What to do with twitter, Facebook and Social Media.

As the chart above lucidly shows, this is utterly confusing. Does the small business owner or brand builder use twitter, join Facebook, Google Buzz, Linkedin, U Tube?

The answer is: Start out with one or two, get familiar with it and then move on. Sir Edmund Hillary did not scale Mt. Everest in one day. He trained, he strategized, he conditioned himself physically, emotionally and financially. Then he conquered the mountain that is Everest. In other words, take it slow, don’t rush, don’t get overwhelmed. Start with Facebook and then move on with care. Hiring  a seasoned sherpa guide is not a bad idea, either. ………in fact, it’s mandatory for your survival.

The Merchant Maven.

The Social Web Flattens B2B Product Distribution

by Fred Cavazza.net

Depending on your industry, you are likely all too familiar with product distribution processes that involves multiple distributors, sales reps, independent sales reps, etc. All of these people used to be very important steps in a distribution process to get the product from a manufacturer to the end-user. A large and powerful world of spiffs and agreements have been created to buttress these channels of distribution.

While these powerful supply chains still exist, many are on their way to extinction. the distribution networks were created when it took a major commitment of money and man hours to have an infrastructure to sell B2B products. the Internet has greatly reduced the cost and commitment to bring a product from development to market for distribution. B2B companies are now in the process of understanding what many major retailers have known for years now. that direct sales and fulfillment through the Internet means better margins and increased efficiencies.

First Movers will Determine Industry Changes

Something I have frequently said, is that the web rewards individuals and companies who take action first. This will be no different for this issue. If companies sit back and allow distributors and independent sales reps to build the preferred online customer acquisition methods for a given industry, then companies will again lose the leverage they gained when e-commerce began on the web and will exist in an online version of the current product distribution pipeline.

Ideas For Evolving B2B Distribution

One thing that I love so much about the Internet is that it provides opportunities and solutions that haven’t been possible before. It is an easy jump to say that some manufacturers will likely sell products directly especially to certain markets like small business owners.

What is next? If that is the easy jump, then what is the hard one that likely only some elite business owners will achieve?

1. Add service-based revenue streams – Service-based businesses are hard to run, because they are completely dependent on talent and they often operate on low margins. In the future, it is likely that as B2B companies begin to rely less on distributors and current distribution models that a side benefit will be the discovery of new revenue streams. Some of the most successful web companies and open source software companies have already discovered that it can be lucrative to charge for support and additional features for free or low cost products. B2B companies will likely find that the Internet is a strong catalyst for launching these new types of revenue streams cost effectively.

2. Data will Become Even More Important – I read many conversations on the web each day about marketing and growing businesses. It is often scary to me how many of those discussions fail to mention the importance of data. When it comes to product development and distribution for B2B companies, the future is about data. the internet and the social web have turned on a firehouse of data that has the potential to empower business decisions like never before. Data will help discover emerging markets and provide direct feedback from customers on the best methods of product distribution.

3. Efficiencies Offer New Customer Acquisition Opportunities – the Internet has lowered the cost dramatically in many cases when it comes to cost of distribution. these reduced costs provide B2B companies with new decisions. This lower barrier of entry may entice some B2B business owners to diversify target markets in an effort to reach a new customer base. This will mean more competition in some industries.

The year was 1993: Back during the Jurassic period of corporate communications and branding. Google’s CEO and Founder Sergy Bryn and the other really, really smart guy from Russia were going out with plump communist co -eds and cheerleaders from Leningrad Senior High.

I was the Director of Marketing for a large shopping center owned and operated by the Macerich Company. Macerich was and still is a prominent REIT and owns about 70 malls in the United States.

We received a COMPANY  MEMORANDUM ( remember those?) from our VP of Marketing. The subject was email. ” Email, I bellowed synically?  What the heck is email? “

The memorandum was sent to all Marketing Directors and we were told that email was the wave of the future. Things would be different now. We would become modern communicators. Email would make our lives easier. We would become more efficient.

“Yeah, right. I said to myself. Sounds like another pain in the neck software nonsense I have to learn !”

