The Web Strategies Podcast

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.

 Internet Killed the Radio [41:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To listen to Rich Boerner online visit HotTalkLA.com or the 2 Guys and a Mic website.

Rich Boerner is featured on HotTalkLa.com

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!

 Location, Location, Location [27:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I don’t normally include the entire script as an episodes of The Web Strategies Podcast – but this is the first program I’ve produced in a while – and it’s a monologue – no guests. In a “normal” episode there would be no way to include a script – it would have to be a transcription since it’s really a live dialogue.

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.

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.

 WSP05 Disaster Planning [27:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.