Cisco Systems recently launched a microsite around the human network concept. I spent a good chunk of time tooling around the site. All in all, very professional and easy to navigate. I think I get the gist…humans all over the globe are intertwined, and much of the communication (and real living) that happens is because of Cisco’s products silently working in the background.
Here are my thoughts on the site, in no particular order:
1. Too corporate. This has Cisco corporate branding police written all over it. It’s difficult to really get some emotion going (if that is what they are going for).
2. What do they really want to get out of the site? Awareness, names perhaps, be associated with the good in all people. Hard to say. Hard to measure.
3. Content is very polished and well produced. Content is almost a bit too touchy-feely. Not sure it stays in line with the Cisco brand. Would have really helped to get this out of the corporate site feel (take a look at both sites – they mirror each other).
4. I really liked some of the links to companies I have never heard of — my favorite part of the site.
I’d be very interested in how Cisco is measuring this and what their expectations are. Tough goal to focus on something so huge…
