Do women and men interact differently online is a question I often get asked. Well here is some research that will help us all when considering how best to connect to our community online.
Sometimes you see something that helps put into perspective a whole class of behavior that makes no sense. I’m talking about the bland kind of corporate good citizenship that is stamped out by a cookie cutter and could easily be grafted on to any business. Does your company constantly make donations to worthy causes? Does it show everyone how it is going green? If your company really stands for something, then carbon copy humanitarianism doesn’t really cut it.
We should be in social media – just not right now.
We should start a company blog – just not right now.
We should be making our website more user-friendly – just not right now.
We should be doing a lot of things – just not right now.
Social networks and blogs are changing how consumers find places and services, how and where they share their experiences, and eventually, where they will spend their time and money. Without an understanding of, and participation in, social networks, you can miss shaping and contributing to the decision-making process of those who define the success of your business.
The inspiration for this post began way back in November, when I spied a tweet lamenting the fact that blogger “Best Of…” lists heavily favor male bloggers. In this mindset, I quickly dashed off a post called “5 Female Bloggers Who Will Get You Thinking,” which received such a wonderful response that I decided to expound upon it.
If you are marketing to women and are not yet fully engaged in blogs and social networks, take note of the latest BlogHer-iVillage 2010 Social Media Matters Study.
Retargeting or Remarketing is way to put your ad in front of the people who have been to your site before and are likely to respond to you ads and offers. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, I wrote a couple of posts on whether we are optimizing our sites for search engines or customers. I’d like to return to that theme and show an example of a company that is using its site to optimize for customers, and in so doing, helps themselves, too. PeaPod, for those who don’t know is a leading grocery delivery business owned by Stop & Shop, and you might learn a trick from them.
As time goes on, one of the more interesting trends that continues to happen with surprising regularity is how frequently new business models and ways of doing business are emerging through social media and online tools. In many cases, these trends are helping to reinvent how businesses sell and consumers buy all kinds of products. For that reason alone, new sites are worth paying attention to no matter what industry your business happens to be in. The benefit of that for your small business is that watching these new models may also spark a new idea or method of selling that you can consider for your own business:
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Dan Schwabel is not only a personal branding expert, he’s someone I’ve come to know and respect over the years…and definitely someone I consider a friend. We recently sat down to discuss Engage and the resulting interaction culminated in a wonderful discussion that explored the state of professional and personal branding in the era of new media.