The Out-Smarts Blog and Podcast

The evolution of the Internet brings new ways to reach your target audience, build brand awareness and develop business.  Here are some simple ways the you can take advantage of Web 2.0 technology to grow your market on line.

1. Add a blog to your site - you can start blogging today using WordPress or Typepad.  Blog to establish your expertise and increase traffic.  Be sure to include a comments section for readers to give feedback.

2. Use a photo site like Flickr  to show case your talents - especially if your focus is visual arts.  Link these back to your web site and include in other forums - the more people who see your work the more interest you will get.

3. Add a Skype link so that people can contact you by phone and over the Internet making it easier for them to do business with you. 

4. Use widgets to get your audience interacting.  Participation increases return visits and makes your site more sticky.  Examples include easy to use poll widgets (PollDaddy) and traffic counters (Alexa).

5. Use video clips to enhance customer service and post them via YouTube to reach more people.

6. Consider Podcasting your expertise but read our New Experiences in Podcasting blog posts first to learn from our mistakes.

7. Use wiki technology like PBWiki to facilitate collaboration both within and out with the organisation.

8. Sign up and start using a professional or social network like LinkedIn or Naymz but choose wisely by considering where your prospects are most likely to hang out on-line.

9. Consider using a book marking site like Ma.gnolia to share your web discoveries and favorites, to further establish your niche and to network with like minded counterparts.  

10. Provide links to all of the above on your site to make your company even more accessible in these forums.

I had the pleasure of speaking last night at the BC Chapter of the Professional Organisers of Canada. The topic was Blogging for Business and it was very well received with lots of questions and interaction - it was a great audience.

Regarding blogging, it became apparent that many people in the POC community run small to medium sized businesses and have little time for anything but their business itself.

Blogging needn’t take much time and if you schedule it into your day and get in the habit then its easy to fit in. A post needn’t be long or detailed, it just had to adds value for your audience.

The benefits of a blog are many: low cost marketing, enhanced branding, establishing expertise, more traffic to your site and so on. It makes the effort worth it.

However, if that isn’t enough to entice you to blog then you should at the very least be using the blogosphere to research. Its free, its readily available and there’s a tonne of stuff being said about your industry right now. Use the blogosphere as a research tool and as a way to learn. The best way to listen to what it being said about your industry, product or company is to use a blog engine like Technorati to search.

For some more useful information  for organizers on searching for blogs and on keyword positioning check out Seascape Web Design’s latest blog posting.  I am glad I inspired you Katy!

Thanks to all who came out last night.  

Recent statistics from Nielsen and other forums suggest the Facebook use is declining. After its meteoric growth last year, the social network is beginning to show signs of slower growth. Is it a case that the masses are spending more time on other forums or is it simply that social media is evolving?

In April both Facebook and MySpace saw a decline in traffic in the US. I don’t know about you but any time I try to grow my friends on MySpace I discover that the vast majority of users haven’t updated their profile this year (or last in many cases!) - a sure sign that the networking site is less popular. For Facebook the decline is less apparent and in my opinion we are seeing a change in user profile (kids fleeing as grown ups and professionals with less time to play take over).

At the same time we see LinkedIn and Ning taking off as more and more professionals recognize the value of virtual networking to grow their business. Both are aimed specifically at business professionals and have little of the fluff associated with MySpace in particular. New social networkers are looking for tools to help them become more productive not tools that distract.

Micro blogs are also winning. The most popular by far is Twitter whose growth has more than doubled in the US since the start of 2008. Again people are recognizing that pared down applications can help spread the word rather than simply increase the noise.

Its interesting to note that Social networks are not declining across the board, its simply that the way people use them is evolving. The popularity of digital social networking is increasing as more and more people use their phones to network.

So what does all this mean for marketing? It shows that Internet marketers in particular and any companies active in these forums need to be listening and aware of trends ahead of the pack so that they can adapt and evolve in synch and not get left behind. They need to be versatile and ready to change and adapt to evolving tastes and habits. Lastly its important never to put your eggs in one basket - if you’re hanging your social media marketing hat on Facebook alone then think again - it may be time to look at Twitter or LinkedIn too.

I always encourage clients to consider Craigslist as a forum for free Internet advertising and also a good source of web site traffic but lately I am in two minds with the news that the site is being used to try to sell everything from sex to babies.

Yes babies - you read it right. Some unfortunate, mentally challenged parents in Vancouver were recently arrested for advertising their 7 day old baby on Craigslist for $10,000. When police popped in to investigate they claimed it was a hoax but that didn’t prevent their child from being taken into care.

Initially I considered this to be one of the problems of the “free” future of business much touted by Chris Anderson of Long Tail and Wired Magazine fame: if everything is free then there’s no money to pay anyone to monitor the service. Then I realized that Chris is right and that this is a perfect example of crowdsourcing - using the people and collective to get things done “free”. Craigslist doesn’t need to pay someone to monitor the ads that people are posting because the people will do it for them. The parents who thought it would be funny to advertise their child for sale got caught because of a conscientious granny who read it, thought rightly that that was wrong and reported it to the police.

When I recommend Craigslist to clients in future, I will be sure to set appropriate expectations and some will no doubt choose not to associate their products with the likes of those aforementioned which sometimes get advertised on Craigslist but it does remain a valuable “free” advertising forum that shouldn’t be ignored.

Watch out for more on crowdsourcing later in the week in the form of Out-Smarts podcast #5 with Monica Hamburg - coming soon!

I have it on good authority that the Twitter microblog site is this year’s web 2.0 tool of choice for Net savvy peeps to communicate with their networks (or minions as the case may be). I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now. At the start I was rather skeptical as to the value the medium brought especially from a business perspective: most of the “Tweets” (noun used to describe the statements people make on Twitter) were narcissistic comments made under the assumption that people were actually interested in hearing what others had for breakfast (for example).

