” />Imagine that you’re moving your company to a new office space. You have the opportunity to let it say everything about you that you want your customers, business associates, and vendors to know. You spend time with an expert contractor coordinating improvements. You work on room designs with a space planning specialist. You use your IT guru to ensure your computers, phones, etc. will operate effortlessly. You do this because when it’s finished you’ll have work space that not only helps your company’s productivity, but also defines your brand for every visitor to see.
Now, replace this office space design process with your website development process. These days, there’s not much difference. You’re just replacing tangible brick and mortar with virtual space. But if you consider which of these walls and roofs more people visit, you’ve figured out the true value of your website.
So back up for a moment and ask yourself, “How much am I willing to pay for experts who know how to turn a cookie-cutter office space into my company’s brand?” Chances are good you’re willing to pay more than a few dollars. So, why, when your website is your opportunity to show your unique brand, would you settle for one that has nothing unique?
Interesting paradox, huh? Websites are much less expensive to build than they were just a few short years ago, but if you want to make yours stand out, to represent your brand and do a big part your selling for you, you’re going to have to pay for some real experts. Not just programmers who know html, php and css, but designers and brand strategists who know how to represent your best assets online. And writers who know how to take the hundreds of keywords necessary to help your site show up well in search results, and incorporate them into enticing content that flows seamlessly.
Websites like this are not just necessary for e-commerce businesses, they’re imperative for any business that wants to take advantage of the wonderful benefits the web has to offer your brand. It’s a new way of thinking, isn’t it?
ight=”166″ />No, for a change we’re not talking about Facebook, although it is certainly one example of this new concept. Likeonomics is the new buzz word in marketing that actually makes a tremendous amount of sense. Rohit Bhargava, best selling author of Personality Not Included, is about to launch his new book, Likeonomics, which covers today’s increasing need for marketers to be believable. Rohit explains, “Likeonomics is a term that explains the new Affinity Economy where the most likeable people, ideas, and organizations are the ones we believe in, buy from and get inspired by.” He notes that we are in a modern day Believability Crisis, stating the many obvious reasons why consumers mistrust most businesses today. We couldn’t agree more.
In 2009, Chris Brogan came up with a great line in his book, Trust Agents, authored with Julien Smith, stating that Human is the new black. What a great way to explain that vulnerability, truthfulness and humility are what today’s consumers look for first when choosing a brand. Yet the majority of marketers are still fearful of communication messages that embrace transparency, simplicity and telling emotional, human stories.
The Likeonomics concept is one more example of how people trust the opinions of strangers more than messages from well-known brands. Rohit Bhargava says it best in his book, “Wikipedia is only the most visible example of a revolution in trust that has meant that people are going online and trusting the opinions and expertise of people who they don’t know. Content creation, aggregation and now … content curation are all new forms of microinfluence and they are shifting everything we know about trust.”
The potentially great outcome of this could result in marketers finally embracing the fact that truth sells. Advertising efforts will no longer be based on who has the biggest budgets and delivers the most jaw dropping creative. Instead it will be about who delivers the most believable message. This can level the playing field for the underdogs to have their shot at market share. All we can say is, it’s about time. Bring it on.
For business owners still trying to figure out why their company should use a Facebook Page for marketing strategy, here's one great reason. According to a recent Mashable article, the average Facebook user who “Likes” your page has more than double the average number of friends. In social networking math, this means your name/brand/offer has more than twice the chance to be seen thanks to avid Facebook “Likers”. In fact, remember good old math problems like what does 100 squared equal? Yup. That's the power of the “Like” button.
Facebook reports messages from publishers saying that when these users visit your Facebook Page and your website, “they are more engaged and stay longer because their real identity and real friends are driving the experience through social plugins.” As an example, NHL.com reported that pages per user was up by 92%, tim
e on-site was up by 85%, video viewing increased by 86% more videos and overall visits went up by 36%.
For businesses still holding back from developing a Facebook Page, we suggest you stop asking why and start asking how. How can you turn your Page into a secondary website for your business, with plug-ins and content that your audience will stick around to read and interact with? How do you build a Page that can show up high in Search Engine results? And how do you get your target audience to complete whatever transaction your business needs via Facebook?
It's happening every day with Facebook Pages like Sears, Ford, Target and even small businesses like Bubbles Car Wash and Wahoo's Fish Tacos. Remember, these days people want to engage with businesses. They want to like you, but it's your responsibility to give them the reasons why they should. The days of success revolving around the largest share of voice, the lowest price, or the longest running business success story are coming to an end. Fine tune your target audience down to where they “hang out” on line, learn what they want to hear from you, then give them something to talk about (hopefully good!). If you do it right, you'll see the only button more powerful in the online world than “Like” is “Share“.
