If you read my last blog, you may have noticed a throwaway line at the end that talks about how while Google strives to get even close to Microsoft when it comes to Internet browser market share, the situation is completely reversed when it comes to search engine market share. Google’s sitting on a pretty 73.9% of the search engine market share, up 25% from where it was just three years ago. Microsoft on the other hand is not even in second place and has struggled with 6-9% of the market share for a while.
So Microsoft launches Bing.com… And nothing changes. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Compete.com estimates that without including Bing, Microsoft (through MSN, etc.) had only about 6.5% of the search engine market share in June of this year and with Bing.com, it had about 9.1%. (Including Bing.com in the numbers also knocked Google down a peg—from 73.9% to 72.7%.)
But with Google sitting pretty at around 72-74% of the market share, a few percentages’ worth of increase in a single-digit competitor doesn’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Then again, it could be a sign of change to come in the future. Just don’t hold your breath just yet! Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of Bing.com and decide whether it really has a shot of capturing more of the search engine market share.
Pros
· It’s the hot new buzz. Bing just launched in early June to a flurry of television and Internet ad campaigns. Meant to replace MSN Search, Live Search, and all those other incarnations of Microsoft’s attempt to get into the search engine market, Bing uses the newest Microsoft developments in search engine technology.
· It’s pretty? Perhaps not much of a pro, but the frequently changing background image on the bing.com homepage does make for an attractive search engine. (Although you can switch it off if it bothers you.)
· It’s connected with Windows and Internet Explorer. Just as past Microsoft search engines have been the default search engines on Internet Explorer in the past, Bing.com is sure to continue this trend in the future. More people use Internet Explorer than all the other browsers combined and some people may not care enough to change the default search engine. This is sure to give Bing a boost.
· It’s smart… sort of. That “newest Microsoft development in search engine technology” is supposed to be a quote “decision engine” unquote. This decision engine works nicely in a number of ways:
· Sectioned search results. Bing divides search results into sections like wallpapers, images, map, shopping, fansites, weather, etc. This can be helpful when you’re looking for information on say, something like a computer ram and you don’t want to be bombarded with links to a hundred places at which to buy one for the best price. Google already does this but admittedly not quite as well—Google has got more sponsored links to show you, you see.
· Less clutter. With fewer “sponsored links,” Bing doesn’t have to overload you with an additional 10 or so links on the first page that may or may not relate to your search engine term. The effect is that Bing is a more simplistic, less “look at me!” type of search engine, without links competing for your attention. But… They do still have sponsored links that appear sometimes.
· Optional page preview. I really liked this one. Hover your mouse to the right of any search result and you get a paragraph or two preview from the site as well as a list of (possibly) related links that appear on the page that might interest you as well. You can decide whether or not to check out a page without even seeing it.
Cons
· “Decision engine” decides for you. While all of us may appreciate a little less clutter on our search engine pages, we’re so used to it being in Google, our brains have learned to tune out those sponsored links, anyway. What really gets me is that the “decision engine” decides for you—great when you’re in a hurry, but you can’t always rely on its smarts. Maybe you want to see a store that sells an item even if you’re just looking for information on it. Bing may weed out the fluff, but they also weed out sites that may have been an interest to me.
· Links to dead sites. Not sure how Bing “decided” this, but I’ve gotten a number of links to sites that no longer exist through Bing that did not appear in Google search.
· Odd term-related choices. This is not to say that Google is perfect, but putting a search term into both search engines, it seemed to me like Bing brought up more unrelated choices—or choices that really weren’t about the search term, even if it was briefly mentioned.
Seeing the list of cons versus the list of pros, you’d think that Bing really was the wave of the future, but I don’t know. The cons were a pretty big black mark in my book. Plus I’m so used to Google and Bing’s offerings aren’t quite impressive enough to convert me to use Bing and only Bing—but I like that it’s out there.
Rumor is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the reasons behind the name choice (besides that annoying “bing” ringing sound we hear in the commercials, of course): to match Google. In other words, Microsoft wants us to start saying, “Bing that for me, will you?” in lieu of the old “Google that for me.”
Rather than worry about getting a new definition for a word into the English dictionary, Bing first needs to worry about doing something so incredible that it really becomes an everyday part of our lives like Google. You have to give them props for trying with their “smart decision engine,” but frankly, I don’t think Google has to count its numbered days just yet.
