All posts in Mobile

Wrapping Up the Week in Tech

By On August 19, 2011 In Brand Experience, Life Online, Mobile, Musings With No Comments Permanent Link to Wrapping Up the Week in TechPermalink
There’s been a lot of buzz and happenings this week in the technology world, so I thought I’d update you on some of the newest and latest stories!     This week Google+ quietly rolled out that you can now start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video right from YouTube. No flashy announcement from them on this, but this cool feature does allow you to watch those crazy videos together! I see a family Google+ hangout in my future, we can’t get enough of those funny videos…. Continue Reading →

Covering Your Geo-Location Bases: Using Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Yahoo & Facebook to Help Customers Find You

By On November 23, 2010 In Fresh ID, Life Online, Mobile, Restaurants & Hospitality, Social Marketing With No Comments Permanent Link to Covering Your Geo-Location Bases: Using Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Yahoo & Facebook to Help Customers Find YouPermalink
I recently read this great post “Is Your Social Media in the Red or the Black?” by Lissa Duty. The entire post offers some great points about what you’re doing with your social media activities, but one point we felt needs some further explanation is the first part of #5. Lissa asks, “Have you claimed your business listing on Yahoo Local, Google Places, Bing Local, etc.?” This question seems like a very basic one. It makes complete sense that a business would make it as easy as possible to find its location through the various services available. However, I think a lot of these get overlooked fairly often, or people who aren’t immersed in social networking aren’t aware they exist. The big ones generally get hit, like Google maps or Foursquare, but these aren’t the only services used to locate businesses and you could be losing prospects to competitors who are listed there. It’s easy, it’s free and it doesn’t take much time. If you get just one customer from making sure that you’ve covered all of your geo-location bases, then it’s time well spent. It’s also important that you include as much information as allowed. You might as well help your potential consumers understand your business in the easiest possible way. In case you are unaware, I’ve included a list of some popular services and links where you can register your business: Google Places You want a listing on Google Local if you have any kind of actual address where people might visit you. You get analytics each month and you can see the keywords people are using to find your listing, which is really helpful. Yahoo! Local Similar in purpose and features to Google, Yahoo is used daily by people for stories, news and more and so you also want to be found here. Bing Local Aside from merely being found via a search, you can be found on Bing in a related business or geographic area search, which might introduce you to people as more of a “happy accident” than if they do a deliberate search. Foursquare If you have enough foot traffic you can claim your business and get analytics, offer specials and take advantage of Foursquare in other innovative ways, so for a retail, hotel or restaurant establishment, this site is a MUST. Foursquare is gaining in use and popularity. People routinely use their Foursquare applications to find a place to eat, get gas or buy something from their mobile smartphones, so you want to be listed correctly and found easily here. Gowalla Gowalla is a Foursquare competitor and if you have regular foot traffic it would benefit you to be found and listed here also. You should encourage folks to check-in to their Foursquare or Gowalla accounts from your place – it’s free publicity! Yelp Yelp is the go-to source for reviews, but it’s not the only review site. However, it’s been around a long time and a lot of people visit it routinely to find a place to eat, locate a good hair stylist, and obtain recommendations on everything from churches to swimming pool installers. Facebook Places Facebook has jumped into the geo-location frenzy with their own version of  ”Places.” With all the users Facebook has, take advantage of any free promotion they offer (within reason!) Linked In Company Profile If you haven’t already, you should also set up a company profile on Linked In, and once set up, it will automatically pull in data about your company from around the site. The link here is to a Mashable tutorial and explanation article that’s especially good. Once you’re listed on all the basic, most popular sites, check out these articles and books on how to take things to the next level and market your business better online: As usual, if you have any questions let us know! ~ Matt

