Internet marketing

Let’s say you’re company X. You’re on Facebook. You have 150 likes, and most of your articles get no comments, but when they do, they’re from your customers you like. You’re also on Twitter, and have 50 followers, who read you, but you don’t interact much with them. Let’s say you’re company Y. On Facebook, you have 2,500 likes, but close to no one interacts with you. On Twitter you have 400 followers, but they’re very passive. Let’s say you’re company Z. You have 200 likes on Facebook, but when you post something, you have interactions. On Twitter you have 100 followers, with whom you communicate quite a lot. In my opinion, a company in X’s position wants to get to Z. More likes, more followers. That’s it. If I were X, I would strive to get to Z. Not more people who “like” you (but are passive), but more people with whom to engage. Much more difficult to view as success, but this is success, in my opinion – an active community.

You look at a web site and you may think – “Hmm, I bet I could have thought of that. But to implement it, boy, now this is hard”. I’ve heard, years ago, at a Internetics events, one guy doing web design for major corporations. He said coming up with fresh & new ideas is much more difficult than implementing it. Quite true. I can look at my blog (OK, not a big corporation, I have to admit) and tell you that it’s much more difficult knowing what to place where, than actually doing it. I can Google things, find out someone else with a similar problem, and – voilà.

You may have heard of this study: Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. (source) A slight change to this? You have to deliberately practice on getting better. So not just “OK, we «worked» for 10,000 hours”, but more like “We tried very hard to become better within 10,000 hours”. So, not just work, but focus on becoming better. Also read Seth GODIN’s take on it: Seth’s Blog: 10,000 hours

You may know a client who you know has a big budget. How to charge? You can charge a premium for a big budget – “If you have money, I’ll charge you more for the same offer”. You can charge the same amount of money as you usually do. A lot of people go for the first option. I go for the second one. Reasons: It’s fair. A rich person got rich by two things: Being better than the average Joe at something – providing value. Knowing how to reduce costs. Thus, a rich person should actually be better than your average client at judging the value of your work.

In the name of “Understanding the business”, this thing happens: You get lots & lots of detailed descriptions of a business. What I’d do better: Avoid describing things – “we do like this & this & this”. Sure, a brief description is necessary, but not too much. Focus on USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – what you have and is different. Focus on Insights – “I will tell you this & that, and by those two things you should get an idea”. Focus a lot on actionable steps and clear processes. Make it clear what needs to be done.