I have been co-hosting a weekly podcast called The Bella Buzz with the CEO of Bella Web Design, Desiree Scales.  We have good conversations about topics related to online marketing.  Thought I would also post the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 45.

This week on The Bella Buzz podcast, we discuss a publishing platform that provides site owners an easy to use tool for managing content, WordPress.  The platform is expected to be releasing its version 3.0 in the very near future according to information that Desiree received at the WordCamp Atlanta that took place this past January.

Desiree points out that one of the major upgrades to the platform will be the ability to manage multiple users across multiple web sites.  Currently this would require individual logins for each user on each site.  This is just one of the many additional features expected with the launch.  According to this post at Mashable, the Beta of 3.0 is now available for testing.

One of the misunderstandings about using WordPress is that it is only a “blogging” platform, when in fact it can be a wonderful way to set up a site with static pages that only need infrequent updates.  Bella Web Design recently built a new site launched on this platform at BrightClaim.com.  Looking at this site, you will see a very fresh well laid-out site that does not have the appearance of a WordPress format.

A key aspect to the use of WordPress is the open source nature of the platform.  Since the code is easily accessible many plugins have been created to expand the functionality of a WordPress site beyond its strong baseline features.  As a service to Bella Buzz listeners we have made a list of suggested plugins that you should consider, in no particular order:

Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap for stronger SEO
Share This – Let your visitors share a post/page with others
Twitter Tools – A complete integration between your WordPress and Twitter, passing links to posts via your tweet stream.
WordPress Database Backup – On-demand backup of your WordPress database.
Powerpress – The plugin gives you everything you need in one easy plugin to use WordPress for Podcasting.
Akismet – Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not (Comes pre-populated in WordPress & is a valuable tool).
Dagon Form Mailer – easily customizable contact form
All In One SEO – this plugin helps you to optimize all of the critical aspects of site design to achieve better ranking results.
WP Super Cache – this is a very efficient way for a site to load faster. Indications are that Google is looking a site load time as a factor in ranking, and this should help that requirement.

We should note that there are other options to consider when deciding on a content management system and we would at least call attention to Typepad and Squarespace, Joomla and Tumblr as other potential platforms.

As a guide for learning how to use WordPress, there are great resources that you can Google, but there is a site called WP Beginner that can be a big help.

There is also an iPhone app that allows easy access to the platform for managing posts.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

This week on the Overflow Podcast, we get into one of the tools of the trade.  We tend to talk about high level social media strategy or changes in the marketing landscape, but we don’t want to forget about how we are able to make this whole thing happen.  Cameron and Joe focus on using Skype for personal and business on this week’s episode.

It also came up that  I recommend the use of the Plantronics 470 USB headset (paid link) for recording podcasts, and while we’re at it I’ll also throw in the recommendation for Logitech Quickcam MP (paid link).

After our decision to take our marketing office to a virtual environment, we needed to have the ability to communicate via video conferencing as well as a simple solution for recording our weekly podcasts.  Skype easily meets both of those requirements.

Cameron shared a family holiday scenario for using Skype to bring all family members into the celebration, no matter the geographic difference.

There is also a simple Skype add-on called Pamela (paid link, again) to help with the recording process. The software is a simple download and install, that records your calls and saves them in an MP3 format for editing and production.  If you have any additional questions about creating a podcast, please contact me at jmagennis @ befluid <dot> com.

This functionality, combined with cell phones and now Google Voice, is making the old telephone closet, and eventually our telephony provider obsolete.  We anticipate going away from our VOIP provider as soon as we can port over our numbers into Google Voice.

Over the years there have been some signals that security concerns may be something to consider when evaluating Skype.  We cannot adequately communicate the exact issues so we’ll link to the experts so that you can decide for yourself.

Businesses can also look at virtual meeting tools such as GoToMeeting and other Citrix products as secure means for effective communication.

NOTE: Can’t believe we didn’t mention the impending IPO of Skype (I’ve got to start writing things down for these podcasts) and the impact it might make positive or negative to the service. The stated intention for eBay buying Skype in the first place was to help buyers and sellers communicate more efficiently.  That has not come to fruition, and in fact the opposite appears to be true in the auction world, where less communication is the preference.

