Fishbowl announced the release of SalesPoint, a new point of sale (POS) software add-on to Fishbowl Inventory, a popular addition to QuickBooks that helps companies manage their inventory. SalesPoint integrates with Fishbowl Inventory to track a product from the time it enters a warehouse to the time it leaves in a customer’s hands. The Utah-based company says the integration eliminates time loss and errors due to double entry and typing product information. READ MORE
Helping others is serious business. Just asked Utah-based Lendio, which has secured an additional $2 million in debt financing to help match small business owners with lending sources such as banks and credit unions. Formerly called FundingUniverse.com, the company had just recently raised $6 million in venture capital. READ MORE
Southern California-based Aquatic Fitness Concepts often finds potential customers scratching their heads and wondering just how the company fits its 16-foot by 8-foot swim spas into backyards. “It’s surprisingly easy using a crane, but everyone is terrified of and fascinated by the process,’ explains Paul Roberts of West Coast Marketing, whose company handles marketing for Aquatic Fitness Concepts. “So, John Trzcinka, the owner, has started using his Flip camera to film these crane installations. It’s quite something to see.” The video is posted on Aquatic Fitness Concepts’ website, and potential clients are reassured — all for the cost of an inexpensive, hand-held video camcorder. Small businesses are leveraging video The proliferation of video across the Internet includes a multitude of business applications. Nimble, pocket-sized video cameras such as the Flip and the Kodak Zi line, coupled with consumer expectations about online video quality, are changing the ability of small businesses to compete with far larger companies, says author and analyst Scott Steinberg, who publishes the gadget/tech website DigitalTrends.com. “This is a potential game-changer,’ says Steinberg. “It used to be that you had to have thousands of dollars in video equipment to shoot something that looked semi-professional. All you need now is a good idea, a strong opinion and some inexpensive hardware.” Users say these factors explain the pocket video cameras’ appeal: • cost• portability• ease of use• ease of uploading and editing video Since the cameras are easier to use, business owners are more likely to exercise a little creativity and shoot video more often. The drawbacks are relatively minor and include lighting, occasional sound quality issues (the Flip lacks a jack for an external microphone) and the lack of a professional producer’s eye. The tradeoffs are well worth it in the age of online video says Andon Carling of PilmerPR, a Utah firm that specializes in public relations for small- to medium-sized businesses. “Some experts have calculated that TV-quality video can cost $2,000 a minute. The same minute with a Flip camera would cost a small fraction of the price,’ Carling says. “Furthermore, online viewers may not trust a high-quality, production-studio film as much as they would a grass-roots ‘man on the street’ production. From a public relations standpoint, a shaky picture adds a level of sincerity.” Five ways pocket video improves business Here are five easy ways you can put a pocket-sized video camera and that man-on-the-street sincerity to work: 1. Use video to raise your profile. Use a Flip to create simple instructional videos or to establish your expertise in your field, advises Steinberg. Video also raises your SEO profile. For less than $300 a month, Fliqz’ SearchSuccess offers a platform to manage video on your site and a suite of tools for submission to search engines, then tracking. Jason McAninch, who owns J-TEK, a small computer consulting firm in a Kansas City, Kan., suburb, says his videos are enabling him to brand his business. He has begun posting computer tips and tricks in a series of videos he calls TEK Talk. “I’ve had some clients call and say that it looks like a professional TV series,’ he says. “I can see this definitely being a powerful business tool for anyone.” 2. Create authentic testimonials. Mikey Moran, founder and CEO of Thai food brand Curry Simple, uses his Flip to ask customers what they think of his products, which include sauces made in Thailand and sold in the United States in stores such as Whole Foods. “The Flip works great for testimonials because of its small size,’ he says. “The smaller video cameras seem to be less intimidating for customers. People tend to freeze up with larger cameras but not with the cute, hand-sized Flip.” Moran has abandoned his two “prosumer” video cameras that cost $2,000 each. His Flip Mino HD was $200. 3. Provide quick feedback. Video can offer you feedback on how a client is using a product or a problem a client has in the field. It also allows you a way to demonstrate a point to a client. Maine-based pet behavior consultant George Quinlan uses his Flip Mino to record the behavior of both dogs and their owners. 4. Go behind the scenes. Create more interest in your business by telling your story. Show how a product is made or document the progress of a project. Don’t feel comfortable producing the video from start to finish? Companies such as Pixability will send you a Flip, then take your video and edit and package it with music, titles and logo. 5. Enhance news releases. It’s better to show than tell when it comes to new products, events or developments. Pyxl, a Knoxville, Tenn., marketing firm, mails Flip cameras to its clients when they have news to share. The clients shoot brief videos, return the cameras and Pyxl handles the videos, embedding them in online versions of news releases and social media releases. “You don’t need a production studio, you don’t need a crew, you don’t need a catering tray,’ says Steinberg. “The inexpensive budget digital cameras are a godsend when it comes to grassroots and viral marketing.”