Social Media Introduction

By On August 16, 2010 In Life Online, Mobile, Press, Social Marketing, Social Media Club, Twitter With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Social Media IntroductionPermalink
I had the pleasure of being interviewed today by Time Warner Cable for their News Makers series. The interview was centered on social media with a focus on how our local Social Media Club here in Kansas City can help people become familiar with what social media is all about and how one can begin to use it. As is typical with on camera interviews…once the camera light goes on the interview takes a totally different path and journeys down unpaved roads.  Therefore, much of what I prepared in the copy below wasn’t actually discussed, LOL! I didn’t want the prep work I did to go to waste so thought what better way to use it than to share it with you! I realize many of our blog visitors are social media die hards so if nothing else, maybe this will help you prepare for your own news interview or better yet, share it with your readers who may just be starting to adventure in to the online world. I also touch on some social media trends that you may find interesting.  Please keep in mind the purpose was to help me prep for the interview so it is a bit rough and unedited. You may also be interested in the resource links at the end as there is some pretty cool information and stats if you are a geek like me and in to that kind of thing. The interview will be shown locally in KC on ch. 113 KC On Demand and CNN Headline News throughout September…once we get the DVD we will be sure to share with you! Be who you are and learn to be better, Lisa Why/How are people using social media? People are using social media for 3 primary purposes…to help evaluate a decision, to learn about something new, and to interact with others. They want to connect with not only people they know but with people all over the world 24X7.
  1. To evaluate. Social media is a faster and more trustworthy way to find out information..from people you KNOW. Yes, we ask people about what to buy or where to eat most often but we are starting to use social media to evaluate even more important life decisions such as health care. Facebook allows you to quickly post a status..such as I’m looking for a new dentist..anyone have suggestions? All of a sudden you have this trusted network of family and friends letting you know the best dentist in town. More than 60 million consumers interact and discuss their health care online.
  2. To learn. There is nothing like a recession to motivate and inspire people to learning something new. You mix in technology advancement and improved accessibility and the social media boom is a natural result. More people have access to the internet than ever before..almost 240 million internet users in the US alone. Wikis, forums and sites such as LinkedIn with their questions/answers section provide people information on just about any subject imaginable.
  3. To interact. People like to talk to people…especially people who have similar interests. Twitter is great for interaction! You basically answer the question, “What are you doing” in 140 characters or less. It can take a little bit to get used to but once the comfort level kicks in it can become a valuable tool for you. I typically recommend people start by going to search.twitter.com and type in any word or topic you are interested in and hit enter. You will see all the tweets that are out there on that topic and the people who are talking about it…this is how I initially found people I wanted to follow and figured out how others were using twitter. It is a biological fact that people need people and social media makes it easy to formulate and grow those relationships that can make a difference in both your personal and professional life. I think what is really interesting is that 1 out of 8 married in the US met via social media last year. Social media removes barriers such as geography and time…you work, you have kids, you may not be able to interact socially until after the kids go to bed or before they get up in the morning…here is this interface that has people on it around the clock and there is someone out there who wants to talk to you about the same stuff you want to talk about.
Who uses Social Media? The stereotype is social media is similar to your Trix cereal commercial…”Silly rabbit, Trix are for Kids” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Obviously, yes young adults are big social media users, in fact Gen Y now outnumbers the Baby Boomers and 96% of the Gen Y crowd has joined a social network. However, the fastest growing population on Facebook? Yep, the baby boomers! Every demographic and industry is represented in social media…my company has a client in the agriculture industry…you would be amazed at the number of online forums targeted to the farmer and just how many farmers are literally talking to other farmers during their day right from the cab of the combine. As for companies, we are finding that businesses are no longer asking if social media is worth their time, they are now wanting to know the best practices and how best to get a return on their investment from participating in social media. Social media is more than just a marketing tool, in fact 80% of the companies in the US are using LinkedIn to actively recruit for open positions. Trends and Future of Social Media We are experience change at a record pace…Erik Qualman from Socialnomics presented a great look at historical technology adoption… Years to Reach 50 millions Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…and is now at over 500 million users…it would literally be the 4th largest country in the world! What we are seeing right now is a growing focus on mobility location based services such as 4-square and Gowalla. These services allow you to “check-in” at a location…for businesses it is great free advertisement as most people automatically alert their Facebook and Twitter friends every time they “check-in”. For the consumer they can benefit as more and more businesses are offering discounts, freebies, and other gifts to every person that checks in. We are also seeing the growing use of SMS text programs…if you recall the Red Cross saw huge results following the Haiti disaster by soliciting donations through texting…we are now seeing businesses adopting this very successful method such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield who are targeting the 20-something crowd to consider health insurance by texting a request for a health insurance quote. Integration is becoming more important, especially for those of us who are participating on a variety of social media platforms. Finding ways to bring everything together in one place is becoming a priority as we try to improve our efficiency and minimize time spent online. For companies, there is a need to wrap all the social media conversations together around their brand identity so their consumers can quickly connect brand to buzz. Finally, the last few weeks have been buzzing about QR (quick response) codes…these are the things that look like a bar code but typically in a square that you can scan with your cell phone. These codes can create quite the interactive event for the users connecting the offline to the online for almost a 360 surround type experience. How can people learn more about Social Media? Our organization, Social Media Club of Kansas City is a great place to start. We have almost 1,400 members and host a variety of educational, development, and networking events. We have a breakfast the first Friday of every month at Kansas City Café (except September due to labor day we will be on 9/10) and in September we will host an evening event focused on non-profit organizations and how they can benefit by using Social Media. In October, we will host an event discussing privacy and legal concerns with Social Media. You can learn more at http://smckc.com. REFERENCE INFO Reference Sites: Hubspot Stats Social Media Examiner Social Media Marketing White Paper AARP Global Network Socialnomics LinkedIn Blog

