Out-Smarts Marketing Services

A recent Information Week article asks the question - Is podcasting dead?. The article cites that “there is no easy way to sample podcasts without an excessive and irretrievable investment of time” as the reason that podcasting hasn’t taken off.

Lets look at the numbers to see if podcasting is indeed dying a death. eMarketer estimates that the total US audience for podcasts reached 18.5 million in 2007 and is expected to grow by 251% by 2012. These statistics hardly reflect the death throes of a dying medium but the growth rate isn’t exactly stellar if you compare it to other web 2.0 technologies.

The reason for its slow adoption rate is indeed, as Alexander Wolfe of Information Week suggests, a result of podcast complexity. And this doesn’t only apply to users.

Creating and publishing a podcast is not as seamless or as simple as it should be either. If you’ve read any of my new experiences in podcasting posts you will know of my own frustrations with the technology and I am relatively tech savvy. It seems to me that if you want to podcast you have to be a true propeller head. At this point that is podcasting’s main barrier to entry.

iTunes has tried to streamline the podcast publishing process but even using Garageband to create a podcast on a Mac doesn’t guarantee simple podcast submission.

On the bright side for podcasting, more and more traditional media outlets are using the technology to disseminate audio so that users can listen on the run and users are recognizing the benefits of being able to listen on their terms (coincidentally, one of my first ever blog posts back in 2005 touched on this). Global TV in Vancouver offers video and audio podcasts of its news content.

Podcasting is not dead but its not exactly burgeoning either. As podcasting is promoted more to the mainstream it will become more prevalent (it is slowly gaining popularity, especially in the 35-54 age group) but until producers can create and publish podcasts efficiently and users can access them as easily as turning on the radio, podcasting growth with remain slow.

Spring is still threatening to visit us in Vancouver, the birds are chirping and new media moves along at a swift pace. This months reasons to be cheerful also include:

Plaxo Pulse - I’ve avoided Plaxo like the plague since using it a few years ago on a client project and having it constantly crash so I was skeptical when a friend invited me to join Pulse. I have to say though it seems that the Plaxo team have been working away to develop a real alternative to professional networks like LinkedIn and to integrate other social media sites.

Ever on the search for the right accounting package, I recently met with LedgersOnline a local firm specializing on online bookkeeping solutions. Could this be the one?

Goodboog is another local offering that provides an on-line catalogue designed to facilitate the promotion of products and services online in 25 different languages.

Send e-mail to the future with Time Machiner.

Okay the last one is rather whimsical - it is spring after all.

I’ve been Twittering for a while now and find it interesting to see how the way people use the micro blog has evolved. Here are a few different applications I have seen Twitter used for.

1. To establish expertise.

2. To spread the word about produtc and services offered.

2. To enhance customer service offerings.

3. To drive traffic to a blog post or web site.

4. To illicit feedback for product and market research.

5. To expand or reinforce your brand.

6. To collaborate with remote partners in short blasts.

7. To give product update and enhancement information.

8. To blatantly sell - I wouldn’t advise this but I have seen it done…..

9. To find the applicable business partners.

10. To keep up to date with goings on in your market.

Obviously all of these depend on your followers and following but once you have these in place, watch the Tweets and you will see for yourself some of the innovative ways people are using this tool.

The reasons to be cheerful have been bountiful this month as we traveled the virtual world. Links include everything from on line CRM to complete and utter whimsy and we have more reasons than usual for February:

Myplick - never battle with uploading a Powerpoint again.

Buzzshout - want to find out about the latest web technologies? Buzzshout is the place to go.

Highrise - simple on-line CRM to allow you to easily manage your contacts. Great if you’re just starting out but not so easy if your contacts aren’t in Outlook and your forced to manually upload.

Got vmail - this service helps you manage your calls, provides toll free numbers and an answering service.

NCIX - this one is bricks and mortar and online and its great to have an alternative to the cowboys at FutureShop and Best Buy.

meez - while away your Friday afternoon creating an avator for your social networking profiles. Mine is “so meez”.

Strutta - Vancouver is a buzz with the yet to be launched Strutta. Is it a bird, is it a plane? Who knows (our launch invite got lost in the mail) but rumor has it its something to do with online video and gaming.

An article in the Vancouver Sun’s business section today blazes the headline “Adults spend more time in cyberspace than teens”.

According to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted here in Canada, adults spend an average of 5 hours more online than teenagers doing everything from banking, shopping and booking holidays to socializing and playing games. So much for the Internet being the domain of the young. Even more interesting is that off those polled 70% of adults had participated in online social activities.

That should be reason enough to integrate social media marketing into your strategic plan and to spread awareness of your offering in this medium.

Back by popular demand is our monthly reasons to be cheerful post where we share the new media discoveries we have made over the last month so that you too can feel the joy!

Process and operations have been a big focus lately - getting our shop in ship shape as it were so you’ll see a bit of a pattern in this month’s reasons - they all help us do business a little more effectively:

Toggl - allows you and your project managers to track their time effectively over the Net. Because its all done on-line it allows your managers to track their time even when they are at customer sites. Simple yet so powerful.

Ta-da Lists - our friends over at BlueLime Media tipped us off to this one. Here at Out-Smarts we are always writing lists for everything from sales targets and marketing to-do’s to lunches. Ta-da provides a great way to keep track of these on your desktop and to share them with colleagues. No excuses now for forgetting those 2008 resolutions.

