A friend of mine has asked me to make a presentation for his sales staff. in order to keep my remarks brief, I found myself trying to jot down as few points as possible about how buying habits have changed.  What I came up with was a case to pay attention to twitter.

National consumer behaviors influence local buying habits and always have. The method of delivering marketing messages has undergone a fundamental change on both a national and local level.  In order to keep pace with your customers evolving buying habits let’s do a thumbnail review of how people are influenced to buy.

In the media age the masses were made aware of new products and services from a limited number of central sources. In the 1800′s that was print, mainly newspapers, magazines, and catalogs.

In the 1900′s mass marketing followed entertainment venues from print to broadcast. From radio to television to a slowly fading print media, the same processes of disseminating marketing messages through a limited number of central sources prevailed.

in the 21st century the distribution channel has blurred.  Print has continued to fade into the internet, motion pictures are being delivered as digital files, radio is available online and the music they play on iPod, and television is scattered over hundreds of cable channels and on the Internet.

The blurring of distribution channels has had an effect on the public that is reflected fairly well in the new ad campaign for Microsoft Bing.

Today people are influenced to buy differently. Instead of a small number of central distribution points for entertainment and information there are a large number of individualized sources. These include text messages, emails,  and posts to twitter, also known as tweets.

This message is hammered home again and again if you are listening.  Look at the recent protests in Iran. Hundreds of just plain folks risking their lives to text and send cell phone video images of the truth.

When Michael Jackson died there were hundreds of thousands of messages racing across twitter within minutes. Many people found out about this event from their friends via text and twitter and only then turned on their television sets to watch.   This is true despite the fact that most twenty – somethings are too young to care about the King of Pop. So who is doing all that tweeting? Everyone.

Related Story: U.S. State Department speaks to Twitter over Iran

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.

It is a good time to redefine the mission of the web strategies podcast.  This program is dedicated to the business of the Internet

My original posting on March 18, 2008 said this:

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.

Has the mission changed? No. It may be refined a little bit more but our goal is still to discuss strategy for marketing business on the internet.  What clearly has evolved is the tactics to do that.

Literally speaking, strategy is to leverage a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developing or carrying out such a plan. The tactic is the art of finding and implementing means to achieve immediate or short-term goals.

So the strategy of keeping up with current technological trends is unchanged – but the technology surely has. New in this landscape are a number of factors to be aware of.

1.       The continued growth of broadband usage is creating a paradigm shift in the concept of media delivery systems.

2.       Mobile is the next big thing

3.       Social Networking is not just for kids anymore

Each individual topic could be the source for discussion across many programs – and indeed books are written everyday about each respective subject.  For this program let’s just engage in a high level description for each of these items.

First… The continued growth of broadband usage is creating a paradigm shift in the concept of media delivery systems.

Across the life span of all media or all technology for that matter is an arc of adoption and abandonment. I’ve covered this concept before and it may be better known as the Diffusion of innovation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_Innovations

Wikipedia has a really concise definition and the link can be found in the show notes on the program blog at http://webstrategiespodcast.com

“Diffusion of innovation is a theory of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers introduced it in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations, writing that “Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.”

That book describes some specific behaviors which may be used to define how any technology is introduced into society…  this seems to have been true across history – but quoting from the book – well paraphrasing from the book:

innovators - had larger farms, were more educated, more prosperous and more risk-oriented

early adopters – younger, more educated, tended to be community leaders

early majority – more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influence to neighbors

late majority – older, less educated, fairly conservative and less socially active

laggards – very conservative, had small farms and capital, oldest and least educated

So in the case of my second point for example, “Mobile is the next big thing”

That’s actually already to the “early majority” stage of adoption.  Over a year ago I purchased the web domain “webstrategiespodcast” on my Palm Treo phone. Today I can download these episodes on my Blackberry Curve. As of this podcast the new iPhone-like blackberry Touch is all the rage… and so it goes.

You decide where in that curve newspapers fall.  If you want to know where television is headed check out http://www.hulu.com/.  Full episodes of TV shows from 24, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes – to 30 Rock, The Office, and Family Guy.  Did I mention free?

And that third concept of Social networking being not for kids anymore… when this podcast started just last year to web site Facebook was frequently dismissed as a kid’s site like MySpace. Not so much now.  Facebook is regarded by many – including me – to be one of the best options for marketing exposure – and for many reasons.  But that topic deserves its own show – which will be on Social Networking. Next time.

Thanks for listening to this web strategies … well update. I’m Tom Anthony.

I use a program called Urchin, which is the same basic engine as Google Analytics. (Well – actually I admit I use both.) Google Analytics is free and Urchin comes with the server hosting service. They both do essentially the same thing; give you information about how many people are visiting your site and where they came from.

In the screen shot below you can see stats from launch to this posting.

This second snapshot shows traffic recorded in the current calendar month.

Thanks to your interest the number of folks visiting and downloading the program is rising steadily. On average the number of visitors per day continues to rise exponentially. Thank you!

On the Extra section of the Web Strategies Podcast show six I also talk about the difference between tags and tags. Last time we talked about add-ons, tools for your browser that make it easier to see Meta tag information. That would include Keywords, Descriptions, and Page Titles mostly.

You should also be aware that your customers and colleagues may use tags to define bookmarks for various web pages they use. Over time the number of useful pages has increased to the point that Web 2.0 developers saw and filled a need to easily categorize our interests and share them. That’s the “other” kind of tag – and is best demonstrated by the site we mentioned last week – del.icio.us .

You may have noticed it took a little extra time to get the Web Strategies Podcast show six edited and posted. We hope to be weekly, but as a friend put it recently – “sometimes life just gets in the way”! We appreciate your support. Please invite your friends and colleagues to review our podcast on iTunes – just type in “Web Strategies Podcast” and we should come right up. The more reviews – the higher we rank – the more people will subscribe. Thanks again for your interest!

Joe Cipriano

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 and 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.

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.

Network Chart

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?

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.

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!