MojoMediaPros

Smartphone Is The Alter Ego

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:31:00 -0700

Interesting Research Brief from Center for Media Research...

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Smartphone Is The Alter Ego

According to a June 2011 report from ExactTarget, data from "Mobile Dependence Day" shows that the smartphone market has seen explosive growth in recent years, and, based on market trends, expected to continue. In February 2011, comScore reported that US smartphone usage had grown by 60% in the previous 12 months, as the total number of Americans using smartphones rose to 63.2 million in 4Q 2010.
And, the International Data Corporation says that the worldwide smartphone market is expected to grow by 49.2% in 2011. This is more than four times faster than the expected growth of the overall mobile phone market, suggesting that current feature phone owners are rapidly switching to smartphones, while non-cell phone owners are jumping directly to smartphones with their first cell phone purchase. According to the Exact Target May 2011 survey:

89% of US online consumers age 15+ own a cell phone

41% own a smartphone (with email capabilities, web access, and other advanced functionality)

48% own a feature phone (typically limited to calling and text messaging)

Just 11% don't own a cell phone

Although Blackberry pioneered the development of smartphones, the industry landscape is changing rapidly. Although Android is a relative newcomer to the smartphone market, its popularity eclipses even the iPhone, likely due to its relative affordability, opines the report. Overall, one-third of US smartphone owners have an Android phone, followed by iPhone and Blackberry.

Smartphones Owned

Smartphone

% of Respondents

Android

33%

iPhone

25

Blackberry

19

Other

18

Windows

5

Source: ExactTarget, June 2011

The smartphone has become a modern day Swiss Army knife, says the report, putting marketers not only in a multi-channel environment, but a multi-purpose environment as well. usage is likely contributing to the arrival of Mobile Dependence Day in households nationwide.

According to a new survey from Prosper Mobile Insights, some 52.9% of smartphone owners say they use all the functions of their smartphone, saying that "It's my life." Another 30.4% say they use all the basic functions of their device, plus a few apps. And just 16.7% use their smartphones exclusively for calling, text messaging, and email.

People actually use their smartphones to make phone calls. In fact, calling is actually the most common smartphone use.

31% of consumers say they use their smartphones to make calls "constantly throughout the day," while 69% are making several phone calls each day. In total, 87% report making at least one call per day

Women 18-24 are actually the least likely to use their smartphones for calling, only 56% say they make calls at least several times per day

Texting Texting seems to be something of an "all or nothing" proposition, people who text tend to do so quite frequently, says the report.

38% of consumers surveyed use their smartphone to text "constantly throughout the day," and 67% say they text at least several times per day. A total of 78% report texting at least once per day

Only 6% report texting less than once a month

Email is the third most common among smartphone activities.

More than half of consumers (53%) use their smartphone to check email at least several times per day. 29% report they check email "constantly throughout the day," and a total of 66% check email at least once per day.

Although teens are the least likely to check email on their smartphones, a majority still do so regularly. 20% of smartphone-owning teens report checking email throughout the day, 41% check email at least several times per day, and 65% check email at least once per day.

Web browsing on-the-go is also a common activity among smartphone owners.

18% of smartphone owners use their smartphones to browse the Internet "constantly throughout the day," and 58% do so at least once per day.

Interestingly, web surfing is more common among 18-24 year olds than among their younger counterparts. This is likely due to the limitations placed on teens during the school day-it's much easier to sneak a text or check an email than browse your favorite website.

Although ot as popular as the smartphone functions mentioned previously, Facebook is the only social media outlet used by a majority of smartphone owners on a daily basis.

17% of those surveyed use their smartphones to check Facebook "constantly throughout the day," and 35% check Facebook at least several times a day. In total, 50% check Facebook at least daily.

Both men and women check Facebook frequently-approximately two thirds of smartphone-owning men and women age 34 and under use their smartphones to check Facebook at least once per day.

