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This fifth episode of The Web Strategies Podcast happened to be recorded a few days after four tornados ripped through an area about 15 miles from the studio. That prompted a discussion on Disaster Planning – Data Recovery and Hardware Restoration. This is important stuff for everybody. In the studio with me is Tom Walker, president of Web Teks and an expert on the strategic Internet.
Podcast Extra:
Today’s Podcast Extra is about something called “Add-ons” for the Firefox web browser. Add-ons are mini programs that let you personalize your browsing experience - and if you are not using them, not only are you missing out - you may be drifting behind your competitors. There are all kinds of add-ons, the most popular are tools to help you block ads or download files.
The most useful (at least to me) are add-ons like web developer, which adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Perhaps it is a little to geek side, but it has been downloaded over six and a half million times. Not just web developers, but us plain folks are using this tool bar to see how web pages are made.
Another Add-on category you should be aware of is SEO tools. There are probably a dozen good tools out of about a hundred or so available as of this posting. I use KGen (Keyword Generator) which is an add-on that allows you to see what keywords are strong on visited web page. For my own blog pages it lets me see which words will most likely be indexed, and it is useful in figuring out which words to use for social sharing. My hot list if Firefox add-ons can be found here: http://del.icio.us/tomanthonydotcom/addon
We will discuss social sharing and tags in an upcoming episode.
Next week we talk about the Big Catalog Project, and Marrying Integrators…Not that kind of wedding … tying together a line of business software to a website.
Welcome to The Web Strategies Podcast, show number 4, Us vs. Them
| I am very excited about our new open and close bumpers. The voice belongs to easily one of the most recognizable voices in America, Joe Cipriano. You may not know his name, but you hear Joe Cipriano every day on Radio, TV and in Movie Theaters. He is the signature voice of the Fox Television Network comedies, the CBS Network comedies and is the in-show announcer for Deal or No Deal.
Pretty darn cool.Joe any I have had a close association for over a decade, since my days as the Production Director of a local Norfolk Virginia radio station called the point. It is really too bad I cannot put my hands on some of the audio I produced with Joe, it was (if I say so myself) really, really good. Thanks Joe - in at least the first and last moments of the show, the Web Strategies Podcast sounds like a Million Bucks. |
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Our guest
for the main segment this time out is Tony Scarola, one of our Web Strategies Podcast subscribers, a friend to the program, and a person who we trust as an expert network engineer and security expert. This time we talk about the age-old confrontation between the technicians and your staff.
WSP04 Podcast Extra Technology Audits
As a business owner you have either have money to burn, or a handle on your business technology infrastructure. If it is not practical to have a full time network engineer on staff, your company really needs an annual technology audit. Find a reputable integrator and hire them to send an experienced network engineer to your office. Make sure they physically inspect the network hardware in place, and inventory all routers, hubs, firewalls, servers and workstations in your system. Ask the company to chart out every machine on your network, how they are connected, and identify what services each is offering. This document should be easy to read and easy to understand. Here is a graphic representing the sample Network Map in Microsoft Visio.
Most of the time shortcomings in outdated hardware or software carry hidden costs. Most business owners simply cannot guess how much lost productivity is the result of a staff asked to make do with old dull tools. What you do not know can indeed hurt you when it comes to network security. If security were not your area of expertise, you would have no way to know how serious a risk your business faces every day.
Has your company experienced data loss due to hardware malfunctions, viruses, or other unexpected circumstances? One of the most common threats to business is the unintentional access to sensitive files by well meaning employees. The other more obvious threat is the deliberate destruction of data by disenfranchised workers. Both are preventable if someone in the know warns you ahead of time. All that said, what happens to your business if before work one morning an electrical fire takes out the bookkeepers office. How long would that take to recover without a working plan based on your current real world network? Makes you want to reach for Alka-Seltzer right now doesn’t it?
WSP 03
In program number three, we talk to Management consultant and author Lanny Goodman about The relationship between technology and business strategy. Lanny is the founder and CEO of Management Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque NM.
Lanny holds a BA in Fine Arts and an MBA in Financial Management, which gives him grounding in the tools and mechanics of business. His book The End of Management is scheduled for release later this year.
 WSP 03 The relationship between technology and business strategy [38:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download |
WSP 03 Podcast Extra
In our Show Extra section after the interview, we talk about the diffusion of innovations and as an example discuss how easy it is now to use video to market your business.
The surge of you tube is not just a phenomenon; it is a fundamental change in how ordinary folks use the internet. Just about everybody I know across all age groups have at least watched a you tube video, a lot have posted video. The other day my stepdaughter posted one of the grandbaby doing sign language. Not only is that particular video truly amazing — the fact that grandmothers and great grandmothers all over the world are experiencing the best side of people — using technology — has put the technology in a whole new light. It is easy, it is fun, and it is not just limited to unsavory traffic.
If you accept this premise then the next logical conclusion is that business will follow suit.
There is an adoption acceptance curve for all technology. Everett M. Rogers in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations, theorized that innovations would spread through society in an S curve, as the early adopters select the technology first, followed by the majority, until a technology or innovation is common. And while there are lots of exceptions, generally that theory holds up today.
