Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

You Need To Listen Website Marketing

Posted by Anonymous on 12/28/2008 at 8:47 PM ET 250 Points
A week or so ago I had an issue with a big business that they just, well, blew off. I don't want to get into a rant here so that is all that I am going to say about my issue with them other than they had me so frustrated last night that I decided to do something. I realized that there are so many of these big companies and there are so many more of us that they just don't seem to want to listen to. So here is what I did.

I registered the domain www.youneedtolisten.com. What I have in mind is creating sub-domains off this domain for various companies or whatever else comes to mind. Such as walmart.youneedtolisten.com, bigthree.youneedtolisten.com, government.youneedtolisten.com and on and on.

Here is what I am asking of you all. This is a wonderful place to discuss issues, technologies etc. There are many talented individuals that frequent this board.

I have the website developed, or at least the beginning development complete. What is the best way to get the community started. How do I get users to register and how do I drive traffic to the site?

Here is what I have done so far:

1. I have posted on a website development and seo website that I frequent regularly and have gotten a lot of positive feedback.

2. I have purchased some bulk traffic (10,000 unique visitors) which is driving traffic to the site but it seems that it is all dead traffic. No activity from the visitors.

3. I have submitted the site to the DMOZ with no inclusion as of yet.

4. Told friends and relatives about the site and got a few of them interested but no real activity there either.

5. Did a little with Google AdWords with little result.

6. Posted on Craigslist hoping to get some hits. (just did this today so not sure what the results will be.)

7. I am offering a drawing for a $50 Visa Gift card for people that submit an article between now and Jan. 31st.

Any suggestions that you could give me would be great!

Thanks in advance.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 12/28/2008 at 9:20 PM Author
    Phil,

    Thanks for the response. While I understand exactly what you are saying, I am not in it for the money. I am a website designer/developer with many clients and own a store front in my city where we service computers for many residential and commercial customers as well as the local and county municipalities. I have a very stable business and I have taken on this as more of a hobby than a source of income. I am going to build this site and hopefully with a little help from my peers it will be successful whether it puts money in my pocket or not.

    Surprisingly this is the first comment from about 75 comments that I have received telling me that I shouldn't do this. I guess I knew it was only a matter of time though. This wasn't quite the answer I was looking for but thanks again for responding.
  • Posted on 12/29/2008 at 8:40 AM Accepted
    Have you done some press releases to your local media and even some of the national media outlets?
    Especially with the holiday season wrapping up, there are probably a lot of frustrated consumers and your proactive response is timely. This is a clever concept and I wish much luck with your endeavor!
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 12/29/2008 at 12:29 PM Accepted
    You can find people who are already complaining (ex., do a search for "I Hate Walmart") and ask their permission to post their complaint onto your blog and/or create a new posting.

    Many of the larger corporations do a daily search for mentions of their business, so no doubt once you target these corporations, expect to be contacted by them. Remember, the real goal isn't to complain - it's to get results. Help people who post to get results - then you'll be providing a true value for everyone.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 12/29/2008 at 1:09 PM Accepted
    Why is it all made to be negative feedback?

    Once you have created the infrastructure to handle complaints and rants and raves, couldn't you create inside of the website where people could post positive feedback as well?

    Having this is a purely negative site seems to position you as an antibusiness whiner and complainer. Certainly big companies need to listen, as we all do. But if the goal is to get them to listen, as some have said, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And I would be willing to bet that you'll get far more press with a bit of focus on the positive then by focusing exclusively on the negative.
  • Posted on 12/29/2008 at 8:47 PM Author
    Posted by: gyoung Member Response
    12/29/2008 7:40 AM (CST)
    Have you done some press releases to your local media and even some of the national media outlets?
    Especially with the holiday season wrapping up, there are probably a lot of frustrated consumers and your proactive response is timely. This is a clever concept and I wish much luck with your endeavor!

    //I would like to get a little more happening on the site before I submit a press release to any media medium. I have thought of this however. Thanks for the post.

    -----------------

    Posted by: Jay Hamilton-Roth Member Response
    12/29/2008 11:29 AM (CST)
    You can find people who are already complaining (ex., do a search for "I Hate Walmart") and ask their permission to post their complaint onto your blog and/or create a new posting.

    //I have done a little of this with very little response.

    Many of the larger corporations do a daily search for mentions of their business, so no doubt once you target these corporations, expect to be contacted by them. Remember, the real goal isn't to complain - it's to get results. Help people who post to get results - then you'll be providing a true value for everyone.

    //I could not agree with that statement more. Thanks for the post.

    ---------------------

    Posted by: telemoxie Member Response
    12/29/2008 12:09 PM (CST)
    Why is it all made to be negative feedback?

    //It is not made to be all negative. I do not want it to be all negative. Unfortunatly the negative articles is what will drive the website but I absolutley want positive and informational posts as well.

    Once you have created the infrastructure to handle complaints and rants and raves, couldn't you create inside of the website where people could post positive feedback as well?

    //Yes, they can now, maybe I need to make that aspect a little more prominent.

    Having this is a purely negative site seems to position you as an antibusiness whiner and complainer. Certainly big companies need to listen, as we all do. But if the goal is to get them to listen, as some have said, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And I would be willing to bet that you'll get far more press with a bit of focus on the positive then by focusing exclusively on the negative.

    //I am not sure where you get that I am only focusing on the negative. That is not the case at all. I understand exactly what you are stating and I appreciate the constructive criticism.

    Still trying to figure out how to drive traffic.....
  • Posted on 12/29/2008 at 11:48 PM Accepted
    I think is a great idea, and the fact that you received so much encouragement, is the proof it might be worth doing. I also agree with phil though, that you should make it a profitable project. If you have little activity, it's easy to manage, but as you grow, you might need to commit more resources to it, and that will not be manageble as a one or two hours out of your day.

    Press releases! Press releases! ..and, press releases!! You need people to talk about it, but first, you need to creat the optimal conditions to it. Here a couple of suggestions to improve the website's friendliness and usability:

    1. CREATE MORE CATEGORIES. Though you just started, 3 categories make you look small and unheard. Create more categories of the biggest complained companies and make these categories available on the homepage. I think it's great to provide a benefit, but that should not be the first thing you see when you lan on the homepage. Remmber that complainers are more interested in being heard than making 50 bucks.

    2. UUCHUNK TEXT ON YOUR WEBSITE. Too much text chuncked together is not inviting to visitors. Have a simplier structure that can be easily read.

    3. EASY COMMENTING SYSTEM. Do not ask visitors to login or create an account before they can comment/complain. Do it after. If it is spam that you are worried about, but you still want to build a community, you can ask to input the name and email address on the comment form, and have a captcha before submission.

    4. LINK, DO NOT DUPLICATE. As Jay suggested, find links from other blogs and have them on your company's sections with a link to the original post. Attention not to copy and paste and remmber to link back to the original post.

    5. GET THE COMPANIES' SUPPORT AND SHOW THE RESULTS. People feel heard if you actually listen. And by you, I mean the companies. Once you have a category created with some posts on it, contact the concerned company and invite them to participate to the conversation. Also, if they actually do something about the complaints, let your visitors know about it. It could be in the form of a newsletter or a box on the homepage, or both.


    Wish you best luck.

    Davide

  • Posted on 12/30/2008 at 10:25 AM Accepted
    I'd like to suggest that you put in a suggestion box.

    As you are developing the site, getting feedback from the visitors may be valuable in sharpening your focus and purpose.

    Your website is an intriguing idea, but at the moment it does not grab me. As I look through the pages, I am thinking, "What is the point?"

    If I want to complain, I usually send an email or get on a company's site or call. Going to a third party does not occur to me, unless it has to do with government regulation of the industry, and then I contact my senator/representative directly.

    Do you want people to post on your site so that the industries will make changes? Do you want this to be a site that will gather and refine suggestions for the industries to pick up on? Are you trying to empower consumers? Encourage them to take action on their issues in some way?

    You could probably take some notes on Obama's Change.gov site for handling and channeling this sort of grassroots movement forum to effect a real change in the industries you are profiling.

    There are plenty of great grassroots-action efforts that are out there, all of which help to arm their subscribers with tools that make it simple for them to take action. take a look at some of them, and see how they phrase the issues, encourage action and participation, etc.

    Give your visitors some tools - contact information, updates on issues and the actions people and the industries have taken, templates for complaint/praise letters specific to the issue, links to government regulatory sites, officials, etc.
  • Posted by Mikee on 12/30/2008 at 10:59 AM Accepted
    With any type of 'forum' you need to get it seeded with info. You might need to invite everyone you know to participate to get this thing started. People will not get involved if it does not seem active. The trick is to have several people constantly posting. This will make it more likely for people to the drop by to get involved.

    Mike
  • Posted on 1/2/2009 at 10:46 AM Accepted
    Sounds like the Ralph Nader/Michael Moore of the Internet. Like the idea but would like to know what you want the outcome to be? Changes in the corporations, obviously. Boycotting? Retribution?

    I'd come up with a catchy logo and clear "mission" and pitch to disc jockeys to get the word out. Radio waves go a long way. What about public television? Once you get your stuff together, could pitch the site to public tv as well. Any type of activist group would be a potential target. College campuses. Community groups. Churches. Anywhere people come together in a group and you can get a group push behind the idea.

    Good luck

    Marketing-Riot
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