Predictions for the 2010 Decade

As 2010 rolled in I reflected back on the decade which started in 2000. Social media didn’t exist. Names like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and dozens of others didn’t exist. As I look at the new decade it’s impossible to predict the names of new innovations and products that will be part of our lives.

I’m not much of a predictor. But, I enjoy looking at the forest’s treetops to make observations. My predictions on the new decade are based on human, cultural and technological factors. I offer my observations on how we may be running our businesses during the next decade.  I invite you to offer your thoughts and predictions.

Brand Definition
In the 00’ decade brands began to understand the shift in control to the customer. Progressive brands began to understand their limited influence on brand perception. As we enter the 10’ decade progressive brands are allowing their customers to shape their brand by focusing on quality products/services, quality customer service and quality communication. Brands who resist the evolution of brand control to the customer will suffer.

Product Development
In the second half of the 00’ decade product development began to shift from internal, demand centric processes to externally driven, distributed processes. Products like the iPhone, the Kindle and new services like Facebook and Twitter are examples from the 00’ decade of the new product development paradigm. None of these products had conventional demand from an existing customer base. Product development is leaving the enterprise and moving to the customer. Execution is left to the company through collaboration of resources without regard for geography and through effective communication strategies.

Customer Acquisition
This topic varies greatly by industry. Generally speaking customers have more choices than ever before. Conventional sales will always have its role. But, product innovation is a bigger factor than ever before. That requires outside the box thinking. In the 00’ decade we saw some surprising product choices like Google Docs vs. Microsoft Office compete for established market share. In this example, Microsoft didn’t consider Google a competitor for Office at the beginning of the 00’ decade. In the 10’ decade businesses must provide more compelling choice to their customers to maximize customer acquisition.

Customer Service
This is probably the second most important topic for any business to master in the 10′ decade. It’s one thing to win a new customer. It’s another to keep that customer. In the 00’ decade the company who became the poster child for customer service is Zappos. How many companies do you know invite you to call them and will help you find and buy a product even if it requires directing you to their competitor? Zappos creates a WOW experience that spreads among consumers. This new customer service mindset creates an experience and loyalty that spreads. This new level of customer service is difficult for many companies to embrace because it’s such a paradigm shift. Another factor in the 10’ decade is the mindset that customer service is a company-wide function. Employees who believe customer service is a department are sadly mistaken. Every employee is in customer service in the 10’ decade. Those who execute this strategy will win and keep more customers.

Marketing
The 00’ decade began the transition to the mantra “marketing is the enterprise.” In the 10’ decade marketing will be the most important factor in business success. No offense to sales-driven companies, but marketing is the central nervous system of the enterprise in the new decade. And, the cardiovascular system is communications. The marketing strategy is now all about the experience. Customers live in a digitally connected world at home, in the car, on the bus, at work, even at their kid’s soccer games. Brands who give their customers opportunities to experience their value proposition will win loyalty. Some B2C brands that do this already include Red Bull, Comcast and Ford Motor Company. Some B2B brands that do this already include Cisco, Indium Corp. and HubSpot. The secret sauce to creating an experience is to experiment with different communications that touch people through more than one sensory including sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. Yes, even B2B brands can do this.

Business Responsiveness
The 00’ decade introduced businesses to an accelerated pace of business responsiveness. Businesses who responded quickly to customer and marketplace feedback did well. Quick response was generally defined in days, not weeks, sometimes even within hours. In the 10’ decade we’ve already begun the transition from quick response to real-time response. Technology and culture has been the impetus for this evolution to real-time response. Consumers have come to expect it. Businesses that understand the importance of real-time responsiveness to day-to-day product issues will enjoy more customer loyalty.

Management
Business management has been the study of many famous authors and universities for decades. In the 00’ decade we began the transition from a top down hierarchy of management to a more flat org chart. In the 10’ decade look for org charts to get even flatter with new titles. We’ve already seen new titles emerge such as Chief Customer Officer. Businesses who focus on engaging their customer through culture, technology, great service and innovation will restructure their organization to meet the customer where she is in the way she wants to be engaged.

Innovation
In the 00’ decade we saw innovations that will likely continue to into the 10’ decade. New innovations will occur around customer adoption of new habits. More emotion will be factored into innovation as the lines continue to blur between business and personal behavior. Even the most technical B2B products are evaluated and purchased by humans with emotions. Innovation that meets current and future customer needs, delivered in multi-sensory communication channels will out-perform those that don’t.

