Robert Blaise

Facebook vs. the Fortune 500

By Steve Tobak

Do you think your company will need to transform its management practices in order to attract and motivate the Facebook Generation? Management expert Gary Hamel thinks so, and while he presents an interesting argument, I wouldn’t overhaul your entire corporate structure just yet.

Here’s the premise, the experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of [Generation F]. If your company hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly.

With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These features of Web-based life are written into the social DNA of Generation F - and mostly missing from the managerial DNA of the average Fortune 500 company.

Having “grown up” in the tech industry, I’ve seen many aspects (but not all, mind you) of the “coming changes” Hamel refers to already in practice. They’re entrepreneurial characteristics that have been part of high-tech America for some time, brought to us by the likes of Cisco, Dell, Google, Intel, and Microsoft.

hese companies and they’re innovative entrepreneurs and managers have already been transforming the Fortune 500 for at least one generation, if not two. Moreover, the change has been and will continue to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. As such, I don’t see Gen F making or necessitating transformational changes to management practices; they’re already in progress.

Anyway, that’s what I think. Take a look at Hamel’s 12 characteristics and let us know what you think. Here’s a list, but the entire post is here: The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500.

1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
12. Hackers are heroes.

Is Hamel right? Will the Facebook Generation transform corporate America, or is that work already in progress courtesy of the technology industry? And what do you think of these characteristics? While I believe some (1, 2, 8, 11) are positive and in progress, others (6, 9, 10, 12) are pretty radical.

How To: E-mail Mailing Lists 101

Helen Bradley has put together a great article here on the best practices for Mailing list 101. This article takes you from setting up your system to the legalities of sending unsolicited emails (SPAM) to building an effective marketing campaign.
Read the full post here

Online Shopping Up In Uncertain Economic Times

By Frank Reed

A recent study from Forrester Research and Shop.org that said that online shopping was up 11% for Q1 of this year. A very good number considering the economic climate.

Even a cursory glance at the numbers, however, showed a disturbing development of sorts if you are an online only retailer. 60% of online only retailers that took part in this study reported their sales were either flat or down. Quite contrary to the overall trend that shows the increase in online shopping. Why is this happening? I think it’s the economy and there may be a fundamental shift that may be occurring that will be a source of concern for the online only retailer if it pans out.

This economic climate and the fear that it has created has moved consumers to be more conservative in their spending but also who they spend with. Here are my thoughts on why.

Comfort level People want security and some level of control in this world that is rapidly spinning out of control. One way they can do that is not leave their house to shop but still shop at a place they trust.

Fear This is directly related to comfort level as all things are. Online only retailers, regardless of how well they present themselves or what savings they can generate are still an unknown quantity to most consumers. They never know exactly where they are getting product from and they often feel a twinge of “Will I actually get what I ordered?” even though it looks great. I know I do and I work in the industry. There is a level of fear of the unknown that can be alleviated by buying from the biggest brands without leaving the house.

Convenience of returns Everyone hypes convenience of shopping online but rarely discusses the nightmares of returns. If someone buys from a big box store and knows that if there is an issue they can go to the store to make a return they are comforted and thus more likely to do it.

Shopper’s Experience It’s not as easy as it used to be to look big on the Internet without being exposed as small in reality. Social media and just more time to learn about what is real and what isn’t has made the online consumer more savvy and thus more wary. Good for the big brands and bad for the little guy. Many will pay more knowing that they will be more likely to have a good experience overall than go through the potential hassle of dealing with someone with no infrastructure etc.

There are always more reasons but I can understand this shift. I ran a very small ecommerce site for a while and while it looked like there was a lot of infrastructure when you were at the site, the reality was it was just me for the most part doing everything. As a result, the experience of my ‘customers’ was spotty at best. While I have no desire to ever do that again there are many who do especially in light of layoffs and other things that have stopped people’s incomes dead in their tracks.

So beware if you are an online shopper. What looks impressive online may just be a shell and yes you could have problems.

For you online only retailers it will be more important than ever to be fully engaged with your customers in ways that will gain and keep their trust so they won’t be tempted to go to the same stores online that they can drive to offline.

Do you know how much it costs to acquire each new customer via your website?

Websites are often a significant cost to companies and yet their performance is rarely measured. Your website provides you with an opportunity to acquire new customers in a measurable and cost effective way.

To achieve this, you first need to know what it costs you to acquire each new customer via the website today. Once you know this you will then know whether these new customers are profitable. Obviously if it costs $100 to acquire a customer to your website who only spends $40 during their lifetime then you are losing money.

In order to ensure that the website is positively contributing to the company’s bottom line it is recommended that you examine the cost of customer acquisition as a key performance indicator of your website.

To calculate your cost you need to know:

New customers per month

These are the new customers who have either purchased directly from your website or who became a qualified sales lead via your website or who visited your website and then purchased products or services from your physical outlets.

Website Development Costs

This is the total cost to develop your website as well as major modifications since it was implemented.

Estimated life of the website

How long do you think that this website will be useful to your company before it requires a major overhaul. This figure should be in months.

Monthly Promotion Costs

How much does your company spend on promotions or advertisements that include the website address. Make sure that you include all your online and offline advertisements and promotions.

Monthly Maintenance Costs

How much does your company spend running and maintaining the website including:

* Staffing costs to maintain the website, handle enquiries, etc.
* Hosting costs, ISP fees, bandwidth, etc
* Other fixed costs

Panalysis has put together a nice calculator where you can just plugin your numbers and see the results without doing the math be sure to check it out.

Study: Social Media Marketing Good For eCommerce

Online retailers who haven’t embraced Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites had better get a move on if they don’t want to be left behind.  New stats indicate that a whole lot of people have turned to these resources to satisfy some marketing needs.

WhitePaperSource surveyed about 900 marketers and found, “The overwhelming majority (88%) indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes.”  Which is impressive enough.  What’s more, these marketers aren’t coming up empty-handed.

A report states, “The number-one benefit of social media marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball.  A significant 81% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses.  Improving traffic and growing lists was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.  An unexpected benefit was a rise in search engine rankings reported by more than half of participants.”

So there are really all sorts of ways in which social media marketing can work for online businesses.

It might be best to approach this matter with low expectations - don’t assume every person who follows you on Twitter to order 500 products - but considering that social media marketing is free by definition, eCommerce professionals should go for it.

Article by Doug Caverly

Tags: Social Marketing