Technology and Testimonials

I just watched a tech documentary made from the TED conference in 2006, which doesn’t sound that long ago until you realize how long 4 years is in tech time. The idea of touch screen technology was a huge deal and going green still wasn’t main stream. Considering that the telephone was invented in the late 1800′s, we’ve come a long and the gap between the creation of technology and it’s adaptation by the mass consumer (early and late majority folks) has decreased considerably. I still remember when the Motorola StarTAC dropped around 1996 and everyone thought that thing was AMAZING. My entire town had no cell phone signal back then. Now a cell phone is much more than a phone, it’s a device that allows people to connect in more ways and more rapidly than ever before.

I was reading a blog post earlier today by Dan Patterson (here’s a link to his post) and he said something that stuck out to me:

“Look, I’m a strong believer that people – human beings – are inherently curious, inherently social, and inherently lazy. By that I mean that people want the path of least resistance between people, other people, and information.”

There is a lot of truth to that, and this is what technology is allowing us to. By default, we are reverting to the ways in which we most prefer to do things, word of mouth communication and socialization with people we like, know, and trust. It has just taken technology a while to catch up.

Now that technology HAS caught up and, in doing so, given a voice back to the people, it’s more important than ever to have good word of mouth. Enter my good friend, testimonials. I’ve talked with hundreds of business owners over the last 4 years and they all have one thing in common: their most consistently rewarding marketing is word of mouth, referral based marketing. The funny thing is, most of them have no idea how they did it, so they can’t replicate it!

Here’s a quote from Dan Kennedy, a very sharp marketing mind:

“What others say about you, your company, your products and your services is infinitely more credible than anything you can say on your own behalf. When you make a statement, it’s a claim. When your satisfied customer makes the same statement about you, that’s a fact.”

The collection of testimonials is one of THE most important things you can do to market your business, period. It’s been that way and it’s not going to change.

Think about buying habits online. People read reviews before going to restaurants, watching a movie, buying a book, buying a new phone; the list goes on and on. And they may be looking for a review on your business. Testimonials are the way to pre-sell your products and services before you even open your mouth. Now, with technology, your testimonials and what other people say about you is more important than ever.

Here are 5 ways to tap into this technology:

1. Use a Google Local Page and encourage reviews

2. Use a Linkedin Page and encourage people to “endorse” you

3. Use your Twitter account, not to sell, but to establish a community and be part of the community

4. Use your smart phone to capture testimonials on the spot. Most have voice and/or video recorders, just be sure to ask permission first. You can always transcribe the testimonial later.

5. Post testimonials to your site and refresh testimonials as you get more.

Glyphs: The Latest in Offline to Online Interactivity

You may have noticed a lot of glyphs popping up lately. OOORRRR, you may not even know what a glyph is. Here’s an image of a glyph I took out of the latest copy of INC. magazine:

This particular glyph was created for an advertisement for hotels.com. I have no affiliation with hotels.com, nor do I particularly favor them over expedia, travelocity or any of the other sites (although I do like William Shatner for some unexplainable reason) so this is no plug for travel sites.

ANYWAY, glyphs are generally used with augmented reality apps, as a sort of key; taking a symbol of some sort in it’s analog form (offline) and converting it via webcam to a digital “key” which then allows the use to interact with the software online.

Here is a GE video showing you how augmented reality can work:

It’s still a bit early to tell now consumers will react to the glyph concept, but next time you see a cryptic black and white symbol, try taking a picture of it with your iPhone, Droid, or other smart phone if you have augmented reality capabilities. You could print out the image i took above and go to virtualvacay.com and follow the instructions there. I tried it out and it was pretty cheesy, but the idea of where it could go is definitely interesting. You can print out the glyph once you get to the site also.

There are other augmented reality sites which use the horizon, your position and some other factors to show you nearby restaurants, bars, shopping, even other people on Twitter and such. These augmented reality apps often do not require a glyph and are pretty sweet. The app Layar (which is available for both the iPhone and Droid) is an example of this technology which, if nothing else, can certainly be entertaining.

What do you think of augmented reality? You can always tweet me your thoughts to @rbrianforrester

Gotta Question? Ask Twitter

Richmond, VA (Commonly refered to as RVA on Twitter) has a pretty darn good Twitter crowd. And they are active. They are all over the place. Aaaaaaand? They are a HUGE resource. Your city is probably the same way. Even if they aren’t, the Twitter community as a whole is a great resource for recommendations, referrals and general information and advice.

