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Mountains of Mountain Logos

April 24th, 2012 . Posted in Bozeman, Branding, Design, Graphic Design, infographic | No Comments »

 

From the Design Desk: Living in a mountain town, making mountain logos.

They’re inspiring. Awesome. Majestic. I completely get it – because I love them too! It comes as no surprise that someone living in a mountain town would want a mountain in their logo. We’ve made some really fabulous logos for clients involving mountains, but we still run into it over and over again with new clients – the “m” word. The mountain logo request, when there’s already an overwhelming amount of really fantastic businesses using mountains in their logos.

We challenge new businesses to try something different. How can you make it unique and personal? Think about what inspires and motivates you. Be open to ideas. Talk with your designers (we love a challenge.) Sometimes the “m” word is simply the first solution, and we ask you to join us in digging a little deeper.

Lastly, please consider – do you really need a mountain? Is it relevant to your business? We’re all here, we haven’t forgotten that we live in a place surrounded by stunning peaks. I’ve never seen someone say “Oh, I almost forgot about that breathtaking view from Main Street until I saw your logo.”

Nope, doesn’t happen. Mountains aren’t especially unique, but you are.

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Where’s the Value?

April 4th, 2012 . Posted in content, customer relations, digital marketing, email marketing, Internet, marketing, Social Media, Video Content | No Comments »
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Yesterday, I read KISS Metric’s Are you Teaching Your Customers? Pssst… Your Competitors Are. It was built on the concept that your competition is using tools to deliver a good, a value, to their competitors. In essence, the best businesses are teaching. So I ask, where’s your value? What does the consumer gain in visiting your site or connecting to your social media? It’s not like they would, just because.

The Shift

Today’s consumer is arguably pickier than past generations when it comes to value in the relationship – not because previous generations of buyer markets weren’t picky, but because yesterday’s non-existent tools have become today’s everyday resource. Buyers no longer need to pick up a phone to call customer service, the multiplier effect makes the single person in Bozeman, Montana as much of a force as an entire activist group thanks to social media. One tweet could wreck any person, brand, business or organization. As a consumer myself, I tweeted about the lack of broccoli in a bag of frozen vegetables, and the producer quickly responded and said they had some goodies being sent my way – these goodies? Over $100 worth of goods, NOT COUPONS, but stuff my family found value in, as well as a HANDWRITTEN card.

Free Stuff Isn’t The Point

When I sent that tweet – free stuff never crossed my mind – expecting better from the businesses I paid my money to was what I was thinking about. However, this particular producer saw value in myself as a consumer and saw the value of investing in our B2C relationship. This is because of the market shift, now businesses can, or are forced to, listen to the web chatter, either way it’s happening. When these businesses take time to listen, they are saying: “We deliver a value, a quality relationship with every customer to ensure the highest quality product.” Consumer speaking, this is a business I can support.

Much like KISS blogged about, you must get on the education train. The company I have been referencing educated me by showing me that they genuinely care. But I want to add a much broader concept that education actually falls under: Value – where’s the value in visiting your site, or connecting via social media? We often assume users should just want to connect with our businesses, but let’s consider the volume of what we are actually asking them to connect with: emails, text marketing, social media, content creation, donations if you’re a non-profit, and these are just a small piece of the marketing pie. But what are we giving them in return? It starts with value – deliver valuable resources such as education, downloadables (such as free music tracks for signing up for your email) or medical tips. Yes, medical tips via YouTube are growing in small increments within the medical community. Consumers are demanding a return on their investment – their investment? Visiting our sites, liking us, following us… all the other things our businesses are asking our consumers to do.

People Research – You Should Help Them

Because if you don’t – your competitors are and this is where the web traffic will go.

  • 43% of consumers report doing some type of research before they buy
  • 94% of male consumers said that research positively influenced their decision to make a purchase
  • 30% of consumers stated they cannot find enough of the information they are looking for
  • 47% of consumers look to a brand website for pre-purchase research

(Data sourced from MediaPost)

Consumers are looking to research and 30% say that they can’t find the info they are looking for – this is ideal for your business to capitalize on this missed opportunity by your competitors. Our sites are our homebases – we need to make them awesome and with depth in the form of education, downloadable and insightful content. We need to be equally awesome with our social network by delivering a value to the consumer such as that free download I mentioned previously. This is our call to action for your business, deliver a purpose to connect with your brand… and THERE is the value!

