Jump Out of Your Skin

There is a growing buzz amongst iPhone users with the upcoming June 8th release of the new iPhone OS 3.0 at Apple’s  WWDC event in San Francisco. There is also a lot of debate as to whether a new version of the iPhone will come out at that date. .

If you can’t remember the features promised earlier this year and have not been part of the beta program here is the March 17th Apple presentation where Apple announced the proposed features.

Here are the some of features that our Apple crazy house is looking forward to.

• Push technology
• Cut, copy, and paste.  This brings the iPhone into the realms of current Smart phones out there
• Send photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS  Even the most basic phones have these features and it will allow me at last forward messages to my friends phones.  This release also allows you to copy and paste photos – nice.
• Read and compose email and text messages in landscape mode.  This will be great as it also widens the keyboard making it easier to manage messges.
• Search your iPhone like Spotlight on the Mac – searches your mail aexcel.
• And to all the nice neat applications that developers are busy creating to match this set of features

Some Useful links to information about the OS 3.0 Release

• WWDC Offical Site. This gives the official run down on the events plans
• Apple Press release on WWDC
  
• Gizmodo Everything you need to know on iPhone OS 3.0
• Learn about the beta program on the Apple.com web site

If you are interesting in using Twitter to develop your business here are some simple training tips to help you.  With the growth of Twitter there is a belief that being on twitter can help businesses grow their profile and increase sales.  This is true.  But you need to approach this carefully.  Below are some simple tips and tools for starting out on Twitter for you and your company.  For this example I am using dog food.

Create the right type of Twitter Account

Once you have created a Twitter account make sure that your details reflect accurately what your business does so people who check your profile know your niche. Don’t forget to put your company website on the profile as well.  An avatar is vital.  Use your company logo or even a picture of yourself.  I prefer a personal picture as it shows that the person behind the tweets.  You may see lots of accounts with nice backgrounds but for the moment a nice image will do.  If you want to know how to create a background drop me a comment .

Get Reading (not just Twitter)

From the get go you have no followers and nobody is following you.  You are a lonely tweeter.  First and foremost go to Twitter search and search for topics related to your business in this case dog food.  Here is an example just on that topic I found.

Read the Twitter stream on these.  You can save the various searches and return to them regularly.  Do this for a couple of days.  Start following your competitors and information sources that interest you. Research your own business niche online.  Find out what the most popular dog foods and web sites on dog food are.  Read about Vets and what they say about dog foods.  Create bookmarks and an RSS feed to grooming kennels, dog food suppliers, and branch out and look at cat food, human diet and so on so that you have a lot of information at your fingertips.  Do a little bit of reading every day so that you are knowledgeable and can soon answer questions online.

Start Tweeting

Don’t forget you are reflecting your company and its brand.  Make sure that your tweets are of value and interesting.  Add an occasional  link in the tweet.  Don’t always link to your company web site as it will annoy people.  Don’t overload your twitter stream with tweets.  Take breaks. Ask questions. For example What do dogs eat in China? [Editors note - What DO dogs eat in China?]

Engage

Now that you are following these people it is time to engage with them.  Reply to some of their tweets if you find them interesting.  RT them to your growing follower base to show that you find them interesting. Its also OK just to chat about what you are doing in real time.

Don’t Sell – Publicize

People can smell the hard sales pitch at a thousand yards (metres).  Don’t sell through twitter just publicize. For instance.  We have a new roast beef doggy food pouch on our shelves today.  Looks even tasty to me LOL “.  People may go to our site for a peek and keep your product in mind.  If I see “Roast beef doggy pouch reduced by 20% ” I tend to not really pay attention.


Quantity is not Quality

It is better to have 100-200 quality followers than 40K low quality followers.  Work hard on developing a good contact network.  Be patient it is not a race. Your followers will become customers, friends and solid business contacts.  It has for me.

No animals were harmed (or fed) during the creation of this blog.

Grange Web Design offer an interesting seminar and training on Twitter if interested contact them.

Here are some simple presentation tips to supercharge your next presentation.

1. Don’t start with “Hello my name is XXX and today we are going to discuss….”. They already know why they they are there. Start with an impact statement. No preamble – just go for it “Delivery date is June 2nd – less than XX days to go but here is how we will do it”, or “The XYZ product has as many pros and cons as other products but our pros are better and our cons arent as bad – heres how”. That’s what people will remember.
2. Don’t have a table of contents – they will read it in 5 seconds and hit the snooze button.
3. Use a laser pointer if needs and a remote control to move the slides. Walk the room and keep people awake. If you are on a stage walk the stage.
4. Give them a gift. It need not cost you too much. I used an off the shelf pen I bought in a local stationery store that had 5 different colurs. People like gifts.
5. Don’t talk to the slides. Memorise your content, practise it multiple times. Have a folder open next to your laptop/PC with notes to add spice to the presentation.
6. Pictures – no not on the powerpoint. Print off a graphics, picture or powerful graph that people can touch and pass around.
7. Don’t ask for questions – peole don’t ask any they wait for someone else. Do a show of hands. “Hands up if you would like a follow on presentation with more detail / less detail / expand on a topic?”, “Hands up if this was what you thought the presentation was what you were looking for?”, “Hands up if you want me to e-mail you the slides?”. Ask them questions then!.
8. Keep it short. If there is no hands on activity they will all be brain dead in 40 minutes. Stop. If your allocation is an hour try and mix in some practical.work.

CMS stands for content management system and there are a number of different types available for free and to purchase on the market (WordPress, Joomla, Drupa and Movable Type to name but a few).  I have designed sites on all of them and all have features that I like and dislike.  Customers regularly ask me if they should set their site up as a CMS.  Here are some of the things to think about before investing the time and money.

First and foremost sit down with a piece of paper and write down 4-6 things you want the site to do for you.  I bet they at least include the following.

• Be a marketing tool for my business that I can add to my brochures and business cards
• Allow me to put up product information so people can see what I sell
• Have my contact information readily available for people when they Google my business
• Add links to other related sites so people who vist can see related products
• Show people how to get to my business.
• Get traffic to my site that will improve my sales.

All of the above can be accomplished by a brochure site. But you can go a significant step further by using a CMS
If you do not plan to update your web site regularly (by regularly I mean more than once a month) then I would stick with a static site.  If you want to add / change content on a weekly or daily baisis then a CMS will be of more use to you.  However it is most important to get your initial message and wording right and stick with the simple site initially and perhaps migrate to a CMS later.

If you are on a budget then a brochure site should meet most of a small business needs.  Brochure sites on their own can deliver a powerful message if designed correctly with smart graphics, a good style and solid content.  A CSM can bring you to the next level with the addition of excelelnt automation tools for SEO, mailing lists, adding users to forums and so on.

Finally be realistic with your expectations for a site.  There is a belief that it will increase your level of business significantly (it can but takes a lot of time and effort) so having a site alone is only the starting point.  If you want more information please contact me anytime.