As an example, a while back (check my twitter stream @rBrianForrester from around 3/15/2010) I was planning a trip to Charlottesville, VA to hit up some local vineyards. I asked Twitter and ended up with some great recommendations and even learned that there was a “Spring Fling” passport available which gave me free tastings. Good for Brian AND good for business owners of the wineries we visited. Starting to see the point? If you are already on Twitter and part of a community, you already get it.

Next time you need a suggestion or have a question, try tossing it out to your “tweeps” instead of Googling it. You may be pleasantly surprised by the responses you get.

Twitter- an expanded thought

My last post dealt with the importance of Social Media and business in general and dispelled the thought that social media was just a fad that will come and go like the pet rock, Vanilla Ice, and parachute pants.

I wanted to take the time to expand a bit on just one form of Social Media–Twitter.

I read an interesting e-newsletter from a pretty smart internet marketer by the name of John Reese today. (I’ve learned about some pretty cool stuff from this newsletter so if you want to subscribe, you can click here. It’s free and I don’t know him so I’m not pawning you off on some product, although he does occasionally sell stuff)

ANYWAY, he recently shut down his Twitter account which had over 25,000 followers. This counter-intuitive thinking prompted the thoughts I’ll write here.

First, I don’t claim to know the best way to use Twitter. I don’t make claims that Twitter is the new “hotness” or that Twitter will transform your business. Hell, I don’t even claim that I use Twitter that well. (At the time of this posting i have only 441 followers) That said, I know that I use Twitter differently that even many of my friends do.

I use Twitter to watch. I’m a Twitter voyeur if you will. I watch how big companies interact with their clients. I watch how start-ups and local companies spread their message. I watch people tweet mindless babble out into the ether. I watch businesses get on Twitter and screw it up royally. And occasionally I tweet, normally to friends and people around me locally. But that’s just how I use Twitter. Everyone has their own approach.

The larger, expanded question here (and this is something I’ve wrestled back and forth with quite a bit) is the amount of time people spend on Twitter (for business purposes for the sake of this blog) worth it? Largely, I’d have to say no. But there’s a very large caveat here.

The caveat is that it depends on HOW the company is using Twitter and WHO they have using it. Done correctly, I’ve seen big business use Twitter to defuse potentially negative scenarios and win over new customers. I’ve seen small businesses successfully put customers in their stores and stimulate buzz. Done poorly, I’ve seen other businesses use Twitter as social hour (or hours…) and I’ve seen their social use of Twitter hurt their business and turn potential customers away.

The great thing about big companies is that they have the budget to hire a “Social Media Director” or some other person whose primary function is to understand Social Media, the internet, and how best to use it to build customer relations. The downside for many start-ups and small businesses is that they can’t afford to hire a full-time Social Media wiz that they trust with the voice of their company. That usually means the owner becomes the voice.

If you own a small company, and you are on Twitter 4 hours a day, off and on, with TweetDeck running in the background, how is that affecting you? Twitter can become a huge vacuum of time and accomplishment and this is something to carefully watch for. You can become dependent on checking your smart phone for Twitter updates and it can have a negative affect on your focus and accomplishment. As John Reese points on his newsletter, Twitter can also become a high school-esque EGO fest where he/she with the most followers has a superiority complex. Nothing good comes from that nonsense.

So for the reader who uses Twitter, my advice is to monitor your Twitter usage. For one week, take the time to document how often you are on Twitter. You may just be shocked how much time you use. ( I recently clocked my usage of Twitter for just one day and was amazed that I spent nearly 3 hours on Twitter in one form or another). Once you have a number, an average amount of time you spend on Twitter, ask yourself, is it worth it? What is the payoff?

These can be difficult questions to answer because some of the payoff from actively using Twitter is qualitative, not quantitative. New friendships, social invites, discounts to your favorite restaurant that you wouldn’t have know about otherwise, these things are important but hard to measure. Remember, we are focusing on Twitter for business here, so try to think in terms of how you used Twitter to build relationships that resulted in sales, new customers, new business. Again, since there are no “Twit-alytics” that can super accurately measure sales, this will take some close monitoring.

I guess the real answer here is that there is no cut and dry answer. If you have 25,000 followers on Twitter, I certainly would not recommend closing your Twitter account. At the minimum you’ve built a herd of followers who could potentially be customers, blog readers, referral sources or JV partners. But I would suggest monitoring your usage and at least try to be honest with yourself about how successfully or unsuccessfully you are using Twitter for your business. (By the way, even if you “just use Twitter for personal use” it could be cutting into your work time, big time)

Until next time,

-Brian

“Social Media is a Fad”

To that I say, yeah… right. Twitter may wax and wane and facebook may eventually go the way of Friendster and MySpace, but something will always replace it. In fact, I rarely actually use Twitter.com when I post on Twitter. I use third party applications that were built because Twitter is open-source (meaning programmers have access to the code and can write programs around that).

