YouGottaCall.com

Quick Response - or QR-Codes

2010-10-14T08:24:00.004-04:00

This says it all. If your smart phone reads QR codes.

Quick Response Codes (QRCs) are like bar codes on steroids. They will grow in their application and usefulness. So get familiar with them.

For a basic understanding, Wikipedia is a good start.

There are free QRC generators, like:

QR-Code Generator: the site the created this image

What's next? 3D hologram QRCs?

Is YouGottaCall like AngiesList?

2010-09-15T21:05:00.003-04:00

Shawn O'Brien Tweeted: "Is your stuff like angies list? Just saw commercial on TV." Here's a longer answer than I could fit on Twitter:

"Is YouGottaCall similar to Angie's List?"

We are aiming for the same goal – to connect consumers with trustworthy businesses. But our means of achieving this are as opposite as can be.

YouGottaCall.com is more similar to other recommendation social networks like GigPark, Yelp and LikeList. But we are designed to benefit charities and have a unique voluntary, intrinsic pay-for-performance model.

Here's how we stack up with AngiesList -

Fees: Angie's List collects fees from consumers. This is their primary revenue source. YouGottaCall.com is free to join and free to use for consumers and businesses.

Trusted relationships: AngiesList features written testimonials about the businesses. But the testimonials are written by strangers. The starting point for YouGottaCall is our members' trusted relationships. Recommendations are filtered by the members' social connections so they personally know the people recommending the business. Because we are integrated with Facebook our members can log-in using their Facebook ID. We plan to expand the integration with Facebook to achieve more referral and search utilization within Facebook.

Effectiveness: AngiesList does not guarantee consumer satisfaction in exchange for their subscription fee. In our model consumers are not charged a fee. Our revenue comes from our business members who select the amount they want to pay. For businesses, this is performance based. They choose to pay their fees for either 'referrals' or for 'new sales'.

Cause related: YouGottaCall.com enables members to select a not-for-profit organization their referrals will benefit. Eighty percent of all fees go to these charities.

My Take: Redbeacon’s Plans to Live Up to the Hype

2010-08-21T22:54:00.003-04:00

(Excerpted from GigaOm article By Liz Gannes Aug. 16, 2010

Redbeacon is just a year and a half old, until recently was bootstrapped, and has deployed its local-services marketplace in only one region, but something about what it’s doing clearly makes people think the company’s on to something big. It’s won four separate startup competitions, including TechCrunch 50 and Silicon Alley Insider’s top prizes. People seem to really like the idea of using a website to find and negotiate with local service providers to clean their house or detail their car.

Redbeacon’s most recent valuation was its first outside funding: $7.4 million from Mayfield Fund and Venrock. So we invited co-founder and CEO Ethan Anderson over to our office to hear about what the company is doing to meet these lofty expectations.

Redbeacon is planning to use the funding to expand, said Anderson, by building up new regional markets and also through online distribution, via a publisher widget and formal partnerships with distributors like phone directories. He wants to build Redbeacon as a brand, while borrowing from the traditional classifieds business.

My Take:

RedBeacon seems like a LendingTree for contractors. Kind of Web 1.0 with some pasted-on testimonials. Not all that innovative.

Many players (AT&T - Buzz.com, Reach Local, Localeze, Google, Facebook, LikeList) are converging on the social-local space to leverage word-of-mouth referrals. Who will come up with a successful way to effectively tap the value of these trusted recommendations?

These two elements might be the keys:

1. a unique monetization model. There's so much value in the transaction itself - why not convert that to cash?

2. a unique way to benefit causes. The Web is famous for its ability to marshal the concern and financial support of people for good causes. With a creative model, the social capital of these transactions can benefit charities with a recurring source of donations.

Deriving Value From Social Networks - Open Door vs. Closed Door Approaches

2010-08-16T15:14:00.003-04:00

Can Closed-Door Exclusive Social Networks Make Money?

Sean Carton | August 16, 2010

Excerpted from Clickz

Overall, most of us have looked at social media as a marketing tool, a way of driving traffic, building awareness, or building brand loyalty. But what if we looked at it as a way of driving revenue through access?

Social media: we all know that it’s a great marketing tool. Maybe it’s now time to start thinking about how to turn it into a revenue generating tool by making it less accessible to your audiences, not more.

My Take:

Closed door seems uncreative and Web 1.0-ish. Especially considering that marketers have yet to tap the rich potential offered by the Social Web to attach an actual dollar value to a service provided in a social transaction.

This can be done in a very "Webby" way - i.e.

- it can be done as a voluntary payment

- it can be paid after the value of the social transaction has been recognized - so it's not a "pay me now for value you may or may not get down the road" model like traditional advertising

- it can be distributed via the Web (PayPal, etc.)

- it can take brand affiliation to a new level and support affiliation with a cause (e.g. generating donations for charities)

Academic Research: Word-of-Mouth is a Great Investment

2010-08-15T16:39:00.004-04:00

Excerpt: "Study talks up word-of-mouth marketing programs"

According to a new study, "Referral Programs and Customer Value," to be published in the January issue of the American Marketing Association's Journal of Marketing, customer referral programs are indeed a financially attractive way for firms to acquire new customers.

"There's a lot of talk about word-of-mouth-marketing, and about making money out of social connections. Our first objective was to see if customer referral programs can indeed turn social capital into economic capital. Second, we wanted to come up with a methodology to assess the effectiveness of customer referral programs that was easy to implement with data and tools available to many managers."

The study tackled three questions:

•Do referred customers have higher margins than other customers?

•Do referred customers stay longer with the firm than other customers?

•Do referred customers have a higher customer lifetime value, the net present value of all the profits a customer generates over his or her entire association with the firm?

The answers, according to the study, are all positive. Referred customers were about 18 percent more likely to stay with the bank than other customers, and that gap did not fade over time.

The researchers also concluded that the difference in margin combined with the difference in customer retention amounted to a disparity in long-term customer value of 16 percent to 25 percent. "That's not only a sizable chunk of money," Van den Bulte says, "it also amounts to a 60 percent ROI over six years.

My Take:

While this study measures the profitability of word-of-mouth for large banks, the millions of small, locally-owned US businesses undoubtedly enjoy the same benefits. On top of this, most small business owners tell us that up to 80% of their new customers arrive via word-of-mouth.

Social media is poised to help these small business owners to harness word-of-mouth as a measurable and manageable part of their advertising mix. Traditional advertising media (newspaper, Yellow Pages, local broadcast) are in a tight spot. They currently receive most of small business ad budgets, yet only account for 20% of their new sales.

These traditional, local ad media will need to offer more social media functionality to remain competitive.

Our Cool, New UI is Thanks to Their Hard Work

2010-06-28T18:27:00.013-04:00

June has been fast paced in the midst of rolling out the new YouGottaCall.com. user interface. Feedback has been thrilling - genuine enthusiasm for the design, the graphics and ease of use. Our recent growth says it all!

A lot of effort and sweat by the entire team has gone into it. So here's some deserved thanks. Ben and his development team at ForeSite are creative, thorough - and patient! Our "Super Members" Rich, Michele, Ed, Caitlin and Giulia - social media consultants who help in QA'ing the site, brainstorming and giving honest feedback - have been encouraging and inspiring.

The CT TweetCrawlers (#cttu, #pcct, #pcwm, #swct) - from Hartford & New Haven to Stonington and Stamford - are great to have in your corner. They are trusted local businesses with well-earned reputations. For them, word-of-mouth is not new. But they are using social media to share it in new ways. And they are generous with their ideas and critiques.

With this cool UI we are ready to take it to not-for-profits and businesses to demonstrate the power of word-of-mouth connecting. And that's our goal for the next several months.

We have tons of neat stuff planned - right, Ben? But for now, thanks to all of you, we hope to see lots more "Good referrals. Doing good."

- - Tim

Unlocking the elusive potential of social networks - McKinsey Quarterly - Marketing - Digital Marketing

2010-06-28T13:41:00.001-04:00

Unlocking the elusive potential of social networks

As published on the McKinsey Quarterly

Excerpt: "... We think of word of mouth generated on social networks as a distinct form of media... When you think of word of mouth as media, it becomes a form of content, and businesses can apply tried-and-true content-management practices and metrics to it. In addition, word of mouth generated by social networks is a form of marketing that must be earned—unlike traditional advertising, which can be purchased. "

"Obviously, there are no generic solutions, and each company will need to invent and discover what makes sense for its unique situation"

My Take

Accurate metrics are one reason word-of-mouth powered by Web-based social search is vastly superior to other forms of marketing. Other benefits will be improved cash flow,stronger customer relations, and a downward effect on under-performing, legacy advertising media.

While there may be no generic solutions, platforms may be developed that support the common needs of millions of small businesses in the long-tail of the $100B US local advertising market.

'Lessons from the 'mute' button"

2010-04-21T09:19:00.003-04:00

- or -

"The Value in Breaking Your Communication Impulses"

Do you use the mute button on your phone? Have you ever forgotten it's on? I have - and here's what it's taught me.

Over the many times (yep - I learn slowly) I've done this:

I've learned that the conversation can actually go on without the idea that I wanted to add at that very moment. And often the conversation is improved by the fact that I did not chime in. It takes unexpected turns and uncovers unanticipated information.
I've learned that communication benefits SO much by allowing a couple of seconds of silence. The person with whom I'm speaking has valuable things to add. When they feel free to do this they become more invested in the conversation and in the relationship.
Sometimes the silence is awkward. Everyone is naturally compelled to fill the void - which can make what comes out all the more spontaneous and authentic.

In today's world of home offices and virtual work relationships, these lessons are well heeded.

Now, if only I can employ them consciously - not just by accident.

Theory of Social Marketing Relativity

2010-03-08T19:13:00.004-05:00

The Energy yielded from your social marketing is a function of three factors. Each of these is critical to your social marketing success. Doing any two well, at the expense of the third, assures sub-optimal results.

These three factors are very simple – and simple to remember, thanks to this play on Einstein's famous formula:

E=RC2

where 'R' is the relevance of your messages; the first 'C' is content, and the second 'C' is consistency.

Relevance – The beginning & end of social media is people – you, your customers, your friends and their friends. All of these are increasingly using social media to connect and to share pertinent information with those they care about. This is where word-of-mouth referrals happen for their trusted service providers – a.k.a. “you”.

If they're recommending you, then guess what - they like you! And they welcome you to connect with them appropriately and genuinely. Thanks to social media you can easily join this conversation.

Some tips on being relevant: be real – let your personality show. Whether this means you're always on topic or else you clown around a bit; whether you're stricly corporate or you let your personal side show – this is up to you. Just be you and they will find it easy to connect with your social media personna.

Content – The gist of your social media messages will be what grabs people. There is no simple formula to follow. Not every post will “wow” people – but your body of posts will establish a reputation for substance and will expand the number of people who listen.

Your content should revolve around your personality and your expertise. Share your insights, advice, tips, ideas and inspirations.

The all-important content rules are
avoid controversial topics (politics, sex and religion). These cause otherwise interested folks to stop paying attention – quickly. Also,
negative or sarcastic comments tend to drive away readers.

Consistency - You might be brilliant and relevant, but if you do not connect consistently you will not establish many new, real relationships via social media that help grow your business. And you'll be frustrated.

In your frustration you will lose precious time as your competitors build their profitable social media networks.

So, to save time and aggravation it is strongly recommended that you do not begin social marketing unless you commit to a consistent effort. Seriously – I am not kidding.

Still reading? Good! If you still want to 'give it a go', there are some guidelines to follow:

regular time daily
check for messages directed to you. If they are not “automated” messages, then they are probably from people who are interested in you or your company. Reply to these.
Give 'props' – quote friends and associates on Facebook; Re-Tweet on Twitter. This tells them you appreciate their thoughts. It also helps theie message get seen by more of your friends. And it encourages them to return the favor to you.
Save time - “re-purpose”. If you have an interesting story or news item on your Web site, blog or Facebook page, then pass it along. Others will probably enjoy it – and you get extra mileage from the effort you spent.

Local Search Frustration? Here's Why

2010-02-27T17:59:00.003-05:00

Local Search Complexity = SMB Frustration

Excerpted from Feb 25, 2010 Search Engine Land article

Things in the local search space are out of the control of the typical small business owner; even if they know about the Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local Listings, or Bing Local Listing Center, they’re only covering half their bases (according to last year’s15 Miles survey.) And other portals and data companies typically don’t push updates live with the same alacrity as Google and Bing.

At our recent Local University in Spokane, Mike Blumenthalexplained to small business owners how Google and Bing assemble a Local listing. Mike explained that the major search engines pull in a number of disparate pieces of information (street address, phone number, hours of operation, etc.) about a business from just about any source they can crawl – obviously weighted more heavily towards sources they trust, including their own Local databases.

He further blew our minds with the notion that this two dimensional chart of location information not only expanded infinitely in two dimensions to cover additional local information sources, but also extended into three dimensions, with time as the additional variable. Suggesting, in other words, that recent changes to listing information that aren’t corroborated by other sources may be overwhelmed by the weight of a particular listing’s history!

This lack of transparency and understanding of how listing “clusters” are formed understandably leads to frustration on the part of the business owner, particularly when his experience to date has simply been to tell the Yellow Pages rep how he’d like his information represented year after year.

The bottom line: if you don’t claim and verify each and every listing on each and every search engine and data provider, Google and the other search engines are forced to make a “best guess,” by clustering information that seems to match up, and they don’t always guess right.

My Take

The daunting and inefficient choices for local advertising are temporary - a left-over effect of the mad rush by businesses to get found on the Web.

As Web advertising options begin to take shape, social media is achieving dominance in both traffic and advertising effectiveness. HubSpot's Mark Roberge demonstrated this in his keynote at yesterday's Hartford Business Journal eTechnology Summit. By a show of hands, he illustrated the staggering contrast between purchase decisions influenced by traditional ads vs. social/web research & recommendations.

The "Social Web" provides major advantages over the "Search Web" - higher quality interactions; less "noise"; lower cost' higher yield. Consumers and advertisers who 'get social' will realize these benefits.

The only losers will be the firms who thought short-term and provided unimaginative quick-fixes as well as old media firms that failed to adapt.

After the Hype - Does Trust Remain?

2010-02-09T07:45:00.005-05:00

Heavy participation in social networks ignited enormous hype around the newfound economic value of relationships. Recognizing the advertising opportunity, companies attempted all manner of ways to pose as our trusted friends in order to sell products using the new venue of social media.

