Underground Web Designs Blog

You really should read the SanDisk story on Chris Brogan’s blog. Go ahead, I’ll wait. 

Back?

When I read that story, I was blown away by the power of social networking. A customer had complained about a product on Twitter, so hundreds would read the complaint and most companies would not have even noticed. Because Rachel was plugged in to the social web and acted quickly to address the complaint, thousands have heard the story, and thousands more will hear it in the days to come, because it is spreading.

The sad part (or maybe not) is that Rachel lost her job with SanDisk. However because of her willingness to help and social media savvy, she now has a public recommendation on a popular blog. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s been hired already.

If you do business in the online world, it’s important to make the first step when it comes to customer service. You can’t just deal with the people who contact you… you have to engage the discussion about your product or service where it matters: on the social web.

Every business wants attention. If nobody ever entered your store, phoned your office or viewed your website you would have a pretty hard time making money. But how do you get this attention? What can you do that will cause people to notice you, to enter your store or visit your website?

One of the best ways to attract attention is to do something outrageous… and it’s often easier than it may seem. If you have a store and your business is located on a busy street, a simple sign out front with a quirky message will get attention. In fact, I was at a restaurant that had done this last night. They booked a last minute concert and put up a sign at 3:00 PM. By 7:00 PM when I arrived the 150 seat concert had sold out! And this wasn’t a blockbuster band either, but a local one.

The same thing can be done online as well. Urban Prankster.com is a site that features people who have gotten attention by doing outrageous things. A picture on a website, or a video on YouTube of something unusual will get attention… this video of a “drug vending machine” by Imbue has had almost 13,000 views on YouTube in less than 2 weeks!

Another classic example is the “Will It Blend” videos. What better way to draw attention to a common kitchen appliance, in this case a blender, than by posting outrageous videos of it blending everything from iPhones to Nike Shoes?

Of course, you don’t want to do anything that discredits you or ruins your brand, but don’t underestimate the power of outrageous actions to bring attention to your business. What outrageous and unexpected event, video, or even picture could you use to draw attention, and potentially customers, to your business?

Please Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you happen to like any of Seth Books and buy one after following a link from this site, I’ll make a few dollars toward expanding my own business library. Of course, you’re free to look up the books yourself if you want! 

As I mentioned in my last post about the traditional advertising vs. authentic communication, different marketers use different methods to spread the word about their online businesses. Seth Godin is the poster child for the “authentic communication” approach in marketing. His books, such as The Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars, and Meatball Sundae all center around this theme.

Today Seth’s latest book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, hits the market. This time around Seth is talking about how we’re all part of a group, or a tribe. As business owners, we can either create a brand and then try and sell it to people, or we can develop a tribe and then create products for them. Whether your business is selling houses or selling peanuts, if you can help the people that love what you do connect with each other, not only will the power of word of mouth marketing begin to work for you, but you will not need to search for any more customers! By bringing people together you create a community that will provide you feedback about what they want. If you in turn listen and create products specifically for them you can be sure they’ll sell, because you’re meeting a specific need, the need of your tribe.

I won’t say too much more about Tribes, other than that I highly recommend it. Seth Godin explains the concepts much better than I ever could. In the meantime, if you want a taste of what a Tribe can accomplish, check out the Tribes Casebook Seth released today. This 200+ page PDF was created entirely by members of an elite tribe Seth has been cultivating and is available for everyone as a free download. Download it and read some of the stories, both present and past, of tribes and the people who have led them. After you’ve read through some of the stories, think about your business. How can you cultivate a tribe around what you do?

If you read much online business literature, it seems there are two camps about how to do business online. The first focuses on more traditional advertising, while the second focuses on authentic communication. Which one works better? To be honest, at this point I don’t know. I’ve read good arguments for both. Before we get in too deep, how about some definitions first. What exactly do I mean by Traditional Advertising and Authentic Communication?

Well, when I think of Advertising, the first thing that comes to mind are big TV ads or billboards it Times Square. It’s big, it’s in your face, it’s usually expensive, and it’s only purpose is to make you buy something. On the internet this translates to extensive use of Pay-Per-Click campaigns, highly tested and optimized landing pages, and exacting sales copy designed to create an irresistible desire in people to buy a project.

By contrast, “Communication”, in the context of selling something, involves a much more personal connection with your audience; at least to me it does. To me communication is what blogs and social media are all about. It’s about putting your stuff out there and asking people flat out what they think of it. YouTube, Facebook, Squidoo, and Digg are all great examples of this. Communication is all about word of mouth and “viral” marketing.