Key Trends to Watch in the 10’ Decade

Multi Media
As we enter the 10’ decade most businesses are still single media. Some use video but most use it in a very limited manner. Businesses that communicate a consistent message across many media formats will be requisite. It won’t be enough to use video. Your message will need to be very clear and you’ll need to offer your customers many ways to consume your content and engage with you. Businesses across all industries will begin to adopt multi media channels to communicate. Consider the example of (now famous) blender manufacturer Blendtec and their (now famous) video strategy Will it Blend? If an unknown blender manufacturer can use multi media with outstanding results, any business can. And, many more will.

Younger CEOs
Tony Hsieh grew Zappos from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1B in 2008 before the age of 40. In 2009 he sold Zappos to Amazon for $847M. I hesitate to stereotype around age. But frankly, few CEOs over 40 have embraced the evolution of the new enterprise. In the 10’ decade, look for younger CEOs to emerge that have proven experience growing brands by building a strong culture around a strong product with great customer service (like Tony Hsieh).

The Unconventional Will Become Conventional
The successful enterprise of the 10’ decade may be a company of 10 employees located across multiple continents. Their rise may occur in 5 years or less, e.g., Facebook. The decades-old established brand may struggle or not survive if their product doesn’t maintain customer acceptance, e.g., General Motors. Companies like 37Signals will build a great product, share it with others at competitive price points and create customer evangelists who then tell others about it and beat out traditional competitors like Microsoft.

More Connected
We have become a globally connected society.  But, we’re just getting started. In the 10’ decade look for all consumers to be even more connected. The applications we use will be more integrated to converge email, video, photo, texting, instant messaging and more. The term social media will fade away. All software will be social. We’re already seeing these early developments through Google’s Docs and Wave offerings. This is just the beginning. Look for content and connections to be available at our hand held fingertips, desktops and media devices. This trend will have a significant impact how businesses communicate and build brand loyalty.

Premium Content
I predict the decade of 10’ will be the death of FREE content. This is likely the riskiest prediction I make.  Content producers will figure out ways to monetize their content. Look for businesses to create content at different price points ranging from the solo entrepreneur to large enterprises. You may soon subscribe to your local newspaper digitally at price points ranging from $5 per month to $50 per month depending on the package you select. Look for content producers to merge and partner for creative packages. You may choose the car you buy based on a bundled offer of digital content on a device integrated into your dashboard that doesn’t even exist at the time of this writing.

I believe the new decade will be filled with more paradigm shifts, innovation and surprises. I don’t know exactly what they will be. But, I do know for sure it will be a fun ride. Are you ready?

What are your predictions for the 10′ decade? Which of my predictions do agree with or disagree?

Happy New Decade!

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

What if Thomas Jefferson was a Blogger?

Every Independence Day I read the Declaration of Independence. I don’t tire of it. Each year I get goose bumps as I read it. The clarity of voice in our founding fathers in the historical document is simply amazing.

This year I got to thinking, what if Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers had the opportunity to blog? What if the Internet had been invented in the 18th century. Rather than Thomas Jefferson distributing the scroll of paper (after Congress approved it August 2, 1776) announcing the independence of the 13 colonies, he (and many others) would’ve blogged about becoming independent from mother England.

And, what if the Declaration of Independence was drafted as a document in Google docs shared by the committee of five who drafted it: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman and Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson is credited with the authorship of the famous declaration document which was “inked” into an official scroll document to be distributed throughout the land and delivered to mother England by ship.

I don’t need to be reminded of how fortunate we are to have the technologies we have at our fingertips. Reading this historical document on July 4th every year serves to remind me how blessed I am to be an American and how lucky I am to be alive during this time.

Our military men and women serving us bravely in far away lands communicate with their families with webcams across the Internet. The citizens of Iran have been communicating with the world using mobile devices, Twitter, Facebook and blogs. The Iranian authorities have been unable to completely prevent citizen journalists from essentially playing the role of uncensored media to the world.

Similarly, some business executives have not yet awakened to the capabilities available to their customers, employees and competitors using these commonplace technologies.

Just like long haired ponytails were the popular culture for men during the time of our founding fathers, the modern day popular culture is for people to “tweet” their sentiments about your new product announcement, or your decision to layoff 20% of our your workforce, or merge with your largest competitor, or (fill in the blank). Whether your company is public requiring disclosure of every substantial event, or private, the current culture is that everything is public on the social web.

The Internet makes this possible. The culture of transparency makes this popular.