While the advertising industry itself, followed by the justice system, clamped down on the glaringly unethical and deceptive practices, many more clever and subtle social techniques are still employed.

There's nary a Facebook app that is not the social Web's version of Hollywood product placement. Not that this is necessarily bad. Like any other advertising, it will continue to be as long as there is a market for it - even though consumers gradually tune it out.

Which brings us to the real question. Is trust in relationships gone? Based on the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer you might conclude "yes".

According to the survey, trust in information from friends and peers, “people like me,” dropped by 20 points, from 47 to 27 percent. That is a 42% drop in just two years.

To get to the bottom of it, let me ask - do you trust your friends and family 42% less? Do you trust 42% fewer of the people you trusted in 2008? If you answered "yes", then please call a psychologist now. It's crazy to accept this statistic as a measurement of trust among "real, trusted relationships".

The Edelman study merely points out that the rush of ad dollars and marketing resources into social media produced a fad - and fads don't last. It'd be wonderful to trust every person who recommended a surefire-make-money-now-from-home-scheme on Twitter; or to believe that every 20 year old named Bambi really wants to be your Facebook friend; or every headhunter with 20,000 LinkedIn connections just found a great career opportunity for you.

To see the ridiculousness of this statistic, you merely need to see if the converse is true. Ask local businesses, many of whom get 80+% of their new customers from referrals, if they are now getting close to half of that.

Bottom line - social media is another media. It can never fabricate trust. And it will never create friends - even though, when used well, it can help you build relationships.

And relationships is where the trust is - and will stay.

Graphic from AdAge

Curves Like This You Don't See Every Day

2010-01-08T10:34:00.005-05:00

Excerpted from eMarketer Digital Intelligence 1/8/2010

Marketing, Not Ads, Fuels Social Spending Growth

Focus on word-of-mouth and earned media

Going social is no longer an experiment for marketers; it is a reality.

Marketers spent $800 million in 2009 on social network, word-of-mouth and conversational marketing, up more than 23% over the previous year. Further growth of 35% is expected for 2010 to more than $1 billion.

“In 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of marketers’ expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales,” wrote eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson in the report, “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook.” “Paid advertising will serve to drive traffic and engagement with the larger social network presence.”

My Take

Good old fashioned WOM and social media - two great phenomenons that go great together.

Marketers are planning to spend more and more on getting word-of-mouth to happen. Let's flip the problem around. How about creating a Web infrastructure that facilitates the WOM that's already occurring naturally and normally?

Seems like the simplest solution.

2010: A Year Closer to the Social Economy

2009-12-31T13:31:00.007-05:00

No predictions here. Just an observation instigated by a recent chat with a prospective investor.

He expressed concerns about YouGottaCall.com's ability to scale to a nationwide presence. The reason for his concern? He cited that the businesses we serve (small businesses and independent contractors) tend to be fragmented and difficult to reach.

Here's the irony - the Web actually makes it easier to reach and to help the small and disparate businesses we're targeting. With User Generated Content (UGC), our scalability will be limited by our software design, not by fixed costs of distribution.

With this in mind, I pointed out:

"We have all seen massive amounts of search move from traditional media to the Web in a relatively short time. The social Web is now a main driver of Web traffic, and we envision that people will naturally adopt the use of social media for finding and sharing word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals.

"As the social economy unfolds, those businesses enjoying the greatest trust will accrue the greatest benefits from WOM. As they benefit, they will be able to eschew traditional, expensive advertising and elect to reward their network responsible for their WOM sales growth. Our vision is to support this.

"True - YouGottaCall.com is targeting the "long tail" of advertisers - those millions of businesses operating locally who already get most of their sales via WOM. And yes - the marketplace is fragmented. However other sites that offer unique value such as Craigslist and Facebook have established themselves in this space and shown what's possible."

People know what they want - high quality, highly filtered information. Having tasted this and the other benefits of social networks, 2010 will see people continuing to demand sites with more and more social functionality. As the Web is used more and more for economic transactions, these transactions will become more tied into our real, local networks of neighbors, co-workers and trusted service providers - as well as into our Web-based social networks.

It's a safe bet to say: The way millions of service businesses, merchants, professionals and contractors will interact with their local customers (& vice versa) in the future will look more and more like YouGottaCall.com.

Dan Zarrella's 2010 Perspective

2009-12-25T20:07:00.016-05:00

Excerpted from:
My Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2010
Posted on Dec 23rd, 2009

IRL
One of the most powerful potentials of social media is for it to not only connect people online, but facilitate connections offline as well. 2010 will see an increase in location aware apps and games that blur the line between the web and the real world with technologies like Four Square and augmented reality. Driving this will be continued interest in and improvement of mobile web technologies like smart phones and net books. The real world be important again.

Micro-Targeting and Personalization
Every one actively engaging in social networking is sharing a ton of data about themselves and in 2010 companies will leverage this information in increasingly sophisticated ways. Micro-targeting and personalization will take advantage of information on individual people to deliver highly customized messaging and content to small and smaller segments. Opinion mining technologies will begin to mature, allowing researchers to utilize the entire social web as a global focus group for any brand, product, service or idea.

Small Business Social Media Marketing
In 2010 small businesses will continue to realize the high bang-to-buck ratio of social media marketing and will get into it like never before. Social media is a great equalizer in that it allows small companies to compete more effectively with large ones. They’ll take a strong do-it-yourself stance and will demand accountability and effective analytics.

My Take
These are logical forward steps for small businesses to connect online to offline conversations, relationships and transactions. The infrastructure is in place - as more consumers begin to power "real" word-of-mouth with online tools SMB stand to benefit from exponential yields in qualified referrals and new business.

Google Again Antes Up to Buy Into the SoLo(Mo) Space

2009-12-20T08:10:00.005-05:00

Will Google Purchase Yelp To Create Its Own Foursquare?

Excerpted from article by Ron Callari

Rumors are that Google is closing in on a potential acquisition of Yelp.According to a TechCrunch report, Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, and while the deal isn't complete, the price tag is suspected to be as high as $500 million.

Why would the Search Engine Giant consider such a move? Might a small savvy start-up like Foursquare be in its cross-hairs?

The next shiny thing on the social network horizon for 2010 is location-based social networks. Foursquare, often described as the next Twitter may also be considered Yelp on Steroids. It not only can surface restaurant reviews, it can accomplish that feat in real time while the user is in transit, and it canreward that same user with discounts and incentives once they get to said destination.

Latitude is Google's own location based social network. Introduced this past February, the opt-in feature lets smartphone and laptop users share their location with friends and allows those friends to share their locations in return. Although not pinpoint accurate, Latitude can display your general location based on information from GPS satellites and cell towers.

Yelp founded in 2004 by two former PayPayl employees was one of the first local review sites for restaurants and bars to appear on the Web. Covering every state in the US, users write and read reviews about anything from their favorite hole in the wall restaurant to the finest midtown Manhattan club. It also offers social networking features, that allows for adding friends, group events, forums and instant messaging.

Foursquare has some unique game-like features built into its API. For instance, becoming a "Mayo r" of an establishment (bar, restaurant, nightclub, etc.) is a relatively simple process.

Combining Latitude with Yelp could potentially create a super-sized location-based social network capable of running circles around Foursquare (no pun intended). Based on copious amount of venue data amassed by Yelp over the course of the last five years, plus Google's search engine prowess in local search, coupled with their newly acquired real-time search feeds from Twitter and Facebook, the acquisition makes all the sense in the world.

Location-based marketing is the last remaining online advertising markets for Google. Over the course of 2009, it has clearly shown an interest in combining Latitude, Google Maps, search results, and advertising technology.

The Google-Yelp alchemy is like adding one plus one and ending up with three. The combined synergy of the two entities could far surpass what the start-up Foursquare can offer at this point in time. With less than a year under its belt, Foursquare's been able to accomplish remarkable things -- however the Google-Yelp deal could easily replicate the Foursquare model and take the concept to its next level -- in a fraction of the time.

It will be interesting to see in the months to come, who's "local" acumen gains the most "local" cred! (me, personally, I'm rooting for the little guy!)

(Read full article.)

My Take

Compete with FourSquare?

Google bought Dodgeball - created by the founder of FourSquare (http://bit.ly/4oKbjC) over four years ago. Why didn't Google cultivate Dodgeball into a robust product?

Instead Dodgeball's founders went off and created FourSquare in the same footprint of Dodgeball. Now Google's contemplating buying Yelp to compete with a service that they had previously squandered?

Is Google showing a lack of creative vision & initiative? Seller beware.

Getting Local/Social "Right"

2009-12-16T09:34:00.007-05:00

Excerpted from AlikeList: An IYP for the ‘Twitter Era’

By Greg Sterling

Late last week I got a tour of new site AlikeList, yet another competitor to enter the local consumer destination game. The folks behind the site, who include Jim Delli Santi (once of SBC yellow pages and later Yahoo!) and now Mark Law (most recently of MapQuest but before that Yahoo!), have built something that sits right at the nexus of “local” and “social.”

Jim Delli Santi told me that his revelation was that local was fundamentally about “people and relationships” and not technology. Nothing here exactly is new but they’ve put all the pieces together in a very compelling way — at least I think so.

Many local competitors have tried to add a “friends filter” to local sites, either on their own destination sites (e.g., GoodRec) or as an app on Facebook or by incorporating Facebook Connect (e.g.,Citysearch). But AlikeList does this in a more “organic” and elegant way.

Interestingly, AlikeList can be used as a “memory aid” or “to-do list” of sorts. The “try” list functionality is very interesting: these are businesses that I want to remember for the future, that other people have recommend.

...No feature here is unique or particularly new. But the way these guys have conceived and put the site together is very strong and the totality does amount to something new.

I would encourage others to take a close look at what they’ve done. This is a site that has a lot going on, yet consumers can “get” it quickly and there are low barriers to participation. Oh . . . and they just got $5 million from Syncom Venture Partners.

My Take

ALikeList looks great and easy to use. It also offers SMBs with an online CRM which is valuable.

But since

a). recommendations occur offline as well as online

b). they are based on trust;

c). trust is found in relationships; and

d). the social Web is all about relationships, their approach leaves me with obvious questions.

Is AlikeList built on the foundation of members’ social graphs? Or, like on other “Web 2.0″ local search sites, are relationships treated more like an “add-on” than the starting point?

Can ALikeList capture & facilitate "offline" as well as "online"? Maybe their mobile app will facilitate this.

They may be onto something big if they get it right.

- - Tim

About Greg Sterling - Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence (SMI), a consulting and research firm focused on the Internet’s influence on offline consumer purchase behavior. He also is a Senior Analyst for Internet2Go, an advisory service from Opus Research tracking the evolution of the mobile Internet.

Before SMI, Sterling ran The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media program. Prior to The Kelsey Group, Sterling was at TechTV where he helped produce “Working the Web,” a national television show on e-business and the Internet. Before that he was a founding editor and executive producer at AllBusiness.com. And prior to joining AllBusiness, Sterling was a practicing attorney in San Francisco.

Your Social Media ROI

2009-12-08T09:44:00.003-05:00

Starting with 'the end' in mind is always good advice. And 'the end' for all business people is a favorable return.

Kathy Hokunson of SiteSeeker lays out a clear and complete primer for anyone considering the use of social media in their business. Follow Kathy on Twitter - http://twitter.com/katiehoke:

When I start discussing work with my friends and family and they discover what I do, the conversation always turns to social media and people start to challenge me. I get questions like: “You spend time on Twitter? Really? Why?” and “Isn’t it a complete waste of time?” or “How do you know it’s worth it?” When I start to explain why I am fully engaged with Social Media and what has occurred because of it, they really start to listen. So I decided to share my ROI; what I consider to be the top 10 things that have happened to me as a result of twitter.

1) People. Friendships and business connections. Through Tweetups or Tweetcrawls (where local twitter people gather together to network, IRL) I have met some awesome people, incredible professionals, and gained a strong respect for the community of peers I interact with.

2) New Places. Through my husband’s (@ScottHokunson) Horticulture twitter community we went on a Tweetup to the Innisfree Gardens in Millbrook, NY. It was a beautiful place and I met incredibly talented horticulture and garden people.

3) Business. Business opportunities have been referred to me by people I met through twitter and Tweetups. Yes BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES!!

4) Education. Keeping ahead of my industry. By engaging with those I follow and following those who lead this industry, I have been lead to information and resources that otherwise may have never fallen in my lap. It has helped me to be a stronger and better professional for my clients.

5) Resources. I have developed resources to which I can refer my clients when what they need is outside of my scope of services.

6) Promotion. The ability to effectively promote my events and drive traffic to them. We have had better attended seminars and webinars because of our use of Social Media.

7) Growth. 10 months ago Site-Seeker, Inc. was a company that was completely unknown in the Connecticut / Massachusetts market - no revenue and no clients. We are now a known competitor with a strong reputation, a significant account base, and solid revenue and we utilized social media to help introduce ourselves here.

8) Community Service. Fundraising has been undertaken on a whole new level. Suzi Craig and Lisa Davenport put together a significant fundraiser for Operation Home for the Holidays in under three weeks. With the participation and support of local celebrities – Ann Nyberg & Damon Scott and the twitter community, their one day event raised 12,000 to help bring home CT National Guard troops for this coming holiday break. It was thrilling to be a part of such an incredible event and to be of service to our community.

9) Services. I was in need of a new head shot and avatar. Thanks to Seshu and my interaction with him on twitter, I finally had that done. It was an awesome experience to work with such a professional photographer and it has added a new level of professionalism to my social media profiles and my events pages for our seminars and webinars. (By the way, if you need a good photographer check out @picseshu !)

10) People. Okay I know this is a repeat but you always start and finish with the best. Truly the best part of social media is the people you meet and interact with, and the caliber of these people is top notch - and yes you really do interact both in cyperspace and IRL (in real life).

When people challenge me about the time I am “wasting” on social media, it is easy to show them how it is one of the best uses of time today to promote your company and your brand, to develop authority and become a trusted name in your industry. To me, the ROI is easy to measure.

So, what is on your top 10 social media list?

My Take

Great points, Kathy.

Twitter IS people - real people you can find and connect with.

The coolest thing about this, IMO, is the direct access you can quickly and easily establish with industry and thought leaders.

Social media knocks down walls.

Spread the Holiday Cheer!

