YouGottaCall.com Featured on Hartford's Fox 61 News

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.

Announcing - Support Your Favorite Not-for-Profit

YouGottaCall now supports Members' ability to donate their rewards and rebates to their designated charitable organization.

Our vision is to connect consumers with their trusted local service providers.
Businesses can pay rewards to their network for referrals that result in new sales.
Members can choose to
keep these rewards or
donate them to the non-profit agencies that they support.

In 4 easy steps , current Members may log-on and designate a non-for-profit organization to receive their rewards. (click picture for larger view)

This is an exciting step for our vision to benefit the entire community of trusted businesses and deserving 501(c)3's. Please keep your feedback and ideas coming!

2008 – The Year You Get Social

Do you think you really know your customers? Then this may surprise you. If your customers are between 26 and 60 years old, more and more of them are using social networks every month.

“Social networks? You mean on the Web? Like Facebook and MySpace?”

That’s right. Facebook is seeing a major growth surge among Baby Boomers and Gen-X’ers. Now that Facebook is open for all, membership is growing by millions.

An August 2007 survey of Boston College alumni revealed 2,500 Facebook members. In a mere six months that population swelled by more than 500% to nearly 13,000. And some of the most rapid growth is among alumni in their 40’s and 50’s.

What does this mean for you, a local business owner? It means that:

• Your customers are rapidly accepting Web based social networks as a means for staying in touch with friends and relatives.
• If BC alumni are any indication, more than half of college graduates nationally may be on Facebook by late 2008.

Just as your business adapted to using technologies like fax, email and the Web to increase sales and improve customer service, you’ll be able to grow your business by participating in social networks.

“How do I do this?” Well, for starters you can easily join one of the more popular sites:

1. Get on Facebook. It is free and easy.
2. Advertise your business there. This is also free, although there are for-pay advertising options as well.
3. Connect with them. Your best customers can elect to be your “fans”. “How does this help my business?” you ask. It serves as word-of-mouth fuel as their friends can read what they say about the great service you provide and view your business through their profiles.

Is this going to revolutionize your business overnight? Probably not, but it’s a free and simple way to connect with your customers where they’re talking with their friends and neighbors. It’s a smart thing to do. And it’s just a matter of time before you do it, so jump in.

When Will the Age of the Consumer Come to Yellow Pages?

Excerpted from a Kelsey Group Blog by Michael Taylor November 27, 2007

Empowering consumers to directly ask companies for what they want and to vocalize when they see something they do not agree with has certainly become the “norm” today. Bloggers have become citizen journalists, Web sites are “community owned” and supported, and brands are allowing consumers to direct new TV ads – all indications that major companies have understood the change in the marketing rules. Time Magazine in fact named “you” as the person of the year.

According to the Time article: “It’s about the many wresting power from the few … and how that will not only change the world, but change the way the world changes. In other words, ‘you’ have the power, and brands and its institutions must get ready for the changes that ‘you’ will demand.”

The Yellow Page brand continues to remain closed to consumers, and consumers are showing their displeasure by refusing to accept or keep the print book and opting for local search options on the major search engines rather than going to publisher sites.

The Yellow Pages industry has yet to fully embrace and understand that its advertiser base and content is currently less of a strategic advantage in the age of the consumer.

Consumers are in charge and they are vocal about what they want and who they support. Yellow Pages as a group has done a mediocre job of telling consumers why the print and online directories are relevant products in their lives, how they are changing to meet new demands, and how consumers can continue to benefit from the most comprehensive database of local businesses available.

In this age of “empowered consumers,” what can publishers do to understand what consumers want and how they want to interact with the massive local database Yellow Pages offers? Does the industry really have a grasp on how the way people search for local information has changed and how can this understanding change the way the print product is formatted and produced?

The goal should be to listen and learn from consumers about what makes for a great local search experience, then delivering it in real, differentiated, meaningful features and benefits.

The empowered consumer shift is well under way and now is the time for the Yellow Pages industry to use its considerable local advantage while it can to swing the pendulum back toward viewing the directory product line as the most comprehensive source of local business information whenever and wherever people need it.

My Take

It ain't never gonna happen.

