Attracting New Customers via Mobile Coupons: It’s a winner!

So, all of us are now realizing that we’re becoming, at least in this one way, more like the rest of the world;  our use of cell phones is going way up, and it’s become our lifeline to functioning competently in the day-to-day.  Here’s what I’ve been adopting myself,  either for my personal use or as someone on the lookout for ways to help small businesses establish some presence — sans the obnoxious, ‘in your face’ behavior, of course.  I will cover mobile in the next series of posts.

Mobile Tools that help me save money: Coupons via mobile  are taking off like never before.  From a small business angle, this means that getting involved in coupon opportunities has the capacity to do more than just give my customers a break during these recessionary times.  It also has the potential to build customer loyalty, give you visibility as a featured, local, neighborhood destination, get both interested individuals AND their friends into the act (many coupon tools have social forwarding built in), and even give you a bit more of that “here’s a business that’s hip” persona (translated: you get to to tie into young (20’s-30’s), single, educated women in the way they find is uncomplicated and cool).What I like:  Groupon or Living Social, both of which feature a SINGLE coupon for purchase every day.

It works on the principle that there is power in a collective — that a certain mininum number of people expressing interest will make it financially viable to offer a good deal and ensure that a deal will come to pass.

You might think that collective purchasing would work best for businesses people already know a bit about, but actually, the most active audiences are people seeking new engagements, and a quality business could very well fit the bill.  I know I find many offers showcase the creative or unique, which certainly gets my attention and interest.

One statistic from Groupon shows merchant feedback with the average check size 60% greater than the Groupon’s value, and that most participants are first-time customers.  If this fact continues to be true, it behooves small business owners to be at least as far along as they can be in terms of being able to field excellent service once interest on a couponing site is sparked.

Here’s what I like.  Check them out!

Groupon Contact: 877-788-7858 Ext. 2
Living Social Contact: 202.408.1745 x1117, deals@livingsocial.com

Oh, and for some information on the general state of couponing, here is an excellent article by Mashable.

Building a Creative Living in the Digital Age

Scott Kirsner, a social media maverick, wrote a book I’ve just got around to hearing about entitled “Fans, Friends, & Followers: Building An Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age, published a year ago.

What I liked about it is that he went directly to the source: creative people.  He interviewed visual artists, comedians, animators, documentary filmmakers, musicians, writers, and others who have been pioneering new ways to build a creative career online (and off.) It delves into the business models that can support leaving the day job behind. And all of the material in the book was collected in 2008 and 2009.

To check it out yourself, you can download a partial pdf or buy the book.  Here’s the link.  Or read his reviews here.

Hosting a Kick-Ass Event: insight from the pros

Guest blogger, Sarah Kennon, graciously filled in this week to review a panel of organizers sharing insider tips about hosting events. Read on…

“How To Host a Kick-Ass Event”, a Sandbox Suites co-working program organized by Sasha Vasilyuk, co-founder of the organization, featured three highly successful bay area event facilitators: Edith Yeung from BizTechDay; Myles Weissleder from SF New Tech, and Cassie Phillipps from SNAP Summit. Check out the great tips from folks really practiced in the art of organizing!

What to Consider When Choosing Tools for Event Promotion?

Myles advises: When choosing a tool, leverage all the tools out there, not just one. Find your audience where they already are. Myles uses Eventbrite for sales, Facebook and Twitter for promotion, noting you can’t extract email addresses from a service like Meetup, which he sees as limiting community development for membership-building organizations. The challenge, according to Miles, is to consider what is right for you and realize that it takes time to grow an event audience.

Cassie advises: For events which pull in a sizable audience, it makes sense to use tools like iContact. When her event list grew to 1,500 people she began using this tool. She uses Eventbrite for sales and Meetup for expanding her mailing list and gaining exposure to new faces, but doesn’t find the RSVP stats to accurately forecast attendance.

Edith advises: Keep looking to extend the value of the tools you have available. Edith is constantly experimenting with PR methods, so, for example, she might ask a question to be answered along with the invite to elicit engagement and information gathering prior to an event. Like Myles, she sees a strong need to understand the people you’re serving however you can.

How to Find the Right Location?

