It's all about that perception

The Point: Good ideas should be shared.

Today while reading one of the blogs I follow, http://www.scottmonty.com, I came across this very interesting video by Rory Sutherland:



The truth is before this, I had no idea who Rory Sutherland was, but I now think I'm going to find out more about him and his ideas. I urge you to spend the necessary time to listen to his ideas; I assure you you wont regret it.

His main points are (as summarized by Scott Monty on his blog post, http://www.scottmonty.com/2010/06/on-perception.html):

• All value is subjective
• Persuasion is better than compulsion
• Create intangible value to replace material value - particularly when we can place a far higher value on things that already exist rather than creating new things
• Change the interface to change the behavior
• "We are perishing for want of wonder, not want of wonders" -- G.K. Chesterton

Also, like Scott Monty, I would encourage everyone to explore the TED Talks web site if they're not already familiar with it. The ideas expressed at this forum are really worth spreading.

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Web marketing in developing countries

A friend recently sent me this link: http://tinyurl.com/da2756 with the word "Thoughts?" attached to it. I had a little to say about it and I figured I'd post my response here. Please let me know what you think about this by sending my an e-mail or leaving a comment. Thanks.

"I think Henry (friend 1 on e-mail list) and Seyram (sender of link) have between themselves presented the crux of the problem: 1. FB and other social networking sites that depend on advertising to survive cannont charge local companies the same amount of money they charge here (U.S.) for advertising. 2. Ghana and other developing countries are not integrated into the global payment processing system so even if people wanted to buy, they couldn't. Additionally however, I strongly believe that home grown businesses in developing countries like ours have not gotten to the point where they fully appreciate the power of internet marketing (and it makes perfect sense that they should not-- I don't believe that more than 30% of the population of Ghana even has access to the net). For that reason, most people might be quite reluctant to shell out the big bucks for this purpose.

Now if some Ghanainan company came up with an awesome online advertising business like Paa Kwasi suggested, that would be quite nice for all involved. However, they'd still have to contend with the high bandwith vs. low return on advertising sales problem. Paa Kwasi, you made mention of myjoyonline: does anyone know how much profit (if any) myjoyonline is making from the advertising business? Also, is it sustainable or are people just jumping onto the bandwagon for the moment because some sweet tongued exec. has promised them that it's the wave of the future? Are companies going to stop advertising when they realize that their advertising money isn't being translated into sales? I don't know the answers, but I do believe that before we can get full swing into the internet advertising game ( and be profitable at it) learn to walk before we run, otherwise, invent a way to fly so you can skip the walk phase. This basically translates into us (Ghana and others) building the infrastructure to allow us to plug into the global payment system so people can actually buy, otherwise, we should figure out an entirely different way to allow advertising to translate into money. If/when this happens, people will be less reluctant to spend good solid amounts of money on internet advertising.

Thank you :)."

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Social Media Marketing: Is it right for you?

Most people know or have at least heard about social and new media. For the benefit of those who've been under a rock for the past year or two, here are some definitions to guide you:

Social Media: Are software tools that allow users to generate and exchange content. For example, blogs, twitter, myspace, facebook etc.

New Media: It's a general used to describe non-traditional ways of delivering (advertising or promotion) messages. For example, DVD, youtube, v-casts, podcasts etc.

NOTE: Social media and new media have become so intertwined that all references to social media can be assumed to include new media.

Now, social/New media is the latest craze in marketing in these days of web 2.0. Everyone seems to have an opinion about how to make it work for you, and there are many self professed "experts" out there who are more than willing to help you implement some stratergies -- for a fee of course. The question however remains: should you be using these new marketing tools? The short answer to this questions is a resounding YES! And I'll tell you why if you care to read a little bit more.

There are lots of facts and studies out there, backed be some really reputable sources, that will tell you that times have changed-- the balance of power has now shifted from organizations and their marketers, to consumers. This basically means that organizations no longer call the shots. I'm not one of those reputable sources (so I'd encourage you to do your own research on the issue), but I can point to a couple of scenarios to suggest that this assertion is probaly true. For example, when was the last time you bought an item just because you saw an ad for it? Versus, when was the last time you bought an item after you saw an ad for it and consulted some message boards or talked to a friend who had used the item or read a blog about it OR all 3? The point is, people no longer care what organizations say about themselves or their products. People care about what OTHER people say about organizations and their products, and that's where social media comes in handy.

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