Measured Results for Businesses
This is a followup to an earlier post ignore the stats and connect with you authentic audience. I still stand by that advice when it comes to building a community. A tight idealogical focus is a powerful glue for any fledgling group. But I accept that in the case of measuring the effect of personal engagement and social influence, long term measured trends (stats) reveal the results PR/marketing experts hang their hats on. It is also this information which allows the monetization of attention span either through direct product sales, affiliate sales, or advertising.
Beyond our taxed attention spans, the freedom of information propagation has a cost. The network and software infrastructures need to be maintained. The good news, the information backbone has a an ever decreasing upkeep cost per bit.
For business efficiency and success, the value we extract from information requires measurement and justification for resource allocation. While we can measure foot traffic in a store, or transactions digitally, how can we measure the efficacy of connectivity to potential and existing customers? How can we measure increased customer or user trust? I propose we can measure the true power of engagement by comparing split identical businesses over a long time period (years+).
- One that is continually supported by engaging social media contacts, sharing information and generously giving to communities within the target market space
- The other is uses only pay per attention advertising (clicks through Google, or Yahoo/Microsoft) at a fixed rate
If any readers already have some handy relevant information, I'd be more than happy to link to it. Please share what you have in the comments section.
Who's Buying?
With the continued increase in unemployment rates, there are concerns about the strength of standard advertising and the ability of customers to purchase products that aren't cheaper than alternatives. Interestingly enough, demand for premium products hasn't declined as much as one would expect (Monsanto sees robust demand despite recession, Recession Fails To Put A Crimp In Demand For Expensive Jeans).
Is the freedom of information a premium product?
I believe it's a right, but one that requires wholesale adoption to cover the cost of free publishing platforms. Imagine your blog hosted indefinitely, long after you or I are here to read it. There are many free publishing platforms in existence today, among them:
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