Does your CEO resist this culture? Does your chief marketing executive resist this culture? Does your chief sales executive resist this culture? Does your chief financial officer resist this culture? Does your chief people officer resist this culture?

Are You Swimming Upstream?

You know the cliche “swimming upstream.” What image do you get when you hear that cliche? My visual is a salmon swimming fiercely against a river current. They do it yearly to spawn but you can’t help but wonder why they do it. Only a few make it. The odds are so against them. Why not “swim with the current” and get there faster?

That’s the question I ask when I encounter business executives who resist the new social web. These are the executives who know social networking is here to stay but think it’s a waste of time for them and their employees.

In my book, Marketing 2.0, I refer to this as social media abstinence. I suggest it’s the biggest risk in business today.

Business executives who abstain from engaging their buyers on the web where their buyers want to be engaged are risking their future. If their employees get it, it’s only a matter of time before they seek employment elsewhere, or worse yet their competitors will engage their customers in the culture of the social web and capture market share.

If Thomas Jefferson had access to the Internet I don’t think he would’ve abstained from using it to write and distribute the Declaration of Independence ahead of time. I bet it would’ve gone viral. Don’t you?

@berniebay

Staffing Strategies for Social Media Marketing

In this excerpt from my Marketing 2.0 book, I discuss staffing strategies for social media marketing…One of the benefits I described is the ability to tap into staff wherever they may be in the org chart. Staffers should enjoy their work when they are instrumental in building and maintaining your social media strategy especially as their personal brand begins to grow. But, how do you develop your staff to get great results?

Having the Right People on the Bus. Successful social media marketing requires people who understand it, embrace it and know how to work within the culture and technology.  People need to understand the lifecycle and the types of community involved in social media in order to better understand the opportunities and the risks to minimize.

Roles should not only be well defined and documented, they should also be discussed in-depth.  Everyone on the team must be on board with his or her roles and responsibilities.  Then, the heavy lifting begins.  In some cases, heavy lifting has been in place for some time, but now you are in a better position to turn it up a notch with better clarity of roles. Ongoing discussions about roles and responsibilities should occur as changes may be needed as your social media plan matures.

However, what if you realize you don’t have the right staff for social media marketing?  The fact is some people just don’t understand social media.  Sometimes the barrier is demographic, but most often it’s just an I don’t get it attitude. Worse yet, some may just resist it for any number of reasons.  There are still many people who are stuck in the traditional marketing paradigm, and they are not ready to shift to the new social media paradigm.  Remind yourself that when the Internet became available to the public in the mid 90’s, many companies at first resisted setting up their website for a few years.  Today, a website is considered any organization’s calling card to the world, and every serious business has one.  Don’t fret- the laggards will eventually get on the social media train because the forward momentum of the culture and the technology will sweep them along.  The real problem is this: What if they’re holding you back today?  If you face that scenario, here are some ideas to consider…

Not an Overnight Thing…Don’t force everyone to jump into a social media strategy overnight.  An overnight commitment with a take no prisoners mentality can produce corporate culture shock.  You run the risk of becoming a maverick, which can trigger counter productive results.  The best way to win people over is to approach it gradually with small but highly visible wins.  Assess the people on your team and determine who is best suited to contribute to your social media strategy.  People have strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.  It’s your job to recognize who may embrace using social media and who may shun it.  If you are not the manager and you want to convince management to begin using social media for marketing purposes, you may have a tall task ahead of you.  Consider some of the advice I offer here.

Think Social…People who embrace social media tend to be social.  If this sounds a bit trite, hear me out.  Being social doesn’t necessarily mean being gregarious, boisterous, or the life of the party.  Social people are self-confident people, even if quietly so.  Their self-confidence may be limited to a specific area of expertise, but they are confident about something.  I’ve noticed that some people who might otherwise shun a public social setting are often very social about something in online social media situations.  The key is to recognize the personality attributes of the people in your organization, as well as to recognize their domains of expertise and passions, and then convince them to dip their toes in the social media waters.  Asking someone to display their expertise or passion in a way that helps your organization meet its strategic objectives is giving that individual an opportunity to shine.  For some, it’s a new opportunity they may embrace willingly.  Find the people who will embrace these opportunities and recruit them to your team.  If necessary, move people around on your team to position it for success in using social media.  Along the way, giving people new opportunities where they can achieve tangible results and be recognized by peers and management will be part of your job as the manager.  People who like to write about a specific topic and have some level of creativity or technical acuity are good candidates for your team.