Southern California-based Aquatic Fitness Concepts often finds potential customers scratching their heads and wondering just how the company fits its 16-foot by 8-foot swim spas into backyards. “It’s surprisingly easy using a crane, but everyone is terrified of and fascinated by the process,’ explains Paul Roberts of West Coast Marketing, whose company handles marketing for Aquatic Fitness Concepts. “So, John Trzcinka, the owner, has started using his Flip camera to film these crane installations. It’s quite something to see.” The video is posted on Aquatic Fitness Concepts’ website, and potential clients are reassured — all for the cost of an inexpensive, hand-held video camcorder. Small businesses are leveraging video The proliferation of video across the Internet includes a multitude of business applications. Nimble, pocket-sized video cameras such as the Flip and the Kodak Zi line, coupled with consumer expectations about online video quality, are changing the ability of small businesses to compete with far larger companies, says author and analyst Scott Steinberg, who publishes the gadget/tech website DigitalTrends.com. “This is a potential game-changer,’ says Steinberg. “It used to be that you had to have thousands of dollars in video equipment to shoot something that looked semi-professional. All you need now is a good idea, a strong opinion and some inexpensive hardware.” Users say these factors explain the pocket video cameras’ appeal: • cost• portability• ease of use• ease of uploading and editing video Since the cameras are easier to use, business owners are more likely to exercise a little creativity and shoot video more often. The drawbacks are relatively minor and include lighting, occasional sound quality issues (the Flip lacks a jack for an external microphone) and the lack of a professional producer’s eye. The tradeoffs are well worth it in the age of online video says Andon Carling of PilmerPR, a Utah firm that specializes in public relations for small- to medium-sized businesses. “Some experts have calculated that TV-quality video can cost $2,000 a minute. The same minute with a Flip camera would cost a small fraction of the price,’ Carling says. “Furthermore, online viewers may not trust a high-quality, production-studio film as much as they would a grass-roots ‘man on the street’ production. From a public relations standpoint, a shaky picture adds a level of sincerity.” Five ways pocket video improves business Here are five easy ways you can put a pocket-sized video camera and that man-on-the-street sincerity to work: 1. Use video to raise your profile. Use a Flip to create simple instructional videos or to establish your expertise in your field, advises Steinberg. Video also raises your SEO profile. For less than $300 a month, Fliqz’ SearchSuccess offers a platform to manage video on your site and a suite of tools for submission to search engines, then tracking. Jason McAninch, who owns J-TEK, a small computer consulting firm in a Kansas City, Kan., suburb, says his videos are enabling him to brand his business. He has begun posting computer tips and tricks in a series of videos he calls TEK Talk. “I’ve had some clients call and say that it looks like a professional TV series,’ he says. “I can see this definitely being a powerful business tool for anyone.” 2. Create authentic testimonials. Mikey Moran, founder and CEO of Thai food brand Curry Simple, uses his Flip to ask customers what they think of his products, which include sauces made in Thailand and sold in the United States in stores such as Whole Foods. “The Flip works great for testimonials because of its small size,’ he says. “The smaller video cameras seem to be less intimidating for customers. People tend to freeze up with larger cameras but not with the cute, hand-sized Flip.” Moran has abandoned his two “prosumer” video cameras that cost $2,000 each. His Flip Mino HD was $200. 3. Provide quick feedback. Video can offer you feedback on how a client is using a product or a problem a client has in the field. It also allows you a way to demonstrate a point to a client. Maine-based pet behavior consultant George Quinlan uses his Flip Mino to record the behavior of both dogs and their owners. 4. Go behind the scenes. Create more interest in your business by telling your story. Show how a product is made or document the progress of a project. Don’t feel comfortable producing the video from start to finish? Companies such as Pixability will send you a Flip, then take your video and edit and package it with music, titles and logo. 5. Enhance news releases. It’s better to show than tell when it comes to new products, events or developments. Pyxl, a Knoxville, Tenn., marketing firm, mails Flip cameras to its clients when they have news to share. The clients shoot brief videos, return the cameras and Pyxl handles the videos, embedding them in online versions of news releases and social media releases. “You don’t need a production studio, you don’t need a crew, you don’t need a catering tray,’ says Steinberg. “The inexpensive budget digital cameras are a godsend when it comes to grassroots and viral marketing.”
