March 2, 2009

When Someone Steals Your Branding

One of the biggest problems with being a “service provider” is the you deal in intangibles – a world removed from the confines of the physical.

When you’re selling the intangible, the manner in which you describe and SELL your services is equally intangible.

As a result, many professional service providers rely on creating catch phrases to describe what they do  and how they do it.  They build their own personal “brand” around such “catch” phrases.

I have a client who did exactly that.  She literally crafted a unique term which richly describes exactly what she does and she created a thriving business providing those services to business owners.

Fortunately, and I do breath a HEAVY sigh of relief around this one, she did make the minimal investment and actually REGISTERED the domain name for this unique term around which she’s built her personal brand.

However, while she registered the domain name containing these keywords and even launched a blog on this domain name, she hasn’t had the time or desire to begin populating her blog with content – so the blog has sat for a while, sporting as its only content the “Hello World” post that comes standard with every brand new WordPress installation.

This weekend, this client did a Google search on her keyword term and saw something which made her physically ill and with good reason.

Someone else is ranking #1 on her beloved keyword term.

To make matters worse, this competitor was a client of hers from several years ago.  She worked with him as he was launching his own consulting business and he, in turn, decided to return the favor by offering services under her branded term.

The dirty thief stole her brand!

In her email to me, the pain was evident.  Here was someone with whom she had “performed her magic” and now he was not only offering “her” services but he was doing it using the keywords she thought she “owned”.

Unfortunately for her, he published an article on a PR4 site and now his article is beating her empty blog for her beloved keyword term.

It’s hard enough when you’re an expert in your field – bearing all the battle wounds and scars that come with earning such a distinction – to watch someone launch a competitive service.

It’s harder still when you’ve actually BUILT hundreds of boats to watch someone who read your book on “How to Build a Better Boat” promote their seminar on the subject.

If you let yourself – you can drive yourself insane with that kind of stuff.  “It’s obvious he’s never even HELD a hammer in his hands!  Look!!!  Not a single callous!  Who does he think he is?”  Who does he think he’s fooling?”

Well, he’s fooling everyone who’s never built a boat and signs up for his seminar – that’s who he’s fooling.

He may have read your book – but I’ll bet that even he would rather face the high seas in the craft YOU built rather than the one he keeps meaning to build.

I’ve had more than my fair share of “clients turned competitors” over the past 12 years.  One of the things I embrace in my life is trying to learn important life lessons from mistakes – preferably the mistakes of others!!!

PAINFUL BUSINESS LESSON #1:  IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

I don’t care how innovative your product or service is, if it’s even moderately successful you should expect imitators.  Someone is going to do it faster, cheaper and better if you’re not actively involved in learning how to deliver your goods faster, cheaper and better.

PAINFUL BUSINESS LESSON #2:THE VALUE OF BEING FIRST DIMINISHES OVER TIME

There’s a lot of value in being first with an idea – but if you don’t stake your claim then someone else will.  Bill Gates wasn’t the first person to create a way for computers and “regular” humans to communicate more efficiently – but he was the first to promote the idea to business owners.

As I said earlier, the one bright spot to this story is that my client registered the domain name containing the keywords of her personal branding phrase back in 2005.  She didn’t trademark it – but at least when the branding thief tried to steal her thunder – he couldn’t steal the domain name.

Unfortunately, being first with this phrase is losing it’s luster.  Now there are competitors who are taking this phrase and running with it.  Because my client owns the domain name – when her competitors use the term, they will be promoting HER blog – but that only works if she can get the blog populated with content.

PAINFUL BUSINESS LESSON #3: BUSINESSES ARE EITHER GROWING OR THEY’RE DYING

There is no such thing as being “stagnant” in business.  As I stated earlier – if you’re not actively involved in making your products or services better, faster and cheaper – then your business is not growing but is in the process of dying.   How long it takes for the final bell to toll is simply a function of the size of your business.  If you’re a US automaker, that death can take decades.  If you’re a small one person show – that process can take just a few months.

PAINFUL BUSINESS LESSON #4: WHEN YOU’RE SELLING INTANGIBLES – IMAGE IS EVERYTHING!

