A few lessons that I have learnt from reading this and other Corporate Blogs:

1. Blogging is a good avenue to reach out to existing and potential customers.
2. The feedback you get, if handled properly, can be put to good use in creating a positive image.
3. Blogging doesn’t have to be the responsibility of one individual (CEO, Corporate Affairs department etc.). If the cleaner has something good to say, why not give him/her a chance?
4. Articles don’t need to be long and unwieldy to read. It is also useful not to be too formal or too sloppy.

Have you read any good corporate blogs?

Most businesses (especially small and medium scale ones) are finding it useful to attract their online followers to offline events. They are also finding out  that it does not have to be anything fancy. It could be something as simple as 5 – 10 people meeting for cocktails in your living room, or a BBQ in your yard…

A few principles to live by when organising such events:

1. Have an idea how many people you want to have around. Crowd control is good so you get a good chance of meeting everyone.
2. Have defined objective(s) – for example: I want everyone to leave their contact details.
3. Have an agenda – this is in line with having objective(s). It gives some structure and helps you meet defined objective(s). Just make sure your agenda is not boring.
4. Have fun – try to avoid hard selling people. It’s a turn off.

A useful tool for reaching out to new customers is Facebook’s events tool. It allows you to setup an invite to an event and get people to commit (or not) to attending your event.

Have events worked for you?

The reality, however, is that many businesses are guilty of this sin online. Most businesses and brands have set-up pages and groups on Facebook and other social networking sites with the main objective of attracting people. This is a noble idea and it is to be commended.

However, it is important that if you are going to maintain a presence online, you should be ready to answer online questions and queries that come from you customers. You may be able to get away with not answering your calls in the office, but it does you absolutely no good if you don’t respond to customer queries online, as other people WILL SEE that you are not responding.

So do your business a favour and keep the (on)line(s) of communication to your customers open.

I will be glad to know what your experience has been in this regard.

• Networking sites: a good number of businesses have their representatives taking an active part in many a networking site. Amongst the favourites are Facebook, Linkedin, Xing, Plaxo, Twitter, Hi5. Look out for the likes of Apple, Recruitment Companies, Sony Ericsson, Nokia in these sites.
• Blogging: in the old days, companies got journalists and other ‘anonymous’ writers to offer ‘unbiased’ reviews about their products and services in Newspapers and Journals. The idea? It gives some form of credibility to have someone – whose opinions are trusted by a majority of people – to give an opinion (good or bad … but mostly good) on your products and services. Today, the trend is to send out information about your goods and services to professional bloggers. And these are able to do, online, the same thing that is done in the newspapers and journals. A good trick of the trade here is to ‘leak out your secrets’ to these blogs in such a way that it creates the suspense that is associated with gossip columns (believe it or not, gossip sells!). Companies (big and small), and their executives also have their (un)official blogs. Ask Google, Bill Gates; and Apple , and they’ll tell you about the importance of blogs.
• Online Groups: there are so many groups on the net. And you want to take advantage of as many of these as possible to further your interests. Sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Xing, do very well in this regard. And there are other sites that just focus on discussions. Some examples include Microsoft’s TechNet, Yahoo Groups, and Nairaland (for Nigerians). It is important to identify groups that house people who are most likely to be interested in you and your business. And you have to be careful to word your discussions and comments properly so as not to offend others. I shall deal on the issue of your choice of words in another article.

In conclusion, whether you are Shell or Sanford & Son, you need to start thinking about your strategy for getting yourself out there and using the Internet to reach your customers.
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I would be glad to know what, in your opinion, are the other methods of reaching customers online. Please feel free to share this article with anyone that would find the information useful.

Search Google Below

What about you? Can you use the Internet to enhance your business? The answer to that question is …. ‘It depends’ (Not the answer you expect uh?). Why is the correct answer ‘It depends’. The reason ‘it depends’ is that if you are in line of business that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Internet (and, though it seems remote, it is possible that there would be businesses that don’t need the Internet) then you should not be worrying just yet about being present on the web. A practical example? A friend of mine is setting up a fish pond. And she is starting out by selling to the local fish mongers in a market near the pond. I am not sure that her customers would need the Net to make business with her better. She might consider going on the Internet, at a later stage in the business, when she starts supplying local and international chain stores (Can I get an ‘Amen’?).

Now back to the story…

Yes the Internet is probably the most powerful tool you can have to grow your business. And the lovely thing about growing your business on the Internet is that you can do it for almost next to nothing… yes Free! Unfortunately, a lot of businesses do not realise this. And for those that do, and are taking advantage of it, they could do better.

So what is this free method of growing your business on the Internet? One word summarises this: Marketing. This is one word that is misconstrued a good number of times. Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines this word as “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service“. Sadly people generally associate marketing with ‘advertising’. But its more than this.

In this article, I too shall be limited and focus on one word from the above definition in this article: promoting. In subsequent articles, I shall look at some of the other words in this definition. Can you use the Internet to promote your business? Yes! We Can! (I hope Mr Obama didn’t patent that phrase!) How? One of the answers to that question is ‘Google‘. A lot people don’t know it, but Google’s business isn’t really Internet search. Its more of marketing company, but providing marketing services on the web. And how does Google make its money? To answer this question, let us go and do a search on Google. Now type the words Marketing in the search field and click on ‘Search’. A few things you will notice in the results page:

• There are 668,000,000 (or more) pages that were returned (You can see this on the top right hand corner of the page). This is a lot, isn’t? And don’t you just feel sorry for the site that is returned as number 668,000,000 on page last? In fact, you should feel sorry for any site that is listed after page 4.

• On the Top and Right Hand of the page, you will find ’special’ results under the ‘Sponsored Links’ headers. The sites that are displayed here have paid Google to put them up. And Google gets paid when you click on any of the links to go to these sites. Google has a scheme called ‘Google Adwords’. And Google can reward you if you allow these ’sponsored links’ to be pasted on your site
• The rest of the page contains links to other sites. And Google gets absolutely nothing when you click on the links to go to any of these sites.

Hmmm! Now, how did the Marketing Page on Wikipedia get to become the number 1 entry returned, when you search for Marketing on Google? The answer lies in 3 words: Search Engine Optimisation. I assure you, this is not a technical term. And don’t switch off on me just yet. We shall discuss Search Engine Optimisation our next article. And we shall find out what your website builder would tell you that it is vs. what Google will tell you that it is (by the way, you may want to listen to Google and not your website builder). We shall also learn what you can do to promote your site in the Search Engine Optimisation league table.

Speak to you soon!

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P.S. Do go ahead and share this page (and others) with those you care about. I would be glad to know what your take on the relevance of marketing on the web is to businesses today.