WordCamp Atlanta 2010 and The Use of the Wordpress Platform

by joemagennis on January 12, 2010

 
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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 it would be a good time to start replicating the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 35.

It’s all about Wordpress and the WordCamp Atlanta on this week’s episode of The Bella Buzz. Desiree braved the icy roads of Atlanta to attend the Conference on Saturday for a chance to network with over 200 attendees interested in hearing about best practices and upcoming enhancements to WordPress.Wordpress-logo-cristal_thumbnail-300x300

The Wordpress platform can be called a blogging tool, a publishing platform or a content management system (CMS).  Whatever the terminology, it has become a factor across the web for developing vibrant web sites.

The open source tool was first launched in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg, and according to WikipediA as of September 2009 is being used by 202 Million websites worldwide.

Bella Web Design and Fluid Media both use the Wordpress platform as part of the tool kit we use with clients who are looking to establish a solid web presence.  Based upon the flexibility of design and functionality, it has become a logical choice when looking for ways in which to present content.

(Attention: Wordpress designers you can enter a contest the Bella Web Design is hosting, check this site for details and how to enter.)

When considering the use of Wordpress as your web platform, there are choices that you can make based upon needs.  Plugins are available to add practically any functionality that you can imagine for your site, and from a design standpoint you can look into Themes.  Themes are available for free that can be easily implemented into a site for a nice graphic feel for visitors, while advanced implementations can include custom themes designed to achieve specific graphic standard requirements you may have.  It can be an interesting business model for a designer to focus exclusively on building and marketing themes via the “freemium” model.  Freemium by the way is a term coined by Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson for when web services are offered at a basic level for free, with the intention of moving users into paid versions with additional features.

The WordCamp Atlanta Conference was a multi tracked event with beginner, intermediate and advanced tracks, with many quality presenters including locals such as Amani Channel, Dougal Campbell, and Rusty Tanton. As well as national figures such as Mitch Canter and Aaron Brazell.

We will update this post as the video presentations from all of the sessions are posted in a single location, but check out the Speakers page of the Conference web site to see who presented so you can search for presentations.

If you are interested in seeing what other people are saying about WordCamp Atlanta, search for the Twitter hashtag #wcatl.

Our discussion veers into a little segment about the changing role of “spec” creative in the design world. In the past, any client who asked a creative shop to provide designs prior to awarding the work was looked down upon or simply avoided.  Today, the approach has changed to where entire web sites such as Template Monster and Boxed Art have sprung up to handle the demand of creative work distribution.

As we turn the corner on 2010 and get into conference mode, keep an eye out for the next Metro Atlanta event SoCon10, January 29 – 30, 2010.

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Bella Buzz: Collaboration on Predictions for the Online World in 2010

by joemagennis on December 18, 2009

 
icon for podpress  Bella Buzz: Online Marketing Predictions 2010 [29:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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 it would be a good time to start replicating the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 33.

We have a lot of fun on this week’s edition of the Bella Buzz podcast, as Desiree and Joe roll out their predictions for 2010.  We take a look at things we may be speaking about at this time next year, simply as a way to keep the radar up for things we should be following.

We spoke about these predictions in no particular order, so come with us as we gaze into our crystal ball for the coming year: Crystal_ball2_bmwPreview

1) Twitter will change and evolve into something else. Twitter will get bought out by someone and turn into a completely different entity.  Desiree believes it might be Google or Microsoft swooping in to pick up the users. The key to this prediction will be keeping the ecosystem around the firehose intact as it goes through any type of transition.

Google is taking a hard look at figuring out how to incorporate real time searches into the SERPs now,  since microblogging services are taking away a large volume of searches that used to go to Google.

2) 2010 will be the year of location based, mobile device applications.  A service such as FourSquare will get over the hurdle of early adopters and become a part of the mainstream marketing toolkit for destinations and locations.  There has been some early pushback as we get used to having our locations published to the general populace, but will soon be overcome as these applications become more prevalent. (There are now over 100,000 users of FourSquare. Is your restaurant or chain listed? If not, they should be!)

Using a restaurant as an example; mobile applications will allow direct couponing, instant feedback  .. and then adding the next layer of augmented reality which takes advantage of the optical capabilities of the phone, presents the available meta data, including things such as Yelp reviews.

3) Facebook will begin the process of doing an IPO.

The game developers who are writing programs for the platform, things such as Farmville, are making extraordinary amounts of revenue based upon the popularity of their applications. That popularity has grown the Farmville App to numbers of users greater than Twitter.

This Facebook IPO will generate a little Tech Bubble as these app companies will ride the coattails of this major financial deal. How much will it be?  Google raised $1.67 Billion during it’s IPO exactly five years ago.  It was only five years ago!! Today the company valuation stands at $140 Billion.

Will Facebook’s valuation be similar.  Currently based upon private stock transactions the valuation is at $9.5 Billion.

4) According to Forrester Research 59% of all US Marketers expect to pull funds from traditional marketing and putting it towards digital marketing. Self marketing, social media and crowd sourcing are getting significant attention.

Share the Happiness by Coke and Pepsi’s Mountain Dew promotions are examples of this type of new direction.

