What is cloud computing?

What is “cloud computing” well it is being able to pretty much do stuff like; word processing, photo editing, accounting, well nearly anything that you would usually need to install as a programme on your computer.

Except it works through a web page on the internet in servers (where the internet lives) and runs off the servers (data centers) and is presented to you in a browser! Think Gmail! Think Cloud computing – that is one of the best examples.

But this a ‘tech guy’ known as HighT3chDad has created a YouTube video which well is so much more fun to watch than read.

Also, great lesson in how to create Business to Business leads by using YouTube and home based video production with storyboards.

Check it out! <best viewed by click through to the article page here>

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg]

Word of Mouth marketing or WoM is an Australian first…

Well believe it or not Word of Mouth Marketing is believed to have originated in Australia in the early 1980′s!

Word of Mouth (WoM) is defined as passing information from person to person with no intermediary or media channel delivering the message, such as a newspaper advertisement. Or you could say it is the most trusted form of business recommendation or the most trusted advice not to choose a business, it works both ways.

A blog like Integrati Marketing can be considered a WoM opportunity for a business and can drive new customers to the business. But there is a key caveat with WoM – your business has to have great products and services to be endorsed by a trusted friend, family or associate.

Even more important, unlike traditional marketing media where the business controls the message in the advertisement, brochure or on the website with WoM you do not have that control at all. This is of course talking about person to person WoM, not on blogs which can actually be “cash for comment” by bloggers.

Word of Mouth has gone through a renaissance of sorts since the fragmentation of media started in the early 1990′s and the reduced importance of Mass Media such as TV and newspapers.

Today, communications options are far greater and new direct channels such as email, websites and blogs exist. These are defined as 1 to 1 or direct marketing media. The WWW is an example of a Direct Channel where people have a 1-to-1 engagement with websites and interact with the information, even creating their own through ‘user generated media’ or blogs like this.

The important issue for business is to be aware of the new effects of eWoM, where customers can discuss your products and service delivery quickly and now with Twitter real-time! These discussions via eWoM on Social Networks and in blogs can be critical to your existing and future potential customers perceptions of your business.

It is important to be aware of just how easy it is to create positive or negative reviews, posts and tweets about your business! And because this media is so open and accessible it means your business needs to take into account what people are saying about your business and your services.

Research companies are now starting to tap into the power of Social Networks to monitor brand perceptions and use this to enhance or repair a company’s brand.

So, are you aware of what your customers are saying about your brand?

Think about this the next time you have a challenging experience with a customer or a brilliant customer service moment.

Till next time, The Integrati team.

Connect or Die, what will your business choose?

Well, we have all seen the rise and rise of Google and the importance of being able to find ‘stuff’ on the world wide web. Many of you may not remember the WWW before Google when you had to go to portals and lists of links like boards to find ‘stuff’ you were interested in.

Today we search sites like Bing and Google and we use these site to serve up paid links/ads on these sites to drive targeted traffic to our own sites. This model is what has made Google billions of dollars. It works, I am not denying this at all and I happily use Adwords and love all the reporting which you receive as part of the service on the dashboard.

So, this is all known and works, so what is this new term The Network Service? Well, it is a new term coined by an analyst of web 2.0 Sean Parker. In many ways I think it actually sounds like an outdated ‘network’ term but what Sean is actually referring to is  Social Networking.

Web 2.0 logos

Sean Parker, has created a thesis that he believes that the power of search is limited in that:

1. Companies that Harness the power of networks will dominate the internet
2. Collecting data is less valuable than connecting people

Well, let’s have a look at point one, in effect what Sean is saying is that whilst being able to find stuff on the WWW is still important (and will remain so) what is really important is being able to be leverage your connections to find ‘stuff’ faster and well with Trust. I think that is something which people have left out of the argument. In essence you trust a search engine to search that is it. But with a social network, the power of the search is in the TRUSTED reference. In other words the people you link to on MySpace, Facebook and professionally on Linkedin. So these Social Networking companies are all in line for being more valuable than Google and Bing and even poor old Yahoo.

Because… well because as Sean has stated collecting, aggregating , filtering and presenting data to a single user via search will be less important than collecting people!

That is what Social Networking is all about, it is the ability to tap into your known networks of trusted groups and individuals. This is not new, in fact it has been around since humans have been, what is different is that on the WWW it is able to connect you anywhere, any time on a device of your choosing. The Anthropologists and Sociologists have studied this and it is a cause celeb for them, they call it Tribal!

Tribal networks are the ability to use your trusted network or tribe for reference, reassurance and acceptance, except this is different to the periods of mass consumerism to the late 1990′s. In that geographically you can be linked into a ‘tribe’ anywhere in the WWW and share the same values and traits.

Now, I know you are thinking, “yeah but I am a small business owner what has this got to do with my business?” Well in my opinion it is simple, the saying was “Change or Die” (in other words innovate your business before your competitors do) now I believe it is Connect or Die. And, this is where the small business has a massive opportunity, not only does your business have excellent customer service and great products but you KNOW the Customer!

In marketing one of the biggest advantages is knowing your ‘target market’ your customers, If you use Social Networking as a business tool now to connect and foster a ‘tribe’ of your customers you will be building a sustainable competitive advantage – You will sell more to your customers than ever before.

Now, I have written enough about Sean’s basic premise and I won’t make your eyes bleed with anymore discussion here, in fact I you can read Sean’s presentation here from Scribd.com or directly from the Integrati.com.au Public Dropbox here in MS PowerPoint.

Now, Sean also talk’s about the Network Effect, I will cover this off in my next post, I will be interested to hear your thoughts as well.

Till next time,

The Integrati team.