Accurate Business Communications
by Tom Anthony on Aug.20, 2010, under Podcast Show Notes
Chandler Turner makes a return visit to the podcast to discuss the impact of accurate business communications. It is not just what you say, but how you say it. In many cases we say far too much, in an overly technical or jargon riddled way. This is a really good interview packed full of interesting and validated concepts for business communication.
When I reviewed the interview for this podcast I realized there is room for tweaking on my own business websites. I think when you first get a web site to where you are O.K. with the content it tends to be intimidating to try and tweak it further out of fear of going backwards on the project. While one must face their fears, I am as guilty as anyone in the case of my own business websites.
I hope you will take a moment to log into your iTunes account and review our program. Any comment – good OR bad – helps tell iTunes the Web Strategies Podcast is relevant. Thanks for listening!
Internet Killed the Radio
by Tom Anthony on Jul.14, 2010, under Podcast Show Notes, Show Related
My guest today is a fixture on the LA radio scene, Rich Boerner (pronounced “Burner”) . I first met Rich many years ago when we did a web site for his voice-over business. he recently called me looking for an air check of a show he hosted for pay-per-view in Philadelphia that featured an Ozzie Osbourne concert. To give you a hint – it was likely one of the very “first ever” pay-per-view concerts. The air-check was also an example of very early internet video, and that’s why I had it originally… it was included in that website I did for him years ago.
Anyway… we got to talking and I discovered that Rich has transcended the air waves and taken his radio chops directly to the folks over the internet. Seems media giant CBS decided it would be better to cut expenses by changing from a Hot Talk format to a Hot Music format. Sadly it actually makes sense as you will hear in this fascinating story of innovation which I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.
To listen to Rich Boerner online visit HotTalkLA.com or the 2 Guys and a Mic website.
Rich Boerner is featured on HotTalkLa.com
WordPress as a Content Management System
by Tom Anthony on Jun.16, 2010, under Podcast Show Notes
In a true case of irony this podcast about WordPress as a Content management System was delayed because the WordPress database on my server was compromised by a SQL injection trojan, a type of computer virus. WordPress is the software platform that makes up the back end – the area where you log-in and upload blog posts.
It was not just the Web Strategies Podcast site – but hundreds of sites housed the the vast Rack Space server farm – that’s the company I lease my server from. To be fair Rack Space has completed steps to fix the hole in the security flaw – and as I understand it, that flaw was inherent to earlier versions of WordPress. I just upgraded to the newest version of WordPress which came out earlier today (3.0) and changed the necessary passwords to keep this from happening again.
Brian Walker - Warp 10 Media
My Guest today is a former co-worker and current technology partner; Brian Walker of Warp 10 Media. Our relationship is a fun one – Brian is a regular wiz at PHP programming, an intellectual giant, and like me a huge fan of Science Fiction and fantasy films. So he is sometimes really serious and sometimes just a Star Trek geek like me… I think you will find this conversation fascinating – in a Mr. Spock kind of way
In a true case of irony this podcast about WordPress as a Content management System was delayed because the WordPress database on my server was compromised by a SQL injection trojan, a type of computer virus. WordPress is the software platform that makes up the back end – the area where you log-in and upload blog posts.
It was not just the Web Strategies Podcast site – but hundreds of sites housed the the vast Rack Space server farm – that’s the company I lease my server from.
To be fair Rack Space has completed steps to fix the hole in the security flaw – and as I understand it, that flaw was inherent to earlier versions of WordPress. I just upgraded to the newest version of WordPress which came out earlier today (3.0) and changed the necessary passwords to keep this from happening again.
Brian Walker – Warp 10 MediaMy Guest today is a former co-worker and current technology partner; Brian Walker of Warp 10 Media. Our relationship is a fun one – Brian is a regular wiz at PHP programming, an intellectual giant, and like me a huge fan of Science Fiction and fantasy films. So he is sometimes really serious and sometimes just a Star Trek geek like me… I think you will find this conversation fascinating – in a Mr. Spock kind of way.
