Training Marketer

With the rise of Second Life and Web 2.0, business is finding new and innovative ways to use the Internet. Virtual trade shows offer an opportunity for businesses to meet and share ideas on a completely new platform.

The benefits of virtual trade shows are obvious - no airline tickets to buy to attend the show, no annoying booths to set up, and no wasted hours spend waiting for people to approach your booth.

The goals of virtual trade shows and in-person shows are the same - to come away with quality sales leads, connect with potential business partners and bump into some key media organizations while you’re there.

Online trade shows have an added goal to minimize cost while delivering the same benefits as their offline counterparts. With tight budgets, the push to show a positive ROI is harder than ever.

Deciding which offline trade show to attend and then convincing business leaders in your organization to pay for it is a difficult process. Those at The Lonely Marketer ask the question: “Are Trade Shows a Waste of Time and Resources?”

In the post, the authors devised a metric to help capture the costs and benefits of attending a show. Comparing the metric of an online trade show to that of an offline show could paint a compelling picture that virtual events are the more cost-efficient option.

While face-to-face conversations are tough, connections at online trade shows can still be made. Online chats and emails can help you get the materials you want and connect with potential sales leads.

Virtual events and trade shows can attract an average of more than 1,500 people who spend longer than two hours in the show, according to a report by FactPoint Group. With those numbers, online conferences and trade shows seem to be a growing trend.

If you’re comfortable with working and communicating online, virtual trade shows may be a less costly and more efficient way to achieve the same goals you would face-to-face.

Thanks to those at The AppGap for sharing this cool new application. It’s a world mosaic created from 1001 web 2.0 company logos. The picture below does it no justice. Click through to Map of the World 2.0 to see how cool this application really is.

Twitpitch - your company’s story in 140 characters (roughly 20 words) or less.

The term was created earlier this year, when social media pioneer Stowe Boyd, decided to only accept his Web 2.0 Expo appointments via Twitter. Companies were forced to fit their company’s story into a short “Twitpitch.”

In order to make things simple for me, I am hereby posting a schedule of the times that I will make available for meetings with companies at the Web 2.0 Expo, and I am not going to accept email-based proposals to meet, only Twitpitches.

Note also, in a twitterized style of business, I am only allotting 30 or 40 minutes for meetings. Let’s get down to it people. Cut to the chase. If I fall in love with it, I will be the first to ask for a follow up.

Small companies everywhere can learn a lesson from this interesting social media experiment - get to the point. In this age of information overload, less is more. People don’t have the time to sit and wait for your main point to come around, they want you to tell them now, and it better be quick, or they’re outta here.

Space colonies? Rocket-powered shoes? Robots doing the laundry?

Predicting the future is tough. Most of the time our ideas don’t pan out exactly how we expected, but luckily we have experts out there who can help us see into the future.

If you’ve ever wondered what the future of social media looks like, experts out there have already started their predictions. Those at Mashable, the social networking news blog, had a recent guest post sharing expert predictions into our social media future.

Jackie Peters, CVO and founding partner of Heavybag Media, recently attended the Executing Social Media conference where Peter Shankman, social media guru, gave a very energetic keynote on the future of social networking and how the social web is changing the way we do business and make money.

Some of Shankman’s social media predictions:

Information overload. Think you’re overloaded now? Just wait, soon there will be too many channels, tools and platforms for anyone to keep track of. The solution will be in the form of one tool that streamlines all of the information in order to successfully manage the information, automating the process for you. FriendFeed and Socialthing are two emerging tools on the market now.

Automated life tracking, life sharing and network building. Peters tells us to imagine a world where a business traveler can walk into an airport, their Bluetooth device signals their arrival and a ticket is printed and ready at the check-in desk.

The fall of reviewers and critics. With personal information so easy to access, people will be using recommendations and ideas from your trusted network rather than traditional reviewers or critics.

Citizen journalists rise. “One customer can do better than a million dollar spend on the Super Bowl.” Customer reviews hold more merit than anything a professional critic could write. We want to know what our friends think about a product or service before we give it a shot.

In the end, “the evolution of the web is more about how it is becoming integrated into our lives and less about the technology.”

Peters’ important side note - according to the movie Back to the Future 2, in 2010 it was predicted we would all have a fax machine in every room. Basically, don’t hold the predictions against us in the next few years if it turns out we weren’t so right.

When was the last time you looked at the “Read Me” file or manual for a piece of software you just installed on your computer?

Probably never, or rarely.

But, I’m sure you can remember a time when you were taught how to use a complicated piece of office software. Either in a group training setting or one-on-one, someone had to show you the shortcuts to using all those tricky programs on your desktop.

Well, times are changing. There is a new movement in the business software world to “consumerize” the technology, with a goal of making software intuitive, engaging and free of training.

According to those at the New Learning Playbook, the consumerization of business software will have a “tremendous” impact on employees in today’s workforce.

With more youngsters like Gen Y and the Millennials entering the workforce, employees will expect workplace software to be as easy to use as Facebook. The days of training courses and software manuals will be rightfully left in the past. New software will be engaging, fluid and fun.

“Take a moment to think about the software your department uses, can you say this? Often the norm is one where employees endure lengthy training or spend hours poring over reference manuals only to be more confused than when they first downloaded the program.”

