Today I have looked at a desktop computer screen, cell phone screen, TV screen, business phone system screen, a touch screen on a printer, and, you guessed… an Ipod screen…

and I cannot wait to go home, sit back, and relax in front of my EReader screen.It may seem overbearing, but technology is moving at such a rapid pace that it becomes almost impossible to get away from some sort of digital screen. Businesses use these different mediums in order to remain successful (and therefore competitive), and consumers use these screens as a means of entertainment.

Although entertainment may be available in other forms, the world is slowly filling up with technologically savvy people. In other words, the latest wave of consumers and business workers has grown up with technology. As a recent graduate myself, I know that these many digital screens are going nowhere.

With that said, businesses now need to focus on how to get ready for this new multi-screen world. Marketing and advertising need to realize that consumers are using all of these different mediums to gather information. Although it may add to the workload, these departments need to learn how to utilize all these different digital mediums. Consider a few of the different screens consumers use each day and how a company can benefit:

Cell Phones

The world is becoming more mobile. Lugging around a laptop became too much of a hassle, so many are now paying extra to be connected to the Internet on their phones. If you want to optimize your website for this screen, consider doing the following:

• Only include content that is absolutely necessary and to the point.

• Create big links for those using a touch screen phone.

• Put your navigation bar at the bottom of the webpage so that it does not take up the entire top half of the cell phone screen.

• Utilize the built-in functionalities of a phone. Offer a button to call, get directions, and look up other locations if your business has several offices. These are features commonly used with a cell phone, so take advantage.

EReaders

EReaders have primarily been used to read novels, but businesses are quickly cashing in by creating their own Ebooks. Although this screen may be similar to a desktop, there are some things to keep in mind that will help you optimize your content on an EReader:

• Make sure the content is simple to understand, but feel free to add in a little bit of creativity. This screen is designed for consumers to look at for a long time, so you don’t want to bore your audience.

• Be sure to break up the copy with bullet points and subheadings for easy reading.

• An EReader book is not a place for a sales pitch. Use this screen as the place to tell a story and teach readers something about your specialty.

IPod Screens (Podcast)

IPods are primarily used for music, however many consumers are now beginning to download company podcasts and listen to them on their IPods. The size of an IPod screen is similar to a cell phone, so continue to keep the content brief, keep the navigation simple, and keep the “play” button large. Once consumers hit the play button on the podcast, the screen will be filled up with your video. It can be time consuming to create a podcast, but at least you don’t have to worry much about the screen!

In the end, this multi-screen world has proven to be a great tool for businesses. The more ways a company can get their information out to consumers, the better.

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to employee background checks. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including business credit card applications to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading B2B Directory, Business.com.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

In my last blog post, I wrote about how using photographs of people and places in your online work can help generate word of mouth and engagement with your brand.

The final category of photographs is the category of ‘things’, which basically can encompass the items that your business sells. “Things” can be a little tricky, particularly in the food area. While many restaurants may be eager to photograph entrees, food is notoriously difficult to photograph, and it is possible that the food will end up looking inedible or unappetizing.

Not the image you want for your business! For food establishments, it may be better to stick with photos of either drinks or desserts, both of which tend to be more appealing in a photograph.

If you’re a business that makes what you sell, other than food, think about posting images of your work. It’s terrific to be on the ‘cutting edge’ in showing something new that is about to be available for the public to see. Talking about something brand spanking new is a great way to build word of mouth.

Think before your post, though, of whether you’ve created something particularly for a client who has already paid for the things you’ve created. If so, it’s always wise to ask permission of the ‘owner’ of the item if it is OK if you post that image. We spoke with Erica Leaf, who does social media for a commercial design company called Imagine Graphics. She explained the challenge this way:

“For instance, in our business we create custom graphics for a variety of business clients.  And one thing that’s interesting to other people is like what we’re making, you know, who’s getting a new sign, who’s getting their vehicle wrap, what does it look like, you know, be the first one– they want to be the first one to see this sort of new thing or to know that there’s a new restaurant and their sign is going up or something.  So that’s one thing we like to be able to tweet about, is a current project that’s just in the works or being completed.  But we always– we have a policy to make sure to ask permission of clients.”

Video is also becoming an option for many businesses , especially given the ease of using technology like Flip Cams, which are fundamentally a point-and-click type of video camera. Some firms take this  a step beyond amateur video by partnering with production companies.

