@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

Mobile & Technology

Blog 2.0 – Puglisi’s Blog 2011

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Happy HolidaysPuglisi’s blog has seen a slow and steady increase in its visitors, so much so, that it will undergo a few upgrades and looks for 2011. The blog founded by Brand Marketing Educator, Basil C. Puglisi will move from text based blog articles to media…. after all if it’s a blog about digital media it should include some of the web 2.0 feel.

The blogs original intention was to be a personal space for Puglisi to store research thoughts, track stages of development in digital trends and develop a base of knowledge to act as a resource to reinforce his seminars and events.

In Jun 2010 – 32 visitors that where tuning in to read about Digital Media and Visibility Marketing.  As of Dec 28, 2010 the blog had 208 visitors a month and continues to grow despite little if any advertising.

In 2011, we be stepping up the professional brand of the blog, you can expect to see everything that Basil C. Puglisi has learned over the last decade with a healthy mix of digital and academic expectations being executed.

Changes coming in 2011:

1) Citations: It’s just good practice to make sure that you share sources when writing. This reinforces that your work has research value and is developed from more than one point of view.

2) Charts, Pictures and other visuals: If we are talking about growth, locations or people, we should show you what we have seen or found.

3) Video: This is the fastest growing trend in the world, be it for learning, marketing or documentary videos is no surprise that YouTube is the second largest search engine.

The road map to developing a successful blog is a process, one that must develop a good foundation and then add the bells and whistle, or in this case the sources, and media. While some have criticized the lack of advanced features on the blog, it turns out that the development of a good content foundation still supersedes any social media or technology driven media. In this case, now that the foundation has been laid, we move into the more advanced features in 2011.

Happy Holidays!!! Social Media Do and Don’t

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So as we hit Christmas Eve, I like to take a minute and share a few Social Media etiquettes for the general year, but ring even more true for the Holidays.

1) Don’t sell anything!

At this point if you haven’t capitalized on your call to action you lost that chance by now. After all social media is about trust, consistency and professionalism, not selling.

2) Engage in genuine content.

Find ways to thank people, share info for free that has value to it, even if you hold back a little at least your getting in the spirit of giving and those on the other side might do them in return come the new year…hint, hint…

3) Be at peace with the (social) world.

This is a time for peace and relaxation, there is enough stress without you adding to it, expect the site visit to be short. Put away the sword, find things positive about what you agree with, reinforce similarities even with competitors… being the fair and honest (you) will mean everything to people when it comes time to spend money.

4) Stay engaged.

While now is not the time for long drawn out affairs, stay true to what others expect, if you check in everyday, hour, whatever, stick to this, consistency is almost as important as content.

5) Have fun.

This is what makes you different, just like someone smiling over the phone, you can tell when the person engaging you in social media is doing it because they are having fun, or because they are forcing it.

Happy Holidays!!!

Please be safe & responsible!

Social Media Trends for 2011

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2010 was a banner year for social media. It was the year in which Facebook overtook Google in site traffic. It was a year in which some surveys claim that 95% of companies are using LinkedIn to look for prospective employees.

The use of social media through mobile devices tripled. The tablet became popular and threatens to revolutionize laptops and school books.

What can we expect in the coming year? Here is what a few experts agree on:

–          Big companies will take a serious look at the social media, integrating it not only locally but globally.  Companies like Dell computers and Jet Blue are already doing it.

–          The mobile and tablet war creates social computing – the competition is heating up with new tablets and smart phones coming into the market. It will create more discussions on the web. Social media will be on the go even more than it is today – out of the house, out of the office on the move; in trains, planes and automobiles. There will be more competition, variety and affordability in devices.

–          Facebook location based services will probably overtake all the others. With the huge amount of users –over 500 million – and with tons of data and the programs behind it, they will become the biggest.

–          There will be a social media overload. The average user experiences Facebook, Twitter, G mail, chat, Skype, Tumblr etc. Many experts in social media have adopted systems to access all of them at once but average users might get a case of schizophrenia, with so many profiles on so many social networks. Integration will have to become more wide spread.

–          Social media will be integrated into other tools, making websites important again and more modern.