Support TEDx, Support Community

March 19th, 2012 . Posted in Bozeman, customer relations | No Comments »
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Bozeman is home to some terrific innovation. There is so much going on this community ranked amongst the top micropolitans in the nation. We love it – we love this community. So when TEDxBozeman was presented to us, it was a no-brainer that we’d sponsor it.

TEDx is About Independent Communities

Each community is unique in it’s own right. Each with it’s own beauty, history and enchantment. This is the beautiful thing about these events, when you sponsor, purchases a ticket or volunteer, you are saying I am invested in this community thriving on a global scale with innovation. The x stands for independently organized TED event. It really puts the weight on the community to show that they should in fact, have a TEDx event in their community.

Community Progression

Taking your community from point A to point B can be a daunting task. What has worked is comfortable, what could work is uncertain. Uncertainty gives us anxiety as we don’t know what to expect. TEDx propels a community onto the global platform as many individuals from all over the world tune in to live-casts of the event, as well as engage with the representation. As a sponsor, we were prepared to embrace this uncertainty by committing to TEDxBozeman. We believe in it’s rewards, which can include: education, innovation, ideas and inspiration. But more so, our community can potentially cause another community on the opposite side of the world to engage and prosper into something it had no idea it could become.

Although our world is broken up into borders, governments and other logistically plotted constraints – we are a global community in this together – we are all connected. Thanks to the web, we can learn from each other and move to fix the mistakes of the past and work together for a better life for all of society. That’s a beautiful thing if you ask us. We have to support our communities for growth, for education and for a better walk of life for all in our community – these are the reasons to support TEDx and other events much like it.

Classic Ink feels quite honored to be a part of the TEDx community as well as strong, supporting sponsor for TEDxBozeman to ensure it’s success. Be sure to tune into the live stream Friday, March 23, 10:30 through 6:45 by heading over to TEDxBozeman’s site or their Facebook page.

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Timeline for Pages

March 2nd, 2012 . Posted in digital marketing, Facebook, Social Media | No Comments »
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So now that you have had a day to dabble with Facebook’s new features we have a run down for you:

Timeline for Pages

Facebook has announced it’s Timeline for Pages feature which was implemented for personal users roughly over the course of the last 6 months. It is a streamlined layout that caters to “stories” (for whatever that’s worth, IMHO for business, they’re still ads). It’s less about the ad and more about the story that evolves. Facebook has found that the user doesn’t like a direct ad, but they are engaged with a story. (i.e. A behind the scenes video of a product being created and tested, or photos from an event that the viewing user attended, or possibly did not attend.)

Facebook believes the best marketing is stories that people naturally tell, and on Facebook that means the short messages, photos, and videos they post on the site. Not massive creative ads. Not 3o-second TV ads translated to online. “Which do people want to hear?” asked Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook’s director of global business marketing. “Lots of ads can add up to noise. Lots of stories are actually the basis of our relationships. Lots and lots and lots of little stories get shared on Facebook all the time. Ads are good. But stories are better.” (Forbes)

From this point forward you have 30 days until the change is imposed on you (you can also opt in immediately if you desire). This means it’s time to fill in your timeline friends – because a lot of your businesses have been around for quite awhile and people are going to be looking.

For businesses, which can have stories dating back 60+ years, they can now fill in their own timeline while featuring their own stories. These stories can be built around product launches, research and development, even nostalgic advertising campaigns (queue Mean Joe Green). Using these stories, a business can use Facebook’s radically overhauled advertising marketplace to push these stories into the users eye line to increase engagement.

Facebook is pushing the need to tell stories, which goes back to how important quality, interesting content is very valuable and can push your brand into quantifiable exposure, thus creating more fans, extending the customer lifecycle, and increase engagement with the brand.

Features of Timeline

Cover Photo

First and foremost is the most obvious change, the cover photo. This large photo is essentially the welcome mat to your businesses Facebook page. This is where you’re strategy, design and other necessary items will come into consideration when designing your cover.

  • Will the user like my photo?
  • Will this photo turn them off, effectively ruining my conversion rate?
  • Should I just slap up a product shot and call it a day?

It’s important to understand how your customers respond to your brand. If you’re a real estate agency, the cover is not your place to use your featured listing, this is the place where you have a “Welcome” mat literally there. A real estate professional should communicate: ‘ partnering with us gives you, the client, a home.’ Today’s consumer doesn’t want to be pitched, they want to be complimented.

