Archive for January, 2007

Looks like the honeymoon with Buzzfeed is over.

The buzz for the new MySpace demographic post from TrulyTwistedMarketing.com that was picked up in Buzzfeed has died down.  

Traffic is (sniff, sniff) back to normal. Ah, it WAS nice while it lasted - almost a week. But let's face it, buzz is buzz - a hot topic for a day, a good week if you are lucky.

Now, let's see about doing it again. This time with a little more precision…

The TrulyTwistedMarketing traffic stats are off the hook. Somehow, (as a marketer, I'd dearly love to take full credit for this but can't) a little post I created got picked up by Buzzfeed. 

Check the number two article. Yep, that one right below Techcrunch. ;) 

(okay, when I first posted this the article WAS in the #2 spot. Now, it seems, we are located in the #1 spot and Techcrunch is waaaaaay down at #7) 

That wee little article that was more about random thoughts running through my head on a day I needed something to write about than anything else has quadrupled my traffic since last Thursday.

Wait. WHAT?

Yes. It's true. And, hilarious, considering the circumstances but still interesting because I just did a post on leveraging social media outlets like Digg and Furl and Del.icio.us for your marketing endeavors to generate both traffic and links. You can read it here.

There are some things I want to point out besides my post, though.

1. You never know what's going to happen in the blogosphere. (that was actually pointed out by someone else in an email to me but I thought it applied to this situation)
2. It was a lousy article. Not really an article at all. In fact, there was very little thinking that went into it which doesn't give a person any good indication of what's going to get picked up and when so you want to make it your best effort each and every time.
3. The traffic to this illustrious blog that came from the buzzfeed article was very un-targeted. Because I'm not a myspace user, don't sell myspace paraphanalia and have no myspace advice, the traffic coming into that page really didn't travel any further than that page. Bummer.
4. The links generated by the traffic were minimal. However, those links were good ones. Whoppers, in fact. Which certainly gives a little push to the TrulyTwistedMarketing SEO efforts.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I'll take extra traffic any day of the week. Besides, the whole basis  of this blog is to share what works and what doesn't and what just happens haphazardly. 

This was a haphazard moment. 

However, it does prove a viable point. Social media is increasingly important in the online marketing arena. And marketers who can take those haphazard moments and turn them into tangible results will most definitely be ahead of the curve. 

I am literally drooling with anticipation over Joost.

"What's so special about it?" You might ask. "What the heck is it, anyway? A new energy drink?"

Even better. 

Joost is a functioning real-time social network. You can watch a show, rate it, share it and chat with friends using its IM platform. How cool is that?

The best part? It's free.

Out of the box users can participate in a community chat that will, in essence, allow  soccer fans from across the globe the opportunity to gather to watch the World Cup. It has the potential to be a truly killer application and really twist up television as we know it.

Here are a couple of screen shots of the interface.

The Joost platform was created by the same guys who created Skype and originally called the Venice Project. The premise behind Skype is the premise behind Joost - free. Did I mention, "it's free?" Free phone service with Skype via the internet and free television with Joost via the internet. 

But Joost is far from traditional television. It's a customizable interface so if you want to share the experience with only a few friends, you can. It's truly user built television.

Love it the idea? Want to test it out yourself? You can, well, sort of. You have to fill out an application. Then wait. You might have to wait quite a while because apparently they are receiving thousands of applications a day and it's still in beta. 

But my bet is it will be worth it. 

E-retailer Greg Shugar knows ties.

And, he should. This attorney gone "tie guy" has made it his mission to bring bargain basement pricing to a niche that is relatively untouched and unexplored - at least until now. I recently caught up with Greg and had the opportunity to ply him with marketing questions about his e-commerce site TheTieBar.com.

            

Q. Can you give a brief synopsis of why you created TheTieBar.com?

I was a practicing attorney for 8 years. I knew that buying new ties to spice up my work wardrobe would always be $50 a shot. This meant that if I wanted just 5 new ties for each day of the week, it would cost me almost as much as an entire new suit. So I asked myself, "why do ties have to cost so damn much?"

