OTOnetworks

Like it or not, the web is undergoing a phenomenal change right now. No longer is it about individual pages, links or how you integrate with websites. It’s about you, your information, your connections and how that information interacts with other websites.

Paul Adams (User Experience engineer at Google) knows this and has released his findings about how we connect with our “friends” using popular social media sites. Turns out it’s not as simple as you’d think. His presentation is a must-read for anyone who is designing user interfaces and works in the social space.

Weighing in at 216 slides, it’s a bit of a biggie. Hang in there, the research that The Goog has done with regards to social influence, online and offline friends, strong vs. weak ties is information that you must be armed with.
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The phrase “cheaters never prosper” gives me nostalgic memories of the first time a classmate was caught peeking at one of my tests. All kinds of cheating goes on in the world, and often goes unpunished. Folks cheat on their taxes, on their wives, in a poker game, in sports, on the road. All for some obvious benefit.

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Community is a concept with many possible definitions. I define community within the context of Business to Business Internet marketing as a group of business people with shared interests who interact electronically to communicate about those shared interests. For a community sponsoring firm, a community should be about initiating and sustaining productive and profitable customer relationships that add value to the customer-product lifecycle.

Forrester Analyst Daniel O’Brien writes, “Emerging online communities of customers and partners are precursors to full-time eBusiness networks. Companies that listen, participate, and distill community insights will improve product development, marketing, and customer support.” A McKinsey study found that eCommunity users are twice as likely to purchase your products, twice as likely to remain a customer and will use your eCommunity application nine times more frequently than non-members. McKinsey further found that eCommunity applications can lower customer service costs by up to25% relative to tele-service and can save up to 30% in product development costs as a result of increased collaboration.

The benefits of integrating an eCommunity application within your Internet Marketing mix include:

1. Higher profits through more and faster sales to new customers, faster product evolution and larger more efficient sales to current customers
2. Overall cost reduction by leveraging the Web as the lowest cost to serve c…