2009-12-05T09:23:00.008-05:00

A consumer tip for your busy shopping season: Word-of-mouth is your best source for value and trustworthy products and services. It's also the most effective form of advertising for merchants and service providers.

Word-of-mouth starts with your trusted relationships -not randomly or in a vacuum.

So why do Web-based “local” search sites ignore your relationships? How come you cannot start with your network of friends to locate the service providers they trust?

This is where YouGottaCall.com begins - in the trusted conversation between you and a neighbor or co-worker when someone says, “You gotta call ...”

Powered by the Web, YouGottaCall.com makes word-of-mouth more effective at helping you find and refer trusted businesses. And it does good, too.

So spread the holiday cheer along with the good news that YouGottaCall.com can raise money for your favorite charity each time you use it. When talking with friends about snow removal, chiropractors, insurance agents – or even the weather – remember to mention YouGottaCall.com. (And please share this on your Facebook wall! :-)

Good referrals. Doing good.

- - Tim

Web 2.0 Start-ups Continue to Emerge in the Local Space

2009-11-26T10:35:00.008-05:00

Excerpted from Jason Kincaid's 11/25/09 TechCrunch.com article

Last month we saw the launch of TechCrunch50 winner RedBeacon, the startup that lets you book local service providers directly from the web. Today it's getting some strong competition from a new startup called Thumbtack, a local service booking engine that's looking to offer both a comprehensive directory of providers and a greater degree of trust than you can find elsewhere.

Featurewise, Thumbtack is a mix between RedBeacon, Yelp, and OpenTable. Like RedBeacon, it lets you sign onto the site and issue a request for a service, which service providers can then bid on. But Thumbtack also offers provider profiles, where these providers can list some of their specialties and price points. There's also a section where you can book a service directly from a profile page as you would on OpenTable, complete with an availability calendar.

One of the biggest issues with local services like Thumbtack is the chicken-and-the-egg problem. These sites generally launch with a relatively small number of services, which means that users can have a hard time finding what they need (and without users, providers have little incentive to join the site).

If a service provider is licensed they can post that in their profile, which Thumbtack will verify for free. Thumbtack is also giving providers a handful of premium verification options. Providers who successfully pass these checks are rewarded with badges on their profile pages, giving users more confidence in their service.

Thumbtack is offering its service nationwide beginning today, but as with RedBeacon their primary focus is the Bay Area, with plans to expand down the road.

Thumbtack is doing a lot of things right with its site - I particularly like the idea of having providers verified through background checks, which helps differentiate it from sites like Angie's List, Craigslist, and RedBeacon (which lets providers display their licenses but doesn't do background checks). That said, Thumbtack faces the same challenges that RedBeacon will have. For one, it's going to have to train users to turn to their computers rather than their yellow pages for these local services. And while 10,000 businesses is a good start, it's going to take a long time for the service to build up a robust community of users and reviews. The background checks are a nice touch, but they don't do much for helping users discern which providers offer a high quality service.

For another service that's taking a different approach to matching users with trustworthy service providers, check out Workstir, which provides suggestions based on your social graph.

My Take

Jason is right on with his "chicken and egg" analogy. Networks need critical mass to get traction - and traction to achieve critical mass.

The name brand, free social & local sites (CraigsList, Facebook, MySpace) have driven this process by offering unique value and exciting their users. AngiesList, in a slightly different category, charges consumers to subscribe and seems to be spending quite a bit on advertising. It does not appear to be built on a social foundation, so not sure if it's truly "Web 2.0".

Sites that build their functionality around their members' social networks have the greatest chance of facilitating and leveraging genuine trust to drive commerce.

Social Media: Getting Down to Business

2009-11-23T07:39:00.004-05:00

Excerpted from "Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last" by Jason Falls

Social media purists have laid down the law and, so, to participate in social media as a business, you must do things like, “participate in the conversation,” “engage your customers,” and “talk with us not to us.”

I’ve got news for you. In the world of business, all that talk will get you exactly nowhere. Conversations do not ring the cash register. Engagement does not sell more product. Talking with people just means you have to take time to listen which prevents you from spending valuable time selling more product.

I am trying to make a point all the social media evangelists out there need to grow up and face: If you don’t stop selling the fluff and start driving the bottom line, you’re going to have to go back to whatever you were doing in 2005.

I’m all for your principles. I’m a big fan of The Cluetrain’s “markets are conversations,” notion. But I can promise you a conversation never paid the damn electric bill.

Make your company blog drive search results to the keywords you want to win. Present calls to action that lead your Facebook fans to buy your product. Entice Twitter followers to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter where you can present similar calls to action for purchase.

Share your content, engage your audiences, talk your talkity talk all you want. But walk the walk, too. Move the needle. And not the UV meter on your virtual stereo, grasshopper. Move the one that makes the cha-ching sound.

My Take

Sure - businesses look to the bottom line. And if social media does not bring in revenue it will quickly be deemed a waste of time and money.

Social media is rapidly evolving. New approaches are yet to be developed that will generate measurable sales from SM relationships and online/offline word-of-mouth. Businesses that adapt will enjoy increased customer loyalty. And they will enjoy dividends as new technologies are introduced and as more purchases are influenced by social media.

The Web and Web-based commerce will only become more and more social. The social Web will impact B2B and B2C advertising by supporting trust and connectedness.

Consumers Open to Online Referrals - But Of Course...

2009-11-06T07:50:00.008-05:00

Consumers More Willing To Share Brand Info On Social Networks Than Previously Thought

Excerpted from Laurie Sullivan 11/6/2009 article

...Nearly half of people who saw a brand's name on Twitter went to a search engine to look for the product, compared with 34% on any social network. That's according to a joint study released Thursday by Performics, the marketing arm of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Nerve Center, and ROI Research, an analytics and technology firm.

Performics Marketing Senior Vice President Michael Kahn says. "Being in a social network is like going to someone's barbecue. People are talking about the experiences of their lives. The sharing experience that happens in the physical world also happens in the social."

Among survey respondents, 30% admitted to learning about a product, service or brand on a social network site. Twenty-seven percent say they remain receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions from advertisers through the sites, and 25% admit to going directly to an online retailer or ecommerce site after learning about a product or service on Facebook, Twitter or another social site.

The study found that 44% of people have recommended a product on Twitter, and 39% have discussed a product on Twitter. Facebook skewed a bit higher. Forty-six percent of respondents say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook.

"Consumers are open to asking about brands, sharing information and taking action on information they get from social networks," Kahn says.

My Take

Social media is on a fast track to be the top source of local information. Because of its power to track and mine consumers' trust levels, social media will leave other forms of advertising in the dust.

You Should Take This Style Advice From A Nerd

2009-10-22T17:10:00.006-04:00

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Trust Is The New Black
Excerpted from OnlineSpin article by Dave Morgan

Trust is the new black. I wish that I could claim credit for coining that phrase, but it was Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. Earlier this week, Craig penned an opinion piece in The Huffington Post titled " A Nerd's Take on the Future of News Media."

Craig makes the point that news media has lost its way, having squandered the trust of its consumers and having done a poor job "curating" news. With respect to trust, here is what he said and how he used his new phrase: "Trust is the new black, as I like to say. The great opportunity for news organizations is to constructively demonstrate trustworthy reporting, and to visibly do so."

With the rise of social media, the possibilities for more relationships are growing fast and exponentially. This phenomenon is turning marketers' and advertisers' worlds absolutely upside-down.

When consumers have so many different kinds of relationships with so many different people and companies and products and services and ideas, how can any, or many, of them stand out? There is only one answer now: trust.

Trust is the new black. It is too hard for most people to truly distinguish the complex and too-subtle differences of so many tangible and intangible products and services. Consumers need something else. That something else is trust. Trust is finite. Trust is generally based on experience and time. Trust is quite personal. (emphasis mine) A person's trust is something that he or she controls. While it can be won and lost, it cannot be forced or taken or imposed by recipients.

Craig might call himself an amateur when it comes to news media punditry (he does), but he's certainly not. He's right. Trust is the new black.

My Take

"Word of mouth" is all about trust. Period. That's why it's always been the ultimate form of advertising.

Social media can cut through ad clutter by harnessing this trust. As consumers adopt social media based networks to find trusted businesses, other forms of media will rapidly become obsolete.

Small & Medium Sized Businesses Begin to Harness Social Media for Advertising

2009-10-22T10:11:00.003-04:00

BIA/Kelsey Study Reports SMBs Turn to Social Media for Advertising

Excerpted from Rajani Baburajan's TMCnet article

A recent study by BIA/ Kelsey analyzes the influence of various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace in the marketing activities of SMBs today.

BIA/Kelsey found that there is growing interest among SMBs to leverage the power of social media to improve the business. About 32 percent of SMBs surveyed in the study indicated they plan to include social media in their marketing mix in the next 12 months by using a page on a social site such asFacebook, LinkedIn or MySpace.

Steve Marshall, director of research and consulting, BIA/Kelsey, said, that as local consumers increasingly gravitate to social networks, local businesses understand they need to be part of the conversation. “This opens up a market opportunity for local media companies that offer products and services that enable local advertisers to easily integrate social media into their marketing efforts,” Marshall said.

As the popularity of social media escalates among businesses as well as end users, service providers are looking towards exploiting the opportunity by offering innovative services.

My Take

This is an early, measurable appearance of the wave which will permanently alter the ad mix. As they adopt web-based social media, small businesses will be able to harness the marketing power of their social matrix. They'll be able to increasingly and economically reach customers "where they're at".

Effectively - based on referrals from trusted relationships
Instantly - communicate and transact in real time with prospective customers; &
Measurably - know their advertising ROI

This is "good stuff!"

Your Reputation Has Preceded You

2009-10-16T07:09:00.003-04:00

Your reputation has preceded you. That’s right. We’ve been talking about you.

(Published at Working From The Basement - )

And it’s not just us at WorkingFromTheBasement (WFTB). Heck – your customers, your neighbors, your fellow business owners – they’re all talking about you. As scary as this is, it can be a secret to your success.

For good or bad, word-of-mouth is unstoppable and the most powerful form of advertising. Small businesses tell us that 80% of their new clients result from referrals. And these clients are more profitable since they take less time and effort to close. They’re also more likely to result in future referral business.

Here are some hard-learned reputation marketing tips from successful CT business owners:

1. Current customers are a good place to start. Let them know you welcome referral business.

a. Ask them for referrals early and often.

- Make it a habit.

- Bring it up in conversation and during your follow-up contacts.

b. Reach out to your past customers as well as neighbors, friends. The 20% of them that give you 80% of your new clients are like gold. (See Pareto Principle, also known as the “80/20 Rule”.) You should continually stay in close touch.

- Use phone, mail, email and face-to-face

- Consider a structured rewards/loyalty program.

2. Chambers and networking groups are great. So hit the road.

a. Meet with other owners face to face at networking groups.

b. Put yourself out there – get beyond the shallow networking chat.

c. Be a hub – invite other owners to attend. Be a friend to your fellow networkers.

- You’ll be happier.

- Work will be more fun.

- And, by the way, you’ll probably have more of it.

3. Capture the buzz. Networking is great, but limiting since you can only be in one network meeting at a time.

Remember that while you’re chatting over coffee or adult beverages, your customers and neighbors are “out there” talking about you. And they’re doing this more and more on social media sites.

So multiply your efforts by connecting with your customers and your network on a social site

a. spend 15 minutes a day. Start slowly – it will get easier

b. Facebook is the most widely used social site

c. You might prefer Twitter – it compliments Facebook and makes it easy to find and follow more people you may want to connect with

d. Social media guidance is available

These steps cannot make your reputation. Your skills, enthusiasm and attention to your clients’ needs do that. But by employing these tactics you can allow your reputation to spread, increase word-of-mouth referrals and generate profitable new sales.

We need your Sidewiki feedback

2009-10-14T11:07:00.001-04:00

Our site serves the greater-Hartford, CT market. We want YouGottaCall to help charities raise funds through the word-of-mouth referrals of their local supporters.

Your suggestions and feedback is needed in order for us to improve and grow to other cities.

Thank you,

- - Tim (founder)

(P.S. Check out our blog at www.yougottacall.blogspot.com/ )

in reference to: YouGottaCall.com - Welcome (view on Google Sidewiki)

If Craigslist cost $1

2009-09-29T07:45:00.002-04:00

My Take on Seth Godin's 9/29/09 blog.

We can certainly speculate on what might happen if the cat weren't out of the bag and the genie was still in the bottle. But there is literally no going back.

The "free web" is not perfect. But neither would a "pay for everything" web. Think about the great sites we enjoy because, due to their 0 price point, many enterd, enjoyed, spread-the-word and gave the sites the traffic to thrive.

Sure - monetization is often an after thought. But the Web is still in its infancy.

As far as tightness, well, I would not be more loyal to a mediocre "pay for" site than I am to an excellent free site. So it's all about quality.

We are each committed to pursuing quality for ourselves. The creators who make sites that bring value and enrich others' lives will flourish - until some regulation comes along mandating fees.

I believe that's called a tax.

in reference to:

"If Craigslist cost $1"
- Seth's Blog: If Craigslist cost $1 (view on Google Sidewiki)

Note - this blog was composed using Google's Sidewiki (http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/index.html#tbbrand=GZEG). It's new and it's free. With Sidewiki you can remark on any Web page. Your remarks can be read by others.

It integrates with Blogspot blogs. It stores Sidewiki blogs with your profile so others may read your Sidewiki entries.

If it cost $1 I would not have tried it. Hope you like it.

- - Tim

Read This If You Want New Clients Who Are Affluent

2009-09-28T10:15:00.006-04:00

Excerpted from article by Helen Leggatt

Social media used by all demographics

Social media is influencing all kinds of consumer decisions. And now it's seeping into life's more mundane moments.

According to new research from Ad-ology, consumers' decisions on home repair services are being swayed by social media. The study also found that affluent consumers are more likely to be influenced by social media when it came to home repair services than other income groups.

It's not just the young and tech-savvy generations using social media to research purchases. People of all ages and from all walks of life are reading review sites, Tweeting about brands and using social media to make better, more informed purchase decisions.

"Some companies may be quick to dismiss social media as something that's only used by young people, and not worth their effort," said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. "In reality, social media usage is growing across all demographics and can clearly be a way to reach some very lucrative audiences," he added.