Myles advises: An atmosphere that loosens people up really helps to make an event successful. His organization’s venue choice evolved from corporate office space at CNET (which they outgrew) to the Metreon (which they found expensive) to Mighty because the atmosphere is just right for his events. He thinks it helps when there isn’t an audience charge for the venue itself — especially if it’s a bar where you’re bringing an audience who will pay for drinks. In addition, he finds it enormously valuable to poll people after events to take advantage of audience feedback.

Cassie advises: Take advantage of weekday events! She advocates knowing your budget well, and then, when approaching bars and office spaces, to realize quoted prices can be negotiated down to free most of the time because often the space isn’t being used. So, don’t fall for what hotels typically start out quoting, sometimes 35% to 40% higher during an initial conversation –interesting! Cassie also emphasizes thinking through the event format in relation to the space — e.g. do you need something quiet because you’re holding a panel discussion or a place where lots of ambient noise will create more of a party atmosphere?

Edith advises: Take into account what your audience is most likely to appreciate as much as you can. The events Edith organizes frequently take place at the Metreon because this audience of mostly small business owners value the proximity to downtown and public transportation which she took into account early on.

How to Find Speakers?

Cassie advises: To find speakers, use Google and your own networks. She also recommends asking for a personal introduction email to speakers since it provides some needed leverage to get them interested. In addition, she encourages being clear about what you can cover. For example, her group does not pay speakers, but they will provide room and board if people fly in for an event.

Myles advises: When bringing speakers in, it’s smart to realize the value of your own audiences. Speakers, in other words, often see his venue as an opportunity to demo to a large audience of colleagues, and pay him. Seen from the point of view of exposure prior to and after certain events, the expense of the fee ($300) is really just money invested wisely.

Edith advises: Understand what you’re offering speakers, because often, there is the promise of learning for both the speaker and your organization. In fact, sometimes she invites people who have skills she would like to learn. She adds that having reviewed the value you’re adding, you can better express the potential of the event to the speakers. A good place to start is asking yourself: What kind of an audience am I bringing them? Why is our conference the best place that they can participate?

How to Set an Event Price When You Want to Encourage Attendance?

Cassie advises: To get an accurate account of attendees requires some additional steps. For example, he day before and event, Cassie will send out an email to the RSVP list telling them the event is sold out and asking people to respond if their “Yes” has become a “No”. She finds this yields a very accurate response rate.

Other tricks to try:

Myles advises: Charge money if you want people to show up. Even a small fee such as five dollars gets attendees feeling they’ve got to get into the game. He recommends getting people excited about attending. Some ways to do this are:

Edith advises: Set a fee! If there’s no fee, people tend not to show up even if they say they will.

Other tips with promise:

How to Manage Day of the Event Unknowns?

Myles advises: Find an organizational partner.  Myles partnered with Justin.tv to live stream the event. He attested to inevitable glitches initially, but worked them out with his team to a glowing response . Myles also underscores the fact that the things that you might consider catastrophic as an organizer often go unnoticed by attendees.

Cassie advises: Be flexible since speakers will inevitably cancel, and events regularly go differently than what you expect.

Edith advises: Be approachable and be flexible.

Location-Based Advertising: How’s it going?

This is the second in my series on mobile, and what’s getting me interested is this.

Whatever can save me time in seeing whether something is worth purchasing (and I’m one of those who think fewer and fewer products actually are) and save me money, I can become interested in, even if I start out lukewarm.  As a woman, what matters most to me is to have appeals that I can confidently say are within reasonable range of my own needs and interests, and avoid the feeling of fatigue associated with extraneous, poorly targeted stuff. Location-based deals AND reviews/ratings, therefore, have the potential to make my decision-making easier.

So, up comes location-based advertising tied into reviews on my radar, things like FourSquare, YELP, Loopt, Google (local directory bar codes), Gowalla, and Merchant Circle. But so far, much of it feels extraneous — how much can I actually rely on these reviews, given the critical mass is not quite there?  And for whom is location-based advertising useful when businesses can barrage you with what you don’t need or when your network produces more diversity than these groups?  Of course, location-based anything has its own terrors; take a look at Please Rob Me for what I’m talking about here.