When you turn on your computer each morning, what’s the first thing you click? The Internet Explorer little blue “e” with a golden ring icon, Firefox’s floating fire… uh, fox… around a globe, or the Google Chrome four-color ball that’s reminiscent of the old SIMON electronic game? What about at work? Does the company you work for share your love for a particular Internet browser or do they force you to work with one you would never use at home? Do you even care what browser you use?
You may have a favorite browser or you may not, but the online community certainly cares to know what you’re using. What’s basically an inconsequential act on your part—a click here and you’re off surfing the web, without giving your browser a second thought—is a competitive do-or-die market for the companies that offer you those free browsers. Internet browsers are, for example, yet another battleground for Microsoft and Google to go at it. So let’s take a look at the two Internet browsers from these companies and what their latest incarnations have to offer.
Internet Explorer 8
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is a staple on any Windows-run personal computer. (Being a product of the same company that produces Windows no doubt inevitably helps.) It takes a person who really cares about what their browsers have to offer to take the trouble of removing IE from their computer and installing another browser—and for most people, IE works just fine.
The latest offering, Internet Explorer 8, comes after a decade of IE on the Internet. Seven previous versions have given Microsoft plenty of time to work out the kinks, add the features that users want, and take away the features that users could care less about. After this many experimentations, this Frankenstein of an Internet browser should be just about perfect.
Well… I guess not. If the disastrous Windows Vista is any indication, Microsoft can’t hit it out of the ballpark with every product. Analysts love IE8’s beefed up security and extra navigational options, but they are panning the browser’s speed, or lack thereof, I should say. Not that IE8 is a turtle, but there are faster options out there.
Some users also complain of compatibility issues with code and then there’s the fact that viruses, Trojans, and scams target IE because well, if you’re the king of the castle, you’re likely to be the target of most attacks. New features like “anti-clickjacking” that help stop an innocent Internet surfer from clicking on a malicious program disguised as a normal link are great for improved security, but IE8 is still the primary target for all those hackers determined to ruin your day.
Google Chrome
It’s unfair to really compare Google Chrome with IE8 when Chrome just launched last fall and IE has 10 years of experience, but it’s worth taking a look at what Google has to offer us. Chrome already is gaining buzz among analysts and computer enthusiasts, so I thought I’d share a few of those compliments with you.
Chrome has incredibly fast speed on its side, something that IE can just never quite attain. It’s got its own task manager, which computer geeks appreciate, and it lets you move tabs around to separate windows if your browser gets too cluttered.
Google probably bided its time and looked at what works and what doesn’t work in all of its competitors. For example, Opera had the thumbnail bookmark start page idea first and Safari came up with the extra privacy that popping up a window that isn’t archived in the history or bookmark page allows. Chrome is a true Frankenstein and so far it doesn’t appear to be suffering from any major issues. However, there are a few known bugs that need to be worked out, like failing to load apps and videos.
Bottom Line
Google may dominate the search engine corner of the Internet with about 72-74% of the market share (Microsoft, with around 6-9%, is trying to eat a chunk of that with is new search engine, Bing, but we’re not holding our breath quite yet), but it’s not going to even touch Microsoft’s numbers when it comes to Internet browsers—I don’t care what kind of heavy artillery Google Chrome manages to pull out.
Currently Microsoft’s Internet Explorer once has about 65.5% of the browser market share and Google Chrome has… a whopping 1.8%. Yeah, not eighteen percent, one-point-eight percent. Granted, Internet Explorer is not entirely invulnerable. Back at the turn of the millennium, IE dominated the browser market share with about 95% and just six years later, it’s lost almost 30% to its competitors—that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Currently, though, Mozilla’s Firefox (22.51% browser market share) and Apple’s Safari (8.43%) are quite a bit ahead of Google Chrome when it comes to the opponent who might topple IE. But Google’s got some special features—I hope they keep the battle up! When there are more options, consumers win. We’ll just sit back and watch the fireworks, reaping the spoils of the battle.
Do you have your head in the clouds? If you don’t, you’re bound to be dealing with quite a headache. The old way of running a business with computers is too complex. You know those old movies, where computers took up entire rooms? If you think about it, with the space we have to devote to servers—as in the physical computing servers—we’re not that far removed from those days.
