Is the CD/DVD Training and Business to Business Communication Tool Dead ?

In 1991 Applause took delivery of one of the first 2 x speed Philips CDROM recorders for the princely sum of £7000 and here it is … About the size of a very large amplifier – and certainly wouldn’t go in the drive bay of your PC.  Today a more sophisicated version would set you back around a tenner!  During  the nineties and early ‘noughties’ the rewritable CD quickly established itself as a means of delivering media rich business communications. They came through the post, arriving in the conventional round form,  cut out shaped versions even business cards and were fully browseable  interactive marvels.

The web, however, was going to change things Sir Tim Berners Lee’s
proposal in march of 1989 was to formulate what we now know as the worldwide web.  In the early stages this didn’t really impact on the CDROM simply because of the severe limitations of software technology and data connection speed.  A photograph of any reasonable size could take an age to appear on screen, video and animated graphics restricted to tiny content windows  So CDROM and its big brother the DVD continued to be the media of choice.  The  web, in the meanwhile,  was gaining ground.  Increased bandwidth and continuous upgrade and improvement of programming technologies and facilities meant that as of today a web page can have pretty much all of the features a CD or DVD can provide plus a lot more.

So is the CD/DVD dead … surprisingly not.  Rather like the cinema when the siren voices announced its death at the launch of television, the CD and DVD ROM seem to have found their niche markets in digital signage for conference and exhibition and retail display, as a  means of reliable communication in developing countries and in helping its old adversary by driving websites forward. When technology becomes easier and cheaper it also becomes more accessible, thus although not many organisations could afford the twenty or thirty thousand pounds a multi-media CDROM could cost in 1995 so many more can afford the few hundred pounds it can cost today.

The huge reduction in cost of digital display screens and players has meant that a 42″ lcd screen and dvd player can cost  under £500 making it a viable and easy to maintain  the means of displaying product and brand information to customers who walk into your reception area, or attract potential business from those who walk past your shop window.

For charities  and organisations who work tirelessly to communicate and inform the health and community professionals working in developing countries, where a battered old TV and player is just as likely, maybe more likely  than a sophisticated broadband network. It is a brilliant way of sending training video, interactive browsable media together with attached further reading files and links to websites for further information where internet access is available.

Is the CD/DVD dead?  No – in this world of downloads, uploads,online backup, streaming, mobile apps and squillions of web pages there are still oft times when you think …. where’s my installation disc, where are my photos, I’m presenting in 2 minutes WHERE IS MY WIFI!!

AMD Loft Conversions Website Rebuild

In 2004 AMD Lofts commissioned Applause to build a web site for them combined with a multi-media CDROM which would assist in marketing the company and drive traffic to the website.  The website and CDROM have worked extremely well for the company in the intervening years, creating a professional high quality image that proved to be key in winning major building and loft conversion contracts.

However the original site, designed to work well with the smaller computer monitors and dial up internet connections of the day, now needed a makeover to optimise today’s technologies.  AMD came back to us to provide design ideas and costings and once again chose Applause to carry out the web revisions which included a larger screen format, high quality images, interactive portfolio module and streaming audio testimonials.

The latest thinking on search engine performance,  social media marketing of the company and web analytics has also been integrated which enable the Directors of AMD to monitor and assess the return on their investment [ROI].

A further module is planned for the new year which will encompass full 3D flythrough of key projects.

Trust – The Way to Secure a Solid Base in Business

One of the unique attributes of Applause is that we build long term, trusting relationships with our clients.

Although cost is always a key element in any business transaction we consider that, in most cases, it isn’t the primary element because people want to do business with people they like, trust and can rely on. Of course they also want competitive pricing!

To illustrate my point, two clients with whom we have built such a relationship have just commissioned us to rebuild their website.  One originally developed in 2004 the other in 2006.  Sure proof of their trust in our reliability, competence and value for money.

Specifically they are using our services again because:

1. Doing business with us was a very positive experience.
2. The original work was of a quality and design to last 3 and 5 years respectively.
3. Mutual trust has developed over time because of our reliability, attention to detail and the level of support we have provided.
4. The price was right for the project both times.

Sceptical?  Check out our linked in profile where you will find testimonials from clients we have been working with for up to 15 years.   http://uk.linkedin.com/in/applause

There is just one way to create such a relationship and that is to build it. And a good place to start is with a phone call – 0117 933 4416.

Here are some of the ways we build trust and get Applause!

1. We do what say we say going to do.
2. We follow up and ensure you are happy with things.
3. We are interested in what you do.
4. We find out what you want and exceed your expectation.
5. We stick to the price.
6. We set out an understanding of requirement.
7. We communicate, communicate, communicate.
8. We are always helpful, the reward is always worth the time.

Google Page One – organically driving your website performance

Here I will help you understand what makes a web page perform well in Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. I’m considering linking rather than page structure and content, I will do that another time,  for now we’ll assume that you have a search engine friendly website full of pages with interesting content about what you do.

