I am firm believer that commerce between people starts and ends with a simple conversation — and I believe that the web is increasingly the place where most of these conversations are happening.
Want some proof? Check out this survey research released yesterday by Razorfish showing just how often modern consumers share product reviews via the social web. Out of 1,000 consumer respondents:
- 71% share product and service recommendations via the social web every few months
- 29% do so every few weeks
- 10% do so every few days.
The data shows once again why it’s so important for SMBs to move beyond print yellow pages and static web sites and learn to embrace the conversational web in order to attract more customers.
OK, great. Sounds easy enough. But what the hell is Twitter? And how exactly are small business owners with limited technical skills and resources supposed to embrace the conversational web to get more customers?
Enter www.cloudprofile.com.
Different from traditional web sites and search marketing services, CloudProfile is a remarkably simple and inexpensive service that enables SMBs to talk about themselves online, engage prospects in authentic conversations, and monitor and respond to whatever consumers are saying on the social web.
Check it out for yourself. It’s free to get started and you’ll see first hand how CloudProfile is making it possible for SMBs to attract more customers by embracing the conversational web.
Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Check out this paragraph from the Cluetrain Manifesto as a historical reminder of just how powerful simple conversations can be to business owners.
The first markets were filled with talk. Some of it was about goods and products. Some of it was news, opinion, and gossip. Little of it mattered to everyone; all of it engaged someone. Some of these conversations ended in a sale, but don’t let that fool you. The sale was merely the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence. For thousands of years, we knew exactly what markets were: conversations between people who sought out others who shared the same interests. Buyers had as much to say as sellers. They spoke directly to each other without the filter of media, the artifice of positioning statements, the arrogance of advertising, or the shading of public relations.