There are also several rules for the cover photo:

  1. No calls to action on the cover photo
  2. No contact info on the cover photo (this includes a web address)
  3. No sales pitches – meaning this is NOT the place to announce 50% your clearance rack.
  4. No references to liking or sharing or any other Facebook features

Be sure to adhere to these rules – nobody likes a rule breaker. Besides, Facebook has delivered this product in good faith and all for the very low cost of free – that’s pretty nice of them.

Cover photo with new logo spot and applications

Facebook Applications

Your custom landing tab that you had, directing non-likers to like you, is now gone. You can no longer direct the user to any application. What this means is you will need to create compelling applications that create interaction. Much like what Red Bull did today. They used an interactive timeline scavenger hunt that made the user dig through their entire timeline – what was in it for the user? Tons of swag! They are giving away snowboards, films, gear… you name it, they definitely took care of the user. Thus extending the customer lifecycle as well as the engagement meter.

“57 percent hoped to find games, contests and other unique experiences.” (Are Restaurants Facebook Likes Just One-Click Stands? – Restaurant Hospitality)

This is also where you can feature a welcome app that is pushed through Facebook advertising. The advertising has become very important, because you can no longer direct people who haven’t liked your profile to your featured tab. Now you will need to do one of three things, create an app worthy of the community’s attention or promote an app to get people to stop by, or both.

Content is Necessary

Content became very necessary. Already you have to create apps that the user will want to engage with, but also on top of that, to create stories, you will need to publish the content that creates the stories. Videos, photos, interactive games… these are all going to decide who gets to be in the users feed. Because what a timeline looks like with just posts about specials, let’s just say it’s a book I’d judge by it’s cover. See what I did there? I equated boring cover photos to boring context and that’s exactly what the user will do. Aesthetics drive engagement – people like visually pleasing content, why else do you think infographics are so popular? We’re able to consume a lot of mundane data in a very easy to digest format.

When your content is very compelling, you might deem it necessary to feature that particular piece of content. Facebook has addressed this with the ability to display the content accordingly – think widescreen at the movie theater, they’re called “milestones”. You can also pin them to the top for 7 days if you feel the content is truly good. That’s a pretty neat thing in my mind – extending the value of your content.

Content worthy of a milestones tag.

Management

Management of the site has now become a one page destination. Message, insights and likes are all now shown on top so that admins can begin their day rolling through the most necessary information pertaining to the pages their administrate. From here they can address new comments, new likes or any abnormal data changes. You can also now get private messages from people.

“Now people can contact you privately using messages. Notifications about new messages will appear right in your admin panel.” (Facebook Pages Tour)

Facebook community management is now laid out for admins to easily administer, and cater more to story creation.

Now that Facebook has delivered this astonishing new product, are you going to address it, let it fall by the wayside, or figure it out later when you have time?

Just remember – The new features of Timeline for Pages are mandatory and go in effect March 30th – so it’s time to  get prepared.

classic book classic tweets

LL Cool P (Ladies Love Cool Pinterest)

February 2nd, 2012 . Posted in content, crowdsourcing, customer relations, digital marketing, Internet, marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
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Much to my colleagues dismay – Pinterest is becoming the hot new girl on the interwebz. You see, my coworker, a female (this is important) loves Pinterest – says it’s her own little heaven away from the angst laden posts of Facebook. Last year, Google made a splash with their big announcements, their “Search, Plus Your World” feature and Facebook with it’s Open Graph, hell let’s throw Twitter into the bunch with it’s updated look. While all this happened… one little startup was creeping it’s way to the top – and not on the coattails of the supposed “early-adopters” great reviews and pushes for friends to sign up, it was done on the coattails of the most dominant shopping force this world has ever seen – the female, see how I did that? I told you it would be important.

Pinterest for Business

Female, The Great!

Women, by nature, love to communicate:

“Women are communicators, they love to talk…”

“(They) have a larger corpus collosum this allows women to transfer information a lot faster than men.” - (Men Vs. Women – Yahoo)

So when Pinterest got the first woman hooked, well it was only a matter of time that they would get their other friends signed on – she was able to easily communicate the information she took in. The platform isn’t overwhelming, you literally pin something you see through various means and enjoy visual content. One of the most brilliant things I have seen is Pinterest’s ability to hook the female – most startups reign in early adopters and move from there, however in Pinterest’s the early adopter was your everyday female internet user. How?