Location, Location, Location
by Tom Anthony on Jun.10, 2010, under Podcast Show Notes
In this podcast I catch you up on what has been happening in my company, and talk to a former radio colleague of mine, Andy Hilton about his new site called recruit757.com.
Players at Bayside High School are glued to recruit757.com
In real estate that has one meaning, in business another… at least in this century. And for me it has still another – as in – “what!? Did you fall off the face of the earth??” My business – IMS Strategic Internet Marketing – has been really busy over the past year – and being a relatively small operation – well up till now a miniature operation – I was just running out of steam before getting around to updating my Facebook, LinkedIn, or Plaxo – never mind getting out my first tweet!
Andy Hilton - Owner recruit757.com
In the past few weeks I brought Amy Whitley into the business to help with project management and billing and it has taken a lot of pressure off of my schedule. Amy will be working her way through school helping me make sure IMS’s clients are happy. That’s a win-win-win – I love working with Amy, the clients all love her – and she actually gets around to doing the billing where I found it hard to make time to deal with it. Amy makes a cameo in this podcast.
Besides that, what have we been up to? A few projects that you will not see because they are not for the public side of the Internet – and a few that you will. One that you will is called Recruit 757 dot com, and is the brain child of a former radio colleague of mine, Andy Hilton. You’ll hear an interesting – although kind of noisy – interview I did today in a Sushi Restaurant in Norfolk Virginia. A shout out to Local TV LLC – the company that owns WTKR TV in Norfolk, and provider of Andy’s “real” job on the sales team there. As always thanks for listening!
What Business Owners Need
by Tom Anthony on Oct.01, 2009, under Podcast Show Notes
Chandler Turner
I am really excited to present this conversation with an old friend of mine and now president of his own consulting firm. Chandler Turner is President of Accurate Business Communications and a seasoned pro in sales and marketing. Originally Chan and I worked together as business consultants at Goodman and Company, a Virginia Accounting and (obviously) Consulting company. We trained together and worked together for a time and then drifted into different directions, although always in touch.
In this episode Chan and I discuss the real world of business strategy and truly talk in terms of What Business Owners Need and what they need to know. Hope you enjoy.
Constant Contact
by Tom Anthony on Jul.08, 2009, under Podcast Show Notes
In this podcast I talk about email marketing – and we are back to an audio version for episode 10 – I enjoyed doing the last podcast with video but I did not want to wait too long to post another.
I had a great day today reconnecting with Constant Contact. That’s a major long-time vendor for email marketing services, and I was one of their very first dealers back in 2003. In fact it was not even called Constant Contact back then – it was called Roving Software. It has been interesting to see this company steadily grow. They make email marketing pretty easy for users on many levels.
If you can only do wizard driven templates with the art work built in – they do that. If you are a slick HTML person you can customize your campaigns to a very fine detail. It is easy to manipulate your database into multiple categories. And since my company, IMS Strategic Internet Marketing Services is again an active dealer I can throw in a free trial…
Re-establishing my dealer account took some doing.
In about 2005 I was elected to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Wireless LLC, DBA Atrius. At that time I converted my existing dealer agreement with Constant Contact for use by Pinnacle/Atrius which included an extensive personal contact database. During my tenure, most Pinnacle/Atrius Customers were added to this master database. I have long since left Pinnacle/Atrius and recently launched IMS Internet Marketing Services. So here is the problem – there is no practical way for me to distinguish between my original personal contact list, and names added later for use by Pinnacle/Atrius.
There were almost 5000 names in there that may or may not want to do business with me… and although most of them were probably dial up customers and have no need for an Internet Marketing company like IMS – if only 10% did hold some interest … well that would be more customers than I could handle at the current size of the company. Not a bad problem to have.
The other problem is that my company provides high level email marketing consulting and one of the cardinal rules is:
“It’s Not The Technology – It’s The Relationship”.
So yes technically, I could send out 5000 emails tonight shamelessly asking former Atrius clients for business – but not only is that by definition “SPAM” – it would really tick off a lot of people – not the least of whom are the other owners of that company.
