SCORE Chicago WorkshopsThis is part of a series of video on our YouTube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/ScoreChicagoVideo . These videos are excerpts from a live call in TV show. In this excerpt Jacob Cynamon discusses the internet. He provides some insights on getting started.
Despite the Olympic disappointment of last Friday, the city deserves kudos for Thursday’s TechExpo at the UIC Forum .
The official line on the Tech Expo was…
The Chicago TechExpo introduces and connects small business owners to technology solutions to grow and evolve their businesses. The one–day conference and exposition provides relevant, training and education, to allow business owners to learn how technology can improve operations, minimize time spent on administrative tasks, market their business and increase sales by using a very powerful tool: technology.
The training and education provided at the conference will empower business owners to ask questions and gain a better understanding of what technology to implement and when the best time to do so.
In today’s highly competitive environment businesses thrive by having the right technology at the right time.
The theme for this first annual conference is Positioning your business for the future. Now more than ever it is critical for businesses to position themselves for growth and technology is a powerful tool.
The city gets an A for effort. There was a set of sponsors and exhibitors ranging from Microsoft, Harris Bank and Best Buy, through such companies as SurePayroll and Openhill, to small IT consulting and web development companies.
Attendees got a great exposure to a wide rage of IT related solutions. While this is a start, we need to go forward.. Chicago of the 20th Century was a wonderful invention driven city. While service is important, next year, it would be great to see a bit more on invention.
What to do about a website is a question every business owner is asking. It was a topic when we were on WVON radio. Also , addressed at a recent breakfast forum sponsored by Crain’s Chicago Business.
We have a workshop on September 30th on Website Design. Here is a bit of info on the workshop.
First impressions are important–so make your business website as professional and inviting as possible. If you need to create a website for your small business or want to improve your existing site, take this workshop to learn how to work with a graphic designer or web developer, what you should expect to pay, and what you can do yourself. You’ll take away the knowledge that you need for this essential business tool.
During this seminar, you will learn:
Registration information about the Workshop on September 30th is at: http://bit.ly/DesignWebsite
Marshall McLuhan was one of the foremost writers about media in the 20th Century. He created “the media is the message”. Recently, I have been rereading Understanding Media. The book is packed full of ideas. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of these ideas.
Continuing the commentary from the editor’s introduction by W. Terrance Gordon. Gordon notes that… McLuahn teaches that a new medium typically does not displace or replace another as much as it complicates its operation.
When it comes to a marketing campaign, this is very powerful. There are some basics to consider. To make a purchase, the customer needs a problem solved. The purchase process is one of evaluating the options and finding answers to questions. Once the customer is sufficiently convinced your product will solve his problem he will purchase. Consequently, your creation of content is the creation of a series of answers to questions.
So, think of your brochure or other content as a series of answers to questions. In each medium, the questions may be represented differently based upon the needs of that medium. But, the content can remain basically the same.
McLuhan divides medium into what he calls “Hot” and “Cool”. Hot media gives a lot of information and requires little of the user, where as Cool media provides less information a, making the user to fill in the information. When looking at media in the 1950’s McLuhan characterized the media world as follows.
Cool…………………………………………………..Hot
Telephone Radio
Speech Print
Cartoons Photographs
Television Movies
Seminar Lecture
For my purposes I would propose
Web 2.0 Web 1.0
So, for business owners, your first website was HOT, as you move forward into the world of Web 2.0, you will move to a COOL environment.
In a Hot environment, you provide the content. In the Cool environment, you’ll manage a dialogue; understanding the customer will provide part of the discussion. In Hot, you managed the exploration process through a list of questions and answers. In Cool, you provide the answers; the customer provides the questions; and the process of answering them.
Marshall McLuhan was one of the foremost writers about media in the 20th Century. He created “the media is the message”. Recently, I have been rereading Understanding Media. The book is packed full of ideas. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of these ideas.
My goal is to put these ideas into the context of the internet, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Also, draw some parallels between McLuhan’s innovative look at media in the middle of the 20th Century, and today’s new media.
The first part of this comes from the editor’s introduction by W. Terrance Gordon. Gordon notes that We think of media principally as a media of communication; press, radio and television. McLuhan thought of a medium as an extension of the human body or mind; clothing extends the skin….A medium, or a technology can be an extension of the human being.