Smartphone Capability Frequency of Use

Capability

% of Use

Constantly throughout the day

Several times a day

Once a day

Weekly

Monthly

Less

Telephone

31%

38%

18%

10%

1%

3%

Text

38

28

11

13

3

6

Email

29

24

13

11

5

17

Browse Internet

18

22

19

17

8

17

Facebook

17

18

15

11

4

35

Listen to music

12

12

12

16

8

40

Games

9

11

15

18

11

37

Watch Video

6

6

8

22

19

41

Maps

4

4

10

22

19

41

Twitter

5

5

5

4

2

78

Source: ExactTarget, June 2011

Smartphone capabilities are constantly expanding, with new features, functions, and applications introduced on a near-daily basis. And although not all of these are readily adopted by smartphone owners, the study shows a few front-runners that seem to be gaining popularity. Location-Based Services (LBS) "Checking in" using location-based services on a mobile phone is still not a mainstream activity, but adoption is definitely increasing

28% of smartphone owners have used their phone at least once to check in using location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places. This represents 12% of the overall US online population.

Women are more likely to use check-in services-37% of female smartphone owners have checked in, compared to 21% of males. • Within the 35-54 age group, 13% of men have ever checked in while 38% of women have done so. The difference is likely due to the fact that these women are also in the demographic most likely to consider themselves "Deal Seekers" (as described in SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS report #3, THE SOCIAL PROFILE).

This data suggests-contrary to early speculation that check-in services would be embraced mainly by young hipsters on the prowl-that deal-seekers are now eagerly gravitating to Foursquare and other LBS providers who offer savings based on proximity.

Quick Response (QR) Codes and Barcodes are just slightly less popular than check-ins. 24% of smartphone owners (10% of the overall online population) report having scanned a QR code or similar barcode to obtain more information about a product, business, or event.

Push notifications, an emerging capability, allows companies to send messages directly to their app users, even when the app is closed. Push notifications are especially useful for conveying timely information like breaking news, exclusive sales, and sports updates.

Overall, 16% of smartphone users say they've made a purchase as the result of a marketing message they received on their smartphone. Android users are the most likely to report making a purchase after receiving a message on their smartphones (21%), followed by Windows smartphone owners (19%), iPhone owners (17%), and Blackberry users (10%).

Email is the most effective mobile purchase trigger. Marketing messages delivered through email and read on a smartphone have driven more consumers to purchase than any other method. 55% of those who've made at least one purchase based on a mobile message report acting on an email. Text messaging (41%), Facebook (35%), and shopping apps (32%) also show a strong ability to drive purchasing behavior.

More than half of the 16% of consumers who've made a purchase after receiving a mobile message (about 9% of the total US online population) report that they've completed at least one purchase on their smartphone itself. (This includes purchases made through the smartphone's browser, directly through an app, or through the app store.) It illustrates how consumers' comfort level with mobile purchases is increasing, while also highlighting the fact that people who buy as a result of mobile messages are likely to complete these purchases through multiple channels.

Source of Message Leading to Purchase

Source

% of Respondents

Email

56%

Text message

41

Facebook

35

Shopping App

32

Twitter

20

Telephone

18

Location based social network

15

Source: ExactTarget, June 2011 (Percentages are based on the 16% of consumers who have completed a purchase as a direct result of a marketing message received on their smartphone)

The report concludes by noting that mobile is not a channel, but a series of platforms that allow for on-the-go communications through Email, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, apps, etc., Each of these channels plays an important role when developing a mobile strategy

For more information, please follow the study by accessing the PDF file here.

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(c) 2011 MediaPost Communications, 15 East 32nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10016

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Hollywood Christmas Parade Photos

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:09:00 -0800

MojoMediaPros is the official web developer for the Hollywood
Christmas Parade, and every year, my sons and I sojourn to Los Angeles
to photograph the parade for their website. It's always a fun trip,
and it's a great chance to catch up with my Dad, Bill Lomas, who also
happens to be the Parade's producer -- for nearly 40 years!