I solved it by changing the dealer account status into a Confirmed Opt-in (a.k.a. double opt-in) which is the most rigorous method of obtaining permission to send email communications. It requires the contact (email address owner) to affirmatively respond to an email confirmation request in order to be added to an email list. If the contact does not affirmatively respond, he or she will not receive any further email communications from you.
I give a little more back ground and some pointers in this, the tenth episode of the Web Strategies Podcast.
I am also featuring our new theme song- Westward Leaning – enjoy!
Video Podcast
by Tom Anthony on Jun.19, 2009, under Podcast Show Notes, Show Extras
The Web Strategies Podcast is a program dedicated to the technology and techniques of marketing your business on the internet. I think it’s pretty clear that the technology now must include a video element.
In this first Video version of the Web Strategies Podcast we are only talking about how this first video was produced. I used a sort of “poor man’s green screen” process to create the video for several reasons. First, and most obviously the video was produced in my home studio. In the video we discuss how problematic it would be to move my entire setup to my business offices. In all likelihood this particular office will be temporary as my marketing company is starting to gain momentum. (IMS Strategic Internet Marketing) I can see a time very soon when additional employees will require additional office space.
Sony DCR-VX2100
The second reason for the inexpensive green-screen set up was to demonstrate that this type of video can be produced in-house. I do an insert of video recorded simultaneously on a Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro webcam on top of the video recorded with my Sony DCR-VX2100 Digital Handycam® Camcorder. While you would definitely see a huge difference on a TV monitor, on a computer screen – even a good one – the difference is surprisingly hard to spot.
I have also included two versions of the video here, and an option to view the HD version on YouTube. Since YouTube now limits videos to ten minutes this version was edited to conform to YouTube limitations. Most of the last few minutes features the song “Leaning Westward”, new original music I composed to be used as the theme of the program. You may download or listen to the full version on my music site – The Open Source Music Project.
The version below is technically posted as the media of the podcast is configured for iTunes and is intended to be a continuation for subscribers of my previously produced audio-only podcasts.
As always I welcome your comments and will give my best effort to answering any questions.
Online Marketing Summit Atlanta
by Tom Anthony on Jun.15, 2009, under Show Related, Web 2.0
Digital Body Language
I have been working on posting meaningful materials from the Online Marketing Summit in Atlanta, and I hope you will find some benefit from the experiences I brought back from OMS Atlanta. I was among about 200 people in attendance and met some great folks.
Aaron Kahlow, Founder & CEO, Online Marketing Summit & Institute kicked off the event with a great presentation. He gave a good background on the purpose of the event and great advice on how to get the most out of each session. I selected the advanced track and without exception the speakers were all well-informed and gave up-to-date information. Questions from the floor were also a great part of the event.
During the lunch break Steve Woods had a very interesting presentation on understanding online behavior. I was pleased to win a copy of the book Digital Body Language from Steve – and of course I did get him to sign it for me!
I guess the one session I enjoyed the most – and got the most out of was by Stacy Williams, President of Prominent Placement, an Atlanta based Search marketing Company. She provided my quote for the day – “For every $1 spent on search marketing you get $9 in return”
I’ll have more on each session on the Web Strategies Podcast – including some interviews. Soon.
Techno-centric
by Tom Anthony on Mar.05, 2009, under Podcast Show Notes
I want to Thank Cathy Lewis and her staff for giving me permission to rebroadcast the program as part of the Web Strategies Podcast.
What a great time as a guest on HearSay with Cathy Lewis yesterday! The other guest – Ed Sykes of The Sykes Group, and Malcolm Venable of the Virginian-Pilot. Both great guys, and very well informed on various aspects of social media – or as Cathy likes to call it “The Facebook” 
One of the topics we discussed was the public and private side of social networking – Cathy accepted my Friend Request – but instead of posting to her personal Facebook account I added a comment to the HearSay with Cathy Lewis fan area. If you listen to the show you’ll get the perspective – but essentially we were saying that sometimes the personal and the professional get unintentionally intermingled.
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