How Mobile Brands Can Build a Successful App Strategy

By On September 24, 2009 In Mobile With No Comments Permanent Link to How Mobile Brands Can Build a Successful App StrategyPermalink
I just read a short but great article on mobile app branding and the approach you need to consider before going to market. The 12 lessons mentioned in the article:
  1. Apps must be real-time
  2. Make it easy for consumers to pay
  3. Integrate feedback quickly
  4. ‘This is not the wired web’
  5. People will pay for value…
  6. …But free works to drives sales for your endemic product
  7. Apps need to be part of an integrated message
  8. Utility, frequency and viral distinguish long-term success 
  9. People find apps through other people
  10. Use existing assets to market your app
  11. App marketing needs to be targeted
  12. Don’t discount the iPod Touch
For details, case study examples and to read the whole article head over to Advertising Age.

Why You Need a Mobile Web Site (And How to Get One Today)

By On August 6, 2008 In Mobile With No Comments Permanent Link to Why You Need a Mobile Web Site (And How to Get One Today)Permalink
Ask the question “Do you have a mobile site?” to a lot of overworked professionals and they’ll groan, roll their eyes, or do something else to indicate this is just not something at the top of their priority list right now, and they’d rather not think about it. Yet, with so many people on the move, using a wide range of internet-capable phones, the timing is right to take a look at going mobile. Since I wrote Branding Yourself in Small Spaces and hypothetically redesigned an existing corporate mobile site, I have been chomping at the bit to get my hands on a real one. I have the perfect mentor, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to take on this new challenge. This week I discovered some free web tools that gave me the chance to play with mobile design, albeit in an indirect and less-than-perfect way from an information architecture and design perspective. However, even with the design limitations, I think anyone who wants to network and get the word out about their business should take a look at these tools. I have designed two sites for my company, Fresh ID and am trying to decide which one I will officially use with my new “freshid.mobi” domain name.   SWIFT GETS YOUR MOBILE SITE ONLINE QUICKLY Swift is a beautiful tool that allows you to literally create a mobile web site in minutes. It offers the ability to make the mobile site your own by choosing colors and inserting graphics, which is the reason I started with it as my first foray into mobile design. It allowed me to add a page for this blog’s rss feed, which is nice because this is updated much more often than the Fresh ID site is. In fact, Swift focuses on bloggers who might just want a way to make their blog mobile. It is free if you want to show ads, or $10 per month to be ad-free. I went through a lot of trial and error with the design, which was exhausting, but I sincerely believe we should try to brand ourselves consistently regardless of the environment, so I wanted to put in the effort. I am not totally satisfied with the results… if I were designing this with developers, or wanted to spend the time learning all the applicable behind-the-scenes css and coding tricks to do what I want, I would approach the design differently – especially of the home screen. What I created at Swift is a nice first pass and usable, but not delightful, which is the emotion I ultimately want to evoke. Swift says, about growing your business, “Now, you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to have a great-looking, professional mobile Web site.” That is definitely true, and is the single reason I am sharing this information. I hope organizations of all sizes that read this will think about what they can do in the mobile space to promote their products or services, and I will provide some examples to get your marketing synapses firing at the end of this article.   MOBISITEGALORE PROVIDES ROBUST & DYNAMIC SITES Another mobile site builder I wanted to try was mobiSiteGalore. I found them first, but ended up starting with Swift because they looked easier and had a more appealing interface. However, I’m glad I tested mobiSiteGalore because they are a lot more robust and have helpful marketing “Goodies” you can utilize to make your mobile site a lot more interactive. The site is fairly easy to use and comprehend (well, for a web professional like myself, that is.) Like Swift, they create the site for free and give you a custom domain name to use, but they also offer the ability to host the created site on your own server, which is a little unexpected for a free service like this. You can remove their “Made by mobiSiteGalore.com” link from the bottom of the pages for 95 Euros, or about $150 US. They are tightly integrated with ready.mobi (a mobile phone tester and emulator, and where