“Craigslist, the “free classifieds” site that offers community advertising in 570 markets worldwide but charges only for a tiny percentage of its ads, will generate $100 million in revenue in 2009, the AIM Group / Classified Intelligence estimated today. That’s an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist’s estimated revenue of $81 million in 2008, making clear that the company continues to grow significantly while many classified advertising publishers are reporting year-over-year drops of 50 percent or more in certain categories.” by Peter M Zollman of AIMGroup

Despite the controversy surrounding Craigslist sections called “Casual Encounters” and “Erotic Services,” the fact remains that Craigslist is a peer to peer community driven web portal.  Created in 1995 by founder Craig Newmark, Craigslist has more than 20 billion page views per month and projected revenue of $100 million this year.

I think it is ironic that the Business (for sale) category is less than one inch to the right from the Casual Encounters category.  Craigslist defies all the rules of ecommerce when it comes to website design:  no banner ads; no Google Ad Sense; no big banana buttons that scream, click here.  So why is it so successful? I believe one of the central reasons for its success is the constantly updated content created by Craigslist users.

Automotive, Jobs and Real Estate are some of the top categories with large volumes of inventory.  As a Tallahassee small business digital media consultant, I have worked with automotive and real estate companies who have listed inventory and/or properties on Tallahassee Craigslist.  One of my clients who owns several rental properties has leased a property in less than one hour on Craigslist.  Another client lists their automotive inventory priced below $12,000, and receives multiple calls per day.

Similar to its cousin Ebay, the success in listing on Craigslist is photos, descriptions and multiple points of contact.  I have seen listing after listing with no pictures, poor descriptions and no phone or email listed.  Putting a link to your business website or blog is another “best practice” and allows for good web traffic tracking through tools like Google Analytics.

Tallahassee businesses posting job listings are reporting over 300 to 500 responses per listing! If you are looking to hire and are looking for a low cost alternative, Craigslist is a great resource.  Taking the time to write a good job listing, including detailed job description, educational requirements and skills needed will help reduce the number of unqualified applicants.

If you haven’t started listing your products or services on Craigslist, your competitor probably has.  One tool for monitoring Craigslist is CL Desktop.  CL Desktop is an application built on Adobe AIR.  This tool is a very well designed tool for searching and tracking listings by topic.  CL Desktop is a free application to download from Adobe AIR Marketplace.

Craigslist Social Media Monitoring Tool

Are you an eavesdropper? When you are out in public places do you listen to the conversations going on around you? Whether you are sitting in a coffee shop, having ale at your favorite pub or sitting in coach flying to LA, the question will come around, what do you do? You answer. If you’re a banker, lawyer, school teacher, you explain where and what you do. Something triggers that question. Maybe you’re wearing a uniform, a company branded shirt, reading your industry related magazine; something generates the question. Maybe you’re talking with a colleague about your new product line, an intriguing project, or upcoming company event; it’s the conversation that perks the attention of the person next to you. Did you ask them to listen to your conversation? No. Are you in a public space? Yes. Is it a social environment? Yes.

Social media is like conversations in a global coffee shop. If you are on Facebook or on Twitter, you are listening in on the conversation. Has someone on Facebook or Twitter ever helped you find a store, locate a bank or given you technical advice? Have you returned the favor? Did you send them a thank you note? Did you stay in contact with that person? Why not? Why wouldn’t you look to pay it forward?

Imagine if you could listen to the conversations that are about what you are interested in while turning down the volume on all the other unrelated voices. Current estimates show Twitter alone has 14 to 19 million users, and that number is growing every day. That is a bunch of conversations! The ability to chime in to just one topic is a powerful capability. Harnessing that information can provide valuable insight to companies and individuals. Tools like Tweetdeck and Seesmic are free applications that will allow you to key in on multiple topics and feed the results right to your desktop.

Search is probably the fastest growing segment of web technology today. Look at the huge success of Google; everyone is searching for something. Not everyone who searches is lost. With so many people looking, now is the time to invest in becoming an expert guide in your field of service or product line. Don’t try to be the one size fits all solution. The niche guides are the winners in this game. How do you know if you qualify as an expert? One benchmark is 10,000 hours of experience. Check out Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book Outliers for more on the 10,000 hour benchmark.

As a business in today’s digital media landscape, it is essential to have your ears open. If you haven’t dedicated a portion of your time and resources to social media, please consider it. Every Fortune 500 company spends at least 20% of its resources on research and development. Take three 15 minute breaks in your day and follow a conversation or two on Twitter. I recommend taking notes along the way. After a week of following conversations, compile a report of your findings and present that to your manager/owner. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. There is a global conversation about your business. Are you listening?