Definition of Job Roles. At some point it will be wise to redefine job roles so that they reflect your commitment to a Marketing 2.0 strategy.  If you consider social media marketing additive, then to which employee’s plate do you add it?  This will be different in each organization.  In some companies, the CEO embraces social media by blogging or being active in a social network.  This is a best-case scenario, because the CEO can set the tone for the rest of the organization.  In most cases, you’ll need to allocate time away from one activity in order to allow time for social media marketing activities.  In the beginning, always start small.  It may not be difficult to decide to cut back on some activities that don’t yield results.  Don’t continue doing something just because you’ve always done it that way or because it always produces the same results.  You do know this is the definition of insanity, don’t you?

A commitment to a social media plan requires a formal review of people’s job description and in some cases revising job descriptions to reflect allocation of their time.

Social media staff skills require a blend of creativity, writing, organizational skills, analytics and teamwork. A social media plan should leverage the individual talents of staffers while orchestrating them to work as a team to achieve results.

As your social media strategy evolves, so should your staff’s skills, titles, the way they spend their time and the way you recruit new team members.  In the years to come, social media skills will be prominently displayed on resumes. In fact, they already are…

What staffing strategies have you observed among Marketing 2.0 organizations?

@berniebay

The Benefits of a Social Media Marketing Strategy

The following is an excerpt from my book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Buyer and Seller on the Social Web…

There are many benefits to a social media marketing strategy.  Here is a short list of benefits. Please add to it with your comments…Note, I do not discuss in any detail the benefits organizations might enjoy using social media internally for collaboration and productivity gains.

Low Cost.  Rolling out a social media strategy is not an expensive venture.  In fact, it can be done on a low budget, especially in the beginning.  Many of the social media platforms you can leverage monetize themselves through advertising.  Therefore, the use of many of these tools is free.  The primary benefit to using social media is in the relationship value of the community you create or join.  So the cost of using many social media tools is free or low.  The biggest cost in the beginning of a new social media strategy is the staff’s learning curve associated with using various tools and destination social platforms.

Brand Building. I’ve previously mentioned the importance of building brand whether you’re a large company with household brand recognition or a 20-person company in a niche market.  I am truly of the opinion (shared by many contemporary marketing pundits) that brand equity is the most valuable marketing asset we can achieve, regardless of the size of our company.  Social media provides a platform like none other in modern history to build our brand

Staffing Advantages.  You may be able to leverage existing staff, and you may not.  In some situations, you can awaken a sleeping giant in your organization.  I am referring to existing talent that is under utilized in a role that could be leveraged in social media.  It’s not uncommon to tap into someone’s domain expertise and put it to great use in social media.  Simply put, using social media gives your staff the opportunity to produce good results using contemporary tools in an enjoyable work environment.  Marketing staffers who embrace social media tend to really enjoy it, especially as they begin building a personal brand.  The demographics of the up and coming workers are in our favor.

Loyalty.  Producing content considered useful by your community produces loyalty and can also produce viral marketing value.  Loyalty is very powerful, no matter the source or the medium.  It’s very common for people in online communities to pass around links to blog posts and other content they find useful.  Social media community loyalty is such a valuable asset that you will ask you your accountant to find a way put it on your balance sheet.

Level Playing Field.  Essentially, social media levels the playing field for most marketers.  Small businesses can create loyal communities online just as large companies can, though perhaps not at the same pace or to the same extent.  One of the greatest benefits to social media is the ability to leverage these communities by harnessing the power of their loyalty.  A smaller company can potentially do a stellar job of building a loyal community through great content, or a great service made popular through social media. Just look at 37 Signals. This small software company has a global customer base for their web based project management and collaboration software. Some of their competitors are large software companies including Microsoft.  Word of mouth loyalty spreads on the social web and continues to build their customer base.

Building Trust.  Companies that communicate with a human voice and build relationships online do well in social media.  Companies that behave as companies don’t do as well.  Social media is all about sincere conversations and building relationships.  When a company hides behind a corporate voice, it alienates itself and its people, and doesn’t reap any of the potential benefits, including that all-important loyalty or trust.

Converge PR and Social Media for Viral Marketing.  As social media awareness has been increasing, the role of PR has quickly been intertwined with it.  Effective social media strategies can and should be part of your PR strategy.  Creating content that has viral potential is at the heart of a social media PR strategy.  Give your loyal community access to your news and let them be your media channel.  Let your loyal community promote your news.  Going viral with your news can range the gamut from exposing it to a few loyal fans to getting your news to the first page of DIGG.

