This interview with Scott Thompson of AM900 took place June 19th. Just like not wearing white pants in October, what is the etiquette for how quickly one must make available radio or TV interviews online? Is there a freshness factor in social media spheres? Should I have posted the interview when it was HOT and FRESH? Perhaps.
The discussion was about tablets and Microsoft's Space tablet in particular. We also talked about how computer sales have plummeted due to the iPad. Is it a fad? Is it a new category of computer? I think so. Listen to the interview.
Everything seems to be moving at such a fast pace. Everything is a rush. Social media has only exacerbated it. "OMG I've only got two blog posts up today and 37 Tweets. I'm short my quota!!!"
I asked around the Twitterverse and the consensus was that, I'm okay. I should post it but don't make it look like I did it now. Apparently there is social media etiquette at work.
Small Business learning: While you can upload and link audio in Your Web Department, go out and post them on YouTube (with a branded slate-still image) or create a library of audio events on sites like podbean.com as we have done here. The other benefit is that PodBean will publish your podcast to iTunes and other places.
And finally, anytime you can get content for a post, use it!
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
The other day I clicked on 4 banner ads on my iPhone's RottenTomatoes app, 3 went to non-mobile websites and the 4th for Tide went to a French mobile website. I guess P&G thought everyone in Canada speaks French. Parlez vous Anglais?
I thought, "Hmmm, that's stupid, why aren't I being directed to phone optimized websites?" I tried some more mobile banner ads. Only about 2 in 10 went to mobile specific websites.
I imagine this is because the agency that is placing the banners doesn't check or doesn't care whether their client has a mobile website option for that particular page. Shouldn't they be informing their client that it might be a good idea? They are making the effort to create a mobile-sized banner so why not go the extra mile and make sure the client doesn't look stupid. The website for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum was totally mobile unfriendly (see image on left) even as a straight desktop site viewed on mobile. (Great museum, BTW.)
In this day and age, at the very least, your desktop site should be mobile friendly. The NY Times comes up very nicely on mobile even as complex as it is. And it does have a mobile version as well as an app (which sucks). So they have all the bases covered.
Maybe the site you've had up and running for the last 4 years just can't accommodate a mobile sniffing option without a major upgrade. But with a large and growing percentage of people surfing from their phones it's a bit insane not to support mobile. That being written, this link from a Nov. 2011 survey shows that 70% of companies had yet to launch a mobile site.
And it's not just the kids. You can't get the damn phones out of the grownup's hands. The number of adults pulling their phones out in washroom stalls, gad, I can hear you typing people! Yech. People LOVE their mobile phones. Too much.
With YWD mobile sites are part of our core package - that means you can go in and set up the mobile version of your site for no additional cost.
We think that mobile is so important to small and mid sized businesses that it is something we regularly blog about. Check out the mobile category of the YWD blog for tips and tricks on how best to use the features and see examples of how other YWD clients are using mobile.
We can even set up your mobile site for you. For a flat fee of $500.00 we will:
Create a page banner for your website specifically for mobile
Assessment of, which key pages (plus the Home page) are to be used for mobile. We will make sure they are mobile-friendly
Create mobile-friendly versions of up to 2 forms
Add your phone number for one-click call
Don't have a Your Web Department website? Sign up now or try it for free at www.yourwebdepartment.com
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
Quick, pick the most successful advertising medium before the web:
1) Radio
2) TV
3) Matchbook covers
The answer of course is matchbook covers. Introduced at the turn of the century, paper matchbook covers enjoyed huge popularity as an advertising medium into the 1950s when disposable lighters were introduced and smoking developed its you-will-die-using-this-shit stigma.
Shouldn't your website be like advertisements on a matchbook cover? Think about how brilliant they were (still are, really). A magazine ad might provide a fleeting moment of brand awareness. With one flip of the wrist it has to engage you enough to sell you. But if you're a smoker, you're reaching for that matchbook for as many times as you light up and and for as many matches that remain in the thing. Since matchbooks contain about 20 matches, that's at least 20 ad impressions.
The other thing about them is that the process of lighting up is connected to a happy moment so the advertiser gets that residual happiness connection.
So how does this relate to your website? Well, first of all, websites really are a cheap advertising medium. Weekly radio ads can run your tens of thousands of dollars and TV, well, forget about that. Print? How many of those mailers do you have left sitting in a room collecting dust? Done. The web wins.
But what are you doing that that will cause your audience to go back to your website and strike that match again and again? Sure, it's great to be found when needed but isn't it better to engage your audience so they have a reason to come back? Can you make your website as addictive as nicotine? At the very least make sure every click on your website is a reward.
