages or Publisher. On par with most infographic tools, the ability to input spreadsheet data is very easy to do.

3. Easel.ly

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How a song gets written

In a previous blog, my colleague mentioned she liked Easel.ly because it was so easy to use. The same stands true now as I threw together this little chart in a couple of minutes.

4. Piktochart

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The Piktochart program is pretty good. It can an be a little complicated initially, but the use of what the program calls “blocks” makes the whole experience feel like I’m working within PowerPoint instead of a graphics program. Overall the experience was enjoyable and Piktochart works  great if you are going to build an infographic list or step-by-step instruction sheet.

In summary, each program has a very unique feel to it. I would definitely recommend Canva if you need to do quick image manipulation before you post onto a social media site. I would use Easel.ly  or Visme to do your standard type of infographic or step chart, and I would use Piktochart if you want more of a presentation feel for your image. Thanks again for reading. I hope you learned something and I look forward to seeing you guys next time!

Have a site that we missed? Think there’s a better resource for making infographics? Prove it by leaving a comment below!

Has Your Facebook Fan Reach Declined?

Has Your Facebook Fan Reach Declined?

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If you’re a Page Admin for a Facebook brand page, have you noticed lower reach and engagement numbers lately? Facebook changed its Edgerank algorithm on September 20, and Edgerank Checker   published a blog and calculated that pages lost approximately 6.5% of their reach after the 20th.

We’ve seen a slight decline in Reach with the pages we maintain too. Looks to me like Facebook is “encouraging” people to try its paid services.

I will be experimenting more with Promoted posts (as low as $5) to get status updates promoted in more News Feeds (seen by Fans and Friends of Fans).  Note, however, that you must have 400 Fans in order to Promote a post.

If you’re using Facebook Ads, did you know that you can target other Facebook brand page fans? For example, if you’re a database software vendor and you’d like to reach the Fans of your competitors’ pages, you can target them in your audience selection.  An effective Facebook ad to reach new fans could be some type of offer, e.g., eBook, webinar, white paper, survey results, etc.

If you have tips to grow your Fan base, please share them here.

Cheat Sheet for Sizing Social Media Images

Cheat Sheet for Sizing Social Media Images

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I just attended another seminar by Mari Smith and was reminded of this helpful cheat sheet for social media images from Luna Metrics.  If you’ve experimented with trying to correctly size Facebook Cover images, for example, this guide will save you time by giving exact dimensions.

For example, for Facebook:

  • Cover: 851 x 315
  • Apps: 111 x 74
  • Image (regular post): 403 x 403
  • Highlight/Milestone: 843 x 403

You’ll find dimensions for Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest images. Here’s the full guide:  The Complete Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet.

Should Businesses Still Use Wire Services? (If so, which one?)

Should Businesses Still Use Wire Services? (If so, which one?)

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Whether it’s Twitter or YouTube, social media tools allow businesses to instantly publish to the world and share information broadly. So do we still need to use wire services to distribute our news?

The short answer is yes, since distributing press releases over the wire will index your news on major search engines like Google, Bing, Ask and Yahoo. That means that if someone is searching for a product or service like yours, there’s a better chance of finding you online (assuming you incorporated key words into your release).

So the question becomes which wire service is best?

There are many different wire services and over the past couple of years, I’ve used Business Wire, Marketwire, PR Newswire and GlobeNewswire. (You should know that all of these companies use the same mechanism to distribute news to media outlets, bloggers, internet sites, etc., so it really depends on which geography or niche distribution you choose that determines who sees it…and how much it costs.)

I’ve also used the free PR wires such as PR.com or Newswire Today for releases that are of low news value or that I know the media won’t pick up – but I still want it to be searchable on the web. However, with the free services your release must first be reviewed and approved by them – a process that can take more than a day. If you’re queuing up a release the night before (like I often do), there’s no guarantee that it will be distributed on the day you request. In fact, one release was distributed two days after its dateline! (You get what you “pay” for!)

Since I use another tool for media monitoring, analysis and list building, I really just need a distribution service that is affordable, while offering several distribution options . Especially since wire services can be very expensive, as most charge based on geographic distribution and word count (however, some now offer unlimited word count).

The “best” service will depend on your needs. For example:

  1. Do you need U.S. only, or global distribution?
  2. How long is your typical press release? If it’s more than 700-800 words, you should look at bundled packages or services with unlimited word count.
  3. Will you use a lot of photos/videos? Are you looking for help with release SEO? Many companies offer specialization in these areas.
  4. What type of reporting do you need?
  5. Will you require additional services such as monitoring, targeting or multimedia marketing?