My Take

The trend continues - and it's becoming more predictable. Use of social media is increasing across all demographics. It is seeing rapid increase among the affluent. If you want educated, home-owning high earning clientele, you should connect with your customers, neighbors and friends on social media.

Social Media - Revolutionizing Major Media

2009-09-24T17:56:00.006-04:00

Excerpted from

My View On 'The New Socialism'

by Dave Morgan

The title of this year's OMMA Global was "The New Socialism" and a key focus in the sessions was the growing importance of social media and micro-blogging as a central means of online engagement -- and the role of those services in tapping the $500 billion global spend on offline brand advertising.

Online social media is growing at an extraordinary rate, already representing an extraordinary share of the total time that many consumers spend on media. Those services will become significant factors in reshaping the media and advertising landscape.

Media is changing, not shifting. Distribution, once scarce, is now plentiful. Media exposures, once scare, are now plentiful. Audience attention, once plentiful, is now scarce. These are the facts on the ground and they are changing the underlying foundation of media, not just shifting it from one channel to another.

Business models and pricing models are changing most dramatically. There are no better examples of the changing business and pricing models than newspaper classifieds and Craigslist. The former has made all participants -- sellers, advertisers, subscribers -- pay dearly, while pocketing outsized profit margins. The latter only requires a tiny fraction of the participants to pay relatively little, and still pockets outsize profit margins. Of course, the $100 million that Craigslist might generate this year is only a fraction of the billions of dollars that it displaced.

Platforms changing, too. It's not just about the PC anymore. It's becoming more and more about the person -- on mobile, on connected TV's, viewing digital out-of-home, on e-readers.

Everyone is now media. You no longer need to be CBS, The New York Times or Sports Illustrated to deliver "consumer contact" to a marketer. Everyone and anyone on Twitter, Facebook or a blog can now do that -- and millions and millions are doing that.

Results for you, me and marketers are all that matters. There is a tough road ahead for exposure-based pricing of media. Online media exposures are growing at an extraordinary rate, maybe even exponentially. The future is not about delivering "cheaper, faster" impressions. It is about delivering results -- helping people find things, helping people buy things, helping people sell things.

My Take

Social media is indeed placing more of the share of media - its mindshare and marketshare - into the hands of media consumers. As this occurs then another change will unfold.

The distribution channels of media will change. The effects won't be limited to the struggling print media outlets. Prediction - in 5 years major sports and media events will forego distribution by broadcast media in favor of straight-to-Web technology.

As this occurs, the revenue streams traditionally flowing toward major media outlets will be diverted into new channels. These channels will cut out the traditional recipients. As social media results are measurable, the revenue generated by social media can be paid directly to those producing the results.

That's revolutionary!

Word-of-Mom is the Best WOM. Here's why...

2009-09-02T13:14:00.007-04:00

Wooing Women: It's A Head Game

Excerpted from MediaPost article by Maria Reitan

A few years ago Mel Gibson starred in a successfully romantic comedy, "What Women Want." He played a hard-charging advertising executive who thought he knew what women wanted until one day he woke up, and he could hear the actual musings inside women's heads. He was stunned to discover he was way off base.

Wouldn't it be easier if marketers could just read women's minds? Women with children control $1.6 trillion in household spending. Looking at those figures, if marketers are smart they have an opportunity to "get it right" and "get the girl."

Here are some tips for getting inside the head of the home's chief purchasing officer.

1. Time crunched
Mom purchases from companies that are relevant to her multi-tasking lifestyle. Your communications to her must be multi-dimensional as well: pricing, service, messages and actions all play a role.

2. The friend factor
If you can't reach a specific type of woman directly, tapping her friend may serve the same purpose. Seventy-five percent of mothers research a product before buying it, about the same rate as men do at 74%, but 90% of women prefer brands recommended by other moms. That's nearly double the average consumer. "Word-of-mom" marketing is a significant way to make an impression that lingers all the way to the check-out aisle.

3. Technology is "queen"
Women purchase $55 billion worth of technology every year. Sixty percent prefer to be reached via the Internet, but because they are so connected, you can reach mom through a variety of mediums. If you are marketing in the technology space, you should be selling DTM (direct-to-mom).

4. The mom-stage
The cookie-cutter mom doesn't exist. Marketers who connect with women through their shared experiences based on lifestyles and lifestages, no matter what their demographic, will make their products more relevant and believable.

Be relevant. Deliver on your promises. Create some buzz. Get your message in front of mom in many places and many ways. Don't treat all women the same. Follow these tips, and like Mel Gibson's character in the movie, you too can capture her heart (and her disposable income in the process).

My Take

Staggering stats. But not very surprising. Local businesses with tight ad budgets should pay close attention to the data cited by Maria.

Tip from GasPedal to Increase Your Referral Leads

2009-09-02T06:39:00.003-04:00

Excerpted from our favorite Word-of-Mouth, best selling author Andy Sernovitz's site GasPedal

Create word of mouth by giving your customers the tools for talking

One of the best ways to get a customer talking about you is to send them off with something great that they can share. It’s all about putting the tools for talking directly in the hands of your fans.

You can try some simple stuff, like extra coupons, lots of free samples, stickers, or treats. Or, you can do what wedding photographer Lindsey Turner does and go all out by sending potential clients off with a bag full of helpful goodies

The Lesson: Think about what your talkers could use in a kit that would help them tell their family, friends, and other businesses about you — and find a way to do it like Lindsey: Relevant, helpful, and inexpensive.

(Read entire article.)

My Take

"The right tool for the right job" helps you finish your work efficiently - and with the best results.

When giving your clients a tool for word-of-mouth referrals, what better than a direct connection between their "real-life", off-line relationships and your online social Web page?

GenX Marketing Advice from Forrester Research

2009-08-28T18:53:00.002-04:00

Targeting Generation X? Try Word of Mouth

[Excerpted from 8/28/2009 Forrester Research article by Nate Elliott]

If you're a marketer targeting Gen X consumers (between 30 and 43), and you're not using social media or influence marketing, it's time to reevaluate your strategy.

This audience is surprisingly engaged with social media. They're more active than average on nearly every rung of our social technographics ladder -- especially as joiners, with 59% of Gen X consumers telling us they use social networks at least once each month. Best of all, many are using social influence to make product recommendations: 42% say they often tell friends about the products and services that interest them.

So if you want to leverage this sharing behavior to reach Gen X consumers (or any other socially active online audience, for that matter), what should you do?

Give all your customers the tools they need to share. Tools like ShareThis and AddThis make it easy to add sharing functionality to your site. And don't forget: as valuable as Twitter and Facebook can be for driving word of mouth, most people make product recommendations through private channels like e-mail and IM.
Find -- and leverage -- your brand advocates. Mine your sales database to find your most loyal and valuable customers, and run surveys to find users who think most highly of your brand and are most likely to pass the word along.
Don't forget the power of offline influence. Online influence can work wonders, but offline influence is both more common (see Figure 11) and more powerful (see page 18). Savvy marketers are using social media to organize offline events where customers can energize each other around products and brands, and to create and manage ambassador programs that extend both online and off.

My Take

Nate's practical advice and clear data is compelling.

Bottom line - if your target clients are aged 30 to 43, they're using social media to talk about you. It's a race between you and your competitors - the earlier you engage your customers and neighbors on social media there the more new sales you'll book.

SMEs' Future is Connecting With 'Fans'

2009-08-26T06:12:00.006-04:00

The Problem With 'Fans'

by Joe Marchese

Excerpted from 8/25/2009 MediaPost Blogs Follow the author on Twitter @joemarchese (www.twitter.com/joemarchese)

Fans, by definition, have raised their hand to indicate some sort of affiliation to a brand. The intent of that affiliation can vary widely, depending on the individual. Perhaps the "fan" simply wanted to tell her friends about a brand she liked, one time. Perhaps the "fan" wanted to get the coupon offered by a brand for becoming a fan. Or perhaps, and this is the one the brands want to hear, the "fan" wants to hear from and talk to the brand going forward.

Whatever the reason, an individual has opted to form a loose connection to a brand within social media. There is no doubt that this is the next generation of CRM (customer relationship management), and will be an incredibly valuable tool as brands better learn how to communicate in a social media setting -- but it is no way a complete answer to social media marketing.

Consider the number of brands the average person interacts with in his or her daily life. Now consider how many of those brands a person would be willing to become a fan of. Also, in what setting does marketing to your most loyal fans only constitute the whole of your marketing efforts?

The power of social media marketing is to reach out to people who are not already fans, outside the setting of direct communication between brands and people -- instead generating conversation between people about brands. The difference is between Nike talking to me on Facebook, versus a friend and I talking to each other about Nike on Facebook. Authenticity is found in peer-to-peer communication, not just within a core group of loyal fans, but reaching out to the community at large.

Activating this strategy will unlock significant reach and generate the ROI brands are looking for to justify social media investments (re: new customers).

People are spending more time in social media all the time. Adapting best practices to leverage fans/friends/followers is a must, and should be a major component of every social media marketing plan.

My Take

Marchese touches on several consumer trends:

Increasing tendency of consumers to affiliate with brands (substitute Small to Medium Sized Enterprises - SMEs - for the purpose of this commentary)
These fans' motivation ranges from sheer loyalty to desired connection to reward
As consumers increasingly use social media, it is an ideal place for SMEs to connect with loyal and prospective customers. In fact, adapting best practices to leverage fans/friends/followers is a "*must".

These trends are early indicators of the emerging social economy which will recognize and incorporate social media as the most valuable advertising channel. The $100B US local advertising market will increasingly shift to social media.

On A Roll... Another 25 Words...

2009-07-30T07:55:00.005-04:00

Oh, what the heck? Here's another "25 Words of Social Media Wisdom"

"20% of clients provide 80% of referrals. Each referring client is Golden Fuel - worth 16x non-referrers. So do unto them as they unto you."

Submitted to Liz Strauss' "25 Words of Social Media Wisdom" Project.

25 Words of Social Media Wisdom - Submission

2009-07-30T07:18:00.003-04:00

"Good fences make good neighbors." But small gardens.

Don’t wall yourself in. Connect with your customers and neighbors who are talking about you right now.

Submitted to Liz Strauss' "25 Words of Social Media Wisdom" Project.

Do Local Businesses Need a Social Media Strategy?

2009-07-29T13:31:00.006-04:00

They do if they want to grow like crazy!

Business finds success through social networking

Play video

(Excerpted from 7/28/2009 NECN report by Peter Howe) - Louis E. Page Inc. , a 116-year-old Massachusetts company is proving to be a raging success story for how to use social networking and other online tools to increase sales and sales leads.

The company supplemented its mailed-out catalog and ads in specialty magazines with a website about five years ago, but the big breakthrough came last December, when Duncan Page added a blog that he calls The Fence Post.

Since then, he has had an 850 percent increase in sales leads.

One article Duncan wrote was about how to use something called woven wire fencing to build a horse paddock. Guess how many people have downloaded it? More than 1,500.

Page said his typical blog post is "just an article about the products. We don't say you should buy this from us. We don't really refer to ourselves at all. It's really important to the whole marketing effort to blog and sort of become known as an authority and a trusted authority on what you're selling.''

"One of the things I've learned is that it really works,'' Page said. As Louis Page & Co. enters its 117th year, the namesake's grandson's looking ahead ... to video blogging. "I would like to get into video, is one thing, because that's very effective to be able to actually show somebody rather than have to write and describe it with words.''

My Take

What a perfect illustration of a trusted, established business using social media to leverage its reputation and its profile among its customers and prospective customers.

"I washed my windows and I liked it?!" - Guest Editorial

2009-07-21T16:23:00.004-04:00

Linda Pulford, owner of New Hartford-based Farmington Valley Organizing offers this great motivational piece in today's FVO newsletter.

I hate to wash windows! I have 47 of them and I usually just get streaks. I always put window washing on my gift wish list. But, it never materializes.

So, after pollen season passed, I had no excuse. Why couldn't I get it done? It was too big and overwhelming a chore. So, I had to work really hard at getting started. First I thought I would just do the insides. Still, too many windows. Then I thought about just doing the downstairs (29). Still too many. Then I thought, maybe just the insides of the kitchen windows (5). OK, deal.

I sometimes tell my clients to put on music they love to help energize them for a task. I needed all the energizing I could get, so I put on a Doo Wop CD.

I had tried the newspaper tip before with streaky results. But, just heard the ladies from "How Clean is Your House?" say the papers must be at least 2 days old to work. Who knew? I used some old newspapers and window cleaner and it worked great! The rough papers took the film off the windows quicker than a soft cloth. After I cleaned them with newsprint, I just ran a clean
paper towel into the corners.

I was having such success, I kept going... All the insides of the downstairs windows (29). The music played a big part. It's hard to have a bad time while listening to "I love a girl named ramma lamma lamma lamma lamma ding dong!"

What does this have to do with organizing?

One reason you are not getting organized is because the task is too big and overwhelming. Whatever it is, breaking it down into a very small piece will work.

* If it's the office, just start with one small part of your desk.

* If it's a pile of papers, just start with one inch.

* If it's a storage room, just start with one square foot.

Get the idea? It works. And don't forget the music!

Linda has been a YouGottaCall.com Member & Trusted Service Provider since March 2008. She was the first TSP to gain a new client by a YouGottaCall.com Member referral. Please visit FVO's YouGottaCall.com page - or you may reach Linda at 860-558-1747.

My Take on "Does Facebook local ad biz help advertisers?

2009-07-17T13:01:00.003-04:00

Adotas may be missing the bigger picture when it comes to pronouncing Facebook ads a waste of money for small businesses.

Excerpted from "Facebook soaks up local ad biz, does it help the advertisers?" (July 17, 2009):

"74 percent of Facebook's ad revenues is from local businesses, according to Borrell. What are advertisers getting for this? Facebook’s best bet is as a portable data warehouse as advertisers ask for targeted buys, but considering the far flung nature of social networks, it seems wasted money for local businesses."

My Take

"considering the far flung nature of social networks, it seems wasted money for local businesses."

Far flung - perhaps. But local too. As more 30-60 year olds get onto Facebook - which they're doing - their local neighbors, friends, and trusted businesses will be on as well.

Local businesses get most of their business from word-of-mouth now. The local ad market, estimated at $100B, is primed to mine the communal knowledge of trusted local relationships.

Watch Your Eyes - Does Social Media Lower Our Guard Against Ad Overexposure?

