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A new Flip

My brother gave me a new toy, a flip video. It’s very cool, easy to use… and here is the first video. Give it a few seconds after you click start – the video takes a little time to start downloading.

[flowplayer src=flip1.mp4]

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New Old Videos

Here is a sample of commercial video I produced from my YouTube account… enjoy

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Better Now?

Boy is it ever frustrating to have a medical condition to deal with. For me it is a Thyroid situation that is mostly under control – at least for the moment. Back in April I parted ways with Web Teks to pursue opening IMS – a company focused on strategies for internet marketing. At first things went very smoothly.  I put together various supporting web sites, updated social media venues, and re-established business banking accounts that had been dormant for a long time. Next I prepared to update my Web Strategies Podcast programming when I started to lose steam.

It’s a little hard to explain if you don’t have some experience with Thyroid conditions – but what started to diminish uncontrollably was my personal energy level. So I pretty much lost the month of May 2009.  Keep in mind that it was not drive, desire, or intent that faded – just the ability to execute. I know I was slow to respond to some long time friends and colleagues, but I honestly could not focus on anything but my immediate health situation.

Late last year I had pre-paid for a vacation to Bermuda scheduled for the first week of June – and it was a close call for me not to cancel. Also scheduled before my May downtime was my participation at the Online Marketing Summit in Atlanta during the second week in June.

As it worked out I found myself gaining back my energy and took both trips.  Although I find myself looking back at time lost, it is time to get back at it.. Today I am working on posting meaningful materials from OMS and  I hope you will find some benefit from the experiences I brought back from the Online Marketing Summit in Atlanta.

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Into The Clouds

I guess it must be my ADD kicking in… A client asked my new company IMS to quote developing a couple of commerce web sites… including hosting costs. Well since I just launched the new company I have been busy… getting the banking in place, obtaining business licenses, finding and leasing office space, staffing the company. Hosting?  I had not really thought about it in terms of giving a quote since developing price grids for Pinnacle Online when I was the CEO – and that was going on four years ago!

One of the terms that was brand new back then but too new to act upon was Cloud Computing.  Cloud what? Wikipedia describes it this way:

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. …The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent technology trends that have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.

So to simplify, using a combination of technologies Cloud Computing allows users access to instantly scalable  applications. Examples could include Salesforce.com or  Google Apps. Users access the online application through a web browser.

This same technology allows business owners a way to simplify managing multiple websites, or stream media, or even online secure data storage. About the best example I know of  for automated offsite computer backup online is itsoffsite (http://www.itsoffsite.com/). I interviewed company President Martin Joseph not too long ago on the web strategies podcast.

Oh yeah… the ADD thing… I better get back to posting some prices huh?

Oh yeah again… the new company website is at http://www.strategicimsweb.com/

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Google is not the problem

Now when people ask me what I do I give them the short answer; Internet Marketing Strategy. What is the Internet Marketing thing all about? Well it’s not limited to Google, although that is a great place to start. There are Search Engine Fundamentals that should be applied to your website before any comprehensive Internet marketing Strategy can be formed.  Google or “Search Engine friendly” web sites are simply one of many tactics available to you.
Other tactics include:

• Social Media marketing
  • Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are not just personal tools to communicate with friends. Used correctly they can be a great resource for lead acquisition and brand loyalty.
• Mobile and Local Search
  • One of the biggest missed opportunities in internet marketing is failing to have complete and correct information about your business available to mobile phone users and  in Local listings on search engines and online yellow pages.
• Viral Marketing
  • This can cover a lot of individual examples, but essentially Viral Marketing happens anytime you create something that causes the recipient or viewer to pass the message to someone else. Probably the best example is a “send to a friend” link in an email or webpage.
• Reputation Management
  • Finding negative comments about your business online and responding positively is critical for large and small businesses alike.
• email Marketing
  • It’s not just about sending a blanket email blast. Creating content specific to each email campaign and quantifying the results will show you how much return on investment you are making… Or not making as the case might be.
• Search Advertising
  • Pay-Per-Click advertising has a whole process to learn or outsource. How much should you pay – how do you measure return, how do you find the right search terms, how do you write the ad… the list goes on and on.
• Analytics
  • Constantly refining the content of your site to both be as relevant as possible and to increase organic ranking in the search engines.
• Server Based
  • And then there are server based tweaks like a 301 redirect. If someone looks for a page on your website they should see the same thing with and without the “www” in the URL. Similarly if there are back links to your web site without the WWW the search engines may see that as a back link to a different website.