Visually sharing!

Sharing is super easy, the user can share via the official Pinterest Chrome Browser extension, pinmarklet, a pin button on sites that utilize it as well just pinning inside Pinterest from the content the user is fed from their friends’ pinning habits. The visual content is fed across the users screen and presto, we all get inspired. Pinterests success is due in part to the visuals and most women love visuals. It’s true, they do:

“The use of colors is important to girls and they tend to prefer imagery which uses a variety of colors…”

As opposed to their female peers, when it comes to images, boys like action, suspense, danger and rescue.” (Uncovering the Gender Bias among Educational Games – Clemson University)

It only makes sense that something as visual without movement, say… like YouTube/Vimeo, is so hot amongst the fairer sex. It was easy, they understood it because it lacked ‘geek’ know-how that’s typical of a lot new media that annoys most mainstream users, and it was fun ( Click to Tweet This).

What’s being shared

In my own personal boards (A board is a defined field where you can label your pins) I have things like food, destinations, clothing styles for each family member and more, the lists could surely go on – I think that might be what is so addicting. I consume so much media throughout my daily internet habits, when I see something pin-worthy, I pin it. My co-users, they are pinning for weddings, travel destinations, do-it-yourself tips (DIY) and more.

How does this help my business?

Statistically speaking women dominate consumer markets, they are the power shoppers. So it’s in your best interest to be where they are – Pinterest is where they are. In fact, I’d say Pinterest might be competing with CafeMom for the “Site most liked by women” category. (Ed. Note: Completely a theoretical concept, you probably don’t want to quote me on that) But one truth is this just released data – Pinterest drives more traffic to websites than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube (which is the second most used search engine) combined (Click to Tweet This). This sort of traffic is astronomical!

People are sharing content their friends want to see, then it’s shared more, but the link is always the original – so when followed back, the traffic flows to the original source of the content, such as… your site. Imagine you are a party rental shop, you have ‘Pin’ buttons on all your pieces of product, subsequently someone (typically a woman) is planning their party, so they pin the stuff they like for inspiration. Now their friends see that stuff, repin, like, comment… whatever, either way, the traffic comes back to that original rental shop which then starts the research process that the typical user goes through before making a purchase decision. Voila! You have made a B2C connection by being actively using Pinterest or their official buttons and you also get the inbound traffic though backlinks:

Because Pinterest is a massive social network, the domain authority is excellent. Consequently, it will be indexed constantly by search engines. The more items people post on their boards that link to your website, the more your site will benefit not only from traffic but possibly (no guarantee) from rank quality scores too. (B2C)

Take a look at what two brand early adopters like Gilt Home and Chobani Yogurt are doing. It’s not necessarily about the brand, it’s more about the visuals that fill the consumers desire, to place stuff in their boards. Chobani does very well in showcasing their product, but they also deliver a value in following them: recipe inspirations, food concepts and even fitness, called: Chobani Fit.

To sum it up – Pinterest undoubtedly needs to be considered while you go over the digital element of your marketing strategy, the ROI could lead to quality customer connections. How are you already using Pinterest? How about social media overall? Let us know in the comments.

classic book classic tweets

 

How to use Darth Vader and the Dark Side as a Digital Marketing Strategy

January 20th, 2012 . Posted in digital marketing, Facebook, Google, Internet, marketing, PR, SEO, Social Media, Twitter, Video Content | No Comments »
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So at this point you are probably wondering “WTF is he talking about!?” Hear me out – I’m onto something here, I promise.

The Death Star

The Death Star is this large, highly trafficked commodity much like your businesses website. You see, websites can span several pages, encompass several different topics, issues and other company relevant information the the consumer may find interest in (or at least it should). The Death Star, broken down, has several different areas, layers and entry points, but it’s all built around one theme… the Dark Side. Does this sound familiar? Topics, subtopics and landing pages… these are the things that should be built around one theme, your website.Much like what the Death Star has done for sectioning out different areas. Of course that didn’t stop Darth Vader from force choking you from across the room.