Business software had been purchased in the past by senior executives focused on automating business processes, never thinking about the solution being user-friendly or fun for their employees.

Today’s world is driven by the Internet and Web 2.0, with consumers who know how to use it and use it well, according to Shiraz Datta on Data by Da{t}ta.

“[Employees’] expectations are that the software they use at work will be equally powerful, simple and engaging.”

SuccessFactors, a provider of performance and talent management solutions, is one company leading the business software consumerization movement.

Seemingly inspired by the functionality of Facebook, Ebay and Amazon, one of their creations called SuccessDirectory uses a Web 2.0 approach to online work collaboration.

“Let’s assume for the moment that you work on a global team and collaborate everyday with team members across the globe that you have never met in person. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create a profile here where you could share your educational background, work history, post a photo of your choosing, list your professional training, languages you currently speak, ones you want to learn over next few years, books and music you enjoy, hobbies and some information about your family? In fact, creating and sharing your profile, could really help you get to know your virtual team members better and may even lead to doing your job better.”

The consumer software world has advanced so well that a manual is rarely needed, usually only when you encounter an error. Consumers install and dive into software, expecting the process to be easy enough to figure out as they go. Business software must catch up, with everything else they expect in the office, Gen Y is demanding it.

You can now create Facebook pages for products and brands. I have to thank those at the MarketingSherpa blog for bringing this cool feature to our attention.

Facebook is giving marketers the chance to create product and brand pages for free (as of now). Enthusiastic customers can become your friends, giving you the chance to network with their friends. It may open up a whole new world of product promotion, and it’s right there for free.

Be aware that it’s not the same as creating a regular Facebook profile. You have to go to the Facebook homepage, click on the like titled “Advertisers” in the footer. It will take you to a page where you can buy ads, but look closely for the free offer to post a product without being a paying advertiser.

The Sherpa blogger foresees a charge for this new feature sometime in the future, so take advantage of the offer now. Good luck.

Stop worrying about Google search rankings and forget the even exist. Excuse me, what?

It’s actually the exact advice from a Copyblogger post I came across today. The headline “Here’s How to Stop Worrying About Google Once and for All” was very effective in catching my attention, and the following article had some great advice.

Brian Clark shares how his initial strategy with Copyblogger was to ignore search engines. Why? Because he believes you shouldn’t depend on them for traffic.

Clark’s advice is to pretend like search engines are not a traffic option and focus your efforts on repeat traffic and referral sources.

His three “S” strategy includes:

Subscribers - “Getting someone to voluntarily pay attention to you over time is the greatest gift you can get as an online publisher.”

Social Media - Get other people talking about you. Chatter on other Web 2.0 sites creates quality links and encourages people to visit your site.

Selling - Build trust in your audience through social media referrals and loyal subscribers. Once you have the trust, then you can start selling.

Having trouble getting started on Twitter?

Summize is a great tool that lets you search tweets in realtime. Search for topics you regularly deal with and strike up some conversation.

Also, check out Twistori which uses Summize data to create a really cool, and colorful Twitter visual.

After reading an email that someone new is following me on Twitter (very exciting news, since I have about 3 followers so far), I go to the site and get this message on the homepage:

“Something is technically wrong. Thanks for noticing–we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.”

Apart from scheduled maintenance, do you think shutting down your whole site when having technical difficulties is the right thing to do?

I think it’s a good decision. It will save both you and your visitors wasted time and frustration.

You could spend hours answering lists of emails from irate customers about how your site isn’t working. Instead, shut it down, put up your message acknowledging the problem, let them know you’re working on it, and maybe throw in a funny message or picture to make them smile.

Be honest with your visitors. Most people will understand and come back later when you’re up and running again.

At least that’s my opinion, anyone out there have other ideas? Please share.

Not only is Twitter a great social media network and an innovative business tool, it can also help get you out of an Egyptian jail cell.

Earlier this month, journalist and UC Berkley student James Karl Buck was covering Egyptian riots in Manhalla, Egypt. Police arrested him and his translator for photographing a demonstration under charges that the two were revolutionary leaders, according to Buck’s story on his website.

Police let Buck keep his cell phone while detained. Buck Twittered one word: “Arrested.”

The single Tweet alerted his followers of his situation and made it to the U.S. embassy by the next day.

From the Q & A section of Buck’s site:

Q: Did Twitter save your life?

A: I have no illusions that the networks supporting me like my university, my embassy and the various networks of influence that have to do with being a white American student weren’t at play. Twitter and SMS both allowed me to contact those networks.

If Twitter can help a man get out of Egyptian imprisonment, I’m sure there’s a way it can help your business.

One author at DoshDosh came up with 17 ways to use Twitter for business. Here are some highlights:

Personal branding. Twitter can help you establish a more casual image, one that people see as connected and approachable.

Direct traffic. Once you have a network of friends set up, Tweet about your sites. Hopefully, your friends will also start to Tweet about it, then their friends, taking on a life of it’s own.

Get feedback. Use Twitter to get an outside perspective and advice for an issue you’re having.

Customer notifications. Send out a message when you have new products in stock or when you start selling an exciting new product.

Event updates. Notify your network when webcast or seminar times and dates change.

Visit DoshDosh for the full list of ideas.