Just saw this nice use of a Brownbook Bidget (Business Widget) http://pulse-light.blogspot.com/.  In this case the Google Map that Brownbook generates for you.

More about Brownbook Bidgets here…

We’re on the lookout for a web-based inventory management system that we can use to provide our business owners with the ability to present product lists, pricing, and availability on their Brownbook pages.  Also want to provide easy XML or forms-based approach for business owners to update product details and availability.

Anyone know of any such systems worth chcking out?

If so please email me dave[at]brownbook.net

Brownbook is proud to support BarCamp Miami 2009!

The event will take place on February 22nd, 2009 at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida and also includes WordCamp- focused on the WordPress blogging platform.

For additional information regarding BarCamp Miami please visit: http://barcampmiami.org/. You can also check out the Wikipedia entry for BarCamp here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp and the BarCamp wiki here: http://barcamp.org/ to learn more.

I was alerted via one of my Twitter colleagues @BeckyMcCray to this great blog post about marketing online on low or no budget – read it and pass it on http://mark-hayward.com/2009/01/08/small-business-social-media-marketing-plan/. Original author’s Twitter page is here (Mark Hayward) – got to be worth following.

My colleague Marc talks about “dropping breadcrumbs” around the Internet that lead people (prospects, customers) to your business.  Its all about a ‘getting everywhere’ and using innovative tools that your competitors haven’t yet got in with.  Sure, MOST ‘ordinary’ (read: non-tech) people don’t know about Twitter, Wordpress etc, but there are enough people that do for you to clean up.

Video marketing campaigns have previously been dominated by large global businesses that have huge marketing budgets.   But now, thanks to the Internet, small businesses can also benefit from the power of video to reach their customers and drive their brand recognition.  Interacting and engaging with customers through the use of online video is an important part of social media marketing or the Web 2.0 phenomenon and this article examines why it should be adopted by all business of any size.  It gives examples of a handful of different video sharing opportunities including You Tube, Brownbook.net, My Space and blip.tv and suggests how you may like to use the channel of video to communicate directly with your customers.

Why online video is vital to your marketing strategy

• To demonstrate and show off what your product or service is – Brownbook.net does exactly this with a video showing its users how to use their DIY website creator service http://blog.brownbook.net/2008/12/17/web-site-creator-demo/
  
• To provide information and explain things about your business:
  Hobby Box used its listing on Brownbook to add an informative video http://www.brownbook.net/business/2234317/the-hobby-box
  PatientsLikeMe uploaded a video of them speaking at a conference onto blip.tv – http://where.blip.tv/#976819
  
• To show the personality behind the company, what the company is all about and how you want your brand to be recognised.  Miamism uses Brownbook.net’s video uploading feature to give a great insight into their business  http://www.brownbook.net/business/31014168/miamismcom—miami-beach-real-estate-resource
  
• To demonstrate your knowledge and expertise such as financial planner Andrew Horowitz did on Business Week http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=36a57b3b6982001f5af806073a86811a604be482
  
• To offer added value services to customers.  This wedding planner produced an online video wedding planning guide and put it on My Space http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28696203&searchid=897faf39-3848-4cca-a2fb-9506a217cb2b
  
• To create or upload an online advert, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jywlZG74o
  
• Videos can give the customers a new shopping experience where the shop is brought directly to them at their convenience.   Visual representation is highly effective in assisting us with our purchasing decisions as it makes the business more tangible and provides us with the information we need to form perceptions about the company
• Google seems to like videos and thus ranks them highly.   Furthermore, according to Google, “America streams over 10.1 billion videos online” per month and “76% of US internet users view video online”
• Online videos do not require huge marketing budgets as with the advent of mobile, internet and camera technology most people have the ability to produce a video and then upload it to the net
• Use videos to spread word of mouth – Sarah Warren, Head of Marketing from Brownbook says “Business should encourage their customers to give them video testimonials, it’s very powerful to have a real customer telling others about the great service they got from you.  Businesses listed on Brownbook can not only upload their own videos but they can also direct their customers to their listing and ask them for a video review.  And lastly, businesses can get in touch with professional organisations and experts to ask them to review their products and services using video like here http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=46822858”

A business may chose to produce any number of the styles of videos mentioned above to engage potential and existing customers in order to ultimately generate more sales.  These online videos are part of the creation and development of an alternative online world in which consumers and businesses buy and sell.

Brownbook, You Tube, My Space, blip.tv, are examples of just some of the places where you can upload videos or photos to market your business.  Marc Lyne, CEO from Brownbook.net said: “We have made some tweaks and added some new features to the latest version of Brownbook, but the video and photo facilities are already proving to be popular with users.

Video gives small businesses a cost-effective and powerful way to reach the widest possible audience. It enables you to personalize your messages and reach a large, global audience.  So, get filming.

Just saw this come through on Twitter from Rod Sloane (www.twitter.com/rodsloane).  Great post by him all about getting customer reviews/testimonials…

Here’s an excerpt:

“Gathering and utilizing authentic customer testimonials is a great way to a) get closer to your customers and b) offer proof that your company delivers. People can be very motivated by the comments of their peers.  I often find that while most business owners understand the power of testimonials, they don’t always know the best way to acquire them.

So, here’s an idea that I think works on a number of levels. (I actually got this from a participant in a workshop I did for Apple Specialists attending Macworld.)

Why not…”

Click here to visit Rod’s “Duct Tape Marketing” site and read more…