Why Isn't Your Web Site Generating More Business?

When it comes to the Web, things can seem very complicated to marketing teams and business owners.

I believe that a site that gets a few things right will outperform the business that tries everything. That is, if you know what's most important to your particular site, you can generate more leads and business.

I've teamed up with Jon Lebkowsky of Social Web Strategies to develop a workshop that will help marketers and business owners figure out what kind of Web site they need for their business and then which three strategies they need to get right.

If I'm creating a social site, I've got to nail the "invite your friends" functionality.

If I'm creating a consumer e-commerce site, my product pages have to be right.

If I'm selling to businesses and have a long sales cycle, then my email nurturing campaigns are critical.

I think we can isolate three strategies for any site that will make or break the Web marketing effort.

Join us on May 28 in Austin, Texas for the Web Strategies Workshop.

Photo courtesy epidemya

My Facebook Application Week 1: When nobody comes

It's been a week since we launched the BookLobby application in Facebook. We've already got two completed booklobbies; one by me and one by my developer.

This situation was expected. I'm really just getting up to speed on social marketing. Most of the time I've budgeted toward BookLobby has been spent wrangling friends and acquaintances into doing something as a favor. We'll see where that goes.

I have excuses too for why nobody has come. Here's my current list:

1. It takes commitment to do a Booklobby. Be patient.
2. We aren't in the Application search list yet. I'm not yet sure why this is.
3. We haven't given visitors a way to share the application. We didn't want to trick people into sharing like so many spam applications, but we should have provided SOME way to share.
4. We don't explain enough about what you should do on the pages we present
5. Our marketing guy is weak (gulp)

I find myself trapped in a little Catch 22: I don't want to invite some A players until we have content, but it looks like we won't have content until I invite some A players.

Right now, I'm favoring patience and wrangling up some content from my personal network.

What would you do?

• Buy some installs from Slide or Rock You?
• Start courting political bloggers?
• Send out press releases?

I Launched a Facebook Application

I can already hear you yawning. But, as an online marketing guy, I need to know more about the moving parts of this social strategy.

Plus, I had an idea that needed to be implemented. I'm actually very proud of it.

I want to start by talk about what I'm learning, not what the application does. Bear with me (or scroll down) to learn what the application is about.

My Un-Facebook Application

Those who have implemented successful Facebook applications will tell me that I've already committed a couple of enormous errors that will doom the application to failure.

First, I'm not interested in understanding an advertising business model, so we aren't looking for advertisers nor are we displaying any advertising. We expect the application to be self-funded based on affiliate fees.

Second, I want the content to be the reason people tell others, not that they forgot to click "Skip" when asked to invite all of their friends. So, we aren't going to ask you to share with your friends. We want you to share it with all of your friends, so we better have some damn good content.

Yes, we may be doomed.

But comments by Zuckerberg at the SXSW conference and sources like Allfacebook are hinting that this strategy may actually work in our favor. We keep the SPAM down.

Other than that, we're a mashup application that relies on the contributions of users to create the content and spread the word.

Selling My Facebook Application

I have to admit that, despite all of my supposed marketing genius, I find it difficult to know how to coordinate my marketing approach. There are many ways to spread the word.

What would you do?

The Application

OK, so here's the skinny on the application.

It's called BookLobby. Please install it now and give it a whirl.

BookLobby makes it easy for you to send a book of your choosing to an elected official or politician of your choosing complete with your commentary. Will the politician read it? Well, his staff might. They're more likely to read it than any form email you send.

What's more important is what Facebook brings to the picture. Your commentary becomes part of the public conversation fueled by the social machinery of a major social network. It's power politics from the ground up, and I'm very excited.

You can read more about the booklobbies over at the BookLobby Blog. I'll try to limit my commentary on Customer Chaos to what I'm learning about marketing a Facebook application.