The Yellow Pages will not change - at least not until they are forced to. Nor can they - their functionally obsolete printed medium is so far out of the consciousness of 20-something's making their first major purchases - homes, appliances - that it would require past life regression therapy to resurrect.

The yellow tome will soon be amusing history. "Hey kids, when I was young the coal man delivered house-to-house in a horse-drawn wagon" will become "Hey kids, when I was young they dropped big yellow phone directories on my driveway that we used to use to find phone numbers. Isn't that unbelievable?"

Rapid Growth of WOM for National Brands

Word-of-Mouth Marketing On The Upswing

by Mark Walsh, Friday, Nov 16, 2007 7:00 AM ET

WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING IS EXPECTED TO surpass $1 billion in 2007, making it one of the fastest-growing alternative media formats. In a new research report, PQ Media also predicts that spending on word-of-mouth marketing will grow at an annual rate of 30.4%, and will hit $3.7 billion by 2011.

Helping drive the growth of WoM marketing are Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks, blogs that allow consumers to share information, and opinions about brands and products. While 90% of WoM activity is estimated to take place offline, marketers are shifting more spending to online vehicles that can provide more measurable results. Findings of the PQ Media study were presented Thursday at the Word-of Mouth Marketing Summit 2007 in Las Vegas.

What exactly is WoM marketing? PQ Media defines it as an alternative marketing strategy that uses online and offline tactics involving peer "influencers," WoM communities and brand advocates to encourage consumer dialogue about products and services.

The category doesn't include what are considered unethical tactics such as spam, "sock puppeting," (assuming a false identity online to promote a product or company online), or paying someone to talk about a brand without disclosing that they work for the company.

Also not counted in WoM estimates were spending on activities like in-store product sampling, coupons and loyalty programs, and advertising on social networks and blogs. So Facebook's new social ads, which let marketers attach messages to the communications of members who have identified themselves as "fans" of a particular brand, would not be included.

Only marketing through fully disclosed brand advocates on blogs or other online outlets would be included. "The brand advocates or agents have to state that 'We are hired by this particular company,' or 'we were given a sample of a product,'" explained Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research for PQ Media.

Wal-Mart and Sony both ran into trouble last year when they used paid writers to create authentic-seeming blogs evangelizing their brands.

Kivijarv says 2006 was a turning point for WoM marketing, when it went from being an experimental media buy to becoming "increasingly included in fully integrated marketing campaigns." Marketers are no longer just monitoring WoM efforts, but expecting to see a return on investment in increased sales or buzz surrounding a product.

That trend is expected to continue in 2007, when WoM will grow an estimated 37.7% to $1.35 billion. Overall, however, WoM remains the smallest marketing segment, capturing less than 1% of industry dollars. Direct marketing, branded entertainment, and business-to-business promotions garner the lion's share of spending.

Kivijarv estimates that there are about 200 agencies and technology companies that either specialize in WoM marketing or have units dedicated to it.

While no specific data is yet available on WoM spending by product category, food and beverage, media and entertainment, and sports and recreation are among the most active in employing WoM strategies.

Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com

My Take

Mr. Walsh's article covers data and projections for national brands.

But you as a local contractor or professional are part of the Word-of-Mouth Wave already. "Huh? How's that?" Well, you Feel your ears burning?

Your clients, customers, friends and neighbors are talking about you right now in the grocery store, on the sidelines of sporting events, walking their dog and at PTA meetings. They're
registering with more social networks daily to discuss carpooling, child raising, retirement planning - and guess who else they're talking about.

The Web will allow you to engage your satisfied clients using these same social networks to convert more of these discussions into qualified leads for you. And you in turn will be able to reward them and strengthen your relationship - while benefiting the community.

It's the new advertising. There are many benefits to your company including fully variable expenses and improved cash flow.

Stay tuned. The YouGottaCall.com "Connect-gine" is coming.

Menu For Local Search Success

Excerpted from The Frager Factor - Local Search Poised For Marketing Success

"People in the US tend to spend 80 percent of their budgets within 50 miles of their homes, and the Kelsey Group thinks that bodes well for local advertising's $110 billion market to shift more into local search ads. Only about four percent of local ad dollars are currently being spent on local search advertising. The Kelsey Group expects that to grow, and fast. They forecast a 50 percent annual growth rate for local search spending.

