Thursday, August 14. 2008
Having tested XING over many months, Germany's biggest newspaper FAZ came to this conclusion (in short): XING is a place to discuss all kinds of subjects, an entertaining, comprehensive place for dating and hobby forums where you can find friends and your partner for life maybe. But as a business contact tool it is not suitable at all. "Das Web-2.0-Konstrukt Xing, glauben wir, hat die besten Zeiten schon hinter sich. Aus unserer Sicht ist es ein unterhaltsames Panoptikum für alle Themen der Welt, ein vielseitiges Flirt- und Hobby-Forum, in dem man Freund und Lebenspartner finden kann. Für berufliche Zwecke erscheint uns Xing kaum geeignet, denn Kontrakte und Kontakte machen wir immer noch persönlich und am Telefon. Daran hat auch Web 2.0 nichts geändert. Die virtuelle Gemeinschaft vermittelt nur das Gefühl, ein wenig näher am Geschäft zu sein. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall."
I agree with this statement, having just unsubscribed from it as well. While it was possible to find certain contacts in the IT community, having used it for one of our clients in business development, I saw little prospect of bottom line results with it. I think that the members are mostly freelancers and job-seekers who use it as an inexpensive tool to maybe some day land a freelance or full-time job, and then it pays for itself. If nothing comes of it, and that is probably the case for most people, it does not do any harm either, as expectations are anyway very low. An analogy would be installing a low-cost software package and testing it on your PC -- if it is not exactly what you were looking for you simply de-install it. The very same business model is what the XING people seem to be after...
Friday, March 21. 2008

Typically, risk taking is something the US startup scene is well used to and, while they understand better than anyone else in the world how to maximize return on startup investments, things do often get overheated, and irrational trends are pursued too long, right up to the point that things really turn bad. Prime example we had in 2000 with Internet startups, with the whole tech scene following a year or two later (e.g. there was just no market for 20 metro DWDM startups). Now Web 2.0 is the buzzword and another one was - it seems - social network business models.
As managing director Barry Schuler of VC Draper Fisher Juvertson (also in 2007 the VC firm with the highest number of startup investments in the US) said at a conference in San Francisco: "If I see another business plan for a social network, I might blow my brains out."
"It seems like 2000: Everything is the next big social network, even though no one has figured out a real business plan for that yet."
Of course what is said is often not done. Also DFJ has quite a good amount invested into social network sites and many others are still doing so now. Rational behind this? No risk, no fun I guess. For a history on social network sites, read this article here from the School of Information at UC Berkeley.
Saturday, March 8. 2008
Google Analytics helps you monitor how well your website is doing in attracting visitors - and then helps you take action to improve. Your adword campaigns can also be checked, along with cost (revenue or profit) per click for each keyword - including many other criteria such as locations (region, country, city). In addition, you can look at reports on how to best tune your content. You can monitor the steps landing page visitors take on your site so that you can improve it. Often small design or content changes can make a huge difference, so you want to run different versions and compare their effectiveness. The ultimate goal is of course to lead the users all the way to the sign-out and not lose them on their way to it. There are an endless number of tools and services available, such as Statcounter, which we have used next to self-made tools in the past for our own site and most of our clients'. Now we are also starting to run Google Analytics in parallel and see if this provides us even more visibility or improves usability. At first sight this seems a powerful tool and best of all it is FREE. Of course, what you need to do is sign on and provide some of your private data, but that's what you have to do with any other tool as well. As audio and video content becomes ever more important, Google Analytics' latest feature as reported on the Google Analytics Blog site also supports audio content analysis. Click the picture below for a product tour on Google Analytics. 
Thursday, February 21. 2008
A number of times recently I have come across websites that offer fake social interactivity. Pages are billed with keywords like "group", "community" or "club", and you confidently expect something that offers the kind of dialog offered by their real-world equivalent. Clicking for the sake of curiosity, though, you find either more company news, special offers, or some edited testimonials and questions. Every time I see this, I wonder how customers are going to react. I mean, how they will feel if you ask them to a party, and then when they get there tell them to keep quiet while you talk about yourself?
What I imagine happening is that marketing partners or employees are told the company needs some kind of social networking feature. Then, when individual options are discussed, they look like too much work for little return (blog, wiki) or too open (online forum). Companies decide instead to play it safe and use the "feature" to include marketing content that didn't make it onto the home page. Making the marketing department, and the management, happy - even though customers are disappointed!
But social interactivity is a genuinely useful tool. It means essentially two things - creating open dialog and sharing useful information. One thing that doesn't belong in the picture is company information. It's just bad form to start a conversation by talking about yourself. The choice of medium is important, but it's the underlying aim that is crucial. If there is a genuine desire to open up the communication, this will make itself clear. But, if your company and product info are not promoted, where is the value? The answer is that it is indirect. Customer relationships are improved through active involvement, and your expertise, trustworthiness and intellectual leadership are implicit. In the case of innovation factories, customers can actually contribute to your expertise and product development, too!
