The Out-Smarts Blog and Podcast

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.

I was going to keep this one for our Reasons to be Cheerful post for October but its too good to wait. I am always looking for examples on the web of innovative companies that are using Web 2.0 and its collaborative capabilities in really innovative ways. I came across an example of a web site that really does this well called Threadless. This T shirt design company that truly engages clients online by:

• encouraging visitors to design their own T shirt or order from the catalogue of unique and popular shirts;
• promoting participation by using blog technology so that visitors can share tips on design, opinions on T shirts and other hot topics;
• hosting an ongoing competition that draws visitors back by having them vote on the best designs submitted this month - winners get a cash reward;
• building a loyal following that shares photos of T-shirts and wearers building loyalty;
• having users sign up as members of the “Street Team” and begin promoting the Threadless web site to earn T Shirt credits and virally spread the word.

Threadless uses Web 2.0 to market its offering very effectively - go take a look and be inspired!

Blogging has long been dismissed by traditional print media as being unprofessional, not “real news” or too subjective. It would appear that these opinions are changing. Newspapers in particular are altering their perspectives and looking to blog posts to rekindle the flagging interest in their editorials. Our local rag, the Vancouver Sun now boasts several staff writers who publish blogs regularly under categories such as business, news, features and so on with varying levels of response. The Sun is using the blog tool to reach a younger, wider audience.

There is a lot to be learned from a businesses perspective from this. Blogs are associated in many people’s minds as on-line journals and many question how that relates to business. A corporate blog isn’t a company diary, its a way of communicating your message more effectively, establishing your expertise and like the newspapers are learning - its a way to reach a wider audience.

This month’s reasons to be cheerful were brought to my attention by TechCrunch, a group of expert panelists and bloggers that review innumerable entries to shortlist a few of the most innovative startup companies of the year.

This years TechCrunch list featured 40 of the neatest Web 2.0 offerings. Here are my faves:

Wixi - promises all your photo, video and music in one place accessible anywhere simply by logging in.

Teach The People - is an online social network based on sharing knowledge and educating others.

Ceedo - aims to allow people to virtualise their Windows desktop and makes this portable via USB or even phones - don’t ask me how!

Kerpoof - is a site aimed at encouraging kids to get creative. It allows kids to create art, stories and animation and share their masterpieces with their friends.

Given my frustrations with Second Life I was very skeptical to learn that both IBM and Sony have distinct but similar plans to develop virtual stores where avatars can stroll the shopping aisles and interact with sales people and customers to make the shopping experience more “real”.

First of all, you should know that I do enjoy a bit of shopping now and then (especially if shoes are on the list!) and I love the idea that shopping on-line from the comfort of my home could more closely equate to the real thing but even in real life patience isn’t exactly one of my virtues (I have been known to dump those “perfect” shoes because I can’t stand long line ups). If these environments are anything like Second Life which I find to be slow, sporadic and cumbersome to manoeuvre then there’s absolutely no chance of me getting getting my shoes (or any other item for that matter) in a virtual store until there’s a vast improvement in performance.

I see that Sony has delayed the release of its virtual PS3 environment Home and I wonder if that could be the very reason. Home is described as “a real-time interactive online world” - perhaps they are delaying the launch until the can truly put the “real” in real time!

One of the best parts of what I do is being able to spend guilt free time on-line researching new innovations. Here are a few of the reasons I have found on the web that are making me cheerful:

1. A good place to track employee and consultant hours over the web is: www.clockspot.net.

2. I love the transparency new technology brings - a great example being the Wikipedia scanner that allows users to track who edits Wikipedia updates - often tracking them back to large corporations

3. I haven’t been able to set this up yet but just the idea of being able to use my phone to take photos of business cards, ads and documents and have them scanned to PDF and sent to my email automatically makes be happy. I hope it works! www.scnar.com

4. Book marking technology is becoming more sexy and dynamic. Check out StumbleUpon and Trailfire.

Reasons to be cheerful indeed.

Last night I attended the first Third Tuesday meeting held in Vancouver. The event was promoted on Facebook and I was excited to get the opportunity to take a look and see what Facebook people really look like in real life! Seriously though, following the success of Third Tuesday events in eastern Canada the organisers decided that it was time to take the event, aimed at bringing together Social Media professionals and communicators with a view to exploring new developments, to Vancouver. The format of future meetings will involve informal presentations and information sessions with industry gurus and other such luminaries followed by the opportunity to network with members for more about future plans check out Tod Maffin’s interview with Joseph Thornley. Last night, being the first get together, there wasn’t a presenter but I did get the chance to have a blether with other people and share some insights into what’s new in the industry. If you want to find out more or register for upcoming Third Tuesday events you can do so: Facebook; Meet Up and Google Groups

With the majority of households now on-line, it’s not surprising that companies are looking to the Internet as a a vital advertising medium. A recent report by VSS shows that in the US new media advertising (including Internet) grew by 36.6% in 2006 in comparison to a spending increase of only 2.4% on traditional ads. At this rate, VSS predicts that investments in Internet advertising will overtake traditional spending by 2011. And Canada is not far behind with a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada earlier this year showing a 26% increase in Internet advertising spending here in 2006.

Companies can no longer ignore the opportunities the Internet brings to attract new customers and why should they? With lower costs and the ability to target more effectively, Internet advertising affords the chance to level the playing field with competitors and to corner the market niche.

I decided a while back that do things the new media way and by that I mean that I wanted to take advantage of technologies available over the web and use applications hosted by companies such as Google and Salesforce instead of buying and installing software. I chose this route for a number of reasons:

1. It has less impact on the environment;
2. Saves me the hassle of going to a store and/or downloading and installing and maintaining software;
3. Its easier to use technologies available online that to try to share Apple docs and spreadsheet applications which are (despite what the ads might) say still unreadable if the receiver has anything other than a MAC;
4. I love the collaborative capabilities Web 2.0 brings and I am want to put them to good use;
5. Its a less expensive option.

These are sound reasons indeed but I forgot one vital thing: when you’re reliant on the Internet to access applications, its imperative that you have a consistent and reliable connection. I use ADSL from Telus and I have to say that my Internet access regularly goes down and I have no access at all. Talk about frustrating. Because these applications run over the Internet there is no way I can work off line until the connection comes back up. Its such a drag. I’ve also experienced some difficulties using Google apps and have found that they regularly “hang” whilst trying to update, could be because they are still in beta so I am hoping that these get resolved. And finally, I worry about what happens if the companies hosting these technologies fold. No - not Google but some of the newer wiki suppliers are a concern. What happens to my documents then? Do I lose all?

Its always great to have good intentions but there will always be hurdles to get around and problems to solve on the path to fulfilling them. For now I am practicing patience and hoping that things get better - I am sure they will.