The holiday weekend is way over, my friends, and its time to move on out of our turkey slumber and shopping hangovers to focus on other important things. So you spent some money? So you spent those extra calories you said you wouldn't? But the real thing you should be concerned about is, did you spend your time making your personal brand and website worthy of viewers?
Maybe you missed out on the rush of sales that happened this week or maybe you were too busy shopping to deal with your own website (I'm not pointing any fingers). It's not too late to start.
Here's some homework (and don't whine, the holiday is over!) go to your favorite E Commerce websites or your favorite news website and tell me what you find in common about some of the tools the pages have. I'll give you a hint: it starts with c and ends with ommenting. Very good, you know how to put words together, I said COMMENTING. This is not a new development, but it may be for you, so I will give a little pick-me-up lesson in the next few sentences, be prepared.
Commenting and Rating systems have time after time shown that people love to give their input, they love to give their opinion, and in return it works well for companies. FREE endorsements, feedback and reviews from customers or readers on your products and articles (like this blog, which you should definately comment on), help you, the website owner, in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Can it really be that easy? Yes, but wait there's more! You have the ability to control these so when some kid decides he wants to put that he's "like, totally in love with Amanda", or other inappropriate posts on your site, you can promptly review and delete. Want to know what the consumer favorite t-shirt is? Have a rating system with 0-5 Stars for viewers to reference. Grow communities of people who love to give their opinions and say whats on their mind, they will sell the product for you and monitor comments as well.
Let's test the theory. When you go to buy a new car you first search the newspaper ads (in our case a major search engine). Then you go and see what you like and a salesman comes up to you and tells you why you NEED this BMW Z4 or Honda Fit they may tell you that its got the best mileage on the road that the paint job looks good with your hair, or "can't you just see yourself cruising the bricks in this bad boy" but before you buy that car, if you are a consciencious buyer, you will go look at some reviews. You may spend ten bucks getting consumer reports or you may go online to see what people just like you have to say about the car.
Get my point?
Salespeople often have a lot to say about their products, they should, they know them best. But get someone else in there, viable sources and consumers who see the products in a different way. Tis the season to let people say what they are going to say, and for you to listen.
-JE
Post away: Learned your lesson? Ever had a time when you didn't check reviews of a big purchase and bought it anyway just to find out that there were some discrepancies or bugs in it?