When you’re selling professional services – image is EVERYTHING!

I have complete and total sympathy for my client.   She was actively involved in PRACTICING her craft rather than promoting her image.  I get it.  She had more clients than she could possibly handle and has been struggling for the past two years on ways to expand her practice without sacrificing the quality of the work done.  Since so MUCH of the practice is predicated upon her “magic” – this has been a difficult undertaking.

She was busy practicing her craft rather than protecting her image.

Now, she’s discovering that even though her practice was full, she still should have been out there “protecting” her brand.   She’s discovering that a thief has been quietly working to steal her “thunder”. While she’s been struggling to protect the integrity of the services provided under her name – someone’s been stealing her “branding” term.

In my client’s defense – she knows what terms are important to her and she is aware that she needs to protect her “online stake” in those terms.  That puts her MILES ahead of many, many business owners today.

So now I’ll ask – what do YOU do to protect your branding?  My mind goes to registering domain names and launching blogs for protection…. while my client is contacting a trademark attorney.  Are there any other tactics I’m missing?

Filed Under: Online Reputation Management Tagged With: , ,
February 13, 2009

The shit fight is beginning- should you join in?

Social media is easy and it’s fun – but as social media’s popularity grows so does its impact.  Which is why it’s important to develop a social media strategy.

“When you don’t have a destination in mind, any road will get you there.”

As you use social media, you can expect at some point to see another social media primates start flinging shit at each other.  If you’re caught without a social media strategy – well, you won’t know whether to join in or run for cover.

I’ve found myself examining my social media strategy more often than not lately.  There have been plenty of opportunities to pick up the nearest pile and start flinging shit with the best of them.  Recently,  I happily joined in on both the Belkin Review Payola and the Cash4Gold social media firestorm.  Like most bloggers- when opportunity knocks I’m usually willing to answer!

If you don’t have a blog – then you should know that finding fresh content is a constant challenge for EVERY blogger.   A good old fashioned shit fight can provide WEEKS of content, not to mention currying inbound links and a bit of notoriety as added bonuses along the way.

Shit fights can be good for your blog – when used judiciously.

However, you not only have to decide which fights you’ll join but also where to draw the line.

Before either of these recent “social media disasters” appeared on the radar, another social media ruckus was brewing.  At the time, one of my fellow “social marketing primates” started throwing shit and I was faced with the decision of whether to join.

Since I wasn’t personally attacked, that meant I had a choice on whether or not to join.   When Jason Cohen found himself in the middle of a social media shit fight, he had no choice.  The shit was being flung DIRECTLY at him and he had no choice but to respond.  Fortunately, Jason’s a REALLY smart bear and defused the situation BRILLIANTLY!

When the shit is aimed you – you don’t have a choice.  However, when the shit isn’t flying directly your way, that’s when you’ve got a decision to make.

Do you join in or do you sit this one out?

I wasn’t named in the incident in question and now I have a choice to make.   When you’re faced with this choice, you can

  • ignore it.
  • report on it “objectively” and yet not include yourself directly in the line of fire.  You do this by NOT be naming names or disclosing URLS.  (See a great example of Darren Rowse doing this in Twitter is a Stage – Be Careful What You Say.  He doesn’t give link luv to his detractors.)
  • name names, list urls and make yourself a potential target.

Let it be known that there are times when joining in and naming names is EXACTLY what you should do.  That’s where your social media strategy comes into play.

It’s what Arlen Parsa did with regards to the Belkin Review Payola Scandal and  the choice Rob Cockerham made with the Cash4Gold blog post.  It’s a social media strategy that has paid off well for both of these bloggers.

However, on the other hand, I also advised my own client not to participate in a brewing shit storm as a part of HER developing social media strategy.

There is no “one size fits all” advice when it comes to social media strategy!

Unfortunately, when tempers flare in social media,  it leaves a lasting trail.  Unlike the footprints left in the sand at the beach – these footprints are cemented online forever.