I have watched Twitter usage evolve and today it’s much more sophisticated. Here’s a few tips for you to use to tweak your Tweets and get more out of your Twitter presence:

1. Add value - don’t just spout off about boring stuff. Nobody is interested in what color shoes you are wearing (maybe your underwear but definitely not your shoes!).

2. Share interesting stuff you’ve found on the web that relates to your business or area of interest.

3. Use TinyURL or a similar url abbreviation tool to shorten the length of url links in your Twitter posts so they fit in the 140 character limit.

4. Look at Twitter as a forum to let followers know what it is you do for a living - you never know who might read and say I need someone to do just that for me.

5. Don’t spam or sell.

6. If someone starts following you don’t automatically add them and follow (don’t be a sheeple) - take a look at the number of followers they have compared to their following. If they are following way more people than they have followers then it might be best to avoid them - chances are they are only looking to follow so that they can in turn spam you.

7. Don’t let Twitter suck up too much of your time - it can be very distracting.

8. Limit the number of people you follow to avoid Twitter overload.

9. Use Twitterfeed to feed your blog to Twitter.

10. Use Tweetscan to monitor whats being said about you or your company on Twitter.

Join me on Twitter to find out more and see for yourself how the medium is being used.

Darren Barefoot is a busy man these days, making the best of his return to Vancouver with numerous presentations sharing his and Capulet’s social media experiences. Last night’s Third Tuesday session was no exception. Similar to last week’s HTCE event (but not quite the same), the presentation took client ThoughtFarmer as a case study: Darren explained their approach to generating blogger buzz for that campaign.

I was going to blog about it in depth but Miss 604 did a fine job liveblogging and saved me the trouble, as did some others:

Hummingbird604
MapleLeaf 2.0

The topic of discussion at the International Internet Marketing Association meeting last night was “Facebook Your Business”.  Three panelist brought their own perspective on Facebook from a business perspective.

The first speaker was Maureen McCartney from Citizens Bank of Canada.  She talked about how her organisation used Facebook to advertise during RRSP season.  Citizens Bank was one of the first banks to do so and they were able to generate buzz as a result.  Click through rates for their campaigns however were dismal - the highest being .13% - (which seems to be the norm with Facebook) but given the very small investment in comparison to traditional advertising, the campaign was deemed a success.

The second speaker was Michael Ferguson from Kinzin, the company that developed one of Facebook’s most succesful apps “Are you Normal” (incidentally I am 40% normal or slightly abnormal as the case maybe).  His off the wall presentation took a step back to look at how our culture is changing and embracing social media technologies.  He pointed out that to stand out in the crowd of Facebook applications you have to stand out from the rest of the wallpaper.  He coined the term Facebook jewellery to describe your profile or page picture and pointed out that it has to stand out if you want to attract attention or grow business on Facebook.

And finally, Phillip Jeffrey of UBC talked the crowd through the Facebook set up process, discussing the security capabilities and privacy issues. He pointed out that a Facebook page is to a business what a profile would be to an individual and provided an invaluable introduction to the medium aimed at new users.

Facebook is rapidly being adopted by all age groups and Canada has one of the fastest adoption rates for the social network.  Here at Out-Smarts we use Facebook extensively for business development:

1. To advertise to a very targeted niche at a very low cost.

2. To spread awareness of what Out-Smarts does via our Facebook page and application.

3. To build our business network with industry peers.

4. For branding - our logo appears on each fan and friend page.

5. To drive traffic to the website and blog.

6. To maintain awareness.

The concensus among the IIMA panelists: your company should get on Facebook as soon as possible.  

These days I see a divide between marketers. There are 2 camps, the traditionalists and the technologists and rarely do the 2 meet, far less collaborate - which is a shame because a marketing project is much more likely to be a success if it blends the best of both to reach the intended audience.

Traditionalists tend to be of the opinion that tried and tested approaches to market are best. They eschew the Internet preferring to focus on tangible approaches within their comfort zones. They have been doing things their way for years, it has worked for them so why try anything new.

Technologists on the other hand scoff at traditional marketing pointing out that the Internet is more cost effective and highly targeted. They say that times have changed and no-one pays attention to traditional approaches anymore.

A good marketer should take a step back and consider who they are trying to reach. They should look at all of the options available to reach that audience and determine which will be the most effective. More often that not a blended approach to market, one where traditional marketing complements Internet or vice versa will deliver by far and away the best results.

A case in point this week at Steadyhand. Their blog, which already boasts very respectable traffic (and is an invaluable component of their marketing strategy), saw a huge spike in traffic to the site as a result of the blog being featured in a Globe and Mail article and poll. Traditional fed into Internet and the blended approach enabled them to build brand awareness with a wider audience.

Its called the marketing mix for a reason you know. By blending the best of traditional marketing strategies with new Internet approaches, your chance of nailing the target audience is greatly enhanced.

Still not convinced that e-commerce is the way to go? Then consider these:
1. It allows you to instantaneously access a much wider customer base and geographical reach.
2. It makes it easier for your customers to do business with you at their convenience.
3. Makes it easier to partner with affiliate companies who in turn sell your products to their customer base.
4. It means you can be open for business 24×7.
5. Adding an e-commerce site will help build awareness of your offering.
6. It increases traffic to your site.
7. Its ideal for providing product specifications, photos and other details that make the decision making process easier for buyers.
8. Lower cost of sales, distribution and process.
9. Builds customer loyalty.
10. Allows your company to hone in on a highly targeted market niche.

Business cards need to stand out in order to get noticed and creativity is key to achieving this. Odee highlights some great examples of unique cards that make a statement and stand out or even “grow” your business.

Whilst your at it you might as well check out their hilarious typos too.