One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is to scale up their business, and to manage the growth by hiring more people in every function. But what if you could achieve growth by just letting your community of users do most of the work? Several creative companies have used social media tools to get their customers involved in core aspects of their business, all the way from marketing to product design, product testing, and customer service. Here are some great examples of organizations that are using social media to drive sales and efficiencies, while still connecting with customers: Effective marketing using social media By now, most people know that social media provides many tools for creating brand awareness, as well as for generating sales leads. Fiskars, a Finland-based manufacturer of scissors realized that scissors are very popular among scrapbookers, and set out to reach this community. After identifying four Fiskars users who were extremely passionate about the brand, the company set them up with a website and a blog, and made them consumer evangelists. The “Fiskateers” program has since then grown to more than 5,000 Fiskateers across 70 countries, each actively blogging and evangelizing the brand. Having so many “marketers” on its payroll would certainly have been unsustainable for the company, but by leveraging the power of its community, and using online tools like blogging, Fiskars has created a strong brand identity among its target audience. Blogging isn’t for you? Try Twitter to connect with your audience. Naked Pizza of New Orleans, which prides itself on making the “world’s healthiest pizza,” has latched onto Twitter as a means of promoting its fresh ingredients and offering promotional deals. Twitter has been so effective that they’re now using billboards to drive more people to the Twitter account. More and more restaurants are finding Twitter to be an effective way to boost their sales. Finally, no discussion of social media marketing is complete without talking about viral videos. Blendtec, a division of the Utah-based K-TEC, manufactures high powered, durable, commercial blenders. In 2006, Marketing Director George Wright had the unenviable task of creating a brand campaign with a budget of $50. When Wright saw CEO Tom Dickson and some engineers testing the blenders with heavy duty chunks of wood, he hit upon an idea and used the $50 to buy the domain http://www.willitblend.com. Since then, the “Will it Blend” series of videos has seen more than 80 million views on YouTube and increased Blendtec’s sales by more than 700 percent. Involve customers in product design How can you add value and create customer loyalty if you don’t even control your product design process? Threadless, an online T-shirt store operated by the Chicago-based skinnyCorp, has found the secret to that, selling more than a million T-shirts a year, none of which were designed by the staff. All the designs are submitted and evaluated by the community of users on its website. Hundreds of artists submit their designs, and users vote on them. Every week, the best designs are selected for printing, and the winning designers get $2,000 in cash, $500 in gift certificates, and another $500 for every reprint. According to some reports, the company generates more than $30 million in revenue and $10 million in profits. Muji, a Japanese retailer, has latched onto a similar concept through its website muji.net, where it invites submissions for innovative furniture designs. Muji, which means “without brand,” has a community of half a million people who submit and evaluate designs. Shortlisted designs are then sent to professional designers, who polish them before sending them off for production. Web companies often launch products in a “beta” state and invite selected users to test the product. Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company took this idea and applied it to coffee. It invited bloggers to beta-test its coffee by sending them free samples. More than 1,500 bloggers participated, and generated enormous buzz for Joffrey’s on the Web. Based on feedback from these bloggers, Joffrey’s launched Coffee 2.0 with many “bug fixes and improvements.” Even the name Coffee 2.0 came from one of the beta testing bloggers. Not only did Joffrey’s use social media effectively to do product testing and improvements, but it also created enormous buzz around the product. Get customers to help with customer support Customer support is one of the most difficult things to scale as the business grows. Consumers are increasingly logging on to social media sites to express their frustration with poor service. For example, the consumer complaint video “United Breaks Guitars ” has had close to 5 million views on YouTube. Innovative companies are using social media in a couple of different ways to provide customer support. eBay has outsourced almost its entire customer support function to its users from its very beginnings. In his book The Perfect Store, Adam Cohen writes about eBay in 1996: “Omidyar did not have time to explain to each individual user how to write a listing in HTML, or to give advice on bidding strategy.” The solution was to launch a Bulletin Board where users could “gather, share information and ask for help.” Later, eBay ended up hiring some of the people who were the most active and helpful on the forums to work for it, answering customer emails and providing additional support. A different model of support treats social media as another channel for the in-house customer support team. Frank Eliason, Comcast director of digital care, has a following of more than 25,000 people on his “Comcast Cares” Twitter account, where he answers user questions. The real-time nature of Twitter and its search functionality allow Eliason to even reach out to Comcast users who haven’t actively sought help. By applying a bit of imagination to social media tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, these forward-thinking companies have grown their businesses by leaps and bounds. Take cues from these examples of the power of community, and you’ll avoid some of the growth pains that arise from controlling and managing all of your business functions in-house. Vijay Chittoor is the director of product management at Kosmix, an exploration engine that offers a 360 degree view of any topic on the Web. A former McKinsey consultant, Vijay is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He shares his thoughts on technology at his blog.