Positive SEO Benefits.  Another benefit of social media is the affect it can have on your organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.  When you produce good content online in social platforms, you increase the possibility of attracting links to that content, which can also link to your website.  In turn, those links help give your website authority to the search engines, especially Google, which places most of its ranking criteria on the link popularity of your content.

(Not So) Quantifiable Metrics.  As discussed previously, some social media results can be measured quantifiably and some can’t.  You can measure website visits from social media destinations and resulting leads. You can also measure (to some extent) the buzz you create in your market by things such as applications for employment, easier sales appointments, invitations to speak or guest write and other obvious improvements which don’t necessarily show up in a report or spreadsheet.

Educational.  One of my favorite benefits of my involvement in social media is the ability to learn something new every day.  I categorize learning in two ways: Learning and Market Intelligence. Learning occurs from listening to conversations and reading articles shared by your community. Market Intelligence involves keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your industry through social media. Both forms of education provide competitive edge and insights into customer behaviors.

The primary benefits of a social media marketing strategy can be summed up as building relationships that can bridge that gap between you (the seller) and your buyers.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Are You Building Your Personal Brand?

This blog post is an excerpt on personal branding from my forthcoming book Marketing 2.0, due out in June…

The term personal branding is relatively young, but the concept is nothing new.  Before the advent of the social web and its many opportunities for personal branding we just called it our “reputation.”  If you’re old enough to remember building your career before the Internet became social, our reputation followed us from job to job.  We used personal referrals through the relationships we built to maintain our reputation.  Our reputation was built by our achievements and the relationships we built throughout our career.  Those relationships included our peers, bosses, subordinates, customers, trade association colleagues and people in our community.  As we traveled around in our career our word of mouth reputation followed us through a chain of phone calls, and live conversations, not to mention old fashion letters of referrals.

Fast forward to 2009 and our reputation isn’t even called that anymore.  Now it’s called our personal brand.  There are real dangers in not understanding the concept of a personal brand and how to develop and manage one.  There is also a danger for employers to attempt to thwart employees from building their personal brand.  The truth is an employee who builds a good personal brand has two benefactors: him or herself and their employer.

To build your personal brand start by filling out your online profile on social networking sites including but not limited to Linkedin and Facebook.  If you’re willing to devote the time to Twitter, then go there as well.  If you’re willing to devote more time to it create a Flickr account with photos and a YouTube channel where you aggregate videos about your favorite topics.

It’s critical to understand one point though before you set out to build your personal brand.  Whatever you put online stays online.  And, your personal brand is you both professionally and personally.  If you think you can build a personal brand about your 9 to 5 life and a separate personal brand about your evenings and weekends life, think again.  The web has converged our lives into one platform.

How can you help your staff build their personal brand while also benefiting your organization?  Start by embracing this concept because you will both benefit. Next, set out to build your own personal brand if you haven’t already.  In most cases, whatever you do to build your personal brand you should encourage your staff to consider, though in their unique way.  It’s important to know the area of expertise of your team members and encourage them to build personal brands around those strengths.  Start with the basics described above by creating a footprint on the social web by getting them actively engaged in social networking sites.  Make sure their profile is completed entirely.  Upload a good picture of you that is current.  Once you’ve filled out your profile you’re just getting started.  Then, start connecting with people you know directly or indirectly.  Use the Search feature to find people you used to work with or went to school with or are from your home town and connect with them.  In LinkedIn you connect with others.  In Facebook you friend others.  In Twitter you follow others.

Chances are you’re already using at least one of these mentioned social web platforms.  That’s great!  But, are you building your personal brand with them and encouraging your staff to do the same? Perhaps, your staff has a head start on you and they’ve been bugging you to get started.  You’ve resisted either because you thought it is for kids or because you think you don’t have the time.  Well, Mr. or Ms. CEO, I’ve got news for you.  Many of your peers are already there.  Your absence is obvious.  The train has left the station.  Get on board!

Once you have your social profiles completed, how often do you upload content to your personal profile or to industry social sites? How often do you recommend others in your network? How often do you answer questions in online discussions? How often do you ask questions?  How often do you check each of these platforms – once per month? Once per week? Daily? Hourly? In order to develop your personal brand you must be active in the online social platforms.