People want a voice. People want to be heard. People want to connect with other people. People want to interact with other people who share the same interests in them, and to argue with people they don’t agree with. Social Media provides this opportunity in a way that was not possible before the internet.

The fact that “Social Media” is a relatively new term applied recently to online communities begs the questions of it’s legitimacy but the truth is that Social Media, albeit in different forms, has been around since the internet’s conception. Forums, AOL chat groups, etc,etc are all forms of Social Media when you strip the term down to its fundamental definition.

A good friend of mine, Lindsay Dicks (@lindsaymdicks) was the first to show me this video from YouTube aptly titled “The Social Media Revolution” which paints a pretty clear picture of the future of Social Media. It’s worth a watch (the music by the way is Fat Boy Slim)

The internet is our digital Wild West and Social Media the proverbial gold rush for many business owners. More importantly though, it’s an opportunity to be part of something new, something powerful, and something that is changing the face of modern business.

You don’t have to look hard to see the impact it’s having on big business. Look at the recent incident with Filmmaker Kevin Smith (@ThatKevinSmith) and Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) that made public headlines. Entire networks are using Social Media to better connect with their audiences. Take a look at HGTV (@HGtvOfficial) who has actually started incorporating tweets from real viewers into their commercials. Ever watch the NBC nightly news. Tom Brokaw now mentions NBC’s twitter page and facebook fan page as part of his sign off every night. The icons even show up in the closing moments of the show.

So is Social Media a fad. Hell no. Not even close. People will always look for new ways to connect, new ways to stay “in the know”, new ways to have a voice, new ways to express themselves and the internet and Social Media are making that easier than ever. If anything, Social use of the internet will grow exponentially and probably reform our current economy to one of Consumer-based Capitalism. I say, ’bout time!

But I Want “It” Now

Let me start by saying this isn’t an article about the iPad. I’ll leave that to the countless tech and/or Apple blogs out there. This is an article about embracing technology and utilizing it for the betterment of your business (and maybe freeing up some time on your social calendar too!)

We live in a world of instant gratification. The days of waiting for anything can often seem obsolete. So today, when computing giant Apple unveiled it’s new iPad, the buzz wasn’t instantaneous across the world. I was able to watch real consumer feedback regarding this new product, as Apple was discussing it for the first time. How? I simply used a twitter application, TweetDeck and searched for the topic #apple and #iPad. Everyone in Twitter using those hashtags was then visible to me. There are some solid, opinionated tweets in that Twitter feed (and some that are just asinine).

Imagine what real time consumer feedback about your service offering could mean for your business. It’s not difficult to do, but how many people are paying attention? You’d be foolish not to.

Many people I speak with today are still skeptical of Twitter, and, believe it or not, of the internet! Listen, I could maybe understand being a little wary of the internet in 1999 during the dot com crash. But the internet is NOT going anywhere. And the billions of dollars being dumped into R&D (research and development) for faster, lighter more compact internet capable devices is proof of that. There is an entire generation who has grown up online, who, when asked, say they “couldn’t live without it.”

There’s a book, The Age of Speed, by Vince Poscente, which is neither prophetic nor profound, but which makes a few entertaining points about the modern age and the speed with which we process and consume massive amounts of information. In the book he makes a good point about confusing this new technology with “more work”. “In the Age of Speed, we have the tools to accomplish more in less time than our counterparts twenty years ago. Consequently we have more time, but not necessarily more time to spend doing more work,” Poscente asserts.

I would agree.

There is initially a learning curve, which generally requires plugging in and poking around. There there is the decision to use certain applications to make life easier. For this, which can seem a daunting task, I’d recommend asking people further ahead on the learning curve–or whom you trust in general. If you are one of the many people who just can’t seem to bring yourself to do any of that, I suggest finding someone for your business who is willing to do it for you, and put them to work. Your presence on the internet, while still only part of the puzzle, is increasingly a more important part of the puzzle.

“We change, whether we like it or not”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The iPhone Opportunity

Apple has created a remarkable piece of technology in their iPhone (AT&T’s service is another topic) that has allowed us to connect to the web and the world in new ways. As you may have noticed by the influx of iPhone commercials “there’s an app for just about everything” on the iPhone.

With this new technology comes a new opportunity to reach out to your customers and potential customers. Custom Application Development allows you to turn your iPhone app idea into a reality. Let’s take a quick look at how one forward thinking company is doing so profitably.