Like me you probably use search engines in two ways.  Your either searching for a product or service for yourself or you’re wanting people to find you when they are searching for a product or service that you provide. The search engine, for its part, wants to keep everybody happy by responding with relevant and useful information. Of course for every subject there will be thousands or millions of  pages, so to determine which are the most relevant the search engine analyses each and gives ‘brownie points’ or pagerank according to all the positive elements it finds.  When asked the search question it then presents those pages in descending order.

So ‘brownie points’ for our pages is what we’re looking for and a primary source of these are backlinks or links to your page from another page. Sources of these can be directory listings, forums, links from other web pages and published articles but vary considerably in the value (number of points) they give to your page. Consequently it is a useful exercise to understand how this process works so that you can intelligently apply the time you spend building links according to their value.

Let us take a look at how search engines assess your page.  Taking Google as an example when it analyses a page the first thing it will do is search for links to that page in its index, links on pages outside of the index will not be seen and therefore will not count.  Secondly, having found pages, it will look at the overall site pagerank (0-9, the BBC have a 9) then analyses them for local rank, that is, do they contain key words or phrases that are also contained in your page and the targeted search phrase.

Imagine someone gives you a  bag of ‘pick n mix’ at the cinema, you like big sweets (pr 9s), strawberry flavour and jellies; so you go through bag picking all the strawberry flavoured sweets and all the jellies  but the very best are the big strawberry jellies.

Ok so all our links will be big strawberry jellies – ideal maybe but tough, because likely these pages will be your competitors and they are not likely to provide you with links; and if you do get a link on the BBC site let me know how! But we can improvise our way round these problems by writing our own pages containing the keywords we seek and post them out to other sites with good page rank that will be in Googles index. And don’t forget, using my analogy, you will still be munching the other sweets in the bag.  Lesser links whilst not favourites still add value such as directories and social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

To summarise, think about the key phrases you want to be found by and the  relevance of the links you seek; manage your time between building easy links which can be done quickly, such as directories and social media, but don’t add huge value; and writing article submissions, building a blog, posting to forums and engaging in social media which do take time but provide high value.

Plan and execute your strategy carefully and be patient, Google aren’t known for speedy responses, and you will be rewarded with highly ranked pages which lead to more traffic and more business.

How Your Website Can Out Rank The Competition

Today most companies and SMEs have a website.  Often start up businesses develop their website before they find an accountant or finalise their business plan.  However once the site is up and running and despite all the current hype about search engines, social media and mobile communications, often the poor old website is then left completely to its own devices.

This is not unreasonable,  many SMEs have their work cut out managing the day to day running of  their business and actually getting the work done that pays the bills; and the processes involved in measuring the performance of a website historically have not been exactly user friendly.

Nevertheless consistent marketing of your business is key, especially in difficult market conditions and  your online presence is  one of the most important tools in communicating to potential customers.  So it is important to get the very best return on the time and money invested in it.

Now Applause has an answer to the problem; we are offering a free visual website profile that will give you a simple visual analysis of how your website is performing and how it measures against those of your competitors.  It will also tell you what you need to do  to outrank the competition and you can opt to receive a monthly update showing how improvements are affecting the profile on an ongoing basis.

Our FREE profiler presents the following information in a simple and easy to understand graphical format :  1. Three key tasks you can complete to improve web performance; 2. Your google page rank for your top ten chosen key words you would like to be found by; 3. your ten nearest competitor websites (very useful for subsequent analysis).

We can also provide an in depth analysis report which provides the following information:

Overview: SEO score, Content score, Visibility Score, Top 3 Issues, Key Performance Indicators, Keyword Analysis, Competitor Keyword Analysis, Links to research and related articles.

SEO Score: No of incoming links, Link authority, Keyword cloud, Link domain, Link domain extension, Dmoz listing, Yahoo listing.

Content Score: Internal/External link analysis, Content/tag analysis

Visibility Score: Best search engine positions by key phrase, Overview of visibility, Best SE positions, Monthly evolution reports, Graphical evolution key performance indicators

Competitor Analysis: Top ten competitor analysis by keyword/by search engine/by competitor

Keyword Analysis Tool

If you would like to out rank the competition and take advantage of our no obligation free offer call 0117 933 4416.

Tips on How to Build your Social Media Network

Once you have embarked on social media networking one of the hardest things in the beginning is building your network because at the start you don’t know anyone.  Networking to your existing clients and colleagues gets you going but what you really want is to find new people, who you may have something in common with, be able to give or share information and ultimately who may help you find new business.

Perhaps you have already acquired a Linked In, Facebook,  or Twitter account  or more recently signed up for Google Plus, established your profile and put up a photo of yourself or business logo. Do remember that people will use this ‘Avatar’, as they are known, and your username (my Twitter ID is instantApplause) to find you and get an idea of who you are and what you do.  A social media software page is a crowded place, rather like meeting someone at a station where you wear something brightly coloured, you need to be visible to be instantly recognised.  A similar amount of effort needs to go into designing your identity as your business card or brochure. Many social networkers change their ID monthly, I think it is a mistake. Successful companies rarely change their identity and you shouldn’t either.