Grudingly I began to use email communications. My regional director would call me twice a week and ask: “Did you get my email?   I would confidently tell her : ” I only check my email on Fridays.”

Months passed and I grew to like email. I even began to love email and to delight in hearing “You’ve Got Mail.”  ( That was kinda goofy, huh?)

I was proud to feature my email address on my business card. I was hip. I was cool. I was modern. I sent several emails just for the heck of it to John Butler, of Butler, Shine and Stern in Sausalito. Once I told him a design was rejected and he got mad at me for using email….But I was happy becaude I knew how to use email!

I think one of the first people to send me emails regularly was Marty Rubino, the then publisher of the Marin Independent Journal. We would send emails reminding each other what time our golf tee time was and where we would meet for Sushi lunch.

One day a borderline cantakerous  Senior Vp  from corporate paid a visit to our shopping center. He came with the slightly less cantakerous VP of Development. I showed him some of my projects which I often would post on my wall. Marketing people like to post their projects on the wall. It’s kindof, sortof  like putting photos or drawings on your  refrigerator  when you were a  little dorky snot nosed kid.

I told our borderline cantankerous Senior VPs about how we are using email to communicate and that it makes our lives easier and more efficient. I told them how modern and relevant it was.

“Email?!!!” he bellowed.

That’s a big waste of time and not a productive way to do business.”  –   Pick up the phone and talk to people.”

He was not a fan of email. He actually seemed irritated. In fact, he strongly advised me to spend my time more wisely.

One uneventful month passed. I did not use or check email.  Email was not a good thing. I was a team player and did as I was told.

That very summer, our company attended a large conference in San Diego California. It was sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers. We mingled with shopping center developers, IT people, Creative People and consultants from all over the world. It was a fabulous event. We attended seminars, luncheons and happy hours. We had delicious rubber chicken dinners served with soft carrots and green peas.

Guess what everyone was raving about at the conference ? Emails. Emails. Emails. We attended a two hour presentation on how to capitalize on email communications and how to use it to benefit  our company.  We were told to  foster and nurture the use email  because we are modern communicators. We  were told to embrace email because it enables us to better promote our company’s brand. We  were told to use email because all of the top brands in the world use email. My marketing agency headed by Leon Altman of Altman Communications concured and insisted that email and the internet are the future!

The aforementioned Senior VP  who had admonished me came to me during a luncheon and looked at me quite sheepishly. He looked like he had devoured a volery of crows.

” I was wrong about email,” he said . ………….. ” We must  embrace new forms of communications.”

Today we are in the year 2010.  17 years later. One and a half decades have come and gone.  Times have changed dramatically.  We no longer receive company memorandums on letterhead. Google’s, Sergey Bryn and the other really, really smart Russian guy are smarter than ever  Billionaires. We conduct Google searches all day long, we Twitter, we check Gmail, we blog about things that mean something to us, we are online journalists even though we can’t write worth a damn. We use Web 2.0 vehicles that include Linkedin, Google Adwords, Facebook and Utube.

Why do we use all of these new forms of communciation?

We use them  because we are modern communicators. We embrace them because it enables us to better promote our company’s brand. We use them because all of the top brands in the world do: American Idol, CNN, Larry King, Mercedes Benz, Google, Armani, BMW, Barack Obama. And as he did in 1993,   Leon Altman of Altman Communications concurs that these new communications tools are the future!

The Merchant Maven

The Merchant Maven is #1 in the ENTIRE GOOGLE WORLD for the image keywords  “credit card machine.”

Go to Google and go to ‘Google Image search on top left”

Type in “credit card machine” The Merchant Maven is #1! Not bad out of 7,900,000 results, huh?

I’ve told a few people in my office and no one seems overly impressed. Why are they not impressed?

However, New York Based SEO expert Leon Altman said simply:” You don’t think being #1 out of almost 8,000,000  images helps your SEO? Absolutely it does!”

Below is the url to copy and paste or click on it.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=credit+card+machine&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

“

Copy and paste this link:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=credit+card+terminal&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

Thank you to all my fans and supporters!  I have achieved #1 status in world on an image Google search.

The Merchant Maven