In the traditional model, any business that wants an app (customized software) for their company has to find the space to store the servers needed for computing power. It has to hire a team of IT specialists to set up and maintain the software—and setting up a custom app is a task that can easily take weeks. When there’s a problem, the company’s IT people scramble to try and fix it, but in the meantime, all of the company’s business slows down or halts all together. If the company ever wants to upgrade even part of the software, it risks messing up everything else that’s tied into that app. All of this costs loads of money to start up and maintain.
And what does that mean for the small business? Small companies simply don’t have the resources to run customized apps for their businesses. They have no choice but to use simple software straight-from-the-package. If they encounter problems—they’re out of luck.
These problems are exactly why cloud computing is taking off. The term “cloud computing” comes from the somewhat confusing diagrams that chart a cloud computing network’s services, clientele, and partners, which are all connected through the Internet. But you can forget that cloud-like chart—all you need to know is what cloud computing can do for your business and why it’s on the rise!
Cloud computing cuts out the company-run servers and the IT staff entirely. That means that the costs of running and setting up servers are out of the picture, too. Instead, companies are able to run customizable software apps, websites, and more through a third party, which shares its resources with other companies and individuals. Plus, it can be set up to work in days!
So you have to share resources? How does your company get customized service? What about security? These haven’t been big issues with cloud computing networks. A full-time staff much larger than you could afford works to keep all of the clientele’s apps up and running. If you have a problem, help is only a phone call away. When there’s an upgrade that can make your service more reliable, the cloud computing network takes care of the upgrade for you.
Cloud computing networks are either public or private. Private cloud computing networks offer their services to a select number of clients, usually businesses, while public cloud computing networks are available to anyone over the Internet. While some services (like web-based e-mail) may be free, cloud computing companies make their money by charging their clientele according to the services provided.
What does this mean for your company? The cost of going through a cloud computing network for your business server needs is much less than procuring and running servers and a team of IT professionals on your own. You are charged for the capacity of computing power you need and use—which is easily expanded if it becomes necessary. You may hear cloud computing called “utility computing” because of this pay-as-you-go model.
In this tough economy, companies have to cut back wherever they can, but they don’t want to sacrifice efficiency or quality. After all, apps are the software on which a company runs! With cloud computing, companies get better service for less money—an all around win-win!
When Jonathan Fields spotted William Shatner waiting to board a JetBlue flight at New York’s JFK in May, he did what any other self-respecting blogger would do. He popped open his Apple (AAPL) Mac, connected to the Web using the free Wi-Fi provided by JetBlue, and used Twitter to share the sighting with pals. “JetBlue terminal,” Fields wrote on the blog service that lets users send short messages of 140 characters with status updates to groups of friends. “William Shatner waiting in pinstripe suit and shades to board flight to Burbank. Why’s he flying JetBlue? Free, maybe?”
But he was caught off guard by what happened next. Within 10 seconds he got an e-mail informing him that JetBlue (JBLU) was following him on Twitter.
“It totally startled me,” says the 42-year-old author, who initially worried that JetBlue might be monitoring his use of the Wi-Fi connection. JetBlue employee Morgan Johnston quickly explained that wasn’t the case. JetBlue keeps tabs on what Twitter users say about it, using a scanning tool, to find customers who might need information, say, on flight delays or cancellations, Johnston said.
Read the entire article here.
Test For Formatting
Email can be rendered broken or even illegible on differing email clients. Test the formatting of your messages through test deliveries to major email software such as Hotmail, Outlook and others.
Be Selective In What You Send
Don’t overdo it! Legitimate email can be viewed as spam or junk if you’re indiscriminate in its volume. Cast a skeptical eye on every message before sending it to ensure that it offers real value to the recipient.
Allow For Options
Email marketers with a lot of information to share often allow recipients to choose their preferences (via links that are usually positioned at the bottom of the message). An example: “Do you wish to receive our email notifications weekly, or monthly?”
Ask For The Order!
If you seek a specific response from your email message, be sure to include a strong, clear call to action: “Phone us now to save 5%!” or “Click on this link for your free …”
If you’re directing an email recipient to a web page, consider the destination. It may be much more effective if you send them to an “offer-specific” landing page, rather than your web site’s “general content” home page.
Test For Effectiveness
Before initiating your campaign, it may pay to test it and several alternatives by crafting a couple of different messages and sending them to a limited audience to see which one draws the most responses.
Refine and repeat the process as needed until you’re sure you’re pressing all the right buttons!