Ask Ian Capstick of the Media Style blog.  He reports in his post Twitter Fight,  about an exchange which became heated on Twitter between reporter David George-Cosh  and  April Dunford, principle consultant with Rocket Launch media.  The portion of the “tiff” that happened “online” has left a trail of words set in stone.  At last count, the comments to the post numbered 85 and the trackbacks for the post were at 15 and counting.

One of those trackbacks is from the blog of Jennifer Leggio of ZD Net.   In A tale of two faux pas: When transparency meets bad behavior she writes:

My quick summary based on Capstick’s post: George-Cosh reached out to Dunford regarding a story he was working on and she took a day or so to get back to him. He was, according to Dunford’s Twitter stream, rude to her during the eventual call back, so she expressed frustration in a tweet. It was clear to George-Cosh, it seems, that she was talking about him since they’d just hung up the phone. Her defense was, and I paraphrase, “Dude, I didn’t say your name.” George-Cosh swore. A lot. She put on a show of trying to calm him. It ended… poorly.

Here’s the upside to this story – April is “social networking aware”.  She knew when the internet was talking about her and was able to post “her side” of the story.  She does so in a comment on Jennifer’s blog.

Another “bonus” is April’s online reputation was already well established when this occurred.  Because she was properly “inoculated” and her online reputation was already well established, this tussle is NOT the first that that comes up when you Google her name.

Unfortunately, David George-Cosh is not so lucky.  His Twitter feud with April comes in at #4 with the newspaper article Journalists are not above the rules of decorum when you search for his name on Google.

The National Post has apologized, but the damage is done. David’s name will be coloured by this event for a while. And the Post will be associated with it, too.

What’s your social media strategy?  How do you decide between “fight” or “flight” when it comes to social media?

Filed Under: Online Reputation Management Tagged With: , ,
February 11, 2009

Social Media – Information Moving in Real Time

What do the Cash4Gold Social Media Meltdown and the Belkin Social Media Payola Scandal have in common?  They both CLEARLY illustrate that when it comes to Social Media Marketing – what you don’t know CAN hurt you!

Monday Morning Quarterback- Social Media Edition

Social media is truly the natural result of information moving at the speed of thought.  Even a company with a superbly crafted social media strategy will find itself flying by the seat of it’s pants at times.

There are two paths you can take when managing your online reputation.  You can choose to manage your online reputation in a PROACTIVE manner, which is highly preferable to taking a REACTIVE approach to your online reputation management.

Ideally, you should begin managing your online reputation the moment you launch your business.  That would be the PROACTIVE approach to online reputation management.

Would you rather buy a smoke detector BEFORE you smell smoke – or after?  In the case of Cash4Gold and Belkin – there’s a 4 alarm fire raging and there’s the question of whether the fire can be contained.

When it comes to online reputation management, you can choose whether to be PROACTIVE or REACTIVE!

Because most of what’s been done has been done RE ACTIVELY thus far in the case of both companies mentioned above, any positive blog posts uncovered on either company’s behalf are going to be viewed with suspicion and the keyword auto-tweets are like throwing gasoline on a bonfire.

Long ago, when I was an Account Executive with a regional advertising agency, I had a client who came under a media attack.   My client was flipping out and  my wise mentor and boss, Joan Elias, shared these words of wisdom with me to share with my client:

“When you stir shit – it stinks.”

Shit happens – and when it does – sometimes it’s just best to let it lie.  Eventually, it will “dry out” and stop stinking – but only if you leave it alone!

There comes a time in every reputation management campaign to lie low and let the stink dissipate!

The time for Cash4Gold to begin proactively managing their online reputation was February 2008 – about 6 months after launching the website and before they began actively promoting the business. (see the Compete.com graph below)

(Notice – the graph above seems to “mirror” gasoline prices.  Maybe more advertising wasn’t the answer!)

I’m sure the predominate thinking around the Cash4Gold offices back in the first quarter of ’08 was: “Hey, we’re seeing a real window of opportunity here.  Gold prices are on the rise, gas is nearing $4 a gallon and those Hummer owners are going to want to be unloading their gold chains to support their SUV’s gasoline habit.”

