Let's Get Digital

One of the major principles behind e-commerce is the Long Tail Theory which at its simplest meaning suggests that there are more consumers within niche markets than there are consumers in general markets therefore retailers should sell more niche products in less quantities in addition to selling fewer generalized products in more quantities (i.e.- Amazon and Netflix).

So why isn’t there a similar system in place to augment the “generalized marketing” of social media?

Welcome in Diaspora and Path. These “Anti-Social” Media utilities appear to be filling the niche market void within the social media sector. 

Diaspora’s main selling point is Facebook’s Achilles’ heel- privacy. Unlike Facebook, Diaspora doesn’t make you wade through pages of settings and options to keep your profiles private. Still in development and expected to launch next year, Diaspora wants to decentralize networking “hubs” like Facebook and give users “choice, ownership and simplicity.”

Path really seems to be tapping into the “Long Tail” with the less is more concept. The unique selling point of Path is that it limits your network to 50 people greatly contrasting with the Facebook average of 130 friends. 

Path’s inspiration was from Oxford University anthropologist Robin Dunbar’s theories about human interaction, which sets 50 friends as the outer boundary of our close personal network, and 150 people as the maximum number of social relationships that the human brain can handle at any given time. 

While Facebook is more of an “acquaintance” network, Path is described as “The Personal Network.” The idea behind path is “to create an environment where users feel comfortable being themselves and can share their lives.” 

While these new entrants probably will never seriously challenge Facebook, they do occupy previously untapped niche markets, which the Long Tail Theory suggests can prove to be very profitable. Path has even stated that its “complimentary” to Facebook and that it has a great relationship with the social media giant.

Sources: MediaWeek

For those of you who don’t know, WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. It provides an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to its journalists. It publishes material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices (wikileaks.org). 

According to Time Magazine WikiLeaks,

 “Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act.”

Recently there has been an apparent war launched against WikiLeaks. Its founder Julian Assange has been arrested on what seems to be a sexual harassment charge that many are skeptic about. Additionally, WikiLeaks lost access to Amazon, Paypal, Visa and Mastercard and its account with a Swedish bank was frozen cutting off all financial resources. 

Well it isn’t known who or what caused all of these organizations to turn against WikiLeaks all at one, it appears to be very suspicious and dangerous. Some believe it is the recourse of government intervention which have many individuals troubled. Our free world appears to be coming more of a closed one not so different than what George Orwell imagined.

Organizations who are not supressing WikiLeaks have been scrutinized for doing so. Facebook and Twitter still support WikiLeaks. Even the WikiLeaks website has been shut down. We may have the next great Supreme Court case on our hand as some have mentioned New York Times Co V. The United States when discussing the WikiLeaks saga.

Adding another degree to the story are the attacks against Visa and MasterCard. Anonymous, an activist hacker group, claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack—part of “Operation Payback”—that brought down Visa.com. It is an ongoing campaign against anti-piracy and anti-freedom entities.

As time goes on it will be very interesting to see how the WikiLeaks story unfolds. It has all of the elements for a great story: freedom of speech implications, government control issues, scandal and cyber terrorism.

Sources: CNBC, The Huffington Post

Social Media has had a major impact on both our personal lives and on the way we conduct business. Although the effects of Social Media can never truly be measured, it has made three specific imprints on the way we live.

1. Time Well Spent- For those of you who think Social Media is just a waste of time or a time sucker, it is just the opposite. Qualman gives us the example of the woman in the supermarket who is able to solve multiple problems by merely posting a Facebook status, thus giving her more time to spend with her family. She is able to seek out information in a matter of minutes from one single place instead of spending additional time consulting various sources. 

Personally, I find Twitter to be a great time saver. I can get nearly all my news in one place instead of going to multiple media outlets to find my desired content. On Twitter I have sports, marketing, music and general news all at my fingertips. I even get updates from my favorite brands!

2. Big Brother is Among Us- One of the side effects of Social Media is it has made our lives much more transparent. I really must commend Tiger Woods for living a secret life for so long. Everything we do is now on display for everyone to see. According to Qualman, some of us are even more conscious about what we do now because we know other will see it via social media. A lot of parents and employers are now joining Facebook which is making an interesting integration between ones social life, family life and work life. Before social media most of these things were separate but now they are all coming together.

In my life I have nothing to hide so I’m really not too concerned with what people see via social media. I don’t live my life any differently because of social media but I am conscious about what I put online especially now that I will be entering the work force. The only thing I worry about is people posting photos that may be seen as a bit risqué. You can always untag yourself but those pictures are still online.

3. Instant Customer Service- Maybe one of the most significant impacts social media has had on business is the way it has changed customer service. It was so 20th century to call in a problem via phone or to write via email. Now you can simply tweet or post your concerns and if the company is on top of its social game you can expect to hear an answer in mere minutes. Social media has also been great for building brand relationships as it allows for a two way channel of communication between the consumer and the brand.

I recently tried putting this new age form of customer service to work. I tweeted that my laptop was terrible and that I would never buy another Dell as long as I lived in hopes that Dell would see this and offer me something. Much to my chagrin, my attempt was fruitless. All I got were junk tweets stating that I could have a free laptop if I would complete a few offers. I never did hear from Dell. 

At the 56th (2009) Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival Sprint earned the top award, the Gold Lion for an Integrated Campaign.

