The Importance of Social Networking to Small Businesses

Online Social Media is a must if you're a small business that wants to get their name out to the public. As of 2009, 59% of the top 100 retailers maintain branded Facebook pages. So if you don't get with the program your company could be left in the dust. In my opinion, for small businesses,  it's much more effect than placing an ad in the newspaper, putting up a billboard sign or passing out fliers. If you're a new night club for example, you're doing your company a disservice if you don't at least have a facebook and twitter account. Why? First of all almost everyone in their target market (teenagers to younger adults) already has a facebook, so you have access to hundreds of thousands of potential customers right off the bat. Every weeks I receive numerous private messages from clubs letting me know what DJ's are going to be there, who's going to perform and other special events they have going on. This is relatively inexpensive, reaches their target market, creates word of mouth, and will most likely pay off on the weekend when most younger people go out. Having direct access to your customers in an interactive environment is the way to go from now until the foreseeable future.

Source: http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/top-5-companies-on-facebook/3292/

Neuromarketing is the Future

Neuromarketing is a fast growing field that studies the brain's response to brands and advertisement.  The goal is to find how people's brain's and body's respond to certain messages, and apply what they've learned  to advertisement in hopes of influencing consumer's decision making. Personally I find this pretty scary and had no idea it even existed until today. The thought of companies hiring a Neuromarketing firm to tap into our emotions and thought process in order to influence what we purchase is quit shocking. This is inevitably the future of marketing research, and I just hope that laws will be in place soon enough to protect our rights as consumers. One of the article's I read said they haven't been able to find the magic button that will trigger our minds to purchase a product on command. However, give it a few more years and Neuromarketing firms may be able to do just that. Such tactic should be deemed illegal as it would force people to buy products.

Source 1: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/etc/neuro.html    
Source 2: http://www.fastcompany.com/1700207/campaign-ads-and-neuromarketing?partner=homepage_newsletter

Car Sales Declining Because of Technology?

Car companies are now blaming their decreasing sales among younger people on the internet and the latest smart phone's. They claim social media easily connects Generation Y to their friends, so they're less likely to dish out the cash for a new car. Personally I don't agree at all and would blame our countries current economic woes instead of new gadgets.

With the unemployment rate at 9.6% and record high foreclosure rates , many younger people simply can't afford a car and their parents don't have the means to aide them with such an investment. The truth is buying a car now isn't as easy as it was five years ago. Two summers ago when my engine was destroyed, my mother and I went from one car dealership to another and couldn't receive financing. Banks aren't lending like they used to, monthly car payments are higher, and gas prices continue to rise. It doesn't matter how attractive automobile companies make their cars to Generation Y. The bottom line is if they don't have a job, and have parents who are struggling to make house payments, buy groceries and worry about their job security, buying a car is out of the question. To suggest that young adults would rather chat on Facebook or buy a brand new Iphone, than have the freedom to leave their house's whenever they wish to hang out with friends, or go wherever they want when they want to, is absurd. It's the economy stupid.

Source 1:  http://www.lendingcentral.com/2010/10/03/us-report-foreclosure-rate-hits-record-high/
Source 2: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39970363/ns/business-autos/
Source 3: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/Unemployment-Rate.aspx?Symbol=USD

Online Governing

Online governing has already changed the world as we know it with filing income taxes, paying traffic ticket fines, and WhiteHouse.gov. I'm one hundred percent behind more online government as I view it as more convenient, potentially more efficient, and most importantly incredibly interactive. The only issue I can see would be privacy, and more measures need to be taken in order to make government data bases with our social security numbers, for example, or other important information more secure.

The 2010 presidential campaign is the biggest reason I'm all for the government embracing the Internet. To see people ask questions on YouTube and have the presidential candidates answer them was a huge step in the right direction in my opinion. It gave ordinary people a voice that would probably be ignored and we heard some great questions that many news outlets would never ask. I also felt since it was so much easier and convenient to get involved, more people joined the debate on election day to choose our current president.

Although I see the potential privacy issues, hacker threats, inefficient programs, and so on and so forth. I recognize the possibilities and look forward to how much the Internet will change governing in the years to come.


Source: WhiteHouse.gov

Simple Tips For E-marketing

Here are 5  tips to market your website:

1.  Make your website user friendly
If your marketing succeeds in getting people to come to your site, you want them to actually enjoy themselves so they may return in the future. It's very important to make your website easy to navigate or else no one will want to come back. Create a site map, make sure to use fast servers, and out together a visually pleasing website.

2. Search Engines are your friends
Learn how to use search engines to maximize your website's exposure. By registering your website with as many search engines as possible, using common keywords,  titles and descriptions of your site, you can greatly increase the the amount of traffic your site receives. This concept is called Search Engine Optimizatio and is very cheap, yet extremely effective if done right.

3. Scream your URL whenever possible
Ok.. don't literally scream. But do your best to spread the word. Create business cards, put it on t-shirts, coffee mugs, any merchandise your site might sell, and of course put it in every advertisement. You want your website's name out there so it's ingrained into recurring and potential customers alike.

4. Be interactive
As a customer myself, I know it's important to have my questions answered in a timely manner..or I may just take my money elsewhere. Make sure to have a costumer support team (even if it's just you) and make your costumers feel as if they're your top priority by answering any question as soon as possible. Also make a survey so you can find out what your site needs to improve upon to make your costumers happier.

5. Use Affiliate Marketing 
The concept of affiliate marketing programs is simple. You accept advertisements of other websites on your website, and in return, the company will pay you every time a costumer uses your link and purchases something from their site. This is a two way street, if a customer from their site follows a link to yours and purchases something then you pay them. 


Source:  http://www.morebusiness.com/market-your-website-5-steps

A Win for Internet Privacy?

Chalk up a small win for the fact that we'll now be able to opt-out of something we never signed up for, and most likely never wanted anyways! Starting this month, online consumers will now be able to control, or even opt out of   behavioral advertising from certain organizations. Behavioral advertising is when internet marketers collect data from an internet user's browser (such as online history and web searches), and use it to determine which types of ads to push to that particular user.

In an attempt to stop more fierce government regulations on this type of advertising, several organizations have come together to create an advertising option icon that will put some power into internet users' hands. The program will be placed at the top of  websites near advertisements, and if clicked, will show you ways to  configure your web browser in order to limit behavioral advertising or even opt-out of  it altogether from participating companies.

The bottom line is this. If many of our favorite websites begin to use this icon, I have no doubt a good number of  people will eventually get curious enough to either click on it or at least find out what it is. Having that said, it may take a long time for the icon to catch on. It really depends on how many companies actually decide to incorporate its use, along with how serious they are about the education campaign that will start in the near future. If industry organizations seriously think more restrictive government legislation may be on the way, then it's only in their best interests to participate in this new program. Why? If nothing more than to make consumers believe they're actually doing something good for a change regarding privacy.

I for one think this new tool is a great idea and will be anxious to find out if it'll be a success or just fall flat on its face. The Council of Better Business Bureaus will be responsible to monitor and enforce compliance with the behavioral advertising rules, so this icon is already starting off on the right foot in my opinion.