Cash4Gold did some BRILLIANT marketing moves along the way.  One of the best was to make the call to action in their television ads for the viewer to visit their website for more information. This would have been the ideal time to begin “inoculating” their online reputation, not only by implementing basic internet marketing and SEO practices but also by setting up systems to  “track” the conversation online around important keywords.

Had there been such systems in place – the Cockeyed Citizen’s blog would have triggered a “hit” and Cash4Gold could have been there to respond.  (Just as Carbonite responded quickly to my online review of their service on this blog.)

As other blogs picked up the story, other “hits” would have registered and possibly alerted Cash4Gold that a SuperBowl ad buy may not be the smartest investment of capital.

One way to begin creating a positive online reputation would be to actively solicit positive feedback.  For example, when the checks were sent to reimburse customers for their gold, there could be a coupon enclosed which asked happy customers to go to the cash4goldreview.com  website.  “Be sure to let us know how we did there and claim your reward.”   When buyers arrive,  they can “rate” their transaction – eBay style.  When they’re done – there’s an online coupon which can be printed and redeemd during their NEXT Cash4Gold transaction.  A $10 “bonus” on their next transaction of $100 or more could have gone a LONG way to making friends and influencing people’s perception of the company.

Studies have shown when customers are encouraged to write postive reviews – they actually become more active “proponents” of the brand.  A little of this could have gone a LONG way in the case of Cash4Gold.

Let’s say that none of this helps.  Perhaps Cash4Gold deserves their ever deteriorating online reputation.   Let’s say that despite the best proactive efforts – a negative blog posts takes the #2 position on Google.  Now what?

If you EVER find yourself in this position, let me tell you what YOU SHOULD NOT DO!

DO NOT SEND AN EMAIL OFFERING TO BRIBE THE BLOG OWNER TO De-OPTIMIZE THE POST!!!!

Where would Matt Drudge be if he would have taken a Clinton aid up on such a bribe?  Heck, where would BLOGGING be if that had happened?

The Cash4Gold story is the blogosphere’s version of Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket with a winning lottery ticket on the side.

I’m sure Rob’s thinking went along the lines of, “You’re paying six figures for a SuperBowl ad and less than a week beforehand, you’re offering me a measly $3k to make my #2 SERP disappear?”

His next thought HAD to be, “Pinch me – I must be dreaming.”

The bribe ranks right up there with the best of the Dateline: To Catch a Predator moments.  In the land of social media – that was the equivalent of showing up at a child’s home with balloons, candy and sensual massage oil.

“People and businesses alike just don’t get it. This is not a pen and pencil, snail mail, wait until the 5:00 news world. Information moves in real time. ” –  Valerie Johnson

What would you do if you were bribed like this?  Would you take the money?  Would you report the bribe on your blog?

Filed Under: Online Reputation Management Tagged With: ,
February 7, 2009

Cash4Gold and the Ensuing Social Media Firestorm

The tale of Cash4Gold SuperBowl ad buy should have been a storybook tale extolling of the value of effective advertising.  The Cash4Gold story could have read, “Business buys SuperBowl ad.  Traffic to website increases 10 fold  and justifies obscene ad cost.”

Instead, the Cash4Gold SuperBowl ad buy is a cautionary tale  which should serve as a warning to any business of how social media will “get you” if you or your business model are less than authentic.

Barry Hurd over at 123 Social Media began telling this tale on February 2nd when he warned in his first post Cash4Gold Superbowl $2.7 Million Online Reputation Nightmare

Chief Marketing Officers beware: before spending a hefty sum of your 2009 budget on having two celebrities do a 30 second Superbowl ad… make sure you clean up your online reputation first!

(Note – read on – because Cash4Gold tried to do exactly that – only they tried to “buy” their way out of the social media muck they found!)  Three days later, Barry continues the story in Cash4Gold – 72 Hours Later, Dugg to Death where he reports:

As of this morning: if you go to Google and do a search for “Cash4Gold” or “Cash 4 Gold” you will find the second search result to be an article titled “10 Confessions Of A Cash4Gold Employee” on the Consumerist. The article talks in-depth about how the Cash4Gold company works behind the scenes (and it is not a glowing review.)