BlogFuse - recently launched with their first app which makes it really easy for you to create a Facebook app based around your companies blog. In about 5 minutes (or so!) we were able to launch Out-Smarts first Facebook app using this sweet technology - thanks to the folks over in Kansas for that and also for their unparralleled support.

Reasons Archive:
Nov 2007
Oct 2007
Sept 07
Aug 07
Jul 07

Local new media aficionado and funny girl Monica Hamburg known for her hilarious “Your Dose of Lunacy” posts and the more serious “Me Like the Interweb” blog, wrote a great piece recently on Facebook for business. Here it is in it’s entirety - you can’t fail to learn from it:

Behold the Power of Facebook For Business

With Facebook’s more than 55 million active users, it would be a tragic oversight for a company not to have a public presence on the site in some capacity. Facebook offers more than a way to keep up with friends – it has the ability to keep you in touch with your clients, gain attention for your brand and provide a more personal face for your business.

The nature of Facebook is entirely viral, and users can garner information from their friends and their interactions. Facebook can be an unintrusive way of making people aware of your business.

Recently, the social networking website has allowed businesses to create profiles for free, and innovative companies are fast employing the tool. Kris Krug, President of Raincity Studios, added the “fan page” application for his company, commenting that such an option “means companies can have a place of their own in the FB empire allowing them to send out announcements to “fans” and build up yet another presence to promote their projects, give details and promote events.”

Mhairi Petrovic uses the profile page for her company, Out-Smarts, to “extend our brand reach and reinforce it. When people become a fan, our logo appears on their website and in turn is seen by more people. Having a page and encouraging fans to join establishes Out-Smart as an innovator in social marketing (one of the services we provide).”

Utilizing this particular tool to its full capacity is the Palo Alto restaurant, Junnoon,
whose page contains essential information such as hours of operation, payment options and parking and further entices customers by prominently displaying pictures of the interior of the establishment, the food and posting its culinary philosophy, accolades and reviews.
(more…)

1. Use Twitter to market to you audience (assuming your audience are Twits that is (or should that be Tweets?). It can be used for branding and networking effectively. Dosh dosh lists 17 more Twitter marketing applications and innovative Tweet uses.

2. Participate in the blogosphere. Find blogs pertaining to your industry or your target audience and get commenting. You would be amazed at how this can help spread the word.

3. Find out about new technologies that make it easier for people to do business with you - like Skype - the on-line phone service or that help you present your offering more effectively - like Flickr the photo site -  and make full use of them on your website.

4. Get creative with video clips about your company: make them quirky, funny or alternative and post on YouTube. You never know, this could be the next big meme.

5. If your not comfortable with writing blog comments or posts or are camera shy, why not consider a Podcasting your message. Its much easier than you think.

6. When you find interesting articles, pages or clips, share them with your others in your field. I Stumble but hear that Magnolia and Deli.cio.us are great for this too.

7. Join Facebook, MySpace or Linked In (or all three) and get networking. You know the old adage about a friend of a friend being your friend too: its so much easier to do business with people you’ve been referred to by a friend or colleague.

8. Use Internet advertising technologies such as AdWords or Facebook Social to reach and promote to the right audience.

9. Forums or chat rooms where your audience collaborate are great ways to get involved, join the conversation and establish expertise with a wider audience.

10. Get wiki with it. Join Wikipedia and share your knowledge (but be careful not to be blatantly corporate or your posts will just get deleted) with the global audience.

Back in the last century the web was seen as a great way to create an on-line brochure. The idea was that if you had a web presence you could be attracting new business 24/7 while you were sleeping. Alas the days of the static website have come to an end. Its simply not good enough these days to slap up a web site and leave it to stagnate for months. There’s nothing worse from an audience perspective than returning to a website that hasn’t changed since your last visit or worse a site that has dated “news”. I don’t know about you but when I go to a site like that I assume the company is kaput and go elsewhere.

A website is no different from having a phone, if no one knows your number then no one is going to call, if you don’t answer or return your calls then having the phone is pointless. Interaction is key. Likewise a website is simply a tool to facilitate business but if there’s no interaction you may as well not bother.

Fortunately technology has also come a long way in the last decade or so and its becoming easier and easier to create dynamic user experiences that will keep visitors coming back. A blog, for example is the perfect way to ensure that your site is updated regularly and it encourages users to interact. RSS feeds are another way to make your site fresh by linking to applicable news feeds or posts from iconic blogs in your industry. Using photo and video technologies to showcase your offering and allow for an enhanced user epxerience is made simple by the likes of Flickr and You Tube. None of these techniques cost much to implement but the impact of these on the effectiveness of your web site can be huge.

Brr Brr Brr Brr - is there anybody out there?

Right now there’s so many exciting developments in new media, marketing and on the Internet in general, that its becoming quite a task to decide which makes me the most cheerful. November saw Google announce Open Social and Facebook enter the Internet advertising market with SocialAds, the XO was launched as was Kindle which lead me discover my first reason:

Askville by Amazon is a neat application, you can ask the community any question about any topic and with any luck the community comes up with satisfactory answers. I always have questions so I expect I’ll be using it a lot.

Docstoc - has a wide range of business templates and documents available to share. There’s some debate about the quality of some of the documents therein but the concept is great especially for small businesses.

Zoho - I Stumbled upon this on-line solution aimed at providing everything from word processing and spreadsheets to CRM and project management.

Kijiji- I like Craigslist and use it regularly to good effect so I was pleased to find this Canadian alternative.