My first example is grocer, Whole Foods, who has a great (and free) iPhone app. Now you may be thinking, “yeah, but if it’s free, and it cost them money to get it developed, how is it profitable?” Good question, let me explain.

What Whole Foods has done is create a robust, user friendly app that give the user a TON of great recipes and cooking ideas based on a bunch of different categories including “Course” (Brunch, Snacks, Beverages, Main Dishes and more), “Category” (Entertaining, Budget, Family Friendly,etc) and Special Diet (High Fiber, Low Fat, Gluten Free, etc). You can target exactly the type of meal you are searching for in seconds. For example my search for “Vegetarian,Entertaining, Appetizers” yielded recipes for Homemade Hummus, Tomato Bruschetta Spread, Roasted Peppers with Marinated Feta and Greek Olives and on and on. I’m getting hungry just looking at some of these pictures.

And that’s exactly what they want. You see, they don’t only offer all these great recipes, they tell you exactly where to find the ingredients in their grocery stores! Now you can see how this could be profitable. People who already shop at Whole Foods will be more likely to buy more items as they experiment with these recipes, and people who have never shopped here will be more likely to come in, knowing that they can easily locate all of the items they need for their new recipe under one roof. Brilliant!

I think you can see the impact a simple app can have on a business.

Now take a look at your business. How can you extend your reach through a free or even paid application? How can you harness the power of this evolving marketplace, step in front of your market, and provide a service that your clients/customers may not even be anticipating? This is a provocative question which deserves your attention.

Creating a custom application can extend your reach and influence well beyond your current market, and has the power to grow virally without much promotion. It can become another tool in your evergrowing arsenal of marketing and communication firepower.

What are you doing to step up your game?

Marketing in the New Millennium

In the wake of the most recent market slump, many business who survived have learned to market in a whole new way. The status quo no longer produces the desired results, and big, slow companies are feeling the affects of antiquated marketing thinking.

Marketing in the new millennium means discovering what your potential clients, customers, patients or whatever, want and need and then addressing those issues specifically. It means reaching out to your customers with customized, individualized marketing messages that they can relate to and speak to. It means being part of a discussion, not just blasting out your marketing until people are tired of seeing it, praying that someone will respond. Marketing for today and tomorrow means crafting a message and targeting your audience, interacting with your audience, and providing solutions that work. Your marketplace will expect it and if you don’t deliver, you may end up with numerous bad reviews about your business that people read before they choose to do business with you.

David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” crafted his very successful book based largely on feedback from the marketplace he exists in. While he was writing the book, he would post chapters and ideas to his blog which can be found here:

http://www.webinknow.com/

The results is a book that is a composite based on many individual thoughts, ideas and criticisms. It’s a fluid experience that would not have been possible had he not had the insight to have his book critiqued by what became it’s readers and supporters. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you read his book and check out his blog. He is a great example of an entrepreneur who has been very successful at leveraging the internet and social media to market his message.

Marketing in the new millennium means understanding, or hiring someone who understands, the ever-changing world wide web and how to harness it’s power for the benefit of your business. Intrusive marketing is out, thoughtfully crafted, individualized marketing is in, and your website, along with it’s other online components, is the hub from which all of this marketing can resonate.

Take time to revisit your marketing strategy, both online and offlline. Revisit opportunities to connect with your clients and customers, and start listening to what they are saying. There may be a hidden opportunity for growth, and the creation of your own blue ocean.

Keeping Up With It All (Information Overload)

Info Overload?  Feeling like there is no way to keep up with everything going on around you?  This is the age of speed and the average Joe (and Jane) have been empowered through blogging and social media to deliver news even faster than many mainstream media like radio and T.V.  That means that news and other very valuable information is now available from thousands of sources which update all day, every day.  Keeping track of blogs you read, news, Twitter, Facebook, forums… yeah, it can be difficult.

So what can you do about it?

First, realize that you can’t keep up with all of it.  There is no way to process that much information.  The sooner you come to this conclusion, the better you will sleep.

Second, organize.    I subscribe to 50 or so feeds (which is probably a relatively small number compared to many of my friends) so one day of not checking my RSS Reader and I’ve suddenly got hundreds of possible articles to read.  The cool thing about the Google Reader I use (and there are many others, like Feed Burner) is that you can organize your info so that it comes to you in a form you can digest.   I’ll skim headlines until I see something I like.  If I notice I’m not reading a particular feed ever, I may just cancel the feed.  Get a RSS reader if you don’t already have one, it will change your life.  Basically think of it as a newspaper where you pick the content.  Pretty sweet!

