On reflection, I don’t think that those figures are that surprising (hey, I’m on holiday, and I’m still ‘at it’!), but some of the key issues to consider might be:

• What media are your customers (and prospective customers) paying most attention to?
• How can you ‘stand out’ in these incredibly crowded markets? 
• How are you ‘maximising’ your own time and efforts when your doing this stuff?

In other words, are you ‘plugged in’ to what your customers are ‘plugging in’ to? The really customer focused businesses understand and maximise this.

Finally, it’s also worth pointing out that, even with all this ‘modern technology’,  sometimes the ‘old fashioned’ ways of communicating are still a great way of making contact with people and differentiating yourself!

If you want any tips on how, have a look at this article I wrote for Management Issues called ‘Don’t write off those old fashioned ways’.

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 It’s not about what you had for breakfast, how brilliant your business is, and why people should only buy from you, it’s about ‘adding value’ and contributing!  Here are 10 things they do well.

They:

1. Share ideas

2. ‘Engage’ with others

3. Add value and don’t ‘push’ their products and services

4. Link people together 

5. Collaborate with others, and help others collaborate

6. Create communities of like-minded people

7. Contribute to those communities

8. Create ‘dialogue’, not ‘diatribes’!

9. Generate conversations with others

10. Seek opinions and ideas

Any more for any more? Would love to hear your ideas!

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It was a worldwide study, and the figure for the UK small businesses was 33% compared to 52% inIndia!

It’s clear that many businesses ‘get it’, but it’s also true that many obviously don’t! Clearly, there’s no ‘one thing’ to ‘get’, but if you are one of those who hasn’t yet, perhaps you need to start looking!

Amazingly and totally coincidentally, as I was writing this blog post an email popped in my inbox from Smarta which featured a video by Doug Richards talking all about this. Even more coincidentally (and a bit spookily!) he explained that he’s running a 2 day workshop all about it…..on my own doorstep, here in Sheffield! 

Made In Sheffield looks great! Think I might be booking to help me ‘get more of it’!

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It’s from the guys at SiteVisibility who’ve got lots of good stuff on their website providing you with ideas and guidance on all things ‘interweb’ marketing!

While I’m on it, their ‘podcast’ is oten well worth a listen to if you’re looking to improve (or even ‘start’) your approach to internet marketing.

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Authenticity is what this is all about – it’s not about the hype! Please be ‘authentic’ in everything that you do

Be clear about what you want to achieve – know why you’re doing it

Communities – tap into them to get started – find out what others are doing

Dialogue, not diatribes…. remember, it’s all about conversations

Educate yourself by ‘following’ people you admire, like and are interested in – what can you learn from them?

Find something to Tweet about and…

Get ‘Twittering’ (or is it ‘Tweeting’?)

Have a clear plan to make it all work

Ideas – pass them on to others, even if they are other people’s (it’s called ‘retweeting!’)

Join in conversations and help others Join in too!

Keywords – what are the words that customers and potential customers are using to look for people like you? Find out, and use them in your tweets!

Listen to others  - comment on their tweets, engage with them (Feel free to Click here to ‘follow’ me!)

Make a name for yourself by establishing yourself as an ‘expert’ in your field

Never ‘spam’ people

Organise yourself – make time to do it

Permission marketing is what it’s all about – it’s not about Pushing stuff at people they don’t want (For more on ‘Permission Marketing, see Seth Godin)

Quality, not Quantity – It’s not about how many ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ you have, it’s the quality. Remember, size isn’t everything!

Recognising other’s contributions is great – give ‘credit where credit’s due’ and acknowledge other people’s contributions!

Signpost others – highlight great stuff that you find and Share it (hey, why not ‘tweet’ this?!!!)

Think CNN – everything you Tweet is either Critical (relevant stuff people really value ), Nice (interesting things, but not critical – not too much of this please) and Noise (stuff people aren’t interested in) Avoid ‘Noise’!