–          More and more companies will turn their social media connections into customer service, answering questions and complaints.

–          Social recruiting will get bigger. Even small companies will go to social media to find new and better applicants.

Social Brand Visibility: Ping.fm

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A relatively new company, Ping.fm, founded in 2008, comes to answer a burning question: how to control your social media from one place.

Posting an update on Ping.fm will push it to different social media sites simultaneously. Users can update their status only once, without logging in to different sites.

At the moment their alliance reaches to more than 30 social media sites. Users can configure their account to connect to services like: Bebo, Blogger, Google Buzz, Delicious, Facebook, Friend Feed, Friendster, hi5,Identi.ca, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, Plaxo, Yahoo 360 and more.

Ping.fm might be a nice addition to everyday users, but for marketing professionals and social media experts it might be God-sent.

To make it even more useful the site has a character counter to make sure you don’t go over the 140 characters per tweet, and a “record video” link allows you to upload videos.

The dashboard allows you to set it up so you can ping from your e mail, instant message, mobile phones etc.

The only problem with Ping.fm has to do with your contact lists. If you have the same contacts in a few social media sites, they will be getting the same message from different sites, a fact that may annoy them.

At its core, social media sites are meant to be a communication platform, where you connect with people in a two way conversation. Ping.fm might turn it into one-way broadcasting mechanisms.

Approximately 37% of the site’s visitors are from the US, where it is ranked #746. It is also popular in Pakistan, where it is ranked #177.

Archos 101 and Archos 70 Internet Tabs ruined by Archos business model and execution.

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I have had the Archos 101 for the last several days and then added the Archos 70 Internet tablet for my wife. After a few days I am sending them off to ebay. While the Android operating system is all you have come to expect with an open market and system, the products and more importantly Archos as a company fail miserably.

Style: 10/10

The 101 and 70 Internet tablets are sexy, they are light, slim and feature stands built in to allow you to watch media. The ports and accessibility is what you would expect for a tablet hardware system built to interact with everything.

Operating System: 9/10

Android 2.2 Froyo, the system bolsters Androids supercharged operating system, which allows semi common users to customize and maneuver around any limitations attempted by companies like Archos. i.e. adding the google market and flash 10.1

Function: 6/10

As one would expect the 101 has a few issues as the tablet screen doesn’t size up to files and media that looked great on the phones we have all come to love android for. The system struggles to find media and become sluggish. No Flash means the web browsing experience is similar to the Android 1.5 OS.

Archos: 2/10

This is the real failure for the tablets, Archos tried to restrict the market by forcing you to run through their AppsLib instead of google, the tablet requires a bit of knowledge to add google products and software. The company website is a mess, navigating is sloppy and policies prevent the users from accomplishing much. Some of the most surprising failures should have tossed flags up prior to getting the tablet.

1 ) Tablet Release pushed back repeatedly.

2 ) Users that asked to be notified when the tablet released via e-mail got nothing when the Archos 70 IT and Archos 101 IT become available.

3 ) Archos did not restrict purchase quantity much, would be ebay stores bought ten at a time.

4 ) Anyone with a PO Box as their billing info was not getting one, or the software upgrades.

5 ) Customer support averages about a week to respond, if at all.

6 ) The tablet upgraded to 2.2 and wiped out the third party apps.

7 ) Archos did not get the Adobe cert so the tablets did not have Flash

8 ) The AppsLib market has less than 1% of the open market applications.

9 ) Youtube? Um No???? The second largest search engine, owned by the operating system parent company, largest media site and NO!!!

10) Sloppy storage, the tablet can’t tell where the media is, be it internal or storage without having to jump through a bunch of steps to find it.

Summary:

The use of the Froyo Android 2.2 was a great leap forward in tablets, as anyone who is not a novice can change root files, add software you expect to be a part of Android, but why should you have to know how to do it, this created the greatest problem in my opinion, you just shouldn’t have to work to make it work.

Archos was the big mistake here, trying to control the market, failing to get an adobe certificate which completely canceled the effectiveness of the Android 2.2 web experience is just a few of the many problems. The understaffed and underfunded company tried to take on a monster and got crushed in execution. I expect the value of these tablets to drop dramatically and quickly in the next few WEEKS!!!