these screenshots came from.) If you get into designing your own mobile site at all, you will become intimately acquainted with ready.mobi, as I found myself going back and forth constantly to test the results of my design efforts. mobiSiteGalore does this with each completion of your page design, and you get instant results of how well it is expected to work across various types of mobile phones. I found that my mobiSiteGalore site scored better than the Swift site did in terms of having the properly validated code and fewer errors. My main complaints, naturally, have to do with the design control. My header is tiny, whereas with the Swift site it resizes to fill the screen, and I had no control over the home screen’s appearance, like I minimally did with Swift. If I could combine these two products together, in addition to my wish list of design features being implemented, I’d have the perfect online mobile site designer! BRAINSTORM & PLAN MOBILE SITE IDEAS BEFORE STARTING When I decided to take on this experiment, I had the benefit of some understanding of restraining my mobile site’s message to fit the context of the space, thanks to tutoring from a leading mobile design expert, Barbara Ballard of Little Springs Design. She believes in designing for the mobile web with “intelligent simplicity” but that is perhaps easier said than done. You are going to need to put yourself in your user’s shoes to create content for your mobile site, and I strongly advocate creating a separate site, because your existing web site is going to be much too hard to navigate and read on this small surface. (Test this for yourself using an emulator.) Here are a few questions to get you started: • What is the minimal amount of content from your site that someone might need online? Your full contact information is one obvious reason for being found online when people are searching, so definitely make pertinent content information a page in your mobile site, and use any SEO features offered, in addition to considering paid mobile ads, to be found in mobile searches. • What is the next most important thing people in a non-computerized environment might need to know? For Fresh ID, I felt the answer was about my services and a little bit about my background, which adds credibility. In reality, people want to see my portfolio, but I have directed them to the normal web site (when they’re in front of a computer) rather than putting these images online… for the time being. I have two clients who are manufacturers, Vertec Polymers makes plastic shapes that companies use to create products and parts with, and Titan Wood sells a special wood that is used in all types of structures and applications. Both of these companies sell to individuals and distributors, and a natural mobile site component for them, might be to have specific product information or datasheets (perhaps stripped down to essentials) that a buyer in the field could access if they had a question based on their need at the moment. A contact form that sends an email (such as mobiSiteGalore offers) to a sales rep would be awesome when someone has a quick thought, away from their desk, and wants to handle it now. • What do people commonly do at my site, that I could let them do from a mobile site? Banks and brokers have begun using mobile sites to provide access to transactions, such as checking your balance or transferring funds. What do you do, that could make life for your users a bit easier if they could do it without having to be in front of a computer? Here are ideas for three companies I like that I don’t think have mobile sites now: VisualCV could let users send their resumes via the phone to someone’s email, so that if they get a call from a potential employer or recruiter, they can hang up and instantly send their visual resume to an email address. Phix could let customers order more energy drink powders from wherever they are at the moment… a thirsty mountain biker would never have to be indoors to get his Phix! EchoSign could allow users to send documents from a mobile site to someone’s email address so they didn’t have to rely on computer access to take advantage of closing a possible deal. MOBILE SITE RESOURCES Are you starting to formulate ideas for your own business yet? If not, check out the .mobi showcase to see real examples of mobile sites from all sorts of organizations, and visit the sites below for help to get your mobile site online. Do-It-Yourself Tools >> Swift >> mobiSiteGalore Do-It-For-You Using Online Tools >> Fresh ID Mobile Design & Strategy Firms >> Little Springs Design >> 2ergo >> Punchcut Mobile Site Design Resources >> Fresh ID’s Delicious Links >> Small Surfaces >> Mobile Design on Squidoo If you’re hungry for more information about mobile design, from industry experts, attend the Design for Mobile Conference in Lawrence, Kansas September 22-24, 2008!
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