As drinkers of Trader Joe's famous Charles Shaw wine ("Two Buck Chuck"), my wife Gina and I knew that there was a demographic out there that believed that good wine didn't have to cost a lot (a bottle of Two Buck Chuck is $2.99).

So could this be true with silk ties as well? After all, was any neckwear label actually showing off how inexpensive their prices were? It seemed like it was the opposite (just like wine) - the more you spend, the better the product. My wife and I then spent almost a year researching everything - factories, construction of a tie, design, style - you name it, we were looking into it. We researched competition. We did it all, and we found that there was an opening to sell an inexpensive tie - but would anyone buy it?

We soon found out that if you put out a good product, regardless of the industry, people will buy it. I invite you to read our testimonials and media coverage (found on our website) to find out just how passionate our customers are about finding an inexpensive necktie.

Q. What's been your experience with eCommerce so far?

Online shoppers are demanding, and they have a very short attention span. If the color isn't exactly what they wanted, they'll let you know. If you don't impress them quickly with your website, they'll leave. With no salespeople, no music in your store, and no good smell permeating in the room, you really have to make a good first impression quickly.

Q. In doing business online it's always an issue of how to actually get not only traffic to your site but targeted traffic that converts. How have you accomplished this?

Our conversion rates on pay-per-click advertising has been very successful. It's important to have the right ad that lets people know where they're about to go to. We make it clear - ties are $15 and we have designs of stripes, paisleys, etc. So if you're looking for a $125 Robert Talbott tie or looking for a SpongeBob tie, we won't have it. Of course, it isn't full-proof, but it's the best we can do.

For organic search results, we are still working on coming up on the higher pages for the more commonly searched terms. But I have found that organic search clickers are more likely to be browsing than shopping.

Q. Are there any marketing strategies that work really well for you?

Our entire business premise is our best marketing strategy - that you can buy a great tie at a low price. Most of our customers hear of us through word of mouth. They hear that we're selling a high quality tie that should retail for $49.99 for just $15.00. They love the idea. They actually email us and call us just to tell us how happy they are to find a place to buy inexpensive but stylish, high-quality ties.

Likewise, each piece of press that we get draws great business to us. Again, it's new people hearing about our business premise, and apparently, they are relieved to find something like us.

Q. Was it your plan from the beginning to capitalize on such a niche category or did you just sort of fall into it?

As I stated before, we knew this niche was open. And it was open for a reason - no one wants to buy a 'cheap' tie. And for the most part, this is true. But when you sell them a luxurious tie at an inexpensive price, then you find your market. Still, I have heard from many people that "your ties can't possibly be nice if they're only $15." To those people, I say, "go shop elsewhere, you bore me."

Q. What makes your site different from other sites that sell similar items?

We worked hard to create personality and character for our website. With respect to the website, nothing was done by accident. We spent days (and lots of money) coming up with the perfect design and theme. The presentation is very professional, and the searching methods are user-friendly.

Most importantly, we listen to our customers. We receive lots of feedback on our website, and when it sounds right, we use it. We also offer users a chance to place each tie up against eight different shirt backgrounds, giving us the same advantage that brick and mortar stores have. We receive lots of positive feedback about this feature. You can take a look at it here.

Q. What are your plans for TheTieBar.com in 2007? (For example, do you hope to grow it into a mega site, add an online community, make a multi-million dollar company, etc.)

We have no big plans. We want to just keep growing the customer base, keep making stylish designs, and continue to grow our brand. Our expansion into pocket squares, cufflinks and shirts has been great, so we're always thinking of new products to add as well. But for now, we're just concentrating on what we have in front of us.

Didn't you always have a favorite superhero? Maybe, even one you identified with?

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test and find out which one is the perfect match for your unique personality.

Here are my results:

"You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character."

hmmm…I'll take it! 

Now, just to twist it up a little…

Everyone has two sides to their personality, right? Here's the Super Villan test.