Art of listening in Social Media

If you haven’t met Biz Stone, you are in for a treat.  He’s a down to earth guy, who happens to be a genius.  Biz is the Co-founder of Twitter and also helped make Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and Obvious. He has published two books about social media and have a more professional profile on LinkedIn.  Here is a recent interview with Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch.

There is a second part to the interview over at TechCrunch and it is worth checking out too! Visit TechCrunch

How many people contemplate their comprehensive insurance policy or the diversity of their financial portfolio on the way to the bathroom? Why is the community bulletin board still a viable media channel for advertising? As an advertiser, you are gambling that everyone that visits that establishment will visit the restrooms. Is this cutting edge media placement?

Do you really expect someone to grab your card off the cork board on their way into the powder room? Have you ever had someone call you and say, “Yeah, I got your card off the bathroom wall at ______ and I was wondering if…” Does that really work? I guess if you want to take a shotgun blast in the dark that’s one strategy.

I love Sprint’s idea of media placement. You’re sitting in the theater getting ready to watch a movie and the trailers are showing. The next trailer is about a monkey trying to negotiate director credits and theme song input with the movie producers. The punch line is: “It takes many calls to make a movie, but only one to ruin it. Please turn off your cell phone.” Brilliant. The message is creative and the delivery is relevant. Nice job, Sprint.

As a local business, you don’t have to have a Sprint size budget to craft relevant, creative messages. Social media channels are becoming one of the largest growing communication methods. The traditional media placement questions are who, where, and when to send your message.  In social media, the question is how does your message interact with the audience? Unlike the intrusions of traditional advertising, relevant messages can be engaged with people who are already talking about that specific topic or interest.

A couple of things to consider when interacting inside social media channels:

Remember, it’s social – All business and no play is no fun! Social media is a two-way communication channel. Keep that in mind and put away the bullhorn strategy. Social media is like being invited to a global cocktail party; there are plenty of opportunities to connect.

Listen before you speak – Before you jump into a conversation, it’s always good to make sure you’re on topic. (ex: Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, BlogPulse, and Trendrr) Take at least 30 days to monitor the tone and volume of your topic of conversation.

Give good directions – If you are expecting for people to follow you, make sure you know where you are going. If your updates are about business and money, don’t have them click on a blog site about rubber chickens. Just because you don’t carry it or offer it, doesn’t mean you can’t help point someone in the right direction. Pay it forward is socially correct.

Be creative –Many companies are using blogs/micro-sites as landing pages rather than linking to boring institutional corporate sites. This web strategy allows for flexibility and niche specific content within a large or small scale product line or service industry.

Talking with the right people at the right time with the right message is possible. Listening to the conversation is the best way to stumble into your biggest fans. The alternative is to place your business card on the cork board on the way to the bathroom. Let me know how that works for you.

Branding Social Media in Tallahassee?

As I meet with local Tallahassee businesses, I find companies are still trying to figure out what to do with social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

The debate is whether these sites are just a trend or are they new channels of communicating in a modern digital era.  Regardless where a business stands on the social media platform, the answer is that millions of new users are exploring these sites every month.  Social media users are not just teens, college students or businesses either.  It’s everyone from every demographic.

With the growing number of newcomers to the digital communities, the world has become a more connected planet.  The once essential long distance phone plan barrier has been removed and replaced with open lines of communication.

With keyword search capabilities built within Twitter, it is very easy to jump into the specific conversation topic you are most interested in.  Rather than having to search Google page after page looking for websites for information, keywords are now delivered straight to your desktop: Getting in on the latest trends and updates has never been easier.

If it is so easy to gain access to this information, why are some business locking the doors to these social media channels?  Just because people spend personal time on the phone, do you take the company phones off the hook?  Just because employees send personal emails from work, do you turn off the email servers?  Just because staff members often hang out in employee offices for long periods of time, does that mean you lock all the doors until 5pm everyday?

No.  In each given situation, a progressive company views each channel of communication as a way for people to connect with the business or organization.  A proactive company will develop a strategy of how to best use each channel and provide training for maximizing each channel.  Whether it is direct policy or an outline of best practices, the best use of communication tools should be developed and optimized.

If you have locked Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace out, who else have you locked out of being able to interact with your company or products?  One huge benefit of social media sites is the fact that they are open 24/7.  Leveraging social media can allow your clients and/or prospects to weave in and out of the purchase or service life cycle.  Just because the front doors are closed after 5pm, doesn’t mean the customer has to come back later.  In fact, they might just go down the street, or in the digital world just click to the next tweet if you keep them out!