Here are some tips to consider in building your personal brand on the social web:
•    Be visible: Stay active in which ever social web platform you choose to participate.  When you are active you will be noticed more and you have more opportunity to engage with others.
•    Be interesting: Whatever your subject matter expertise you probably have ideas to express.  Think of creative ways to express your thoughts.  Ask questions meant to get people thinking.  Remember that often what is obvious to you is probably not so obvious to others.  Don’t be shy about expressing your points and stimulating new conversations.
•    Contribute: Similarly share your insights.  We live in an economy where our content is our marketing.  When you have good content to share, by all means share it! You’ll get recognized for it.  Don’t be surprised if you get invited into more conversations, or invited to speak or write because you have contributed good content.
•    Push the envelope: This one requires discretion especially if you are employed (as opposed to being self employed) or you are the CEO.  You don’t want to create controversy which can have a negative impact on both you and your business.  Using discretion you can be provocative and thought provoking with your ideas or methods of getting things done.
•    Be real: This is critical.  The social web is not a place to act or be someone you’re not.  You may get away with it for a little while but not for too long.
•    How do you want to be found? If you do a Google search on “personal branding” the number one listing (in early 2009) is a blog called Personal Branding Blog by Dan Shawbel.  Develop your personal brand around something specific that you can use as your unique value proposition.  Even if it doesn’t boil down to a single phrase like this example, you can still become known for something like “the gal you want to hire if you need to launch a new product in the (fill in the blank) industry.”

To promote your personal brand promote your presence on the web.  Start with the simple tactics such as including links your social web profiles.  If you have a blog, include graphic links to each of your social web profiles and invite people to connect to you.

Building your personal brand is too important to ignore.  Businesses who understand the value of a personal brand do more than accept it, they embrace it.  One of my favorite personal branding examples is Matt Cutts from Google. His personal brand is very recognizable to people in the Internet industry.  Google benefits greatly from Cutts’ personal brand because he is so effective at conveying who he is as a person and as a Google engineer.  Another good example is Scott Monty of the Ford Motor Company. Scott heads up social media at Ford. He is an active blogger and he is very active on Twitter. He delivers great content about Ford enhancing their reputation while he has built his own reputation as a social media strategist.

If it frightens you that your employees may leave once they develop their personal brand then I argue you have other problems to address.  Such insecurity will fail you in an age of marketing on the social web.  A strong personal brand will benefit you and your employees assuming other pieces of healthy employment are in place.

Personal branding is the new media version of reputation management.  You can’t fight it.  Embrace it for all its value.  Personal branding does not have a line item in your marketing budget but it is a marketing asset.  It takes time to develop and maintain.  But, there is a strong argument for the opportunity cost of not allowing employees to develop a personal brand.  One way or another they will do it.  You may as well encourage them to do it in a mutually beneficial way.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Web 3.0 Getting Closer with Google Friend Connect

I’ve been blogging about and speaking about the evolution of search engine optimization for some time now. I’ve blogged that SEO should become SO. I recently blogged that SEO is getting harder in 2009.

Let’s face it the web is getting more and more social. Popular services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace (among others) are growing in popularity among mainstream users. The social features of these services are now easily added to your website or blog using Google Friend Connect.

Google released Friend Connect in early December 2008 in Beta.  It’s a free product that allows a webmaster to add social networking features to a website or blog just by copying a snippet of code.

The idea is you invite people to sign into your website using their existing ID from Google, Yahoo, AOL or OpenID.  Users can create a new profile or use an existing profile. This begins to deliver on a promise of Web 3.0 that will allow your profile to be portable among websites.

Users can post comments and engage in discussions on topics relevant to your site. Currently a wall gadget allows users to post comments and another gadget allows users to leave a rating on a page. Soon other gadgets from Google and the OpenSocial developer community will be available allowing your website to become an interactive destination. Users can invite other users from other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to get engaged in discussions on your website! If that doesn’t excite you, check your pulse!

The fact this tool is available from Google helps to accelerate the mainstream adoption of social attributes on websites especially since it doesn’t require an entire new website redesign effort.

Marketers who have been slow to adapt to the social web better look over their shoulder. When you see a competitor offering its visitors the ability for community engagement through Google Friend Connect, you just may be playing catch up.

Marketers should be actively considering how they can offer their users a destination. The technology is available and it’s free. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is breaking through the paradigm thinking that you are in control of your website.  The web has gone social whether you like it or not.  Website visitors want to engage with you and with others. Give them a reason to engage. Build your community or risk losing them.

