Browsing Category Business

Video is making an impact when it comes to your marketing.  If you haven’t already, it’s time to consider using video to market your business.  Just consider the following statistics:

• 84.4% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online, according to a study done by comScore in January 2012.
• The duration of the average online content video was 6.1 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
• Video ads accounted for 12.2 percent of all videos viewed and 0.9 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
• Consumers who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy products compared to those who do not watch, according to Internet Retailer report done in April, 2010.
• A video is 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional search engine marketing techniques, according to a study done by Forrester Research in January 2009

It doesn’t matter what size business you have, video is  an affordable and effective tool that can help you connect with customers and prospects. Learn why video is important, how to generate video ideas and what you need to do to reap the search engine marketing benefit of videos.  In today’s marketplace it’s important for every business to consider a video marketing strategy.

Read More: http://marketing.about.com/b/2012/06/06/online-video-and-the-impact-it-can-have-on-your-marketing.htm

Category : Blog &Branding &Business &Internet &low cost advertising &Marketing

“Nothing Great was ever Accomplished without Inspiration” –Be Inspired! If you know or listen to any type of music today, whether it be hip hop, r&b, etc. You have to give this man his props. I would like to call him the CEO of hip hip. I would credit him for being responsible for branding a culture, pretty profound! Always given words of inspiration. Shout out to Uncle Russ.

For more inspirational videos from P. Diddy on “The Big Idea” and Jay-Z on “The Tanning Effect” of whom Russell inspired.

WOW! You gotta see watch this below. Roland Martin caught up with Hip Hop mogul and entrepreneur, Russell Simmons during the 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend to discuss Simmons’ new book, “Super Rich”.

Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Branding &Business &Management

Every so often I run into a great article and this is one. This article discusses branding and how these company’s implant their product in your subconscious (in so many words). Most of us start-up a company and not even focus on branding and having a unique approach to what we or our business represent. We just start a business and go and hope it does well. The company’s listed below change the game. A must read very informative article.

No, you don’t have to tell me, because I know what you’re about to say: your new product is brilliant. It’s a game-changer. Problem is, you need a killer logo. Well, today, designers, inventors, and investors are facing a dilemma similar to the one that writers and artists have struggled with for decades: there’s nothing left. Or here’s another problem: if you do manage to create a jaw-droppingly clever or memorable image, rather than engendering widespread consumer recall of your brand, your Easter-blue palette risks looking uneasily similar to the Tiffany box, and your little black bull is a transparent rip-off of the one that dangles from the neck of Sangre de Toro red wine.

As far as the logo is concerned, to paraphrase Bill Maher, it’s time for New Rules. Today, what counts far more than a puma, a monkey, or a snarling aardvark is the cross-sensory experience your brand offers. I’m talking not only the emotion, beliefs, and desires your brand evokes, but its feel, touch, sound, smell and personality, of which the logo is just one small part. Whether it’s a soda can, a car, a doll, a fragrance, a smartphone, or laptop, your brand needs to be smashable, e.g., instantly identifiable via its shape, design, copy, contours, and even navigation. Aside from adolescents, who are always on the lookout for the coolest logos to set them apart from, or help them gain traction with, their peers, today for most consumers the logo comes in near-to-last place to other considerations.

Why? Well, various reasons. The first is, when we see a logo, our defenses go up and stay up. We fear we’re being played, or manipulated. Not least, I might also add that subconsciously, a logo reminds us of our complicity with big brands, of our own shot-with-guilt overconsumption that helped drive the world’s recent financial downfall.

The term “smashable” dates back to 1915, when the Coca-Cola company asked a designer in Terre Haute, Indiana, to design a bottle that consumers could still recognize as a Coke bottle, even if someone flung it against a brick wall and it shattered into a hundred pieces. Coke is a smashable brand. So are Guinness, Ferrari, Harley-Davidson and, of course, Apple (take a sledgehammer to an iPad and you’ll know what I mean). Which suggests that the logo as we once knew and loved it–from Citibank’s Scowling Umbrella (I don’t know what else to call it), to Nike’s Swoosh, to Starbucks’s Whoever-The-Heck-She-Is–needs to be re-considered if it’s going to play any role in future brand-building.

Let’s do a little experiment: Erase the logo from every single one of your brand identifiers–products, stationary, signage. Close your eyes, now reopen them. Is there anything left? Would consumers still recognize those items as belonging to your brand? Look at your packaging, your copy, your colors, your design, your font, your spacing. Do any of them convey your brand’s identity? Or without a logo are you adrift and bailing water?

Next let’s examine your website. Again, by eliminating the logo, you’ll embark on a fun (I promise) and instructive exercise that will relieve you of any stubborn logo-fixations that may still be nagging at you. It’s one that will force you into acknowledging the value that every single one of your communication elements plays in defining your brand’s identity. Okay, still hiding the brand logo, eyeball your copy, your graphics, whether your pages are spare or dense-looking. Do all these things convey what your brand represents? Does your brand have a personality anymore, or is it standing shyly and stiffly against the wall, hoping no one notices it now looks (I hate to tell you) like every other brand out there?

