-By Marshall Marcovitz

“The times they are a-changing,” Bob Dylan famously predicted in the '60s, and they are certainly changing because of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Gizmodo, Gawker and The Huffington Post. It’s astonishing how quickly the change has come. We know that Web pages are things to read, places to post and publish. We know that blogs (online journals) have the potential to attract a big audience (check out Blogger, Gawker and Gizmodo). Whether sharing your favorite cookie recipe or commenting on what’s happening in Iraq, the new grass-roots media has transformed the communication landscape. Anyone with a computer and modem (even a smart phone) can gain a global presence for free.

Can the independent retailer successfully use these new tools?

The new media offers a new way to use sales promotions. A bargain may be just a tweet away. JetBlue and United airlines are offering their Twitter followers first crack at some discounted fares, using the user-friendly form of messaging to quickly connect with customers and fill seats. Tweets are a new, faster way to promote sales. By promoting “Cheeps” through Twitter, JetBlue gives the already spontaneous audience of Twitter users a chance to grab a great last-minute bargain (JetBlue was offering a $9 one-way trip from JFK to Nantucket — yes, that’s $9 — but the audience only had a few hours to take advantage of that offer). In addition to filling empty seats, these sales can introduce new customers to the airline. Those first-time customers trying Cheeps are good candidates to come back. The key is you have to act fast, and Twitter’s spontaneous audience is very responsive. The ability to come in immediately on this offer is a phenomenon unique to the culture of Twitter. The airlines are experimenting with it to see what the value of this promotion is. You need to get in the game and see how it plays out. Is it better to send an e-mail with a $9 fare or better to Twitter it? The only way to find out is to experiment.

Now, how about finding new suppliers? We know that Twitter can be used to find both suppliers and customers. Now, a small independent retailer in a little-bitty town can easily search the globe for new suppliers. Creative types are increasingly moving online: posting photos, writing and showing videos, building a “presence” in the hope of winning an audience. The opportunities for attention are plentiful on the Internet. Every day, more individuals and companies seek their “big break” in the virtual megalopolis rather than in (or as well as in) the physical one. Online, though, the audience can be yours right away, directly and immediately — if you can figure out how to find it.

If you created a blog, could your blog be a profitable business? Imagine creating a blog for the serious cooking enthusiast, a place where cooks could share their favorite recipes and outstanding cooking equipment that “really works.” Your blog could contain lots of attitude (Julia Child certainly had it in her famous cookbook “Mastering the
Art of French Cooking” and on her public television cooking show — and her audience was cooks, not chefs — where she shared her unique technique for stuffing and cutting a chicken). Your blog could contain frequent postings (the Internet audience yearns for “what’s new” with a strong focus on what’s fun and successful in the kitchen). Sounds like a lot of work writing all that content? Then check out The Huffington Post and discover the many, many bloggers who contribute content free as contributors — while boosting their brands. I suggest contacting the most prestigious name brands in the housewares industry — Calphalon, KitchenAid, All-Clad, Henckels — and, of course, a group of manufacturers who make the most professional culinary tools available to the master chefs of the world. Twitter is a good model for a micro-blogging phenomenon. It’s easy to focus on stupid or trivial blogs, and dismiss the lot of them. But as more people add their voices every day, this new media is hard to dismiss. Thanks to technology and media, all of us have the marvelous power to reach out to the rest of the world.

A very successful salesperson once made this comment at a national sales meeting: “There are three types of people in this room: those who make things happen, those who watch what’s happening, and those who don’t know what’s happening. Which are you?” It really is astonishing how quickly the change has come.

Marshall’s Choice in New Business Books:
“Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters” by Scott Rosenberg

“OUTSMART the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding” by Dan Herman

“The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly” by David Meerman

Marshall Marcovitz is the founder and former CEO of the CHEF’S CATALOG, a leading Internet shopping site. Currently, he is a lecturer, a university professor and a marketing consultant. He may be contacted at mmmellow9@yahoo.com.

Comments? mmoran@gourmetretailer.com