What does that mean? A rewarding click is one that is useful and fulfills the user's expectations that they will find the thing that they wanted based on the name of the menu or the description of the call-out. What you don't want is to do is disappoint the user either with unexpected, incomplete or really badly executed information. Go through your website right now and see if every click counts big.
Soon you'll be forced to put a disclaimer on your site, "This site is addictive, use at own risk." Boy, don't we wish. Short of adding casino gambling, your best bet is to engaged in some social media and update the content of your website by giving away your most treasured business ideas. Trust me, it works.
When I was a kid I used to collect matchbook covers from every place I travelled to. I marvelled at the variety, colour plus I loved the smell of sulphur. Most were reminders of the hotels my parents took us on vacation. Sometimes it was clever slogans. Such a simple thing, but the variety of designs seemed inexhaustible. The amount of originality that could be squeezed onto such a tiny medium fascinated me.
One last thing. Have you researched your audience? Do you know their habits? Perhaps the best place to advertise your website is actually on matchbook covers.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
The Internet we are celebrating and using today is the slimmest approximation of what the Internet will eventually evolve to, assuming there is some kind of end point. Kind of like the reverse of the big bang theory. We have a better idea of where the Universe is heading than how it all began and while we know how the Internet started we have no idea where it's going.
I have come to the conclusion that all we have done so far is digitally recreate a semblance of our present and near past, and stamped it "The Future." Sort of like those Disney Epcot displays in the 80's. We try to find old friends on Facebook. We look up ways to fix the washing machine pump. We had home delivery of newspapers, now we have newspaper apps. I could go on, but you get the idea. We have created an Internet us oldsters find familiar and comfortable, but the problem is that people 30 years old and younger have no idea why we are fascinated by this stuff. We have deluded ourselves into thinking we have built the future. We have not. Shockingly large swaths of what we have built will be disposed of in less than 5 years after my generation's influence wanes.
For instance, few of this cohort read the New York Times in any of its forms. Ditto for local papers. They don't listen to Talk Radio. They have a tight group of trusted friends. They find what they like. YouTube is still cool, I think. Entertainment in many forms is hot (I include sports and eating out here). They text amongst themselves. They search for specific answers. There is less serendipity in their lives- not including the 5 Korean Kimchi restaurants Siri has found for you. There is no looking through an encyclopedia for Schweitzer only to get distracted by the history of schnitzel. Heck, there is little interest in Schweitzer. Never in our history has the past been so disposable. And let's not even get onto the topic of politics which we've managed to make uninteresting, bitchy and irrelevant.
We are not creating stupid people but a different people. The impact of their influence is only now being felt and understood. One thing's for sure, we are entering into an era of hyper-consumerism and hyper-entertainment. Buying stuff in quicker, cooler ways will intensify. The Passbook feature in Apple's iOS 6 points to this as does NFC (being able to buy stuff with your smartphone). But don't be shocked at the speed with which our cherished Internet institutions will be ditched.
Physical structures provide an anchor to the present and a connection to the past. The Internet provides none of that. A website can be gone in an instance. Ironically, the predictions of the death of bricks and mortar stores at the start of the Internet big bang had it completely wrong. We know that now. Physical stores are hugely important in this age of hyper-consumerism. They are Brand Anchors. They are movie stars.
Retailers are 'stars'
Anyone can buy stuff from Home Depot online but when you choose to go to the actual store people get that, "OMG, I'm actually at the store!" buzz. Buying something from a Lululemon outlet is like getting an autograph. Retailers must view their stores as their 'stars on tour'. Come visit Canadian Tire. Get the t-shirt.
So, hyper-consumerism/hyper-entertainment I can see. The Internet will be unrecognizable in 10years, but my crystal ball is cloudy as to how that will transpire. Are you ready to embrace this new Internet? If you're a business, you'd better start thinking about it. Me? Just wake me up in 10 years.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
Let me get this right out. I hated sociology in university. I thought it was a load of crap. It was a pseudo science wrapped up in words like, gemeinschaft and gesellschaft and ethnocentrism. Blah. I always got into trouble because I would explain human interactions using common English words, and I would get docked marks for not using the sociology terms.
What I didn't realize at the time was just how important and powerful words are. It is especially important when you want to differentiate yourself from others who are doing pretty much the same thing you are. Sociology would be nothing without its vocabulary.