Advice: Stay clear of the Archos Internet Tablet line.

Note: I was very excited to see this project and while I tried to find every reason to support the tablet, the ultimate test of a product is the company behind it, Archos clearly made a mediocre product terrible.

Archos 101 Android Tablet to Release Monday

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One of the most anticipated tablet releases in the US was held up recently. The Archos 101, which is to feature Android 2.2 was set to release in early October, and while the 8GB model was introduced to the market, techies everywhere where part of the hold out to get the 16GB which provides twice the internal storage at only $50 more, clearly a value worth waiting for.

The real question is how many will become available if Archos does indeed launch the Google Android Tablet this upcoming week? After all with so many holding out for the 16GB one has to wonder how they sold out so quickly of the 8GB….

Some feel that the 8GB was an easy choice as the Archos 101 features a micro SDHC slot allowing for expandable storage up to 32GB, with the option to be able to switch out the portable storage.

The Archos 101 features a powerhouse of technical specs all available on the site:

http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?country=us&lang=en

The one major flaw that the tablet seems to have is an extremly higloss screen, not that I will complain as my use is likely to be mostly indoors and feel that a matte screen protector is likely to pop up shortly.

On the WOW side of things, let’s start with flash and google sync, the Archos company seems to be limiting the Apps store to AdLibbs, but as we all know google is your friend, so expect workarounds to release 5minutes after its release and very simple ones at that.

Flash content is back on the rise now that webmasters everywhere are finding ways to streamline the loading time and creating websites that have a robot.txt pointing to what the search engines need to know to climb the rankings. The google suite of clanders, e-mail and document sharing make the android tablets an attractive business tool, oh and the screen is designed with multimedia in mind based on 16:9, not the iPad’s 4:3.

How do I know that the release is set for monday, well its no secret:

“We are estimating to see the Archos 101 16GB on our webstore as of this Monday.”

Thank you,Brian D – Archos Sales Support

(no spell check sorry heading out fast wanted to release ASAP)

Startups that could affect your Marketing Strategy

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How to use social media to advertise your business has always been a game of catch-up. Inventors, investors and programmers are constantly busy with building new sites, creating new applications that will change or improve the way we connect with each other and our viewing habits.
TechCrunch, a company that started as a blog in 2005 and has evolved to be one of the biggest and more innovative companies, holds a yearly conference where they choose 25 new startups from over 1000 applications to present their ideas to the conference and through it to the world.
At the last conference in San Francisco, in September 2010, TechCrunch chose to show a few companies that might have an impact on how you advertise your small business through the web. Here are some to watch for:
Badgeville – Aims to help increase audience engagement and loyalty by providing an easy way for web publishers, media sites and brands to increase engagement with their customers. It also enables measuring and optimization of users engagement.
Gifi – Combines Venmo and FourSquare into a location based game involving real money. Recommending a restaurant or a dish becomes a social game. Users can hide money for their friends to be unlocked when they order the dish they recommended for example. It provides business owners with a simple way to deliver rewards for valued or frequent customers. Every time a customer is rewarded, the business gets exposure through the social media sites of their customer’s friends. The company received $1.2 million in seed money this year.
Gripe – A location based free mobile app.  It allows the users to send complaints or cheers about a business they frequented. The remarks are sent to the business as well and they can react, while spreading the words through friends and followers. By resolving complaints, businesses can turn detractors into promoters spreading positive word-of-mouth to everyone on their social media network.
Sumazi – was awarded by TechCrunch as the startup “most likely to change the world”. By intelligently connecting people to other people they don’t know but should, they leverage the personal and extended networks to discover, recommend and introduce customers to other people and opportunities at the right time.
Tello – another startup which aims to help companies improve customer service by providing real time reactions to their customer’s experience. It is a mobile and social application. Businesses of all sizes can improve service and engage customers in conversation, resolving issue and monitor employee ratings.
Which of these will flourish remains to be seen. Watch for them and subscribe when they become operational.