And, in an effort to always show BOTH sides of an issue and be, um, transparent, here's the OTHER me.

"You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination."

Oh, boy. I guess it could be worse. At least there's not a Dr. Doom or Green Goblin lurking around inside me…

As always, feel Free to share YOUR results! 

I came across the Superhero test on the Diva Marketing blog & the Social Customer Manifesto blog and thought it was a total hoot! Enjoy!

Socializaton on the web is big and for many, finding a social and/or business network to compliment business goals is a must - especially for entreprenuers and small businesses. Well today, marketing fans, we are in luck!

Q. You are one of the co-creators of Biznik. What was the reasoning behind it?

I'm a web developer in Seattle (a town where you can hardly throw a rock without hitting someone with my skills). I started freelancing full time in 2000, and for many of those years I was barely surviving, but having a great time.

After I got married in 2004, my wife, who's also self employed, started saying things like, "um, honey, don't you think you should maybe do a little more networking, you know, grow your business?" I gave in and attended some BNI meetings, which I found to be horribly structured affairs at ungodly hours of the morning.

Much to my surprise, most of the chapters I visited weren't interested in having me as a member: my spot was "already filled" (they don't allow people from the same profession to belong to the same group.) I thought that was a little odd, since most of the referrals I've ever received came from people in overlapping professions. Also, I didn't really like the people I was meeting at these events, but I was determined to find a good fit, so I kept looking.

Finally I did find a chapter that had room for me, and I was all ready to, as they call it, "lock out the competition" by giving them a $400 check.

But then a thought struck me: I don't really like the people; I don't agree with their philosophy of exclusion; their website is an embarrassment; I hate getting up early and being treated like I'm in kindergarten. And I'm going to pay them $400 for this? What the hell am I thinking? I could build something better than this in my spare time!

Q. Who else was involved and why?

Well, when I shared my revelation to Lara Feltin, my wife, she wasn't particularly impressed. I think she had an immediate grasp of how much work it would be. Besides, BNI had been working fine for her for about six years. I told her, "If we could get 400 people to show up at our wedding party, we can get a dozen to show up for a business networking event."

She agreed to give it a try, and we got a dozen people at our first event. I threw together a website that began essentially as an online membership directory, and she started out facilitating the meetings. I added features in my spare time, and it's been growing ever since.

Q. How did you grow it into the network it is right now?

We didn't have very much imagination when we started this, so at first we pretty much copied the old-school approach and had breakfast meetings at insanely early hours of the day. That didn't go over very well in urban Seattle, so we adjusted and tried lunch meetings. Still not a winner.

It wasn't until we began doing happy hour events that people started paying attention. But the real breakthrough was realizing that a lot of our members had fantastic skills that they could share with other members.

How could we tap that?

We created simple tools on the website that allowed members to create their own events and host them. To sum it up, I think we're growing by allowing members to decide what type of events they want to have, and when they want to have them.

We're also free - sort of. We have a paid level of membership, which offers more features, and more visibility, for $100/year. I also put a lot of time and effort into optimizing member profiles for search engines, and you'll find that most of the members on the first page of the membership directory are #1 on Google. That's a byproduct of participation in this network, but a really valuable one for many members.

We're also very urban, and have a progressive attitude that lots of people here find appealing, even refreshing. We emphasize authenticity, and we don't force members to do anything they don't want to, and they appreciate that.

Q. There are other business networks out there like linkedin, for example. What do you offer that they don't?

LinkedIn is a corporate networking tool. It's really designed for people who are ex- or current employees of big companies for keeping track of their contacts. I'm sure it's great for people like that, but I got hopelessly confused by the privacy/permissions system when I joined, and gave up trying to figure it out.

Biznik is designed by and for indie business people. As such, it's really simple - we don't care about privacy - we care about getting noticed. So everything is designed with that in mind.

Here's the really big difference - LinkedIn is purely an online network. Biznik is about face-to-face events, which the  online social network supports . You simply can't build trust - the foundation of every successful business relationship - online the way you can face to face. So Biznik is about bringing people together online and then cementing those relationships with face-to-face events. And it really works.

