The truth about the wonderous internet is a sad tale, indeed. The vast majority of internet users are immoral, barbaric, unconverted bystanders who never reach the promised land.
The promised land, of course, is the interaction-based pages of websites–”check-out counters,” commenting boxes, videos to watch, or forums to contribute to. Companies’ bottom line internet goals are to convert these moochers into contributing members of a web based community, instead of sitting idly by or, worse, bouncing off of a web page as soon as they reach it.
A novel web-analytics term to throw around at the office is “conversion rate,” or the proportion of web views that result in a desired goal such as a purchase or a comment on a post. There are different ways to optimize one’s conversion rate but it these strategies are often company-specific.
Right now, Burrito Brothers uses Facebook and Twitter to interact with customers and receive feedback to stay involved in the community. A converted site-viewer may only hit “like” on a status or click “follow” on Twitter; Burrito Brothers already has a market and merely gives their pre-existing community some elegant, online organization. If desired, they can probably increase interaction by starting discussions and posing questions to their followers in status updates and forums online.
My blog, for example, likely has six readers (including my two parents, sister, and myself) and I do not have much to offer or expect from them. Sometimes people comment, sometimes they don’t, but I could optimize my page by catering to a specific market and giving encouragement for posting replies to blogs with questions or controversial statements. However, that isn’t what I currently define as success. To be successful, I need only keep my four most loyal readers (my family) updated with the silly things I like to do, write, and photograph.
Later in life, I might become interested in selling my products or ideas and I will need to learn optimization and learn to entice readers to comment. I’ll give it a try here, for practice:
I don’t care about conversion optimization or any other strategy that derives its basis from convincing people to give you their time or money. Learning about these terms and ideas makes me feel greedy; the words seem soaked in do-anything-to-make-money avarice. What do you think?
Popularity: 4% [?]
I don’t feel like sharing your personal life story with the world is “greedy” by any means. Sharing your blog with the world does not have to be a commercial endeavor. You give the impression that your blog is like a biography you update in real time. You may not be selling a product, or making money from advertising, but there are still many benefits to increasing your blog readership. A blog can be used as a conversation piece and a learning tool.
Say you started commenting on other people’s blogs, linking back to your own posts. Yeah, it may feel like spam at first, but what if that blogger comments back with a photography tip, or maybe they want to collaborate with you on an art project? You’re not making money, but you’re earning something of intellectual, social, and possibly emotional value. Maybe that collaboration is the start of a life-long friendship. Maybe that photography tip convinces you to change your major and subsequently grow an artsy mustache?
Conversion marketing can mean converting linkbacks into personal growth. You just won’t know where your new readers are coming from without Google Analytics.
The internet is a platform which connects people from all walks of life. Internet users are no more or less moral than the people you interact with in your everyday life and it is unfair to apply blanket generalizations across all of society without substantiating your claims. Sarcasm has its place at times, but in moderation. In excess, it has the potential to not only anger, but alienate users.
Further, a business promoting its products does not necessarily make it greedy. Many products create value for the consumer and are mutually beneficial, otherwise their would be no demand for them in the first place. We live in a society where people sustain themselves by helping others, either by providing a product or a service. In the olden days people used to barter. Now we use money as a medium, so that we can interact with more parties on a much larger scale. However, the basic principle is still the same. We preform services we are good at and specialize in those areas and others do the same. In the end its about helping others do things they would not otherwise be able to do efficiently or providing them with products it would be impractical for them to make themselves.
Thanks Joseph and Shaan, I think your viewpoints are very clear and logical; I like that you formed your arguments without personally attacking me and I respect that and think you are both very right.
I do not often see business as a way to exchange value and services and I really should.
Shaan, there is something good to be said for creating relationships and mutually beneficial friendships to help each other succeed–I think this is a great thing to do and fits in quite well with my ideas of the way a world should work.
Joseph, I am really antsy about the prospects of basing my success on others’ failures. I feel uncomfortable accomplishing things in certain ways that I deem are trickery; I do not want to induce peoples’ demand for my products that they do not need. However this is just me, technology improves all the time and I never feel cheated when I buy the newest products that I perhaps do not explicitly need.
You two have a firm grasp on your morals and I definitely approve of and appreciate your feedback. It makes me feel more comfortable in the world of business.
I think the problem with conversion marketing and social media isn’t that you or I won’t use them for personal and ethical means; it’s that anything the people use, corporations takeover to exploit. Your personal blog is all nice and dandy, but the blogosphere (as well as facebook etc) are being taken over by companies trying to market to you. I don’t want an employer looking at my facebook and I don’t want to see my employer when I’m on facebook. Yet anything people use to connect to each other will inevitably be exploited to figure out how to make money. C’est la vie.
Right
It seems like my main problem with conversion marketing is the idea that it is marketing for INDUCING demand in people who would not otherwise need, or even want, certain products.
I am not really interested in being marketed to, but I understand that there isn’t any free lunch; if I want unlimited access to facebook and funny videos online, I will have to deal with some advertisements and targeting marketing. I just need to keep in mind the differences between needs, wants, and technology–something that many people cannot seem to differentiate.
[...] Read More Here [...]