In deep tech marketing, there’s nothing like a good testimonial. It says to your highly intelligent customer that another intelligent person cased the market, chose your product, and was pleased enough to talk about it. Even with all that goodness, many high tech companies do not have a systematic approach to testimonials.

Dean Rieck is in the middle of posting a valuable series about testimonials on CopyBlogger. He discusses how to build a regular stream of testimonials using his SPURF system, if you can stomach the acronym.

Unfortunately, we are not really in control of this process. A strong testimonial depends on the satisfaction and willingness of your customer. All too often, even happy customers won’t play:
• Your product provides a competitive edge that the customer doesn’t want to disclose to its competitors.
• Your customer works with a government agency or other entity that prohibits discussion of applications.
• Some customers simply have a policy of not endorsing vendors.

So what then?

Dean gives us a list of other marketing tactics that help build a testimonial-like halo around your company and products. Not all ideas apply to deep-tech marketing – “Supplies of our SaaS application are limited!” – but you are sure to find new approaches for building your credibility.

Dean has more smart, practical marketing tips on his blog, Direct Creative Blog. And hey, he just got a testimonial.

Photo source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife DLS

At the Technology Marketing Blog Douglas Karr wades into the fray on when a corporation should embrace social media. It’s hard to argue with his guidance about developing a strategy, looking into tools, even talking to an expert. Doug is spot-on when he says that social media has the potential to effect your entire organization.

But I question Doug’s assertion that you should first “involve all the leaders in your company — those who own the strategy of the corporation.” Perhaps Indianapolis is on a different planet (Jeff, you’re from Kentucky, what do you think?) where the executive team has the time and understanding of social media to reach kumbaya. But here, the quickest way to kill a new communications initiative is to hold it hostage to top-level consensus. Not that leadership approval isn’t important, but that it is nearly impossible to achieve, especially BEFORE you can show any concrete ROI.

A start-small strategy sometimes works better, in a number of ways.  All you need is one enterprising writer, some very inexpensive tools, and one communications problem you can measure. Perhaps it’s as basic as getting more traffic to your Web site. Or raising awareness of new support materials and programs. Or broadening customer interest by telling interesting anecdotes about how real people are using your products or services.

It won’t take long – weeks? a couple of months at most – before you’ll have real data and experience about how your marketplace responds to social media. You’ll also be that much smarter in formulating a more complete strategy.

Of course – as Doug is rightly concerned about – you’ll do a few bellyflops, right in front of stakeholders. But that’s inevitable and easier to stomach on a small scale.  Moreover, that’s the nature of the current iterative creative process that all of us in the technology marketing community must adopt! Start out small, with a modest goal, and an open attitude, and it won’t sting too bad.

Photo source: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09755

For those deep tech marketers for whom Twitter makes sense: Over at Fast Wonder blog today, Dawn Foster has some tips for Using Twitter for Brands or Corporate Identities.

Also, take a cue from Dawn and check out Tara Hunt’s Tweeting for Companies 101.

The Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) Web site has a good how-to article up on lead generation called Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips. In the article, lead generation practitioner Brian Carroll explains how to optimize your lead generation system by focusing on five actions:

1. Create a marketing funnel
2. Create a universal definition of a lead
3. Use the phone
4. Ask about goals — don’t sell
5. Define lead nurturing — and the right people to nurture

My favorite is No. 4. Carroll explains:

One of the mistakes we see in lead handoff is that sales sees that someone downloads a white paper, so they do a follow-up call and want to set up an appointment. That’s not going to get you anywhere. You want to be able to engage them in more of a discussion rather than trying to make an immediate qualification. To do that, you need to ask a question: What question were you hoping to answer by downloading our white paper? The next question is, Was that you asking the question, or was that someone else in your company asking the question? The goal is to be a trusted advisor or a relevant resource to your audience until they move to the point of being ready to talk about initiatives or a project.

It’s very tempting to see a prospect register for a resource on your site or click on a link in your e-mail newsletter, and want to try to close the sale immediately. However, in deep tech marketing, your customers want to learn first before being pressured. Be an educational resource that they can trust, and they’ll buy from you eventually.

Last week’s Photoshop contest on Gizmodo challenged participants to incorporate high tech gadgets into classic works of art. The winning entry is really quite brilliant. I’d like to think Vermeer would approve of his model jamming on Rock Band. I wonder what level she’s on…

A lot of tech marketers ask if the Big Three social networks in the U.S. — MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn — are good for business. And we always say it depends on the nature of your business and whom you’re trying to reach. If your company makes Web widgets, Facebook, for example, is probably more useful for you than, say, for an electronics components company. (But I’d love to be proven wrong.)