The Death Star is by all means, a centralized traffic hub for the Dark Side’s many unique outlets. No matter where the Sith Lord, Darth Vader or all those little spacecraft travel to… they return to one destination, you guessed it… the Death Star. Now consider your website, but in this dimension or universe or galaxy or what have you, the previous mentioned supporting cast are your Facebook page, your YouTube channel, email marketing, PR, mobile devices and more. These bring traffic back to the homebase, your website, through inbound linking which can give your entity the most exposure through creating engaging, sharable content.

The Fleet are Protection for the Homebase

Find Your Darth Vaders

Darth Vader, without a doubt, was the Dark Side’s go to guy who never hesitated to voice his adoration for the Dark Side. In this world you may not want to “turn your customers to the Dark Side” but what you do want to do is convert them to brand evangelists, your best brand evangelist would clearly play the role of Darth Vader – by understanding your most vocal supporter you will get a substantially greater ROI over traditional, interruptive marketing that the consumer now disconnects from and by all accounts, tunes out.

In a study conducted by social networking site myYearbook, 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; 74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision. (Click Z, January 2010)

These brand proponents create inbound traffic for you much like what the Sith Lord did in converting Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. At first it starts with hearing someone the consumer trusts, most likely in the form of content being shared via social platforms, and then the research ensues. In fact, Google recently changed up the search game and made it even more necessary to identify your business’ corps, in the form of personal search or “Search, plus Your World” where the users’ search results are formed based around personal interests (gathered through cookies) and their social media habits. If they’ve never interacted with your business and their network has never interacted with your business, well then… there’s a great chance you won’t be found. The kicker? The search results are automatically set to “personal.” Get creating folks!

Get Your Fleet Right

Your content plays second fiddle to having a fleet pointed in the right direction… your website. By having your platforms owned, fully setup (optimized), and being a part of the conversation you can ensure your business/brand is being represented to the fullest amongst the digital sphere, and fully ready for referencing and potential consumer interaction. This is what is so great about the Dark Side and their amazing Death Star contraption – yes, it was ultimately destroyed, but that’s not my point – it had impeccable control over the entire fleet. It was understood that by controlling their traffic whether by space travel, representatives or a culture that was their own, they were able to create inbound traffic.

Your website analytics will show where your traffic is coming from, use these tools to better understand your consumer – is most of your traffic flowing in from forums? Well get your experts giving expert advice in forums. Produce the content that your “spacecraft” can share with the rest of the galaxy. If it’s not getting shared, liked and interacted with, consider changing things up. (Hint: Start by looking at your analytics to find out who is interested, you’ll save a lot more cash when you truly understand who has an investment in your business.)

Once your fleet is pointed in the right direction you can watch your analytical traffic. From there, you can generate the appropriate traffic that creates interest and subsequently traffic to your site.

So go out, live long and… er… wrong star show, but let the force be strong in your business interests and start understanding how the web is highly important for your brand.

classic book classic tweets

Snow Resort? Get Social!

December 29th, 2011 . Posted in Crisis, customer relations, PR, Social Media | No Comments »
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Awhile back our team blogged about how important it is to be active in your community – meaning, Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogging and all the other places your target audience or customer base is hanging out. We wrote about ski resorts that made Ski Area Management’s list of social media worsts. Being located in a sometimes not-so-tech-savvy region (cough, Montana, cough) or not allowing your business on social media does not mean that the negative chatter from today’s millenials (born 1981 and after with devices in their hands) will dissolve. Soon, they will have buying power and their issues with poor service, testy employees and repeated offenses will all come back around since these tech toting personas document EVERYTHING.

Snowbasin Drops a Bomb – An F Bomb

This week, Snowbasin (A Utah based resort with 5,938 Facebook fans and 1,805 Twitter followers) was dealt a publicity blow. Not because of anything Snowbasin necessarily did, but because of what one of their employees did. (If you’re team isn’t socially aware, you should get them aware to evade a public crisis.)

We’ll get to the incident in a moment, first we want to address that the particular piece of content was not first placed on the big three… Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, it was Vimeo (a video content site that some businesses do not give enough credit because of YouTube’s undeniable global scale exposure). The kids who had the situation with the ski patroller caught the entire incident on video (featuring a very unprofessional *f* bomb dropped by an adult employee AFTER he had already told them to shut up, which was unprofessional in itself). Being the tech-savvy 140 character tweeting consumers that most millennials are , they had enough sav’ in them to capture the diatribe in it’s entirety and upload it to their Garden Stories Vimeo channel.