We use a variety of wire services, depending on the client’s needs. For basic wire distribution, I’ve been using Marketwire or GlobeNewswire, as they’re less expensive than Business Wire and PR Newswire. Between the two, GlobeNewswire is cheaper, but I don’t like their reports although they’re working to improve them. Marketwire (like Business Wire or PR Newswire) is fairly comprehensive in its reporting capabilities and sends you an Initial report, a Next Day report, and a Fifth Day report. These visual dashboards are a nice way to show clients where the news has appeared over a span of several days.

Of course, there may come a time when social media activity influences search engine indexing such that distribution over the wires becomes a thing of the past.

How to Stand Out in a Crowd

How to Stand Out in a Crowd

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A simple trip to the grocery store will show us the overwhelming choices we face each day. When I enter the supermarket, there are more than 38,000 different items to choose from. I can choose from 10 different kinds of oatmeal alone! In most industries, brands have grown in number to mind-boggling complexity. So how do you stand out in a crowd?

Take a moment and ask yourself these questions:

  1. Can you summarize what your offering is, and why it’s a better choice than other alternatives?
  2. Can you articulate the value customers get with your offering…or are you focusing on a list of features?  (Remember, it’s about them, not you.)
  3. Do you have specific, value-oriented messages and “stories” for each audience (or are you trying to reach everyone at once)?
  4. Do you have evidence to support your claims?

I was listening to the radio the other day and the radio hosts were describing a new restaurant in San Francisco. Now, with more than 3,800 restaurants in San Francisco, it’s hard to get people’s attention.  But I think this restaurant does a great job of describing themselves:

Darn Good Food is a San Francisco eatery focused on quality “made-from-scratch” meals to meet the nutritional needs of fast-paced urban professionals and their families.
Inspired by healthy cuisines from around the world, with access to the highest quality ingredients and state-of-the-art technology, we are able to prepare “slow-food” fast and make “fast-food” healthy! There, we said it: the dreaded “F-F” word!

Darn Good Food (DGF) does a good job of communicating its value in a succinct and focused way:

  1. It’s clear who the target audience is (fast-paced urban professionals and their families).
  2. Their approach (homemade, nutritious, highest quality ingredients) is relevant and appeals to their audience’s needs.
  3. They offer something different (fast “slow-food” and healthy “fast-food”) versus alternatives, i.e., sit-down restaurant or fast food chain.
  4. Plus, we get a sense of their personality (playful, passionate) that helps us to connect emotionally.

Being able to describe your value to customers in a succinct and compelling way is at the core of your value proposition. We’ll talk about Orion’s TRUE model for value proposition development in a future blog.

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons localjapantimes

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The Power of Stories in Business

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We’re all familiar with stories – they’re the tales you tell upon returning from a trek in Costa Rica, or the chilling story you tell your teenager about the perils of drinking and driving.

But how do you tell a business story?

Even in business, we tend to understand things better when they’re presented in story form. Stories give context to a narrative and help put a “face” to an impersonal corporate entity. And since they’re often built upon personal experiences, stories cut through the meaningless jargon that’s so common in the technology industry.

The best storytellers are those who have lived through rich and memorable experiences (good and bad). So “business storytelling” comes easiest to those who are in constant contact with customers – sales people, service reps, executives or field engineers. If you’re sitting in an office in a product unit or a marketing department, seek out opportunities to observe or talk to customers.

Most of us are familiar with the product pitch that goes something like this:

Our Ergo ES.4 and EXP.36 servers deliver superior performance, reliability and efficiency for all your enterprise web-tier applications. Enabled with SuperSpecial™ technology, Ergo ES.4 servers not only provide the highest power-to-server efficiency than any server on the market today, they are ideal for unpredictable scale applications, allowing customers to confidently scale to more than one million concurrent users.

But wait! A story can be far more effective. In this case, the product doesn’t dominate the conversation and instead becomes the silent hero in our story:

I was at the Major Gaming Leagues Pro Circuit tour last week where the best videogame players from all of North America were battling it out for bragging rights and $100,000 in cash. Things were going well until a bunch of gamers launched a massively, multiplayer online game testing the latest pilot of HALO 4 and I thought they were going to bring the network to its knees. Luckily, our servers were able to instantly scale to accommodate this sudden peak need, easily supporting nearly 1 million concurrent online gamers!

Yes, the story is a little longer, but isn’t it more memorable? And instead of claiming to solve every customers’ problem, the story gives the listener a solution to his/her own problem by way of inference.

Why are stories so effective? Because they’re concrete, they’re authentic and they’re memorable. The most effective stories touch on human emotion and use equal doses of information and entertainment to impart information.

In reality, you may not always have a customer story to tell when you communicate information about your offerings. If not, think of an analogy that can help to personalize and ground your offering in reality. Can you recall a business story that “stuck” for you?