James Hofheins loves his job as a social media representative for a Utah retailer. All workday long, the veteran customer service representative monitors Facebook and Twitter for people talking about his company. If there’s a problem, he follows up to make sure things get taken care of. Hofheins is so enamored with social media he stays on Twitter long after the work day ends to keep tabs on world news, tweet friends and retweet interesting tidbits that float across his Twitter stream. Away from his desk, a Palm Treo is his keyboard of choice for tuning into Twitter, sending email and texting. But all that connectivity is taking a toll on Hofhein’s thumb, his right one to be exact. The 45-year-old uses it exclusively to type and text and lately he’s been on Twitter so much it hurts. “It throbs from the tip to the bottom joint where it connects to the hand,” he says. “It’s stiff, it’s hard to extend and sometimes the tip is numb,” he says. Ouch. As more people use an iPhone, Palm Treo and other smartphone and PDAs for social networking, e-mailing and texting, they’re developing aches and pains, including a few ergonomics experts haven’t seen before. ‘iPod finger’ and other aches and pains In addition to sore thumbs, Tamara James, ergonomics director at Duke University and Health System in Durham, N.C., has heard people complain of “iPod finger,” overusing their index finger to spin the selector wheel of an iPod player. iPhone users have come to doctors complaining of tennis elbow-like symptoms, what one woman with the problem calls her “iPhone elbow.” The American Physical Therapists Association has discussed how typing on itty-bitty keyboards leads to “BlackBerry thumb” since 2006. While some early research has shown younger people could possibly develop stronger thumb muscles from all the emailing and texting they do, it’s way too soon to tell. “They could be protecting themselves for the future or setting themselves up for problems later on. We don’t know,” James says. James is taking precautions just case. As one of her duties, James manages a group that collects data on Duke employees’ work environments. When a group member complained of hand cramps from using the skinny stylus that came with the PDAs they use in the field, James found a fatter model with a more comfortable rubber grip. “We have to practice what we preach,” she says. For small business owners, it could pay to be diligent. In the 1980s and 1990s, the appearance of office PCs led to a wave of carpal tunnel, RSI, and other musculoskeletal injuries that tapered off once workers, HR and tech support teams figured out the importance of proper wrist support, seating and posture, and federal and state worker safety agencies passed ergonomics guidelines. Remedies for an aching thumb If your thumbs or hands hurt from too much emailing or texting, the first thing t o do is stop. “That’s the most important thing,” James says. “If it hurts, don’t do it.” Other remedies: Maintain a neutral posture. Some thumb and elbow pain is caused by holding the joint in a fixed or awkward position for a long time. “If you’re getting numb, compression of the nerve between the hand and the phone causing it,” James says. Alleviate it by using sitting or standing correctly as you type, she says. Support your arms. If you’re sitting to type emails or text for an extended time, use a pillow or other prop to support your arms and hands while you work. Take frequent breaks. When desktop PCs became ubiquitous, people had to be taught to take breaks to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and related maladies. The same holds true for iPhones and PDAs — taking breaks often to give your hands a rest, James says. Switch things up. If you normally use one hand to type or text, give it a break and type with the other one. Do stretching exercises. The American Society of Hand Therapists recommends a variety of stretching exercises in a consumer education bulletin on hand-held electronics and video game injury prevention tips. They include: Opening your hands and spreading your fingers are far as possible, then holding for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. With hands laced together, turn your palms away from your body and extend your arms overhead. Stretch your upper torso through your shoulders to your hands. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. When the computer mouse came along, work that people did with two hands became concentrated into a few fingers moving the input device around. With the advent of smartphone keypads, that effort is now being directed into one lone digit not designed to do such work. “The thumb is the least dexterous part of the hand. It doesn’t move as well or do as much as other digits,” James says. “So to make it do what an index finger can do, you have to make it work harder.” Hofheins, the Utah social media rep, is coming to terms with his late-night Treo habit – and his sore thumb. He’s started taking ibuprofen, but has yet to a doctor, saying: “I’m afraid they’ll tell me to stop.”
