Brain storming / crowdsourcing with Twitter

Have a peek at this idea as resported by the team at Springwise.com - http://springwise.com/weekly/2009-09-09.htm#ideasculture.

It’s awesome - giving a Team a tricky problem and waking up the next morning to a bunch of solutions!

From my side, I can think of using this internally for feedback from staff on how to improve a product / process flow or literally anything. Giving it a time limit is also very clever, as it creates a happening and immediate vibe around an issue.

More info on Crowdsourcing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_sourcing.

Will the potential applications for Twitter never end?

Durban 2010 Website should be a Wiki

There has been a lot of press about the launch of the new Durban 2010 website. The budget over the next few years for this is 6.5 million rand, and while it’s great to see investment like this into digital media, I think they might have got it wrong.

For starters, it’s not valid to the people who want to consume content and interact with the website to have to download a 5MB file. To be presented with this on the home page is poor. (A frustration free experience?)

I could also find no way to browse it nicely on a mobile phone. Surely visitors will not be sitting in front of their P.C’s while enjoying the Durban lifestyle?

The content itself is not great - if you want to find out where to eat, you need to click through to another website. So what’s the point? Why don’t they mention famous eateries like Johnny’s Sunrise Chip ‘n Ranch - the best roti’s in South Africa?

Or even better, why don’t they let the owners and clients of Johnny’s create the content?

Let the community help create the content

This website should be a Wiki, where the Durban community and Durban visitors could create, manage and consume the content. Using my example above, there would be a page dedicated to and titled “Johnny’s Sunrise Chip ‘n Ranch” with a picture of the eatery, map and directions, opening times, menu’s, tips on the favourite bunny chows and comments from clients.

All this content can be created by the community.

How cool would that be? And best of all, the software needed is open source - that is, free. The only real cost would be site management ,which can be easily trained, and lead to full time employment and a “door” into the I.T world for disadvantaged people.

Sometimes we lose sight of what and who we develop websites for. Ease of use, community created content, interactivity and mobility are key. This website offers none of these.

Banner ads - the overlooked benefit

Seems that those annoying banner ads - the ones you never click on - do have a legitimate place in marketing. That place is definitely not generating a high volume of click through’s per page impression though…

According to Seth Godin, they seem to almost fall into the same advertising category as Billboards, with the similarities being broad reach and high frequency levels, as well as to push brand awareness, recognition and recall.

The concept here is that you’d rather buy something from a familiar brand. Simple as that. So use banners to remind, and to create and re-inforce awareness - over and over again.

You can read the article here.

On a related note, we advertised a competition on one of our corporate focused websites. We initially advertised it by using a banner at the top of the page - quite a striking and pretty one - that asked users to click on it to enter a “feedback” competition. Entry was free, and we had around 60 responses in a month. We then decided to be a bit more “aggressive”, and used an interstitial to display upon login - and we got 80 entries in 2 days.

2 cool posts from Seth Godin

These really hit home for me, and although slightly obvious are so important that you should read them every few weeks and adopt them as everyday basics.

Three things you need if you want more customers

Identify your target market that has the funds to pay you for a solution that will add value to them.

The panhandler’s secret

Interact, network and personalise before selling. Build realtionships!

The Father of Marketing

Ever wondered who the Father of Marketing is?

Check out the Wiki page for Josiah Wedgwood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Wedgwood.

Seems he is the first known person to impliment direct mail, money-back guarantees, traveling salesmen, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues.

And his grandson was Charles Darwin!

Wonder what Josiah would do with the tools available to him today… mobile marketing, internet? Would he use Adwords?