Keep and ear to the ground to see what happens with Skype, but in the meantime take advantage of the flexibility that this peer to peer communication functionality can bring to your personal and professional lives.

The opening and closing theme for the Overflow Podcast is called The Information Age, by Anthony Fiumano and you can find it at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Overflow Podcast directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Our Overflow Podcast this week centers around possible dangers that could occur by implementing social media tactics, when the offering isn’t ready for the rapid word of mouth distribution of the message.

Cameron and Joe set the stage for the discussion as it relates to a former client who had hired us to help with their marketing efforts.  We had immediately assessed their need for a re-branding and re-positioning strategy in order to achieve their stated goal of reaching an entirely new demographic.  This tourism / destination site had seen a steady decline in attendance as their core clientele had simply continued to get older.

We addressed their graphics standards and decisions regarding marketing materials, attempting to migrate them towards development of email databases. As things would transpire, budgets were impacted and our services were no longer contracted.

In today’s environment using social media, we were lamenting the fact that the account would be very exciting to work on again since there is so much interesting content available for distribution via cost effective social channels.

However, it was pointed out to us and is the main point of this discussion … we were also trying to push them into addressing overall operational issues of the facility to ensure that the expectation levels were met once we reached that new audience, and persuaded them to attend an event on the property.

There is only one chance to make a good first impression, and if there are serious flaws in the operation it doesn’t matter how good the communication is, you will potentially lose that customer forever.  At the very least it will take considerably more effort to win the customer back for a second visit.

In this case, we can envision the damaging potential from the key demographic for achieving long term success, which also mirrors early adopters of social networking, who would arrive on site but then quickly disseminate negative and disparaging information about the poor services and tired physical plant.

The key take away from this line of thinking is to make sure that you have addressed all of your serious issues regarding your offering BEFORE embarking on a social media campaign to attract new customers!

The opening and closing theme for the Overflow Podcast is called Showdown at the Bridge, by Eric Dietrich.

You can subscribe to The Overflow Podcast directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

For some reason…. the word legacy has been on the brain lately. Are we doing good things with this moment in time when accessible tools for creating, communicating and collaborating (how’s that for alliteration?) are developed and refined on a daily basis?  It would seem like a wasted chance to not take full advantage of these platforms.

However, legacy as the term defined by Merriam Webster as “transmitted by an ancestor” only felt partially right for describing the sense of purpose that has been gnawing as of late.  Although, I have envied those that have achieved the great accomplishment of authoring a book or composing music that lives well beyond their physical being … where I am coming from is more in line with compiling Knowledge.

For a business perspective from the past, institutional knowledge was attempted to be documented via policy manuals. Those with the task of compiling would discuss practices with the implementers, document their findings to be analyzed and revised by higher ups in the organization, and ultimately published and distributed as a way to pass on this information.

The great missing elements were;

A) True collaboration, in the sense those with the most detailed and explicit knowledge were filtered by those that were doing the documenting.

B) Ease of access and search functionality for this knowledge was hampered by the limitations of paper in a binder.

C) Refinement of the knowledge by way of simple editing tools, which would allow for updates as new knowledge was obtained.

This great bank of knowledge was obsolete almost as soon as it was published!

This is no longer the case as knowledge can be gathered and shared in real time via blogs, audio podcasts, video podcasts and ultimately collected, refined, protected and transmitted via Wikis.

Taking the extra step of establishing a Wiki seems to be the culmination point that has been missing as we have morphed from the various stages of internet functionality … however, it represents THE ultimate purpose for all of this.  Yes, it’s great that we can shop, chat with long lost friends, build communities, and send 140 character updates, but there can be nothing more responsible than compiling and refining your personal knowledge in a way that is accessible for others.

The capability is not only limited to the demands of corporations but can be applied to social scenarios  such as parenting, the arts, hobbies, etc.

A great example of creating knowledge in a real time way and transferring that information into a searchable, cross-referenced database has been developed by Leo Laporte at his great TWiT Network.

All of the information about the hosts, shows and references from his vast array of programming can be found at the TWiT Wiki. As Leo, the hosts and guests on the podcasts discuss current topics, the information that they bring to light is updated into the Wiki as another means of distributing the knowledge.