If this economy is forcing you to rethink some of your strategies you now have something else to think about. But, don’t wait too long or you just may be playing catch-up.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Web Marketing Predictions for 2009

I’ve been so busy writing my social media marketing book (due out this spring) that I didn’t get around to blogging my web marketing predictions for 2009. Turns out there are several good predictions, none better than Online Marketing 2009 Predictions from Hubspot.

Peter Caputa of Hubspot makes some very compelling points. I won’t steal his thunder. You should read his post. I will however offer a complementary point of view.

Peter’s predictions revolve around the rapidly evolving changes in web marketing. He says:

• Business blogging will grow
• SEO consultants will deliver leads, not rankings
• Marketing software is a must

I agree with all three points with this to add…Effective marketing in 2009 is a paradigm shift.  I even argue it’s a mindset change. Even in a weak economy all businesses must continue to market. No one disagrees with that. The question is how do you make the most of your marketing budget in 2009?

In most industries buyers turn to the web to find products and services they need.  Marketers need to commit to a strategy that whole-heartedly allows them to be found on the web with effective engagement strategies.

Notice I didn’t say that marketers need to commit to being found in search engines with an effective conversion strategy. Marketers want qualified buyers coming to their doorstep.  To do this a whole-hearted strategy is needed of producing a lot of great content which can engage prospective buyers on the web no matter the platform – search engines, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, industry blogs, industry social networking sites, etc., etc.

Notice I said whole-heartedly, not half-hearted. Pete points out the cost of an SEO consultant is several thousands per month. That’s because an effective SEO strategy requires creating and optimizing a lot of content. It’s not just about optimizing for search engines. SEO in 2009 is about optimizing for the web. That takes a whole-hearted commitment, not a half-hearted commitment.

Software platforms like those mentioned by Pete are also important just like CRM and accounting software is important.  Measuring results requires tools and technologies coupled with smart strategies.

A whole-hearted commitment to ongoing content development for communities of people across the web is a must for effective web marketing success in 2009.

The only question this raises is should we change our company name to Find and Engage?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

You’re Addicted to Twitter if You…

One of the most exciting developments in 2008 was the rapid growth of Twitter.  Much has been written about it. Hubspot recently released their first annual State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008 report. Shel Israel is writing a book called Twitterville which I look forward to reading. In his forthcoming book Shel profiles several brands and individuals using Twitter in their business such as Zappos, Rubbermaid and Scott Monty of Ford Motor Company. Visit Shel’s blog for more details and to keep tabs on the book’s progress and availability.

In addition to some great reading on the impact of Twitter on our culture and society mentioned above I want to offer some thoughts of my own.  The following list is not based on any scientific research.  Rather this list is based on my gut instincts. In other words, this list is just my humble opinion.

You just might be addicted to Twitter if you….

• Load Twitter first thing in the morning before you check your email.
• Tweet something as the last waking moment before you go to bed.
• When you meet someone for the first time after asking their name, the next question you ask is if they follow you on Twitter.
• The next question you ask this new person is how many followers they have.
• You check your Twitter Grader daily.
• You check your Twitter following growth daily (or hourly).
• You feel lame if you haven’t Tweeted in an hour.
• You always Tweet what you’re doing where ever you are.
• You look at people who don’t use Twitter as aliens from another planet.
• You can’t remember life before Twitter.
• You have grown to hate email because you’d rather use Twitter.
• You review every new Twitter application as soon as it’s available.
• You post more than 100 Twitter updates per day.
• You feel compelled to reply to every one of Chris Brogan’s Tweets.
• You check Twitter names just to see if they are available.
• You dream up new Twitter names just because.
• You revise your Twitter profile once per week.
• You change your Twitter picture once per week.
• You dream up ways to talk about Twitter with your non-Twitter friends.
• You are seriously considering ditching your non-Twitter friends if they don’t get on Twitter.
• You invent new Twitter vocabulary all the time.
• When you visit a website you look for their Twitter identity.  If you don’t find one you think less of the company.
• Your significant other accuses you of spending more time with people on Twitter whom you’ve never met than you spend with him or her.
• No matter how many Twitter followers you have, you’re never satisfied.
• You have a separate calling card just with your Twitter identity. You’ve been handing out that card more than your regular business card recently.
• You haven’t been responsive to people calling your name because you prefer to be called by your Twitter name.
• You get the shakes if your mind draws blank and you can’t think of something to Tweet about.
• When you attend business meetings, you send and reply to Tweets from your mobile device.
• Your mobile device buzzes non-stop because you have enabled the device setting for most of the people you follow on Twitter.

