Feb 13 2010

The Empty Party Scenario

At Brand Advance we have a steady stream of people that discuss their online ventures with us both from a marketing and web development perspective. A relatively large amount of these projects involve some sort of community or social aspect. When it comes to growing a community based site or social network I always caution those I speak to about not falling into the Empty Party Scenario.

What’s the Empty Party Scenario?

Well…One perfect example comes to mind:

When I was in college there was a party that several of my neighbors organized. They had been planning the party for some time and had the perfect set up, lighting and speaker system. However there was one major flaw…when people came rolling in there was hardly anybody there. In College, the “Party Industry” is a competitive landscape and if students walk into a party and see it doesn’t have a decent crowd they will turn right back around searching for the next one. When I talked to my neighbors I asked if they had a good turn out they said yes, but it was so fragmented that nobody stayed and the party didn’t gain traction. They were not happy with the way their party turned out.

The Empty Party Scenario is magnified 10 fold when you are referring to online ventures.  For example….Let’s say you have a concept for a social network tailored for Fishing that allow users to connect with other fisherman in their area. You’re very excited and get the best web-design and the standard features of a social site (discussion boards, groups, ability to friend, etc.  You plan on using social media to market your website and get a reasonable amount of sign-ups. All is well right….Nope

The users who have signed up are all in different cities and you built your concept around networking with local fisherman. Consequently you have a very fragmented userbase consisting of users in Long Island, Miami, LA, Portland, etc….Once your users have signed up and realize that there is hardly any people in their specific area or little activity on the site in general and they will leave and not come back.

How can the Empty Party Scenario be solved or prevented?

  1. Utilize the bowling pin strategy for Market Entry
    From a marketing perspective you are not able to boil the ocean all at one time.  You have to boil water in a small area first then open it up to a larger body of water and expand gradually.  The same premise is with the bowling pin analogy….You first have to knock down one pin, then two more, then three more, etc.  Facebook used this strategy to exxpand.  They first started at Harvard, then several other schools in the Ivy league, then all Ivy league then Northeast schools, etc.  This not only creates buzz, but enables you to get a very relevant and targeted audience.
  2. Make Your Venture/Party Sticky
    What do I mean about making a venture sticky?  Well going back to the party analogy if there was awesome food people would most likely stay.  As more and more people came in the party would seem better because people are staying.  This can be done for your online venture by providing a great tool or good food for thought in the form of content.  When planning GroupTable we constructed it in a way that if a small group of 3-5 went onto GroupTable they really don’t care if there are 10 people on the site or 10 million.  The group receives the same benefit regardless.
  3. Encourage Referrals (Incentives & Word of Mouth)
    When launching a business if you are able to offer incentives or referral perks to current customers your business can grow immensely.  Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate lots of referrals if it fits your business model.  The other side of this is that you should craft a product or design your party in the way that is worthy of a referral.  This could also include having a track record for throwing successful parties or launching successful ventures.

    You should also strive to make it very easy for others (your customers) to share their experiences with others.  Offering SWAG (or promotional items) is a great way to do this…providing a code for them to embed on their blog or website that promotes the event or venture is another.

  4. Develop a Captive Beta Audience (Private Party)
    When throwing a party it helps to have a nice crowd already there.  When launching an online social/community site don’t do a public launch or loud opening until you have everything in place and have a decent amount of people already there.    Stay in Beta for a period of time and get all the kinks worked out.  Thinking back to the party analogy invite a small amount of people first who can tell if the DJ is not good or if the food isn’t up to par.  Once everything is fixed up based on your findings and you have a decent amount of people you can then open it up to a wider audience.  Then when others come it will be a better party, not only because of what you fixed, but because there are others there.

  5. Find other Parties & Convince People to Leave
    One way to solve your empty party scenario is to find other parties or social settings and encourage people to leave to attend your party.  The same is true online.  You have to be very careful when you do this because you can position your brand in an unfavorable way as well as create some enemies.  Actively seeking out places where your target market interacts and sparking up communications I feel is the best way to do this.  One caution is that you don’t want to spam people.  You don’t want to go into a party and start bashing the party loudly the party your at to get people to go to yours.  I recommend talking about the party and seeing if people like it then mentioning there is another alternative that they may want to check out.  Focus on educating people on something new not selling.  This will spark people’s curiosity and if everything else is in order will bring you more people to your party/customers.