It’s 48 hours after his 2nd post, I did as Barry suggests.  I did a search on Google for the term for “Cash4Gold” (without the hyphens – as “regular” people would do) and found the situation for Cash4Gold’s online reputation is even worse than Barry reported.

When I did my search – I was greeted with a Google Ad for Cash4Gold which reads: “Deal with Refiner – Maximum Payout! Request a FREE Kit. 100% Guarantee.”  Cash4Gold is definitely AWARE of the firestorm and has decided to try yet another way to “buy” themselves out of their continually deteriorating online reputation.

The organic search reveals why they’re having to spend money to get the top listing for their own domain name: the first organic search result which is an article in the LA Times Beneath Cash4Gold’s shiny veneer, a dull reality.

Guess you can’t count on people to skip the news stories and go straight to the the 2nd organic listing for the business name which is the Cash4Gold website so when in doubt, throw more money at the problem and hope it goes away.

Meanwhile, the list of blogs which have picked up the Cash4Gold story continues to grow.  When I did my search – next listing following the Cash4Gold website was an entry over at the blog Cockeyed Citizen: Cash4Gold Will Offer One-Third of the Actual Value for your Gold.

Turns out, this blog post is NOT something new.  Turns out, this blog post has been up for a while and was the first in a two part series written by Rob Cockerham.   According to Rob’s 2nd post, Cash4Gold did go on a “search and destroy” mission to try to clean up their online reputation before the airing of the SuperBowl ad.   Guess it took writing checks to Ed McMahon and MC Hammer, in addition to writing a check for the famously overpriced SuperBowl airtime for the execs at Cash4Gold to do a quick check to see what 30 million SuperBowl viewers might find if/when they did a Google search for the company.

In the 2nd blog post Cash 4 Gold would like to melt down and recast their reputation, Rob not only shares the emails received from Cash4Gold, he also shares the price they were willing to pay him to remove the posts.  It’s really WELL worth the read.

However, the efforts to buy their way out of this by Cash4Gold execs was too little, too late.  Way back in October, a time when no one would have IMAGINED that the Cardinals would be playing in the big game, the blog the Consumerist had already picked up the story and run How To Avoid Getting Ripped Off By Cash4Gold. They then ran a follow up post just before the SuperBowl ad aired in Cash4Gold Offers Blogger $3,000 To Remove Negative Post.

The first comment on the 2nd Consumerist post was by Cheesebubble: “suddenly, i hate everything …and i’m gonna blog about it!”

That, my friends, is the way of the new web.

Tom Volkar was venting the other day about being authentic.  He was authentically pissed off and he wrote:

A well-known social media expert recently tweeted something like this. “Don’t share anything here that you wouldn’t put up on billboards all over town.” Even that pissed me off, because he seemed to be saying, “wear the mask – don’t be real – be careful.” Bullshit to that! I wouldn’t pay to express my anger on a billboard but I’ll not run from it either.

Tom doesn’t have to buy a billboard to vent his anger because he’s got a blog, just as Rob Cockerham doesn’t need a billboard to share his experience with Cash4Gold.

Oh- did I  mention that YOUR customers don’t need to buy ad space either to vent THEIR anger?  This is Web 2.0 and the power is quickly shifting to the people.

Got a business?  Got Social Media Strategy?

I would venture to guess that 20 years ago, the Cash4Gold story never would gotten this big.  The question now isn’t will it get big – it’s how big will it get?

One thing is for certain – this is DEFINITELY bad news if your business model is threatened by the growing transparency of the new web.

Any chance you’ll mail your gold to Cash4Gold after reading this?  (Me neither.)

Filed Under: Online Reputation Management Tagged With: , ,
February 2, 2009

Social Media Marketing – What you don’t know CAN hurt you

Maybe you don’t think you need social media marketing.

Maybe you’re hoping that if you ignore it, this whole “social media” craze will fade away.

Maybe what you don’t know won’t hurt your business.

Whether you like it or not, social media is happening and it’s affecting your business.  Your customers and your potential customers are using the web to gather information about everything under the sun.  They are then talking about the products and services they’re using.  Good or bad, the conversations are happening and now they’re happening online as well as off line.

