Introducing Google Sidewiki: A Boon for Marketers

What is Google Sidewiki?

Google Sidewiki is the latest Google offering that can be developed into a potential touch point between marketers and customers. This Google toolbar application enables you to put in helpful information next to any webpage. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. Anyone who uses the FREE Google toolbar with Sidewiki enabled can use this application. You can also download this application from the following URL:

http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/install.html

How Can Marketers Leverage it?

By writing Sidewiki entries that are informative and relevant, marketers can leverage the space for interacting with their customers and prospects. Moreover, since Sidewiki allows visitors to submit their comments, it becomes an excellent platform for promoting a service or products and gaining feedback at the same time! In addition, the Sidewiki space can also be used for guiding visitors about your website, upcoming events/offers, industry trends and much more.  Another advantage is that the comments or information that you share vie Sidewiki can be directly promoted through Twitter and Facebook.  The way you use Sidewiki would vary with the type of website or blog you have, however, the application certainly presents a unique opportunity for interacting with your audiences directly from your websites.

How Add Google Sidewiki to a Website?

Here are a few simple steps that would guide you through the process of    adding Google Sidewiki to your website:

Install the latest Google Toolbar with Google Sidewiki. The tool bar would look something like this: Visit your website or the web page where you want to run Google Sidewiki.

Ensure that Google Sidewiki is turned on in the Google Toolbar. You then need to log in to your Google account to be able to see the Google Wiki sidebar on the left side of your web browser.After signing in, you will see the name of your site, as well as the field to “Edit your name”. You can modify your display settings or add relevant keywords etc. here if you wish to.

Next, you make an entry about what ever information you wish to share  with your audiences and click the Publish button.

The entry can now be seen on your website.

From instigating discussions, to prompting offers, marketers can utilize the Google Sidewiki space in multiple forms to spur interaction with their audiences directly from the website. The application promises not only increased web traffic, but also ensures multi pronged benefits for marketers.

Popular Viral Marketing Campaigns

Viral marketing includes marketing strategies that leverage social media to swiftly propagate and explode marketing message to millions of prospects in no time. Viral marketing campaigns are an ideal choice for creating a titanic buzz and brand awareness in a cost effective manner.

Here are some popular viral marketing campaigns that caught maximum eyeballs:

Simplicity Works!

Take a look at this ‘How to Sell a Soap’ video that shows how implementing viral marketing can transform a tough marketing challenge into a cakewalk! The video was a grand success for the Germany based company that promoted it.

What’s Free?

Anything, from information to coupons, services to software, customers love what is free. Attaching freebies to any campaign is the simplest way to catch maximum eyeballs. Take for example, the case of Hotmail. Way back in 1996, Hotmail pioneered what is viral marketing today. Each email sent from a Hotmail account included a small, subtle ad for Hotmail- a strategy that yielded 500,000 registered users. The number reached 12,000,000 users in less than a year’s time. As the user-base expanded into the millions, Hotmail had millions of these free ads floating on the Internet across the globe!

Surfing to Attention!

This staged video on dynamite surfing brought a whopping 10 million views for Quicksilver and did a great job by making the brand immensely popular in no time.

Go creative

In a unique campaign to promote a tax website, marketers staged a theft of Nascar with the website’s address and managed to get almost $1 million worth of exposure on television, absolutely free of cost within a few days.

The Celeb Touch

The Nike video showing Ronaldinho taking a delivery of a new pair of boots and performing some amazing football tricks brought 23.5 million views.

Interact and Instigate

The Burger King - Subservient Chicken is one of the oldest pieces of viral marketing around. The unique interactivity of writing in a message box what you wanted the chicken to do and it would seemingly do it was an instant hit and within 24 hours of launching the campaign received a million hits. The number reached 20million within a week. In a year the viral received around 14,000,000 unique visitors and helped promote the new sandwich. Here’s a video of the interactive chicken:

The rules are simple- be creative, clear and compelling. Instigate something that arouses interest and see your message transform into a gigantic viral for promoting your brand.