Clever name, clever idea! Innovative thinking at its best. Whilst crowdfunding is not new, this is a particularly good example of great, easy to use web design that connects interested people to interesting projects. It's what many social networks try to do, and many fall short. So why does Pozible work: 1. it's easy to engage with. You can be a follower and a supporter for as little as $1 donation. 2. there is a wide range of projects - from dancers raising money to get them to an international dance event, to funds sought to publish a comic to lots of great films (check out 'I've Been Here So Long' by my son ;) which all rely on the interest of others to help get their projects off the ground. 3. It has brilliant sharing functionality and SEO. Hat's off to Pozible.com.au - a smart destination for new ideas to garner public support. I pledge to visit it often and toss the value of a bottle of vino in someone's cap each month. All the fun without the hangover. Check it out. It's a site worth everybody's attention to participate in and to learn from. After all, great work deserves to be shared! AnneMaree Fitzgerald

There's a lot to know about Facebook and every day there's more and more to learn. Which is great, because it means that the channel has the flexibility to evolve quickly and brilliantly. Are you using facebook to: 1 . Drive new people to your brand? Here's one savvy business owner who is doing it well. Can you think of a Facebook page that might draw a new group to your brand that isn't your business name? eg: "my favourite hairdresser in Sydney" or "Beautiful Teeth in Melbourne?" Like Google, you need to drive people to your site or page by understanding how people search for what you offer. Obviously, if they don't know your brand already, they will search by what you do or sell. See how the image works below to grab attention when searching for a sale page. 2. Sell products online? Why divert friends to your website or Ebay shop if you can seal the sale right here on Facebook? Check out Lady Gaga's merchandise shop and imagine if you could have even a capsule range of products or service vouchers on your Facebook page? Service providers should be offering gift vouchers and promoting them through status posts. eg: ""No time for shopping around? A voucher she'll love in 60 seconds flat!" (hair/beauty/spa vouchers, lingerie voucher, fresh fruit delivery) eg: "all you need to know about the law but were too afraid to ask!" vouchers for a 15 minute telephone conversations about........ divorce, liability, fence disputes........ you name it. It's a great way to introduce a new generation to legal advice. 3.Test drive your new ideas? Facebook polls are a great way to find out what your friends think. Perhaps you're planning a new range of board shorts for your surf shop. Wouldn't it be a good idea to road test your design by asking what would your friends buy.... a: the new shorter shorts Italian style, b: old school surfer boardies, c: bring back speedos please!!! Link the poll to your Facebook page of designs and see the votes roll in.....and sales take off! Just three things to think about for your Facebook business channel - ignore it at your peril! Have a great weekend! AnneMaree Fitzgerald

I attended an Anthill entrepreneurs night in Melbourne this week, 60 people in a room all with big ideas and trying to wrestle them into a success story. Some were gorgeously young and naive, some of (us) were a little older, more experienced and a lot more circumspect. What we heard from the young and enthusiastic 'entrepreneurial speakers ranged from: "the key to success is (wait for it)....being prepared to work hard" ....to...."if I was launching a restaurant today, I'd artificially inflate the price of a meal and then discount it on Spreets", because "traffic is everything." Entrepreneurial experts? Should we be worried? I think the audience was smart enough to know that sometimes even the most 'clever' of us say some pretty stupid things. Let's look at "traffic is everything" first. The dynamos of online and social media spruik that instead of talking to a prospect 'one to one', we should find ourselves talking to a mass audience. That can be great if we're selling chicken nuggets or diabolical if we've had a glitch in our booking system (Jetstar). The scale of opportunity today is very much the domain of the mass marketers. Is that you? It's certainly not me! How much traffic volume does your business need? I can't see the rationale for driving the masses to your website or Facebook page if you're selling to up to 500 clients a month, why focus on talking to millions? Of course, 500 clients a month demands a steady flow of prospective clients and therefore convertable traffic to your business. The volume of which has to do with your conversion rate. The less enquiries you can convert, the more you need. Should you concentrate on improving your conversion rate, or simply drive through more traffic? I fear that driving through more and more traffic, you get caught up in the task rather than focus on the true business objective. And driving SEO and social media to the masses is indeed an onerous task that takes time, time and even more time. Time you could be doing something else more targeted - using SEO and social media - talking to the people who matter to you most. Is that everyone? How do you use Social Media to talk to the 200 people you want to reach now? That my friends, is really the $64 question. 1. Cultivate a quality database 200 of the right targets is of far more value to you, and enables you to manage the task of personalising and targeting your communications so more effectively. Go to the effort of ensuring your database is truly valuable to you. The right people, their right details and their particular area of interest as it relates to your business. How on earth have I got on the mailing list of a dozen specialist accounting software companies? Obviously to some companies, wastage is just the cost of volume marketing - they don't care. But I do. You do harm every time you send an ill targeted communication. And when you do it over and over again - I'd call that harassment - or that's how it feels. So you're unlikely to get my business - but you're also unlikely to get my referral. I liken poorly targeted online marketing to the 20 telemarketing calls we get a day for switching telecommunications providers.........%$#@!?% 2. Think 'exclusive' rather than 'inclusive' An 'off centre' posting from one of your 200 fans on Facebook does more harm to the credibility of your page than you'd think. Keep the conversation relevant to your business and your 'real' customers. Linkedin forums have found a way to manage the focus of the discussion by ensuring only the right people can join. Those forums are the best for coherent exchange without stupid, irrelevant distraction. Consider this simple management protocol for your own Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn 'forums' - don't invite everyone to the party - just the ones you want to be friends with. 3. Fashion your message Don't be dragged into the trend of driving your business to meet the needs of the masses. A more targeted approach is likely to be more successful. Make sure the message you are sending is at least of interest to the recipient, and at best, a real solution to their problem. You can do this is you take the time to manage to whom you are speaking. Old fashioned? Or just common sense? How does this get lost in social media marketing today? Now, for the second piece of mischief - lack of authenticity. When you set your prices, do so with some respect for your clients. Artificially inflating a price to make the discount larger and more appealing is short term thinking....and best described as malevolent marketing. Your customer is not stupid. Price is traditionally determined by demand and settles into position according to competition. Margins are smaller when there are more competitors in the market. However, burning customers who purchase a product or service in good faith, is certainly not the right foundation for the making of a successful business. So beware of the temptation that Spreets and Groupon etc offer. Get involved when it makes sense for your business and be authentic with your customers. How much margin is right? Despite its hefty price tag, the real margin on a Louis Vuitton handbag is no where near what you'd assume. Hand finishing, selective materials and the rarified, highly skilled and manufactured environment where you buy it make the $2,000+ bag a big investment surely. However, it is likely to outlast your $100 Target special by a lifetime. You just have to like the design for a lot longer! That's also what you pay for - longevity. Does your product or service offer longevity? Your product must be priced correctly to enable you to deliver it well to your customer and follow it up with good after sales service. A client must be able to see the value in the price - which is often only really discovered when something goes wrong in a week or 6 years. Your steak undercooked? Your goods damaged in transit? Your widget came off the wodjet? Your advice following a campaign? What do you want - the response from a company that doesn't have the margin in its goods to provide adequate training and customer service for its customers? If that margin instead goes into the owner's pocket, or there just isn't the margin in that cheap price, then you have a problem. You need enough margin in your price to ensure your customer will return and purchase again. Have a look at your prices and consider if you have included in that squeezed profit margin, enough money to ensure if something goes wrong, you have your client's back. And lastly....... To be fair, you do have to work hard to be successful. Some of us have to work harder for longer than others though. That's why we're still in the room ;) AnneMaree Fitzgerald - www.marketme.com.au

