Small Business Owners Group

Ok, so I went and saw "The Social Network" last night and I thought it was brilliant!

Definitely a must see movie for 2010!

The whole story from start to finish is engaging, not sure if it's just because of me and my interest in online marketing but my friends felt the same way also, so I can't be that much of a weirdo.

Personally being a bit of a story teller myself I agree with the saying "never let the facts get in the way of a good story", so instead of getting hung up on the facts just think of it as a really well written and entertaining story with a few very key learnings, especially for small business owners... here is a list of the three biggest insights that I got from this movie:

1. Serve Your Market, Your Customers First

The value of FaceBook is in the fact that they really understand their customers. While Eduardo Saverin spent his time in New York smoozing with Madison Avenue and trying to get advertising revenue Mark Zuckerberg focused his energy on understanding his target market and providing features that would help keep users engaged with his website. The website was cool because it didn't have advertising on it like every other website, selling out too early would have prevented it's growth, as each new advertiser would have their own agenda and prevent the site from reaching it's full potential. The value of your website is based on how well it engages and influences your customers, not on how many advertisements and banners you can stick on it.

Lesson 1 - Understand your market, serve your market, create value for your users and the money will come.

2. Ideas Are A Plenty, Implementation Is Where It's At

In a world of hyper competition ideas are meaningless without action, without results. FaceBook wasn't the first social network, there are countless others, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, etc. Instead of focusing on what everyone else was doing Mark simply focused on what his users wanted and figuring out how to make sure that his site was relevant and engaging to his users. While his competitors were busy focusing on protecting their ideas and not having their ideas stolen, Mark was always working on the next new feature that would help take his site to the next level, he looked to the future while his competitors looked to the past.

Lesson 2 - Don't worry about trying to protect your ideas, instead focus on being the one who is best at implementing those ideas in order to keep your users engaged. Your ideas don't matter a hell of a lot without action, so focus on taking action.

3. Your Website Is Never Finished

Think of your business as though you are promoting a fashion label, your job is never really done, it's never really complete. When this season is over, it's time to start planning and preparing for next season. Similarly, your website is never really finished, you should always be testing, tracking and tweaking to ensure that it engages your target audience and that it achieves the results that you want. Your website is like a pet, if you neglect it, it will not survive.

Lesson 3 - Your website, like your business should always be evolving, you should always be refining your marketing message, promoting and measuring the results and return on investment. If you neglect your website then it will neglect you.

Cheers

Loc

P.S. I'm starting my own online training, social networking and product launch portal for small business owners who are interested in leveraging the power of online marketing to get more sales, more leads and more referrals. If you're interested in taking your small business to the next level then be sure to check this out!http://www.adelaidemarketingonline.com/sales_pages/1933

P.P.S. Also, if you're a FaceBook user then be sure to follow me here'http://facebook.adelaidemarketingonline.com

About the Author:
Adelaide Marketing ' Free Report Reveals The Secrets Of Online Marketing For Small Business Sales!

http://www.adelaidemarketingonline.com/squeeze_pages/1538