James Hofheins loves his job as a social media representative for a Utah retailer. All workday long, the veteran customer service representative monitors Facebook and Twitter for people talking about his company. If there’s a problem, he follows up to make sure things get taken care of. Hofheins is so enamored with social media he stays on Twitter long after the work day ends to keep tabs on world news, tweet friends and retweet interesting tidbits that float across his Twitter stream. Away from his desk, a Palm Treo is his keyboard of choice for tuning into Twitter, sending email and texting. But all that connectivity is taking a toll on Hofhein’s thumb, his right one to be exact. The 45-year-old uses it exclusively to type and text and lately he’s been on Twitter so much it hurts. “It throbs from the tip to the bottom joint where it connects to the hand,” he says. “It’s stiff, it’s hard to extend and sometimes the tip is numb,” he says. Ouch. As more people use an iPhone, Palm Treo and other smartphone and PDAs for social networking, e-mailing and texting, they’re developing aches and pains, including a few ergonomics experts haven’t seen before. ‘iPod finger’ and other aches and pains In addition to sore thumbs, Tamara James, ergonomics director at Duke University and Health System in Durham, N.C., has heard people complain of “iPod finger,” overusing their index finger to spin the selector wheel of an iPod player. iPhone users have come to doctors complaining of tennis elbow-like symptoms, what one woman with the problem calls her “iPhone elbow.” The American Physical Therapists Association has discussed how typing on itty-bitty keyboards leads to “BlackBerry thumb” since 2006. While some early research has shown younger people could possibly develop stronger thumb muscles from all the emailing and texting they do, it’s way too soon to tell. “They could be protecting themselves for the future or setting themselves up for problems later on. We don’t know,” James says. James is taking precautions just case. As one of her duties, James manages a group that collects data on Duke employees’ work environments. When a group member complained of hand cramps from using the skinny stylus that came with the PDAs they use in the field, James found a fatter model with a more comfortable rubber grip. “We have to practice what we preach,” she says. For small business owners, it could pay to be diligent. In the 1980s and 1990s, the appearance of office PCs led to a wave of carpal tunnel, RSI, and other musculoskeletal injuries that tapered off once workers, HR and tech support teams figured out the importance of proper wrist support, seating and posture, and federal and state worker safety agencies passed ergonomics guidelines. Remedies for an aching thumb If your thumbs or hands hurt from too much emailing or texting, the first thing t o do is stop. “That’s the most important thing,” James says. “If it hurts, don’t do it.” Other remedies: Maintain a neutral posture. Some thumb and elbow pain is caused by holding the joint in a fixed or awkward position for a long time. “If you’re getting numb, compression of the nerve between the hand and the phone causing it,” James says. Alleviate it by using sitting or standing correctly as you type, she says. Support your arms. If you’re sitting to type emails or text for an extended time, use a pillow or other prop to support your arms and hands while you work. Take frequent breaks. When desktop PCs became ubiquitous, people had to be taught to take breaks to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and related maladies. The same holds true for iPhones and PDAs — taking breaks often to give your hands a rest, James says. Switch things up. If you normally use one hand to type or text, give it a break and type with the other one. Do stretching exercises. The American Society of Hand Therapists recommends a variety of stretching exercises in a consumer education bulletin on hand-held electronics and video game injury prevention tips. They include: Opening your hands and spreading your fingers are far as possible, then holding for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. With hands laced together, turn your palms away from your body and extend your arms overhead. Stretch your upper torso through your shoulders to your hands. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. When the computer mouse came along, work that people did with two hands became concentrated into a few fingers moving the input device around. With the advent of smartphone keypads, that effort is now being directed into one lone digit not designed to do such work. “The thumb is the least dexterous part of the hand. It doesn’t move as well or do as much as other digits,” James says. “So to make it do what an index finger can do, you have to make it work harder.” Hofheins, the Utah social media rep, is coming to terms with his late-night Treo habit – and his sore thumb. He’s started taking ibuprofen, but has yet to a doctor, saying: “I’m afraid they’ll tell me to stop.”