Improving Deliverability
To ensure high deliverability of your emails even to those who have opted in for ongoing communications, you have to consider the spam filters that protect both individual mailboxes and internet service providers (ISPs).
In fact, ISPs will “black list” known suppliers of spam and routinely block their email. Conversely, ISPs “white list” those companies identified as senders of legitimate email and thereby allow their messages to pass through unimpeded.
Some tips improving deliverability:
Create Accurate Headers
The content in your email’s “From,” “To” and “Subject” fields are key. Use a legitimate email address in your From field. Place the recipient’s name and address in the To field. And, take care in composing your Subject field by avoiding common spam words (Free!).
An approach that identifies you and legitimizes your message may work best:” “This month’s Smith Company Outlook enewsletter.”
Test Your Email Against Spam Filters
Before distributing your emails, employ an online “content checker” to see how it scores according to commonly accepted anti-spam rules. If it scores high and is tagged as spam, you’ll want to reconsider your message.
Test Your Email At Popular Domains
Test your email against ISP spam filters by setting up email accounts at popular domains such AOL, Hotmail, MSN and Yahoo!. Then send your email to yourself to see if it gets through.
Additional Considerations:
Maintaining Your Mailing List
Email lists are dynamic in nature. As some recipients opt out or change their addresses, others will elect to opt in, and some may sign up more than once! List management software will help you maintain an up-to-date email list by eliminating unsubscribes, undeliverables (e.g., bounce backs) and duplicates.
Tracking Results
One beauty of email marketing is the ease with which it allows you to track results and measure the effectiveness. Software or your service provider can help you determine the number of emails sent, and the amount of responses you receive in return.
Do It Yourself – Or Enlist The Aid Of A Specialist?
The practices described in this white paper are well within the capabilities of many larger companies with dedicated IT or information technology departments, and certainly achievable by many smaller businesses who are not adverse to rolling up their sleeves and trying some new things.
That said, there is much to be gained by working with an interactive agency or ESP (email service provider) to achieve your goals. As specialists in the field, they should be able to point to a good track record at achieving results. And, with them on board, your marketing team or IT personnel may be better able to address your company’s other needs.
Email Marketing
Turning browsers into buyers: Permission-based methods to build your brand, increase loyalty … and generate sales.
A white paper by Jeff Stanislow, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Motor City Interactive, Brighton, Michigan.
For more information, please contact Jeff Stanislow at jeff@motorcityinteractive.com.
You’ve posted your web site and publicized it in your company’s marketing communications. Perhaps you’re also driving traffic to it with banner ads and pay-per-click campaigns. Maybe you’ve even employed SEO (search engine optimization) to help your site achieve a top-of-the-list ranking on Google or Yahoo.
Whether in a trickle or a flood, visitors are now checking out your web site.
Don’t let them remain anonymous!
Through the practices described here, you can capture their names and email addresses. With this data, you can then use email marketing to build your brand, increase customer loyalty and generate new sales.
What’s more, you can use email marketing quickly and cost efficiently – especially when compared to traditional, through-the-mail direct marketing alternatives!
A word of definition: Email marketing is not “spam” or “junk” or unsolicited communications. Responsibly executed by Fortune 500 businesses and countless other internet-savvy companies of all sizes, email marketing messages are delivered only to those who have volunteered – or “opted-in” –for ongoing communications.
What’s more, in every care the sender is clearly identified. And, with each email, there is an unsubscribe link, allowing the recipient to opt-out of the communication process at any time.
By following these practices, you not only differentiate your effort from others who abuse email marketing’s capabilities, you also distinguish your communications as legitimate and worthwhile.
Let this white paper be your guide in planning, executing and evaluating a successful email marketing campaign.
Capturing Names And E-Mail Addresses.
Building – Or Buying – A List Of Names.
To send emails, you are going to need a list of names and email addresses. Of course, the longer the list, the better your prospects for success!
The best source for these names is your web site. On it, you can place “data capture points” or “calls to register” that will allow visitors to opt in for future communications.
Some tips in creating and placing these data capture points:
- Don’t by shy. Place your capture points throughout your web site. Not everyone lingers on any one page, and if your site is search engine optimized, many may bypass the home page altogether!
- Keep it simple. In exchange for their input, offer visitors something of value and state is clearly: “Sign up here for our free and informative monthly e-newsletter!” or ”Register now for future sale notifications!” or “Enter our online sweepstakes for a chance to win …”
- Don’t get greedy. The more information you ask visitors to share, the less inclined they are to participate.
