In a recent Adweek article, Joseph Jaffe uses an interesting analogy. When you visit a store, you walk in, browse the shelves, talk to a sales associate, learn about the products, and if you find something of value, you buy it. Once, you've purchased the product, you take it home where it can be seen by your friends and family, and when they ask you about it, you can send them to the store to get one for themselves.
The point is, your website is a point of origin, not a destination. You don't want people to move into your store. You want them to visit, learn, and take something home with them where their friends and family can be exposed to what you've got to offer. In the online world, people's "homes" are their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. It's important for you to give your customer a reason and way to take pieces of what you offer into their own digital "homes."
While keeping in touch with people is the most obvious purpose of sites like Facebook and Twitter, there are so many other functions. Now that I'm on both, readers can publish my articles to their profiles, which will be displayed for their friends to read and share. Advertisers can get immediate updates on new billboard locations or short-term promotions. It even creates the opportunity for interactive experiences, such as a scavenger hunt where people would look to the digital billboards for clues, come back and post their findings to compete for a prize.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend social networking to every type of business, Mr. Jaffe's article is certainly an interesting read.
The point is, your website is a point of origin, not a destination. You don't want people to move into your store. You want them to visit, learn, and take something home with them where their friends and family can be exposed to what you've got to offer. In the online world, people's "homes" are their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. It's important for you to give your customer a reason and way to take pieces of what you offer into their own digital "homes."
While keeping in touch with people is the most obvious purpose of sites like Facebook and Twitter, there are so many other functions. Now that I'm on both, readers can publish my articles to their profiles, which will be displayed for their friends to read and share. Advertisers can get immediate updates on new billboard locations or short-term promotions. It even creates the opportunity for interactive experiences, such as a scavenger hunt where people would look to the digital billboards for clues, come back and post their findings to compete for a prize.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend social networking to every type of business, Mr. Jaffe's article is certainly an interesting read.
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