That said, the social-networking tool that I find more and more useful everyday is LinkedIn Answers. It offers you an exceptional tool for meeting experts and proving you are one. Done right, it can be less of a waste of work time than some of the Other Guys’ tools.

Well, looks like candidate for U.S. President John McCain has discovered the power of LinkedIn Answers, too. McCain asks:

Our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure. It is time for solutions.

Please read the speech below, and share your answers with me to this pressing question:
http://www.johnmccain.com/energysecurity/

What new technologies or new ideas should we be investing in today?

It’s been about five hours since the following question was posted, and he already has more than 300 answers. Some cheeky, some self-serving and a lot, no doubt, about clean/green energy. See for yourself, and add your two cents. Don’t say “he” never asked!

Update: McCain has used LinkedIn Answers before. See here.

One of my favorite bloggers from my past life as an internal communications specialist posted a great article at Ragan.com last month (it came through my inbox today via a newsletter). Steve Crescenzo offers a refresher course on blogging and covers the who, what, where, when, why and how of this trendy communications vehicle. Even if you’re an avid blogger, this article is still worth checking out. This type of overview may be beneficial to pass along to clients that are still on the fence about creating their own blogs.

Fast Company features Microsoft’s new ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky in last month’s issue.  A quote from one of the firm’s leaders:

To chase cool, you’re chasing something that already exists, which means you’re always going to be on the wrong side of it, you’ll always be following.

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion wonders how you should invest in social media that could be gone tomorrow. Steve writes:

If the marketplace for online equity is as cyclical as the real estate biz, then change is a given.

Personally, I view social networks like night clubs: They will fall in and out of fashion, so don’t get too comfortable.

The inmedia blog points to a Gawker piece about a newspaper that misspells its own name. Gawker writes:

Ha ha, let us “say for the record,” from one spelling-challenged editor to another: you will never live this down. Ever.

At Mashable, Don Reisinger explains why he loves corporate blogs.

I understand that most people look at corporate blogs as nothing more than another propaganda machine, but I don’t. Sure, they’re inundated with useless crap from time to time, but I see them as more than a place for a company to write things about itself. Corporate blogs give you clues about the organization’s culture, its people, and why (right or wrong) most of its employees believe in what they’re doing.

There’s an interesting article in The New York Times today that discusses how Comcast is using blog relations to beef up its customer service. Comcast employs a team of digital care representatives that prowl the blogosphere for unhappy customers.

The article profiles Frank Eliason, a digital care manager at Comcast, and explains how he uses online tools to monitor blogs, message boards and social networking sites for references to Comcast and its service. Eliason says he jumps into conversations when he’s able and tries to “defuse the problem.” Eliason is smart to note that, “When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clear the air.”

Confirming his ideas around these types of conversations is a quote from a customer who was contacted by Eliason after she used Twitter to complain about an incorrect bill. She says, “I immediately backed down and softened my tone when I knew I was talking to a real person.”

I think this is the beginning of a larger trend in customer service and is an off-shoot of what’s already happening in the blogosphere around brand and relationship management. Only large companies (like Comcast) will need teams of seven employees to monitor their online presence, but I think smaller b2b companies can also benefit from this kind of one-on-one customer interaction.

What do you think? Do you see this as an appropriate medium for reaching b2b customers?

Tooling around on the blog of my favorite marketing mind, Seth Godin, I found an old post on why he doesn’t permit comments.

I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though.

Seth expressed a similar sentiment as to why he doesn’t use Twitter.

I don’t use Twitter. It’s not really me.

These tools are simply not what Seth wants to spend his time tooling with. What a wonderful, simple reason for not jumping on a bandwagon.

More than ever, we marketers in the highly fragile deep-tech industry have to peer inside to see what’s right for us, while still keeping our heads up, watching out for communications innovations to ripen for our industry.

That means not necessarily doing what’s right for the social media consultant who thinks FriendFeed is going to take over the world. Because they are paid to spend all day doing socializing on tools like that.

Not what’s right for the consumer-good marketer whose biggest return comes from their Facebook page. Because that’s where their customers are.

Not what’s right for the Web 2.0 company whose employees — of course — are happy to blog all day with management’s full approval. Because they probably sell blogs or some other Web 2.0-powered tool.

Deep-tech marketers, you’ve got to use the Web communications tools that are right for you, your business, and your customers. Be very aware of the hype, but you don’t have to believe it.