CTAP has been supplying the oil and gas industry drilling in the Rocky Mountain region with tubing products and service for 25 years from its Louisville, Colo. headquarters. Andy Carlson, CTAP’s director of IT, tells IncTechnology.com that by centralizing the firm’s information environment and networking its storage yards along railroad routes the firm has improved inventory management, billing, and internal communication. Elizabeth Wasserman: How many storage yards do you manage in your business? Andy Carlson: CTAP supplies steel tubular products, pipe, and services for the drilling rigs in the Rocky Mountain region. We have our service yards strategically positioned on rail sites, where we can receive, ship, store, manage and service our customers’ needs. The tubing products we work with generally range from 20 feet to 40 feet long and are extremely heavy, requiring loaders and heavy machinery to move. We’re currently at six yards now located in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado, and expect growth this year. Wasserman: What was the issue with communications between the yards? Carlson: This business has grown by acquiring other businesses and locations over 25 years. As a result, we have very different methods of management, communication and culture in each of these locations. The first task was to be able to standardize our method of inventory management, so we would know how much tubing has come in, how much has gone out, where it’s gone and who it’s for. Historically, this was accomplished on spread sheets and e-mailed into the corporate office on a weekly basis. We used that to assemble our billing packages for customers, but there was latency issue in the timing of the bills and the fact that we had no auditing trial at all. The communication of inventory information was not part of an efficient process and did not leverage available technology. Wasserman: What did you do? Carlson: I started at CTAP a year ago, and the first priority was to create a perpetual inventory management system. We needed a centralized information application and a centralized information environment. Given that I was the only IT person at that time, I needed a cloud based solution, and the expertise to design, build and implement it fast. I chose 3T Systems because they provided both of those services, and had worked well with them in the past. We developed our network environment based on Citrix. It allowed all of us including main office and yards to communicate on the same platform, through e-mail, file sharing, and application sharing. Today, we use the same working environment and we’ve been able to be consistent in the way we work. The second thing we did with 3T was to develop an inventory management application specific to when the product comes in and out of the yards. It’s a perpetual inventory management system so we can bill faster and have accuracy in terms of reporting, both internally and back to our customers. Our customers were asking questions such as, ‘How much of our tubing do you have at the Montana yard?’ It would literally take three days to figure out. Someone would have to go out and count and report back. The spreadsheet would need to be re-keyed in, then adjusted for any last minute inventory level changes. Today, any one of us can get that information in 10 seconds. Shortly, customers will be able to get that information on demand through our customer portal. Wasserman: What are the improvements that you’ve noticed? Carlson: It’s revolutionized the way we communicate, forecast and implement decisions. It’s contributed to our profitability in that we are able to assemble billing packages much more quickly. It’s allowed our management team to monitor the inventory levels from a macro level, and respond to new business accordingly. It’s allowed our sales team to monitor the inventory levels at the micro level, and respond to customer inquiries in real-time. It’s reduced a lot of errors and inefficiencies. Finally, we now have a competitive advantage over other businesses that provide similar services because of our information system. That’s a big improvement for our customers because sometimes we store some of their inventory, and the confidence they gain in our processes They like to know how much of their inventory is in our yards at any given time, and they now have the tools to get that information a lot quicker than they use to.
