See the web as a marketplace, not as a marketing instrument!

One of the primary things I have taken away from the event is that hardly any organization pays attention to what their website visitors experience once they have arrived. And even though this event was promoted solely around social media strategy, thus of course perceiving all the social media channels as marketing instruments, I can only repeat what I stated in the MeetTheBoss.tv interview: Please try to put yourself not only into the situation of the customer, but also move forward and start seeing the web as a marketplace, not only as a mean of marketing.

In my interview (for those that had to depart early or didn’t manage to make it to this great event at all) I stated a pretty plastic example; that what is being done now compares to running the energizer bunny through the city, catching everyone’s attention.

Those people will definitely visit your store, but if there is no sales staff there to engage with them your products can have all the value proposition they want and no one will buy, thus rendering the marketing efforts invested in this campaign(s) obsolete.

Wikipedia describes a market as “any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information” and this is where you have to go people… the level of the web are customer centric web presentations allowing both customer initiated and proactive engagement from the side of organization running this web operation.

Real time website analytics, backed by behavioral targeting will allow you to pinpoint interested visitors, mark them as prospects and allow your sales staff to directly speak to them through a chat window which will appear on the visitors screen.

Just to give you an insight: I have been experimenting with proactive customer engagement instruments for the past 5 months and have seen two extreme results:

1. Once you initiate the chat window on your visitors screen roughly 40% immediately shut it and leave your site because they perceive their privacy to be invaded and they have never seen something like this before. Due to the fact that I see this kind of interaction to spread magnificently in the next months because of its simplicity however, I think that this rate will drastically reduce over the next 18 months.

2. The other 60% accept the chat request simply because you introduce yourself to them on the fact that you have seen their interest in the specific product/page they’re currently viewing and giving them the opportunity to ask questions they may have in context to this product. Questions which they would have not asked if you would have made them access the contact form (if you offer points of contact at all).

For those of you who would have expected the all healing solution in the post: I’m sorry to disappoint you at this point, but it’s not out there simply because your organization is too unique starting at the vertical you’re in and ending with factors like the mindset inside your company or enterprise and how willing the employees are to embrace new things or how keen they are to engage others.

Utilizing social media as an instrument for internal communication!

Social media has so much more to offer than what it’s primarily being (mis)used for by the companies out there today.

Another very interesting aspect is the internal usage to gain and preserve intellectual property, preventing/reducing the risk of – for instance – re-initiation of projects which have been worked on prior reducing process faults and costs resulting thereof.

An internal blog made available to the whole organization can not only enable horizontal communication which will allow you to spread innovative ideas immediately (and improve them through the discussions which inevitably are going to happen over time) but also catch other ideas for improvement of processes and organizational purposes.

As I have pointed out above, there is no all curing prescription drug which will take care of all your needs. And nor is Microsoft’s Sharepoint!!!1

Corporate Online Reputation Management (CORM)

Nothing is as bad as leaving something uncommented. And why should you? I have just recently found out that pretty much none of the fortune 500 companies of the world listen to what is being said about them on Twitter.

While I could understand that not all channels can be monitored (which is also a lie) Twitter is one of the “hottest” portals.

Don’t see it as negative energy being spread about you on the web but see it as an opportunity to engage with a customer, thus strengthening your relationship with them. Don’t believe me? Well, give it a try. It works, trust me. John McCrea does a magnificent job with it on Plaxo, so why shouldn’t you or Lufthansa, or Bose, or Allianz Global Investors?

Beside the fact that you directly engage with the customer however, you can catch a lot of FREE!!! (That’s the thing without paying millions for people collecting market intelligence for you) customer feedback. Not only what your customers think about your products but also where you should go to have a look for more info about you which you may have not been able to assess which may be stashed in a third party discussion board, blog, etc. Oh yeah, did I mention that THIS INFORMATION IS FREE?

BOTTOM LINE!

Yes, the iStrategy is definitely worthwhile, especially to those organizations which have not undergone any efforts of implementing social media into their marketing strategy. (IMPORTANT: the marketing strategy is only ONE PART of what you should do. Don’t forget the: the objective of social media marketing is to drive customers to you. Don’t make the mistake and leave alone in your desolate virtual warehouse, a. k. a. your website!)

Should you join the next one? Pretty much so.

The value proposition is there, loud and clear and it will most likely give you important insights into the market (and hey, I’m probably going to speak there).

And if you don’t learn anything there is still the possibility to network with some really big people there from several industries.

Even if I repeat myself: there is no golden rule. The more individual your strategy is the more authentic it will come across. Copying is not really the solution. But copying for inspiration and then making it better definitely is an idea to pursue.

For any questions you may have please comment them to this post and/or use my contact info to reach out to me. Or follow @lars_hilse on twitter.

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True, this year was not one of the best years for a lot of us, yet most of our clients were able to maintain, some were even able to strengthen their position and profit from the financial crisis.

Initiated by the holiday season we are able to reflect on what has happened and focus on the primary commodity in life: TIME.