What are your thoughts about the Empty Party Scenario?  How else can this be prevented?  Do you have any other examples that you’ve personally experienced.

Jan 31 2010

GroupTable featured on California News Station

Hi Everyone,

This past week GroupTable was featured on a news station in California.  GroupTable is a collaborative software that improves group communication, planning and document management.  GroupTable now has thousands of users all around the world.   In addition to being a founder I was also the CEO of GroupTable for over a year until I took a less day to day role to focus on Brand Advance.  The news segment was well done for the most part and worth sharing.  Enjoy!

Cheers,

David

Jan 12 2010

2010 Internet Marketing Predictions, Trends & Tips

It’s no secret that technology changes extremely fast.  Often times keeping up and implementing trends in technology is like hitting a moving target.  Internet marketing is no different.  From changes in Search Engine Algorithms (like Google’s Caffeine- that had a large roll out following the holidays) to new social media innovations like Posterous…The world of internet marketing has been and will continue to change in 2010. I came across this list on Search Engine Land by Matt McGee listing many different resources discussing predicted changes in various areas of online marketing during 2010.  Enjoy!

SEO

Search Marketing/PPC

Local/Mobile Search

Social Media

Video

Analytics

General Online Marketing

Miscellaneous

Have a Safe and Successful 2010!

Jan 8 2010

Best Marketing Colors for 2010

Best Marketing Colors for 2010

What colors will be used in the design world for marketing in 2010?Brand Marketing Colors

Your brand creates an emotion?  The question is, is it the right emotion to positively influence your audience?  The following information will give you some insight as to which colors may work best to achieve your marketing goals through visual communication.

Here’s a list of frequently used colors and what emotions are generally associated with them:

  • WHITE – White is associated with innocence, purity, peace and contentment. It’s considered clean and sterile. It’s cool and refreshing. White can have a calming, stabilizing influence.
  • BLACK – Black is the ultimate power color.  It suggests strength, potency, authority, boldness, seriousness, stability and elegance. It’s distinguished and classic, great for creating drama. Black has more weight than other colors. Too much can be ominous.
  • Gray or Silver – Gray can be associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional. Business-wise, it symbolizes high tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity.
  • GOLD – Gold suggests wealth. It’s considered to be very classy.
  • BLUE – Blue is the favorite color of many businesses. It suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It inspires confidence. It is the most popular and second most powerful color. Darker shades are authoritative. Dark and bright blues represent trust, security, faithfulness and dignity. Paler shades can imply freshness and cleanliness, although they can imply weakness.
  • RED – Red stimulates many kinds of appetites. Red commands attention, alerts us and creates a sense of urgency. It’s considered the sexiest of all colors. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, love, warmth, power, excitement, energy, strength, passion, vitality, risk, danger and aggressiveness. Financially, it’s associated with debt.
  • YELLOW – Yellow is the sunshine hue and is a spiritual color. Yellow represents a warning, but it can also bring happiness and warmth. The most preferred yellows are the creamy and warm ones. Bright yellow can be irritable to the eye in large quantities. Yellow speeds metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention.
  • GREEN – People associate green with the color of money, as well as nature. Olive greens are associated with health and freshness — a good choice for environmental concerns. Green suggests fertility, freedom, healing and tranquility. Green represents jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. Green is a calming, refreshing color that is very easy on the eyes.
  • BROWN – Brown is associated with nature and the earth. Dark browns represent wood or leather. Brown and shades of cream are associated with warmth and coziness. Brown suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. It is solid, credible, mature and reliable. Light brown implies genuineness.
  • ORANGE – Orange is associated with vibrancy and the tropics, as well as warmth and contentment. It can instill a sense of fun and excitement. It implies health. It suggests pleasure, cheer, endurance, generosity and ambition. It can make an expensive product seem more affordable. It appeals to a wide range of people, both male and female.
  • PINK – Pink is considered to be a very feminine color. It represents gentleness, romance, well being and innocence.
  • PURPLE – Purple represents royalty and luxury. In darker shades, it’s considered a wealthy color. It suggests spirituality and sophistication. In paler shades, such as lavender, it’s feminine and romantic.

