User Generated Business

I am currently in a class taught by the lengendary Paul Allen- not the one from Microsoft,the entrepreneur who started MyFamily.com, Geneology.com, InfobaseVentures.com,etc..

One of the single most successful ideas that Paul emphasized is the concept of user-generated content. And once again my personal "reverse marketing" trend comes into play.

How many websites provide a model to allow user generated content? Go ahead, start naming them in your head...

Now, how many of those are top performing websites? Almost every single one. EBay, Wikipedia, blogs(in their own realm), photosharing, etc.. These are the websites that thrive. Why? Because it is the users who create the content.

It is a marketing technique that puts the reviews and content in the hand of those who know the best-your own customer. And why not? While marketers brainstorm in their offices of how to "better connect with customers" they pass up the idea to allow the customer to answer the question themselves.

Once again, a marketing trend in the marketplace that is explosive, yet it is still ignored and reverse of normal marketing techniques employed by 90% of companies in the world.