When most people think of YouTube, most likely they think of guys dancing on treadmills and bootleg clips of Stephen Colbert, from Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Charles Smith, a pottery artist from Mobile, Ala., thinks about the tens of thousands of people worldwide who have clicked on his videos to watch him create works of art on his pottery wheel only to break them up at the end. “You’ve got to have a gimmick, so I broke up the pots,” says Smith, who says about 90 percent of that traffic is students, but 10 percent is actually generating sales. Before YouTube, Smith’s ability to market his pottery was limited to driving from town to town hitting as many art shows as possible and hoping for that occasional local news feature story to generate business. “Now I don’t have to go to the art fairs as much. It’s too expensive with the price of gas anyway. I’ve got the website and YouTube. It’s so much better. I’m hearing from heavy collectors and galleries who’ve watched my videos. You never know who’s watching them. I’m hearing from people as far away as Japan. It’s a great tool and best of all – it’s free,” says Smith. Michael Miller, author of YouTube for Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business (Que 2008), points to Smith as a perfect example of how a small business owner or entrepreneur can hit it big on YouTube. “YouTube gets 20 million viewers a month. That’s a really big market to tap into and there are no placement costs. It’s low cost and high potential,” says Miller. However, if you think it’s as simple as uploading a commercial spot or corporate video and waiting for the e-mails to pour in demanding your products or services; think again. “The people who fail on YouTube are the people who don’t understand the community aspect of YouTube or what attracts viewers,” says Miller. Attracting eyeballs Eighteen months ago when Charles Smith put up his first pottery video that has since generated more than 37,000 unique visitors, he instinctively knew what he was doing by coming up with a gimmick. “YouTube viewers want to be entertained,” says Miller, who offers three categories of videos that generate traffic. Informational videos. The Stone Brewery out of Escondido, Calif. sets a great example of this strategy. The little independent brewery has more than a dozen or so videos posted on YouTube featuring various behind-the-scenes tours of their operation led by Brewery owner, Greg Koch. It’s an engaging way to connect with the story of the brewery and thus, get interested in their beers. His videos generate typically between 1,500 and 2,000 visitors. Educational videos. Charles Smith’s how-to instructional videos demonstrating his pottery wheel highlights this successful approach. “A lot of people come to YouTube wanting to learn something. They might run a search for ‘how to build a bookcase’, for example. So if you sell auto parts, you might put together a tutorial how to change your oil. The result is driving traffic from the video to your website,” says Miller. Entertainment videos. One of the greatest successes of guerrilla marketing on YouTube would have to be Blendtec, based in Orem, Utah. Blendtec sells high end industrial strength blenders so strong they are touted to be able to blend just about anything. Their series of videos on YouTube — called “Will it blend” — are wildly popular with some of the pieces generating more than five million viewers. Each quirky piece features an attempt (almost always successful) to blend something both odd and tricky; like hockey pucks, an iPhone, glow sticks, marbles, even a rake handle. Getting noticed on YouTube Producing an engaging video for YouTube is just the first step in launching a successful marketing campaign on YouTube. With 20 million viewers a month and literally millions of videos to choose from, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Here are some tips for making your company’s videos rise to the top and leveraging them to help your business: Participate in the YouTube community. People forget that YouTube has an active community, similar to eBay. Miller suggests getting your name around by commenting on other videos and joining existing topic-oriented groups or creating one if there isn’t one in your niche area. Make sure your videos direct visitors to your site. Tens of thousands of viewers watching your videos sounds great, unless they have no direction to find your business afterwards. Make sure you include your Web address and other company contact information. Miller recommends creating a special “landing page” for viewers coming to your site from YouTube. It should have a similar look and feel to YouTube and intuitive navigation to close the deal on transactions or gathering client leads; whatever your marketing objective may be. Using the right production values. Believe it or not, spending too much money producing the video is more of a problem than spending too little. “If you look too slick, it may work against you. Most YouTube videos are shot with a $300 camera. YouTube videos are 320 x 400 pixels. You could spend $100,000 on a video, but no one is going to see it,” says Miller. Less important is the equipment, while more important is technique. “Talking heads, stationary shots work best. That’s why spots like Blendtec work so well. It’s a guy standing at a little table with a blender. Audio, however, is something people don’t think enough about. If you’re using a camcorder with an external mic input, use it. Invest in a decent microphone,” says Miller. Choose your keywords carefully. There’s only one way viewers find you on YouTube and that’s the site’s search engine. Using the right keywords is essential. Choose words that best fit your subject area and niche. Keywords should draw in a broad enough audience to get the exposure you seek, but not too much. With 20 million viewers passing through the site, businesses should use words that weed out traffic too. “I know of a realtor in Florida who uses YouTube. For her, she doesn’t want 100,000 hits. She wants nine good hits,” points out Miller. SIDEBAR: Other Benefits to Using YouTube Rising through the ranks. Now that Google owns YouTube, there’s the added benefit that a video on YouTube automatically goes into Google’s search engine. Videos tend to catapult to the head of the line. It’s a great way to increase your site visibility in the rankings. Spare your own site the bandwidth drain of streaming video. For some companies, generating new business or exposure via YouTube may be low priority. However, some are finding it’s a great place to park video clips using YouTube’s bandwidth with a simple link from the corporate site. Create your own channel and customer base. Anytime you post a video, YouTube creates what is called a profile channel. Viewers can subscribe to that channel. Businesses can then send out e-mails to those subscribers.