Media comes in pair, one “containing” the other. So the telegraph contained the printed word. …. The contained medium is the message of the containing one, but the effects of the latter are obscured for the user who focuses on the former. Because those effects are so powerful, any message in the ordinary sense of “content” or “information” has far less impact than the medium itself. Thus “the medium is the message”
What does this mean for a business person? Increasingly, the internet is allowing for a large scale conversation done electronically with each individual. What we could call an e-conversation. When you create content, think about how is that content an extension of you and your business.
Also, when you create content, you must create the content a subset of the medium. A 60 minute presentation works in person, but putting the video up on YouTube can be problematic. Looking at Web 1.0 (the internet in the 1990’s) as a medium: for many businesses, the response was putting their brochures up on the internet. But over time, the internet developed its own set of protocols. Your brochure was no longer enough.
These two points are a good start. More to follow
In September, SCORE Chicago is offering two special programs that can help your business.
On September 14th, Sharon Aby will be presenting STEPPING UP TO 21ST CENTURY SELLING: Creating a Virtual Cycle of Innovation, Markets and Customers for Life.” Revenues are down and profits are sinking,” is becoming a familiar lament coming from many businesses today. Faced with greater competition and a tighter economy, companies are spending more money on sales and marketing with no return on their investment. Chances are they are doing the same things that they’ve always done expecting to have different results. If this sounds familiar, this workshop is for you. The workshop explains the dynamics of the 21st century marketplace and will teach you how to sell and market your company differently in order to be successful today. To register for the workshop, http://bit.ly/21CenturySelling
Sharon was a guest on our CANTV 21 Hotline Show. This week her video “What Behaviors make a Good Sales Person” is most popular video on our channel. You can see this video below.
On September 30th, Becky Davis and Patrick Elward will be presenting DESIGNING YOUR WEBSITE: Things Every Business Owner Needs to Know. This website design workshop is geared toward business owners who are either getting started with their first website or have an existing website that they would like to improve. During this workshop, we will walk participants through the standard graphic design process for a website and show them how to make design decisions themselves or find and work with a graphic design professional to take their website to the next level of quality and customer satisfaction. To Register for this program, http://bit.ly/DesignWebsite
Getting found on line is always a challenge. It is more so for video, because in most cases your content is not being catalogued. So you need to improve your odds.
For those of us who are doing information videos including the words How, Help or What can improve your chances to be found. If you are looking to be found by a search engine or decision engine, one of the key variables is word match. The more words in your title that match the query being made, the better chance you have of being selected.
Since more users are asking questions when they search, adding How, Help or What can will make it more likely the video will be found.. When I recently posted a video on behaviors that make a good sales person, which is the most frequently asked question on the blog, I integrated What into the Title: “What Behaviors make a good sales person? I could have just called it “Behaviors that make a good sales person”. But adding “what” will help improve the odds.
To see this video, check out blog posting below. http://learnedatscore.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/what-behaviors-make-a-good-sales-person/
This is a SCORE Chicago special workshop coming up on August 27th. Unlike many of our workshops downtown, this one has limited enrollment. Consequently, we are posting this up early.
DRAWING WEB TRAFFIC: Increase Your Audience, Grow Your Business
This internet marketing workshop is dedicated to helping business owners who are either getting started marketing online or looking to improve their online marketing strategy. You will learn how to better market your business online, leading to more traffic and increased sales. If you know that your potential customers are out there, but they don’t know you, this is the workshop for you.
Below is a short 47 second video interview with one of the speakers, Steve Robinson from Constant Contact. Steve discusses how to get your emails opened.
For early registration discount, register here: http://bit.ly/DrawWebTraffic
You have a brand that your carry through out your life. It is on your driver’s license, your passport, and you are universally known by it. It’s your name. So consider owning your name as a url.
I just purchased www.markegoodman.com . Five years ago, when I was working for Motorola, I would have never have thought about it. I felt that I was a subset of the Motorola brand. But with job changes and the fact that search has become the yellow and white pages of the 21st century, how can I insure that I can be found. Not only be found, but insure the continuity and integrity of your brand.
Granted, social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can help give you presence. However, they can come and go. Who remembers Prodigy? These sites often require membership from the searcher. In addition, for the most part, they control the routing.
Think about it. What is more important than your own brand? When it comes to building your image and furthering your career, who is more important than you?
Kathryn Kerrigan , our guest on CANTV 21 on August 18th will provide an interesting insight into small business . Please check out her business web site at www.kathrynkerrigan.com/