Other than money and other material aspects, time can’t be replaced once wasted.

From all of us here we hope that you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones and that your holidays will give you a some time to take a deep breath to get ready for the year that lies ahead of us.

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The show airs on several stations in the United States and will be streamed here.

Feel free to ask questions on +1 303 872 0503 or post your question on Twitter @rcrn .

Airtime is 3 P.M. eastern, noon pacific.

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Since I do not agree on the motives exploited because of the fact that most of them are based on convenience I took a closer look at email in this podcast, addressing some historical points of view and proving that email is still worthwhile. And of course offering a simple solution about how to get email in line.

My conclusion is that Email still has it’s place in most of todays corporate communication – both organizational and inter-organizational. Along with the fact that it is more valuable and beneficial to educate the organization members and people around you about how to use email efficiently thus cutting down hassle of communication.

Really looking forward to some interesting discussion,

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Get your own – Open publication

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Note: this blog will remain up and running as a supportive feature to display and post associated material such as images, downloadable files, etc., yet the primary shift is going into the direction of audio.

Reasons? Simple: we are constantly moving forward to a mobile society and it has just proven to be impractical to run around with a laptop infront of your eyes. Sound in your ears just seems to be the better alternative.

In this context: WELCOME TO THE   N-E-W   WEB TACTICIAN – of which this introductory episode features an overview of the topics addressed in the future and the direction this blog/podcast combo is going to go.

Have fun and support me by writing me suggestions for improvement.

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Lars Hilse is a Web Strategist, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Author, based in Germany.

In addition to giving us his perspective on the social networking scene in Europe, Lars discusses a wide range of topics, including the importance of good Customer Relationship Management Systems and simple, rewarding User Experience and Interface Design.

Lars has also been successful in using a variety of Social Networking sites, such as Ecademy, LinkedIn, Xing, Ryze and SiliconIndia to generate business on a global basis.

In this interview, he shares some of the techniques he’s been using to raise awareness of his personal profile, skills and experience – and how this has resulted in key consulting projects with clients from around the world.

[podcast]http://connections.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/tpn_connections_20080601_032_Lars_Hilse.mp3[/podcast]

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-6c2b49c87d49ef8caa5f1dfe4e8a9b6c}

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I made this video just as I was heading out the door in regards to the tons of questions I received about the recession and how to beat it.

Using the internet (not only) as a point of sale can be one way.

Have fun and a nice weekend and feel free to call me if you have questions.

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“A lot of the APAC companies we work with are complaining about the hard time they are experiencing when expanding into Europe“, Lars Hilse, the 28 year old Internet evangelist from Germany states.

And while the ventures, especially from India but also from other APAC based countries, are doing a good job on internationalization on the North American markets, Europe still lies unexplored by most. Hilse leads this back to the wrong approaches a lot of companies are taking when trying to set foot in the EU.

“It is definitely true that the exceptionally wealthy and prosperous EU is a difficult place for the inexperienced. But it holds tremendous opportunities for APAC based companies who know which instruments to utilize. ”

And these approaches are what Hilse intends to show his seminar’s attendees during his two weeks stay in India from November 14 to 30 of this year.

For those who are ready to expand into Europe Hilse will offer individual consultations during his stay.

Who Is This Event Intended For?

This event is intended for all executive level employees, sales staff (account and key account), and all other personnel involved in international correspondence. It is not focused on one, but towards a majority of business verticals.

Costs And Value Of The Event

The fee per attendee is 310,– EUR and Hilse is giving away “early bird” seats for 260,– EUR until May 31, his Birthday. “Yes, the seats are not cheap” he states about the price. “But the development in terms of research and the ongoing preperations have resulted in costs of around 90.000,– EUR. Besides: the value for the participants is a multiple and could very well result in several millions worth of growth to the participants.”

Additional Information

	Download the registration form (PDF, 72 KB)
	The detailed brochure about this event is available for dowload also. (PDF, 122 KB)
	You may want to email this article to a friend of yours. Please use this link to do so.
	Download the presskit for this event. (ZIP, 4,11 MB)

Contact Information

Lars Hilse
Germany +49 4835 9513027
Germany +49 173 5433491 (cellular phone)
UK +44 870 9749050
USA +1 206 203 5212

Further Contact Information available on
http://lars-hilse.de/contact/

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The mission seemed simple – at least perceivably. Yet there are certain challenges out there, so the assignment was to keep the content as easy and understandable as possible. The result is an online presentation that is to break down the term SEO to a very basic level so that even newbies can understand the value and how to utilize SEO basics to make their online appearances more successful.

This event is free for all attendees to join.  Stellar Connections (organizer of the Stellars) has taken all the costs.

For more information please contact Erika Hanson Brown (click) and for direct sign up use this link (click)

The event is free of charge and will be held on

• Wednesday, April 23rd 2008
• at 17:00/5:00PM MDT/GMT -7  (click here for your local timezone)
• toll-free numbers from around the globe are available so that attendees encounter no phone costs (access will be sent to you after the registration)

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