It's a foolhardy business owner who will fund an advertising campaign without first checking that all other aspects of the marketing loop are covered. Why would you put hard earned money into a proactive 'push' without ensuring that it had the maximum chance to pull in the bucks? Plenty do. Before you press 'GO' on the spend, ask yourself the following questions: 1. Is there stock/capacity to meet demand +5%? +10%? + 25%? (basic, but often overlooked) 2. Is there anything in-store (digital or brick) that promotes your campaign? (help people find and understand it) 3. Have you strategised a 'what if'? the customer may want something different (a cluster offer) 4. How well are your staff informed about what you're doing? (before customers arrive) 5. Have you populated all your channels with your offer? And set up a way to monitor which channels perform best? 6. Have you strategised to launch/communicate with your VIP's first? (they expect it) 7. What additional 'push' factors will you implement? (EDM, sampling, editorial, experiential, viral, social) Closing the loop will maximise your success - so take the time to build a REAL campaign first. AnneMaree Fitzgerald - marketme.com.au

A long hard look at the arch of their brow, the steel in their eye? What you'll see is a new mentality. And if you miss it, you'll pay the price. Because there's a strong shift in client behaviour. We all know that we've become used to and pleasantly addicted to sale prices. We've become hooked on discounts. Retail giants have battled for our dollar and driven down prices to a remarkable level not seen before. Think air travel, milk, mobile plans and plasmas ......yadda yadda. But, unlike previous economic shifts that reflate when the dust settles, price has not recovered this time and it's not going to. Your customer wants value. Not just ANY value, but 'true' value from each and every encounter. When you can email 100,000 customers at a third of the cost of a stamp, how do you pitch a direct mail campaign? It will have to be a truly creative and exciting campaign to deserve your client's investment. When you can advertise on Facebook and drill down to a raft of new customers quickly and efficiently for a fraction of a local paper ad, how do you justify a print campaign? You have to deliver abundant value. But remember, value doesn't have to mean 'cheap' - think Audi. Your customer and mine, has a desire which needs to be met. It's delivering fundamental value in each and every transaction. Instead of discounting your usual prices to grab attention, the new rules of play is to deliver that new price each and every day. Your mantra needs to become a value proposition whether you are selling prestige or mass-tige. Smart restaurants brought in the $25 2 course lunch with a tasty drop and probably thought it would be just through the winter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to keep the kitchen kicking over. Ten years later, it's the norm and redefining upmarket fare. Aldi, Costco, Target and Big W have become the retailers we love to shop because they are providing true value - often without compromising quality. Remember when 'house brand' translated to 'desperate' and 'needy'. It's the fastest growing sector on the supermarket shelf. Who's buying it? You and me. The biggest mistake you can make in marketing today is to misunderstand the value proposition. Take the challenge Rework your business model to define your product and service by 'true' value. What can your business do to reduce prices and increase value - not for just today but for everyday. But remember, a value proposition is not about the lowest price - it's about the best price for 'true' value. You'll drive a new customer to your door and you'll be delighted who you'll meet. AnneMaree Fitzgerald - marketme.com.au