Let’s be practical, advertisement can only be so effective. For example, I went and saw the new Pixar film this weekend: Wall-E.

I’m a huge Pixar fan, and I knew as soon as I saw previews that I would go see it. Some of my friends however, were less enthused. In fact, they automatically assumed it would be “kiddy” and didn’t want to go with me.

I went anyhow and loved it. In fact, I raved about the stunning visual art and great story line to everyone I met. Today, I found out, because I talked up the movie so much, two of my friends decided they would go see it.

These people saw the same advertisements I did, listened to the same hype I did; but they would never have gone to see Wall-E if I hadn’t opened my mouth. I gave Pixar free publicity.

We do it everyday. We like totalk about our favorite, products, services and brands. We create sales for companies who don’t even know we exist.

So how can you harness the awesomeness of word-of-mouth (or, in the case of the internet, word of net) power?

eMarketer put out a study in April about the Influence of “Social Shoppers”. These are people who test products or services, then review them. Its not surprising that we are three times more likely to trust a peer than an advertising campaign. So, if you already have a good product and offer worthwhile service how do you get these “peers” to review you?

The Most Important Thing is Presence.
Being aware of these sites, and making your products visible is the first step. Many of these sites (for example, Kaboodle) allow you to “join”. Once you are an accepted retailer, you can post your products to be reviewed. Its that simple. Of course, some sites have an associated cost, so weigh carefully.

Follow the Golden Rule.
As with any other kind of online social media, “give to receive” is key. If you join a social shopping site, do some reviews yourself. Put meaningful comments on product spotlights. Offer the same quality you’d want from someone else.

Simplify.
If someone wants to review your product: make it simple. Make your website and products easy to navigate. Don’t create a profile, put up a link to your site and expect people to find you. Many sites allow you to upload images or link straight to your shopping cart. Explore your options! Check out other retailers and see what’s worked for them.

Be Active.
Many social shopping sites are also social networking sites. Of course you don’t have to dedicate time to networking, but it does help! Get involved, have fun! Who knows, you may learn something from your experiences that can make your product even better!

Everyone is a potential marketer.
The best way to ensure you get good reviews is to treat everyone like they are marketing for you. If you have great service, its going to eventually make it on to the internet. The same is true for bad service. Everyone has potential to be your personal salesman.

These are just some tips to get you started. The best thing to do is take action. Check out some social shopping websites and create a presence for your business.

I have only minimal experience with these kinds of sites, though I often browse them when I am considering a purchase. If you have joined or participated on a social shopping site, what was your experience like?

When it comes to the economy’s impact: Size matters. Big companies/websites are the most affect. Mid-size, hardly touched and small continue to grow. At least that’s what the numbers say if you are interested in that kind of thing.

Of course, I’d challenge people to really consider what makes an economy bad. Not too sound terribly mind-over-matter but don’t you think that what we hear influences us? If we think the economy is going to be bad because the media says so, it becomes reality, where as if we continue to believe business will be good, it does? Lots of companies grow during a recession. Finding a niche and keeping standards can create an atmosphere of growth despite what might be happening at a national level.

By no means am I saying don’t plan and pretend nothing is happening. Use this as a chance to hone your organic SEO, increase customer service and stand out. The news is full or alarmist, get the facts and plan your strategy to win accordingly. Best example: Dallas real estate. We’ve all heard national news bemoaning America’s real estate market. Well Dallas is having one of its best years! It is completely false for DFW.

Does anyone know other ways to make a recession or bad economy help your business? Or good areas to focus on during that time?

Youtube, the sensational and borderline illegal website for all your badly-made video needs. Youtube grew to fame with the youth of today with the same voracious speed as MySpace. Personally, I’ve been looking forward to seeing what change would happen after Google purchased them. I was expecting a lawsuit but instead, the brilliant guys at google are capitalizing on new trends yet again.

Viral. That’s what they call a video or marketing material that stands small and then (for debatable reasons) takes off with sudden popularity. With new technology its called “the tipping point” but with youtube its Viral Videos. Which I must admit, every time I hear “viral” I feel icky. Anyhow, Youtube created an algorithm to try and figure out what the next popular video is. Companies can then pay to be featured beside these videos with Google’s new marketing strategy: Buzz Targeting.

My personal stance on paid advertisement is very clear if you’ve read anything else in my blog but this is just from the presses and worth talking about. I wonder if anyone else has thoughts about viral marketing and how to make it work for companies who might not b able to afford Youtube’s pricing.

Welcome to my soapbox. Pay Per Click might be the worst form of advertisement in existence and mainly consists of big companies getting rich off of little companies’ money. Not that I have any direct issues with Yahoo or Google, they are offering a service that people are willing to pay for, but most business owners just aren’t educated enough to know that it doesn’t work.

I want to make the comparison to newspaper advertising. Before the internet many people put ads for their business in the daily paper. You could pay extra to have a bigger box or even a full page ad, and then pay even more to get it in color. But these steps all made sense, pay a little extra, get more notice. However, the internet doesn’t work that way. There are lots of ways to advertise for free (I am more than happy to tell you about them, see last blog). Paying more does not mean getting more when it comes to the web.

What sparked me to write about Pay Per Click today was an article about a lawsuit against Yahoo. In the article it talks about fake clicks, Yahoo being aware of the problems and still doing nothing and ignoring repeated inquiries from the company. But here are some other good sites: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Understanding Click Fraud, Good Old-Fashioned Research, or you can be lumped in everyone who advertises falsely.

Of course, there are lots of companies out there to help you stop click fraud. But of course, you have to pay them too. So you pay for advertising and then pay another company to make sure your advertisment is working. Peachy. I might even go so far as to say, Pay Per Click could be considered the biggest scam on the internet today.

So if you are a small business owner and considering Pay Per Click, please, please, do research and consider the costs. This is not a newspaper ad.