What is your Social Media Strategy?

This week I was enjoying a cup of coffee when I noticed four people on the other side of the café huddled over their laptops.  One of the four was showing the other how to navigate through various areas on a website.  Just as I was about to leave, I asked the young lady being tutored what she was learning.  She explained that her company, Catch Your Limit Consulting, had a very strong belief in mentoring.  It was quite obvious that she was excited and passionate about the opportunity to learn in this mentoring business philosophy.

Mentoring traces its roots back to Greek mythology.

“Mentor (Greek: Μέντωρ / Méntōr; gen.: Μέντορος)^[1] was the son of Alcumus and, in his old age, a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for the Trojan War he placed Mentor in charge of his son, Telemachus, and of his palace. When Athena visited Telemachus she took the disguise of Mentor to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus’ mother Penelope.^[2] As Mentor, the goddess encourages Telemachus to stand up against the suitors and to go abroad in order to find out what happened to his father.  When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, Athena (in the form of Mentor) takes the form of a swallow and the suitors’ arrows have no effect on him.” Wikipedia

Regardless of Athena’s intentions in taking form of the elderly man “Mentor,” something noble happens when someone assumes the role of teacher.  As a mentor, Athena empowered Telemachus to move forward with self confidence and determination.  Telemachus benefited greatly by the advice and wisdom passed on by his mentor.

Throughout my life, in every area, I have had a mentor to show me the way.  There is no better time than the present to partner and collaborate with someone who has already walked the path you are traveling.  I am inspired as I look into the future that I might once again find myself walking step by step with someone I admire.

I applaud “Catch Your Limit.” You can be sure that they are not just another consulting business that will come and go with the tide.  Their core business commitment to mentoring will surely prove to be a solid foundation.  Visiting their website, you can believe it when they say they can help your company build leaders.  It’s not just a fish tail.

Thank you Catch Your Limit Consulting for continuing the ancient tradition of mentorship!

If you visit your local newspaper, TV station, or radio station, I think it’s safe to say that you will find someone tuned into a police radio scanner.  Why would these media outlets engage in such an activity?  I think it’s obvious,

for starters they are looking for stories.  Why are stories so important?  Because stories are the platform by which they interact with their readers/viewers.

I have to believe that the really good media outlets scan the radio waves and have designated staff trained to listen for specific words, phrases, or codes.  Maybe part of their training is reading over a list of code numbers like 10-78 (Send ambulance), 10-79 (Send wrecker), 11-80 (Traffic Accident – Serious Injury), or 11-82 (Traffic Accident – No Injury). Knowing the law enforcement language is essential to understanding what’s being communicated.  Otherwise, it may sound like random numbers being shouted out.

Now, take that analogy and think of it in ways to leverage social media.  On the surface what may seem like random status updates, can be categorized into useful information.  Knowing how to categorize and isolate keywords is the combination to unlocking the social media vault.

One of the emerging tools for analyzing social media content is Tweetdeck.  Tweetdeck can be downloaded for free using your Twitter user name and password.  It runs in the background, while you work on other assignments or projects.  You can have up to five keyword searches being performed at any given time.  Anytime a tweet or status update that contains your specific keyword is entered, it is categorized by subject, date, and time and displayed in its designated search results column.

Let’s apply this to your specific area of service or product line.  If I were a local Customer Service Manager for Best Buy, I would have a search for Best Buy Tallahassee, HH Gregg Tallahassee, and Wal-Mart Tallahassee.   Analyzing the search results for people who had a good or bad experience at any of those retail stores, I would then use that information to train my customer service representatives on how to handle a given scenario.  If the status or tweet was directly about my store, I would contact that individual directly and thank them for their business and ask for the opportunity to learn how to provide better service for their next visit.

Click Here to read another real world example of a large hotel chain that went over the top to provide a WOW experience for one of their guests by using Twitter. This is not a fad.  Social Media will not go away.  If anything, it will evolve into something more social and more interactive.  Look at EBay and Amazon; the reason why they are so successful is because at the core they are driven by user created content (information and reviews about the products).

There are many benefits and insights to be gained by reading and analyzing the content on all social media platforms.  Zappos.com, a clothing retailer, has over 300 customer service reps utilizing Twitter in addition to the traditional lines of communication in order to exceed their customer’s expectation.  If your Tallahassee business isn’t embracing emerging technology to move your business forward right now, you are missing out.  If you listen carefully, you can hear the sirens.