How to get Your Small Business on the Virtual Map

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The world is divided into two equally powerful entities today; one is the real world that we live in, and the other is the virtual world, or the world of the internet. Getting your business known and noticed in the virtual world can boost your brand identity recognition and your sales to unforeseen heights, depending on your marketing strategies. So how to put your small business on the virtual map?

The first thing to do is to set up your professional corporate website and incorporating e-commerce to increase the value of your business. However, this alone will not result in an implicit increase in the enterprise value of your business.

What you will need to do is leverage the Internet to increase your sales and profitability, thereby increasing the value of your business. With over a 1000 million people online in the world today, and trillions of dollars transacted over the internet, you can sense the presence of a staggering opportunity.

When you put yourself on the virtual map, you are in effect completely eliminating geographic barriers. With one step, you reach a wider, more diverse audience. A properly marketed Web site can be a very effective means of reaching new and existing customers and expanding your geographic presence. Here are a few tips:

  • Get a smart, professionally designed website designed for your company.
  • Place your logo prominently on all pages.
  • Place brief but informative and useful brochure ware of your company so that your potential customers, vendors and partners get an idea of who you are.
  • Use search engine optimization tools to ensure that your Web site appears at the top of search lists when someone looks for a product or service similar to what you offer.
  • Make sure your site prompts visitors to input comments and feedback. This way, you can capture the information of existing and potential customers to support the efforts of your sales team.
  • Ensure that your website allows a safe and secure online purchasing experience. Use the best payment gateways and incorporate every possible security signatures that you can afford. When you allow customers to purchase your products or services online, you can more than quadruple your sales output.

 

By allowing people to shop online at your Web site, you can reduce your sales staff and other overheads. Imagine what this can do to your business’s bottom-line.  Putting up your brochure content on your site can eliminate the need to print expensive brochures and other collateral materials.

Retain your customers and build customer loyalty by offering customer contact and support online. When your customers’ requests are attended to via real time chat, or email follow up, there’s greater satisfaction and trust in your company.

Redefining geek and techie?

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Let’s take the case of a techie and a geek as defined in modern technology.  Let’s use the example of Best Buy and their geek squad, a retail division that has been established by Best Buy to service computer and technology failures in products sold by the retailer. This industry change has led me to explore the difference between a geek and a techie.

Technology has divided the world into three general categories, the geek, the techie and everyone else. When we discuss everyone else we are specifically looking at anybody who does not fall into the category of techie or geek.  We do this specifically because it is my belief that the technology offered by the world has created two type of IT professionals a techie and a geek.

The geek is the programming and engineering individuals that handle technical design and code. These individuals known as Geeks are strongly fluent in programming language and technical expertise in constructing and deconstructing technology.

I introduced the techie on the other hand as the individual who is capable of understanding the needs analysis of the general public and how that technology applies to that need. The techie is an individual who has remained and continues to remain on top of different technologies while never specializing in one specific type of technology.  That techie understands the different strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that technology offers to resolve the needs of everyone else.

Who is everyone else? Everyone else is the public at large, be it business professionals, educators, students, consumers, clients, physicians, lawyers etc. The general idea is that humanity has created needs and these needs have been fulfilled by technology.  In addition to the needs being fulfilled by technology, we have also started to fulfill wants. While the geeks have provided us ways to deliver technologies to resolve the needs and wants, it is unfortunate that most geeks fail to be able to see the big picture and purpose of the very technology in which they are creating.

Take the website for example.  Websites offer a unique opportunity for individuals to share knowledge, display their expertise, and develop a medium through which they can educate, support or organize outreach. For a business owner, the difference between geeks and techies, have been exemplified in the Web 2.0 era. This is what happens when countless business owners have invested time, energy and money into websites that have been built by programmers and other geeks who understand their trade, language and their code. Unfortunately, business success is not defined by the contribution of programmers and geeks. This is where the need for techies has evolved.  Techies are individuals who have enough technology experience and understanding of the technology. They excel in how delivery should be in a streamlined user-friendly manner so that business owners can reach everyone else in the world.

Techies serve the most crucial function of understanding how technology meets the needs, or fails to meet the needs of any function, business or organization.