WindwardReports.com, a Boulder, Colorado company, is trying an innovative new means of advertising -- YouTube.com.
Does it work? Who's the market? Would you try anything like this? Check out the video and let me know what you think...
7 Main Principles of the Web
There are few better websites than the BBC, and there are few organizations that truly get what the Web is about better than the BBC. I came across a set of 15 BBC Web Principles some time ago, and thought, "These should be the principles of the Web."
Fully seven of the principles could be summarized as follows: In a network, network. They deal with how organizations need to redefine themselves in a truly networked world. These principles are as follows:
LinkedIn will compete with FaceBook and MySpace for online business networking, or so says CEO Dan Nye in this article by the Fortune technology staff. In his world, people will build one profile for their personal life (MySpace, FaceBook) and another for their professional life (LinkedIn). With upwards of 11 million members already signed up, the site is now adding 180,000 new members each week.
Are you LinkedIn?
Read on and find out what the future looks like for LinkedIn.
Good Morning America promotes LinkedIn for job search.
If you're looking for a new job or career change, get LinkedIn. So says Tory Johnson on Good Morning America. This article suggests several ways to develop your online electronic profile to connect with the right people and find the right job for you.
I've always heard that the best jobs are never advertised. They are filled by people who are connected to people in the know. Yes, word-of-mouth advertising works -- even when it comes to job hunting.
Check out my profile on LinkedIn and link to me or recommend me.
By the way, my son is in the job market as a Web Sphere expert. (hint hint)
Just when you think your web site is finally finished, finally perfect, finally just the way you want it... you read an article like this from Shane Atchison at ClickZ. Reminding you that a web site is never really done and there's no such thing as perfect.
Even if you think your site is darn near perfect, you may want to make some changes anyway. Why? Shane gives you 4 really good (nearly perfect?) reasons to continue to work on your site.
The April edition of Brainstorm!(TM) is available online.
Spring Forward!
Any blog post with a title Brands are for Cattle that starts out with "Marketers are a bunch of flaky wimps," is bound to get my attention -- and fast!
I have to agree that putting the brand above the needs of the customer/buyer/visitor is a mistake.
Marketers who obsess about brand usually focus on aesthetics over buyers. They are more interested in the color scheme of the Web site than in meeting their buyers' needs with a content marketing strategy. They care about logos not buyers. They research color schemes instead of the market. Countless marketers got their knickers in a twist about the outward manifestation of an organization's brand--including logos, image ads, and tchotchkes—all at the expense of buyers and what they need to understand the company—especially the content found on the company’s site. Well, they are flaky wimps if that's what they do.But I can't put the blame entirely on the marketers; sometimes it has to rest with the client -- the site owner.
What's really at stake—in fact what branding's really about—is a focus on the buyer. As each buyer builds an emotional response to a company, that emotion becomes the brand-image for that person. Fortunately, some great marketers understand that the provision of quality Web content does more to build brand than pretty logos, cool Web design, and hip color choice.
Spring may be wedding season, but with Valentine’s Day, February is the month for love. And love is big business, especially online (and I’m not talking about porn – which is whole other online industry with huge profits).
Online Dating
40 million Americans use online dating services; that's about 40 percent of our entire U.S. single-people pool. You’ve probably seen the TV commercials for online dating services like Match.com and eHarmony. Just type “online dating” into Google and you’ll get 284 million results. “Christian dating” alone brings in 121 million results with sites like ChristianSingles.com, SinglesofFaith.com, and ChristianLoveNetwork.com. Whatever your passion, you're likely to find a singles group for it.
Breakin' Up is Hard to Do
What do Britney Spears and the Prime Minister of Finland have in common? According to the tabloids, they both broke up with their significant others electronically—via text message. Technology has brought wedding bells to many people’s lives, but technology also has had an impact on one of our most agonizing rites of passage: The break up (aka “e-dumping”). An estimated 48 percent of online daters report that their breakups have happened over email.
But if email or text messages are too direct, there’s a guy who advertises on Craig’s List that he’ll break up with your psychotic girlfriend for you for as little as “$50 and a 6-pack.” If you happen to live in Berlin, and have a romance you'd like to end, Bernd Dressler founded the Separation Agency to inform dumpees that their relationship is over. By the way, he’s interested in franchising to other countries.
Teen Communities
PewInternet.org reports that more than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, or FaceBook. A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of Internet users.
