Image source: Problogger.net
This article is inspired by a private tweet I received just now, which simply said “Can’t see the value…” when I queried a prospective customer “What’s stopping you use edocr.com for your group and the subsidiaries?”.
I am the first to acknowledge that not everyone will buy a product irrespective of how good it is. But I like a challenge. Let me know by the end of this short article, whether you agree or disagree with me.
Value of Social Networking
Do you see the value of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube? I assume you do. Each of these channels allow you to collaborate in slightly different ways, but with the same end point in mind, i.e. spread knowledge, improve your products and services, and ultimately generate new business.
1. Twitter – short messages for real-time collaboration.
2. Facebook – conversations through multiple objects from messages to pictures and video, almost a final destination, aggregating conversations from elsewhere.
3. Youtube – conversations around video.
Of course, there are many other channels offering conversations around a different object, e.g. Flickr around images.
edocr.com is about conversations around documents/pdfs. We do not discrimate what type of documents you upload from brochures, case studies and whitepapers to operating manuals and annual reports. As long as they are not confidential, edocr.com is the place for document related conversations.
Document Distribution
You could get a document distributed through limited number of ways, irrespective of how hard you try:
1. Printed – post or hand over at meetings, exhibitions and seminars.
2. Email to a known list of recipients.
3. Make it available through your website.
We like to be the 4th way of distributing a document. Let’s take a look at a document on your website. This is most likely to be a link on a web page.
Lets say that you tweeted the url to the web page where the document link exists. Let’s track my actions (and most likely yours):
1. I saw the link
2. Clicked and visited the web page
3. Found the document link among others and down loaded the document
This is probably where a typical visit would end. Let’s explore the same scenario on edocr.com
1. I saw your tweet and the link
2. Clicked and visited the web page which has the document displayed prominently and no other documents or non related text.
3. I can now read on line (use full screen if I wished), download, book mark to over 200 social networks, email to a list of addresses, leave a comment, rate, add my own tags to make it easier to find next time, or simply drop a private message to you (the publisher).
Item (3) makes it much easier to distribute and have a conversation, all without leaving the link I clicked from Twitter. At the same time, search engines starts indexing your document, which means the document is now found through search engines, social networks and edocr.com through tags, document directory and business pages (the document can be listed against your company profile among all your other documents, fully categorised).
If you like us even more, you could simply use us as your main hosting provider for documents, and embed them on your website (thumbnail), blog or e-newsletters.
Beyond the Value of Exposure
In addition, we could provide leads of who actually look at the document. Email addresses will only be released with user consent. You can determine how you would like to expose your documents, e.g. top documents available only to those giving consent.
Ranking of documents on edocr.com is determined by the level of user interactivity. See how your document performs against your competitors. Let others know that they can track your new documents through RSS feeds.
Do you still think there is no value in our service? We are very happy to receive your constructive criticism.