Conversations about products and services  have been going on since humans first began to communicate.  Eons ago, Caveman Joe and his friends sat around the fire trading stories of where the best hunting sites were.  Fast forward in time and a decade ago neighbors would trade tales of which neighborhood dentist is good and which one is not so good at the PTA meeting.  (This was known as word of mouth advertising.)

Today, we’re more likely to go online and do a Google search before we have the conversation in person.

The difference between then and now:  back then when those stories were told – they didn’t leave a digital trail.  In order for a story to hit the news, a reporter had to hear about it and most importantly CARE about the issue.  Long ago, the buzz – or the damage – ended when the sound of the voice speaking faded away.  Silence the voice and  the story was gone.  There was no proof – there was no evidence – if the story was bad, there was the possibility of it fading away and there was ALWAYS the possibility of forgetting the details.

That was then – this is now.

Now, these same conversations are happening online.  The stories are being told in a different venue – where they are indexed, compiled and offered up for retrieval at a moments notice.

Now, instead of asking about your business at the PTA meeting – social networking Joe will simply log on and plug in his search terms to see what Google knows about your and your business.

What will he find when he searches for you?

What kind of first impression will you and your business make upon him?

Recently, Belkin – a manufacturer of electronics – got caught in an attempt to play the social media marketing game by gaming those results. Rather than rely on customers to post real reviews of Belkin products- they decided to advertise and offered to pay for post positive reviews.  Their advertisement was seen by Arlen Parsa who happened to have a blog.  Even though he’s not a reporter, he broken the story like a pro in Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews.  Other bloggers saw this post, picked up the story and carried it as well.  Suddenly, Belkin has a PR problem.

Here’s a news flash for everyone who thinks they can do business “as usual” (a.k.a. without an expectation of transparency) in today’s world – an era I’ve dubbed the No Trust Zone. This is a time when there are literally tens of millions of blogs, authored by even more bloggers who are constantly on the prowl for new fresh content:

THE WEB IS WATCHING!

Your customers have access to the web.  Even if they don’t have a blog themselves, chances are they either know someone who does or can find one pretty easily and drop a comment.   If a blogger gets wind of the story  you’d rather not have told- well, that’s the downside to Web 2.0.  If that happens, you’d better bring out the bullet proof vest for your PR department – because it’s going to get ugly.

Belkin is not exactly a techno-unsavvy business – yet even with their considerable web presence, a search of Google for their business name “Belkin” returns on the first page a story of the recent scandal: Gizmodo’s post: Belkin Employee Sheds Light On Belkin’s Supposedly Dirty Practices.

In Belkin Gets Caught Buying 5-Star Reviews & My Alternative Recipe for Ratings Success, Andy Beal offers suggestions on how to get HONEST product reviews from satisfied customers.  (Unfortunately, according to the Gizmodo post, the whole REASON behind the for the Belkin review payola was that the products couldn’t get positive reviews from real customers!)

Fortunately for Belkin, they “own” their own number 1 listing at Google – otherwise, a scandal such as this cound be the “top result” for a search for the business name for a long time to come.

Unfortunately for Micheal Bayard – Business Development Representative for Belkin – he’s not so lucky.  He’s making headlines such as  Michael Bayard and Belkin: What’s the Big Deal and Belkin Representive hires people to write positive reviews for their product on Amazon.

Those search engine friendly blogs are great at delivering top results on desired keyword terms, aren’t they?  Unfortunately that’s not a good thing for those who thought authenticity was a word used to trip up 6th graders during a spelling bee.   The “power of the blog”  blade cuts deep and can leave a permanent scar on an online reputation.

This is the new way of the world.  The web is watching.  “I’m blogging this,” is more powerful than you think.  Even a “tiny” blog can get a big voice in a hurry.

Oh, and authenticity is NOT an obscure spelling word – it’s the new “way of the world”.

VIVA AUTHENTICITY!