Trust can also be undermined in other ways.  The report by the East Bay Express on YELP, a bit of time back, left many consumers feeling tricked. The allegation that businesses were put in the position of having to cozy up to YELP in order to be assured of positive reviews muddied Yelp’s reputation as a trusted source. Merchant’s Circle seems to have had issues with consumer preferences being ignored as well. The lesson: If you have a small business, what you definitely don’t want is to sully your own reputation by association and/or not understand a company’s built-in bias, preferences and terms.

Still, I believe it is better to give people space to course-correct than vilify questionable behavior  interminably (I certainly don’t have first hand experience of YELP so I can only be wary).  At any rate, it does send me down the path to explore issues in more depth on my own (I’ll keep you posted) and to encourage you to read the reviews below.

So, check out the following articles from those who can speak with more confidence, and my nod in support of those sources which can point me toward informed decision-making.

On FourSquare:
http://www.colinalsheimer.com/foursquare-friend-requests
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/do-you-play-foursquare/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/17/please-rob-me-makes-foursquare-super-useful-for-burglars/

On Yelp:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_11/b4170027355708.htmhttp://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/technology/start-ups/03yelp.html
http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/15/yelps-new-and-improved-iphone-app-officially-hits-the-app-store/

On Loopt:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/08/loopt-partners-with-mobile-spinach-to-offer-location-based-deals/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/loopt_iphone3g.php
http://www.wirelessandmobilenews.com/2009/11/lbs-loopt-adds-pulse-and-partners-with-navteq-zagat.html
http://download.cnet.com/Loopt-for-iPhone/3000-12941_4-10863030.html

On Google:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/16/check-in-google-foursquare-loopt/
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/info/Show.asp#sw5

On Gowalla:
http://gigaom.com/2009/10/14/gowalla-vs-foursquare-who-will-win/
http://mashable.com/2009/12/25/foursquare-gowalla/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/gowalla_is_the_anti-farmville.php
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gowalla/id304510106?mt=8

On Merchant Circle:
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/merchantcircle-com-promote-your-business
http://www.sugarrae.com/merchant-circle-can-kiss-my-consumer-ass/

Social Media Impact — Some Ideas Worth Trying

Sometimes, I just want to figure out what matters most in terms of social media impact.  As messages, dire and otherwise, blast my ears, and content consumption line my days, I decided to attend an Inbound Marketing Conference moderated by Chris Brogan in San Francisco.

I walked away with two major insights.  How to be as consumer-centric as possible, and what that entails, and how to get yourself/your company ready to deliver impact.  This topic is split up into two posts.

Developing Consumer Centricity

• Always be helping has replaced always be closing — The context at the conference assumed you were selling something, and of course, with selling, this is how it is more than ever. Can’t be overgeneralized though.  If I were always helping, I’d become depleted and lose my usefulness, not to mention go broke. But within certain boundaries, building social capital and meaningful relationships (being responsive to fellow community members on social media sites) is a valuable endeavor, requiring that you focus on ways to recognize and empower others through what and how you share.
• When you want to crowd-source something, by all means, make it easy.  Crowd what? Crowd-sourcing.  Simply means enlisting your community to contribute content. Ever try Pegshot.com or hear about the Extraordinaires? The former makes it easy to share videos and photos of what’s happening where you already are.  And the latter provides the software to help you mobilize your community to contribute photo albums and maps.  Either way, you are getting people to know who you are and what you aspire to.  That willingness to crowd-source will fuel a sense of affiliation within your community.
• When you ask people to register for your e-alerts or info, manage their expectations about they are signing on to receive — how much and when.  This will let customers know you value their time from the get-go. Don’t forget to also include options for sharing (e.g., send to a friend options) within your emails.
• Always ask: what does your community really need most from you?  Don’t wander too far from that need. What is the point of your content from their perspective?   How can you most help? Come to think of it, why not come up with something actionable from every conversation you have.
• Trust comes most frequently from recommendations and you must learn to make customers a more central part of your story in order to earn those recommendations.  Check out sources of customer case studies; in all of the ones that were effective, you can be sure customers had a meaningful opportunity to contribute and loved the recognition!

Social Media Impact: Part 2

As mentioned in the previous post, what matters most in achieving social media impact often comes down to the degree to which you can be customer-centric, and what you can do behind the scenes to achieve it.  This post will concentrate on the second.