2009-07-16T09:02:00.008-04:00

Excerpted from 7/16/2009 MediaPost article"Eye Tracking Study Reveals Search Going Social"

Marketers face the constant challenge of keeping up with and understanding consumer search behavior. An eye tracking study conducted by Oneupweb on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by a digital marketing company reveals trends about the way people interact with paid ads in social media sites.

Oneupweb found that not only do people spend time viewing paid ads on social networks, but they often looked at the ads more quickly once they landed on the search results page. For example:
- 65% of participants engage with sponsored ads within the first 10 seconds of their search.
- survey participants revealed they log into Facebook

29% several times daily
39% every day
17% weekly
17% less than 3 times per month.

Contrary to expected behavior, the participants viewed the sponsored ads prior to viewing the second and third results. The Oneupweb study indicates similar behavior was observed throughout the YouTube search.

The study conducted with 25 survey participants was done from late June through early July.

My Take

Users of social media sites exhibit more interest in ads on social sites than non-social sites. Sponsored ads are viewed at a higher than expected rate, demonstrating that social media users are more open to being influenced by advertising they know is paid for.

Although paid-for advertising does not take full advantage of the crowd-wisdom potential of social media, this study indicates that social media users are more ready to be influenced, perhaps as a result of their elevated trust levels for social media content.

Seth Godin's 3:1 and 1:5 Principles

2009-07-15T09:37:00.008-04:00

Excerpted from Seth Godin's Blog "Gotcha" (7/15/2009)

"There are lots of things you can do to make the sale. They often are precisely the opposite of what you should do to generate word of mouth. I know, you can't have word of mouth unless you have a sale, but a sale that leads to pain is hardly worth it.

"My rule of thumb is this: every person you turn away because your product or service isn't right for them turns into three great customers down the road. Every bad sale costs you five."

My Take

Acquiring the right customers is the key to your profitability.

Success breeds success. Happy customers result in more happy customers.

So stop spending your time hunting for bad customers via expensive, traditional advertising. Use your network of satisfied customers and friends as a "Connection Engine"(tm) to find - and be found by a better clientele that provides a recurring source of qualified referrals.

Local Ads Moving to Social Networks

2009-07-14T13:02:00.005-04:00

Excerpted from Borrell & Associates blog:

- Nearly 20% of all ad spending is by local businesses.
- Local advertisers will account for about $641 million of nearly $3.3 billion this year trying to reach consumers via these sites.
- Total is less than 3% of all locally spent online advertising.
- 57% of all that local social-networking advertising is going to two sites, Facebook and MySpace.
- These are the only two sites generating more than $100 million from local advertising placement. This relatively small amount may not seem like much, but the swift growth of these networks appears to be causing a corresponding upswing in local ad placement.
- Keep an eye on Facebook. It is the biggest share-getter. In fact, 74% of its ad revenues are from local businesses.

My Take

OK - I "get" that local businesses are buying Web 1.0 banner ads on Web 2.0 social sites. And hey, if it works, why not?

But soon the advertising will be the network, not just a banner. The word-of-mouth that occurs in actual relationships will be harnessed to benefit not only trusted businesses, but consumers and their communities as well.

Word of Mouth Tops All Other Media

2009-07-09T08:00:00.010-04:00

Excerpted from World Advertising Research Center's 7/9/2009 article
"Word-of-Mouth Works for Consumers"

Based on a survey of 25,000 adults in 50 countries, Nielsen research finds online and offline word-of-mouth are regarded as being the "most trusted forms of advertising."

90% of consumers around the world trust recommendations from people they know when discussing brands

70% accord the same status to online consumer reviews

According to Jonathan Carson, international online president of The Nielsen Company, the "explosion in consumer-generated media" means the importance of word-of-mouth "has increased significantly."

My Take

With the growth of social networking sites and the dominance of social media usage, the Web-inization of local word-of-mouth is inevitable. If consumers begin sharing trusted word-of-mouth referrals it at a rate similar to their adoption of social media, it will tip the $100 billion US local ad market.

About YouGottaCall.com

YouGottaCall.com is a local and Web-based (Web 2.0) social network that provides businesses with a means for connecting with their customers and neighbors encouraging more word-of-mouth sales leads rewarding their network of referrers

The purpose of YouGottaCall.com is three-fold:
1. to facilitate “word-of-mouth” referrals among consumers for the local businesses they trust
2. to increase sales revenues for trustworthy businesses
3. to benefit the not-for-profit organizations that are supported by the network members

Membership in the YouGottaCall.com network is free.

The mission of YouGottaCall.com is “Rewarding the community by empowering trusted relationships.”

The goal of the YouGottaCall.com is to “turn local advertising upside down and inside out”. “Upside down” because businesses only pay for advertising after it has been effective – not before. “Inside out” because businesses pay the advertising fee to their neighbors and satisfied customers who brought them the qualified sales lead – not to a third party publisher.

Related Web-based Services:
No other services offer the combination of social, local, affiliate, not-for-profit features which comprise YouGottaCall.com's process. (see chart)

My Take: Mark Cuban and "Free" vs. "Better than free"

2009-07-04T12:36:00.003-04:00

In his June 30 blog article, "Free vs Freely Distribute, Mark Cuban dives into the debate stirred by Chris Anderson's new book about the Web, "Free".

Consequent and perhaps ancillary to the "Free" argument is the question, "Exactly what is 'Better than free'?" - a trademark of YouGottaCall since 2007. No - I'm not claiming trademark infringement - rather pointing out an important distinction which will become more clear as the Web evolves.

Mark describes that Web content such as YouTube and news articles are "better than free". My comments to Mark:

I’ll argue it’s “better than free” if you either directly save money that you would have spent or else (even better) receive money.

The examples you give (Youtube, magazine articles, newspapers reports, TV shows on Hulu) don’t do either. Do they? In most cases they’re “just free”.

I’m quibbling over your wording to illustrate an important point. While the Web provides a flood of media that we browse for free and Web 2.0 brings us user generated content, also also available for free, the future Web will provide new opportunities in a social economy that actually provide cash – and are really “better than free”.

When on the social Web I am paid for my affiliation with the businesses I trust or can earn money for my favorite charity through my Web-based or Web-facilitated transactions then I’ll agree that it’s “Better than free.”

“There’s value in them thar relationships”,

– - Tim

Fences Make Small Gardens

2009-07-02T08:08:00.008-04:00

According to Robert Frost, "Good fences make good neighbors." Business owners may add, "But they make for small gardens."

Growing your word-of-mouth referrals takes hard work. It's like tending a garden, needing constant time and attention, weeding, pruning, watering and feeding.

But in the midst of your networking, business card collecting and after-hours socials with fellow business people don't wall yourself into a small garden.

Your customers and neighbors - the people who like you and are talking about you right now - are a much bigger garden than your fellow networkers.

Your referrals naturally come from satisfied clients and people who trust you. So take down the garden wall separating you from your bigger opportunity. Social media provides small business owners with new tools allowing you to connect your business networking efforts with your existing network of fans.

The result - a growing source of recurring, qualified referrals.

A Look into "The Entrepreneurial Mind" of Prof. Jeff Cornwall

2009-06-18T08:42:00.011-04:00

Using Referrals for Word of Mouth

Excerpted from Jeff Cornwall's June 18, 2009 blog

Word of mouth never just happens. Although it is a great way to bootstrap your marketing efforts, it does take, well, some effort.

1. Ask! Don't be afraid to be direct about asking for referrals. A great technique is to view every client you work with as though your sole purpose is to get a referral.
2. Create a referral program -- Offer service credits as an incentive to your clients who send you new business.
3. Spread the word by sending a description of your referral program to all of your satisfied clients.
4. A few other dos and don'ts:

Don't ask for a referral when presenting a bill.
When asking for a referral, also ask for a testimonial from the client. It's great for websites!
Ask people who perform complementary services to you for referrals. (i.e. If you are a contractor, why not ask an electrician or plumber who may be on the same site?)
Have some type of printed marketing material handy to provide clients with that describes everything you do-- and give them a few copies to spread around

My Take

Prof. Cornwall provides some refreshingly practical WOM tips. Business owners and sales representatives need constant reminders about these, because, while appearing simple they are constantly overlooked.

With growing usage of Web-based social networks it seems natural that businesses will use them as a medium to engage customers, ask for referrals and provide word-of-mouth tools - and even rewards - for their clients use.

Fueling Your Connection Engine

2009-06-12T08:49:00.011-04:00

The "Golden Fuel"^TM Rule

In business, "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a way to maximize customer satisfaction and generate word-of-mouth referrals - the best type of advertising.

Applying the Pareto Principle, if 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients, then each referring client is worth 16 times more in lifetime value than the clients who do not refer.

Let that sink in - your referring customers are worth sixteen times more to you than your one-hit clients. And this does not even consider that your paid advertising had no effect on bringing you these clients who account for 80% of your sales.

So most of your advertising has zero effect on most of your new sales? Wow - that's enough to make you scratch your head.

These top referring clients are a business's "Golden Fuel" for revenue growth. And by following "The Golden Fuel Rule" they can contribute more and more to your bottom line each year. The Rule is "Do unto your top referring clients 16 times more than your other clientele."

How does a smart businesses implement their "Golden Fuel" strategy? Here are the elements:
- Find these Golden Fuel customers - identify which clients are regular referrers of business
- Communicate with them - stay close with them through regular mail or e-mail communiques. Use your Web site for this.
- Give them more reasons - as well as a means - to refer their friends. Your goal should be to create a new 16X client with each new customer
- Reward them - use your imagination to give incentives or meaningful, if inexpensive gifts to your top referrers. These go a long way to show your appreciation and keep you on the front of their minds.
- Keep them satisfied - your top level service is how you established your reputation in the first place.

Disclaimer: I am the founder of a local/social media site that provides a means of rapidly deploying a "Golden Fuel" strategy for free. YouGottaCall, in our central Connecticut test market, has hundreds of local members and businesses. We're developing integration with leading social sites as well as advanced reporting features prior to release to other markets.

Until we're available in your locale, there are practical ways to implement your "Golden Fuel" strategy. Help is on the way!

- - Tim

My Take on Thomas Baekdal's "Is Social Taking Over Google?"

2009-06-09T07:01:00.010-04:00

Some articles need to be read in their entirety - excerpting just cuts out too much good stuff.

You gotta read Thomas' entire article, "Is Social Taking over Google?"

I am only including snippets and graphics here to tantalize you.

On baekdal.com:

in 2005, Google and the other search engines accounted for 65%.
today Google has dropped to 2%***.

Note: *** Normal search via Google.com. Search engines variations e.g. image search, language search, and other search engines - still totals 15%

Traffic vs. Influence

You need to forget about measuring traffic. It's inaccurate and it's irrelevant. Instead you need to measure ‘influence'. How many people have you really connected to today? How many people chose to make you a part of their stream? How many people decided to come back another time? That is your new ‘how many are there' statistics. Not people but Influence!

Referrer vs. communication

You need to look at all the times people are referring to you as person, your company, product, content, website, and your social profiles. And you should not look at where people are coming from, but instead what they are doing. What they are talking about, what they are sharing, and who is subscribing to it.

Reaction

But what you really need to do is to look at how people are reacting to your content (or you as a person). The point of this is to discover how people are responding

My Take

Again, please read Thomas' original article. This is a concise, data rich presentation of a trend foreseen in 2007 by Robert Scoble (Twitter: @scobleizer) in his "Why Mahalo, TechMeme, and Facebook are going to kick Google’s butt in four years" video series.

My Take on "Trust Word-of-Mouth" by eMarketer Digital Intelligence

2009-06-09T06:17:00.003-04:00

From June 8, 2009 article in eMarketer Digital Intelligence

Look who’s talking

In a poll of chief marketing officers from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA), the top overall customer priority named was service excellence, followed by building a trusting relationship.

Unfortunately, building trust can be difficult.

A 2007 Myers Publishing study found only 17% of people trusted advertisers. And things got worse in 2008, when respondents to a Gallup poll said that only 10% of ad practitioners were trustworthy.

According to BIGresearch, however, word-of-mouth recommendations have different effects depending on the type of purchase.

Over one-half of consumers believed that word-of-mouth influenced the restaurants they went to. Slightly more than one-third felt word-of-mouth had some impact on home improvement purchases.

Leveraging word-of-mouth marketing initiatives might matter more to some retailers and product sellers than to others—but whether to a greater or lesser extent, word-of-mouth matters, always.

My Take

"Unfortunately, building trust can be difficult." That's the power of word-of-mouth - the trust is already there.

WOM is a powerful and growing consumer force. Social media is an effective facilitator of WOM because it uses the Web to help consumers cut through advertising clutter and connect with trusted businesses.

BIGResearch's findings re: the percentage of consumers who use WOM looks off. It's difficult to compare the purchase of groceries to the hiring of a home repair contractor - the costs and the frequency of use are on completely different scales.

I doubt grocery shoppers vary supermarkets each week based on what their friends say. It'd be a stretch to accept that 40.7% of the items they place in their carts is due to a word-of-mouth referral.

Whereas our members tells us they hire 8 out of 10 of their home repair contractors based on recommendation of friends and neighbors. Most contractors rely on WOM for their business's survival and 80% of their revenues.

Placing dissimilar categories next to each other in such a summarized table merits a note on the survey methodology.

Getting Social - Good Tips for Busy Business Owners

2009-06-07T19:57:00.005-04:00

Why Your Potential Customers Want To See You Social Networking

Excerpted from Noah Weiner's blog "Web New Point 0"

It’s a burning question on small, medium, and large business minds while considering getting started with Social Media:What use can my company make out of Social Networking?

Before rolling down that slippery slope, take a breath. It ... deserves answers about what you want to get out of Social Media in the first place. But that might lead you to an easier answer if you turn it on your audience: What does my marketplace want out of Social Media?

That answer is easy. They want useful information. Far more than looking for someone to spend money with, your audience uses social media to gain and share in information, insight, and the exchange of topic-specific content. Give your audience some useful content.

When it comes to getting started down the path of sharing your industry specific knowledge as a resource with your potential customers, you might find that a traditional blog becomes the simplest way for you to step into the Social Media mix.

Do you know your space? Are you passionate about your industry? Do you find yourself in a position to educate and enlighten people curious about the subject matter you know? You’re ready to blog. From your reader’s perspective, a blog is nothing more than a rich source of topic-specific information, followed very much like a magazine subscription.