5) Merchants will accept payments via iPhone. There is now a device that can be attached to the iPhone that will allow you to accept credit card payments.  One of the founders of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has created a company called Square Payment Systems.  This device will allow vendors to accept payments via an iPhone plugin.  This will also start us down the road of payment transactions available through our phones.  It is an established functionality in Asia, and needs to start getting through the red tape here to advance.

6) We may get to the stage of customizable phone manufacturing similar to the way Dell produces desktop computers to spec.

The equipment would have a low base price using an open source operating system such as Android. Then you would have customizable options:

Do you want a keyboard?  That will cost a little bit more.  Or how about an upgraded camera?  Add some more to the price.  Think about all of the variety of features that could become a la carte, and this concept makes a lot of sense.

If Micheal Dell had not figured out how to make the just in time manufacturing process work during a peak PC market, this can be accomplished as well.

7) Finally, this global, free agent economy provides for more opportunity for collaboration. Connecting and creating the resources necessary to conduct efficient business will be a better, more flexible way to operate, rather than large corporations.

What do you think?  Do you have any predictions for what might be happening in 2010?  Please share them in the comments.

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.

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Be Fluid For Your Community

by joemagennis on October 13, 2009

 
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This week on the Overflow Podcast we take a look at a web community that Fluid Media has built called Baseballisms.com, as a way to demonstrate the need for adapting, organic, and of course Fluid approaches to your web presence.Baseballisms.com Banner | Befluid.com | Fluid Media Inc.

Based upon this real case study with our own baseball community, we can attest firsthand to the fact that no matter how great the original concept for a web site might be, it will end up morphing and changing to meet the needs of the audience.  If the site does not adapt, chances are the growth of the community will be severely limited.

Baseballisms started as a site where we attempted to collect email addresses to distribute daily messages containing public domain content.  Instead it has become a fan based community where our content is supplemented by user generated content.

We believe that putting the web site on the Wordpress blogging platform, and now using the Thesis Template, we have been able to maintain a level of flexibility that would otherwise have been hampered by developing a traditional html web site.

Fundamental branding however is important to establish a strong foundation. This actually allows for flexibility to make modifications to the features and services provided by the web presence.  Keep good branding tactics in mind from the start such as fonts and color choices, multiple applications of logo, a strong tag line .. all of these things can help to maintain a consistent message even while being fluid in other areas.

In the end, be solid and fundamental in developing your brand initially, so that it allows you the freedom to be fluid so you can adapt to what your community is telling you that they want you to be.

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.

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Two Profiles Are Better Than One

by joemagennis on September 21, 2009

 
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This week we dive into a topic that might be considered a little bit contradictory to something we have always espoused in the world of social media, establishing multiple profiles.  Demonstrating transparency and open communications has been a mantra towards establishing long term credibility in the new world order of marketing.  In today’s episode we talk about how having a different Twitter profile can keep the conversation nicely segmented.

First we chat about our fine telephone and internet service provider here in Atlanta called Digital Agent.  Howard Hunter and the crew have been taking care of us for almost 10 years now, and we find days when the service goes down as infinitely bizarre.

And, by the way don’t forget to set up a Firefox browser plugin called FoxMarks to make sure that you can hop from machine to machine and still maintain your same bookmarks and passwords for ease of use.

We have our business profiles on Twitter that are focused on social media marketing, advertising and other topics that cross over into the personal Baseballisms Twitter Profile Picsuch as music, baseball, families and anything else that happens to cross our minds.  We are fairly open regarding what is going on.  Recently, we have discovered some value into taking our Baseball related profiles and having very specific conversations and relationships around just that topic.  Nothing else flows into the stream, making it easy to engage in the subject at hand… Baseball.

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Speculating on Social Media Impact during 9/11

by joemagennis on September 11, 2009

 
icon for podpress  Speculating on Social Media Impact during 9/11 [26:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What would have happened during the events of 9/11 had today’s social networks been in use eight years ago today? That is the question that Cameron and Joe address in this week’s Overflow Podcast on the anniversary of the attacks.

During the podcast we recollect our actual whereabouts on that day, and what we were doing on the moment we first were made aware that the Trade Center had been hit.

We try to make complete speculation about how we would have witnessed the scene if there had been Twitter, Facebook and probably most importantly YouTube on that day.

In many cases we have said that social media has been better at capturing live events instead of traditional media, however in this case the second plane hitting the tower on live television could not have been any more powerful. Technology would have provided  more eye witness accounts at ground zero and we might have experienced the horror to an even greater degree as video became available.

It is possible though that GPS technology, Google Latitude, Brightkite or other location based technologies could have helped loved ones locate each other.

We also cannot forget the millions of people not directly impacted by were stranded in airports around the country, the personal stories that they experienced would also have been included in the social media distribution of meta data.

We have discovered a repository of 9/11 videos that is being powered by our friends at Magnify, and is part of the Camera Planet Archive.  At this web site is some of the video that might have been distributed almost in real time on that day of September 11, 2001.

This repository is a powerful effect for the future generations so that they can understand what our experiences were like as it happened.  It underlines the importance of a project like StoryCorps which provides a way to capture our personal histories.

Would these tools have helped in the healing process?  It probably would have .. we would have reached out to the friends that we have made online using the social networks.

We also have to consider the global social networks that we have grown as we would have been able to witness the events through the eyes of the world.

How do you think the technology would have changed the national experiences on that day in September 2001?

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.

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