Here goes:

• A smart strategy for achieving connection is to curate every kind of expertise so, for example, always ask which bloggers can help your customers be smarter?  How can you encourage this group to help your customers?  Ultimately, to become increasingly relevant to a community means that you have to further that sense customers want to have re being cared for.
• Find out where Twitter really fits in.  Edison has done a study (and will be offering a webinar on April 29th) on Twitter users of America.  The main idea here:  more growth than you think in terms of overall social media participation, with the caveat if you’re not good offline, you’re not going to be great online. Check it out.
• Are you asking those who like what you do (fans and otherwise) to do anything for you? You have to ask, and then, you have to get customer DNA in your own content to really have it shared.  You can also go to where your customers are or build something where customers would be likely to talk about you.
• Instead of trying to be everything to everyone and therefore, thinking only about appropriating more to yourself and your company, think about partnering with those who can further your cause.
• Train people who can represent you to delight a customer.  This has impact.
• If you have video, put a static image of that video with a PLAY button in an email to encourage clicking through to that video.  Testimonials and direct communication by company founders and key staff can really make an impression and you don’t want to lose out on that possibility for connection.
• To become a social media maverick, take a look, from time to time, what your competitors are sharing. Look them up on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.  It can’t hurt to know their strategy since in accepting or rejecting their approaches, it will give clarity to your own.

Video to Promote Your Creative Business: a few useful ideas

A quiet type, I don’t instinctively embrace video. Somewhere, early on, a bias settled in me. Video en masse was a time waster and a showman’s tool for people who craved attention and didn’t deserve it.

So, it surprised me when I changed my tune from “no, thanks” to advocate.

I think grazing Youtube definitely helps. You can see that there are a good many videos offering us something of value, whether it be an authentic/appreciated point of view, good information or a good laugh.  Sure, the inundation of videos lacking anything close to substance still proliferate, but you can get away fast.  No one’s made captive here.

And somehow, given the fact that videos are so much easier to make and upload, joining the mix of visuals and voices is an accessible challenge. Who hasn’t seen how easy it is to both search out a video (today, I can find a specific interest, like Photo Collage, for example through Youtube’s search on the word, collage) and make my own via a webcam or flip video and a mic. Speaking of which, if you’ve got the webcam setup going, perhaps you’d like to gather a few testimonials to give your business a plug?  Tokbox couldn’t be easier and you can send them via email!

What’s good about the easy entry is that your own creativity can open up from the exposure. You can now tell a story, putting to rest the tedium of talking heads. And no, you don’t even need to be in it to tell a tantalizing tale.  Check out You Suck at Photoshop for a clue to the art of story, e.g. the creative point of view. Funny and a little crass, this series of videos nevertheless heartily proves the point that less is more while also encouraging us to share something of value too.

But back to you and finding that video-angle, the value-proposition that can translate into a gain for your business. Here are some tips.

• By checking out channels on sites like YouTube, you can get a feel for what works and how.For example, do you want to engage executives in storytelling or show your product? How about making more vivid your nonprofit/cause challenge or illustrating in a series of educational webisodes what your community doesn’t quite understand. Take the lead by watching a few video categories listed at places like YouTube so you can pinpoint to yourself and others what you could see doing.  Send the best ones to yourself so you can get the dialogue going within your own group.
• Check out the comparative strengths of video sites.Did you know that while Youtube has a great reach (1 million users a day with a wide user base) while Google video showcases many excellent e-learning and training videos?  Or that Viddler offers a strong platform for testing since it integrates well with itunes and digg, and makes commenting and tagging easy?  Or that Hulu offers great targeting in the U.S. or that Metacafe attracts those marketing a new product and independent producers/artists as well.  You may not be a video producer yourself, but as a small business interested in getting the word out, these sites should be of interest, especially when companies like Mogreet report video views and click-through rates 15-25 times higher than other forms of advertising media.
• Consider mobile, often referred to as the third screen.Mobile video is increasing steadily as user experience improves on mobile devices and as 3G networks proliferate (4G is on the way), making video, the creation and dissemination through simple devices like the iphone, blackberry, android, etc. more and more common. Since both user-generated and premium content both add value to a network, it’s smart to begin thinking how your small business can use it to get people more connected to what you do.

More on those specifics next time.  Unless you’ve seen something recently, that you can’t wait to tell!