This graphic shows only a handful of the thousands of images we
shot. If you want to see more, visit the parade site photo gallery:

http://www.thehollywoodchristmasparade.com/galleries/2010-parade-photo-galler...

And, don't forget to watch the rebroadcast of The Hollywood Christmas
Parade. You can check your local TV listings here:

http://www.thehollywoodchristmasparade.com/television.html

Happy Holidays from MojoMediaPros

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Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 4

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:43:00 -0700

In this fourth and final installment...

I'll explain how, when and why I went about upgrading to Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac.

To recap my previous articles on the subject:

No sooner had I installed version 4 of Parallels Desktop, and got it running predictably, when Apple released Snow Leopard. Given the hoops I had to jump through to get v4 stablized on my system, I decided to forego upgrading to Snow Leopard for the time being.

In retrospect, this turned out to be a wise move, because it was months before Parallels was working properly with Snow Leopard.

Likewise, I elected to hold off upgrading to Version 5 of Parallels Desktop, for similar reasons: nothing but pain being reported in the forums...

Finally, after months of sitting on the sidelines, I came across a test-drive article, that actually gave the latest version of Parallels Desktop 5 a positive review with the latest version of Snow Leopard. This was my sign!

Methodology

Once I decided to upgrade, the next step was to think through the process carefully, because I needed to upgrade both my OS and Parallels.

So here are the steps I chose:

Back up my computer - obvious, maybe, but you might be surprised how many cowboys choose to skip this step
Compact the virtual hardrive using Parallels tools
Upgrade to latest version of Parallels 4, tested and approved for Snow Leopard; went smoothly
Test the Parallels 4 upgrade; no glitches
Back up my computer (refer to my notes in number 1, above)
Install Snow Leopard, and Updates
Test Parallels 4 with Snow Leopard; no glitches
Back up my computer
Install upgrade to Parallels 5, with updates
Test Parallels -- Success!!!

Thankfully, this process went smoothly!

Major Bennies!

I immediately noticed some important benefits after upgrading:

Parallels Desktop 5 definitely seemed to boot faster and run smoother over all
A welcome addition, Parallels Desktop 5 now automates virtual hard drive maintenance; compacting in the background
Parallels Desktop 5 now recognizes and honors hardware assignments. This means when I plug my iPhone in, I can now reliably choose which environment I want to sync from. No more tug-war-war between Windows and Mac OS. Synching works equally well in both Mac and Windows. It also means that you can assign USB hard drives to the Windows environment and they will mount seamlessly, when you launch your Windows VM. Flash drives seems to mount quicker and more reliably in the windows VM as well.
Parallels Desktop 5 no longer freezes up during background scans; as I noted in previous article, my system would often freeze if left idle overnight, while running Parallels 4. This annoyance went away with my upgrade.
And lo and behold, my CD-ROM drive, which I was certain was defective, suddenly started behaving normally!

I'm very pleased with Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac. I'm glad I upgraded. I'm also certain I did the right thing, by waiting 6+ months, until all the drama died down.

Two other improvements that have helped:

I upgraded to 8Gb of Ram. As I explained in Part 2 of this series, I was running with 4Gb of RAM, which I split evenly between my Mac and Windows XP environments. My logic for upgrading was this: while the maximum amount of RAM Windows XP will recogonize is only 3Gb -- a 133% increase; significant, but probably not reason enough to upgrade - - more importantly, upgrading to 8Gb, meant that I could increase my Mac environment from 2Gb to 5 Gb, a 250% increase. Since Parallels runs under the Mac OS, I ventured I would see further speed and stability increases, and I was right.
Following my original optimization assumption, that any PC service or function that wasn't absolutely necessary was probably slowing me down, I wondered if there ight be more that could be accomplished in this area; beyond my level of PC administration knowledge. So, I decided to research speed and optimization tools for PC. Ultimately I landed on a tool that seemed to target my concerns, called SpeedUpMyPC. For all you smug PC administrators out there rolling your eyes, this corny little consumer app actually did a great job and it comes with several tools designed to keep your system optimized for speed.