These online community sites aren't just for teens. Just look at the explosion of YouTube over the past 2 years, the interest in renewing lost connections through Classmates.com, and the desire to share and compare photos at Flickr.
SNS for Profits and Nots
Social networking sites have moved into the business world with sites like LinkedIn, and Ryze. There is growing evidence to support claims that some social networking services (SNS for short) can be powerful professional allies to businesses — in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block. Now you can start a social network on your own web site with help from services like KickApps.com and CommunityServer.org.
After more than 12 years, actor Kevin Bacon has finally submitted to the popular college game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” to create a new charitable social network, SixDegrees.org. You can join stars like Robert Duvall and Bette Midler in promoting your favorite charity or donate to one of theirs.
Albert Escalarte has put together a meta-list of social networking sites at the Social Software Weblog, where you're sure to find one that fits your interest. If not, why not start one and get listed?
For Love of Blogging
If you’re looking for a blog about love and relationships, just go to technorati and search for “love” in the blog directory and you’ll have over 140,000 to choose from; “love relationships” delivers over 1.3 million blog posts. They offer commentary on marriage, dating, family, children, hearbreak, being single, loving your job, how to love yourself, and nearly anything else you can think of to love. Today, over a million posts are referencing Valentine’s Day.
As you can see, virtual communities and cyber dating have evolved from guestbooks, email and forums to much more dynamic villages where people are introduced, get to know one another, and develop real relationships.
The Internet is a powerful force for connecting. How will you leverage that power to build your business? Whole Brain Technologies can help.
Whole Brain Technologies: Smarter solutions for business on the Web.
Love is in the Air and on the Web
That's the theme for the February issue of Brainstorm! - Whole Brain Technologies' monthly e-newsletter. It has a new look, to go along with the new design of the web site, and lots of new information:
If you'd like to spend your money and do something good at the same time, The $avvy Giver is definately a blog you have to visit time and time again. Joe Waters gives information on a string of great charities that offer ways to spend money on things you'd probably buy anyway - like an iPod, cell phone, coffee, chocolate or Home Depot gift cards - while supporting a worthy cause.
And while you're at it, stop by Joe's campanion site - Selfish Giving - for information on cause-related marketing (CRM). Did you know that a recent IEG study finds that cause marketing spending totaled $1.34 billion in 2006 -- an increase of 7.5% -- and is expected to reach $1.44 billion this year? It's true. This is one of the hottest ways to partner for-profits with nonprofits in a win-win relationship. And be sure to check out the blogroll for more info on CRM.
Let go by IBM and deeply in debt, a family man turned his childhood passion for unicycles into a thriving online start-up. Then he added a banjo business.
MSNBC/Newsweek: How I became a Big Wheel
I've been wanting to post this for awhile now, but just didn't have the time. Other more pressing issues have come up, like Tami Gosnell's American Idol progress on my Pedicab Blog.
Guy Kawasaki has some great tips on how to get the word out about your blog. I think one of the biggest and most difficult things is to write lots of content on your blog even before you start telling people about it. Blogging can be tough when you think you're just writing for yourself and no one's paying attention. But it's important that people see your content and style so they can decide to add your blog to their feedreader.
How to Change the World: The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog
Last week we were up late watching The Tonight Show. Jay Leno's first guest of the evening was Bill Cosby, a man I'd grown up with - I Spy, Fat Albert, The Bill Cosby Show, Cosby, etc. I hadn't seen him in awhile, but knew I'd be entertained by his wit and charm as always.
I was amazed by his storytelling as he talked about his first time in a really hot car (Selene Mustang). You probably know that Leno is a car fanatic.
I knew that if I tried to tell the same story it would take me less than 60 seconds - and anyone who knows me knows I can talk. But Cosby talked for at least 4 or 5 minutes with all the great facial expressions and sound effects that are hallmarks of the Cosby style. Laughing so hard, we were nearly rolling on the floor along with Jay Leno.
So here's the lesson: We all need to be great storytellers. People relate to stories. People respond emotionally to stories. People are more interested in what you can do for them than how wonderful you are and stories are a great way to tell them.
You know the story of your business and the stories of your clients better than anyone. How can you tell those stories so people will listen? What opportunities do you have to tell your story?
