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.

Sun Tzu is most popular for his book The Art of War.  Though this book is filled with military strategies and tactics there are core lessons that can be extremely beneficial in many different situations such as sports, business or even personal relationships.

I was reading the art of war and came across a good quote that I thought was a very good lesson to reflect on.

“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders ARE clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”

Having employees and interacting with vendors, partners and clients everyday I can completely appreciate the value of clear, concise and candid communication.  It is very easy to think that someone understands what you are trying to get across just because you understand it.  If you’re not clear it leaves someone to play the guessing game and try to perceive what they thought you’ve meant.  This is how mistakes happen….breaks in communication.  It’s always better to over explain giving several examples and very specific verbs and adjectives that articulate the exact message you’re trying to get across.  This leaves no room for error in the communication process, only disagreement or insubordination as Sun Tzu said referred to.  I strive to improve my communication skills daily in all of my interactions.

Have you had any experiences recently where you’ve noticed a break in communication that you or someone else could have prevented by being more clear?

If so please share

Stumble or digg this post if you see the value in the quote and post.

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By visiting IZEA’s site you can view an awesome case study on IZEA’s social media campaign for Kmart and download Forrester Research’s recent report on sponsored conversations.  Another great thing that we’ve added to the new site is that you can see a list of IZEA’s clients including brands like USA Networks, 1-800 Flowers, ColdStone, Dockers, and many more.  You can also view a sample of some of the premium bloggers, all of whom I’ve interacted with over the last few months and our IZEA insiders.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?

Top 10 Reasons Why Internet Marketing is the Way to Go in 2009

1. Extremely targetable

You can optimize your website copy, ppc ad or social media effort for any niche taking into account demographics, psychographics, location and more.

2. Measurable

Analytic packages can track all of your site, or ads activity. You can see what’s wrong fairly easily. You can also monitor conversations throughout the blogosphere or on twitter to see what people are actually saying about your brand.

3. Flexible

This goes a long with the previous point. By listening and viewing statistics you know what needs to be adjusted and then normally can adjust it on the fly.

4. Less Expensive

Traditional forms of advertising such as TV commercials, billboards, and advertising in top magazines cost significantly more than a typical internet marketing campaign. Part of the reason is because internet marketing is so flexible. Before something gets too costly it can usually be adjusted.

5. Around the Clock Marketing

By having a website and optimizing your site for search engines (SEO) your company can be found at all hours of the day by motivated consumers. Consumers already looking for your product or service can find you even while your sleeping.

6. Establish Credibility through quality content

What good is it for a consumer to find you if your asleep? Well by producing quality content in the form of a blog, podcast or video on your site you can establish your credibility even while you sleep.

7. Visitors can share & promote your content for you

Through Social Media Optimization (SMO) you can make your content easily sharable through various social networking and social bookmarking sites. This way your site’s visitors are sparking word of mouth conversations throughout the web around content you created. This will only drive them ultimately back to your site.  In addition to that you can set up an affiliate program where the promoter gets paid based on his/her performance.  By going an affiliate route your only paying out when you get a lead, sale or other desired action.

8. Repeat exposure to customers increases likelihood of a purchase
   

A good strategy is to give away a value-added video or whitepaper if a visitor enters their email address. This allows you to get them into your sales funnel and reach out to them with additional content and offers. Therefore they’ll be more likely to buy from you. You cannot do this with traditional forms of advertising.

9. Cheaper market research

You have the ability to see what your competitor is up to, what your customers think about you and where the industry is going far cheaper than going through a market research company. Granted you may still want to purchase a report, there are tools and channels out there that you can do much more market research on your own and adjust your strategy as needed.

10. Build relationships with your customers
    

Through social media you have the ability to step out from behind your corporate image and build genuine relationships with your consumers. By building trust and putting a face to a brand consumers will be more likely to purchase from you. After all people like to do business with their friends, or at least people they know and trust.

I hope this list depicting the benefits of internet marketing helps you to grow your business in 2009. What do you think about the list? What would you add as a benefit?

On Tuesday night Ashley and I had dinner with Chrissie Brodagan, VP of Plum TV,  then went to Time Square.  Now I’ve been to Time Square several times and I’ve enjoyed it, however I always said that  being there was a bit of a sensory overload.  Chrissie said it best: “Being in Time Square is like Your Being Raped by Marketing Messages”.

If Social Media as a whole was to compare itself to Time Square they would be at complete opposite sides of the spectrum.

There’s a “Pop-up Ad” equivalent on every corner in Time Square (most likely multiple ones on each block).  Hey take this flyer? Purses here $10…Hey want your picture taken? There’s also traditional forms of advertising as far as you can see…Digital billboards on sky scrapers, Posters  on store windows, display ads on cabs, and people flaunting their favorite name brand gear, in essence becoming walking advertisements.  Ads are everywhere, people are shouting, every corner has a vendor with food that tempts you as you pass by…it’s a complete sensory overload!

No real engagement, just loud marketing messages being shouted at you from all angles. I think all the hype & marketing messages every where is a major part of what makes Time Square so special and I think most people would agree.  But I wonder how Time Square will change over the next 10 years…Will Time Square 2.0 be any different…if so how?

If you have any thoughts on this issue please share them

1. The New Rules of Viral Marketing – David Meerman Scott
2. Marketing Apple – MarketingApple.com
3. Masters of Marketing – Startup Internet Marketing
4. Podcast Marketing eBook – Christopher S. Penn
5. Google Adwords Secrets – SEOBook
6. Get Viral Get Visitors – Stacie Mahoe
7. Marketing With Case Studies – Dynamic Copywriting
8. How to Write a Marketing Plan – Geisheker Group
9. SEO for WordPress blogs – Blizzard Internet
10. Social Web Analytics – Social Web Analytics
11. Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter – Geekpreneur
12. The Zen of Blogging – Hunter Nutall
13. What is Social Media – iCrossing
14. A Primer in Social Media – SmashLab
15. Effective Internet Presence – Effective Internet Presence
16. Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel
17. Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program – CRM Transformation
18. We Have a Website. Now What? – Craig Rentmeester
19. Blogs & Social Media – PRSA
20. The Podcast Customer Revealed – Edison Media Research

Feel Free to leave a comment on the eBook you like the best.

Cheers!