State Of My Parallels Universe

So here’s my current system status: I can run my Windows environment for days on end, opening closing dozens of apps, without ever hanging or degrading. I've stoped thinking about the fact that I am running Windows in a virtual environment. It truly feels like I am running two separate computers. When my PC is busy, I move to my Mac screen, where I can run all the Mac software. If my Mac is busy, I reach for the PC environment, where I run Office 2007 and Creative Suite and other PC apps. By the way, prior to upgrading, Windows really dragged if I opened more than one of the Creative Suite apps, but now longer!

You may remember, my journey into a Parallels Universe began with a purpose, and a master plan:

"I will replace my aging Dell Latitude laptop with an Intel-based MacBook Pro and run my Windows environment as a virtual machine! In the short term, I can use the Windows tools and software I had grown familiar with and over time I would reacquaint myself with the Mac OS... Brilliant!"

I'm pleased to say that it has worked out very well, helping me regain my Mac literacy. Some Mac Diehards haven suggested I abandon my virtual training wheels, but honestly I think there is real value in being proficient on both platforms, while allowing me to relate to a broader community. ;-)

I hope this series has been helpful to other digital explorers. If so, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave me a comment.

Thanks, Magellan

Other Articles in This Series
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 1
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 2
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 3

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Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 3

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:35:00 -0700

Onward & Upward!

In my last article I explained, in painful detail, the challenges of getting Parallels up and running, with sufficient performance to be used as my daily workstation. In that respect I succeeded, 100%. It works well, and by and large I am productive and happy.

Minor Annoyances

That’s not to say that there were not issues, however; minor annoyances, mostly, that I could not figure out how to solve:

Synchronizing my iPhone was very difficult because iTunes on both the Mac and PC would wrestle for control of the device, even though I mapped it as a dedicated PC resource. Parallels 4 never seemed to honor that setting.
Likewise, I had to manually connect an external hard drive to the Windows VM, even though it too was mapped as a dedicated resource.
I also started having issues with my CD-ROM drive randomly not recognizing CD's and DVD's and sometimes refusing to burn discs. At time I and my Apple tech believed it was a hardware issue, but I am now convinced otherwise.

Other than these issues, all other devices worked seamlessly, including my wireless Internet, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, USB keys, internal and external microphones and speakers; multiple monitors, and my wireless HP printer -- never an issue!

A Season of Testing

Test #1 – Dodging the Snow Leopard Bullet
Soon after I got everything dialed in, Apple released Snow Leopard. I knew that there were supposed to be many improvements to be had on the Mac side, but I wasn't about to jeopardize my now stable, and productive environment! I took a wait and see approach to Snow Leopard and I'm very glad I did. It was months before all the complaints died down about incompatibilities between Snow Leopard and Parallels Desktop v4.

Test #2 – Narrow Escape From An Untimely Upgrade
Then sometime late in 2009 Parallels suddenly released Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 5. Touted as being 3times faster than version 4, I ordered it immediately. Who doesn't like faster.
When it arrived, I had the upgrade CD-ROM in my machine and my finger poised over the UPGRADE button, when I came to my senses... "Maybe I better check the forums to see what people are saying?" much to my horror and disappointment there were dozens of posts mentioning extraordinarily long boot times (like ten minutes) and the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) errors. YIKES!
I solemnly removed the CD-ROM and slipped it back into the upgrade package and set it on my book shelf. It sat there for more tan six months, while I dutifully kept checking the Parallels Forums for any inkling of a successful remedy. All along ignoring the constant enticement of Parallels marketing emails encouraging me to upgrade.