From the Vimeo channel, it made it’s rounds in the ski/snowboard viral-sphere then was picked up by thousands of other tech-savvy people who watch this industry.  After it made it’s primary rounds, the content was definitely displayed to the parents (The same people resorts target because they make the buying decisions for the FAMILY SKI TRIPS) on mobile devices who then blogged about it on their mom/dad blogs then tweeted it to their followers just to make sure to spread the word. This means the resort’s impressions on people were maximized and uncontrollable, because today’s consumers expect that ALL businesses they pay money to to treat them in a dignified manner.

Your Business Has To Be Social

If your brand is not social, it’s going to hurt. It may not hurt you now, but the longer you hesitate the longer you miss out on potential business opportunities, and subsequent revenue. If your brand isn’t social, be aware that your competition may be generating revenue through these outlets NOW.  While you are wondering how to use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Vimeo in 2013…they will have moved on to gamification, augmented reality and NFC (near-field communication).

How does this apply to Snowbasin’s present boo boo? By current standards they are great socially, in fact they were very responsive unlike say… Penn State who bottled up after their current crisis. Snowbasin most likely has a properly trained staff for social media, and rightfully so… these types of incidents can happen at any point. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if a certain patroller made it to social media awareness class. He should have known that kids on the slopes are toting around video capturing devices and will not stop for anything that would prohibit them from a production that could go viral.

People Don’t WANT to Speak Corporate – It’s Called: We’re Sorry!

UPDATE: Snowbasin now has over 670 comments on the issue, it has been picked up by national media as well. 

As you can see below, Snowbasin addressed the issue and people rightfully want to know what actions have been taken. These are the people purchasing tickets, food and lodging at snow resorts. They have every right to expect professional and dutiful service or else they’ll take their kids and go to the competing resorts where everything is going to be fresh pow pow and gnar-filled dreams.

We use the Viralheat plugin to gauge our clients’ profile comments, it tracks positive, negative and neutral feedback - Take note of ALL the neutral and bad faces (orange and gray) –  it’s not looking good for Snowbasin. Furthermore, please note Dennis Choi’s comment:

“”Snowbasin strongly believes in treating all of our guests with respect” — I believe that this is the problem at hand. Merely stating a corporate goal in the face of video evidence to the contrary seems insincere at best.”

It received 20 likes! You don’t have to read between the lines to see that there is more sentiment with his comment than all the other comments. People felt like this clean up was weak and corporate – it is. As David Meerman Scott would say, it’s gobbledygook (Check out the Gobbledygook Manfesto). “A language of industry jargon and terms” that, in this case, can be taken as patronizing the consumer’s intelligence. Talk to the consumer in their language, “We’re sorry” goes the distance. Make the patroller get on YouTube or Google + Hangouts and apologize to anyone who will listen, it was his bad, he can be accountable. That’s what the people want – so it’s what you must give them.

You can see that it all goes back to accountability and today’s consumers EXPECT it from your business. It doesn’t matter if you are located in Utah, Montana or Alaska… if people visit your place of business it’s a necessity to communicate in their place of business: A Social Web.

Is your business properly prepared for a social media crisis?

Is your business active in the communities that support your business?

Patroller Swearing at Kids Caught on Tape

Could your business handle this crisis?

classic book classic tweets

Danny Schotthoefer+
 

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

December 27th, 2011 . Posted in Internet | No Comments »
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As we write, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and some loud lobbyists are pushing for America’s politicians on Capitol Hill to make a stand against internet piracy… in the form of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

What does this mean?

The Internet

First we need to look at who/what this effects.  Users of the internet love it’s freedom, and the internet is not governed by any one entity, so we can find just about anything we want, and sadly… things we don’t want. Most users appreciate it in this open form and consider it to be one of humanity’s last elements of freedom of communication, plus it aids progression and creation of new technologies Basically, an open web promotes and allows conversation between users who would otherwise not be able to connect.

If the American government passes this bill, we will enter a world of unknowns for American citizens who voice their concerns and angst via Twitter, Facebook, blogging, YouTube and many other forms of social communication, because they all depend on the internet.

What is SOPA?

Introduced to Congress by Texas Representative Lamar Smith, SOPA is a bill that would ”protect U.S. customers and prevent U.S. support of infringing sites.” This bill would “protect” the user by blocking or censoring sites that are deemed to promote an act of online piracy. Sounds great, right? Well it could be, however if it were SO useful why is everyone in an uproar about this?