It doesn’t matter how narrowly focused your subject matter is (in fact, often the more narrow the better), even if there’s only a small population of interested readers out there, they are your population. This can be an ideal entrance into the space of Social Networking.

Write topic-specific content about what you know. Share some of your passion. Forget the marketing message. Be valued for the information you are willing to share. That’s what builds a solid audience of followers in Social Media. You have to be willing to do social media activities as much for the sake of others as you might think you are doing it for yourself.

Setting up a blog can be completely free. I just encourage you to do it. Without going down a path that could unravel into days of discussion, here are a few quick guidelines to getting started:

1: Plan out some topics to write about before you get started.

2: Write some posts before launching the blog.

3: Don’t stop blogging. There is only one thing worse than not having a blog, and that’s starting one and letting it die. And this rule applies in all areas of Social Networking.

You can learn as you go. It really need not become an all consuming effort. The rewards in Social Networking come from *doing* good Social Networking in the first place.

My Take

Compelling case and great tips for the busy business owner who feels challenged by the complexity of venturing into a new marketing arena.

Local Business Owners Face More Marketing Choices

2009-06-07T17:57:00.006-04:00

Bringing your local business online - Part 1: Why?

Excerpted from June 1, 2009 Omaha Internet Examiner by Leslie Clark

The local search space has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past few years as consumers have moved online to find everything from a plumber to a new home. As stated in a SBI+M post, 54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books.

I know many local based, brick-and-mortar businesses that are well aware of the fact that they need to move their marketing efforts online - but don't know where to start. Back in the day, you worked with sales and account representatives for buying media and producing new creative for your yellow page, radio, newspaper, direct mail, and (if you were lucky) TV ads.

Now we are in age where social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn rule. Tangles of confusing suggestions on how to use AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and adCenter choke forums, blogs, and marketing sites. Online webinars and podcasts give detailed information on how to get useful data and metrics from Google Analytics accounts.

First, you are not alone. Many SMB owners and marketers are not only confused, but very hesitant of putting dollars into a marketing channel they know nothing about. Second, you don't have to do everything. Third, you don't have to do it all at once.

So where do I start? The answer is easy, it is the core of your web presence, your first impression to your potential customers - your website. Not as simple as it sounds, and that is why we are going to cover the website creation process in-depth in my next article - Part 2: The core of your online presence.

My Take

Good summary of the challenges facing small, local business owners as they face confusing new advertising choices.

The stats Clark cites are powerful and indisputable. It is revealing that advertising publishing firms, now in bankruptcy, may still be in denial of their desparate situation.

Consumers are changing the tools they use. Local businesses - and the advertising media that dominated for the past 5 decades - need to adapt.

The ultimate form of advertising may be near - recurring word-of-mouth referrals powered by new, Web based tools. When local businesses can tap their customers' loyalty through social media there will be no turning back.

Looking forward to Part 2.

Changing Consumers, Changing Advertising

2009-06-05T22:17:00.015-04:00

Consumers Have Changed, So Should Advertisers

Excerpted from June 4, 2009 ClickZ article by Augustine Fou

Are you still broadcasting your ads to the "haystack" and praying that the "needle" saw your ad? Advertising has always been like sending a message to a haystack and hoping there were enough "needles" in the haystack (i.e. target customers) who would see the ad, recall it, and then go make purchases. That used to work, but these days the needles are getting harder to find, they tend to block out all advertising, and they have built up new expectations and irreversible habits. These expectations and habits have a dramatic impact on how they receive, react to, and act upon advertising.

Consumers Seek Trusted Sources for Information

When modern consumers go online to look for information, there's sometimes too much information and it is hard to tell what's official or even true.

Savvy consumers look for clues from others. The information that they rely on tends to be from peers, or at least others like them (i.e. total strangers who wrote reviews on an item they are considering buying), instead of the information in ads put out by advertisers. They trust claims made in ads less and less. They trust the reviews, comments, and recommendations from other users more and more.

Consumers Prefer Collaboration Over Isolation

Finally, today's consumers expect to get help from friends or others like them. They will ask which restaurant, digital camera, or even wedding dress their friends recommend and why. They will look for clues about what other users find useful. Usually if readers are engaged and vocal in their commenting, others get a sense of the quality and value of the post. This way, they have immediate feedback on whether they need to even spend any time reading the post.

Consumers also expect to share information. Their friends know them best and they also know what they are looking for or are in the market for. Consumers will share items and recommendations with friends because they know their friend will appreciate help and insights and they expect the same in return. And this is real advice from real people, not an ad from someone trying to sell you something.

My Take

My take is focused on two points that Dr. Fou makes regarding consumer trust and collaboration. Please see the entire article to read his recommendations.

The tools available for getting and sharing information are always changing. Yet people are still people - they always have and always will find a way to get the most value and to do business with the most trustworthy business.

Consumers and businesses who stay current with new tools will enjoy a marginal advantage. However, for business owners, social media is no substitute for quality. In fact just the opposite is true - through social media poor quality will be exposed and broadcast.

Paying attention to new media is important - but providing great service is paramount. It is the best advertising.

"Social" Gains Ground in Media Mix During - and After Recession

2009-06-05T06:44:00.008-04:00

"Pricing, WOM, PR Efforts Get Recession Boost"

Excerpted from MarketingVOX article June 1, 2009

Two-thirds of marketers have shifted emphasis to more short-term strategies - such as pricing deals - in the last six months in response to difficult economic conditions, according to a study from the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and 'mktg.'

The research found that relatively few respondents reported any marketing initiatives had been shelved or delayed, but many are being reduced.

The activities most likely to be increased in the current economic environment are pricing deals (47%), social networking and word-of-mouth activities (26%) and public relations (23%):

Renewed Activities Post-Recession

The study also found that, despite recession cutbacks and tactical strategies, marketers are planning for renewed activities when the recession ends and the recovery begins. For example, media budgets will be increased (68%) along with social networking/word-of-mouth (41%) and budgets for innovation and testing/learning (40%). Nearly three-fourths (73%) of respondents say they will ideally implement these increased marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends, and an additional 16% will implement as soon as it ends.

Shift in Media-Channel Effectiveness

The study also found that media channel effectiveness for building brand equity has shifted materially. While TV is still ranked highest in importance (64%), online (61%) and guerilla/word of mouth/buzz marketing (57%) have grown to be on par with TV, with social media being ranked as the next highest effective media channel (40%). Social media ranked highest as the media channel that marketers would like to use but have not yet been able to implement.

About the survey: This survey was conducted online in April 2009 among the members of the ANA Brand Marketer Leadership Community panel. A total of 129 client-side marketing executives responded to the survey.

My Take

Consumer acceptance of social media is growing rapidly. It's being spread virally through all demographics - particularly among consumers over 30.

Major advertisers recognize this and are planning to aim more and more advertising dollars into this medium.

Unlike the "message clutter' caused by broadcast and mass media ads, consumers will be in control of what social ad messages they see by the sites they choose to use. This will create an interesting competition among advertisers to create more creative messages which will encourage viral transmission.

Currently, those businesses hold the "high ground" who are already benefiting from real word-of-mouth advertising. If they adopt social media as part of their marketing strategy, they can maintain their competitive positions vs.national brands.

The time for local businesses to act is now to maintain their advantage. They can begin developing new habits which engage neighbors and customers in social media, leveraging their established relationships to grow high-quality, word-of-mouth referrals - and profits.

Facebook Bucks - "My Take"

2009-06-03T11:57:00.004-04:00

Facebook brings in payment system

Excerpted from David Gelles Financial Times article - Published: June 2 2009

Facebook is rolling out a new internal payments system, testing it on three different applications on the site, a move that could help the social networking giant become less reliant on advertising. The system will allow users to purchase Facebook "credits" to buy virtual goods across the social network's services and third party applications. Facebook will take a cut of every transaction.

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes says. "Social networking sites have suffered with monetizing [their services], but this leverages [the fact that] users are there on Facebook."

My Take

This is an important step advancing the ease and convenience of the coming social economy. In a short while, conducting social commerce transactions will be more commonplace than swiping your debit/credit card at an ATM or a retail checkout machine.

Social Media's Advertising Revolution

2009-05-29T07:31:00.005-04:00

How Facebook Will Upend Advertising

With social networks like Facebook transforming the way companies communicate with consumers, it's time for the ad industry to get its head out of the sand

Excerpted from 5/27/09 BusinessWeek article by Jonathan L. Yarmis

The guessing games over Facebook's worth are back on again. They were reignited by the news on May 26 that Facebook has accepted a $200 million investment that values the company at $10 billion.

Much of the discussion centers on the ability, or lack thereof, of Facebook and other social networks to sell advertising and deliver advertising results.

But that argument misses the point. The question isn't how advertising will work on Facebook but rather how Facebook and social networks like News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace are changing advertising.

The Holy Grail of ads: word of mouth

...We're on the verge of a major rethinking of advertising's fundamental premises. One of the biggest challenges facing advertisers is ad credibility.

...Word of mouth—peer opinion—has consistently been rated the most credible source of information. But traditionally there's been a limit as to how widely you could distribute a friend's point of view.

Credibility now has a channel for mass distribution. It's called the Web and it particularly thrives in social networks. Such distribution will have profound implications for how we "advertise."

...Social tools woven into various sites can deliver the opinions and reviews of a group—"people like me"—whose views may be just as credible as those of my friends.

In sum, social networks and related tools are transforming the way companies communicate with consumers and potential consumers in profoundly interesting ways.

Now it's up to the advertising industry to get its collective head out of the sand and exploit this transformation to its advantage.

Jonathan Yarmis is founder and principal analyst with the Yarmis Group, an independent analyst group.

My Take

Advertisers will look back wondering why it took so long to see the obvious - instead of hindering their prospective customers' Web experience with annoying ads, they should use social Web tools to derive actual value from the ads' results.

The Search for Local Search

2009-05-26T22:15:00.007-04:00

How to Solve Local Search, Once And For All
by Matt Greitzer, Friday, May 22, 2009, 10:46 AM

Excerpted:
There is no way to find a good plumber or electrician in New York City. I can find a plumber, any plumber, no problem. My Google query for "New York City Plumbers," for example, returned 14,700,000 results. (How is that even possible)? But finding a good plumber, one who will show up on time and provide an estimate with fewer than five digits, can't be done.

This is where I thought I would start writing about Facebook, and the opportunity has to corner the local search and services market. No one out there is doing this well -- not the major engines, not the IYPs, not even the new(er) social search and recommendation engines like FacebookYelp.

The problem with local search is not in getting accurate listings, that's easy. The challenge is in getting relevant reviews on those listings. In order to do this, you need two key ingredients.

The first is scale, as in a massive, active user base willing to inform objective business listing with subjective opinions.
The second is relevance, as in some way to ensure the reviews you are reading are not written by shills, angry ex-lovers, or crazy people.

Facebook can address both of these challenges: It has a massive user base, and it's networked, which provides all kinds of useful ways to vet the trustworthiness of a reviewer's opinion. If Facebook jumped into the local search space I believe they could corner the market. But I think Yelp has actually beaten them to it.

I was going to put Yelp in my original column as an also-ran. My original thoughts were that Yelp did not have the scale to capture this opportunity. It was in digging around on Yelp looking for examples to prove my point that I realized I'd misjudged it. Yelp does have scale. Though not nearly that of Facebook, Yelp has almost 8 million monthly unique users (according to comScore), and has doubled its user base over the last year.

Facebook should not build its own socially powered local search engine; it should just buy Yelp. This combination makes both companies better. It would instantly propel Facebook into the local search space with the backing of an active reviewer base and a proven service model. And Facebook's scale would rocket Yelp from niche to mainstream, making a good service even better by combining reviewer opinions with vetting via the social graph.

My Take

This article addresses the exact problem that led us to design YouGottaCall.

In researching our patent, it amazed us that no one had tapped into the actual value of local word-of-mouth referrals through a Web-based social network.

Our revenue model is quite different than Yelp's or Facebook's - it allows consumers to find and share the businesses trusted by their neighbors and friends. Businesses voluntarily reward their social network for referrals that result in new customers. The members' favorite charities benefit!

It is working well in our test market -I'll be glad to keep you posted on our Facebook integration and e-commerce back-end development.

One parting question - if you combine two social networks - neither of which have an intrinsic revenue model - guess what you're still missing. An intrinsic revenue model.

HBJ: Social Network Primer

2009-05-26T07:56:00.004-04:00

Social Networks For Your Business

by Rhonda Abrams as published in the Hartford Business Journal 5/25/2009

Excerpt:
In the last few years, an avalanche of new opportunities has cascaded on the Internet in the form of social networking sites. Advantages and limitations of social networking sites:

Advantages:

• Connect with lots of new people, just as with real-life networking.

• Get the word out without an intermediary, such as a pesky reporter or columnist!

• Establish yourself as an expert in a field.

• Stay on top of your field and your competitors.

• Connect with your own customers.

Limitations:

• Can consume a huge amount of time.

• Most connections will never convert to paying clients or customers.

• A zillion of your competitors are out there.

Managing your social networking visibility can be a full-time job — in fact, many companies employ people just to be doing that. But you have a business to run.

So here’s Rhonda’s guide to social networking sites as they relate to your small business.

Twitter: Twitter’s the Internet darling of the moment, allowing users to send very short messages (limited to 140 characters) known as “tweets.” For example, you could choose to “follow” me by searching for Rhonda Abrams. (Twitter doesn’t allow spaces so my Twitter name is RhondaAbrams). I “tweet” about things I think small-business owners would find interesting or sometimes amusing.

LinkedIn: Unlike all the other major social networking sites, LinkedIn is dedicated to helping people connect for business rather than social purposes. It’s also become a major source for posting professional job openings.

Facebook: The heavyweight of social networking in the U.S., Facebook is great for keeping in touch with people you care about and finding people you’re out of touch with.

MySpace: Once the leading social networking site, it’s still a huge draw, especially for teenagers.

YouTube: This site is all about videos, so you may think it has nothing to do with business. But businesses have discovered it’s a great way to provide information to prospects and customers. Why not take some video of the products you sell or of you describing your services (or video testimonials) and easily upload them to YouTube? Then, you can direct prospects to YouTube to check it out.

One thing’s for sure: social networking is here to stay. Most businesses will need to know how to use it.

Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Six-Week Start-Up” and “What Business Should I Start?”

My Take

In her full article, Rhonda points out there is an overwhelming amount of sites to keep up with. This "avalanche" has busy business owners saying, "My time is too valuable to chase these sites. Why should I even try?"