Test #3 – Support? What Support?
I posted several posts that I was very leery about upgrading and asking if anyone had found success? I never git a response to any of these posts, and no wonder since all but one never made it past the forum moderators!
I think Parallels is a great product. It's pretty amazing what it does, and how well it works. I feel equally strong about how terrible Parallels support is. Their support model is probably the worst I have ever encountered. Even when I went online and PAID for phone support, I received an automated email redirecting me to the free forums! AND, my credit card was charged!!

Good luck getting anyone on the phone or a timely response. Just like Magellan, you better plan on being self-sufficient, because there is very little in the way of best practices to be found on the forums and true support is virtual nonexistent!

That's exactly why I'm taking the time document my experience. While I'm no expert, hopefully my experience can help others...

Next Installment
In part four, of this series, I will explain how and why I finally decided to upgrade to Parallels 5; and what that experience has been like.

Many bright spots in that story! :-)

Other Articles in This Series
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 1
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 2
Magellan’s Guide to a Parallels Universe… Part 4

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Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 2

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:18:00 -0700

Setting Sail for the Promised Land

In my previous post, I explained why I decided to wade into the Parallels universe. In this article I thought I would begin by describing my goals for this experiment.

In short, I was looking for a fully functional Windows production environment, running on a VM. Anything less, would not be satisfactory. At least the short term, I planned to be spending the majority of my time in the Windows environment, using multiple programs with many concurrent open windows. Furthermore I had just upgraded to Adobe Creative Suite 4, and I wasn't crazy about the notion of paying to side grade the suite over to Mac. So with this in mind, let me recount my experience...

My Environment at Initial Install

Hardware:
MacBook Pro 13"; 2.53 GHz dual core processor; 3Mb L2 cache; Memory 4Gb;Bus Speed 1.07 GHz; Hard Drive, 250 Gb.

Software:
MacOS 10.4 (Leopard); Parallels Desktop for Mac 4; Windows XP Pro, SP3

Installation of Parallels Desktop for Mac was very straight forward. As was the cloning my Dell Latitude, to a VM (Virtual Machine) on an external hard drive, using the Parallels Transporter tool and following the instructions from the Parallels manual; resulting in a 60Gb file!

Getting the VM onto My New Mac

The trickier part was importing the VM onto my new Mac. As it turns out, it wasn't all that difficult, but for a newcomer to Parallels Desktop, more detailed instructions from the Parallels manual, would have been helpful.

To explain the issue that I ran into, a basic understanding of Hard Drive Formats is helpful. Three common HD formats were involvedcin my migration: NTFS, FAT32 and Mac OS Extended (journaled).

NTFS - Is capable of writing large files; i.e. >16gb. It can be read by MacOS; but the Mac cannot write to NTFS.
FAT32- BOTH Mac OS and Windows can read/write FAT32; but there is a 4gb file size limit.
Mac OS Extended (journaled), can read and write large files, just like NTFS, but it is Mac proprietary, or at least it is not supported by Windows.

So, that means you have to write your VM onto a NTFS formatted hard drive, which I did, with the understanding that the Mac could read it. An indeed, once I connected the hard drive to my Mac, I was able to see the file, no problem.

Using the Parallels Transporter wizard on the Mac to import an existing VM, I was asked for the location of the source VM to import, from my external NTFS hard drive, and for a destination location create the new VM. It all seemed pretty straight forward. So I started the process and off it went. After five or ten minutes of calculating, I got a fatal error message stating there was some sort of I/O write error.

Determined!

Needless to say I was disappointed and baffled. I'll spare you all the angst and hours or research trying to find a workaround on the Parallels forums, etc.

It finally occurred to me that maybe Parallels Transporter was trying to write some temporary data to the NTFS drive (remember the rules above? - Macs can read, but not write to NTFS), so I decided to copy the source VM to my internal Mac drive, and then run Parallels Transporter. That got the job done... Whew!

Credentials?

No sooner than I overcame this hurdle, I was presented my next challenge: Parallels needs to check that you have a valid Windows license.

