February 5, 2007, Vol 1, Issue 7

If this is your first issue, come on in! If you’re a regular “redux” addict, thanks for coming back. Either way, we’re excited once again to provide you with the best, most informative (we hope) 3 minutes (give or take) of your day. And in today’s overscheduled world, we realize 3 minutes is a lot of time. So, thank you.

We’ve been thinking a lot about social networking these days. We’re sure you’re as curious as we are about how the exchange of information from one person to another has evolved and in turn, how it is changing the marketing landscape.

In this issue you’ll fine a couple of sites that might help you in your quest to harness the power of social marketing. Or at least maybe they’ll give you some new ideas. Happy reading!

One step forward…

Ever wonder what happens to those URLs that you forward to your friends, mention in your blog, bookmark on del.icio.us, or submit to a social news site? How many people click on them? Do they forward those URLs to others? And do those people in turn forward them further and so on?

Forwarding Tree (now in beta) gives you personalized forwarding links to track the spread of URLs that you forward to others. You can watch your forwarding tree grow in real-time! Sample forwarding link if you want to check it out!

The hope is to make this so easy to use that almost anyone can use it quickly with little effort. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s really interesting. And worth watching…

Try it. I bet this is just the ticket for something you were thinking of…

Intermission.

Some people think we’re too serious. But we know the Web can be as fun a place as it is useful. So we’ve decided to start including a fun or non-work site as an “Intermission” here.

Forget things much? Try Remember the Milk. It’s a great way to manage your tasks for work, home, everything! Get reminders via email, SMS, or IM. Share your lists. Stay out of the doghouse (and remember to feed Fido.)

Data mashup.

Ever wonder which sites people actually visit for topics that interest you AND your clients? Delexa.org is a web analytics tool combining the top 50,000 U.S. websites with their topic tags, using data from del.icio.us and Alexa.

Use it to discover the most trafficked sites for any topic of interest, such as “videos” or “coffee” (can you tell that we’re in need of caffeine?) So, spend some time on Web sites that you know people are reading.

Stump the Researchers.

Ok, now we’re the ones who are stumped! We know there’s questions you’re burning to have answered! Do us a favor, submit your question to “Stump the Researchers” and you won’t have to listen to us whine anymore.

If you submit the question we use next issue, we’ll send you a copy of the book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing. It’s chock full of information on how and why people (your customers!) are buying and how to sell to them.

It’s fun, it’s free, and this time it comes with a freebie! So submit a question. (Don’t make us beg!)
Okay, give it your best shot.

This issue’s Stump…

A reader (okay fine, Wendy’s mother) asked: You’re always telling me that there are blogs that I’d want to read. How do you expect me to find them? I want to read about genealogy. And did I win the book?

No Mom. You don’t get the book. Family is excluded. Didn’t you read the fine print? But here’s the answer. (Even if you don’t do genealogy, you might learn something about finding blogs of interest!)…
Click here for the answer. It’ll just take a minute.

And so concludes another issue of research redux. You’ve made our day by stopping by and we trust you’ve found the experience rewarding.

We hope to hear from you. Whether it’s to ask us a question or just to see how we’re doing. (We’re doing fine, though we’re freezing cold – in case you were wondering.)

Until we meet again (in two weeks),