A car dashboard is a panel of quick visual cues representing critical information in real-time for an operator who is actively engaged elsewhere. At a glance, a driver knows their cruising speed, whether it’s time to gas up, if the transmission is straining, not to mention warnings of dislodged doors, low oil or unbuckled seats. A software dashboard is basically the same thing. Only instead of providing real-time data on the fly for a driver focused on the road, dashboard software works best for harried business owner who needs to keep at least one eye fixed on the ebb and flow of inventory, the financial executive constantly monitoring the health of an organization or the sales person keeping a running account of client orders, pricing changes and product availability. Michael Duke, a managing partner with The Crito Group, a healthcare consulting firm based in Clemmons, N.C., swears by his dashboard. “The real power of the dashboard is it allows me to have insight into performance that I never had before,” Duke says. “I’m able to spot negative trends before they become detrimental to my company.” Duke describes life before and after his start-up company implemented dashboard technology. “We would put a bunch of data in a database, spend a bunch of time compiling it and then present monthly reports. Now, we actually have all that information day to day at our fingertips,” he says. “How critical is it to our business? If we don’t improve our client’s financials, we don’t get paid. This is the tool that enables us to do that.” Dashboards: a technology whose time has come Dashboards have actually been around for many years. In the past, however, it’s been more of a recurring fad than a potential core technology for businesses. “What we’ve been seeing with the resurgence of dashboards over the past 12 to 18 months is the second coming of dashboards – for the fourth time,” says Hung LeHong, vice president of research at Gartner, the Stamford, Conn. research firm. LeHong, however, sees dashboards as more than a fad this time around and points out the following reasons why it just may be coming soon to a desktop or mobile device near you: Web-based. Dashboards are increasingly offered as a Web-based application and that translates to easier access for more employees. It’s not just a slick tool for the boss wanting a bird’s eye view of the company. Dashboards are now more readily available at the field level. Better data crunching. “This generation of dashboards does a better job of making granular data more easily accessible. That means the data that pertains to a specific person is more easily parceled out,” says LeHong. Real-time operational data. This latest generation of software tends to be more adept at aggregating multiple streams of data from multiple sources in real-time, creating more functionality at the operational level. “No matter where the data is, we can access it and pull it into the dashboard,” says Mark Christensen, vice president of marketing for Corda, a Lindon, Utah software company that develops dashboards for small and mid-size businesses. Improved visual displays. This time around, LeHong praises designers for visual layouts that are easier to take in at a glance, more intuitive and more user friendly. And while the technology itself appears to be maturing, even more critical to its growing popularity is demand. “The reason that dashboards are catching on is because people are overwhelmed with information and they need tools like dashboards to tame that information,” says Stephen Few, author of Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data (O’Reilly Media). Yellow is for caution While Few acknowledges that the technology is getting better — and more popular, he also warns business owners to not be blinded by the “bling” when exploring dashboard technology. “Resist the gimmicks and educate yourself before you look at the products,” Few says. “The problem is most dashboards are still primarily designed by engineers and driven by sales. What’s lost is a design orientation that best displays and organizes the data, offers immediate visual context and can highlight the most important information.” Sticker shock There are many companies offering dashboard solutions, in addition to Corda, including iDashboard, Celequest and Netsuite, to name a few. The price of admission is still pretty steep for the small and mid-size business, however, since these are customized products. For example, Corda’s entry level package for two to five users is about $14,000 — a figure that may mean putting the brakes on dashboards for some businesses.