Third, prioritize.  I’ve got a list of at least 30 books I want to read, I’ve got my RSS feeds, Twitter account (@rbrianforrester), Facebook, Foursquare and I’ve got my educational research…all of this is constantly happening.  So prioritization is key.  Make a list of how what you want to get done, and factor in your reading time throughout the day. Find your favorite blogs that deliver the best content, and put those higher on the list. The key is to make sure you absorb the information that is most important to you, without worrying about missing out on something. Just accept that you will inadvertently miss out on something- it’s O.K.

Get a system for organization.  Preferably one that works across platforms and projects.  I’ve been recommended a little service called Evernote which has been working out great for me.  It syncs with my phone, my desktop and online so I can access my lists and ideas from basically anywhere.

Got any tools that you use to stay organized in the ever-clutter digital world?  Feel free to share them with me.

The Death of Antiquated and Intrusive Media

The death of many intrusive, one way, and/or antiquated media is upon us.  For many, this comes as a blessing.  If you aren’t prepared for it, and it’s the only way you market your business, you may want to pay attention.

In the old days you may put an ad in the Yellow Book, where you could sit right next to everyone else who does what you do, and hope for the phone to ring. Well, Verizon sold the phone book for a reason- they saw that medium’s impending doom. Phone book use is dropping big time as more and more consumers turn to the web to find answers fast. While the phone book isn’t intrusive, it is certainly one way and increasingly a more antiquated media outlet.  Phone book ad sales have plummeted in the past 5 years as more and more business turn towards the internet to spend their marketing dollars.

Think about it, what do you do when you need to find a restaurant, get an oil change, or find an A/C repair man? Technology is growing so rapidly now, that many people get answers almost immediately from their phones. Really though, the answer for most people is the same- we go to the internet when we want answers and we want them fast.  We search them out in search engines like Google or Bing, or we ask for suggestions and read recommendations on sites like Yelp, Twitter or Facebook.

The problem with this antiquated marketing is that it doesn’t allow consumers to interact. When was the last time you looked in your phone book and could instantly read reviews from someone who ate at the restaurant you’re thinking of going to? Umm….never!  If you want to find out the dirt on a restaurant that could possibly save you time, money and a bad experience, you can ask people you trust or read reviews online.

Wouldn’t it be nice to learn that 30 people thought the food in a particular restaurant sucked, the bathrooms were dirty and the waiter was rude? Well, with the internet you can find out BEFORE having the experience.  Not only that, you can find out where to go to have a wonderful, relaxing experience with superior service and fair pricing.

In fact, the Yellow Pages company has moved online in an effort to keep their company afloat, but I fear it may be too little too late for them. We shall see…

The Yellow Page medium for advertising was fairly effective when people turned to the Yellow Pages to look something up. I know clients who used to spend upwards of $20,000 a year on their Yellow Page ad. No longer. That medium has become antiquated and is no longer effective.

A much more annoying type of advertising, commonly referred to as intrusive media, is marketing that slaps you in the face; uninvited, and usually unwanted.

How many times have you been watching your local morning news on the TV only to have some super annoying car “salesman” yelling in your face about some limited time inventory reduction deal? I use the word salesman in quotations because if these guys had a clue about marketing and advertising, these commercials wouldn’t be around. In fact, we’ve been looking to buy a new car lately, but have actually left a couple of dealerships because the “salesmen” are more like buzzards swarming in on a kill than qualified sales professionals ready to help answer your questions.

This type of in your face, intrusive, try to sell you something you don’t need (or want) approach is dying off as we enter the “age of the consumer” where consumer’s voices are increasingly more important and more easily heard. Companies who fail to adapt to these changes will soon find themselves slim on new customers.  Smart companies are paying attention to what their buyers actually want and need.

There is another type of marketing seeing big changes. It’s too new to call antiquated but as far as the internet is concerned, it’s super old school. I’m talking about email, and it’s marketing equivalent the email blast. This type of electronic marketing where your message is sent to a prospect via email, can still be effective. But the rules have changes. Spam laws are constantly changing, and in order to have an email blast that gets through without ending up in someone’s spam box, it is best to first build a list through some other offering and then market to a clean list that has given your permission to market.  The term “permission based marketing” has evolved from this concept and is more in line with what consumers what and expect from the companies they patronize.

This is the age of the consumer, so be wise and get interested in sites like Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, Linkedin and the like.  Whether or not you are in the conversation, people are probably talking about your business.  Being part of the conversation allows you hear what’s going on, solve problems, build a following and promote your brand the right way.