Baynote's new messaging effort expands perception By Aarti Shah January 08, 2008 When it launched, Baynote was known as a social search company - amid misunderstanding of the purpose of social search. "Business media viewed social search as a possible replacement for Google's keyword-driven search, which was not how Baynote positioned it," says Fred Bateman, founder of The Bateman Group. While social search was a significant sector for Baynote, it wanted to promote its other search features, such as its Web recommendations. Strategy The company launched a new messaging campaign to position itself as a thought leader by educating the public on the difference between intent-driven recommendations and social search. It was critical to link Baynote closely with the e-commerce and e-tail sectors to attract sales leads and cultivate early adopters to serve as its champion, Bateman adds. Tactics Bateman said it "felt unfair" that the media overlooked Baynote, a pioneer, in lieu of firms without as much traction or customers. The team reached out to top-tier business and trade press, e-commerce and e-tail outlets, and bloggers. Baynote promoted CEO Jack Jia as a key trends spokesman. Results The company succeeded in expanding its reach into top-tier media, such as Computerworld, Information Week, CNET, and blogs like Tech Crunch, Mash-able, and GigaOm. Jia was chosen to speak at the Web 2.0 Expo, the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising Conference, and the eTail conference. Future Baynote and the Bateman Group plan to include analysts, partners, and customers more extensively in its communications. Baynote will also try using survey data to add credibility to its messaging, and it's adding new media tactics like podcasts and Internet videos to diversify exposure into new media over the next 6 to 12 months. Baynote PR team: Baynote (Cupertino, CA) and The Bateman Group (San Francisco) Campaign: Expand "one product/one category" perception of company Duration: January 2007 to ongoing Budget: Up to $50,000 per month