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In “How to Build Twitter-worth”, I wrote about the process, the details of using a specific permission-based broadcasting technology - Twitter. The questions and the comments that article provoked however, are mostly related to a larger question - what’s the underlying, technology-agnostic approach?

New Venues for Old Wisdom
Twitter and Facebook, as well as other permission-based broadcasting systems, allow us to utilize the wisdom of super-networkers and communicators more efficiently. I am talking about the likes of Dale Carnegie, and Cicero, while using the laconic approach that, luckily for us, is forced upon us. Why luckily? One - because short entries (emails, blog-posts, whatever) are more likely to be read; and two - it forces us to (at least to some degree) craft our messages before broadcasting them.

Image Source: Wikipedia: Dale Carnegie

OK, What Does it Mean?
As Robert MacNamara told us - “You Can’t Change Human Nature“. In other words, if you learn how to work with human nature, that knowledge is timeless. Which, in turn, means that we can make our knowledge of human nature (as limited as it is) more important and having more impact if we improve the efficiency of that utilization. Translation - leverage technology to utilize timeless knowledge more efficiently.

Image Source: Wikipedia: Cicero

Before Twitter-like systems existed and were widely adopted, we were limited in how we could engage other people and practice what past and contemporary sages have taught us. In other words, there are only so many cocktail parties and sales meetings you can go to. New broadcasting technology allows us to practice their teachings every day, in 15-minute intervals.

Finally
I think at the fundamental level Carnegie taught us to take real, sincere interest in people we are dealing with. Being sincere and truly interested will make us communicate with people in a way they want us to - with respect and appreciation. Maybe that will make us tweet less about us and what we want, and more about them, and what they are interested in.

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Great article on CNBC.com today about consumer behavior prior to product purchasing (great article name too): “Study Reveals What’s Really Going on in Aisle Six“. The article talks about different aspects of what makes consumer make the final buying decision, but it also has this very interesting quote: “[m]ore than three-quarters of the shoppers took time to do research before heading to the store, typically an hour or more”. In other words, it confirms, once again, the fact that people do a lot of research before buying a product, whether that is happening online or at a brick-and-mortar store.

The question is, why is that after doing all the research in front of the computer, consumers often time end up driving to the store and buying the product there? I would venture to say that they need to look at a product in person, look at other products and compare, use the coupons, i.e. - interact with it and get the complete story.


This is exactly what we have been saying all along (see references below) - give people ability to interact with your product online, and they are a lot more likely to buy your product. Since the shipping is getting cheaper and faster (Amazon, L.L. Bean, even Nordstrom now), the only barrier to buying online is the lack of research and discount coupons. But put this online, next to the product - and you got another converted customer.

Blog post references, with illustrations:
“Secret of the Conversion Funnel”
“New Advertising = Research + Transparency”
“I Came, I Glanced, I Observed - Just Like Sherlock Holmes!”

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“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
-Steve Jobs

In the past product makers and marketers could selectively show product information of their choosing. It took an effort for potential customers to find more information - reviews, tests, and other relevant info. Now, all information is available instantly through hyper-accessible channels; consequently there is very little effort needed on the customer’s behalf to find out all there is to know about the product, whether they are shopping online or at the actual store.
(NOTE: Illustrations below have been adapted from the “Secret of the Conversion Funnel“.)

What Does this Mean?
New type of advertising is here, it’s called research and transparency. You have to present all information about your products that you know of, show what social networking buzz our products generate, provide 3rd-party reviews and “how-to” visual guides on product usage and, very important!, keep this information up-to-date.

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Is This a Must or a Nice-to-have?
I think it is a must, and here is why: if we don’t provide all the research and transparency information right there, on our site, then others will. That presents one big problem - if there is some OTHER place where our customers need to check or get a second opinion, they will leave OUR site. In other words, we will have the mother of all e-commerce problems: b-a-a-a-d conversion funnel (more on that here: http://bit.ly/6pNos).

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What’s more, in the world where thousands of content creators (bloggers, twitterers, etc.) compete for people’s attention, as soon as they find something “unofficial” about your product, it will be posted everywhere, instantly. Why? Because it is a story. It may not be a big story, but it is a story nevertheless, and when “monetizing the eyeballs” any story is worth money, which means people will do it.

The Good News
The wonderfully good news is that both the information and technology are available (sorry, had to plug SmartSymbols here). And if you use this correctly, then you will be ahead of the game and maybe even become a “go-to” site for the product relevant information. Not to mention, people will buy more of your products. After all: more engagement = more customers = more conversions.

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“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.”
-Jean-Paul Sartre:


When people come to our e-comm websites we want them to stay and buy the stuff we sell. And in our dreams they behave the way they supposed to: they come to our site, look at our products, select the one the like most, and buy it. In other words, our conversion funnel ideally should look more like a straight pipe. (That proper, dream-like behavior is documented in the diagram below.)

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But our dreams are often brutally crushed by our visitors’ “incorrect” behavior: instead of staying on the site and buying stuff, they wander off to do “research”: they look at reviews, forums, Facebook and Twitter, and do other things that make them leave our site. And once they are gone off, it is so painfully hard to bring them back! No wonder I called that diagram the “The Curse of the Conversion Funnel” (see below).


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I believe that the goal of e-business sites is simple - keep the visitor on the site until the purchase is made.

How can we accomplish this?

The solution is to bring all the outside activities (a.k.a “research”), into our website. If we do that, our e-biz property will look like the diagram below.

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Notice that the last diagram is awfully close to the first - “dream” - diagram. In addition, most research activities that a visitor performs are the same, but the big difference is that now we are providing the info the visitor wants when she wants it, and where she wants it. Consequently the visitor never leaves us. In other words - if we could structure our e-comm site just like in the last diagram, we would accomplish our goal.


There is another point to be made here. If you just compare the complexity of the the two diagrams, our visitor’s life is now a lot simpler. And being an online shopper myself I would certainly choose the simplified and the quickest path to my purchase, as long as I feel that I am making an informed decision.

Wouldn’t you?

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