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Want to learn more about leveraging Social Media for your Business?  Visit Social850.com for a free “Lunch and Learn” seminar coming up May 19th!

Based on a true experience:

“This past weekend I came back to my rental car to find that I couldn’t turn the ignition key at all. I tried the key while yanking on the steering wheel and the gear shift, but no luck. I was at a loss, and turned to Twitter to see if anyone knew anything about this undocumented feature of the Pontiac G5 (Detroit’s woes are easier for me to understand after this experience). I tweeted “Ignition key won’t turn at all in rented Pontiac G5. Anyone got any ideas – help!”

Within a few minutes I got 16 responses back. They all told me essentially the same thing – that there was no trick specific to that car, and that the key was to keep cranking on the steering wheel while turning the key. I did so, and eventally got the damned thing to start.

My point with this story is not just to bust on GM, but also to highlight that I got 16 shots of altruism from people, most of whom I didn’t know, at a time when I could really use them.

They were willing to help me out not because I’m such a good friend of theirs (not the case) or such an obviously great guy (depends heavily on who you talk to), but because we humans like being altruistic, and Twitter makes altruism the work of a few seconds. The help I got cost each each sender virtually nothing, yet added up to a highly valuable resource for me. I think it’s important not to lose sight of that, and to keep in mind that not all exchanges are governed by incentives, mutual benefit, or economic rationality. Sometimes they’re governed by simple neighborliness, and Twitter is an awfully big neighborhood.” Andrew McAfee

(Andrew McAfee is currently an Associate Professor in the Technology and Operations Management area at Harvard Business School.)

This story reminds me of a good friend of mine who works at University GM here in Tallahassee, Tim Barry.  As a GM Internet Manager, he knows more about Pontiacs, Cadillacs, GMCs, HUMMERs, and Buicks than anyone I know.  He is the kind of guy that would respond to that question in a heartbeat.

If you are in customer service for your business and you aren’t on Twitter listening for feedback from your customers, you are missing an opportunity to provide a greater than expected level of service.  CLICK HERE to create a Twitter Account.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TallyDigitalBiz

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Want to learn more about leveraging Social Media for your Business?  Visit Social850.com for a free “Lunch and Learn” seminar coming up May 19th!

In the business model of 2000, the goal was to gain more customers, assign them a customer number and watch them walk through the customer life cycle.  With the rules of free enterprise changing rapidly, assigning customer numbers isn’t going to get your business into the business 2010 era.

Social Media is changing everything.  In my previous article “Breadcrumbs to Business Growth,” I outlined the digital media journey of local coffee house Tuscan Sun Coffee.  Typing in the keywords “Tuscan Sun Coffee Tallahassee” into Google search, I was able to see what the web said about that business.  (The little hamsters upstairs should start running a little faster from here on out.)

Let’s look at Social Media from a different angle.  Say I am a Public Relations Manager for a local business that is trying to keep up with the times and I regularly do a Google search of the name of my business.  Google has been indexing the “status updates” on various Social Media sites for some time now.  If someone has a good or bad experience related to their visit to my business and they “tweet” or “status update” about that experience, it will show up on a Google search. If they name my business specifically, their comment will be a clickable link.  (You might want to Google search your business right now and look through every page just in case.)

Remember the “Comment Card” box? Imagine your comment cards being posted on the web. Would that be a good thing or not?  How would you handle a less than satisfactory experience if someone completed a comment card and dropped it in the box?  You should treat a Social Media comment with the same level of attention as you would a card dropped in the little black box labeled “Comments.”

Many national companies are listening to what the avatars (a small icon representing the user profile of a given social media) are saying.  I have read article after article of companies like Blackberry, Target, and Starbucks replying to comments left on Facebook and/or Twitter from people who had a negative experience with their product or service.  Often, the solution to the problem turns a negative complaint into a loyal fan telling their “friends” and “followers” about how the company redeemed its reputation.  The digital voice of a loyal avatar is the new word of mouth.

Here’s the point: 1000 loyal avatars equals 10,000 tribe members (a new kind of customer number)!

What if your business doesn’t listen to the “tweets” and/or “status updates?”  I guess you better get a bigger comment card box so that you will have something to pack up your desk with when they decide to bring in the new PR director who understands Social Media and why status updates matter.

By the way, did you ever think to do a search on your competitor to see what people are saying about them?  If they are smart, they already did one on your business and are thinking creatively on how to capitalize on your area of weakness.