Hmmm, I do, I mean did… The license on my Dell laptop was the OEM version of XP Pro, which was factory installed. Would that work? So started the hunt for my original OEM restore disc, that I carefully filed away FOUR YEARS AGO! And of course, I could not find mine -- but I was able to borrow a friend's. Without any notion as to whether or not this would work, I slipped in the borrowed OEM CD-ROM and dutifully keyed in the Microsoft OS product key from the bottom of my Dell Lap laptop...

I was skeptical. I had always been told that the OEM discs are keyed to Dell hardware, and after all I was launching this VM on a Mac… It worked!!!

As far as Windows was concerned, I was still running on my original Dell hardware. Pretty cool!

Up and Crawling…

So now my I had Windows running on my Mac, but the performance was slow – make that SLOW -- and wholly unacceptable. I had no reason to expect anything better, but I was kinda hoping for a happy ending...

All for not?

I decided I was way too far into this to turn back. So with a lot of prayer, research and determination, I began my quest to figure out how I might optimize Parallels AND Windows to improve performance. I spent two weeks tweaking and restarting. Two weeks of virtually getting nothing else done... It was a bit maddening... In the midst of all this my son Zach, said something like, "Hang in there Magellan!" Magellan? My look said it all. With a broad grin, he added, "You're definitely sailing uncharted waters!" And indeed I was.

After a lot of trial and error, and many little optimization tweaks, I was able to get it working -- and working well. In fact the the performance was quite a bit better than my old laptop, and only a little less than a dedicated PC with the same hardware; more than acceptable. I was elated!!

Here are the key things that helped me resolve my performance issues:

Parallels Desktop Config

I split the 4Gb evenly between my Mac and the VM; this was far more than the recommended 500k that Parallels suggests
I toggled the performance setting to favor the VM over the Mac
I set windows to run full screen on a second monitor, rather than the more novel (and I suspect more memory intensive) Continuity mode

Windows XP Pro Config

I turned off every possible startup process
I set my desktop background to a flat color, instead of an image
I set my virtual memory page file to the maximum suggested by windows, which in my case was 3070 Mb, which again is a far cry more than the 80 Mb that Parallels insists on defaulting to.

I also learned that it is important to keep your virtual hard drive compacted, using Parallel Tools for Windows. Otherwise performance will degrade.

Summary

All in all, I was pleased. I was back to getting things done, and it felt like I had two computers in one! There were a few issues, however, an in my next installment I will outline those…

By the way… I found my original Dell OEM restore disc weeks later ;-)

Other Articles in This Series
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 1
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 3
Magellan’s Guide to a Parallels Universe… Part 4

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Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 1

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:20:00 -0700

Genesis of a Virtual World

This is the first in a series of articles documenting my experience running Windows on a Mac, side-by-side with the Mac OS, using Parallels Desktop for Mac.I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, but I have figured out a lot of stuff, the hard way, while fine tuning my set-up. Hopefully, others can benefit from my experience. In this installment I explain what led me down this path, in the first place, and how I chose Parallels...

I was and had been a Mac guy for more than a 15 years when I went to work for Dell. What irony! I had been a Mac bigot, lo' those many years, and this was my just deserves.

Believe it or not, I slowly learned to embrace the "dark side", as we used to call it, and I realized that there a certain things I rather liked about Windows. Over time, I actually became more comfortable with Windows than I was with the modern Mac OS. Meanwhile, the rest of my family was all Mac, and they actually started referring to me as a PC guy!!...

"Hey team, who introduced you to the Mac in the first place? Show some respect... Can't we all get along?"

Something had to be done!

In the summer of 2009, I conceived my master plan:

"I will replace my aging Dell Latitude laptop with an Intel-based MacBook Pro and run my Windows environment as a virtual machine! In the short term, I can use the Windows tools and software I had grown familiar with and over time I would reacquaint myself with the Mac OS... Brilliant!"