You may also have fed your email address list into the social media software application to see if anyone you have emailed has a profile; and signed up for some groups that you feel are relevant to your business.  All of these techniques will build your network and set you on your way but in some instances can be very time consuming.

Here is a method that you may not have considered which involves querying Google with some structured search requests aimed at the specific networking software you use.  The idea is that every profile page contained on the web will have key interests listed.  Say for instance you run a small business selling rare formula 1 posters and catalogues, by searching for ‘Formula 1′ you will pick up anyone who lists Formula 1 in their profile.  You can locate people who may have an interest in your business that you would not easily be able to find in any other way.

Of course having found this information you will need to consider how you might introduce yourself.  You need to avoid being regarded just as a spammer and rejected, and  in many applications there are penalties for this.  LinkedIn for instance will terminate your account of you persistently have people returning ‘I Don’t Know This Person’ in response to your introductions.  Perhaps in this example offer some free historical information or a list of rare posters you have to offer – just use your imagination to come up with an approach that will attract the person you want to connect with.  At the end of the day everyone registered with a networking facility is looking to expand their network, gain new information and connect with people.  Provided your approach is honest, respectful and does not amount to 500 words of ‘buy from me buy from  me’ people will respond to you.

Here is a list of search terms you can Google.

Linkedin: site:linkedin.com inurl:in ‘formula 1′

Facebook site:facebook.com/people ‘silverstone’

Twitter site:twitter.com inurl:status ‘grand prix’

MySpace site:profile.myspace.com inurl:myspace inurl:fuseaction ‘cosworth’

Bebo site:.bebo.com inurl:profile inurl:bebo ‘brands hatch’

For more information on web marketing call Applause 0117 933 4416

Finally remember this; although it may seem daunting at first and progress creepingly slow it does gather pace exponentially.  As your network grows the faster it will expand, connect to us if you like using the links that follow, we’re always happy to network.

Linked In
Twitter
Facebook

DVD Video Presentations for Remington and Alfa Romeo

Whilst on-line web based  media is now very effective at delivering video and rich media content DVD still has a unique place in providing high quality video using  simple and uninterruptable technology.

Two projects just completed involved encoding and editing high definition HD video source material into looped interactive dvd video discs for exhibition and showroom digital signage display.   In each case discs were replicated and distributed to showrooms or retail outlets throughout the country and displayed continuously at exhibition sites.

Technology involved is simply a display plasma or LCD TV and a DVD player eliminating the need for sophisticated equipment with it attendant security issues or web based connections.

Short of a complete power failure the programmes will run and interactivity easily controlled by the player remote.

Video content can also be encoded to run on standalone digital signage displays or delivered online to mobile devices and video player.

Sapphire Festival Video Production

The Wales & West Festival is an annual exhibition and competition event for amateur wine and beer makers from all over the country.  Some 500 or so members, friends, wine and beer making circles  gather each year to enter a national competition, reunite with friends, enjoy music and entertainment and take part in wine and beer tutored tastings.

As this year was a special 45th Sapphire Anniversary of the first Festival the organising committee encouraged members to photograph and record video of the weekend event.  Applause was then asked to assemble and edit the digital video footage into two programs, a short 4 minute taster Flash video to be displayed on You Tube and a longer 15  minute streamed video to run together with the 4  minute option and hosted on the Wales and West web site.  Applause also encoded the video to mp4  format for mobile video delivery.

Judges Convenor and Vice Chairman Ron Williams commented “Amateur associations such as ours can make good use of these new viral marketing technologies as an extremely cost effective way of publicising our events.  We hope that such publicity will in turn encourage people to join in with local groups of people interested in socialising and learning more about wine and beer making”

Applause has built a trusting working relationship  with the The Wales and West Committee over a number of years and once again they have  asked us to start work on promotional leaflets, schedules and booking forms for next year’s 46th Conference and Festival to be held  28th – 31st May 2010. And also to look at social and viral marketing technologies to reach potential interested groups.

p.s. All the material for the promotional flyers, brochures, booking forms and leaflets have now gone to print and scheduled to be sent out during November

Conference & Exhibition Event Hire

Newly formed conference and exhibition equipment and stage hire company Set and Staging Ltd has launched their new website.  Currently providing an overview of event hire services and an on-line database driven enquiry and quotation facility.  The website’s future development will include full equipment specification, bar-code tracking and on-line ordering.

For more information:
www.setandstaging.co.uk
Applause web services

Digital Signage Display for Alfa Showrooms

Alfa Romeo dealerships around the country will be using digital signage technology LCD screens to display video of the new Alfa Romeo Mito and ’159′ models, illustrating key engineering philosophies and lifestyle enhancement with corporate marketing video and customer testimonials. Video footage has been edited and encoded to provide a series of looped DVD video.  DVD masters then duplicated for distribution to dealerships.