A few years ago, people were talking about your company at birthday parties. At most 10 people discussed the latest bits of gossip about your company. Of course this could potentially damage your brand, but the likelihood of these stories spreading to a large audience were negligible. Nowadays, customers have a much bigger platform to [...]

Why online communities? “The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.” Cluetrain Manifesto But first things first, what is an online community? It’s a place online where people get together to share, to create, to achieve a common goal. They are places on the [...]

Search is great at what it does, but there are some major limitations. It’s main strength is also it’s main weakness…..the algorithm. Whilst Google’s algorithm is extremely complex and does a good job of making sense of the web, it’s not personal. Its recommendations are based on high level mathematics which most of us won’t [...]

Metaphorically, every new customer is like a new seed you planted. It might have taken some effort and investment, but you know that after time, you can harvest the fruit of your labor many times. This is where your company starts to see the benefit. So far, nice story. But guess what: “Customers can walk [...]

People will write, comment, complain and cheer about you and your company on websites and online communities, which show up in search engines on your keywords. The Internet gives power to the individual. Everybody is able to say what he’s thinking. And every critic is a great gift. The voice of your customers is your most [...]