HoodFind^TM

According to the graph below, trustworthiness in advertising is derived mainly from the delivery vehicle for the message, not necessarily the message itself. It suggests that the closer an individual feels to the messenger, the more that individual places his or her trust in the actual message. “Word of mouth” still maintains the highest level of trust.

Have online user reviews improved in the past 12 months on the 61% trust level, or have those same reviews allowed for a greater possibility of manipulation, thus decreasing trust levels?

And, as most of our friends become integrated into our online social networks, will “word of mouth” simply be ubiquitous for online AND offline recommendations, thus eliminating the need for a distinction? After all, I get more recommendations from my “offline” friends via Facebook, email or Upcoming then anywhere else.

I recently came across an article written by Chris Hill titled, The Rules of Success for Local SMB Online Advertising. It was written on 11/30/2006 and it is a phenomenal post in terms of defining what your neighborhood small-to-medium size business thought of online advertising and how to appropriately target this market – circa November, 2006.

Hill puts forward the premise that product and service solutions that target the $2 Billion dollar local advertising spend should be sold through one-one-one consultative education sessions involving the business owner. He goes on to explain that business owners control the advertising spend and that building solid relationships with these folks is the key to breaking into this loyal market. If you ask an ad salesperson at Yelp, CitySearch or any traditional print publication for that matter, he or she will swear by this necessity for face-to-face contact with SMB customers.

The problem with this touchy-feely approach is threefold:

• First, in the age of do-it-yourself on the web it is entirely inefficient to work with a human publisher to promote a product or service. Owners are now accustomed to using simple publishing tools like Craigslist or eBay. Ask the owner of your salon or favorite neighborhood shop how many advertising solicitations she receives on a daily basis from both online and offline publishers and she will likely roll her eyes and throw up her hands in disgust.

• Second, the proliferation of content on the web (most of it generated by users) only serves as an ever increasing point of interaction for a local storefront-based business. Businesses can’t rely on posting static content on their website and must play in other sandboxes where their customers are spending an increasing amount of their time.

• Third, business owners will gladly accept discounted publishing rates passed through by an advertising platform that avoids building a large sales staff. Building relationships with ad salespeople was once considered a business necessity (like dealing with classified ad salespeople at your local newspaper before Craigslist came along). But ask a neighborhood store owner if he would sacrifice this “relationship” for a more effective method and he will respond, “I would rather build relationships with my customers, so give me a simple and cheap tool and I’ll do it myself.”

As Hill notes, SMB owners have extremely limited time and money. These same owners constantly seek more efficient, effective and cost-conscious ways to promote their businesses online. All that was needed were the tools to break through the old paradigm.