Filed Under: Online Reputation Management Tagged With: ,
January 28, 2009

First Impressions and the Placebo Effect

It turns out that first impressions may be the ONLY impressions that matter – which is why when one of my high school chums wrote on my wall at Facebook “I visited your website and I was impressed” it made my day.

YEAH!  Mission accomplished!  I can now attend my high school reunion even though I’m a LOT older and fatter than I was in high school!

Seriously – I’m very grateful for that input because it lets me know that my little corner of the web here is making a good first impression.  Of course we all know that we should try to make a good first impression because we all know that presentation has a HUGE impact upon the first impression people form of us personally and professionally.  However – if you’re like me – you want to believe in your heart of hearts that if you DO screw up and make a bad first impression that time and experience will help the other person overcome a poor first impression.

First impressions are probably the ONLY impression you’ll get to make

Don’t you hate reading that?  I do but it’s true.   First impressions are the ONLY impressions that count – and the study that illustrates this was done BEFORE the days of Twitter and the myriad of other ways you can screw up the first impression you make online!

If you’re like me, you desperately WANT to believe that if you screw up and make a bad first impression that you’ll get a second chance.  It’s nice to think that once someone “gets to know you” that their perceptions will change.  However,  Harvard psychologist Nalini Ambady did a study which seems to show that the first impressions make an indelible effect on people’s perception – and perception is EVERYTHING!  Ambady asserts that your first impression will be your only impression, regardless of the “accuracy” of your first assessment.

To measure the effect of first impressions, researchers divided a group of  students into two separate groups.  One group watched video clips depicting the professor as a warm, caring and knowledgeable educator. The second group watched video clips which depicted the professor as cold, uncaring and incompetent.  After watching the clips, the students were asked to record their first impressions.

Here’s the kicker – the students then took a class with the professor.   They spent three or more hours each week being exposed to the “real” professor.  At the end of the course, the students were asked to fill out another evaluation.

What we all want to believe is the first impression of the students would change once they actually experienced the professor’s teaching style.  By experiencing the professor in person over an entire semester, we want to believe that experience would change their evaluations.

I know that I personally desperately wanted to believe that despite being fed a “wrong” first impression, people would  use their own personal experience to overcome a negative first impression.  I wanted reality to overcome perceptions.  Unfortunately, that’s not what happened in the study.

It turned out that more information didn’t change the student’s perceptions of the professor.  Despite the passage of time and the opportunity of the students to gather and experience  better and more accurate information, the student’s impressions of the professor as they completed the course was almost identical to their first impression.

First impressions are embraced more fiercely than anyone ever suspected and it appears that first impressions actually become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Which brings us to the role first impressions play when it comes to your business.  You can see why first impressions play a powerful role in the success of your online marketing strategy.

However, there’s another psychological factor at work when it comes to first impressions, marketing and your business – the placebo effect.

When you combine the law of first impressions with the placebo effect, and you’ll see how first impressions not only will determine whether or not someone chooses to do business with you – but you’ll also see how those first impressions form the literal foundation for your relationship with your clients/customers!

The placebo effect is a well documented phenomenon where expectation shapes our experience.  Give people a pill and tell them it will make them feel better and even though there’s no medicine involved, in the majority of cases people do feel better.  The placebo effect is so powerful, cancer can even be cured when a placebo drug is combined with the right first impression!

The placebo effect extends well beyond the realm of medicine. In the case of your business, the first impression your business makes upon a customer will literally create the expectation of the level of service your potential clients/customers come to expect.  First impressions help to create an expectation of the quality of the products/services you provide.

Again there are studies to support this claim.  Science news reports on one in the price tag can change your perception of a wine’s quality.

According to researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, if a person is told he or she is tasting two different wines—and that one costs $5 and the other $45 when they are, in fact, the same wine—the part of the brain that experiences pleasure will become more active when the drinker thinks he or she is enjoying the more expensive vintage.

The placebo effect extends well beyond wine and into every facet of your marketing because that is where your customer’s perceptions are established.

There is no such thing as “reality” – there is only perception of reality.

You never have a second chance to create a great first impression.  You must pay close attention to every contact point your business has with the general public.  From business cards to stationary to your web site, there’s no getting over a poorly made first impression.

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