- Respect their privacy. Let your visitors know that you won’t be sharing their names and email addresses with anyone else.
Opt-In, Confirmed Opt-In, Or Double Opt-In?
When soliciting visitor input, you’ll have three ways to get their permission for future communications. Of course, there’s a trade-off: The more stringent the qualifying process (e.g., double opt-in), the more truly interested will be the enrollees – but the shorter your list.
Here are your choices:
With a single opt-in process, web site visitors provide their names and email addresses. You simply follow up at a later date with your message.
With confirmed opt-in, visitors share their names and email addresses. You then send a confirming email before sending them your communications later.
With a double opt-in procedure, visitors give you their names and email addresses. You then ask them to confirm their interest via email. When they’ve opted in twice, you are then free to follow up at a later date with your emails.
Buying A List: A Legitimate “Short-Cut?”
Whatever your selected opt-in process, building your own list can take time. The alternative is to buy or rent a list of those people who have opted-in for offers in your company’s sales or service category.
The advantages? Speed in acquiring the names, and volume; by leasing a list, you can get a list of names in a hurry.
The disadvantages? Lack of selectivity, and cost. Purchase or rent a list and you will be reaching people who are not as receptive to your message as those who have opted in at your web site. You will, of course, also pay a list broker for their services.
List Segmentation.
Smart email marketers also use of list segmentation to increase responses. For example, you could separate prospects from customers and send them different messages. Depending on your database, it may also be possible to segment your list by age, sex, geographic location and other demographics to better appeal to each target audience.
Creating Your Email Messages.
With your list in hand, you’re well on your way. Now it’s time to create your messages. Here are some tips on crafting your appeal:
Personalize Your Message.
With the data you have at your disposal, it’s easy to personalize your email messages: “Jane Jones, You asked for news on our next sale. Beginning this Saturday, you can save up to 20% …”
Optimize Your Content.
Use a good mix of text and graphics. Also, given the varying formatting tendencies of different email software, use one column of content, if possible, and two columns at the maximum.
To be continued next week… Stay Tuned!
Best Practices for Email Deliverability:
The following is a list of best practices for increasing the deliverability of your email messages. Deliverability means that your legitimate email gets to the inbox of the recipient, and is not stuck in spam filters.
- Never buy a list of email addresses – That is the best way to get yourself blacklisted for lots of domains, and guarantee that your email will not be delivered.
- Send from a clean IP – If your sending mail from an IP that has sent spam email in the past, chances are your mail will be blocked. Also never use a SMTP server on a dynamic IP address, or on a dail-up, dsl, or cable modem.
- Remove bounced emails from your list – use some software to remove bad email addresses. Domain’s such as AOL will block you if you try to send to too many non-existent addresses. You should immediately remove all hard bounces.
- Use the same from address for all email – If a recipient is using a challenge response system they will typically add your newsletter address to their whitelist (a list of allowed email addresses) the first time you send them an email. If you send from a different email address every time the recipient may not keep adding your address to their whitelist.
- Setup SPF records in your DNS – Sender Policy Framework, or SPF are very simple records that you add to your DNS records. They identify which IP addresses may send email on behalf of your domain, many spam filters will give you positive points if you have these setup correctly. By creating an SPF record your also allowing Microsoft Sender-ID to be used.
- Validate HTML before sending – Invalid HTML or poorly formatted HTML can have negative effects on deliverability.
- Don’t use too much HTML – Some spam filters will give you a negative rating if the ratio of content to HTML markup is too small. Recommended file sizes not to exceed 50-75 kilobytes.
- Don’t link to too many different domains – Spammers often use several different domain names for each product they are pushing.
- Avoid punctuation in the subject line – Especially exclamation and question marks.
- Never use all caps – Besides being annoying many spam filters will pick flag this as spam.
- Don’t use currency signs (eg $) in subject
- Don’t use a large font size
- Don’t address your recipient with the word Dear – Especially not Dear Friend!
- Personalize content – If you give the user personalized content it is more likely to pass through their personal spam filters. For instance if my email address is pete@example.com and you use my last name, chances are I gave you my last name, and it is a valid email.
- Get Whitelisted – Some ISP’s such as AOL have whitelists that you may be able to get added to. Additionally you can pay to get added to some, such as BondedSender.