One example is the Roger Smith hotel in new York City who work with the Sandman Productions team to do videos for the Roger Smith Hotel’s blog, Roger Smith Life. Videos feature footage of different events at the Hotel.They’ve created so many videos that they developed a Roger Smith Hotel Youtube channel, further extending their reach into the social media world.

Finally, you can also encourage customers to take their own photos and videos and upload them to your site. This is a way to engage the type of online users that Forrester media refers to as ‘creators’: people who like to express themselves and their creativity online. Of course, there’s a risk that the quality won’t be as good as you wish, but always remember you have the ultimate veto power over what gets posted to your own site.

- Kim

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

The Internet is abuzz this week with talk of the “KFC Double Down” sandwich. A sandwich that has no bun, rather two pieces of fried chicken with bacon and cheese sandwiched in the middle.

“How could they do this!” are the cries that come from millions who are already more than sickened by peoples lack of self control. “Especially with all the talk of our nations problems with obesity!” another cries.

This sandwich had become a flagship for all that is wrong with today’s fast food consumer society. That being said… My guess is that KFC could care less if this menu item sits on the menu for 1 week or 1 year. I’m guessing this sandwich was created for the giant explosion of viral exposure that would happen once it actually hits the menu.

This viral exposure translates to KFC as “FREE ADVERTISING”.

It’s a classic case of “any exposure is good exposure”. Albeit this time it comes at the cost of the thousands of people who decide to consume one or eight of these and then egg on already existing health problem all the way to the ER with a 7 herb and spiced laced path into our overworked medical system.

What makes it different than other non-healthy menu items?

When an employee at a McDonalds created the calorie loaded Big Mac in the 1970′s, the intention was not to clog google searches, facebook status updates, and tweets with the term “Mc Donald’s Big Mac”. The intention as to create a tasty food item that would sell.

I could be 100% wrong… But this is my guess on how the “KFC Double Down” was created: Several people at a marketing agency pondering… “what exactly can we do to create massive viral publicity for the KFC brand”. A marketing publicity stunt of some sort… With rumors of this sandwich flowing online by home chefs for years… A light bulb likely went off… “THAT’S IT!”.

The amount of buzz that would be created from such a sandwich being released to the general public on mass scale would be huge! They wouldn’t even need a crazy advertising campaign to support it. It would run itself – saving millions of dollars and giving KFC loads of free exposure.

This is why my gut tells me that KFC could care less if these things sell or not. They know that by reminding people of the KFC brand, they will get bodies in the stores – who either want this item or simply want a taste of the original recipe and some neon mac and cheese.

They are getting these bodies in the door with-out shelling millions in advertising because most of the exposure comes from facebook and twitter. They get people talking amongst friends debating if this thing is “Safe to eat” or if “its right for KFC to sell it”, which leads to “all this talk of KFC makes me hungry, lets go there for dinner”.

Strictly from a marketing standpoint… Checkmate to KFC… Brilliant marketing move. To the detriment of millions of Americans who can not say “NO” to food that is bad for them… they will be one mouthful closer to a trip to the ER.

- Tony

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

A couple of weeks ago on Facebook, most of us saw the video of a nine-month old, diapered baby getting his groove on to Single Ladies by Beyonce. (If you didn’t, check it out: it was hysterical!)

As a business owner, it can be frustrating to watch such a silly video being passed from one person to the next while you’re working as hard as you can to publish informative and useful information that just sits, resulting in little interaction from your fans.

Certainly, the people who are already fans of your small business may find your content interesting, and it may help to keep you at the forefront of their minds, but why aren’t they passing along your posts? Why isn’t the Facebook magic that other people are buzzing about working for you?

Don your marketing cap. Think back to the principles of what transforms something interesting into viral marketing (passed along from one person to the next).

There are three main traits that a message must have to become viral:

1. Emotion. Your content needs to appeal to the reader/viewer on an emotional level, be that joy, sadness, fear, anger, love, or happiness. If you think about the dancing baby, most people chuckled heartily when watching the viral marketing video. They felt joy and, perhaps, a sense of surprise, so the video touched them on an emotional level.

2. Benefit. The content that you publish must also give your fans the feeling that they will be helping people in their networks by sharing this viral marketing information. Benefits either increase a positive or they reduce a negative. Benefits are concrete statements and are often expressed in numerical form.

