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Who's Buyin', Who's Lyin', Who's Dyin'?

by Ron Daly 

After ten years providing email delivery and online services, I have a little experience with what draws people to open an email or visit a website. Where that experience shifts is when it comes to social media and referrals. Over the past year or so, there's been plenty to read about whether or not social media is "good" for your business. Can you run/boost a business using social media? 

Bob Serling of Power 8 Marketing seems to think it's possible, but it requires a stronger knowledge of your audience. From his blog post:

There are a lot of ways to identify people who are actual buyers, but it takes a lot more leg work, and usually more money to do this properly. That’s why the promise of the next “free magic bullet” traffic system is bound to fail too. Because there just isn’t any free and easy way to generate qualified leads in your sleep. If there was, we’d all have a different color Ferrari for each day of the week.

I think Bob's point is well spoken - just because you're blogging, tweeting, facebooking, youtubing, etc. doesn't mean you're going to burn up the Internet with site traffic and new visitors. And even if you do draw a million people to your business' website, how many are in market and qualified? It's a tough nut to crack for b-to-c companies, but for b-to-b it's a lot harder. Fewer people are involved in a b-to-c buying proposition and you can appeal to people on a gratification level that's not quite the same in b-to-b. But no matter who you're selling to, getting them to buy online in a single visit is a rarity. 

The Lost Highway: 30% of Americans Don't Have Internet

by Ron Daly

As the president of a company providing an array of online services, I'm always a little baffled by statistics such as this one from the Census Bureau. 

From Asylum.com - 

Almost one in three Americans don't use the Internet at work or home.

New census bureau data, collected from 54,000 households, finds that seniors, the poor, underrepresented minorities and folks who live in rural areas lag behind the rest of the country, technologically speaking.

It stands to reason that folks in rural areas and the elderly aren't getting Internet exposure, but I'm the kind of person that thinks if a person really wants Internet access, it should be available and affordable. 

I'm sure there's a percentage of folks in this country who just flat-out don't want the Internet. To each his own - if you don't feel as though you need it, don't bother with it. But Congress and the FCC are stepping in to increase the availability and affordability of online access, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the National Broadband Plan.

From eWeek.com - 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has already said the National Broadband Plan due to Congress in March will call for 100 million households at 100M bps by the end of the decade. A coalition of consumer and advocacy groups like that but call for even bolder goals and milestones.

Among those, easy-to-interpret billing statements, smarter grids and a 90% high-speed adoption rate. The argument of consumer advocacy groups is that more access equals a level playing field for disenfranchised and neglected demographics in America. I can't be certain about the impact of high-speed Internet on people previously deprived of it, but for good or for ill folks who want access should be given it. The "Information Super-Highway" is supposed to connect people, not shut them out of communication. Let's get everyone on the road.

How do you feel about access for everyone? Will a "wired nation" happen by 2020? Tell us your thoughts about it in the comments section. 

Is the iPad REALLY going to change everything?

by Ron Daly 

A few weeks ago, we were talking iPhone apps. Now we need to make an amendment and change "iPhone" to "iPad". 

Apple's new innovation debuted to much fanfare a week ago, with people immediately responding with either exuberant delight or a loud "ho-hum". Is it the latest, greatest thing since sliced bread and a surefire change to the world of computing, or is it a giant iPod Touch that plays movies? If I know anything about Apple - and I don't claim to be an expert, but I DO own an iPhone - it's that Apple will be releasing a "Version Two" shortly thereafter with everything re-done. Advice from me to you? Wait a generation or two.

Something that's been striking me as kind of odd is the anti-Flash sentiment. Flash used to be THE thing that every site designer bragged about - we can do a Flash cartoon! We've got a streaming video player! Flash buttons! A Flash splash page, or even a whole website! 

The iPad, like the iPod Touch and iPhone, doesn't do Flash. And Apple is dead set against making plugins for their new wonder-toys. 

This has touched off the powder on a war between Flash developers/supporters and Apple devotees. Steve Jobs, head of Apple, is saying that Adobe (the people behind Flash) are being lazy. He blames most of the crashes that happen on your Mac-based browsers on Flash and says that HTML 5 is going to be the new way forward.