My answer to this is, "Because it's the only way to grow. You're facing a technology revolution tax - not levied by a government, but by a rapidly spreading change in the way your customers communicate."

"Right now you're building a new bridge to connect with customers in a whole new, better way. But meanwhile you're maintaining your old bridge with your traditional advertising. So you're paying double - for a while at least.

The added expense in time & money will be a strain on you. But the dividends will come - especially for those businesses who "get it" and are adept at melding social media into their ad mix.

Food, Folks & Web Talk

2009-05-22T16:40:00.004-04:00

Nice breakfast meeting this AM...

'Met with the Web Presence Discussion in Windsor this morning at the Windsor 75 Diner. Kevin Andle of www.KAndleConsulting.com is helpful and informative on all things Web and Social Media related.

The crowd was friendly, curious and talkative with various levels of comfort with the Internet. They had lots of good questions on using YouGottaCall.com to generate WOM referrals.

Overall I'd recommend Kevin and this bi-weekly gathering for any central CT based business who wants to learn how to use the Web to drive profits. (He is not nearly as "adamant" as he appears in this picture :-)

My Take: SEO - Are You Cha$ing Your Tail?

2009-05-22T08:17:00.005-04:00

The dog chasing its tail may catch it momentarily - but tires itself out in the process.

Search Engine Optimization is like the whirling dog - exhaustive activity to get momentary placement in search results.

Local business advertiser have three problems with this:

1. Accepting unfavorable terms of competition - the premise of SEO is quantity - how many times your name appears on a monitor - not quality. You are surrendering your best competitive weapon - your reputation - when you elect to slug it out against competitors' SEO ad budgets. Your sales leads are now determined by how much you spend, not how good you are.

2. Continual, fixed expense - no guaranteed results. If you stop SEO spending for a moment your competitors immediately push you down in the rankings. Result: you are no longer found even though you provide better quality. You're addicted to spending - and it's a tough habit to break.

3. Low return - your best customers are not found through search. Would you prefer to spend time landing a customer who'd never heard of you before? Or one who came recommended? Customers with the greatest lifetime value are those who refer their friends and neighbors. And you get most of these via word-of-mouth referrals.

As Andy Sernovitz says, "Advertising is the price of being boring." I'll add that "SEO is a hefty sales tax."

Image credit http://www.softwaremag.com/archive/2001feb/images/ChasingItsTail.jpeg

Great Local WOM Data From BuzFactor

2009-05-21T15:43:00.005-04:00

Majority of businesses get more than half their customers from word of mouth

May 21st, 2009 (Excerpted from www.buzfactor.com)

92% of the companies surveyed said customer word of mouth was very important to their businesses’ success. Survey of over 200 retail and restaurant owners and managers - almost two-thirds of these businesses said word of mouth was responsible for generating over half their new customers and, among smaller businesses, the impact was even more pronounced with 75% acquiring the majority of their customers through word of mouth.

Compared to other forms of marketing, 70% of businesses said word of mouth had the most impact on the success of their business (3 times more than online and email marketing and 10 times more than print).

However, 40% of these companies do not currently allocate ANY of their marketing budget to word of mouth and, of those that do, the vast majority (71%) dedicate less than 10% of their marketing budget on word of mouth. Interestingly, less than 10% of companies said budgetary concerns were the primary reason for the lack of investment in word of mouth marketing initiatives.

My Take

Powerful data. This reminds me of slide #22 from this presentation on "Building Sales With Social Media".

'Raises the question - what is the actual value of word-of-mouth for the millions of small, local US businesses?

Businesses need a simple way to use the Web to connect with this river of WOM advertising.

About Buzfactor

Buzfactor of Blacksburg, VA was founded by Ron Butman in May of 2009. Butman holds seven technology patents and has founded two other technology companies.

Butman says he began Buzfactor, "to take advantage of what I perceive as one of the more significant opportunities - the formation of consumer marketing networks that leverage the social relationships between customers to increase sales far more effectively than traditional advertising. "

Why Pay for Local Advertising?

2009-05-21T10:54:00.005-04:00

My Take on Lisa Barone's "A Great Product Needs No Advertising"

Excerpt from 05/14/2009 blog

Not all blogs are broken. Some still get it. They get it hard and consistently. Like Andy Sernovitz. Andy says that advertising is the price of being boring, explaining:

“…There is a direct relationship between being buzzworthy — earning word of mouth — and how much you’ll have to pay to promote yourself through paid marketing.”

If you *get* one thing today, get that. It’s a lot easier to market a great product than a mediocre one. Because great products don’t need to be advertised, they just are...

Instead, save your marketing cash and invest it in the core product. And yes, I just did tell you to save your dollars on marketing and actually use it for product development.

My Take
Ask anyone who's recently hired a contractor, dentist, or other local business, and you'll find that 80% found them via word-of-mouth. That's a lot.

The businesses receiving these referrals have earned them. Why? Because of their clever, well-placed ads? No - because of their quality.

By effectively facilitating WOM via social media, the most deserving (read "highest quality") local businesses can create a recurring stream of WOM referrals with zero advertising expense.

The emerging power of Web 3.0 will revolutionize the $100 B US local advertising market.

Fastest Growth in Web Search: It's "Local" by a Mile

2009-05-20T10:28:00.008-04:00

Growth of local search outpacing regular search

According to new figures from comScore, the use of search tools to find local businesses, products or services grew 58% last year to reach an annual total of 15.7 billion searches.

by Helen Leggatt

By comparison, overall U.S. Internet searches grew just 21% to around 137 billion in 2008.

The data shows that more and more Internet users are logging on to find local businesses, potentially driven by the increase in use of mobile Internet and the availability of Google Maps.

Interestingly, when keywords for searches on Yellow Pages were analyzed, it showed that three-quarters of the top 100 keywords were non-branded, indicating that searchers did not have a specific brand in mind at the time of the search.

(read more)

My Take

This enormous growth rate demonstrates the need consumers feel for improved means of finding local businesses. Older methods (classifieds, print Yellow Pages) aren't cutting it.

The question is, what new, social tools will enable consumers to not only locate businesses, but to connect with those businesses trusted by their network of neighbors, relatives, co-workers and friends.

That'll be the Holy Grail - for consumers as well as businesses.

The Crowd Knows - Good article on "A List Apart"

2009-05-20T08:29:00.007-04:00

The Wisdom of Community

by Derek Powazek

Excerpts:

The web, with its low barrier to entry and permeable social boundaries, is the ultimate medium through which to explore the finer points of the wisdom of crowds.

You need a few things to enable online crowds to be wise.

Simplicity

Systems based on the Wisdom of Crowds can tackle surprisingly complicated projects, but each project must first be broken down to its simplest possible components.

Aggregation

One of the reasons discussions do not lead to wise results is that there’s no aggregation—the conversation just happens. But WOC systems are there to produce a result. This requires an aggregator (like you) and an algorithm.

Participation

A defining element of any WOC system is that the more participants it has, the better it gets. Discussion systems and chat rooms fall apart when too many voices get involved. If your community feature gets worse the more people use it, it’s not a WOC system.

Selfishness

It’s counter-intuitive, but the wisest crowds are the ones made up of individuals who are thinking about their own needs, not the needs of the group.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards create a problem for Wisdom of Crowds systems. How you display the wisdom of your crowd can be as important as how you ask for it in the first place.

Explicit vs. implicit feedback

In working on your own WOC systems, pay attention to when you can glean implicit feedback without having to ask for it directly.

Wiser together than we would be alone

These aspects of the Wisdom of Crowds are just the start — there’s a lot more to learn. WOC systems must evolve: you’re never done. But done right, they can change the way we live online, and maybe make us all a little wiser.

About the Author

Named one of the top 40 "Industry Influencers" of 2007 by Folio Magazine, Derek Powazek has worked the web since 1995 at pioneering sites like HotWired, Blogger, and Technorati. He is the author of Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places (New Riders, 2001). Derek now splits his time between working as a consultant for HP Labs on MagCloud and editing Fray, the quarterly book of true stories and original art. Derek lives in San Francisco with his wife, two nutty Chihuahuas, a grumpy cat, and a house full of plants named Fred.

My Take

These natural principles hold for all types of crowds. Social media can become more effective at harnessing crowd wisdom by being adept at observing nature and being humble enough to mimic it.

Basic Three C's of of Social Media Strategy

2009-04-14T12:14:00.010-04:00

From post to LinkedIn Group discussion: Social Media for Interior Design

Here are the 3C's of my strategy - Content, Connect and Cross-promote

First have interesting content - either your own or some recognized experts that you can excerpt. Also assemble client testimonials. Have a blog where you can publish this - ideally on your Web site. This will establish your expertise and allow your prospects to get comfortable with you - feel like they know you.

Example - my blog is at www.yougottacall.blogspot.com. I try to have fresh stuff each week. (Note - I violate my own advice - it's not on my own www.yougottacall.com domain yet)

Moving right along :-)

To connect with clients and prospects it's good to find where they go - and then go there. Consider joining Facebook. You can also build a free page for your business to connect with your friends and clients. Also - very important - have a list of email addresses for your network of clients, neighbors, associates and friends with whom you want to connect.

Then use email, your IM program - if you use one, Facebook, Twitter and other tools and social networks (Ping.fm, Plaxo, etc.) to push out running, interesting, entertaining and engaging cross-promotional commentary. Mention your new content, feature new client testimonials, recommend people read articles on your blog, etc.

It's simple - but requires consistent, steady attention.

The 411 on the YGC - "It's better than free."

2009-03-28T15:11:00.005-04:00

By popular request, here are the easy steps in the care and feeding of your local, word-of-mouth (WOM) Connection Engine.

Our marketing folks made a simple acronym – J-D-I-C-R-S-F-R. (There’s a complimentary, lifetime membership for the first person who creates a catchy mnemonic.) It’s very much like Facebook or LinkedIn, so you Web 2.0, social networkers will feel right at home.

1. Join – you already did that? Woo-HOOO! If not, just go to www.YouGottaCall.com

2. Designate your favorite charity –identify the not-for-profit organization that will receive funds generated from your word-of-mouth referrals. This feature was added a few months ago. All Members can edit their designated not-for-profit (NFP) by logging in and editing their profile. Please do this. Otherwise your donations will go to the NFP of the Month.

3. Invite – tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers about your Connection Engine. On your Member home page, click on “Invite a Friend or Trusted Service Provider” to
a. invite from your email contacts in Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail
b. upload from your Outlook contacts; or
c. invite individuals by email

Or you can tell your friends to go to www.yougottacall.com. They can indicate they were invited by you when they register.

4. Connect – find your friends, neighbors and co-workers who are already Members. This will enable you to locate their trusted service providers (TSP) and vice versa.

5. Refer – This is the whole point, so listen up. YouGottaCall.com handles your WOM referrals just like normal WOM. These referrals fall into 2 categories:
a. Active – This is just like when you tell your friend, “You gotta call so-and-so for this or that…” In YouGottaCall.com, you give an active referral to either a Member or non-Member by sending a link from the TSP’s Home Page.

From your Member Home Page, just click the TSP’s link and then click “Refer a Friend” on the left.

b. Passive – your connected Members can find and connect with your TSPs without you doing a thing. And you still generate donations for your favorite charity. Sound easy? It is. That’s why we call it passive.

6. Search for / Find a TSP - These passive referrals happen when another Member searches for a Vendor. Results can be filtered the results to see just those TSPs trusted by their connected Members.

7. Reward – when a Member becomes a new customer of a TSP, they split the TSP’s reward with the Member who referred them. Their designated NFPs receive the reward amount* in the Members’ names.

Folks – this is not rocket science. Sure, it may look complicated, but remember your high school English assignment to write step-by-step instructions for tying your shoes? And now you tie your shoes without even thinking too hard, right? Same thing.

We’re always working on adding other neat stuff, like iPhone and Facebook integration, real-time reports so you can track your connections, referrals and rewards. But this is the “need-to-know” in 578 words or less.

Our success in raising $$$ for your favorite charity depend on more Connecticut-ians** learning about YouGottaCall. You now have all the tools you need to invite and refer, so what are you waiting for? Log-in and grow your Connection Engine.

We expect to see a huge surge in Membership – call it a nice little 50th birthday gift for your network’s humble founder.

Thanks – and good referring,

- - Tim

* You were probably wondering “What’s in it for them?” YouGottaCall.com retains a percentage of this - currently 20%.
** Just in Connecticut for now.

Tapping Into Social Networks to Raise Funds and Build Community

2009-03-22T14:49:00.005-04:00

Two articles by Association of Fundraising Professionals on the emerging role of social networks.

Welcome to Web 2.0: Where Community Comes First, Then Fundraising
With all the buzz around social networking, what should a fundraiser do about it? Is it worth your time? Jono Smith, vice president of marketing at Network for Good advises us to ask a few important questions before diving in.

Raise More Money with Less by Embracing Self-Organized ‘Swarms’
What happens when companies and individuals take it upon themselves to organize their own efforts to raise awareness and money for your cause? What do you do? How do you control the message? How do you protect your donors?

Meanwhile, at the Hartford County HBA Home Remodeling Show

2009-03-01T20:40:00.004-05:00

More YouGottaCall.com trusted businesses in action at the 62nd Hartford County HBA Home & Remodeling Show

Mark and Sherry Brady of Brady Kitchens (Simsbury) are cooking right along at the Hartford Convention Center.

Jonathan Goric of Closet Crafters (Vernon) now features window treatments in addition to his remodeling services.

Eric and Giles Michaud of Michaud Enterprises (Farmington) display their 44 years of craftsmanship.

Mr. Shower Door of Avon was busy handling interested prospects.

It's more important than ever to find local businesses you can trust.

With the spring contracting season approaching, our goal for March is to help
more consumers and small business owners by doubling our network size.

We need your help - please tell your friends about YouGottaCall.com today.

Also tell your trusted local businesses that they can grow their sales and help the community by starting their Connection Engine.

Thanks and best wishes,

Tim Tracey, Founder

YouGottaCall Members at CT Home Show

2009-02-28T17:38:00.005-05:00

Large crowd keeps YouGottaCall.com trusted businesses busy at the annual CT Home Show

Avi and Tahl Smith Rapaport of We Care Computers had a steady stream of prospects.

The booth for 1-800-Got-JUNK and Doody Calls was manned by Paul and Martha Stansel.