Parallels vs. VMware Fusion

Ah, but which virtual environment should I choose? The two heavy weights in this space are Parallels Desktop for Mac and VMware Fusion. I had a lot of experience selling VMware products at Dell, so it seemed like the natural choice, although Parallels had much more experience with the Mac and their product was more mature. I read all the reviews, and by and large they both seemed to be good products. I was sort of on the fence, but figured I would probably stick with the VMware product. Then a funny thing happened...

A Twist of Fate

As I was buying my MacBook Pro from my local authorized Mac dealership, I had a copy of Fusion in my hands, when I happened to ask the kid who was checking me out, which would he recommend, "Parallels or Fusion?" He immediately snapped back, "Parallels". When I asked him, "Why?", he was honest and said, "I don't really know, but all the Mac guys that I respect, have all chosen Parallels." This may seem like a light-weight rationale, but it was an answer that I understood, and respected. I bought Parallels, then and there. Little did I realize the challenges ahead of me, to make it all work...

I'll share some of those experiences in my next installment.

Other Articles in This Series
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 2
Magellan's Guide to a Parallels Universe... Part 3
Magellan’s Guide to a Parallels Universe… Part 4

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The Talk...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:43:00 -0700

Whenever I sign-up a new web client, sooner or later they get the "Digital Garden" talk. It's a metaphor, to explain the importance of keeping your site current. In case you've missed this talk, here it is...

A Digital Garden

A web site is an investment. Done well, it is a powerful marketing tool, tirelessly promoting your business 24/7.

On the other hand, if it is hastily conceived or poorly executed, it can actually work against you, turning off potential customers.

It is helpful to think of your website as something living; a digital garden of sorts. And like a real garden, with proper care and feeding, your website will grow and mature over time. Ignore it, however, it will wither and die over time − stale content quickly erodes the credibility and relevance of your site, and therefore the your site, truly will wither.

The gardener of a website, is its content owner, or owners – very likely this is you!

So, in order to to protect your investment, you must allocate time and resources to the care and feeding (fresh content) of your digital garden.

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New Series: Ultimate Email Hook-up!

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:10:00 -0700

Here's the scenario:

These days, it is not uncommon for a user to have multiple email accounts, that they may need to access from multiple devices, such as a desktop computer, laptop and a phone. Setting it all up, to work seamlessly, can be a little tricky for the average user.

If you are a G-mail user, and there are millions of us, you are in luck! If you are not a G-mail user, you should be, especially after yo read this post. Not only does Gmail provide you will all the tools to manage multiple e-mail accounts, across multiple devices, they also provide the best SPAM filtering on the planet -- it's amazing what a bunch of smart people can accomplish with a few hundred thousand servers! ;-)

When people ask me how to manage their email, especially if they are being inundated with SPAM, my response is, "No worries, you just need to set a G-mail account to simplify your mail management." More often than not, the response I get, is something akin to the RCA dog look. You can't miss it; even over the phone!

So, in the spirit of being a good Netizen, I thought I would to make this easy for everyone, by posting some step-by-step instructions, for what I consider the ULTIMATE Email Hook-up!

I'm breaking these instructions up into three separate articles:

Part 1: Setting up G-Mail
Part 2: Setting up Outlook
Part 3: Setting up iPhone

Special thanks to my friend, Chipp Walters, for turning me onto this concept, in the first place.

Enjoy! SL

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E-mail Do's and Don'ts...

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:56:00 -0700

A Primer in E-mail Ettiquette

Since e-mail has been around for a couple of decades, you might think that a primer on e-mail etiquette, is unnecessary because everyone figured this out years ago, right?. Unfortunately, that's not my experience.

While plenty has been written on this subject, over the years, what follows is my list of e-mail basics -- 13 common sense rules to live by, that will absolutely improve the effectiveness of your e-mail communication and may even keep you out of trouble:

1) Possibly the best tip I ever heard, was simply this: "Write every e-mail as if it will be posted on the Internet, for the whole world to read; because it very well could be!"

2) If you are not sure if you should send an email, DON'T!

