Simplicity

The best things in life are simple.

Local businesses rely on “word-of-mouth” referrals as their most efficient and profitable form of advertising. Millions of WOM referrals “just happen” every day as people talk to people.

So WOM must be a very simple process – right? Let’s break down the steps involved in a typical WOM referral. Then you tell me:

1. Consumer A must have established trusted relationships with at least one local Business.
2. Consumer A must have relationships with Consumer B in same locale
3. Consumer A must have contact with Consumer B
4. Consumer B must have a need for service of local Business
5. The topic of conversation must arise relating to Consumer B’s need for the services of Business
6. Consumer A must decide that it is acceptable to recommend the services of their trusted Business
7. Consumer A must transmit local Business’s contact information to Consumer B
8. Consumer B must retain Business’s contact information
9. Consumer B must retrieve Business’s contact information
10. Consumer B must contact Business

And – bonus steps:

11. Consumer B must notify Business that referral was made by Consumer A
12. Business rewards Consumer A

While this process occurs millions of times each day, it is surprisingly complex and contains multiple critical dependencies. It is also largely random. Its success is testimony to the efficiency of our network of friends and neighbors as means of sharing information.

YouGottaCall.com can be used in a number of ways to find or share information on trusted local businesses. Our goal is to increase the efficiency of the WOM process by making it systematic.

Its “direct referral” process mirrors the above steps like this:

1. Member A has a trusted relationship with at least one local Business.
2. Business is a Member of YouGottaCall
3. Member A has relationships with a Consumer in the same locale
4. Member A has contact with Consumer
5. Consumer has a need for service of local Business
6. The topic of conversation arises relating to Consumer’s need for the services of Business
7. Member A recommends the services of the trusted Business
8. Member A sends local Business’s contact information to Consumer
9. Consumer registers as Member (B) and contacts Business
10. Business receives information and contacts Member B

And – bonus steps:

11. Business automatically knows that referral was made by Member A
12. Business pays a voluntary reward that goes to Member A’s and B’s designated charities.

We can’t always improve on Nature – but we can copy it. As used above, YouGottaCall mirrors the steps in the natural, person-to-person, word-of-mouth referral process. But it also increases efficiency by eliminating the loss of contact information and automating the tracking and reward processes.

YouGottaCall can also be used like a search engine for “indirect referrals”. In this mode, the major benefit of YouGottaCall over search engines is the use of trust – not just algorithms - to find local service providers. It works like this:

1. Member A has a need for service
2. Member A searches YouGottaCall.com for local Business Members that provide this service
3. Member A locates a Business that is trusted by connected Member B
4. Member A buys from Business

And – bonus steps:

5. Business automatically knows that referral was made by Member B
6. Business pays a voluntary reward that goes to Member A’s and B’s designated charities.

YouGottaCall.com’s patent pending process is a Connection Engine (Connect-gine™) that amplifies our social connections to improve our ability to find trusted, local service providers. For an illustration, view our slideshow.

Our vision at YouGottaCall.com is to “Reward the community by empowering trusted relationships.” We:
• enable consumers to share valuable information;
• reward trusted businesses with high quality referrals; and
• support not-for-profits in their missions to benefit the community.

Your input and involvement is welcome as we grow our test market in greater-Hartford, CT. If you’re in Connecticut, please feel free to get your Connect-gine™ started today. If not we hope you will be patient until we’re operating in your region.

Please feel free to comment or contact us.

- - Tim

Social Media - Getting Local and Getting Real

My Take:

While social media is widely used on the national level, few local, small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) have added it to their marketing mix. Can social media become an effective tool for local SMBs? Absolutely! In fact social media can be more profitable for small business than it is for national advertisers - if it can:

1. Support real, local, business-to-consumer relationships

Millions of SMBs rely on word-of-mouth (WOM) as their primary source of sales leads. Yet, while their customers are rapidly joining social networks and using them instead of e-mail or instant messaging, social networks offer no opportunity for consumers to connect with their network of trusted local businesses.

SMBs serve millions of consumers and their total sales are comparable to the combined revenues of all national brands. Considering the size of this market, why has it been overlooked by social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace?

Maybe because of the immaturity of this new media. Maybe because the low per-client-ad-revenue slips under their radar. For whatever the reason, there is a suppressed demand by consumers to use social media for consumer-to-business (C2B), word-of-mouth referrals.

When local businesses are finally able to simply and efficiently engage their customers and neighbors on the social Web, large sales revenues will follow. The sum of these revenues will be on the same scale as the combined social media revenues for all national brands.

2. Provide real, social revenues

All social networks have struggled with the question, “How do we make money from this cool idea?” Social media will need a simple and efficient way to monetize the value it creates as it increases WOM sales for local SMBs.

Paying for clicks was great in a Web 1.0 world. Statistically speaking, clicks equate to revenues. But small businesses are not easily persuaded to pay for something as nebulous as a click. They want to see a return for their ad dollars.