When choosing your color choices for your next graphic design project, make sure you consider your marketing goals and the emotion you want your audience to experience.

link to original post

So well done I had to share…Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Dec 16 2009

Doing Social Media Right

Earlier today I came across some good information about social media I thought I’d share with my readers.  The first was a presentation I found on slideshare on social media which I embedded below:

The next was a post I came across was by internet marketing guru Seth Godin.  It was very short, but pro-found, so I decided to post it below:

The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations

It’s a process, not an event.

Dating is a process. So is losing weight, being a public company and building a brand.

On the other hand, putting up a trade show booth is an event. So are going public and having surgery.

Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul.

I hope you guys found this info beneficial,
David

Dec 7 2009

Are you an Entrepreneur? Here’s a Challenge for you

I recently came across an interesting video from Stamford University’s Entrepreneurship program.  A professor there came up with an interesting challenge for her entrepreneurship students.  First she formed them into groups then gave them each “seed funding” of $5.  The groups had 4-5 days to plan and then had 2 hours to make as much money as possible after their envelope was opened.  Afterward the groups presented their findings and outcome in front of the class.

There were some really creative ideas.  The team that generated the most money actually ended up selling their 3 minute presentation slot to a company interested in recruiting the students.

Some ideas that I think would do quite well include:

1) Buying tickets and cans then raffling off “dates” for group members. (This depends on the attractiveness of the group members.  This could also be an auction where the highest bidder wins the date)

2) Massages for $X or doing them free for donations.

3) Hold a focus group for businesses in the area so they can better understand and reach college/grad students.  Call restaurants and solicit food donations.   This focus group concept could be held for almost any vertical.  You could simply give the participants a free lunch and charge the companies $10-$20.

4) Hold a educational session on how to use twitter or new media to grow your business.  Again lunch would be provided through solicitations and you would charge people to attend.

5) Call a magician or other skilled person (artist, musician, etc) and invite local parents and kids (or the talent’s target market).  Convince the talent to perform for free to get his name out there and request $10 for admission for attendees giving half to charity.  People give their money away a lot easier when they know a portion goes to charity.  You could also get food donated for this event as well.

Well it’s late and that’s all I got for now.  I may add some more later.

What do you think about this challenge? Which was your favorite of my ideas?  What would you do with $5 and 2 hours to generate the most money possible?

Dec 5 2009

I Pronounce You Man and Wife…You may now update your Facebook Status

This video was passed along to me by a friend and I had to share it.  During a wedding ceremony after being officially wed, a bride and groom update their Facebook status before kissing.   I would say that’s a little overboard…but funny none the less.

Now there has been a number of twitter marriage proposals and who can forget the famous chapel entrance with the Wedding party breaking it down, but this facebook status update in the midst of the ceremony itself is the first.  Thoughts?

Nov 5 2009

Social Media Revolution

Think Social Media is a fad?  Think again.  I found this video had some very interesting stats.  It reminded me of the “Did you know” video I shared last year, but more geared towards social media.  Well worth watching….

It’s clear that social media can be used for many different purposes….customer service, building relationships with potential and current clients, building credibility in a niche, allowing people to share their experiences with your brand with others, staying in contact with friends, sharing valuable content and much more.

What is the primary way you use social media?

What did you think about the video….was there anything that surprised you?

Oct 19 2009

Your Customers Are Online….Are They Finding You or Your Competition?

Have you ever thought about how many people are online today?  Sure it sounds like common sense….people use the internet, but have you ever really thought about it?

How Many People Are Online?

There are over 307 million people in the United States according to the US Census Bureau.  Of this number about 220 million people in the US use the internet.  The 87 million people that aren’t online include infants, small children, Amish people, hicks, some older adults and maybe a few people who have lived in a box for their whole life…The fact is nearly everyone is online. This includes you, your friends, your family and most importantly….your potential customers.

It’s sometimes hard to put large numbers into perspective, so I’m going to try.  As I said there are 220 million people in the US that use the internet.  Yankee Stadium holds: 57,545 people at it’s capacity.

Two hundred twenty million people would fill up Yankee Stadium almost 4,000 times- That’s how many people are online in the US alone!

When you’re in a filled stadium like that, in a long line at an amusement park or sitting in traffic jam just think….all of these people are online searching for information just like me.