Sprint’s Now Network campaign engaged internet users in an unprecedented about what’s happening “Now.” The campaign linked Sprint to all things “Now” by showing consumers that Sprint gives them the ability to access information and people instantly where ever they want.

Sprint’s Now Network microsite offers a screen that captures and organizes a a wide array of information from the Internet featuring graphic-infused tickers, dials and widgets. The Sprint Now downloadable widget and screensaver stream the latest headlines along with a variety of miscellaneous facts and trivia, such as the number of planes in the air at a given moment, all delivered now.

Sprint’s digital spots included homepage takeovers with Yahoo! Today, AOL, ESPN.com, WSJ.com, People.com, CNET and YouTube. On YouTube, the interactive experience included a first-ever, user-generated digital clock featuring users who filmed themselves for three seconds while holding up a pre-assigned number, serving as one digit on the Now Clock. More than 100,000 Web sites linked to the Sprint Now Network microsite.

Several elements from the online experience were replicated in a similar fashion across other platforms including print, television and signage.

The Sprint Now Network campaign also took home five other awards – four Silver Lions and a Bronze Lion in the Digital Category. Sprint’s advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, was recognized as Interactive Agency of the Year at the Cannes Festival.

Source: Sprint

Seth Godin offers up privy online marketing advise in The Big Red Fez: How to Make Any Web Site Better. Godin sees web surfers as monkeys scouring the internet for their next banana or incentive. The sites that allow the monkeys to find their banana the quickest and the easiest are the most effective. There are ten key points that Godin offers up to online marketers.

1.       Simple web pages for simple people- Possibly the most important rule in internet marketing is to keep your landing page simple. People, as much as we would like to think otherwise, are simple so confronting them with an unfamiliar and complex web page will deter them from whatever you are selling. Not only are flash based websites costly, many times they are also unnecessary and ineffective.

2.       Make your “banana “easily attainable- Not only are people incredibly simple, they are also remarkably lazy. They may want something but in most circumstances they are unwilling to work for it. Don’t drop off your web traffic in the middle of the jungle and leave it up to them to search (because they won’t). Instead, place them right in front of the tree with the banana in plain sight.

3.       Make your “banana” easily attainable pt.2- So now you have your web traffic right where you want them- don’t blow it. Remember people are not just lazy they are remarkably lazy. Not only do you have to place the banana right in front of them you have to hand feed it to them. Don’t make them jump through hoops to get their banana just give them what they want.

Ex. Godin makes an example out of Epson. A prospective online customer cannot even see the prices of its products without registering first. If a an online shopper is going to Epson just to compare prices chances are the shopper won’t both registering and then checking his or her email for a confirmation.

4.       Guilt Free Indulgence- I’m willing to venture a guess that most online transaction are a far from a necessity. That being said, you want to make your online transactions go as smoothly as possible. That means making them quick and making them easy. By doing this your customers can make their purchases before they can second guess it. Not only are we incredibly simple and remarkably lazy we are also very easily guilt stricken- isn’t it great to be human!

Ex. Again Epson is Godin’s sacrificial lamb. After nearly completing a transaction at their online store an error page appears. If people cannot spend money on your website then you will quickly be out on the street so test and monitor your transactions to ensure an optimal experience for your customers.

5.       We all make mistakes- No matter how good you think you are you will screw up along the way. This is even true with online marketers. Whether it’s a faulty link or botched transaction it is important to confront the mistake head on in a timely fashion. Chances are if you make things right your customers will forgive you (at least us human beings have one endearing quality amongst are laziness, simplicity and mistake prone nature).

Ex. Even the online shopping mecca that is Amazon makes mistakes from time to time. Godin shows us an example of how he was sent the wrong email from the online retailer. Amazon then responded with a playful email apologizing for the mistake. Godin believes in using humor to atone for your mistakes.

6.       Tailor made- You go to a men’s shop and get fitted for a suit. The tailor doesn’t just start hacking away at the fabric. He makes precise measurements to ensure the best fit possible. The same approach should be used with internet marketing. Web analytics are a very useful tool and should be leveraged to your advantage. Test things before you roll them out and then continue to track them so you can fine tune your web page to perfection.

7.       We’re all frugal at heart- In most circumstances you don’t need to spend a lot of money to have an effective website but so many of us fall prey to the idea of the more we spend on a website the better it will be. No one likes to spend more money than we have to so be smart and only buy what you need to buy and watch your profits rise and see even the tightest penny pincher smile.

Ex. According to The Vermont Teddy Bear Company’s webmaster they gross $20 million a year in sales and their site only cost $4,000.

8.       I’m the center of my own universe- All too often we get caught only considering ourselves. Unfortunately, this also holds true for web marketers. We lose track of the golden rule of sales and marketing- keep it about the customer. If you think from the perspective of your customers you should have a quality internet marketing campaign.

9.       What’s in it for me?- So you’ve got them to land on your squeeze page but why should they give you their information?  Give them a worthwhile banana such as premium content or professional newsletters via email.People won’t give you something unless they get something in return.

10.   My mother told me never to talk to strangers- Someone has just met your web page for the first time and you are already demanding personal information. If that isn’t intrusive, I don’t know what is. Instead of asking for everything all at once just ask for an email address. Take the time to build a relationship and slowly get them to disclose other information.