Social media offers measurement capabilities far superior to Web 1.0. By offering a way for consumers to transact online the millions of organic WOM conversations that occur daily, social media can provide businesses with full lead measurement and tracking. This is the “holy grail” of marketing.

Picture a social network that supports this C2B WOM. It could allow its member businesses to be found by the friends of the friends of their satisfied customers. It would merge the power of WOM with the Internet-based social graph.

With this model, member businesses would be able to increase and track their WOM leads as well as reward consumers for referrals that result in new sales. This would make possible a fully variable, results only advertising model that rewards and strengthens SMBs’ relationships with their most valuable customers. 100% effective advertising!

Engaging real, local relationships in a social network and deriving revenues based on measurable results – that’s the future of social, local media.

Choices for Local, Social Media in 2009

The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World - WSJ.com

Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds.

Excerpt from article by Salvatore Parise, Patricia J. Guinan and Bruce D. Weinberg. Graphics Peter & Maria Hoey

For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers. If only they knew how to do it.

Tips:
Join the Discussion

Don't just talk at consumers -- work with them throughout the marketing process.

Give consumers a reason to participate. Consumers have to have some incentive to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences on a company Web site.

Listen to -- and join -- the conversation outside your site. Consumers tend to trust one another's opinions more than a company's marketing pitch. And there is no shortage of opinions online.

Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell. When consumers are invited to participate in online communities, they expect marketers to listen and to consider their ideas. They don't want to feel like they're simply a captive audience for advertising, and if they do they're likely to abandon the community.

Embrace experimentation. One Web 2.0 strategy does not fit all, and sometimes the best way to find out what's best for a given company is to try some things out and see what happens.

My Take

The Wall Street Journal is not exactly the San Jose Mercury News. Now that social media is becoming east coast news, it's time for Main Street small businesses to pay attention.

The rules for using social media are not cast in stone. Any approach with which you are comfortable can establish your presence on the Social Web. You may see results quickly.

It is hard to go wrong taking a first, baby step. Your only misstep is no step.

Social Xmas: Facebook’s busiest day ever

Social networks = 10% of Internet traffic
Excerpted from HitWise Intelligence

Robin Goad
Research Director, Hitwise UK.

With all of the focus on the economic downturn and the troubles in the retail sector, it’s easy to forget the continued growth of social networking in the UK. Christmas is traditionally the busiest time of year for social networks, and this festive season the sector achieved three significant new milestones.

Facebook accounts for 1 in 22 UK Internet visits on Christmas Day

On Christmas Day 2007 Facebook reached a peak in traffic that wasn’t surpassed until July 2008. Traffic reached a new high on Christmas Day 2008, when Britain’s most popular social networking site accounted for 1 in every 22 UK Internet visits. With a market share of 4.65% Facebook’s traffic was up 69% on Christmas Day 2007, and it was the second most visited website after Google UK (8.63%).

My Take

Social media is clearly where things are going - rapidly. All small business owners as well as Not-for-Profit Executive Directors should be planning to join their customers and friends there in 2009.

Social, Local Connection Engine

It’s not a stretch. ‘Not like imagining five years ago that a simple Web site could virtually replace email and IM’g. That you could keep in touch with all of your friends - their fleeting thoughts, photos, videos and more – on your personalized page. For free.

Of course I’m referring to Facebook – a simple idea that has revolutionized keeping in touch.

So it’s easy to imagine a site where you can find and share your friends’ trusted local businesses. You’d benefit from the established relationship to gain the most value for your home and health expenditures that comprise a quarter of your household budget.

But it’s “better than free” because just by using it you benefit your favorite charities.

YouGottaCall.com is preparing our updated release that features new capabilities for not-for-profits to connect with their network of supporters. (Currently limited to the greater-Hartford, CT market.)

Let us know if you’d like to receive updated information.

YouGottaCall.com – “Trusted local experts. Word of mouth referrals. Doing good.” tm

Help a NFP With a Gift That Gives

From Andy Sernovitz's blog "Damn I Wish I'd Thought of That":

Let's work together to help your favorite cause get better at fulfilling their mission. With your help, I can teach them how to use word of mouth to raise more money, activate volunteers, and spread their message.

Word of mouth is essential to all worthy causes, but most of them aren't very good at it. You can make a fundamental difference by teaching them how. Instead of sending a cash donation, send them a care package of word of mouth marketing training. Teach a man to fish ...

My Take

Not-for-Profits are intimately connected with their communities - with those people they help, with those who volunteer their time and services and with those individuals and businesses who donate financially to support the mission.

As such they are ideally situated to leverage their relationships within the community - and word-of-mouth is the ideal vehicle.

Andy's offer is a needed spark that may get Executive Directors to plan successful online and offline WOM friend-raising campaigns.

Andy Sernovitz is CEO of GasPedal, a word of mouth marketing consulting firm, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. He co-founded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and served as CEO. He is also a professional speaker and teaches Word of Mouth Marketing at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.