The fear of customers damaging your reputation is unrealistic - people using facilities that you host are generally going to behave well. Joining up already shows a degree of loyalty and respect. If you have given a customer cause for complaint, that's an opportunity for you to demonstrate good customer service. If they misunderstand something about your products, that's a great chance to explain it better and share useful information with others. And in the unlikely event that a contributor abuses the medium, it's not you but they who look bad.
The question is simply, what kind of open communication do you want with your customers, and do you have the resources to do it right? How you answer those questions determines the medium you use. If the answer is, we want a feature but not real communication, you are just wasting resources. You need to look at how the web has changed things in the last few years. Information is so open now that buzzwords are of little value - it's now all about being accessible and authentic - the real danger lies in faking it!
Thursday, February 14. 2008
Web 2.0 features such as rich content and social networking tools have changed web design fundamentally, creating new businesses and new ways of doing business. This can make it tempting to hand over the whole creation process to your webmaster rather than risk getting out of your depth. However, the single most important aspect of creating a website has not changed at all - writing content that drives your business goals. That means getting the attention of your target customer, keeping it, and persuading them to take the next step. In a high-tech, large sales environment that probably doesn't mean an online order form, but the next step is still crucial, be that joining a mailing list, signing up for an event, or setting up a meeting.
Making this happen probably depends not so much on how sophisticated your website is as how good the content is. Design and online marketing tools enhance content but are no substitute for it. To make sure that your content is effective, you need to stay close to the creative process, and stick to a few golden rules.
So, what are the rules?
1. Know your audience. You need to have a clear idea of exactly which buyer persona / personae will be reading your page, and why they will be reading it. You also need to be clear exactly what you want them to do next (- and make it clear to them, too!).
2. Be friendly. You want to develop a close relationship with the reader, so don't keep them at arm's length. Address them as "you", and use personal examples that will help them see you as a trusted friend.
3. Tell your readers something they want to know. News, useful information, a solution to a problem they have. Ask yourself, "Even if they don't take the next step in the buying process, will they be glad they read this page? Are they likely to use the information here, bookmark the page, or talk to someone else about it?"
3. Headlines are all-important - though writing them can be an art. Lists are good: "10 things you need to know about...". "How To" statements work, too, e.g. "How to increase sales on your website in 3 easy steps". Figures are good: "Why 97% of all our customers say they will buy from us again next time". Problem-solution statements are helpful: "Make certain your software purchases match your business needs, every time." The headline should attract but not mystify readers.
4. Write top-down and use subheads. Many readers scan. They need to see the main points easily, and that means that the crucial information should be visible at a glance. Most important points should be first line, and the subheads should spell out rest of the content clearly. Using bold text for key points also helps.
5. Clean, clear copy. No typos, stick to grammar rules, make the style simple, consistent and effective. Try to use action verbs. You may well need a professional copywriter to write or at least edit your text, but that will be money well spent.
6. Offer a definite benefit in the content, and link it to action. Time-limited or free offers are classic B2C tools, and can work for B2B too, but at the risk of cheapening your image. For B2B, the principle still applies to e.g. papers, webinars, conference tickets, newsletters etc.
7. Use "calls to action" in your copy. Asking people to click a button increases response rates dramatically.
8. Use visuals. Why? Firstly, they will get attention and make your page more interesting. Secondly, they make the product or solution more visually appealing, and your claims more convincing - also maybe easier to understand. Thirdly, they give you an opportunity to repeat the selling message in captions and labels!
9. Monitor effectiveness and revise accordingly. Record your visitor numbers and clicks. Ask your customers what they read, what convinced them, what they discovered when reading the site, how easy it was to understand. A content management system is enormously useful here - though you must be sure to proof your revisions carefully and not complicate site structure.
10. Make your site search-engine friendly. Search engine optimization is a specialized topic, but a couple of key rules are: Use all the key phrases that your prospects will be looking for and that are relevant to your them, and include them in headings where appropriate.
Friday, January 25. 2008
This list here is from the book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR", from David Meerman Scott. I think he really hits the mark with it, and I can confirm most of his findings from our own work in online marketing. - Marketing is more than just advertising.
- PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience.
- You are what you publish.
- People want authenticity, not spin.
- People want participation, not propaganda.
- Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.
- Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of under-served audiences via the Web.
- PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It's about your buyers seeing your company on the Web.
- Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It's about your organization winning business.
- The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media.
- Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content.
- Blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate.
- On the Web, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.
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