You are really addicted to Twitter if you have set up one or more additional Twitter identities so you can lead a secret double or triple life.

This is a partial list of attributes of Twitter addiction.  If you or someone you love suffers from Twitter addiction, please seek help.  There must be other signs of Twitter addiction not listed here.  I encourage you to add them so you can help someone who suffers from Twitter addiction.  Please add to this list in the comments section below.

BTW, are you following me on Twitter?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Christmas Eve Message from Bernie Borges

In this brief year end podcast I reflect on our 2008 podcasts and look ahead to 2009.

In 2008 Chuck Palm and I have brought you podcasts on SEO, paid search marketing and social media marketing trends. We always strive to bring you web marketing content that helps marketers create actionable strategies for measurable results.

In 2009 we’ll bring you more of the same as well as interviews with interesting guests. In February I’ll begin podcasting content from my forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer on the Social Web.

Best Social Media Podcasts in 2008

On December 21st, social media strategist Lee Odden posted a list of the best podcasts on social media of 2008 on his popular TopRankBlog. I’m proud to say that the Find and Convert podcast is on this list!  Please visit this list and please vote for the Find and Convert podcast. I will greatly appreciate your support!

Thank you for your loyalty in 2008.  I wish you many blessings this holiday season.  And, I wish you blessings of health and prosperity in 2009.

I look forward to reaching out to you with our first podcast of 2009 in a couple of weeks!

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Marketing 2.0 What Does it Mean?

This podcast is a brief introduction to Bernie Borges’ forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer. Targeted publish date April 2009.

So, what exactly do I mean by Marketing 2.0?

Marketing 2.0 is a play on words on which parallels Web 2.0. As you know Web 2.0 allows for an interactive experience on a web site (blog, social network, podcast, wiki, etc.)

In Marketing 1.0 we interrupt, we intrude, we disrupt our prospective buyers through various advertisements, direct mail, email messages and cold calls. Marketers have tried for decades in 1.0 to interrupt the buyer in hope of getting a message across with a call to action. Then, if we get a 1% response to our interruptive marketing, we think we’re doing well!

Some forms of Marketing 1.0 can be effective, such as advertising on the side of a shuttle bus at a convention to a targeted audience. Or, some banner advertising can be effective in a very niche industry website. If you are a supplier in a narrow niche and there are good niche portals in your industry this can be an effective marketing strategy.

But even effective 1.0 marketing should be supported with 2.0 strategies comprised of great content on blogs, podcasts and other social web platforms where you can engage in two way conversations.

Marketing 2.0 shifts all the power to the consumer (the buyer). It’s a paradigm shift. I argue it’s even a mindset shift. The power is no longer in the hands of the marketer. The buyer has the ability to engage in conversations on the web with others who share common interests to learn, research and hear from others about products and services of interest. The buyer can learn about a company whose product is being considered, the industry trends, employees, the people of influence, etc. Before a buyer makes a purchase decision he/she has an unparalleled ability to hear from others who have made a similar purchase decision.

Then, how can marketers influence buyers in a world of social interaction on the web?

Through a Marketing 2.0 mindset!

As marketers we have to be aware of this shift of power and engage our buyers in sincere and authentic conversations. A conversation is two way. We need to speak with, not talk (shout) at them.

In the old 1.0 world marketers blasted messages out. Marketing 2.0 is speaking with your buyer in conversations, getting engaged and listening to them.

For example I heard a story about how Paul Colligan was flying somewhere on a Southwest Airlines flight and his flight was canceled. He posted a comment on Twitter (his Twitter name is @colligan) about his frustration and when he eventually landed on the other side, Southwest Airlines had contacted him through the web (on Twitter) to say “we heard you and we want to make it right.” Kudos to Southwest Airlines for listening and taking action quickly! Paul Colligan then Tweeted about the positive reaction he got from Southwest Airlines. In the end, Southwest Airlines got good exposure for their swift action, not in the media but on the social web (which I argue is the new media but that’s the subject of a future blog post).

Too many people view the web as a one way communication experience. However, social media allows us to have two way communication through engagement. For example, if you have a comment to add about this podcast/blog post you can leave comments below.

All companies of all sizes have the opportunity to get engaged and listen to their prospective buyers using Marketing 2.0 strategies.

Are you using Marketing 2.0 strategies?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

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