Q. I'm curious about the marketing of Biznik. Do you have a plan of attack or a strategy for your online presence other than making it very SEO friendly?

Our only marketing strategy up until this point has been to create something remarkable, so that people will talk about it. And that's worked, but growth has been relatively slow. With the upcoming release of 2.0, we need to do more.

We're planning a private beta, and we'll be inviting bloggers from all over the place to participate in that, and also newspaper and magazine writers as well. So we hope to get some ink and blog coverage by inviting key people to be involved early in the release cycle. I'm sure there's more we could be doing - got any ideas for us?

Q. About how many members does biznik have right now?

As of today we have 2076 members in 52 countries. A year ago we had 109 members on Dec. 31, so if you think about it, that's actually pretty significant growth for one year. We expect much faster growth  this year after we release 2.0 in March. By the way, you can always  tell how many members we have - and exactly where they are located - by visiting the Biznik membership page, and then view by location.

Q. Is this a money making endeavor for you?

Until now, Lara and I have been creating and running Biznik in our spare time (although truth be told, it's been making full-time  demands on our time since last summer). We introduced a paid level of  membership in late August, and so far we've got 76 paying members.  Many of the new features we'll be introducing in 2.0 will only be  available to paid members (for example, only paid members will be  able to create groups, although free members can join existing  groups). We're committed to making Biznik available to everyone at a  basic level at no charge at a philosophical level.

We're also totally committed to making this a commercial success. As the relevance,  credibility and value of what we're doing continues to increase,  we're confident the money will follow. In addition to memberships, we  also make money through event fees, and we provide web hosting for  quite a few members.

You'll notice we  don't have any advertising on the site - ads annoy the hell out of  me, and no members have requested them yet, so don't expect to see  them any time soon.

Q. Based on your experience with creating and maintaining Biznik so far, are there any tips or tools you'd suggest for someone wanting  to create an online community?

As important as community is to me, I'm a little leery of the word  itself. Everyone wants to shout about how great community is - banks, mega corporations, churches, you name it. I think the term has become  something of a devalued currency. But when you're part of an  authentic community, one that nurtures you and gives you wings,  rather than clipping them, it's just amazing.

We didn't really set  out to create Biznik as a community, but because community is so  important to both Lara and I, it's sort of ended up that way  (although you don't have to engage with it that way). We're both very  active members of the creative community in Seattle, so it's just  part of who we are, I think. We love people, we love helping people  connect. It makes us happy.

So as far as tips go, I'd say: find ways to show the love. Care,  really care, about the people around you. And don't be afraid to be different. How you're different is what makes you interesting, and  memorable, and attractive. We choose terms like "indie business,"  "business networking that doesn't suck" and "radical self promotion"  intentionally. They filter out the wrong members, and attract the right ones. That way, you get members who "get it," and who are really excited about being part of it.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish with Biznik both personally and professionally?

When Friendster came out a few years back, I created a profile and was amazed at how quickly it became an index to (not a replacement for) my real-world social life. And I thought, wow, it would be cool to work on a project like this. I've watched the rise of social networks from the perspective of a user, so to now be actually building something like this is very exciting to me.

I'm also a big fan of "indie business," a term I use deliberately: indie film challenges Hollywood by creating smart, low-budget films. Indie rock is edgy music with an attitude. And to me, indie business is business that does a lot with a little, business that isn't afraid to challenge the status quo, business that's smart and social responsible and fun and interesting and a little bit radical. And I want Biznik to be a tool and a community that empowers more people to thrive in those types of businesses.

Q. You've mentioned Biznik 2.0 is being released in Feb. '07. How will that be different than the current Biznik Network?

We set out to create a business networking group that we wanted to be part of. And we've achieved that goal in Seattle. Now, we'd like to do that elsewhere! So Biznik 2.0 is all about localization. After the release, which is now scheduled for early March, a visit to biznik.com will show you what's happening in your local network, rather than what's happening in Seattle.