Whole books are written on each of these topics… well except the last item about redirects. So in the venue of this blog it is just the briefest hint at what can be done to help your customers find and do business with you.

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Internet Marketing Strategy Company

If you have been following my posts you probably already know something’s up.   I have launched a Digital Marketing – slash – Internet Marketing Company.   Here is the very original name.. . IMS Strategic Internet Marketing Services Pretty clever I think.

If we know each other personally expect a call from me in the next few weeks to tell you more about this. More to come…

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Evil Google

This needs no further explaination – but – Jake is really funny sometimes

From: Brian Walker

Google’s moving into the phone service business. This sounds really cool.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

Adam Coppin wrote:
And really creepy that they’re going to be listening to my phonecalls as well as reading my emails, monitoring my blog and tracking my position on the globe…

As if anyone really believes the “do no evil” motto any more…

Adam Coppin
Senior Web Strategist
Web Teks, Inc. – An eBusiness Solutions Firm

Jake wrote:

In a Google World:

0730 – Set Facebook status to “Eating breakfast at Chick fil’a” – also updating my Twitter
1200 – Watch old episodes of MacGeiver on YouTube during my lunch break
1330 – Get a voice mail from a friend mentioning something about a chicken suit and a request to bring over one of your power tools
1700 – On the drive home from work, notice that billboards change as you drive down the highway, advertising a Black and Decker Robot Chicken that can break into your neighbor’s house with a paperclip

What’s so wrong about all that?

.___.                .___.
{O,o}  Jacob  Tews   {o,O}
/)__)   Developer    (__(\
-"-"- Web Teks, Inc. -"-"-

http://www.webteks.com

the xy axis in the trackball is coordinated with the summer solstice

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Disgsby the Wonder Dog

Here it is the night before my guest appearance on the HearSay with Cathy Lewis program and it’s not exactly cramming – but I am making sure all my social media accounts have been at least logged into.

In the process I ran across a cool little social network aggregating widget called Digsby.

From their own description; Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It is also an email notification tool that alerts you of new email. And the triple play is that Digsby is simultaneously a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to.
I downloaded and set up the application on my home computer, and configured it to show my three main email accounts, Facebook, Twitter,MySpace,and LinkedIn accounts in about 15 minutes – but I know where to look for all my username and password codes so it may take you a little while longer than that. Now i can see when i get a new email, someone at work IM’s me, I get a friends status change – it happens from one concise application. Very cool.
Here are my various social network profiles being tracked in Digsby :

Facebook – from http://www.facebook.com/facebook sign up for an account and search for Tom Anthony

Twitter – http://twitter.com/tomanthony_com

MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/tomanthonydotcom

LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomanthonydotcom

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Baby it’s cold outside

I’m sitting in El Asteca restaurant in cheapeake waiting for a table and freezing my arse off every time the front door opens. I’m also posting to my blog from my phone while I wait. Now that may not seem like a big deal if you’re under 40- but this is star trek stuff to me. In a second I’ll snap a picture and post it to facebook. What the heck is going on here – we seem to be reaching out to one another in a strangely intimate way. Too much computer time?

Update:

This is the photo uploaded from my mobile phone to FaceBook

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OMG!

I just can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog! Now that I’ve been invited to speak on the topic of Social Networking I figure it’s time to return to being social on the network.

Last week an old friend and colleague of mine sent me a note – pretty much out of the blue. Back at the dawn of the internet I worked for the New York Times Company at their Norfolk Virginia Television Station WTKR. I was the first “Webmaster” for Newschannel Three and had a desk in the promotions office above the studios. I had also worked as a Producer for WNIS radio – writing and producing the morning news casts for the station presented by the television news anchors.

Straight across the newsroom was Danny Epperson, who was one of the main Producers for the local news effort. I remember having fun talking with Danny about what I was doing with HTML and how the nuts and bolts of the internet were actually connected. Keep in mind this was in the early 90’s and the internet was “new” – heck – this was BG! (Before Google)

Flash Forward about 15 years and now Danny is the Producer of “HearSay With Cathy Lewis” on WHRV-FM and “What Matters” on WHRO-TV. If you are out of this market you should know that Cathy is highly respected in Hampton Roads by her peers in Broadcasting and has been doing her very popular Public Affairs radio talk show and the TV version for many years.

Danny spotted me on FaceBook and invited me to be a guest on the HearSay program this March 3rd. I’ll be talking about Social Networking… so… I came to work early this morning so I could post this tidbit to my blog and well, now we’ve come full circle.  OMG I just can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog!