You’ve committed to a social media strategy; you have a rough idea of what you want to do. You have an idea of the name you are going to use. You sign up for Linked In, no problem. You move on to Twitter, enter your name, no problem. Now it’s on to Facebook, and what the heck? Someone there is already using the name you were going to use?
It’s an increasing problem, what with over 3oo social media sites (and more daily). How can you check a name to see if its available on most of the sites you intend to use? Or to lock it in even if you don’t anticipate using all of the sites right now?
We’re glad you asked.
Check out these two sites, that do name checks, and tell you if the name you were thinking of using is already booked on one of the sites. If not, go ahead and register away! Most of these are free, you know. Better to maintain a consistent identify across the board, even if you are going to limit your use to one or two sites.
A few minutes now might save you a lot of grief later, when you find the name you were using on Twitter to promote your business is being used by some unsavory sort on Flikr!
Phone payment is readily available in many parts of the globe, but slow to catch on here.
This from the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab:
Whether scanning a cell phone to purchase a bullet train ticket in Japan or buying cattle in sub-Saharan Africa, the ubiquity of mobile phone is revolutionizing traditional banking and commerce. Gartner estimates by the end of 2009, 74.4 million people will use mobile devices to purchase goods and services worldwide, and will double by the end of 2012 . DoCoMo’s Japanese consumers have been buying mass transit tickets and vending machine goods via cell phones for ten years. Over 5 years ago, the m-Pesa project brought mobile phone micro-payments to the un-banked regions of Kenya. The proliferation of mobile phones brings new business models and opportunities to third world countries, and provides a chance to break cycles of poverty. The cell phone also creates opportunities for new business models, and new revenue streams for established players in finance and telecom.
Adoption of mobile technologies varies region to region. The race is on for who will control – and ultimately profit, from mobile banking. Banks, mobile carriers, security and technology providers have much to win, or lose, depending on technology advancements, partnerships, security and user adoption. There are nearly 4 billion mobile phone users, but only about 1.6 billion bank accounts.
If you are doing email marketing, you want to make sure your prospects receive your email, instead of it going into a junk mail folder.
Gone are the days of ISPs rejecting mail solely on keywords, now they use a sender’s “behavior” as a criteria for flagging mails as spam.
Here are some tips to prevent your emails ending up in a junk folder.
1) Maintain a clean list by handling bounces properly and scrubbing your list frequently.
2) Ensure your prospects remember giving you permission; a confirmed opt-in process is helpful.
3) Use a form of email authentication like Domain Keys or Sender ID.
4) Avoid spam complaints by using a reasonable frequency for mailings.
5) Make sure your emails look right in multiple email clients.
We can set up your email marketing program and write the newsletters if you like. Just drop us an email.
See how effective your blog is, traffic count, outside links, this can help you measure your effectiveness. Enter your blog here: BlogGrader. We know lots of ways to help you pump up your traffic, email us for a free consult.
According to an article in this week’s Portland City Business Journal, we can expect some exciting changes to the legendary Powell’s website. Emily Powell, heir apparent to the top management job at the venerable bookseller, said “What Powell’s does well is that we can offer a magical experience whenever you walk into the store,” she said. “We want to recreate that in a way that hasn’t been brought to e-commerce to date. That will require a combination of tiny details, as well as developing a vision for what’s possible.”
Powell’s is an ideal study in how a business can convert/evolve from traditional brick and mortar to a combination of physical/virtual. Online sales account for about 25% of the company’s annual $45 million in sales.
As the web is always evolving, along with the way consumers expect to do business, it’s a good idea to always be re-evaluating your web and social media strategies.
USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company (you will know if if you were even in the armed forces) has announced they are updating their iPhone app to allow deposit of checks by phone! You simply take a pic of both sides of the check and press “send” and off it goes to the bank’s processing center, like any other check image (it’s been years since banks actually sent physical checks around to clear). If it weren’t for the free candy in the lobby, I’d switch phones and banks today!
In this economy, start-ups and large, established companies are all looking at ways to shave expenses. One thing to consider is setting up and “office-share.” If you are a start-up in need of just desk space, consider bunking with another company in your early days. Also consider approaching a larger, established company. We’ve all read about local companies that have laid off people, maybe they would consider renting out a desk or two? Think of the advantages of that! Great A/C, superfast internet connection, and possibly even a company cafeteria!
If you have space to spare you’d consider renting out, or if you are looking for a desk or two, drop me a line, and I will try and maintain a file and let you know of matches.
