photo credit: woodleywonderworks

So you create a Facebook Fan Page and have 200,000 fans in two weeks. How do you get the benefit out of this? Well this is a 100 percent opportunity to become an ‘entrepreneur’ (in good faith).

The dilemma is – can a famous Facebook page become a real startup?

We have two kinds of people here;

1.Intentional – who form a Facebook page or open an account with Twitter before launching a website (bona fide startup.

2.Unintentional – who form a Facebook page, get massive number of fans and then decide to launch a website with the same idea

In both cases, the biggest question is whether the popularity of a Facebook Page can be easily harnessed to build a standalone website. The obvious advantage is that Facebook has a huge number of users who are very active (Trust me – Facebook is extremely engaging). If a user becomes a fan of your page, then updates you post on your page will automatically show up in the user’s profile. Building an audience through Facebook is comparatively easier.

Now the problem is that users might be reluctant to visit your website when they can get all updates from Facebook (user friction)

It will be a long way before a Facebook page can turn in to a sustainable and profitable business.

Econsultancy explains the topic elaborately in this post by citing an example of Secret London

As a standalone website, Secret London will have to convince its users to visit and use yet another website. That means far more

PS: My friend launched a Facebook Fan Page yesterday and has above 300 fans already – she is already thinking on the same line

photo credit: thms.nl

The best way for a person to remember something is to have a ‘visual aid’. I believe most of us are visual learners. I would definitely remember a face but not a name.

How can businesses use this concept to market their products/services in the online world?
Through Video Marketing – quality video content which is correctly tagged, distributed at the right places online and shared via social networking sites has tremendous power to reach wide audiences globally. Complex ideas, thoughts and emotions can be communicated easily through viral videos. Two distinct advantages from a marketing point of view are; visual aid advantage which engages more users and the power of a video to engage in search engines. So videos don’t only influence customer buying decisions but also boost your visibility on search engines.

The phenomenal rise of “how to” concept has given video marketing an extra push. People who want information actively search for this type of content. People who have the information and who want to share it for free can form a video and distribute it online.

There are various online video sharing platforms with YouTube undoubtedly being the most popular one. YouTube is the third most-visited site on the internet which receives over 70 million unique visitors a month (and the number keeps rising). And it also appears in Google search results – what else does an online marketing strategy want?

Other sites such as Vimeo, Justin.TV, Blip.tv, Photobucket.com, Viddler.com & Ecorp.tv are also good for distributing and sharing videos.

The whole idea of making a video and distributing it online can be quite intimidating but an advice here is - just do it. Video marketing can be very effective and it will definitely be the new marketing for 2010 with many companies adopting it already.

A video marketing strategy can be ideal for your startup as well – it’s cheap, helps in search engine rankings and has a viral tendency if correctly made and distributed.

For more information regarding this we suggest you visit StartupNation Blog

It’s my opinion that not having a video presence in 2-5 years will be like not having a web site in 2010!

photo credit: M i x y

Let’s start by explaining what Inbound Marketing is all about – the style of marketing that focuses on getting found by customers (when they need) and not ‘pushing’ your product or service (referred to as Outbound Marketing) is known as Inbound Marketing.

As a customer when you need to buy a product/service, you don’t solely trust the ad or newspaper release. Suggestions and feedback from friends, family and other customers influences your decision in a big way. And getting this ‘feedback’ has become so much easier with the advent and rise of the Internet and Web 2.0.

All you today need to do this type your query in a search engine and here you go! You have hundreds of reviews, suggestions, feedback (negative too) in one search. Traditional Marketing methods are effective but with the rise of Web 2.0, inbound marketing is definitely the future.

Now as a startup you need to go out there and market your product or service. Inbound marketing is the one stop solution to all your marketing strategy confusions. Your website, SEO techniques, blogs and social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc all come under the Inbound Marketing umbrella.

 As a startup you gain the following benefits from Inbound Marketing:

1. Better Relationship Management – which can lead to higher prospects to client conversion
2. Loyalty factor can lead to more sales
3. The methods of implementing it are far less expensive and as a startup you can’t spend heavily due to financial constraints
4. Easy to use and ready-made tools available online

Inbound marketing can be related to what Seth Godin describes as ‘relationship marketing’ which can turn out as long-term strategy for your startup business if implemented wisely.

Three quick points for Startups: Content, SEO and Social Media

(1) It Costs Less - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying email lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it.

For more information visit:  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4416/Inbound-Marketing-the-Next-Phase-of-Marketing-on-the-Web.aspx

photo credit: manfrys

‘SEO’ (Search Engine Optimization) is a term widely used to mean “the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (organic) search results” (Wikipedia).

As a startup, you have your website ready with excellent content but how will you get it across to the ultimate users? Your website is in a space where there is a lot of search traffic, but how will you make it to the top of search engine rankings and generate traffic (ultimately leads)? There is a lot of confusion by founders of startups around SEO and how it works for a startup.

What we believe – SEO is extremely important for small businesses because normal users (those who don’t live and breath technology) only type a few of their favorite websites directly into the URL bar and for everything else go to search engines, most likely Google. In the 90s, people talked a lot about “home pages” and “site flow” – which matters if you are getting most of your traffic from people typing in your URL directly. However, for most startups, this isn’t the case (at least for the first few years of existence). Instead, the flow you should be thinking about it users going to Google, typing in a key phrase and landing on one of your internal pages.

Search engines are ‘matchmakers’ between users “demanding” information and websites “supplying” it. SEO helps tracing the gaps in the supply of information and providing traffic to your startup website.

The following article and slideshow provide great tips for Startups on SEO:

http://www.slideshare.net/willobrien/try-will-o-brien-startup-corner-seo-and-social-media
http://socalcto.blogspot.com/2009/11/seo-for-startups.html
As a startup founder, don’t overvalue better results with SEO than is deserved. There is a great value in SEO for startups. The beauty of SEO is as a long-term strategy for building inexpensive traffic.

 In the same conversation about SEO for startups, the founder either tells me:
•    There's a ton of search in my space
•    I'm not sure how much search there is in my space

Start-ups also have a ton of options. They really are enter­ing with a clean slate most of the time and, often, a huge num­ber of resources. They have investors, boards, friends, fam­ily, old col­leagues, old net­works, etc., all push­ing for them and offer­ing a help­ing hand. So when it comes to decid­ing where they want to invest their energy and call in those favors, it can get tricky.

 

Marketing is a very important aspect of business which startups usually tend to ignore at the launching stage. It is true that startups have budget constraints and they can’t really concentrate on marketing at this stage. But there are some low cost tactics a startup can use for promotion and relationship maintenance – all online. Start by choosing a name that works; something simple, memorable and unambiguous. Then probably kick off a blog and not to forget keep checking the website traffic through some analytics. These tactics and suggestions are explained in further detail by the Startup Guru Dharmesh Shah:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/9008/Startup-Marketing-Tactical-Tips-From-The-Trenches.aspx

Probably the tactical steps don’t do much individually, but in aggregate they do start laying the foundation for much bigger things.

Find three closest competitors.  Pretend like someone is paying you $10,000 for locating each competitor.  Really try hard.  Barely managed to find three?  Take a lot of effort?  Great.  Now find 3 more.

As a startup business, building a website is requisite to promote your business online, drive in the targeted traffic and not to mention, make profits. People usually have different perspectives when it comes to building a website for their startup business.

Firstly, there are people who believe in having online presence as the flagship of their company. Secondly, for others it is the first impression maker that will tempt potential customers to contact them for quotation and further discussion.

Steve Pick of Startup Nation has narrated a few steps for building a starup website:

Getting started building a website
You can hire someone to create a website, or you can roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.  If you’re starting out on a tight budget, and/or the website will serve primarily as a source of information for your customers - and provided you have at least a modicum of computer savvy - then creating an attractive and functional website from scratch is well within your abilities.

To build a website for your startup business you need to register for a domain name, web hosting services, web authoring software and a perfect website design. For more information about building a startup website, traverse through the below link: http://www.startupnation.com/articles/1260/1/building-website-basics-business.asp
 

Whether you’re a startup, small business, medium business or a huge firm, your brand value is gravely important in distinguishing you from your competitors. Unfortunately, the brand positioning is not taken seriously in the small firms. Most of the small businesses don't realize the value and the intent of positioning their brand as a trenchant marketing tool. Branding doesn't have to be too expensive or overpriced, but it does need to be in tune with your goals and markets.

Here is a skillful post by Stoney deGeyter on why branding is important: http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/why-branding-matters-to-small-businesses.php

A solid branding strategy is important for any small business and should be a part of your online marketing efforts. If you're like most small businesses you are more concerned about selling products or services than in establishing a name for yourself. Why go through the effort? Simply put, branding helps sales.

 

Google is floating a new CPA (cost per action) model for Adwords advertisers who target US cities and states. If you are one such advertiser, just open up an account with Google Merchant Center and include as much information as possible for your products like accurate descriptions, images and price.

Merchants who have large product inventories now do not need to create ads. Just do your basic keyword research and determine the ones for which you want to show your ad. You pay only for the results and as the ads are charged on a CPA (cost per action) basis rather than CPC (cost per click). Thus, risks are lesser and a lot of time will be saved too as the advertisers can just update the merchant center with relevant information (and possibly keywords).

Currently, product listing ads are available only to a handful of advertisers but should open shortly for all advertisers across USA and may be other countries too. Read more…

If you would have observed children closely, you might have noticed that they like tiny spaces, little inlets, and small entrances. These cave like or box like structures entice children much more than open spaces and designing these structures in play areas, game shop lobbies is a proven tactic that is likeable by children. Every pattern explores design ideas that fulfil requirements of those who will be using them and it doesn’t really needs a genius to apply these architectural principals to information architecture. This becomes all the more important if the website that you intent to design is for fulfilling social needs like social news dissemination or social networking of target audiences.

It is not just about children, all of us may behave in different ways when brought together. The consistency of behavior which is exhibited in an informational space which has singularity completely changes when there are individuals collaborating, communicating and engaging in a positive or a negative manner. Indeed, wisdom of crowds and madness of crowds, both are proven concepts and what better place to see it getting displayed in real time one like sites dig.com and delicious.com.

Read more…