If you're looking for a new 30-second commercial to use at networking events, why not think about a story you can tell? If you just tell the beginning of the story, they'll be intrigued to ask for more. For example, when someone asks what I do or what my business is, I might say something like, "I got a phone call the other day from a woman who had spent a lot of money on her web site but she was really frustrated because nobody is showing up? In my business I find solutions for problems like that. Do you know anyone like that?"
What stories can you come up with about your business that would encourage people to ask for more? What problems have you solved? What is interesting or unique about what you do?
Do you share your stories on your web site? In articles or on your blog? In brochures? In classes or presentations?
I don't really know if Bill Cosby's story is true or not, but I'd like to believe it is. Somehow now I feel like I've been included in his life - at least vicariously. And if I ever get in a Selene Mustang, or any other really loud, really fast car, I'll remember that story -- and smile.
Whether you're a nonprofit who wants some insight into how to do it better, or you're just interested in finding a high-quality charity to support, you definately need to check out this list of the 59 Smartest Orgs Online. There's a lot any for-profit business can learn from the examples on this list. Learn to tell a great story and you'll win people over. If you're looking for a new way to reach your constituents, donors, clients, buyers, you may get some ideas here. And after you've spent time reviewing the online presentation of these nonprofits, vote for your favorite.
Looking for tips on how to get started blogging? Need help with what to do next? Want to get more people to visit your blog? This great Squidoo lens will help you get going and keep moving.
Blogging Starter Checklist
Btw, if you haven't been to Squidoo, you're missing a valuable resource. Take a look at over 60,000 lenses that offer personal recommendations on topics from laptop bags to poodles. Plus, Squidoo's Plexo offers an easy way to make up and contribute to top-10 (or 8, 17, 23) lists. Developed by marketing guru Seth Godin, Squidoo is a fun and effective way to leverage the power of personal recommendation online.
Although there are stacks of books I'd love to read, I don't have time to indulge myself the way I would like. This is a great summary of a follow up to Seth Godin's Purple Cow. The book is still on my list, but for now, I'll settle for this.
Memoirs of a Bystander: 15 things I learned from "The Big Moo"
Seth's Blog: Different kinds of traffic
So many discussions of the issue of quantity vs. quality, whether it's time spent with children, money spent on clothing or shoes, reading romance novels or War and Peace, or hours in front of the television. Now here's another one for you: web site traffic.
We in the web marketing world talk about unique visitors, page views, and conversion. As Seth Godin illustrates here, it doesn't necessarily matter how much traffic you get to your site, but whether or not you're getting the right traffic.
I worked with a client who had signed a longterm contract with a company who promised to drive traffic to her web site where she was selling an audio CD. I have to admit that they did exactly that. Her site got lots of traffic, but no one bought her CD -- not one!
Now you may think that the problem was with her product, which wasn't the case. Her CD was professionally produced with quality information. You may say that the problem was with her web site, which was partly true. There were definately some improvements to be made that would promote her CD more effectively and allow for a more simple method of purchasing it.
But even if she had a horrible web site and a horrible product, you'd think that with the millions of visitors sent by the company, she would have sold at least one CD from her web site to an anonymous visitor. But no, the CDs she did sell were to people she met on her own or who were referred to her site by associates. Despite the imense quantity of traffic the big and expensive company sent to her site, the quality of traffic was seriously lacking.
Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you how many hits their site gets. First thing to ask is how that translates to unique visitors (since "hits" are pretty meaningless for marketing). Then ask what sort of results they're getting from all those visitors. Are they converting those visits into sales, referrals, phone calls, etc. They may not even know for sure.
As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that workin' for ya?"
An interesting debate over giving away content for free appeared on Seth Godin's blog over a couple of days last year. I find both arguments compelling, and I think the final answer is... "it depends."
Yes, giving away some content for free works great if what you want is to pique interest and spread an idea. However, there is something called "perceived value." In the minds of some consumers, free means flat out worthless.
Who is your target market? What do they want or expect? What sort of information are you delivering? Is it something your market would expect to and be willing to pay for? Or will they see value in it even if it's free? These are all questions you need to ask before you decide which way to go. Or, if you're a research kinda person, you could randomly take visitors to a page that is free or a page that charges and check the results.
I hope you'll read both posts, then let me know which side of the argument you're on.
Seth's Blog: Forty to One
Seth's Blog: Is "free" all it's cracked up to be?
Wired 13.02: Revenge of the Right Brain from Wired.com.
Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion.
