Many businesses in the US and the world have been devastated during the financial crisis in year 2000. Additionally, customers had become much harder to deal with. Therefore companies began to move their focus onto the web. They created an era of internet businesses. Businesses and WebPages on the web have increased their amount since then and so is the number of users. Within the past ten years, Google5 entered the stock exchange market, Wikipedia6 has been created and so has YouTube7, Facebook8, Twitter9 and many other web based products by Amazon10 and Apple11.
Studies from the Foreseeing Innovative New Digi-services (FIND) show the statistic of the number of people with the access to internet in Taiwan.
Figure 1 shows a steady growth of Internet population in Taiwan. It is expected that by at least 2013, 50% of the Taiwanese population will have access to the internet. Within that 50%, most of the users are under the age of 50.
5 http://www.google.com/
6 http://www.wikipedia.org/
7 http://www.youtube.com/
8 http://www.Facebook.com/
9 http://twitter.com/
10 http://www.amazon.com
11 http://www.apple.com/
Figure 1- % of people using internet in Taiwan- FIND Statistics
Roughly speaking, if your targeted audience is under 50, then there is infinite business oppurtunity for you on the web (if your business is in Taiwan).
On the web, the identity of a company and an average internet user are the same. Everyone deserves the same rights. Standing in the corporation’s point of view, the customer should always be a priority and every action on the web should be made for them and to satisfy them.
Customers go online mostly to look for information. The FIND studies also show that 91.2% of Taiwanese internet users in 2009 go online to look for information. Comparing to the 35.4% of people using the social media, it stands in a much higher number. However, this is only the statistics for Taiwan; it may be different in other countries. We can still conclude from those statistics that many people go online to look for possible solutions to their problem. Today, a common term that I hear and use a lot with my peers are “Google this…” or “Google it!”
Using the power of search engines, customers are able to find solutions to their problems. Correspondingly, corporations are able to receive potential customers (customers who “might” be interested in consuming your products or services). When a potential customer looks for a solution to their problem, a good internet marketer will approach to them with a “free solution” in a friendly manner. With a few techniques, they are able to become fully loyal customers of the corporation.
This “free solution” can be information, your product or anything else that can solve their problem immediately. An instant relationship is then built and this relationship can lead to infinite business opportunities.
Taki Huang (Owner of Korean cuisine) said that “I believe my blog has succeeded to cultivate customers. I used the form of blog to share my ideas and communicate with them; in the end we form a good relationship. This has been a very important key towards my success today.” In his case, he provided valuable information to his potential customers, which lead him to build a strong relationship with each of them. Those customers then become his loyal evangelists who help him to attract more and more customers.
First of all, the social media is where we socialize on the web. So those famous websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are grouped inside the category of “social media”.
The social web is a huge space where people share information around. Some of the time people recommend their friends and families about a brand or a company on a certain social platform. Those may include links, websites, or product specifications. The reason that this trend is important is that normally when they recommend or share what they are interested about; it is most of the time shared to someone that shares the same interest.
Just like the “Evangelist” talked about earlier. When corporations produce a piece of information that is worth sharing, people automatically share them amongst their peers. Those who receive the information then pass it on to more of their friends.
Imagine a piece of remarkable information that is worth you sharing with your friends on Facebook. You have 100 friends, and all of them will see what you share. Depending on your popularity, the number of people who will take your information and pass it on may differ. Let’s just take 2, so two of your friends passed it on and another two picks it up and does the sharing again. This carries on forever as long as the information stays fresh and interesting. During the process there will also be people who read it but do not participate in sharing it. Those people still received the information, which means that they are somewhat aware about the corporation or the organization where the information is originating from. If the information is a positive subject for the public, then the overall reputation of the corporation will be increased. This may lead to the increase of sales.
Traditional-Marketing is to provide one-way messages to the customers. The companies send out messages through TV advertisements, billboards and the customers receive them and decide if they want to consume the product. However, on the web, the consumer and the owners are equal; therefore as a company we need to do both-way interactions with the customers. What’s a both-way interaction? It is when companies and customers communicate and work together to establish benefits for each other.
In Traditional-Marketing, corporations shoot their information to their audiences. The audiences (potential customers) receive the message and choose if they want to consume their product. Many customers are lost this way due to the lack of maintaining/ establishing relationship.
In Internet-Marketing, WebPages can be setup to provide answers to any of the questions the potential customers might have. A good internet-marketer will be able to think of all the problems and questions potential customers might have when they are introduced to the company or the product. WebPages or contact information can be provided on the web to maintain these potential customers to establish further business opportunities.