3) E-mail is a terrible medium for resolving conflicts -- e-mail is terse and doesn't convey tone very well; schedule a face to face, if possible; otherwise make a phone call. So no matter how tempting, DON'T try to save a relationship, or for that matter, end one, via e-mail. Same applies for bad news; e-mail is not the right forum.

4) Most e-mail isn't read -- it's scanned. So DO write with this in mind. Make it easy for readers to "scan" your e-mails:

DO use short sentences
DO use liberal white space
DO use bullet points whenever possible
DON'T write dense, paragraphs

5) DON'T change the subject... I can't tell you how many times I and many others have overlooked important information, because the writer decided to change the subject, just before closing. "Oh by the way, tomorrow's presentation has been canceled", has no business in an e-mail with the subject line, Observed Corporate Holidays (remember Rule # 4). If it's truly a different topic, it is best served in a separate e-mail; especially if it is IMPORTANT!

6) DO get to the point! Summarize your e-mail and any required action, near he TOP of your email, BEFORE wading into all the details.

7) DO use descriptive subject lines. Keep in mind that before your e-mail is opened, your subject line will be scanned by the reader, to determine if it is even worth reading... So beginning your e-mail subject lines with words like: INFO, ARCHIVE, TIMELY, URGENT, and ACTION REQUIRED, help provide context and will increase the likelihood of the e-mail being read, and resulting in the desired outcome.

8) DON'T address an e-mail until you are ready to send it... Many hastily written and unfiltered e-mails, have accidentally been sent before the writer intended....

9) DO double check who is on the distro, before you hit send... Any questions?

10) DO avoid copying customers on internal emails. You will soon learn that not everyone practices Rule #9, when they reply... Or Rule #1, for that matter.

11) DO spell check.

12) DON'T confuse spell checking with proof-reading...

13) DO include an e-mail signature with your contact info. It's courteous, and will be well received.

Got some rules, of your own? Drop me a line at blog@mojomediapros.com

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To blog or not to blog...

Thu, 28 May 2009 14:26:00 -0700

Let me be the first to say,

"The world needs another blogger, about as much as we need more politicians, lawyers or false preachers..."

Blogging is unfiltered, and highly opinionated, as I have so aptly demonstrated.

But, it is also personal...

And if you are passionate about a topic, for example your product or service, or your industry, it is a great way for your customers and potential customers to learn about you, your company, and your expertise.

To blog or not to blog? If you have something to say, by all means, Blog! It is a great way to share your point of view, with a targeted audience. It does not automatically brand you as an ego-maniac; nor will it likely shield you from such criticism, if you are!

In the end the decision is yours. Just know, that MojoMediaPros can get you set up, and show you the ropes. Blogging is a standard feature in all our content management system (CMS) websites.

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Pet Peeve: mybusiness@aol.com

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:41:00 -0700

Psst! If you are still clinging to a 1995-style business email address at one of the early Internet portals, like AOL.com, Earthlink.net, or even Hotmail.com, then this post is for you!

No more excuses!

It absolutely kills me, whenever I see a smallbusiness@aol.com email address, instead of name@smallbusiness.com. Not only is this not very professional looking, it's simply not smart. You might as well hang a sign over your business saying, "We're really not serious about this, why don't you visit our competition" -- Honestly!

I've heard lot's of reasons why businesses haven't switched to a custom domain email address:

Can't afford it, or so they think
Haven't gotten around to it (10 years and counting?)
Waiting for some future time when they will create a website
Can't afford on a website

Perhaps these reasons apply to you? From my experience, it is just as likely that you are concerned about continuity. After-all you have had that AOL email address forever, and all your customers are familiar with it. Right?

The good news is that all these concerns are easily addressed. With regard to continuity, you can keep your legacy email address and have it point to your new email address or vice-versa.

And if cost is the the issue, I am pleased to inform you that mojoMediaPros™ offers an introductory email/website package that just can't be beat!

For more information, please contact us.

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