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

What will SOPA do?

ReadWriteWeb reports:

Along with the Protect IP Act of 2011, here are the ways the U.S. government can enforce the proposed laws.

1. Force ISPs to block access to Domain Name System servers to infringing foreign sites. Here is the pertinent portion of Section 102 of SOPA: A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order, including measures designed to prevent the domain name of the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address.

2. Force search providers to make such sites that have been flagged as infringing undiscoverable.
Prevent the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order, or a portion of such site specified in the order, from being served as a direct hypertext link.

3. Force payments processors to shut down the ability for infringing sites to make money.
Suspend its service from completing payment transactions involving customers located within the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and the payment account.

4. Force Internet advertisers to cease doing business with an infringing site.
Prevent its service from providing advertisements to or relating to the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order or a portion of such site specified in the order.

Confused on Your SOPA Stance?

SOPA, the Internet and piracy – most users don’t download media illegally, however MOST of us use websites.  We Google, we YouTube, and we Facebook… we also write and read our favorite blogs. Under the accompanying domain block, should your favorite site be deemed to have pirate-friendly material, you would be blocked unless you knew the numerical IP address. Mainstream users aren’t typically going to understand, or care about this – effectively censoring the web for your typical, everyday user.

The blocks, until recently, were not even requiring court order. Imagine this scenario – large companies deeming small, yet effectively loud sites as promoting pirated material. The outcome would be catastrophic – small sites could lose out to the large sites that major conglomerates own. As it stands, this is still a potential – many large conglomerates could essentially ‘own the web;’ so that they can control the message.

There has been a line drawn and many in support of SOPA are large, traditional conglomerates who could be trying to find a way to narrow the messages on the internet while most tech-based companies are standing against this bill. Well except one… GoDaddy.com who ultimately lost 37,000 domains,  (including this writers domains,) after openly mocking non-supporters of SOPA. They have since switched their feelings although much of the web considers it a PR spin ( PS – the Twitter boards are filled with gripes of GoDaddy making the switching process quite difficult.)

Who Supports:

Notice: Many of the supporters are large media, why wouldn’t they have an investment in trimming down the internet?

  • GoDaddy
  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • MPAA
  • RIAA
  • ABC
  • NBC
  • Major Sports Media

Who Does Not Support:

  • Facebook
  • Google
  • PayPal
  • Ebay
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
UPDATE: There are rumors of a massive cooperative internet blackout by tech heavyweights Facebook, Google, Amazon, Ebay and Twitter to help the mainstream understand the effects of SOPA

This blog post and subsequently, our entire blog site and business site (because they are subdomains of the other (linked)), could be blocked, removed from search engines and difficult to find if the government or corporate lobbyists convinced a judge that our blog about the SOPA bill was “Pro-piracy.” If this bill succeeds we can liken our country to the e-censorship of Vietnam, China, Iran (who blocked Twitter last year to silence peoples frustrations with their elections in 2009) and North Korea.

This post was edited to look censored to give you an idea of what could happen to your favorite sites if SOPA is passed. It will be available next week uncensored, however in the meantime please reflect on this and consider – is SOPA something you can embrace? It could open the doors for company regulation squeezing out local business on the web, while crippling the internet and allowing corporations and  government counterparts to control your access. Please do your research and make an educated decision on your SOPA stance.

If you are a Montana resident, feel free to call (202) 225-3211 and tell Denny Rehberg how you feel about the SOPA bill.

Here are further sources with information regarding this bill:

Resources:

  • Stop American Censorship: http://americancensorship.org/
  • What to know about SOPA: https://www.eff.org/mention/what-sopa-bill-2012-7-things-know-about-controversial-legislation
  • The Supporters of SOPA: http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/22/list-of-sopa-supporters/

Follow on Twitter to get the details:

@MorningTech

@DigiPhile

@CNet

@EFF

#SOPA

classic book classic tweets

 

Top 6 Must-Have Holiday Apps

December 16th, 2011 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Looking for some fun apps for the holidays? There are thousands for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years. We went through and picked our top 6 must-haves. Armed with your Smartphone and these apps, you just might be prepared for an enjoyable holiday season!

CHOW (FREE, available on Windows, iOS)

This is an application that helps you plan and prepare your first Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner. You go through the easy, traditional recipes and pick out your faves, then CHOW generates a shopping list and a timeline to help you celebrate the day stress-free and enjoy football, or maybe even prepare for some Black Friday shopping!

 MOBILE MENORAH ($1, availabe on iOS)

Take your Menorah anywhere with this app. You can choose the number of candles to show, plus set a timer for when you want the candles to burn out. You can also get the kids involved safely by allowing them to light any or all eight candles by simply dragging the shammus to them. Keep the tradition alive wherever you go!

 CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN ($.99, available on iOS)

After all the madness of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, everyone anxiously awaits Christmas. Now you can have an instant countdown from your phone allowing you to know how far away Christmas is… down to the seconds! This is the holiday season’s top app; don’t be left out!

 UGLY SWEATER ($.99, available on iOS)

Everyone enjoys an ugly sweater party. Don’t have the time to find a sweater or make a party this year? Look no further, you can download this app and digitally, and instantly, put an ugly sweater on and send it to all your friends. Sort through the ugliness and pick from hundreds of sweaters to try on. Enjoy the laughs and criticism without the itchiness!

 WATERFORD CLINK-CLINK (FREE, available on iOS)

Everyone celebrates Christmas and New Years with wine or champagne. Now if you don’t happen to have a glass, or are sans-alcohol, you can just tap your iPhone with another iPhone and you magically get the “clink” you would from toasting with actual glasses. Have some fun, and start toasting!

 TAXI (FREE, available on iOS)

Instantly find a taxi cab anywhere, anytime with this app. New Year’s Eve is never lacking alcohol, so make sure you make it home safely. Use TAXI to call the closest and cheapest company. This app can also be very beneficial throughout the rest of the year when you are in need.

With these unique apps, you will now be prepared to take the holidays head-on!

Do you have any favorite holiday apps?

A Need For Thanks

November 17th, 2011 . Posted in customer relations | No Comments »
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Are you blogging? Using social media platforms? Want to attract a larger audience or engage with the audience you already have, but don’t know any tricks?

Put Your Manners To Good Use

Turns out the best way to gain an audience is not anything technical, but by using your manners. That’s right, manners! The best way to engage people is by simply saying “thank you.” Who would have thought that the first thing we were taught as a child would be so relevant for blogging and social media?!

The simple two-word phrase gives the audience a little justification and satisfaction of following you. It is not only polite, but makes them feel invested and useful.

The number of followers you don’t have shouldn’t be as crucial as the followers that you do have. Focus on them; make it count, make it worth their while to continue being your fan. Plus, the more you interact (and thank) a person, the more they will continue to help and support you.

It’s not the number of followers you have or “likes” you get, it’s the strength of your bond with your followers that indicates how much anyone cares about what you have to say. In this game, the one with the most real relationships wins. – The Thank You Economy

thank you What Is Worthy Enough For a “Thank-you?”

-Leaving a comment. When someone leaves a comment, it is apparent that they read your blog, status update, or tweet, so make it worth their  while for spending their time to leave you a comment.

-Linking your content. By linking to your content, a person feels it is relevant, and also worth other’s time to read and go through as well. Thank them for passing it along.

-Tweeting/Sharing something you wrote. Twitter and Facebook are great tools to help spread your message. Most people enjoy sharing content, so when someone does, make sure they know how appreciative you are, and hopefully they will continue doing so in the future.

-Teaching you something. There are so many tricks and shortcuts out there, along with very informative information that you may not be aware of. If someone spends their time and energy to pass you the valuable information, reassure them it was worth their time and energy.

-Answering a question. Asking a question is a great way to interact with and engage your audience. When someone answers an optional question, make sure they get a form of a “thank-you.”

-Simple interaction. There is no limit on what you can thank your audience for. If  the thought of thanking someone even pops into your mind, it is a great indication that they most likely deserve it. Kill them with kindness, and hopefully they will reciprocate by their continuous loyalty.

Make It Count

Ever heard the phrase ”say it like you mean it?” This guideline should also be used for blogging and social media interactions. Even though you are not physically talking with your audience, they can tell when you mean it or when you’re half-hearting it. Stand out from others who are just saying things like “great post, ” and “thanks for the comment.” It will be very encouraging when you go out of your way to send special praise; encouragement that can be used to spread your messages or content. Be genuine!

So Who Can You Thank Today?

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