Author Archives: IDS

SEO and the Article Myth

There’s a myth out there that says spreading keyword-rich articles about your company and products around the web will enhance your search results. SEO specialist Jill Whalen reminds us that writing articles that provide people with pertinent information that helps them make intelligent decisions is the only effective way to “optimize” your website.

When your goal is to “create SEO articles,” you’ll almost always make bad decisions when choosing what to write about or how to write it. You’ll be thinking about search engines rather than your target audience. Anything and everything you write for your website should have a good reason for being there. And that reason is not SEO.

Read full article: (ARTICLE REMOVED BY AUTHOR.)

What’s Up Asia

Asia is often touted to be an up-and-coming economic power. But we haven’t heard much about how Asians see themselves in the world economy. Mark Hurst, who writes the Creative Good newsletter and recently returned from a lengthy trip to Southeast Asia, offers some very interesting observations that should make us ask: if it’s true that market leaders generally stop innovating and become stagnant, can the same also be true for nations. Says Mark,

It’s hard to overestimate the feeling of energy, expansion, investment, and activity that pervades the region. As the US economy stagnates, money has flooded into southeast Asia trying to find better investment yield – and the aggressive work ethic of the region (long hours, highly competitive, focus on results) has been happy to make use of that investment.

Multiple times people told me, in effect, that they just don’t pay much attention to what’s happening in the US – or Europe, for that matter. Asia is taking the lead in the world economy, and while the US has some good ideas worth studying (and perhaps borrowing and improving upon), it is not considered the leader to be followed.

It makes one wonder, can Americans imagine what the world’s economic landscape will look like in 20 years? In 10 years? And are such seismic shifts simply inevitable?

In case you’re not familiar with Creative Good and their work in the area of customer experience, you can learn more and subscribe to Mark’s newsletter here: http://goodexperience.com

Why Smartphones Matter

Since the launch of the iPhone, smartphones have become a mass media platform. The reason? Smartphones bring all the information gathering and communications tools a person needs in a tiny device. With a smartphone, a shopper can compare prices and get product reviews while in a store’s aisles. News, traffic, weather, entertainment — it’s all there. And the ability to instantly be in touch (or not) with others, inbound or outbound, through numerous media (voice, email, text, social media) is astounding. Conceivably, one day we’ll be able to dock a smartphone to a desktop terminal that is driven by the OS, apps, and data we’re carrying with us.

Because of the utility and portability of smartphones, we can easily imagine that one day they’ll be carried by almost everyone. As the link below shows, those who carry smartphones already lead the mobile world in browser use — just one more category in which smartphones lead. Considering that a smartphone is the only computer people own in many parts of the world, this is a platform that businesses will want to engage. Check out the short article below that talks about how people use smartphones today, and then think about what value you can bring to your market through this portable platform.

Read: Smartphones Now Dominate Mobile Browser and App Use in U.S.

Streaming TV, not 3D, is the ‘Next Big Thing’

Tempted to buy a 3-D telly? Didn’t think so. If HD was a study in hype, the 3DTV pitch is beyond belief. Who, other than a floundering content delivery industry, would believe that wearing glasses and watching objects fly into your face would sell? At least HDTV was a big step up in the quality of the viewing experience. 3D is still, and always will be, just a “special effect” (and not a very good one at that).

When I visited the Panasonic booth at a recent trade show, what did the model on the 3D set do when I looked into the monitor? She picked up a glass and reached toward the camera. Like wow! The glass looked like it came off the screen and was actually coming toward me. I shrugged, and then moved on and spent a half-hour talking to a rep about the AF-100, micro four-thirds camera. Now there’s something to write home about (in another post perhaps). The moral: 3DTV is just a sideshow act. There are better ways to spend your money. For example, on streaming.

Despite what television manufacturers want to believe … the Next Big Thing in TV is where the content comes from, not how it is displayed.

Wouldn’t it be nice to access music and video content on any device? That’s the promise of streaming. Subscribe to your favorite shows. Rent movies. Access a music library online. Streaming frees us from managing bits, storing plastic, and conflicting formats. Apple has proven that coupling good content, superior technology, and a sound business model can generate mass appeal. It will be interesting to see if the new Apple TV fulfills streaming’s promise and cracks the mass market for digital content. (No glasses required.)

Full article: http://bit.ly/9d6SdX

Update: 22-Oct. Panasonic announced specs and availably this week for the new AF-100 camera. It sounds like a dream come true for video shooters. Except for one big problem: the micro four-thirds sensor has a crop factor of 2X, meaning that your 50mm normal lens becomes, in effect, a 100mm telephoto. For many, this may be a deal-breaker. I’m looking forward to the reviews as people start using this camera after its late December release. In the meantime, however, I lament.

Engaging Customers

The Web offers so many ways to engage people, as long as you’re putting the right content in front of the right people. Yet, the sheer diversity and quantity of engagement opportunities are far greater on Websites than anywhere else. Why does this matter for marketers?

Today, marketers must focus not just on reach but on engagement — high-value brand interactions — and of course, actual leads and sales. Think of it this way: there are banner impressions and then there are lasting impressions. Engagement helps brands make lasting impressions with target audiences.

Web marketers, do you have an Engagement plan? Here are 10 good ideas to help you engage customers: http://bit.ly/aZ8pzP

Time for Businesses to Broaden Social Media Efforts

Social media continues to grow in use, usefulness, and buzz. But the real importance of social media is that it’s becoming a part of everyday communications for a massive number of people. As the saying goes, businesses need to position themselves where their customers are.

Even more noteworthy: social media is now used regularly by over 50% of people over age 50, which tells us that social media is now mainstream. And this presents an opportunity. Adapting quickly to innovations that catch on is essential for businesses to succeed online.

For more information see the full article:

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1731723/users-over-double-social-networking-use-year

Why Touchscreens Are Important

There was a time when no one could imagine a digital device without a keyboard. However, touchscreen interfaces have become mainstream with the success of the iPhone and iPad. We’re likely to see them graduate from tablets to laptops and desktop computers very shortly.

This transition reminds me of when computer mice first appeared. People said, “Why bother? We know all the DOS commands.” But mice were a big part of bringing computers to the masses. Touchscreens bring us closer to computers and will thereby extend what we can do with them. From the article:

… people tend to get frustrated by the limitations of the tools that we need to manipulate the technology and power inside a computer. We want to do away with mice and keyboards and drawing tables and whatever else we need to get our ideas out of our heads and into the machine. We want to be close.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/afI32L

H.264 Standard Will Remain Royalty-Free

Keeping the H.264 standard open is important because there’s potentially big money in Web video — in advertising, sure, but also for creators who monetize their content for a living. With a free, high-quality standard in place, we get past the encumbrance of Flash and provide more rich content sent directly to the Web from any number of devices. Content that’s available to everyone means more engaged visitors across the board. This is a good thing:

“MPEG LA, the group that oversees licensing for a number of Internet media standards, today announced that Internet broadcast content using the H.264 video coding standard will remain royalty-free for the entire life of the license, quashing fears that the standard could suddenly become subject to royalty payments in 2016 after the current licensing term expires and is required to be renewed.”

Read full article: http://bit.ly/bATpsf