The same goes for your business. Rather than use the same platitudes that everyone else uses, "On time." "On budget." try coining some words that you can own, that differentiates you from your competition. "We're metalicious."
I'm serious. Just look at the vocabulary of of the new social media elite: Share of Voice. Brand Volume. Interaction per Post. Sentiment Analysis. Social Click-through rate. Key Influencer Mentions. Platform Reach. Mobile Mentions. What a load of shit. But it works. Now, as a small business owner, we know you have a hard time just describing what you do in the most basic terms. (I covered this last week) So, driving content to this level would be impossible without expert writing assistance.
Besides, services that use this kind of vocabulary are not directed at you. Words on this level are directed at bigger fish, corporate fish. They love this stuff. Makes it look like they are really getting value out of the service they are buying. "Key Influencer Mentions," wow I'm getting hot just thinking about it.
This also works for business gurus. All they are peddling are old ideas wrapped in new terminology. I can imagine people like Don Tapscot and Malcolm Gladwell sitting in a bar thinking about their next books. "First we need a catch-phrase then we can write a book." It's definitely the driving force behind condo sales. A condo called, Piccadilly Circus, evokes a very tidy sensorial map even if the condo does not have a single visual connection to Piccadilly, but the ads will be covered in red double-decker buses, Bobbies and Red Coats with Buzbies. It works.
One of the nice advantages of being a small business owner is that you just don't have the money to buy into this nonsense. But that does not mean you shouldn't use it especially if you are selling to larger corporations.
The point is the mere use of the correct words can catapult you into a different place in the minds of your customers. Stop fighting over the same piece of grey matter your competition is fighting over. Stake your claim to a different part of your customer's brain.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
"forbes.com - If you sit all day at work, you may want to pay attention to recent research which demonstrates that prolonged sitting at work raises the risk of dying from cardiac and metabolic diseases, as well as the risk of dying from all causes, even if you work out." -
Forget about sitting, how about slouching? I'm a great sloucher. Does slouching skew the data up or down? Maybe not. Maybe being in the more prone position opens up circulation preventing the metabolic diseases?
Maybe the people who text while walking are actually doing themselves some good except for those times where they don't notice the car turning right. "Research has shown that getting hit by a car while texting is bad for your health." Maybe I can get paid to do that research?
Forbes, of course, is not the first publication to write about this. It's nothing new. Check out this Mens Health link from 2010. (It's actually a very good article.)
Forbes is just recycling this comment-bait material. Maybe they have a publishing engine set to republish this every year at the same time? Back when cable TV was changing the television landscape the president of NBC TV was asked what's wrong with TV. His answer was, "There's too much of it."
Wow, the Internet is, like, a trillion times more "too much". So, what can small businesses learn from this? First of all, there is a lot of noise out there. When it might have been enough just to do regular mailings or flyer campaigns, the expense of which might have deterred competition, a website is so cheap that nothing much deters someone from setting up shop on the Internet, do a better job of attracting people to their online presence or shopping basket and kill your business.
Most small businesses do not take the Internet seriously enough. (Hell, most don't take branding seriously. Don't get me started on that.) Now Forbes is a huge company with almost limitless resources, but they are no different from you. They are fearful of becoming irrelevant. They need to 'bait' the market, keep themselves relevant, keep discussions going. That's the new business paradigm. The new reality is constant engagement. I happen to like doing this. It fits my personality.
Most small businesses do not constantly engage online. Most small business owners hate writing about anything. They don't even know how to properly describe their own businesses in a way that does not include platitudes.
Don't become irrelevant. Use your website to constantly engage.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
The other day I clicked on 4 banner ads on my iPhone's RottenTomatoes app, 3 went to non-mobile websites and the 4th for Tide went to a French mobile website. I guess P&G thought everyone in Canada speaks French. Parlez vous Anglais?
The Internet we are celebrating and using today is the slimmest approximation of what the Internet will eventually evolve to, assuming there is some kind of end point. Kind of like the reverse of the big bang theory. We have a better idea of where the Universe is heading than how it all began and while we know how the Internet started we have no idea where it's going.
Let me get this right out. I hated sociology in university. I thought it was a load of crap. It was a pseudo science wrapped up in words like, gemeinschaft and gesellschaft and ethnocentrism. Blah. I always got into trouble because I would explain human interactions using common English words, and I would get docked marks for not using the sociology terms.
"forbes.com - If you sit all day at work, you may want to pay attention to recent research which demonstrates that prolonged sitting at work raises the risk of dying from cardiac and metabolic diseases, as well as the risk of dying from all causes, even if you work out." -
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