- Lowercase From address – make sure your from address is lower case
- Don’t have numbers in your from address
- Use a name in the From header – don’t just use your email address, also include a name. A large percentage of spam simply uses an email address in the from header.
- Don’t put the recipient’s name in the subject
- Include To, Subject, Date, Message-ID, headers
- Avoid words that commonly appear in spam – you should avoid the following words in your email, and especially in the subject such as:
- enlarge
- click here
- big bucks
- long distance
- dear
- loan
- free
- offer
- money back
- targeted
- incredible
- spam
- drug related words – viagra, etc.
- sex/porn related words
One of the most important issues for email marketers is making sure the message makes it to the “inbox” of the intended recipient. While there are several key factors to achieving this objective, the focus of my blog post today will be on the “Subject Line”. Not only does the subject line play an important role in getting delivered, it is imperative to accomplish the main objective of getting your marketing message opened and read by the user.
To begin I would like to share my process in writing effective Subject Lines.
First, it is necessary to define your target audience. You should create a profile of this group using the following questions, and then dive into their minds putting yourself in front of their computer. By defining the audience this will help guide you through creating the right copy for your Subject Line.
Second, I say use the “teachers dress” methodology, short enough to keep it intersting but long enough to cover the topic! Copywriter’s say you must write it in seven words or less, I say the Subject Line needs to be the right length, to capture attention but also to entice users to open the message.
Third, continue to test different subject lines on your lists and measure the results. A subtle change in a word here or there could lead to increases in the campaigns overall effectiveness. If you are targeting demographically, your subject line can be modified to be gender specific or age specific, or both.
Finally,
When you think you have it mastered, push yourself even further and you will find that while this is difficult and teadus work versus just blasting away, true online marketers will benifit from understanding the importance of the subject line.
Jeff Stanislow
Motor City Interactive
After spending a decent amount of time in this business and seeing a lot of twists and turns for the holy grail of marketing nirvana, I have a theory. I call it the “Indiana Jones” theory. You go through hell getting to the grail, and then it slips through your hands and you realize it will never be captured. But you also realize it is a good thing because if it is found, everyone will see it and win. I believe marketing is like the grail, you have wins and losses, you test emerging opportunities and “hype rewards”, and support “existing or safer” known areas. It is what is left after the hype is gone that you should truly put your time, energy, and money into, but you must understand what is emerging as you do want to be aware of market opportunities or other diamonds in the rough.
Web Sites are still going strong and each day about a billion more are launched, spin-off of web site models like micro-sites and landing pages continue to be a strong for marketers, and with applications going online the trend continues. Web Sites are “IN”
Email is still here and dominant while proponents of RSS feeds once touted the end of email, but, it just didn’t. Email marketing is still a very effective marketing tool, and continues to evolve in its own native environment.
Banner Advertisements are still kicking around with lower click-thru rates the once darling of the “surfing” days is really still a good way to market. Users are “session” or “task” oriented, so, when they do click on a banner ad, you better bet the click is more valuable than the days when you clicked to “shoot the duck”. The hype in recent years has to be Pay Per Click advertising, and Google made history and a few dollars buy building out contextual based advertising model. What an amazing company but I will save some time to talk about Google in the near future, and how their applications will once again change the way we live.
Recently a lot of hype has been flying around about Social Marketing…
Many people and now companies are saying “Check out my Tweet, Blog, FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIN page.
While it is a little early to comment, I can see where this model could be interesting in the near future, it is really tough to cut through the clutter. I recently read another blog which indicated Social Media allows brands to talk back and that Twitter was a PR persons dream…
I think a lot of it is really just riff-raff and provides no value, I actually just read a Tweet from a friend and colleague and he basically said, “Hey, I am doing nothing”. I think we are going to see a lot of this in the near future, but, these groups and networks will continue to evolve and only those who have time and something relevant to say will continue to support the “Social Networking” craze. Businesses will be able to capitalize by using such strategies to build loyal followers and begin to think of these users as stakeholders in the company who will be a great sounding board, test group, idea generator, de-bugger, and more. However, I suggest that you just don’t go guns a blazing because a false strategy will easily be snubbed by customers, spend time understanding what some other businesses that maybe more applicable for this media are doing… You don’t want to come off as hey, I found another way to sell to customers.
Stay tuned for another year or two, watch, test, play, and determine what approach if any is right for you and/or your business.
|
|