- Innovators
- Early Adopters
- Early Majority
- Late Majority
- Laggards
I would like to think I fall into the first bucket. This is not a brag - just letting you have the context here. Video on the internet - more or less - was invented by Real Networks in February 1997. In 1997 I produced for the internet a video clip of Joe Cipriano doing a commercial for the Simpsons on Fox TV. As far as I know - and I truly believe - that was the first use of Video as a promotional vehicle for TV announcers on the internet. Back in 1997, I was using a low bandwidth version optimized for 14.4 modem that was essentially a slide show.
Joe still has video on his web site - but it’s now a much better quality. He also has plenty of video on You Tube. Here is one I edited from the off air recording for him.
Now come full circle and compare that with the home video of our granddaughter doing sign language on you tube for grandmother and great grandmother. The point is - that if Rogers theory on the Diffusion of Innovations has any validly, if you are not using video on the internet for your business you will soon become a minority. It is tough to catch up.
Another Example
Here is an industrial video I produced a little over a year ago for Landmark Communications. They are the company that owns the weather channel and weather dot com - although this video was for a much smaller division of the company, Continental Broadband. It is a product demonstration for geeks. Enjoy.
From time to time Tom Anthony, the host of the Web Strategies Podcast, uses video or discusses technology like You Tube. This is where that video generally lives.
WSP 02 If You’re Not Committed… Don’t Go All The Way.
Just one week passed between show one and two and the first show has been downloaded 72 times. I am just astounded and very, very grateful. Thank you for your interest! We had very positive feedback from the first podcast; with guest was Tom Walker, President of Web Teks. We brought Tom back for this show and hope to feature him often. Tom Walker is a very smart guy when it comes to understanding business and the role of technology.
This week Tom discusses how to begin a web initiative, or perhaps more importantly how not to.
WSP 02 Podcast Extra
In our Web Strategy Podcast Extra we talk about a Web 2.0 social bookmarking site called Delicious. Actually it’s a clever URL that spells the word Delicious - like this http://del.icio.us. Now I love it, but I have to admit it’s a web site I used for many weeks before I actually had the ahh-haa moment.
After tracking 186 bookmarked web pages I found myself giving a link out to a particular tag. Oh - a TAG is a single word description of what the content relates to. Sort of like a keyword. That tag happened be web 2.0 - when I looked at the whole list it allowed me to view the subject in a much more organized way. Please take a few minutes to visit my Delicious page, where you’ll see tags relating to Marketing, Technology, and Pod Casting among others. The particular link I refer to in WSP 02 is http://del.icio.us/tomanthonydotcom/web2.0.
If you have questions or comments they are welcomed and will be responded to. Thanks for your interest!
This is The Web Strategies Podcast Number 01, and let’s begin by telling you what the show is not. There is no online course in business development to buy. We don’t have some mega seminar to buy tickets for– except in the sense that this podcast is distributing information widely. In fact we are not selling anything.
There is no such thing as a free lunch so I must say this podcast does have a business strategy. I believe, and our sponsor Web Teks believes, that by freely giving the same kind of information we give to our consultancy clients you may see a value in our level of expertise as it applies to your business. Otherwise, this is free.
I believe we have an interesting first program, talking about the difference between performance and return on investment.
In Wikipedia KPI is defined this way: Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals. KPIs are used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action.
While ROI is defined as equivalent a core financial; rate of return. It is the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. Big difference, but both related. In Podcast WSP 01 Tom Walker gives us his views on the difference.
WSP 01 Podcast Extra
This week I wanted to offer you directions to get to one of the most remarkable resources on the internet: iTunes U. Apple accurately describes it this way: iTunes U puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges and universities, so users can easily search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows
Head and shoulders above the pack for my taste are three files I found on iTunes U featuring Author Thomas L. Friedman. First if you have not purchased the book “The World Is Flat” you are really missing the picture of how and why the world is transforming into a global economy. Do a power search for Friedman and you’ll find those files and a great talk about his new book, Green is the new Red White and Blue. This is Very worthwhile material. To find it go to iTunes and search for Thomas L. Friedman.
Welcome to the Web Strategies Podcast program web site featuring program notes and links for each show. You may subscribe to our program here or through iTunes. The Web Strategies Podcast is a program dedicated to the technology and techniques of marketing your business on the internet. I am the site administrator and podcast moderator Tom Anthony.
How did we pick the name? Well, first the program is a podcast, and it is specifically about web strategies. That is where I live my professional life. In my day job I am the Vice President, Client Services for our program sponsor Web Teks, a Virginia based Consulting and eBusiness Solutions Firm.
Second – this is true so help me – while sitting in the waiting room at a routine doctor’s appointment I looked up this domain name on my Palm Treo phone. When I found it was available I actually purchased the domain through the browser on my cell phone. Seemed like a good sign.
Shortly we will post a series of programs with a focus on the strategic internet. We welcome your feedback and hope you will review our podcast on iTunes. Thanks for your interest.
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-19cf19ab8c04492f269146516fd48790}
Podcast Alley???
Podcast Alley is a podcast directory service, and I order for the Web Strategies Podcast to be listed there they require a link back to their site. That’s pretty clever actually. The way Google ranks website popularity is based mainly on the number of other web sites that link to your. So if every podcaster who wants to be listed in the Podcast Alley directory is forced to link back to the company website, it has the effect of raising the web site in the rankings.
I think we can do a whole show on search engines pretty easily, and still keep within the theme of our program - which is Business. A great TV program I have been watching talks specifically about this link back process in an entertaining way. The show is called Download: The True Story of the Internet and it’s on the Science Channel
Here is another one : technorati
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