You'll also be able to form local groups, which is something members have been requesting for a long time. We're also going to have a lot of emphasis on business development and education. We're building the whole thing on Rails, a fantastic platform that allows us to take advantage of the latest in web technology.

By the way, all supporting members will receive an invitation to the private beta, when it begins in February, so we're looking forward to having a lot of community participation in the final stages of development. See you there!

For more information on how to join Biznik or to contact Dan, feel free to visit the Biznik site.  

I get asked a lot about social media and what that means. Very often I find myself in the predicament of trying to explain something that a person has no frame of reference for. Social media is still a new phenomena and using it to market goods and services is a pretty new concept.

To clarify how to use social media in your marketing mix, I’ve scoured the web and come up with a list of places where you can submit your articles to generate both links coming into your site to help with search engine optimization and (keep your fingers crossed) traffic!

The breakdown goes like this:

Digg is the biggest. Make no mistake about it. And here’s what’s cool. If you can generate 60 Diggs within the first 24 hours, your article is pretty much guaranteed to hit the Digg homepage.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Digg will reward your efforts by sending you a pretty big surge of traffic, often 5,000 to 10,000 people within the first few hours if your article makes it to the homepage. While nice when it happens, it’s good to remember that the traffic surge will very likely be short-lived. But your content will be very accessible and if it’s picked up that content you created could potentially bring 100s of links back to your site.

Having said all that, here are some other social sites that you can potentially use to create links and market yourself and your content.

Del.icio.us  is a social bookmarking site. Once you sign up with Del.icio.us, you can use their service to tag your articles with relevant keywords. Del.icio.us users often subscribe to RSS feeds of certain “tag” keywords. People who subscribed to the feeds with the same keywords you use see a link to your article in their feed.

Why is this a good thing?

Because, if another user reads your article and they like it, they might tag it themselves. And, if enough people tag your site, it will rise up to the Del.icio.us popular page where it will be seen like Digg by many people, resulting in tons of links and lots of visits.

Reddit  is a lot like Digg. However, the user base is much smaller. Users can submit links, vote on them and (again, like Digg) the most popular articles will rise to the top bringing in links and visits to your site.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Reddit is not as big as Digg or Del.icio.us, your chances of getting your content on the move quickly are pretty good.

Furl is basically the same thing as Del.icio.us just with a smaller user base. Furl can be used as an online social bookmarking service and as a way to save archived copies of web pages
The most important reason to use Furl is that, by tagging your pages there, you can get them to show up on the Technorati pages.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Technorati is the fastest growing blog network on the web right now. Pretty much everyone knows about Technorati Tag pages, so showing up there is always an excellent thing.

StumbleUpon is actually a toolbar you can  install on your browser. You select topics you are interested in from several categories. Then, click Stumble! on the toolbar, and it will take you to pages that other users (who’ve also installed the toolbar) have rated as “ I like it!.”

Why is this a good thing?

Because, you can go to your own articles and click “I like it!” This will submit your site to the database, where other users can see it. If several of people like your article and give it a positive rating, it will be shown more often. If this happens…you guessed it…more traffic and more links!

There are other social sites like Blinklist, Netscape (believe it or not) Spurl (operating at reduced functionality at the moment due to spam attacks) and Yahoo MyWeb. They are all similar to the above mentioned sites. Each of the listed sites has their own individual set of rules that you should follow when joining and when submitting articles.

You might’ve heard the news.

The fastest growing demographic for MySpace is the 35+ crowd.

Really?

Huh.

Have you seen the home page for MySpace? Click here and go look.

Those people are 35 and older? Is there something I’m missing here?

This has been bothering me for awhile now - since I first heard it actually, so I’ve been chewing on if for a few months.

I’m not a MySpace user but I am fascinated with what it means marketing-wise when this many people get so many individual conversations going. But if the growing market demographic is…ah…a more mature crowd wouldn’t it make sense to add a little something to reflect that user?