Lucid Marketing Blog – Plain & Simple Marketing

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Lectures:

After the introductory session and some improvised Q&A, Sean Roach gave a talk that was primarily about his developing project, GotAccess.  This social networking platform was mentioned briefly last year, but far more information was forthcoming on this occasion.

I remember being intrigued by the concept on hearing about it for the first time, but after this lecture I found myself daring to believe the hype.

Sean Roach could, no doubt, sell ice to the Eskimos, along with sun-loungers and a BBQ set.  Even so, it’s hard to deny that GotAccess is shaping up into something special.  Maybe, just maybe, it really is going to leave MySpace and Facebook in the dust.

I’m not going to be able to describe GotAccess in a couple of paragraphs and do it justice, so please read the following with the understanding that I’m only scratching the surface of just a couple of elements that make up the whole.

Instead of allowing you to set up a ‘page’, GotAccess lets you create a ‘club’ for your chosen niche.  While most social networking systems restrict access to people you designate as ‘friends’, GotAccess takes this a step further by asking you to give each of your designated contacts an access level between 1-10.  Each time you add new content to your club, you can set it to a particular level, and only individuals of that rank and higher will be able to see it.

On a social level, this gives you the flexibility to differentiate, for example, between content that all of your acquaintances can see, content that only your close friends can see, and content that you only want close family members to see.

But GotAccess isn’t just a social tool for sharing music interests and holiday snap-shots – it can also be used as a business tool and offers some truly intriguing possibilities.  It is THIS aspect of GotAccess that has done the best job of capturing my attention.

If you setup a club to complement – or even form the central hub – of your business, one of the ways in which the ten levels of access can be restricted is by how much members are willing to pay per month.  This functionality essentially turns GotAccess into a membership-style website that permits you to add content that is available to everyone on the lower levels, and premium content on the higher levels that can only be accessed for a fee.

This is only a basic description of the concept and what I haven’t mentioned could fill a book.  Things like:

• Free advertising within the GotAccess network.
• Option to show adverts in your club and receive income per click.
• Email facilities that can be targeted to levels or specific demographics.
• Secure environment for your content.

There are obviously a lot more features than this, but these were the ones that stood out, the last of which surrounds the same issue that has dissuaded me from dabbling with MySpace and Facebook thus far.

In his presentation, Sean briefly discussed privacy issues on the net and showed some compelling evidence that suggests some of the major names on the internet are making large portions of their income, by selling information submitted by users to ‘data mining’ companies.  I’m still unsure exactly how much this should be of concern, but it does trouble me that the average internet user is probably unaware that EVERYTHING they post on the internet will stay there… probably forever.

Data only has to be online for a few moments before it is spidered, copied and cached.  And once that happens, there is no ‘off’ switch.  Even if you remove the information you uploaded, once it’s out on the World-Wide-Web, it’s there to stay, and available to find by anyone who is determined enough.

One of the boldest claims made by Sean of GotAccess is that users can choose to upload their information privately and, if they do so, it cannot be picked up by any third-party sources.  Even more impressively, if that information is deleted by the user, no record is kept anywhere, by anyone.

If you value your online security – either personally, or for your business – then this has to be a mouth-watering prospect.

Whether or not GotAccess can deliver on its promise, remains to be seen.  It seems that much advancement has been made but, just as last year, it is still in BETA.  I still have a number of questions and concerns but, without someone from GotAccess to respond to them, it would be unfair to print them here.

Sean Roach’s presentation was, for me, the most intriguing part of the UK Focus Marketing Seminar 2008.  Rest assured, I will be keeping close tabs on GotAccess and I hope to be able to post an update very soon.

The other presentations that I had the opportunity to see all offered something of merit and at least one or two memorable demonstrations of pearls of wisdom.  Particularly of note was the demonstration by Brian Koz (co-producer of Four Minute Money) of his new, and very impressive software, and a moving and heart-felt presentation by Mark Anastasi.

(Part Three will be posted tomorrow.  I will be discussing the networking opportunities available at the event.)

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