Archive for October, 2009
Your Customers Are Online….Are They Finding You or Your Competition?
Oct 19th
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.
Are You a Trust Agent
Oct 3rd
This is a sponsored guest post written by Chris Brogan on behalf of Trust Agents. Post powered by Sponzai
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.