How Many Searches Occur Daily?

There are roughly 14.3 billion searches every month.  This is according to a research study done by comScore who constantly gathers information from all the major search engines.  That means over 476 million searches occur every day or over 5,500 searches every second.  People are searching for any and everything, including your product, or services as well as the problems your business can solve.  These motivated consumers are going to find someone.  Will it be you or one of your competitors?

How do you Stack up?

Contact Brand Advance today for a free consultation and complimentary SEO report on your current website.

Oct 3 2009

Are You a Trust Agent

This is a sponsored guest post written by Chris Brogan on behalf of Trust Agents. Post powered by Sponzai

 

Are You A Trust Agent

Want to know about our book, Trust Agents? My co-author, Julien Smith, and I want to know if you are a trust agent. What defines a trust agent? Here are the six main secrets of being a trust agent. Do any of these sound like you?

 

Make Your Own Game

You can do what’s come before or you can take a unique swing at the world. If you’re Hugh McGuire, you’re working on Book Oven, a whole new way to look at books and reading. You’re someone like Perez Hilton, who took on People magazine and won, as far as we’re concerned.

Are you making your own game?

 

One of Us

Maybe you’re the person in your industry who’s come to the larger online conversation, like Leslie Carothers is to the home industry. Perhaps you’re the next Matt Cutts, who represents Google to lots of us. He’s more Google than Sergey or Larry, because he’s here. He’s one of us.

Are you one of us?

 

The Archimedes Effect

Understanding leverage is what separates the hobbyists from the professionals. Do you understand how to take what you’re doing in one instance and extend it out into something bigger or better elsewhere? This is what brought Madonna from just another singer into being a worldwide brand. Leverage is behind all the most powerful people in the world, but it all starts somewhere. Gary Vaynerchuk leveraged his wine store into his video project and took that into his media project and his book deal. Gary bleeds leverage.

Do you understand the Archimedes Effect?

 

Agent Zero

Connecting and networking and building relationships is what moves you from an individual contributor to an interdependent kingmaker. Learning how to be a core element of several networks is where we think a trust agent works best. Take Robert Scoble. He went from being a guy talking about Microsoft to a guy on a mission to be moved by what he saw around him. Robert connects with people all over, and finds himself at the core of many important networks.

Are you Agent Zero to several networks?

 

Human Artist

There’s a world of difference between knowing how to build relationships with people and coming off as “that guy.” You know who we mean: that person who shows up with a bullhorn to promote her projects, to blurt about her interests, and then to leave before you get a chance to say anything about you. A human artist is what we call the people who interact well in this new world, and who know how to build nurturing relationships. People like Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker are human artists.

How do you relate to others?

 

Build Armies

Working solo is easy. Do you share what you know to promote larger interactions? Can you create resources to help you and then thread your efforts into theirs? Building an army, especially a loosely-joined and flexible group of people from many disciplines, is the key to being an advanced trust agent. People like Danny Brown, who started a social good movement know the value of armies. Ze Frank turned entertainment into a massively multiplayer online experience, one that has yet to be replicated successfully. The implications to business are obvious.

Are you ready to build armies?

 

If You Answered Yes to Any of the Above

You are definitely in the mindset of trust agents. Your examples might be different. You might not do as much of one of the six secrets as others (I’m still not very good with leverage, for instance). But at your core, you’ve caught on that these new online tools require a different type of person, and that not just anyone can get the most from the experience. You, however, are in the perfect position to be a trust agent.

If you are a trust agent, Julien and I want to meet you over the coming months. We’re traveling the US (and sometimes abroad), and we look forward to connecting with as many of you as we can. Why? Because that’s what we do.

I’m excited you’re part of the experience. We’ll appreciate your help, your input, your support, and your own experiences as part of the project. It’s how we do things. Thanks in advance. You’ve already made this all very much worth it.

If you haven’t joined the Trust Agents Community, swing by. And if you want to buy a copy of Trust Agents, you can get it here.

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About Me

My name is David Brim and I am co-founder of GroupTable.com and the CEO and founder of Brand Advance. I live in Orlando with my awesome girlfriend Lindsay, golden retriever named Jackson and cat named Bella. I'm very success oriented love to help people achieve their goals as well.

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