I am currently working with clients and digital marketing. No updates to the blog are planned at this time.

How useful is Twitter in Business? Guy Kawasaki, author of Reality Check and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, is using Twitter over other Social Networking methods. Take a look at this  short video.

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A new Yellowbook arrived in a plastic bag on my driveway this week. So what? It is headed to recycling. I did keep the Yellow Pages book, but only for research purposes. Even my auto mechanic says people are not looking for him in the Yellow Pages. People are joking about the only use for the book being to boost small children at the table.

Think about the problem you find, if you search a static book. Is the mechanic listed under auto repair, car repair, automotive repair, automotive mechanic, car mechanic … you get the picture. What are the keywords that are associated with your business. Online you can quickly search, in the book you keep flipping pages.

I have talked to businesses who were asked for additional money to have enhanced online listings through the Yellow Pages. They declined. As a local business you have to be found. Where are your customers searching?

Here is my first audio report. Click on the player below to listen to my first audio post.

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 The Web Maximizer Audio Report 1 [1:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Downloads 6

Why twitter? If you have not found twitter.com yet go take a look. Currently I am exploring various social networking tools. The best way to learn about these tools is to sign up and start using them. Twitter is free. If you’ve thought about a blog and don’t have time, you may find using twitter, a micro-bloging site useful. One of the challenges of micro-blogging is that you are limited to just 140 characters. Your messages are called updates.  A counter is included to tell you how many characters you are below or above the maximum. Someone once said, if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

I am meeting a few new people. I’m still not sure how some of them found me. When you sign up, twitter will ask to check your email contact list to see who is signed for twitter already. I have some people on my list that I plan to follow for a while to learn more about how other professionals are using Twitter.

There is no question that twitter is growing. The site analytics tool I used shows estimate traffic now over three million unique visitors each month. From their blog I found that Twitter is based in San Francisco. There was a link to what amounts to a Twitter page used as a job board.

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/shular . I placed a Twitter box below my photo on this page. You can click below it to follow me.

Henry Ford reportedly said in 1922, “the customer can have any color as long as it is black.” Ford started with the product. He looked at the opportunity to develop economies of scale with a single model. His pricing depended on it. One of Ford’s early partners, James Couzens, wrote about the change Ford pushed on the marketplace by mass producing automobiles. Couzens said that previously, ”selling started with the customer and worked back to the factory - that the factory existed to supply what the customer asked for.”

Saturn is focusing on the customer. They hired Jump Associates to look at their retail space. An article in the New York Times, by Janet Rae-Dupree talks about Saturn’s new showrooms designed to be like interactive museums to engage potential buyers. Customers can put magnetic strips of color on a car to see how it looks. There are swatches of fabric to review the upholstery. The changes are to empower customers.

Looking at the Saturn web site, you can see they are carrying on the same idea, allowing customers to view cars in different colors, and choose options that interest them. Perhaps choosing the color, fabric and options is not mass customization, but it is a long way from any color as long as it is black. The customer is certainly more empowered when there is a choice. Maybe selling can start with the customer.

Here is a link to the article: Unboxed Design is More Than Packaging

Surviving in difficult economic times can be challenging. With the current upheaval in financial markets, businesses are concerned about the future. How do you survive? Start by keeping your customers. Looking at the concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), I pulled Keeping Customers for Life, by Joan Koob Cannie from my shelf. While this is an older book, it shows great insight in customer service. Cannie cites a survey of about 200 major U.S. corporations, “57 percent said that customer service was their first priority.” However, nearly three-fourths said that price competition was the only way to survive.

An economist will point out that a perfect competitor is a price taker. In perfect competition the goods or services are undifferentiated. If customer service is a high priority, why not differentiate with outstanding service? Monopolistic competitors are price setters, because they differentiate their goods or services. While major business may understand the principle, my recent personal experience with a major service provider, shows there is a disconnect between the theory and practice.

 The solutions are not in technology. As Cannie says, “the solution comes from treating people-customers and employees-really well…” Small businesses probably have an edge. How are you being treated as a customer? A better questions is, how are your customers being treated? What attitude toward customers do you model? You can survive difficult economic times. Take a look at Customer Lifetime Value, valuing one customer at a time.

A browser is the tool we use to look at the Internet. While Microsoft Internet Explorer still dominates the landscape, there are many options. Yesterday, Google introduced Google Chrome. One of their documents about the launch of the Beta (testing) version mentions their debt to open source projects, including  Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox.

Why do marketers care? First Google Chrome is a lightweight application. It has little overhead and a minimum of functions. It is designed to be fast. Soon we are likely to see head-to-head benchmark tests comparing it to the competition. Second, Google is just getting started. When you consider the importance of search engine results and the industry that has grown around search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), it makes sense for Google to create their own front-end application that optimizes the users experience when searching. Third, any company that seeks Internet traffic, needs to be aware of new applications like Google Chrome, that may take a significant share of the browser market. How will it impact users finding or viewing your sites?

You won’t have any problem finding the Beta of Google Chrome, if you are interested. Google put a link right on their home page under the search bar.

While crude oil prices have fallen, gasoline prices in our area still hover near $4.00 per gallon. I was recently offered a little calculator that figures not only the cost of fuel to commute, but some other interesting metrics as well. If for example you were selling real estate, you could use the calculator to show a buyer that it might actually be less expensive to buy a more expensive house closer to work.

You can use the link at the bottom of the calculator to request your own calculator to add to your web site.

Does your online product or service target Mature Audiences? A recent survey in the September/October 2008 issue of AARP The Magazine releases results complied from surveys showing that 52 percent of Americans 62 -71 years of age are online. With the oldest of the Baby Boom generation turning 62 this year, my guess is we will see the number of “mature” (their word) users continue to rise.

Why would you target this audience? There are 17 million of them. According the article, seventy-five percent attended college. They have household incomes of $55,000. Averaging 44 minutes a day surfing the Net, 59 percent use search engines, and 41 percent make travel plans and reservations. Will they find your business?