Understand what your ‘audience’ and ‘potential’ audience are looking for – provide it!

Value – add it to your communities and networks by contributing!

Word of mouth (and mouse) works if you’ve got something worth talking about – find it and provide it!

Xtend your marketing activities to include Twitter if you feel it can add value (chances are it can!)

You need to find out how!

Zap ‘spam’ (I’ll not tell you again!)

This is clearly the alphabet according to Andy Hanselman here in Sheffield in the UK!  I’d love to hear from anyone else around the world about their ‘interpretation’ of the letters.  Please let me know what you think!

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It began as a pretty good TV advertisement which was copied and mimicked by lots of people on YouTube, and then they built on this.

Recognising that it was becoming an internet ‘hit’, they created ‘personalised’ versions for specific individuals who they knew would then blog and tweet about it creating a massive ‘word of mouse’ campaign.

They started off with Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg after he’d posted a tweet saying he was poorly by sending him a ‘get well message’ in a similar form to the advert!! Hs then tweeted this out to over 1 million people, many of who, I’m sure retweeted it to lots more! 

They followed this up with a ‘personalised message’ to Perez Hilton, the celebrity ’gossip’ broadcaster and blogger, who again sent it out to all his millions of ‘followers’.

The whole campaign is a great example of :

• Being ‘innovative’ in your approach to getting your message across
• Crossing the media channels and maximising the way they are combined
• Targetting and building on the power of key influencers in your market place
• Harnessing the power of ‘word of mouse’ by doing stuff that actually gets people talking 

OK, so you may not have the money to spend on a ‘glamorous advertisement’, but what could you do to be ‘innovative’,  ’crossing’, ‘tapping into and building influence’ and ‘ doing stuff worth talking about’?

 Anyway, I’m off for a shower, and now I’ve blogged about it, I’m waiting for my personalised video too!!!!!

Quick Update:

No, they’ve not done me a personalised video yet, but look at these impressive statistics on the ‘spread’ of this stuff here

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There are some great insights for anyone who is, or is thinking of, trying to maximise the effectiveness of their social media marketing from real thought leaders like Guy Kawasaki, John Jantsch, Brian Solis and Robert Scoble.

It’s the brainchild of Sam Rosen, CEO of Thoughtlead and it’s well worth an hour of your time (well, 1 hour, 1 minute and 18 seconds to be precise, but don’t be too judgemental!)

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The rise of social media has created lots of opportunities. It’s also created lots of threats, particularly to those businesses that are ‘struggling’ with what to do with it, and how to do it!

The issue of  ’noise’ is just one of the  ‘challenges’ businesses face identified by Jeremiah Owyang in Silicon Valley and this post on his website highlighting these barriers and crucially offering some suggestions on how to go about overcoming them is well worth  a read.

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On a very ‘crowded’ and ‘noisy’ website, I eventually found the ‘watch and chat’ bit. When I clicked on the ’watch’ bit up came what turned out to be advert followed by 2 more, with no real indication that I had clicked the right area.

Nothing against adverts at all – after all, that’s what funds ITV – but please ‘MAKE IT EASY FOR US TO BUY FROM YOU!’ – In this case, let me find what I want on the site (the match itself) and at least let me know that the ‘streaming of the match’ will follow after the ‘short advertising break’.

So, I’ll reiterate the point – customer focused businesses create a customer experience that makes them ‘easy to do business with’ – online and offline. How easy are you to do business with?

Right, back to my ‘research’!

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A new report has just highlighted that ‘usability’ is the number 1 factor in what customers look for.

According to the “Revolutionizing Website Design” report from digital marketing agency Oneupweb, clearly presented pricing and shipping information, for example, is the most important feature of e-commerce sites, followed by indications of credibility and trustworthiness. Visual appeal and functionality like cost calculators and search were also relatively important. But advanced features such as live chat and social hooks were important to but a small minority of respondents.

So, I’ll keep saying it! Online or offline – BE EASY TO BUY FROM!

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