Alan Mardirosian of CT PhoneBook.com sponsored a give away Red Sox and Yankee gear - and does not hesitate to let you know which he supports.

These Trusted Service Providers are part of your Connection Engine. When you use their services or refer a friend you'll earn rewards for your favorite charity.

YouGottaCall.com Featured on Hartford's Fox 61 News

2009-02-22T18:25:00.008-05:00

We were excited to be contacted by Rick Hancock of Hartford's Fox 61 News last week. He was interested in a story on YouGottaCall.com.

Rick interviewed Lisa Farren of the Good News Garage and me. Watch the story by clicking here.

We are excited about this press exposure and the growth of our community. But the key to becoming a vibrant, thriving community is the involvement by each Member. Consumer members stand to benefit as they can connect with their network's trustworthy local businesses. Businesses and worthy, local charities like the Good News Garage also benefit each time a referral results in new business.

Thanks to each of our Members for your active involvement, continued suggestions and enthusiastic use of the network for connecting with your neighbors, local businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

- - Tim

Tim Tracey, Founder
www.yougottacall.com
YouGottaCall Blog

Connect-gine (kĕ-nĕkt'jĭn) – n., an online network of real, off-line relationships consumers use to identify and contact local, trusted service providers.
A means for quality, local businesses to develop a self-sustaining source of new business that replaces local advertising.

Twitter Makes Non Sequitur

2009-02-18T09:53:00.002-05:00

Are Social Networks The New Newspaper?

2009-02-17T05:41:00.004-05:00

Excerpted from Rick's RSS by Rick Hancock of Fox 61 News:

Last week my state’s largest daily newspaper, The Hartford Courant, (it also bils itself as ”America’s oldest continuously published newspaper“) took a gigantic digital step forward into the future. It created a Facebook page and begun inviting “fans” to join. This week the paper took another big digital step forward and created its own Tweeter feed. Hooray for them.

The Courant brags that 800,000 people read the Courant via the newspaper and online. So, far – as of this blog post “only”192 Facebook users have become Courant Facebook fans. By comparison The New York Times Facebook site has 357,678 fans.

The Courant’s current low fan base probably has more to do with little to no promotion in the paper or the main Courant website that readers can now check them out on the social networking powerhouse. Talk about a soft product launch!

So what are the advantages of news organizations jumping on Facebook? ” Facebook is the “newspaper” for many people,”says Quinnipiac University Journalism Professor Richard Hanley.. ”It is much more powerful than the traditional newspaper because it incorporates news about friends and family into an interface where more traditional news can be posted. I’ve seen the future of newspapers, and it is Facebook.

My Take

The oldest example of mass media in the US, The Courant is a natural fit for social media. Through Hartford’s history it was sold and consumed in the community. In a way it was the community.

It was everywhere people were - available for purchase on every corner, generously distributed around barber shops, diners, offices, trains, buses - the most popular and frequent conversation starter.

It was the prime spot for job listings, real estate purchasing and classifieds.

Like The Hartford Times it was home-delivered and found on kitchen tables and in stacks next to dad’s favorite chair. Perhaps agreeing on little else, the generations would hash over the box scores, Dear Abby and upcoming white sales.

A Courant route was reason for pride and income for the disciplined, early rising pre-teen and high schooler. Courant delivery routes were coveted and accompanied by pre-dawn war stories.

Like any newspaper, The Courant was marked up, folded up, circled, scissored and spread out for the puppy or the parrot. Even spread in the garden. Every inch was useful.

But there have been several partings of the ways between The Courant and its readers. Now easy, immediate access to opposing political views is available. Social media and its user generated content provides what editorial boards and 3AM press runs can’t.

As the community increasingly incorporates digital media and online news it will be interesting if The Courant will find its audience and its voice there.

Local Biz Has Two Minds About the Web

2009-02-15T14:23:00.003-05:00

Small Business Not Keeping Up With Online Presence
by Jack Loechner, Friday, February 13, 2009, 8:15 AM

Excerpt:

According to research from Webvisible and Nielsen, reported by Marketing Charts, though 63% of consumers and small business owners turn to the internet first for information about local companies and 82% use search engines to do so, only 44% of small businesses have a website and half spend less than 10% of their marketing budget online.

The study uncovers a significant disconnect between the way small business owners act as consumers vs. the way they market their businesses online.

92% of searchers say they are happy with the results they get when using search engines.

Webvisible found that online search and e-mail newsletters are the only forms of traditional media that are growing among consumers who wish to locate local products or services. Compared with two years ago, respondents report they use search engines and email newsletters more, while they use newspapers, magazines, direct mail and radio less:

Consumer Use Of Media Compared to Two Years Ago (% of Respondents)
*Media*	*Use More*	*Use Less*
Search engines	72%	1%
E-Mail newsletters	35	7
Yellow page directories	16	23
Local newspaper	10	25
Magazines	11	31
Direct mail	9	27
Radio	9	23
Source: WebVisible and NielsenOnline survey November 2008, February 2009

Though less than half of small businesses do have a website, the ones that do are not happy overall with their online marketing. Among those small businesses that have a website:

51% believe both the quality and ability of their site to acquire new customers is only "fair" or "poor"
99% of small business owners are directly involved in the marketing
65% believe it is very important to know where their customers come from
Only 9% are satisfied with their online marketing efforts
Only 7% of small business owners say their primary marketing goal is to get more visitors to their website

My Take

This is more than a disconnect - it is schizophrenic.

Ninety-nine percent of business owners run their own marketing. They overwhelmingly turn to the Web first when they need to locate a local business. Yet 56% do not have a Web site for their business. Doesn't this seem crazy?

While this is illogical, it is easy to understand. Local business people are busy all day long running their business. And they're putting in long hours doing so. Most don't have time for chamber of commerce meetings or networking groups, never mind updating their Web site or blogging.

Their problem is the Web isn't yet an easy to use marketing weapon. It's a "nice-to-have", but not yet a "gotta-have". Plus, 93% of their competitors who have sites aren't getting the results they could be because they're employing them as Web 1.0 brochure-ware - not strategic marketing tools.

Plus, these businesses are getting word-of-mouth referrals from their satisfied customers, neighbors and friends. They do not see a sufficient incremental return on their investment in time and money needed to design, build and manage another ad channel.

This is where YouGottaCall.com's patent-pending process is crucial - it provides local businesses with all of the benefits of a Web page with none of the hassles. Plus, it allows them to connect with their best source of leads - their real, live network of customers and friends.

In time, the Web will be the leading tool local businesses use to gain new customers. It will be more friendly, more intuitive and more social. As I posted in "Social Media - Getting Local and Getting Real" it will support real, local relationships and provide real, social revenues.

Michelle MacPhearson's "The Social Myth"

2009-02-04T07:55:00.005-05:00

My Take:

“The Social Media Myth”

Michelle MacPhearson (http://www.socialmediamyth.com; Twitter: http://twitter.com/michellem) offers this 31 page downloadable guide to social media. It is useful as a means for viewing social media as an important - and simple - piece in your marketing.

Michelle sent me a well timed, follow-up email asking for my "take aways". This in itself demonstrates her marketing skill. Follow-up is so often overlooked - it prompted me to read the article, which I'd been too busy to do when I first downloaded it.

My biggest take away from “The Social Media Myth” is that social media is changing rapidly. Each new development is making it easier to use.
• Open architecture - Open Social, OpenID, (Facebook Connect)
• Mobile enabled
• GPS integrated

“Social ergonomics” is driving these design enhancements. When its evolution is complete, social media will have morphed into an invisible, continually used aspect of our daily routines. At that point its value will be maximized for users, content providers and advertisers alike.

For now we invest time into developing social media marketing strategies that weave the functionality of the available platforms into our marketing mix. Later on it will be seamless and user friendly.

A key to the development of sturdy, valuable social media platforms is the careful consideration and mimicking of our natural, social behavior. It will be successful in the long term when social media uses the power of the Internet to accentuate the effectiveness of

our necessary communications,
our actual relationships, and
our trusted recommendations.

Social Media: Small is Big and Vice Versa

2009-01-26T07:11:00.003-05:00

Social Media: The Next Great Equalizer

by Nuno on January 21, 2009

(Excerpt)

The internet did a lot to even the playing field between giant corporations and small businesses. Both could register a domain name, put up a website and, at least early on, compete for traffic on search engines.

If you’ve been a netizen for any significant period of time, you’ve probably come by a web site or two that clearly is a one-man operation but where every reference to the business is first-person plural: “we, us, our company.”

That was clearly an attempt to make a small company seem big. The issue, of course, is one of trust.

Don’t be afraid to act like a three-person company with big dreams. It’s all the rage.

My Take

There is much irony in social media. Socializing with hundreds of people while sitting at your computer. Being "friends" with many you've never personally met.

Nuno Andrade (twitter.com/nikkonuno) points out that big companies are imitating the intimate relationships that small companies enjoy - with the same media that small companies used to appear "big".

twitter.com/timtracey

Facebook - Who Cares What the Kids Think?

2009-01-23T07:38:00.005-05:00

It's growing like crazy among "middle-agers"

My Take:

I knew it since began hearing non-webby folks rave about Facebook - "I just connected with my old high school friend" ..."Wow - it was so good to hear from them...". FB is resonating with people of all ages.

Back in 2007, my independent research showed a phenomenal growth rate among Facebook users from my alma mater.

But thanks to Nick O'Neill of AllFacebook.com and The Social Times we have data to confirm it. Using data from AllFacebook, the trend is for annual quadrupling of US users in the 45 to 54 demographic. The 35-44 demo is over twice the current usage level and trails just slightly in compound growth rate.

So don't listen to your high school or college kids' warning to "stay off" of their social network or you'll embarass them. Facebooks isn't just for kids. And if you're in business, you can count on it being a major piece of your marketing mix in the next year.

Your Target Audience Still Doesn’t Know Squat, So Teach Them

2009-01-19T02:15:00.002-05:00

Posted on 08. Jan, 2009 by Andrew Shotland in Local Search

Excerpted:
I just spent an hour with a local contractor who has started to feel the pain of the economic meltdown. Guess what? After years of avoiding it, he’s finally ready to put up a website and start figuring out how to market himself online. Good for him. Now he’s really screwed.

The guy barely knows how to click on a link let alone buy a domain, build a website, learn SEO, figure out what people are searching for, set up a paid search campaign, troll for customers on Twitter, etc.

As I was listening to him discuss his ambitions, it occurred to me that even after all of these years of investment in the local search industry, a huge number of the potential advertisers still don’t understand the options available to them in local online marketing.

Consumers may be a bit ahead of Joe the Plumber, but not by much. How many IYPs are there? Why did that list of businesses show up for one Google search and not the other?

All I’m trying to say here is that until there is a service that makes it dirt simple for SMBs to understand how to get online and how to choose between the options, and until there is a service that makes it dirt simple for people to find reliable service pros, no one is going to “win” this game and every company will be ripe for having their clients and users poached by a better mousetrap.

There are a number of companies out there taking stabs at both sides of the equation, but I have yet to see a model that is not just an incremental improvement on what is already out there.

Andrew Shotland - Local SEO Guide

My Take

You don't mince words, Andrew. Small business owners are screwed by the amount of time and money required to build a Web marketing program.

In my opinion a new approach to the problem is needed. Perhaps one that mimics the success of organic word-of-mouth to facilitate and capture sales leads.

Why not simply "webinize" the WOM process that has consistently delivered the most qualified leads? Why can't businesses increase their sales by connecting to their network of satisfied customers, neighbors and friends in a Web-based social network like Facebook?

If they could do this then they'd be able to know exactly where their best new customers were coming from. (They could even voluntarily reward them to show their appreciation.) Such a system would eliminate the time and expense of creating and updating a Web page. It would be as easy as having a Facebook page.

Monetization and social media

2009-01-19T00:43:00.006-05:00

by Christopher S. Penn Awaken Your Superhero January 19, 2009

Excerpts: If you are a social media practitioner interested in earning money for your skills, you have to deeply understand money first.

First, money is a medium of exchange for other goods and services. Money doesn’t solve the value equation - that is, what you do must have value to someone. Money only makes trading value easier. If what you do is of no value to anyone, then like the farmer facing no demand for chicken, no matter how skilled you are, no one will trade with you. As a social media practitioner, your work has to have value.

The most successful social media practitioners recognize that social media in and of itself is of relatively little value. It’s a communications channel. What is of value is what you deliver to your audience. I deliver, for example, financial aid information on my Financial Aid Podcast. The fact that it’s a podcast has no inherent value; what has value is the quality of the information.

If you’re considering offering up your services to someone else as a social media practitioner, make sure that they have something of value to offer their customers, or both you and your client will fail to generate any business. Your own track record must demonstrate that you understand underlying value and how to present it in a social media context.

Second, money as a store of value is vitally important to social media practitioners. Like all industries, social media, new media, online media, etc. all have trends. There’s a new shiny object every day, and that presents new opportunities for you to demonstrate your skills and earn some money in doing so. You have to not only capitalize on trends, but sock those earnings away. You have to be able to store the value of a trend so that when it cools - and it always does - you have a strong base of capital to operate with.

Equally important is your ability to recognize value and trends ahead of time so that as a platform matures - as blogging has - you’re ahead of the curve and in new spaces. This is the often referenced blue ocean strategy, where there’s virtually no competition in any vertical in a new area. Blue ocean was podcasting in 2005, blogging in 1997, Twitter in 2006, Facebook in 2004 and so forth. As a social media practitioner looking to earn a living at your craft, you need to be able to spot new blue oceans and move in long before others do, while recognizing that it will be some time before that space is highly desired by a large population.

For companies looking at social media, recognize that the store of value means you need operating capital and strong revenue streams today from your social media efforts, but you need to be investing for the future as well. Your internal financial health will dictate how you prioritize investing for the future vs. banking on what’s hot today.

My Take

It strikes me as strange that attempts to monetize Web 2.0 have used Web 1.0 tactics. Web 2.0 supports actual, personal relationships. These relationships have natural, tangible, financial value.

Example - there are relationships that either save you money or make you money every day. Whether you are looking to buy something or sell something - your network enables you to do this more efficiently by filtering out bad choices through communal experience.

First, we need to understand the economic value of personal relationships. Communites have always been built around the value that these relationships produce. It is why we people band together.

In this sense, social media communities are no different than physical villages, towns and cities. Then we can replicate the process and create true value that can be converted to cash.