Now, the question of which works better? Like I said at the beginning, I don’t know. When I first got into online business, I was deeply prejudiced against traditional advertising. Coming from a consumer’s point of view, I didn’t (and still don’t) like it’s generally impersonal, in your face nature. As I grew a bit more experienced however, I came to see that for all it’s faults, traditional advertising does produce results, which is good from a business owners standpoint. On the flip side, while much more “consumer friendly”, communication based advertising can be much harder to make work. It requires a lot of time, and a fair bit of skill to write things people will read and engage with. It takes even more skill (and dare I say luck) to produce a successful “viral” campaign.

Personally, I still prefer “communication” based marketing, because as a consumer I prefer feeling like my opinion and feedback is appreciated and acted upon. Because the internet is such a flexible medium and makes communication so easy, I think it would be a shame for it to become filled with blatant “interruption advertising”. Having said that, I’m not 100% sold on either method, and would love to hear what you think and how you market your business.

Do you use “traditional advertising” or “communication marketing” to sell your products or services, and why did you choose the method you did? Please post your experiences in the comments section!

Does your website sell people what they need, or what they want?

Take a look at your website, read the sales page… and think about what you are selling. Not what product or service you’re selling, but what idea you’re selling. Are you making people feel that your service is something they need, or are you making them feel that it’s something they want?

If you’re selling to a customer’s need, consider revising your copy to focus on wants. You see, the simple fact is that most of the stuff you sell, your customer doesn’t really need. You may think they need it, but do they really? In fact, everything but water, simple food, and basic shelter is things we want.

If you’re selling strategy is focused on convincing people that they NEED what you’re selling, you’re setting yourself up to fail. There are too many options, and people are getting too smart. I know I don’t really need the latest pair of brand name running shoes… but since all my friends have iPods, I really WANT an iPod. So I’ll go buy the iPod, even though it costs more.

So how do you do it? How do you sell your products to people’s wants?

• Ask them what they want, then create the product to satisfy those wants. It’s hard to guess every time, and with the internet you don’t have to. Just ask your customers what they want and build it into your product.
• Exceed expectations. Apple is great at this. When Apple released the iPhone, they capitalized on a want people had: a want for stylish cell phones. Then they exceeded expectations by providing a bigger screen, touchscreen capabilities, music, very good internet access, and much more.
• Sell your product emotionally. While it’s good to talk about the facts about your product, facts don’t sell things. Convincingly explain how your product will improve someone’s life, save them time, or bring them success — all things everybody wants already — and your products will sell.

What does the internet mean?

A quick google search will turn up several definitions, all along the same lines: 

Internet: A global network; an interconnection of large and small networks around the world.

Now, that may be what the internet is but that’s not what the internet means. When you think of the internet, do you think of a network of computers that spans the entire world? That may be part of it, but that’s definitely not all the internet is. The internet means much more than just a global network. The internet means easy, immediate access to anything. It means communicating with friends and family around the world in the blink of an eye. It means ordering what I want in 5 minutes from my office chair, and either downloading it right away or having it delivered a few days later.

If you’re in business and have a website, how does your website match with this “instant gratification” definition of the internet? Are you helping people find what they want, when they want it? Or are you trying to sell them something they don’t want? Does it take them a long time to find what you sell — or worse yet, to buy it once they’ve found it? Do you even know what your customers want?

In order to be successful online, you have to understand how people see the internet and work with them. Help them find the information they want quickly, easily, and simply. Make your product available to the people who are looking for it, but don’t annoy those who don’t. Interact, communicate, and listen.

What definition of the internet does your website follow? Are you still looking to reach everybody? Or do you provide exactly what a small niche is looking for?

I know, I know, everybody’s saying to use this or that social network to promote your business. Well, even though I don’t agree that every business should be using social networking, there are certainly some businesses that should use it, and use it well.

If your business is a local business– you’re offering a local product or service and don’t plan on shipping it all over the world — Facebook is the perfect way to promote it. In fact, a local business is the only type of business I would recommend use Facebook, for three reasons:

1. Local businesses match Facebook’s goals. Facebook is designed to connect you to your friends and let you share with them what you’re doing. If your business is a local thing, you can tie into this friend connection by creating a group for your business and getting friends to join, posting pictures of friends or others using your products, etc.
2. You can capitalize on interaction. Besides connection, Facebook is all about interaction — Who did what, when, and with whom. Use this dynamic to promote your product. Get people talking about you and your business with their friends. Make your business a part of their lives.
3. Make your business comment worthy. Facebook is all about short comments. Wall posts, picture comments, etc. Make sure that what you do is worth commenting on. If nobody comments on your business you will get no benefit from Facebook.