To wrap up, let’s have a look at your navigation. By navigation, I’m talking about everything from the iPod’s clicking wheel, to the ritualized twist and snap you hear when you open your favorite soft drink, to Amazon’s simple, one-click button you press to buy books or download them onto your Kindle. In my experience, once consumers have used Amazon a few times, they get hooked on the site’s simplicity and navigational ease (During a recent round of focus groups, by a long shot Amazon was at the very top of consumers’ favorite brands.). Sure, the site stocks every book (and everything else) under the sun, it over-delivers, it undersells iTunes, its data-mining techniques are on the positive side of creepy, but I’m pretty sure that most consumers’ loyalty to the company derives in large part from Amazon’s incredible and intuitive ease of navigation.

We’re creatures of habit. Once we grow accustomed to a certain way of shopping, running, eating, drinking, shaving, brushing our teeth, showering, dressing, or any of 100 other things, our methodology becomes our own. Like the familiar, well-worn route we take to our favorite beach or restaurant, habit becomes personal, automatic, and unconscious. In the same way, navigational rituals are a vital, whispered element of any brand’s attraction. Having said this, human beings are supremely adaptable. Basically, we can get used to anything. If you’ve ever switched cell phones, or made the change from an Apple to a PC, yes, at first it felt obnoxious and foreign and even wrong. But once we became accustomed to that new environment–be it a trackball or a new, melodic suite of start-up and shut-down sounds–nothing else would do the trick.

So reserve a brick wall, cock your arm, aim, and begin smashing your brand. While you’re at it, smash your website, to ensure your brand remains consistent via your web pages’ navigation, style, ease, and/or special features. Now ask yourself: does my brand “own” this cross-sensory experience, from web to wireless to PDA, right down to the bricks-and-mortar product I’m gripping in my right hand? If not, your carefully crafted logo might as well not even exist.

Martin Lindstrom is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine’s “World’s 100 Most Influential People” and author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best–seller. His latest book, Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, will be released in September. A frequent advisor to heads of numerous Fortune 100 companies, Lindstrom has also authored 5 best sellers translated into 30 languages. More at martinlindstrom.com.

Read more by Martin Lindstrom: The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World

Top image via Lawrence Whittemore; small photo via thewhitestdogalive

Article here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1745884/how-to-build-an-unforgettable-smashable-brand-identity-hint-its-not-the-logo

Category : Blog &Branding &Business &Logos &Management &Marketing &Products

“Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration!” For more inspirational videos from Russell Simmons on Innovation and Business and Jay-Z on “The Tanning Effect” of whom Russell inspired.

Category : Advertising &Blog &Branding &Business &Management &Marketing &Networking &Outsourcing &Products

It’s official: Google+ is big and poised to get bigger. Google recently announced that its social network had surpassed 100 million users just nine months after its launch, and that means the value to small-business owners is both high and on the rise.

Rather than wasting your time with a “Google+ Basics” post filled with generic social media tips, today we hope to offer seven specific ways to give your Google+ Page a boost.

1. Create a catchy link. First things first: Have you ever seen the URL for a Google+ Page? It’s a horrific mass of numbers guaranteed to impart no brand awareness whatsoever. Fortunately, a number of link-shortening services exist that can help you turn your forgettable string of characters into a memorable customized G+ URL. GPlus.to is the most-used link shortener, but Plus.ly, GoPlus.us and GPlus.is offer similar services.
2. Put a pretty face on things. Google+ Pages lack the visual flair of Facebook’s Timeline. By default, the only image on a Page is a square company logo in the upper left corner. However, your Page can support up to five additional photos. (Enter the editing mode and click on the Add Some Photos Here box at the top of the page.) Images are arranged horizontally and can achieve a Timeline-esque feel; check out the Pepsi and Ferrari G+ Pages for examples.
3. Use a short, powerful tagline. When a user hovers over a link to your business page within G+ — either in search results or in the midst of a discussion — a small preview box pops up displaying your business’s picture, tagline, and an option to follow your page. Only the first five words or so of your tagline appear in the preview box, so make them count!
4. Harness the power of Hangouts. One key point of differentiation for G+ is its Hangout feature, available to the right of your business’s Stream (the equivalent of Facebook’s Wall). Basically, it’s a group video chat that allows multiple people to converse at once. How can you use that functionality for your business? Michael Dell of Dell Inc. envisions using Hangouts for a more personalized customer-service experience. Others have used Hangouts for Q&As, roundtable discussions, and as a Skype conferencing replacement. Keep in mind that the person talking becomes the face of your company to people participating in the Hangout.
   
5. Different posts for different Circles. Circles are Google’s way of allowing you to sort your acquaintances on G+. When you write a post, you can choose which Circles to share the content with. This functionality allows you to send highly targeted information to specific G+ users. You could, for example, share one promotional deal to the general public, a slightly better deal with your regular customers, and a blockbuster special with your key clients. The targeted marketing possibilities are almost endless; however, you can only add individuals to your Circles if they’ve added your Page to their Circles first. With that in mind…
6. Add a G+ badge to your main website. No one will Follow your business if they don’t know your business is on Google+! Fortunately, Google offers simple coding tools that allow you to add a Google+ badge and +1 buttons (the equivalent of Facebook’s Like button) to your website to help you spread the word. Ask your webmaster to work them in.
7. Optimize your business Page for SEO. Google indexes its social network in its search results, so a finely tuned G+ business page can create a lot of organic Google juice, boosting your web site’s rankings. Adding links to your Google+ Page’s About section is only the tip of the iceberg. (Note: We covered optimizing your Google+ Page in-depth here.)

Of course, true social media success only occurs when you engage in active discussions with your customers. Be interesting! All the superficial tricks in the world won’t compensate for a nearly blank, rarely updated slate.

Category : Advertising &ALT Tags &Blog &Business &Design &Marketing &Marketing Mondays &search engine optimization &SEO &Sitemaps &Web Design &Websites

This website, I have just recently finished. Let me know what you think about this. http://www.elleryadamsmysteries.com/

Ellery Adams grew up on a beach near the Long Island Sound. Having spent her adult life in a series of landlocked towns, she cherishes her memories of open water, violent storms, and the smell of the sea. Ms. Adams has held many jobs including caterer, retail clerk, car salesperson, teacher, tutor, and tech writer, all the while penning poems, children’s books, and novels. She now writes full-time from her home in Virginia.

Available at your local bookstore or Amazon.com, Borders, Indiebound.com, Barnes & Noble When the going gets tough, Ella Mae LaFaye bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flakey crust. But her pies aren’t just delicious. They’re having magical effects on the people who eat them–and the public is hungry for more.

Category : Blog &Branding &Business &Design &Magazines &Video &Web Design &Websites

Young companies have small margins for error. Mistakes made early on can sink a company before its gets off the ground. Below is a list of 10 common mistakes made by young, small companies. In the list below, I use the generic term “product” to refer to either a product or a service.

Over the next few posts, I will expound on these ideas; for now, here is the list :

1. “Drinking Your Own Kool-Aid” – Overestimating the Enthusiasm for Your Product/Service – thinking your product is more special than your customers perceive. – This is so true as we thinking our Sh*t is the Sh*t before it actually is the Sh*t.It’s cool to have confidence in your product or service but let the people decide, ultimately. Kool-It!
2. Not Validating Market Demand – thinking that your product is a “winner” before making sure you get a solid base of people who agree – Give your product a Test Run.
3. Starting to Work with Customers Too Late – only engaging with customers when the product is ready for sale. – Everything you do in life must come through and from people: communicate, excavate, and evaluate.
4. Underestimating the Difficulty in Penetrating the Market – not expending enough effort to reach customers and to get them to try the product. – Push, Push, Push Hard. Be Persistent.
5. Overestimating the Product’s Uniqueness – related to “drinking your own Kool-Aid” this refers to not taking competition into account, where competition can be another product or service, or whatever customers are using today. Refer to No.1
6. Underestimating the Effort Needed to Build the Product – promising to get to market before you can actually finish the product. – Be Patient.
7. Hiring the Wrong Kind of People – hiring “big-company types” who are used to having a support staff to help them do their work.
8. Not Focusing – being tempted by side projects and spreading yourself too thin to focus on developing your company’s main value proposition. – (F)ollow (O)ne (C)ourse (U)ntil (S)uccesful! We tend to see money or what we think is another opportunity to make a quick hustle. This will get you so far off track even if it works, but the bottom line is staying focus.
9. Not Pricing Correctly – under or over-pricing the product may inhibit adoption. – Most business starting out seems to make this mistake of underpricing for fear of loosing business. Then sometimes its overpricing due to the need for cash. Stay away from this. Set your prices make deals but be firm.
10. Not Having a Long-term Vision That Scales –having a “one-trick pony” that does not lead to future sales – Plan all the way to the end.

Read More Here

Category : Advertising &Blog &Business &Management &Marketing &Networking

There is always hype surrounding the Iphone.

This concept video brings together all the gossip into a design that’s not exactly sexy, but still worth drooling over.

iPhone 5 rumors are swirling about, as they have been since long before the release of the iPhone 4S. We do our best to keep track of all the iPhone 5 rumors, but Isaac Royo one-upped us and created this video that imagines what an Apple promotional video for the next iteration of the flagship phone might look like.

The video and phone concept are based off all the big rumors, including the notion of a bigger screen that we just heard about.

Watch the video below and you’ll see that 3.95-inch screen, a Thunderbolt port, 12-megapixel camera, retina display, 4G LTE, and so much more.

Total runtime of this little fantasy is only 75 seconds, so be prepared for a rude awakening at the end when you return to the rest of your day in a world where none of this actually exists yet.

Read More @ CNet

Category : Blog &Business &Design &Internet &Technology Thursdays &Video

Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Business &Marketing

I think everybody wants to make $. This is the big question. Check this video out.

This is the second of three parts of the image advertising episode of Future of Publishing. In this episode, Newlands and Roup talk with Chas Edwards and Rey Flemings on how to monetize images:

See Part One of this series here: http://www.growmap.com/image-advertising/

Category : Business &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO