How on earth would you advertise your services if you were offering circumcisions? This is a synopsis of a Facebook conversation.
POST: Circumcision leaflets through your door as junk mail, welcome to London, E1.
POST: Are they advertising that they come at a snip of the price!
POST: 20% off if you buy before the end of June.
POST: Don’t even joke – there is one of those little clip-art stars in the corner with the caption “Bookings being taken for this summer”. Seriously, who decides to be circumcised because of a leaflet through your door?
POST: They have to advertise via leaflets as getting product placement on daytime TV is a little tricky.
POST: It would probably do very well after the money saving section on GMTV!
Well, it all made me wonder. What other obscure services do you think are difficult to market?
New competitors for established businesses can come from surprising places. If all a bank does is monitor competition from other banks they could be in for a surprise or two.
“It’s become increasingly clear in recent weeks that Facebook is finally inching toward the launch of a micropayment platform.
“The social site has been expanding the presence of its virtual currency, which Facebook debuted last November when it changed the monetary units for its “Gifts” product into “credits” rather than U.S. dollars.”
How near is Facebook Bank plc? If you read the whole artice, and an interesting article it is too, you will not see the mention of Facebook becoming a bank. But with the possible developments discussed they get a stage closer. And with in excess of 200,000,000 members what a constituency to work with.
The additional reason why Facebook could suprise markets and excite the public is trust. Trust is the basis for most relationships. The Edelman Trust Barometer talks about this in great detail.
We all like to deal with businesses we trust. Trust in conventional banks is at a low. Here Joe Garner, HSBC, talks eloquently about trust in banks.
Facebook could become a bank. eBay, with PayPal has already created a new bank model. Who else would the world’s public trust with their money?
How many hours a week do you spend on Bebo, Facebook or MySpace?
I read this on Shuzak.com: “The Nobel Prize winning free-market economist, Milton Friedman, believed that when left alone, people will intelligently act in their own best interest, and that the market will coordinate their actions to produce outcomes beneficial for all. In other words, the wisdom of crowds depends upon the rational wisdom of the individual.
“Friedman was a genius, but he never came across MySpace or he would have retracted his belief on consumer rationality.
“MySpace and its cousins are bacteria feeding off the irrationality of the wisdom of the crowds. MySpace has taught us that even though the customer is not always right, it is, nonetheless, detrimental to prove them otherwise.”
We’ll be cooking our own food in restaurants next! Or making our beds in hotels!
Essentially a free newspaper is going to pay bloggers and then use some of the content in their newspaper. Fabulously simple remodeling of the whole process.
My recommendation to people is, “Maintain your own web presence. Keep control of your own Internet identity.”
Providing your content to other sites like MySpace, Facebook etc is all well and good but where will they end up? None of us knows. Use these sites and share your ideas and opinions but keep hold of your own web presence as well.
It is also worth remembering that the majority of the world’s population don’t use social/business network sites or use RSS feed readers. I know, unbelievable isn’t it?
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