Why shouldn’t we operate under the same premise? As we are all investing considerable amounts of time creating rich media content for the web, isn’t it our responsibility to compile the information in such a way that it can be transferable?

Blogs are a great linear form of stating facts and opinions with some level of search functionality, however the content tends to scroll off the front page and land in the archives. A wiki format creates a much simpler way to maintain and access this information .. including the ability to update and collaborate.

Just think how you would feel if you had the ability to peruse your parents or grandparents Wiki detailing all that they knew about farming, blacksmithing, pottery .. or whatever their area of interests might have been.  It would be fascinating as well as informative!

Now, go forth and Wiki ….

The Thanksgiving tradition of Arlo Guthrie’s folk standard Alice’s Restaurant puts us in a jovial mood where the discussion tends more towards the music and family, rather than current internet marketing tactics.

However, we do talk about the issue of iTunes crapping out and losing the purchased songs that were in the library on Cameron’s hard drive. Apple now offers a service where you can make backups of the products that you buy, but if you are not diligent you can end up losing them.

There is a service that I used called iPod Access from Findley Designs which allowed me to transfer the files from my iPod back into iTunes to recover music lost in a PC drive crash earlier this year.  It is important to prevent an iTunes sync before proceeding or else the missing files will be lost.

The new iPod 2.2 release came through and the greatest feature discovered so far is the ability to download podcasts through wifi without having to go through the sync process with iTunes.  In an all out effort to find great podcasts to listen to, this feature makes it easy to seek and find the content you are looking for.

One missing element on the iPhone version however is that you cannot get any episode recaps or summaries about the program itself, so I am still in the process of promoting and expanding two bookmarking locations and encouraging others to contribute to the lists.

A Friendfeed room called Podcast Place has been set up, along with a Ma.gnolia Group where all are welcome to drop by and to put links to their favorite podcasts and give us a taste of why you like it so much.  Please send the group URL’s to others so that they can add to the community as well.

For the real Geeks out there .. The end of the mission for the Mars Phoenix Rover happened at the beginning of November and on the 10th transmitted it’s final tweet from Mars “01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3″ …  over the weekend I was thinking about the fact that there is some sort of historical aspect to the human race exploration of the nearest planet, the discovery of ice and how it was communicated directly to over 39,000 followers on a daily basis while the mission was taking place. I snagged the RSS feed and have tucked it away for posterity.

Also, here is a nice short tribute video to Phoenix by JPL.

The Disqus commenting system has been a great addition to the blogs that we have set up throughout this past year, and really feel strongly about making an effort to interact with others via comments. Having a system that allows you to follow others as they leave comments can have an even larger benefit than following on Twitter, simply because a comment tends to be more thought out and in depth. However, the downside to Disqus is that not every blog has integrated the system, so you can only see a partial picture of the content appearing in the comments across the web.

The commenting system that resolves that dilemma is called BackType where the email address that you use when logging in to leave a comment is what is tracked in the comment stream.  So any comment that you have left, no matter what commenting system in use, will appear in the comment stream.  We highly recommend setting up a profile and start following.

Check out the comment widget in the left sidebar of this post.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Throughout my adult life, I have been thinking up various applications for technology.  I can remember sitting in a bar called Peabody’s in Binghamton NY discussing the possibility of inventing vending machines that would be placed in college dorms to dispense soft-serve ice cream cones.

That concept never really took off, but that kind of thought process has remained a constant for me.

Most of the ideas lose some steam and fade away, but some developments actually take root and turn into something functional.  Presently, I’m not considering turning my attention to bringing something else to life, it’s more like I am making a wish list and expecting today’s great innovators to come along and meet my demands.

I am thinking about my IPhone and the amazing applications that are being developed.  There is a great two part series rundown of IPhone applications at Todd Crawford’s blog called Todd Talks.  I recommend looking over his advice and choosing the most appropriate applications for your needs.

The application that I want to see developed for my IPhone corresponds with my growing frustration whenever visiting medical treatment facilities.  There is great debate about letting a company like Google store your personal medical records, prescriptions, allergies and all pertinent information in their vast databases for access via ubiquitous web applications.  This certainly raises serious concerns over patient privacy and many health care industry regulations would have to be amended to prevent unlawful searches.

