The Vaughan Practice

Vince’s Links for August 23rd

Vince — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:33:03 +0000

Shared 8 links.

Mobile Media Club Announcements, Recap, and Preview

Vince — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:34:59 +0000

The Mobile Media Club met on August 9th, as we do every month on the second Monday at Harry’s Bar and Tables in Westport.

We talked about a new Kansas City startup “What’s For Lunch/What’s For Dinner?” started by KarlKoelle. With it, you can sign up to be notified of restaurants in your region who have specials.

Also, Jason Ary of InTouch Solutions commissioned our new Logo and set up our new Twitter account @mobilemediaclub. Thanks Jason!

Our next Monday Mobile Meetup is the second monday in September (September 13th) at 5:30 pm at Harry’s Bar and Tables. Please join!

Also have you joined our Facebook page?

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White paper week – Free eBook for Marketing Professionals

Vince — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:32:38 +0000

It’s white paper week here at the Vaughan Practice. I am using this week to promote some of the latest whitepapers I’ve written. Some are for social media, some are for social media professionals:

Today, for social media and marketing professionals, I am releasing an eBook “Grow Bigger Ears: Strategic Business Decision-making in the Internet Age.”

Are you confused by Social Media Monitoring? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tools in the marketplace? Don’t have enough time to research all the different tools that monitor the social Web?

Social Media Monitoring Tools help businesses gather intelligence about customers (and potential customers) for the purpose of making powerful and strategic decisions for their business.

In it, you’ll learn:

Why you don’t have to wait to survey what people think anymore.
How companies like the Venetian Hotel are using social media monitoring tools to improve the quality of care they offer customers.
How are these tools evolving to become more meaningful for business.
The similarity and difference of six tools in the Customer Intelligence marketplace (Radian6, Alterian SM2, Crimson Hexagon, Biz360, Nielsen Buzzmetrics and ScoutLabs).

To receive this free eBook, click here and fill out the form on the right.

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Mobile Media Monday Meetup August 9th 5:30pm

Vince — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:10:30 +0000

Join us this Monday August 9th at 5:30 pm at Harry’s Bar and Tables for our Mobile Media Club Monday Meetup. Join passionate mobile enthusiasts from Kansas City and share information and ideas.

Who: You of course
What: The Monday Mobile Media Club Meetup
When: 5:30 pm
Where: Harry’s Bar and Tables 501 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO 64111
Why: Because Education is a life long obligation

Please RSVP on at Meetup.com

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Vince’s Links for July 23rd

Vince — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:47:34 +0000

Shared 5 links.

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Get Rid of Your Phone Book

Vince — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:47 +0000

Get rid of your phone book.

When was the last time you used a phone book to find a business? I was having a discussion with Local SEO expert Travis Wright of Advangel the other day and we were talking about the state of the Internet today.

Here is what we found:

When we first meet our customers, many of them are still advertising in local yellow pages. They also rank low according to search engines. According to Entrepreneur.com a full page ad in the Manhattan Kansas Yellow Pages is around $12,000.00. In New York City, that same ad would cost around $92,000.00. When exactly was the last time you used a Yellow Pages to find a business? I asked this question of a local business owner last week and his reaction was that he used a Yellow Pages that very day! He was at a store and needed the number to a Sprint store.

Little did he know that even if he had a regular feature phone (not even an iPhone or an Android), he could text a keyword to 46654 and receive a list of businesses in his area.

Why have a five pound book in your home taking up space? What value does that book provide? We continued our discussion . . .

We centered our discussion around the average customer. What is one average customer worth to your business? Is it 1,000 dollars a year? 10,000 dollars a year? What if you averaged just one extra customer a month? What would that value be to your business? Today, is building a Web site that ranks highly (on the first page of Google) with organic search more valuable than buying a Yellow Pages ad?

What do you think?

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Vince’s Links for July 16th

Vince — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:34:36 +0000

Shared 7 links.

