A few months ago, we created a small web app as part of an experiment to try out some new methods to generate interest in our services and products from folks who might not otherwise hear about us. A primetime commercial during “Law & Order” probably would have done it but I couldn’t convince Gil (co-founder) to sell his house for the 30-second spot.
Since homelessness wasn’t an option, we created a very simple app that made a unique webpage for each person that we wanted to reach out to – CTO’s, Creative Directors, HR Managers; a list that wouldn’t look too different for any small business looking to hock their wares. But instead of just a typical sales pitch, we wanted to start a dialogue first. So the webpage that our app created for each potential client had a few relevant questions specifically for their company with simple instructions to pick one and we, Novologies, would answer it. It was a unique approach, perhaps even a little strange.
What happened next was surprising. We were contacted by a few companies not about the questions that we sent them, but about wanting to use the web app itself (or some variant of it) for themselves. The app wouldn’t work as a product for other companies for lots of reasons but after chatting with them, it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that they might want to use it. In this economy in particular, everyone is looking for more business and better ways to promote what they’re selling, while working in the confines of pretty meager marketing budgets. And since we didn’t think this app would really help with that, it got us thinking as to what, if anything, actually could help. We jumped on a train of thought that steamed ahead to the ideas behind what is now Flip.to.
Flip.to is a brand new web-based tool to spread the word about new happenings at your company (like the launch of a new product or recent job opening) with a little help from you and your co-workers. Unlike a direct marketing campaign, which requires a company to buy expensive, reused contact lists and then spam away with mailings and cold calls; they can make better use of a resource that’s typically left untapped – their company’s own networks. Flip.to is a really simple way to get your company buzzing with a built-in team of evangelists that get the word out, generate more traffic and ultimately land more business.
The power of spreading the word among your networks, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, an email or a blog post, lies in the link that points back to your company. Because this isn’t just any link, it’s a “passed link” – a link that was shared by someone that you trust, a friend, colleague, admired blogger, which is far more likely to get clicked on then say one included in an email spammed to a bunch of strangers. “The power of passed links” was the title of a recent blog post by the well known NYC VC, Fred Wilson, that makes the case that passed links will always garner a higher click rate per pair of eyeballs, which is pretty obvious, but also that they’re rapidly becoming a significant source of traffic for many websites.
Zappos has actually made a class on Twitter a standard part of their employee training. It’s intended to help employees stay connected but it also keeps a steady buzz going about the company. And now more people want to work there and more people visit Zappos.com because of that buzz. (Having recently been bought for close to a billion dollars, with $40 million set aside for employees, Zappos is certainly doing something right.)
So generating buzz is definitely a good thing for any company, big or small. Flip.to makes it extraordinarily simple to get that buzz going and tracks everything that’s happening, like who’s spreading the word and where, to gauge effectiveness and even more importantly, to make the whole buzz-generating process fun and engaging so that it doesn’t stop.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be unveiling more about Flip.to. If you head over to http://flip.to, you can check out a few of the features (including how it helps to convert that buzz into customers) and some use cases. And be sure to request a much coveted invitation for the private beta.