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Web 2.0 for Business ROI

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There are two sides to the ROI equation for today's conference.

IMAGE_053On the one hand, we generate positive, but unmeasurable, vibe in terms of "buzz" and word of mouth. We had 25 people put on the temporary tattoos and another 120 or so with the stickers to enter our giveaway contest. People had a lot of fun, no question.

On the revenue side, we uncovered a combined 735 seats of MS CRM opportunity, plus partners reported a total of 20 leads for them to follow up on.

In addition, I picked up about 50 cards of people to add to my network (and link to the blog) :-) 

A couple of lessons learned:

  1. Putting the event strategy out to the community was a GREAT idea. Got a ton of input that was valuable
  2. Using the Web20 alias to drive wiki involvement didn't work so well (will be part of the follow up email, however)
  3. Microsoft really needs a coherent, Ballmer-led Web2.0 strategy. The customers we spoke to WANT to use Microsoft, but don't understand the vision (can't say that surprises me) and there needs to be a Web2.0 "Live" conference on par with a BI or MSDN or whatever conference.

Bottom line: I think Microsoft can "run" with the Web 2.0 generated customer demand, we just have to get our story straight.

A solid day, fun, and a big thanks to our team of employees and partners.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2007
    There are two sides to the ROI equation for today's conference. On the one hand, we generate positive

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2007
    We didn't have a way of capturing individuals' information unless we traded business cards (which we did a lot, but certainly not everyone who put on a sticker or tattoo).  Next time it might work to have a business card scanner hooked up so people just scan their card to enter the contest, then we use the Excel random function to pick a winner.  This would get people to come back to the booth.  Then we could introduce them to the partner that just got there, or some other kind of new value that they get for coming back.  People were happy hand over their contact info, they loved the UC stuff and wanted to know more.  They would have been a great list to invite to any UC events.