Re-branding Microsoft

re: Re-branding Microsoft

H.E.A.T. — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:59:52 GMT

For me, it is not the fact that the Windows Live Team members are not informing me of new plans, it is the fact that they all seem to be disconnected.

The Live Wire Team Blog, which seems to be the top echelon team blog, will post a blog, but the other teams will remain silents from weeks to months.

I feel since they set up those team blogs, then they should at least let the community that they are still alive and kicking.

The police cruise up and down the streets to let folks know that they are on the job, right?

As far as Yahoo goes, when it came to social networking, Yahoo completely FAILED. You do not have to take my word for it. Go to the Yahoo 360 Team Blog to see for yourself. Yahoo's customer/user service record in this area is substandard.

Personally, I see the Windows Live services having the potential to be highly innovative in the social networking field. All it would take is a some restructuring of the infrastructure, or framework. Microsoft has the architects, but they also need some civil engineers.

re: Re-branding Microsoft

Tom B — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:14:46 GMT

Hugh does it again eh :) That post you pointed me to perfectly illustrates a conversation I had just yesterday at work - I'll have to forward it on to a few folks!

Thanks for the interesting post!

re: Re-branding Microsoft

Tom B — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:17:00 GMT

Hi Kip,

Having thought about this a bit more I've posted something on my blog along the same lines:

refraction.co.uk/.../selling-microsoft

Tom

re: Re-branding Microsoft

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:02:55 GMT

Happy to agree to disagree, Tom B, thanks for the comment. Since Microsoft is initiating this sea change in the way they plan on doing business, my point is that they could benefit by using the Windows Live team blogs to their best advantage. There used to be a lot of high quality info posted on the Windows Live team blogs, too. Perhaps they are "too busy", or perhaps they don't realize the impact that neglecting the team blogs when a team has just released an update has on their image.

Since I was at Mix n Mash, I'm aware of the context. While Gates was indeed quite animated about innovation, he was also emphatic about not being able to change public perception, something I was surprised to hear him say at the time. Microsoft has an opportunity to work on their image - I hope they take advantage of that opportunity.

re: Re-branding Microsoft

Tom B — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:13:51 GMT

I'm not sure I agree... I'd say there's still a LOT of very high quality info posted on the MS blogs. Look up people like Eileen Brown, Jason Langridge, Ed Boot, Angus Logan, Joel Olson. All of them post fantastic information ranging from general direction through to in depth tech.

Sure there's always room for improvement but I reckon MS do a pretty good job and that a great many companies could do well by following MS's example. Perhaps the Live guys are just busy :)

(Also that BillG quote is a little out of context... if you read the whole thing Bill's actually quite passionate about innovation and change.)

re: Re-branding Microsoft

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:17:56 GMT

Certainly compared to other companies, Microsoft has done well to encourage blogging. However specifically in the area of Windows Live team blogs, the output is down significantly, the amount of news coming out of these blogs is negligable (especially compared to the heyday of the Scoble area, where team blogging was actively encouraged, both behind the scenes and through exposure through Scoble), and while there may not be a specific mandate of "don't blog", Windows Live product team blogs are no longer the leading edge in communicating with us, the consumers/customers of the future.

We do, as you say, read MSDN blogs, we wish we had Dare's RSS readership, and of course we read Steve Clayton (the new Scoble? :P) everyday.

re: Re-branding Microsoft

stevecla — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:49:21 GMT

I'm not sure the curtain has closed since Scoble left - that may be the perception because of the attention Scoble got but the number of bloggers has grown significantly since he left as has the output of the team he worked on with (Channel 9). Scoble was the celebrity blogger and the first well known one but others like Dare Obasanjo do a great job though are relatively unknown

There is plenty of good stuff coming out of blogs.msdn.com which you guys regularly find. There is definitely not a sentiment of "don't blog".