In order to promote anything successfully on Facebook, it has to be interesting to your current friends list. If you start a Facebook group for your business, remember that only your own friends will see it at first. If they find it interesting, it will spread. If they don’t, it will fail. If what you do is of no interest to your own friends, then don’t bother promoting on Facebook. Try something else. But if you can make what you do interesting to your friends — enough that they will comment and interact with you about it — you have the potential to grow a very large business using Facebook.

Now I’m just like the next guy — I won’t comment on just anything. But this whole post was inspired by a local business using Facebook for advertising and promotion. Take a look: Bake Me A Cake. Look at the pictures, read the comments. If you can do this with your business, then promote it using Facebook. If you can’t generate this kind of buzz, don’t waste your time.

As great as the internet is, there’s nothing quite like meeting other people who share your passion face to face. That’s why I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to attend the WebVisions Conference in Portland Oregon later this week (Thursday and Friday).

Even though I’ve learned a lot about the internet and how it works on my own from reading, research, etc. nothing is quite the same as having the chance to talk to people who know the business better than you do. The chance to ask questions, participate in live discussions, and hear the passion in someone’s voice is priceless.

That’s a good thing to keep in mind as we build websites too. Even though a site IS an online entity, not an in person meeting, people will be more willing to trust you if you can provide an “in person” feel to your site. Isn’t that why sites like Facebook and Myspace do so well?

Of course, not everybody can start their own social network — nor should they. However, if you stop talking AT your audience, and start sharing something your passionate about with them, it shows. Enthusiasm is infections, and if you can communicate to your audience that you care about them personally, and that you truly believe what you have to offer is the best thing for them, they’ll listen.

After all, why else would I fly across North America to learn stuff I could probably get from the net if I looked hard enough? It’s not about the information, it’s about how it’s presented.

PS: Keep an eye out for posts live from Portland and the WebVisions conference over the next few days. And if anyone who’s attending happens to read this, shoot me a comment, I’d love to meet up with you there!

It’s the latest big buzz in the internet marketing world: Web 2.0. But for all it’s popularity, nobody seems to know just what it is. Ask any 10 people in a room what “Web 2.0″ is, and you’ll get 10 different answers (unless 2 or 3 people say “what’s that?”).

From all my research as an website designer, the closest thing to a definition for web 2.0 that I’ve found goes something like this:

Web 2.0 describes a change of thinking about how the web works. No longer is the web about information — it is about networking and connections. Webmasters are no longer the only ones who write web content- everybody does.

With this in mind, how can “Web 2.0″ impact your business?

What do YouTube, Facebook, and eBay have in common that you don’t have?

• They all have communication and user feedback.
• Much of their website content is generated by users in the first place, not a webmaster.
• They provide their users with more than information, they provide them with an online community.

You see, the next generation of websites is not about telling your market to buy this or go here. That’s for TV advertising. People don’t like being yelled at, especially online. Instead, use the power of the internet to connect with your market. Talk to them, discover what they want, and then provide it. Because communication is what web 2.0 is really about. It’s not about slick designs or logos, it’s not about the latest and best technologies (though it does use them), web 2.0 is about making the internet a conversation.

How can your business enter the global conversation that is the internet? Here are some tips to get you started:

The internet used to be like a big old library encyclopedia. You could find just about any information you wanted in it, but you had little opportunity to make your own opinions heard. Now that is changing. The next generation of internet users  expects to be able to make their points heard. They expect the internet to be an interactive, engaging experience.

Is your business keeping up?

Where does your target market hang out?

Different markets spend time in different places, both online and off. With the advent of the social web, it’s now easier than ever to reach people where they spend a lot of time… but do you know where to look?

YouTube is loved by young people and teens, but few people who are out of highschool spend much time searching the site for the latest cool videos to watch.

Likewise, Facebook’s user base is mostly highschool students, college students, and young adults.

While I won’t argue that both Facebook and YouTube can be great potential marketing opportunities, I would suggest first thinking about who you are trying to market TOO. If your message is great for college students, then by all means, get an ad on facebook. If your target market is teens and pre-teens, make a super-cool YouTube ad. But if your ad is targeted at working class parents or baby boomers, YouTube and Facebook probably aren’t going to show a very high ROI.

The social web has more than anything divided internet users into groups. Different people use different services and get their news from different places. Different demographics spend their leisure web-surfing time in different places. So before you spend a ton of money on the next hottest YouTube vid, do some research into where in the online universe your target market hangs out, and advertise there.

You’re almost guaranteed a better ROI than just taking shots in the dark.