Microsoft releases free ebook for the K-12 teacher buyer persona

I'm a huge believer in buyer persona based marketing: When you create information on the Web to help solve the problems of your buyer personas (rather than just prattling on about your products and services).

Rob Bayuk, K-12 Education Marketing Manager at Microsoft, sends us a link to the first Microsoft ebook published for K-12 teachers.

Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner shows how the ancient tradition of storytelling meets the digital age. When students create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their story, learning becomes personal.
Download the ebook.

This is a terrific example of buyer persona marketing.

Rob's goal as a marketer is to engage K-12 teachers in the use technology as part of the teaching and learning process. This ebook is part definition (what is DST), part inspiration (lots of pointers, student work/examples) and part prescriptive (here are some great tools from Microsoft with ideas to match.

Rob used to teach high school social studies and he watched teachers struggle with the basics of technology. He says digital storytelling is a great starting point for even the most tech-wary teacher such as Lynne Zalesak, a social studies teacher, at Jackson Middle School in Houston.

The ebook has generated thousands of downloads in just a few weeks.

Disclosure: I met Rob when I delivered a paid presentation for Microsoft Marketing Managers last year.

Comments

[Stacy Lukasavitz]

That is very, very cool and much needed. On a related note, I just found out that General Motors has an entire curriculum with lesson plans and stuff for download for teachers on their site (http://www.gm.com/experience/education/) - I'm not a teacher but I'll be sending links to both GM and Microsoft's stuff to my teacher friends.

[Paul Anthony Kelly]

there are so many tools out there! Just gotta focus on 1 or 2 to get started. I got a vlog going. My next step probably is an EBook. Question @ DM Scott: If you have a service business (real estate), can PR releases work for that?

[Stacy Lukasavitz]

FYI: GM is not a client, nor do I have any connection to them other than the fact I was born in Flint, Michigan.

(I just realized my comment above may have looked a bit hokey & wanted to clear that up.)

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for sharing Stacy

Paul - Like you said, there are so many tools out there - you just got to get started.

Experiment. If it works keep going. If not, try something else.

David

[Margie Mintz]

Thanks for this David. I'm putting together my first e-Book, and it was a good reminder of the power and delight of story telling.
Margie Mintz
http://www.mintzwebdesign.com

[bayrak]

Congratulations !
Very very nice site
Thank you.. =)

[Tatyana Gann]

What a great post David! My background is in education. I used to teach ESL and Russian. I wish we had this opportunity before. I think it is awesome that teachers have a chance to dive into the world of technology, embrace it and make it easier for students to understand the most difficult boring subjects . I am all for it!

[Web Tasarım]

Nice article. I'd like to read that ebook :)