However, I am a big proponent of cloud computing and my ability to access my work files from any internet connection has had a tremendous impact on my daily productivity.   I believe that this same concept of secure data storage can be successfully applied to the medical records industry.   As I sit with my wife or daughters trying to “remember” various procedures or treatment scenarios, always thinking that it has been over ten years since my last tetanus shot, reminding the doctor what our next scheduled visit might entail … I want that information at my fingertips!  It drives me crazy to see them scribbling on a form document that gets turned over to some office admin to manually key into our precious life records.  I’ll concede that I have been fortunate not to have had any major medical issues and maybe the procedures are better at the higher levels of treatment, but technology should allow me to maintain and access my own personal records no matter where I am seeking care.

Searching the ITunes Store there are certainly some manual entry, record keeping applications, that apply more towards simple fitness regimes.  There is even a physicians “chart” application that may lead in some interesting data portability directions.

But there is one application that piques my interest …. It’s from a company called Life Records Inc. and the application is called My Life Record. They may be on the right track.  For $49.99 the application allows me to store and access my entire family’s records.

Data entry is still a problem … a fax number and a code given to the Doctor to submit the records to the company doesn’t compel me to sign up, and it relies on HIPAA regulations that require the doctor to transmit the information to the company.  I want to use the IPhone’s extraordinary synching & imaging capabilities to get the records on the spot with a plug in and download at the end of my visit, while it simultaneously synchs with the cloud for data storage.

I also need a much better assurance and comfort level with the service provider to rely on this technology, which is why I believe it is going to take a major company initiative from the giants such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle or some other major data warehousing company to meet the needs of the entire transaction .. from doctor’s office, to application to patient.

Now get to work!

Fluid Media is pleased to announce the official launch of a web site for King Custom Cycles.  We are excited about the opportunity to assist our good friends Laura & Phil King in expanding their community base of motorcycle enthusiasts via Web 2.0 tools, and to help them generate business for their parts and repair business.

Let’s share with you some of our initiatives:

First, to touch on the logo design for the brand.  We were brought in on the tail end of the design process and Cameron was able to salvage some of the elements that had been developed, but immediately the concern regarding the “distressed” look revolves around replication issues on merchandise and smaller collateral.

So to avoid losing the little K in custom and other smaller bits, a non-distressed application is being created for certain usage.

We also added a secondary color palette and font styles for use on the web site and collateral materials.

The intention of the web site is to ultimately act as an online community where friends of King Kustom Cycles can interact, exchange tips on great places to ride, discuss new gear for their bikes … or just pass the time during the intervals when not on the road.  In order to achieve this objective we are integrating some exciting new applications and are waiting for others to be released from beta testing!

We set up shop owner Laura King with a Facebook account so early on we can take advantage of the Fotobook plugin allowing her to upload pictures from the Shop, shots from sponsored rides and all the cool events they have planned … and they can be ported over to the site from Facebook.  More importantly the photos and her activity stream are distributed directly to her growing circle of friends (her social graph) in the Facebook community.  Short term marketing objective is to promote the benefit of joining Facebook to her customer base, and to encourage the millions of Facebook users to “friend” her & become a fan of the King Kustom Page.  This direct form of communication is the future of internet marketing strategies.

We’re also waiting for the ultimate rollout of Facebook Connect from beta and the development of a WordPress Plugin that provides for the portability of a user’s web presence. What this means is that as a Facebook user you can log into your Facebook account and via OpenID have a single login point for any site that has integrated Facebook Connect.  Instead of having to login to comment and participate in numerous communities (and my how we hate to keep track of all those User Ids) your Facebook Connect ID provides you a solution.

Beyond the login aspect of Connect you are also gaining the integration of commenting and posting appearing in your Facebook activity stream so that your network of friends are aware of your activity.  Using Facebook Connect on King Kustom Cycles we will be able to deliver marketing messages, event updates, and activity streams to our exponentially large friends network.

We also determined that it would be beneficial to set up a weekly podcast for Laura and Phil.  This rich media content is an easy way to communicate all of the exciting activities happening at the shop while eliminating the grind of trying to write a weekly post.  We’re in the process of trying to name the podcast so that we can develop a brand around the weekly shows. You can check it out at the bottom of the post.