For example, you might be saving your friend 20% on a clothing item or saving them 5 minutes by sharing an organizational tip.

Now, in the dancing baby example, there isn’t a way to quantify how much a person’s happiness would be increased, but certainly, people spread the viral marketing video expecting that their friends would have a good ‘ol belly laugh after watching.

3. Trigger. A trigger reminds people to pass the information along. This is where Facebook “does the work for you” and why it’s such a wonderful tool to use from a viral marketing perspective. If you have the first two traits in place, Facebook users know instinctively that they simply need to click a “share” button or make a comment about your words and off your content goes to their network.

The lesson here is that, if you want your words to be sent of into the great land of Internet magic for all to share, you must focus on appealing to your readers/viewer on an emotional level AND making them believe that they will be helping others by passing it along.

Keep these two traits in mind with each Facebook post and you’ll see many more of your fans clicking that “Like” button or making a comment each day!

Watch the video now >>

- Rachel

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Have you ever seen the musical Jesus Christ Superstar? Remember that song, “What’s the Buzz?”  I think that’s when the term buzz first became an important part of popular culture.

Buzz is simply conversations about your business: conversations between you and a customer, among customers, and between customers and non-customers. And every business – large or small, online or offline – wants buzz.

How do you create buzz?

Human beings are social animals and love to talk. We love to talk about things we buy and are thinking about buying. One research firm, Keller Fay, estimated that there are over 3.5 billion conversations about brands in the US every day. Each and every day! That means that basically, each American mentions one brand or another to someone else about ten to twenty times per day.

So the question becomes: how can YOUR brand be one of the brands being discussed? Most people think – and it’s true – that buzz (aka Word of Mouth) happens organically: if a store, a service, or a product is high quality, well priced, and accessible, people will naturally talk about it. But, it’s also true that you can increase the chances that your small business will be part of the buzz by following a few simple steps.

In this post, I’ll go over the first three steps to starting a buzz marketing campaign.

First, you need to think about goals for your buzz marketing campaign. Sure, to say ‘I want more buzz’ is a goal. But a good goal is specific and measurable.  Setting a goal allows you to focus on one aspect of your small business and to be able to track whether that part of the business is improving.

Here are some ideas of specific goals for a buzz campaign:

- increase monthly visits to our website by 20%

- have three new customers visit our store each week looking for a specific product that only we offer

- generate four new leads per employee each month

- increase sales of a specific product or service by 10% over the next three months.

The second step is to identify people that you’d like to talk about your business. Think about those people who are loyal patrons of your business. If you run a small retail business, for example, think about the people who come in regularly to shop there…hopefully, you’ll know them by sight or by name. The folks who sign up for your newsletters (either offline or online) or are part of your ‘frequent buyer’ program are another good choice. Ask your employees who they think would be good advocates for your business. You’ll probably come up with a good-sized list of prospects to be part of your word of mouth campaign.

Once you’ve identified these people, the next step is to ask them to talk about your business to their friends, families and coworkers. I’m always surprised to hear about the number of businesses who know who their best customers are, but have never asked them to help with a buzz campaign. Many of your customers will be happy to help you. The reasons are simple: most people talk about brands anyway, and being able to talk positively about your store makes your customers seem like experts to their friends and family. It’s a bit of an ego boost to be ‘in the know’ about a small business, and to be able to share that with others.

You can ask them personally when you see them, with a phone call, with an email or a postcard to your mailing list, or with a notice in your newsletter or other communication. Give them specific things you’d like them to talk about, such as:

-”We’d love your help in introducing your friends and family to this exciting new product.”

-”Thanks for coming in today…please come back and tell your friends about us too!”

-”We’ve added some new things at our website…check them out and if you like them, we have a button on the site where you can let your friends and family know about the information”

And of course, a little incentive doesn’t hurt either:

-”Here’s a few of our business cards; if your friends bring them in, I’ll give them a 10% discount on a purchase. And I’d love to give you 10% off this purchase today.”

Next time I’ll be talking about keeping the buzz going once you get it started.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

I’m working on a report mapping out the proven formula for free viral ebooks that actually work to get attention and business.

If you have an example you’ve written or someone else wrote that has been downloaded at least 25,000 times, please make a comment with it’s title and the download link.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..