comments

Couldn't agree more that the straight-up sell won't work on social sites. In this respect, social media is much closer to PR. I also can't stand the "snake oil" approach, i.e., get 500 Twitter followers in a day. Why, when those followers couldn't care less about you? I often see Twitter decks that show hundreds/thousands of followers, but they've never posted anything. What's up with that? Just like any medium, it boils down to appropriate communication that takes into account the audience -- who they are and what they care about. Now that's good marketing.

Looking forward to seeing all my favorite Biznik'ers. Let me know if you'll be there, so we can get together.

I'm such a dog-nut. I don't have a dog right now myself, but live vicariously through my dog-owner friends. Of course I'll be there with gifts for our less-fortunate doggy alter-egos.

Hi Sheryn,

Just what I'll be needing. I'm up to around 120 pages of the book.

--Robbin

Hi Nancy, thanks for the confirming thoughts as I'm in the middle of writing a book myself. It definitely is a lot of hard work, and of course, that's just the beginning. The marketing comes next -- thankfully, I've got that covered. Also found a great book on the topic published by Entrepreneur magazine called, "Start Your Own Information Marketing Business" -- lots of very practical advice.

Questioning is the heart of intellectual debate. It's how we learn.

I don't disagree about the importance of demand or branding or communicating the benefits of products, or whatever other terms are being bandied about here. What I was having trouble with was the misuse of the terms. If you were in the emergency room, would you be concerned about the difference between a radial fracture and a compound fracture, or is it just a broken bone?

I just want to clear up a few things, and I'll probably get in trouble for this.

I know I'm splitting hairs here, but some economists out there may agree. What you're talking about here is not "market demand" per se, but demand for a specific product. Theoretically, demand cannot be created, because demand has to do with consumer behavior and it takes some exceptional circumstances to change that. The wireless phone which caused a sea change is actually a better example than the iPhone, which is an improvement over existing PDA's, but not behavior-changing (maybe more people are surfing the Web via mobile -- but that could be a factor of 2G/3G as well).

Although there are some good points here, there are several misstatements. For example, differentiation is not the same as competitive advantage. Your product may be "different" than a competitor's, but that difference doesn't necessarily give you an advantage.

Sure the pet rock was a fad, but it made millions and didn't require people to buy another one. The fashion industry deals with perpetual fads and does well with it. That's their business model.

It's important to get the terminology right. When we address these kinds of issues in our businesses, we want to make sure we're coming up with solid solutions -- not magic bullets, like promising to double or triple your business in a few years.

I could go on, but I won't, because I know I'm going to get flamed. Sorry Kirk. I like the iPhone too, but hey, you never know when someone's going to come up with something that's faster, better, cheaper. And that product won't create market demand (most likely), it will just be a vast improvement.

Met some great people and won one of the prizes -- a cool cookbook. Super nice hosts. Thanks.

The most useful tip for me is #8 -- tone down the extroverted style. I can certainly relate to that. But I agree with another comment about brilliance -- there are all types of smarts in this world. They, but probably not all (we're speaking in generalities here), just happen to have one particular type in spades. As for good communication skills, well, that's one that could be lacking.

As for the other points, you could easily substitute different "types" of people pretty easily. For example, what lawyer doesn't need to be analytical? And what business person doesn't want to get to the point? I could go on, but what's really important when it comes to communication between people is thinking about where the other person is coming from -- and that goes both ways. Perhaps, in some cases, it's this inability of techies to be empathetic that makes the communication so difficult at times.

For a great book on this topic, you might want to read, "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" by Alan Cooper.

Right on target.

Thanks for the horror story. Been there myself and learned a lot in the process. Also hear a lot of the same stories from the students in my workshops.

I like how you prioritized the issues, that is the first ones are about the people themselves. When you take a project like this on, you must be able to trust and communicate with with the people that are so essential to your core business model. You can avoid the problem all together by using hosted builder tools if your site requires little more or less than an ecomm engine. You can get the site up fast and test the model before spending a ton of money. If the site requires more complex functionality, it may be wise to consider finding a partner who knows web dev -- this way, they'll have a vested interest and deliver more than what's required in a contract.

I can't tell you how many times and in how many different ways I've told people the same thing. I guess to marketers it's completely obvious, and I'm not sure why it's not for people who are trying to sell something. Even the biggest corporations miss it (and there are lots of reasons for that!).

If you want to sell something, you need to consider why your prospect would want it, and speak to that. Another way to put it? You need to consider what your customer is thinking, AKA the WIIFM, or "What's In It For Me?"

I'm always pitching builder tools at my workshops. Can't wait to give it a whirl. Have already added your site to my list of hosted builders on my site.

--Robbin

Perhaps it's the beginnings of a new business model to rival the corporate structure -- and that's certainly not a bad thing.

I've found some related info in, "Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web" by Gene Smith.

There are several turnkey ecommerce solutions you might try. They include catalog, shopping cart, payment gateway, etc. Check the list out on my site: http://www.blockbeta.com/buildhost-your-website/. Scroll to the second half of the page.

Beyond the conversation, there are a lot of me-too articles as well. How about a filter on these? Or at least find a way to categorize them somehow.