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Steve Jobs Parenting Lesson for Business

Vince — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:20:49 +0000

Today, Steve Jobs, took the stage to talk about the iPhone 4 Death Grip. Today there are a few people who hold the iPhone in such a way to impact the antenna’s ability to receive a signal. He remarked that the iPhone isn’t the first phone to experience a problem and that while it’s unusual to have so many report a single problem, the number of people reporting this problem is less than 2 percent. In fact, iPhone 4 is producing less complaints than did the rollout of the 3GS by as much 1 percent total.

Essentially, all iPhone 4 users can sign up to receive a bumper that surrounds the iPhone (which helps prevent the breakdown) and if they are still dis-satisfied, they can get their money back.

I saw that a colleague of mine with the Mobile Media Club said that Steve Jobs should be owning the problem more. I was confused by what “owning the problem more” meant. It’s not enough to own the problem but there is a degree to which it should be owned that it currently isn’t?

I think I understand a little bit better now though.

Here is how I see it:

Apple builds products that can’t be duplicated. They can be copied but, as with any copy, it becomes farther removed from what it was copied from. These copies commoditize the value of what the original produced. Apple has a background to produce products like the iPhone. Other companies have a background to produce ancillary satisfaction. Steve Jobs refers to his products like they are his children.

In the now famous email over the stolen iPhone, Steve queries a blogger, after having been berated for “kicking in the doors” of someone’s house to retrieve it and what would Steve’s son say 20 years from now if he could see what Steve is doing.

As for us, we’re just doing what we can to try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure.
By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?

Steve looks at his role as a parent. And parents need to own up to responsibilities. Parents decide consequences, both positive and negative, for actions taken by the children. Sometimes, a parent lets a child take some hits and sometimes a parent needs to step in because the child can no longer defend himself.

To me, Steve stepped in today to tell people to get on with their lives. Don’t worry about the design of the iphone, leave that to Apple. We’re going to fix it but the situation isn’t really that dire. Steve isn’t going to do a “Mea Culpa” and leave his child out in the cold. He’s going to take care of it.

How do you take care of your small business in the middle of a crisis, whether real or perceived? How should Steve have reacted?

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Vince’s Links for July 15th

Vince — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:32:49 +0000

Shared 4 links.

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6 Reasons Your Web Site Must Be a Business Machine

Vince — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:18:05 +0000

For many of the clients I talk to, they view their web site as an online brochure. When their potential customers visit, they are able to find product, service and contact information. This is important information for people who want to know how to contact you. Unfortunately, they’ll NEVER contact you if they can’t find your web site. Your web site has to do more than just tell your customers about who you are or what you do.

Your site must be a business machine. It must be all of the following things:

1. Fast and Available – Your web site must be up and running to be found. Pick a secure, reliable and customer centric host that is available 24/7. It must perform well too. Your customers don’t want to wait for a page to load.

2. Interactive – Your customers must have a way to give you feedback on how your product or service impacts their lives. The reason may surprise you. It’s not just that it gives your customers an outlet to dialog with you but you must USE that feedback to improve your product or service. You must have a web site that is built for interaction.

3. Secure – If you are going to collect your customer’s information, your web site must be secure and your customer’s privacy protected. You must structure your web site in a way that places this concern above all others.

4. Intelligent – Your web site must gather information about your visitors and display this intelligence in a format you can use to take action with. For instance, what keywords are your customers using to find you? What are your customers searching for and not finding? How quickly do your pages load? This is valuable data that if left uncollected or unused, could either leave you scratching your head wondering what to do next or could spell disaster, needlessly, because you didn’t have the information you needed to prevent it.

5. Useable – Small business owners don’t need to have the flashiest designed web sites. They need a look and feel that is consistent and useable. It must match your online and offline marketing materials. No need to get fancy. Just make it clean, nice looking and easy to use.

6. Last but not least, Findable – Your customers must find you to do business with you! Your web site must be structured in such a way to rank on the first page of Google, be talked about on Twitter and Facebook, be found by customers using smartphones. How are your customers finding you now?

A brochure can’t do all these things. You must have a business machine that takes care of all these concerns. Do you have a machine that is working for your business, 24/7. If you don’t or don’t know, please contact me for a free consultation. You might need some help.

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