We’ve got an additional gift, prize, present, or whatever you wish to call it. We’re going to give it away at then end of July as well. As I mentioned in the post this morning, what we’re giving away is made by the fine folks out in Cupertino, CA, Apple, Inc. Drumroll please…

We’re giving away a 1GB iPod shuffle. After all, everybody could use one more iPod in their lives, right?

So here’s how to get entered into the drawing for the 1GB iPod shuffle. Simply become a fan of DDS on the DDS Facebook page. Already a fan? Then you’re already entered. Not a fan yet? Better hurry, there’s only four and a half days left to be eligible for this drawing.

If not, do it, NOW! There are only 5 days left till we draw the four (4) winners of a DDS Web Presence Development Package.

So far, response has been great. We have 112 eligible followers and that number is growing daily.

We’ve also decided to give away one more awesome prize. A little hint, it’s made by a company out of Cupertino, CA called Apple, Inc. We’ll be announcing this prize and how to win it on our blog today at 1:30 P.M. EST.

Nobody cares about your website…

…but your content matters more than ever. I came to that realization a few months ago while I was sifting through our stats on Google Analytics.

via Nobody cares about your website… « MEDIA SALT.

So, this was an article I’d been intending to write but Eric over at Media Salt beat me to it. He covered everything and said it all very well. Rather than try to do it better myself, I’m going to point you to his article at his site. Give it a read. If you’re a church or non-profit you definitely need to take five minutes and peruse the content. If you’re a small or medium business, this applies to you as well.

If you have questions about how to develop and implement a web presence strategy give us a call (see the big button to the right –>) or send us an email. Or, click on the Twitter over there in the sidebar and follow us and tweet us your questions or thoughts.

I remember when I took my first sales job back in 1992. One of the first things I was told was that the company I was working for thrived on repeat business from their clients. In the same breath, I was told that it was of utmost importance to listen to and heed what every client says. This latter comment is really a “Sales 101″ lesson than anything else. But, it was also said with the intent to make sure that if a client had some comments about our products or services that we were to communicate those to the top of the food chain.

So what is different about what Starbucks is doing with this new website in comparison to carrying customer feedback straight to the top? On the surface, not a lot, its really the same idea. But dig a little deeper and you’ll see why its not only completely different but also a far superior method of “listening” to your clients. (If you haven’t visited the site yet, now would be a good time to take a look as I’m going to point out how great this really is here in a moment.)

Let’s do a little comparison here. In 1992, the company I worked for didn’t even utilize email. Most of our communication happened over the telephone or via fax. Even up until the early 2000′s most of the companies that I worked for relied heavily on phone and fax, working up to having one primary email address for the company. By early 2004, I had finally joined a firm that utilized the web and email in a somewhat standard way from the perspective that they had a company website and everyone had their own email address.

Suffice it to say that there was a steady progression between the early 90′s and the mid 2000′s of client feedback and ideas. By my best estimate, the curve would closely resemble about a 45 degree angle as far as the steady increase goes. Even so, if you looked at the actual number of comments made by clients, the number was very low as a percentage. Probably less than 5%.

Why was that the case and why is that the case for many companies today? I think the answer is a very simple. First, the methods of communication, telephone, fax, and email, are somewhat hard to manage from the perspective of the company. Think about this, how many times have you either telephoned or emailed customer service at a company with the intent to express some sort of feedback to them, either positive or negative? Next, think about this, of all those times, in how many instances did you actually got to speak to someone on the telephone or get a personal reply via email? I suspect that for most of you the answer is… very few. I know for myself that in most cases I never get a live person on the phone and via email I get an auto-responder message at best. In fact the last time that I offered some feedback to a company, an Atlanta based restaurant chain that will remain nameless, I used their “Contact Us” page on their website. I got an auto-responder message within about 4 hours indicating that I would “hear from them soon”. Let’s just say that soon hasn’t come yet and this was about 4 months ago. The bottom line is likely one of two issues at the company level. The first issue could be that the company really doesn’t care. Maybe so for some but I think that most understand the need to care and listen. The second and most likely issue could be that they receive hundreds, perhaps thousands of communications per day. With the telephone and with email this requires tons of manpower to be able to field calls or reply. That’s where the auto-responders come in, touch the customer quickly so they feel like they are getting some attention. But in most cases nothing ever happens after that. So, in a nutshell, this is kind of the way offering feedback and ideas has been for a really long time.

Before the end of 2008, this will change in a huge way. The reason mystarbucksidea.force.com works so well is because this concept takes the burden off of the company to touch and reply to every single person that contacts them. Essentially, and very wisely, Starbucks and many other companies to follow are leveraging the concept of Social Networking and Online Community. Take a look at the way their system works. You have an idea, some feedback, or a complaint perhaps. As many clients as Starbucks has, do you think that there might be someone else in the world that has a similar idea, feedback, or complaint? From a probability standpoint, the answer is a definite yes. So let’s play this out. You go to the Starbucks idea site, register, and then submit your idea, feedback, or complaint. When you are done, you notice that there are many other people who have done the same thing. So, you start reading about other people’s ideas. And this is just the beginning. You, the client, have the ability to make comments about these other ideas. More importantly, and this is what really makes this work, you have the ability to “Vote” ideas up the ladder. If you read something that is a really good idea, simply click the “Vote” button. The more votes an idea gets, the better its chances of being implemented. Are you seeing the big picture? All of this requires very little administration by Starbucks thanks the the miracles of today’s technology. Once an idea gets a certain number of votes it shows up on their radar. At that point, the company can begin to dig in and read all the comments that have been made about the idea. In the case of Starbucks, they go even further and enable their clients to see in black and white which ideas are most popular and which ideas are already being implemented. For a client, what this says is, “Hey, they really do listen”.

So, some people might say that this would work well for new product ideas and such but if you got bad food at a restaurant or had a bad experience that still doesn’t remedy it. I would have to say that this statement is both true and false. True from the standpoint that if you bought a product and it failed during its warranty period then you must contact customer service directly. False from the standpoint that if I post a comment stating that I ate at a restaurant on two different occasions and my food was served to me practically saturated in grease both times at two different locations, then there is a good chance that I’m not the only one. Others can see that, make their comments about their experiences, and “Vote” my comment up the chain in hopes that the company will make a change in the way it cooks its food.

I’ll wrap this up by saying this… How it took this long to figure this out I’m not sure but this is one of the best ways that I have ever seen Social Networking and Online Community utilized. Any business or organization that has clients, customers, or members should begin immediately considering the implementation of a platform like this. Imagine what his could do for Starbucks sales. Their clients telling them what they want. Probably hundreds of thousands of people saying, if you make this we will buy it. If you do this, we will come to your stores more often. Think about how much risk that takes out of implementing an idea. Its almost guaranteed to succeed.

One final statement… I dare you to try it. Whether you represent a business or even if you are just a client, customer, or member of a business or organization. I dare you, try it and see what happens.