These are the early stages of this site, and we could ramble on about long range micro-blogging communities and the setup of the Disqus commenting system distributed content, but we’ll save those topics for another day.

I never want to say things like “I told you so” or “You should have listened to us” .. but more and more our strategy appears to have been a bit ahead of its time regarding the STORIES campaign that we pitched to a client way back in early 2001.

A client at the time was a resort property that I won’t name, but had hired us to provide all of their marketing communications and design services, including a new web site.  The web site was integrated with a newly developed online reservations system that would have benefited greatly from a well executed plan to convert site visitors into guests.

The concept was simple, we would focus on user generated content, which is the basis of sites such as You Tube, and every blog commenting system in use today.  We wanted to drive traffic to the website that contained a collection of resort guest’s memories, photos and stories – A site rich with customer testimonials!  These firsthand accounts of the experiences awaiting at the property would help to drive reservations from new visitors, as they established pseudo peer to peer relationships via the web site.

This is the backbone of all social media marketing tactics these days.  The strategy of building a community of customers, brand champions, and actual users, and allowing them to interact directly is far superior to building a static site with corporate bulletins and polished prose.  User Generated Content (UGC) is perceived as authentic and credible in the age of Web 2.0.

Hesitancy at the resort, and many entities currently considering opening up these channels, derives from a constant fear that someone might post something that is negative.  Let them!  It provides you with two things — an immediate and direct customer service focus group, and authenticity.

When something negative is exposed it allows for the opportunity to correct the issue (and respond appropriately to visitors via the web site) and in the mind of a site visitor it provides a subtle sense that you have not “scrubbed” the comments inappropriately and are displaying real experiences.

As and aside, user generated content tends to be very strong, keyword rich material that can be easily indexed by Search Engines and helps to drive site rankings.

Ultimately the Stories campaign was never fully executed.  Our plan provided guests with a small journal as an offline tool to keep their memories while on the property, and to point them to the web site URL upon returning home.  These tools were not dispensed at the resort and the site never recieved it’s flurry of content, which I guess is another lesson in itself.

Ideas are only as good as their execution … even if they are ahead of their time.

I just finished up doing the monthly bill payments and all that fun via Quickbooks.  I’ve been a long time user of the product (and use Quicken at home).  I love how they have continued to add features along the way including life saving things like Direct Deposit and EFT payments for taxes.

They have had good resources for quite some time when needing assistance whenever issues might arise, such as online Support Pages and Community Forums with “power users” and moderators to help answer questions.  But in the new social media world, they have stepped it up again and have reached out even more to their customer  base.

After this year’s tax filing time I received the “accountant’s copy” of our Quickbooks file, which is adjusted by our accountant to reflect fiscal year filings and journal entries.  Typically this is a very straight forward function, however for some reason this year something backfired and it did not import correctly.

I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make any mistakes with the data so I emailed our accountant to confirm some things … and in the meantime, I put out a simple twitter post indicating that something had happened with my Quickbooks.  I wasn’t expecting anything from that really .. just wanted to say “what I am doing” via twitter…..

Impressively I received a reply from Kirasw who said that she works at Intuit (the company that makes Quickbooks) and wanted to know if she could provide any help!

Fantastic!  That’s precisely how a company should use Twitter and any social application to monitor the conversation and to provide customer support in some way.  Tools are available to “track” specific keywords and to be directed to the person who mentioned that word.  In my opinion this functionality is the killer app for any brand in this community building economy.

I tip my hat to Kira and to Intuit for making the most of the new tools available to them.

Well … we finally got around to updating our web site from the traditional “corporate site” format, with static HTML pages containing the standard spewing of company speak, with accolades and portfolio pieces to reflect how awesome we are … to the next generation of communications containing a heavy Web 2.0 focus.

We have been so busy over the last six months bringing our clients new opportunities in online marketing that we have neglected to reflect ourselves in our online presence.

Cameron and I are extremely excited about the state of internet marketing and the role that social media, community building and sheer transparency plays.  Customers are no longer “marketed” to but are truly an integral part of shaping the business practices of an entity.

Our model is to help large and small businesses navigate these communication channels so that they may reap the benefits of an ongoing customer dialogue.

We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best of luck in your endevours.