It is certainly true that organizations can, and do, revive dead products.  Case in point – Nintendo.  Before the Wii, Nintendo struggled to compete with Microsoft and Sony in the Game Console Race.  Microsoft and Sony burned Nintendo every year in sales, game production, and user satisfaction.  Until the Wii.

Once Nintendo’s revolutionary gaming console hit the market, the Nintendo empire regained its dignity and was finally able to complete with its rivals again.  Products that have gone by the way side or that have an associated stigma can be renewed but most product revitalization initiatives fail big time.  Most companies don’t get it right.  Most dead products don’t come back to life.

And Hotmail is one of them.

Hotmail, Microsoft’s web-based email system, emerged during the .com boom and was widely popular.  But then, something happened.  Somewhere during the late 1990s to early 2000s, Microsoft stopped caring about Hotmail.  They became static in their approach to email.  When Gmail hit the scene, Microsoft remained uncompetitive.  When Yahoo! revamped their web-based email client, Microsoft did nothing.  Sure, maybe Microsoft jacked up the storage space limit or added a small feature here or there but they did nothing to compete with the likes of Google or Yahoo!.  In fact, most Hotmail customers have stopped using the service as their primary email and, instead, use it as a spam box for online offers, newsletters, and junk email.

Basically, Hotmail is the trash can of web-based email.

Now, after the success of Bing, Microsoft has integrated a boat-load of features into Hotmail, ranging from social networking tools to email filtering.  The email service now can complete with Google and Yahoo! in the web-based email race.  Will Microsoft be the next Nintendo?  No.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, saving Hotmail is a worthless move that won’t pan out.  Fortunately for you, a few things can be learned from this last-ditch effort to save a dead product.

First, the lines have been drawn.  Internet users already have stereotyped Hotmail to be a tool for spam, hacking, and anonymity on the Web.  This isn’t going to change.  The Hotmail brand is forever regarded as the inferior product to Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.

This teaches us that once a customer or potential customer has a perception about your product, whether its real or not, its tough to get them to think anything else.  Sure, it’s possible but not common.  Take pride in the perceptions your brand sows and make sure that you address them in a timely manner – not a decade after the fact.

In addition, Microsoft’s attempt to revamp Hotmail shows that when the going gets tough, the mediocre join everyone else.  Microsoft isn’t doing anything revolutionary; they’re pretty much recreating the efforts of Google and other web-based services.  Instead of going along with the crowd, Microsoft should have reinvented web-based email, much like Nintendo did with gaming.

If you’ve fallen behind the competition, don’t join them to compete – outdo them.  Want to win back some of the market share?  Change the market.  Revolutionize your industry and exploit the weaknesses of your rivals.  Don’t just rebrand their product.

I could be wrong about this whole thing.  Microsoft might be able to regain some of the web-based email market with its new Hotmail.  But, I have feeling it won’t.  I have a feeling that Hotmail will continue to lie dead in cyberspace.  Why?  Because Microsoft isn’t offering anything new and Internet users have moved on from Hotmail.  That was so late 90s.

If you want to succeed in revamping your industry, go big and go different.  Don’t follow the crowd and make sure that they’re working for you, not against you.  No one else is going to make your brand successful.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by istartedsomething

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by Stephanie Wonderlin

I was doing some research online regarding the growth of social media and what it can do for businesses that use it properly.  A number of business people, executives, owners and more still have doubts about social media as a business driver.  This medium is still very new, which adds to the skepticism, and participation requires a different approach from the traditional marketing efforts they are accustomed to.

Through my searches, I came across Business.com’s Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums report that was release a couple of weeks ago and details some statistics from forums.  I found the report fascinating, but here was the best part:

This might be the first quantified list of what social media can do for your business. It was taken from a survey of over 1,400 individuals, 69 percent of whom work at business currently using social media and 59 percent of whom are business owners or C-Level executives.

If you were apprehensive about undertaking social media marketing, this study should influence your decision.  Honestly, what business wouldn’t want this type of marketing?  If you’d like to know more about why you should be using social media for your business, be sure to check out tomorrow’s article by Deborah Richmond.

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Stephanie Wonderlin is a social media enthusiast and Regional Sales Manager for a chain of hotels in Illinois. In her spare time, Stephanie blogs, teaches Pilates, and studies to earn her Advanced Social Media certificate from the University of San Francisco. Find out more about Stephanie on Twitter.

*Photo by svilen001

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On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.  Federal buildings were left in ruin.  People were crushed by falling debris.  Thousands of Haitians were homeless.  The effects of the earthquake immediately broke the hearts of people and nations around the world.  A country was in need and citizens of all nations united to give aide.  The Haiti Movement began.

How Is This Disaster Different?

We’ve seen this type of disaster response movement before in recent years – the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, just to name a few.  So, how is this relief effort different?

The prevalence of social media in relief efforts has never been as involved as it is with the Haiti Movement.  In 2004 and 2005, social media was just beginning.  At that time, MySpace was the ultimate social network and Facebook was only for college students.  One of the world’s fastest growing social networks, Twitter, didn’t exist.

The Haiti Movement has been spurred on by compassionate and dedicated citizens using social media to reach others.  For example, people are using their status updates and tweets to state the American Red Cross number for donations.  Individuals have donated over $3 million through text messages alone.  Businesses on Twitter and Facebook have decided to donate a percentage of proceeds to Haiti relief.  The list could go on and on.

Social media isn’t merely revolutionizing the way we communicate with one another; it’s changing the way we help each other.

What Can We Learn From This?

The Haiti Movement can teach businesses and non-profits a number of things.  First, it teaches that social media does work.  For every person in favor of using social media for businesses, there will be one or two people who disagree.  But the proof is in the pudding: social media spreads the word.  Without the dedication of social media users, the Haiti Movement would not be as successful as it is.

Second, the Haiti Movement teaches businesses that social media produces real-time results.  From the moment the earthquake hit, Facebook and Twitter users were tracking the events as they unfolded.  This needs to be the same way a business approaches its social media campaign.  In order to properly gauge the impact on the community and consumers, businesses need to be constantly aware of what is being talked about on the various social media platforms.  Without the real-time knowledge, you might be stuck in the shadows instead of the limelight.

Finally, the compassion campaign for Haiti shows that becoming like everyone else isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  When you join a movement, whether as a business or individual, you are showing the world that you care about others and creating positive PR for yourself.  Who do you think will make the bigger impact on the community this weekend – the bar down the street that is giving all of its proceeds to Haiti relief or the bar that is treating Friday and Saturday nights like any other night of the week?   Becoming involved in a movement of change can help raise awareness for the cause, awareness for your business, and a dedicated customer base.

A terrible thing happened in Haiti but the world is coming together to turn a disaster into a mission of compassion.  Social media has played a big role in the level of success for the Haiti Movement and it can create just as much success for your business or non-profit.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by Mark Brannan

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