"Enjoying that growth and more means facing down the yellow pages companies for the attention of local people seeking information. It's a challenge for Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, all highly desirous of more of the local search market.

"The yellow pages publishers have an advantage today. The Kelsey Group refers to local ad service selling as a "high-touch" occupation, and salespeople can be expensive."

My Take

In other words, with their current advantage, and assuming that the nature of local advertising stays static, the Yellow Pages will do just fine. Kind of like the 2007 New York Mets in August.

Nothing personal, Mets fans. But your team is a timely example of how rapid change can occur. And isn't everyone in agreement on rapid change in local search?

Monday October 1, 2007 - 08:46pm (EDT)

YouGottaCall.com Selects Foresite Technologies

YouGottaCall.com, LLC is excited to announce our selection of Foresite Technologies of East Hartford, CT as its software development vendor. Foresite has begun a five phase development plan to build YouGottaCall.com's database application and Web portal with a target date for beta release in early 2008.

This Web-based program will be an innovation in the rapidly emerging local Web, providing a unique benefit to businesses, consumers and local communities. The YouGottaCall.com co-founders Wayne Feigenbaum, Bill Hoff and Tim Tracey made their selection official at Mondays Kickoff Development meeting.

"We are excited that YouGottaCall has chosen ForeSite to partner with them on the creation of their web community. We firmly believe that the use of the web is moving in the direction of viral community building and fully expect this to be a huge success for YouGottaCall," says Michael Giuffrida, Foresites President/CEO.

"We are satisfied that Foresite is a good fit for our needs both from a creative and a technical standpoint," said Tracey. "We have confidence in their ability to deliver based on their track record, their affiliations and their involvement with the local business community."

Bill Hoff, Wayne Feigenbaum, Ben Sweet (Foresite Technologies), Tim Tracey

Tags: localsearch, socialsearch

Wednesday September 19, 2007 - 01:01pm (EDT)

We're in business!

We are pleased to announce that YouGottaCall.com, LLC is now incorporated and is officially in business. Our corporate members are Wayne Feigenbaum, Bill Hoff and me (Tim Tracey).

The step of forming a corporation is the result of our combined research, planning and dreaming over the past two years. It is also an expression of our commitment to create an entirely new medium for local business advertising that benefits the consumer, the business owner and the community.

TEAM MEMBERS

Please meet our co-founders:

Wayne Feigenbaum

Wayne has been a business founder and owner for over 20 years. His Fortune 500 background was the foundation for his success in the commercial printing industry.

As President of Preferred Printing Services, Inc, he has in-depth knowledge of managing growth through aggressive sales, strategic planning and acquisitions. Preferred Printing was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing privately held companies in America. Strong client and vendor relationships have been the hallmark of Wayne’s businesses.

Wayne graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelors degree in Marketing.

Bill Hoff

Bill has over 20 years experience in operations management and business ownership. He has used his rare balance of entrepreneurship and analytical skills to grow consumer products ventures in the bottled water and beverage markets.

As Operations Director at Preferred Printing, Bill has overseen the logistical and financial aspects of the business in its growth and acquisition phase.

After earning his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Duke University Bill received his Masters in Business Administration concentrating in operations from Carnegie Mellon University.

Tim Tracey

Tim manages sales and marketing for the Pinnacle Network of Simsbury, CT. He has over 20 years experience in the sales and marketing of software and financial services.

His sales experience highlighted the value of referring relationships which resulted in highly qualified sales leads. Through his management of Internet based, lead generation and database marketing campaigns, Tim conceived of leveraging technological tools to facilitate and incentivize ‘word of mouth’, spurring the concept for a local business-to-consumer and B-to-B lead referral engine - YouGottaCall.com.

Tim earned his Bachelors in Marketing from Boston College, graduating from its School of Management (now the Carroll SOM) and its Honors Program.

Tags: localsearch, socialsearch, wordofmouth, affiliatemarketing, offline/online

Saturday September 8, 2007 - 06:29pm (EDT)