So this is Social Media, Now What do I do with It?

July 31st, 2011

Social Media, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, are exciting. I’ve jumped in and am actively building a following with Twitter but to what end? Is there a way for me to monetize my Twitter campaign?

The short answer is “I don’t know.” After all, I’ve actively pursued Twitter for no more than the last two months. So far, I see almost NO interest on the part of my Twitter followers to visit my websites via links provided in my Twitter feeds. Or is the apparent lack of click throughs the result of the selective interest of my chosen tracking tool — Google Analytics? Neither do I have any clarity on this one. Shame that Twitter, itself, does not offer a comprehensive tool like Google Analytics.

I have some notions, however, that are pretty interesting. Someone sent me a link to an online service (I would rather call it a “web service” but that term has differing meanings, depending upon the audience; therefore, I avail of the term “online service”) called downtweet. While awaiting guidance from a contact as to how to use this “super geek” tool, I played around it for myself and determined that downtweet monitors Twitter’s universal feed and, thereby, provides a view of news and other text messaging as posted through Twitter. The bursts of new news and news updates as well as the breadth of news written up to the minute about general topics with wide ranging impact (for example, the debt ceiling negotiations here in the States) can be very useful if you need to monitor online reputation, or gauge the impact of publicity efforts, or notify the market of products in limited supply, etc.

The great thing about Twitter is that it is still evolving and, therefore, while its final positioning is still “under construction” various scenarios can be followed to determine what/where/how/why positions that online marketers can exploit to monetize their efforts.

In sum, then, I would say that this Twitter tool, downtweet, can be exploited by online marketers in the public relations and promotion businesses as well as companies that need to survey the broad market, for example, political strategists and pollsters. I hope to have the time to further conceptualize applications of this tool. From the looks of it, versions of this tool that can scan WordPress, Blogger, etc. would have much the same type impact.

Cool

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2011 All Rights Reserved

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Posted in online commerce, Social Media, technology trends | No Comments »

Installing Windows XP Virtual Machine under LINUX OpenSuse 11.4

April 10th, 2011

Not for the faint at heart . . . After some trial and error I managed to install a Windows XP virtual machine on my OpenSUSE 11.4 LINUX Workstation. I regret to say that my visit to http://www.opensuse.org yielded little helpful information to ease this painful, but powerful and quite useful addition to the capabilities of this computer on my network. Fact is that OpenSUSE dot org is quite the engineer-centric site and not very useful to a rather “brain dead” computer user who, like me, happens to have a customer running Microsoft™ Exchange for his office mail, and, like me, needs to use a Microsoft browser to connect to his/her mail account.

The bottom line is that when you install “hypervisor and tools” (it’s a sad note that a search of the OpenSUSE WiKi for “hypervisor” comes up with no more data than a “can’t find what you are looking for” note.) be sure to install “KVM” as well as the “Xen” tools and add ons. As well, and once the network bridge has been enabled, be sure to set up network communications, including your firewall, for “br0,” vs. “eth0.” “br0″ is your new bridge network interface. Finally, make sure to enable “libvert-guests” and “libvertd” or else you will sit staring at your monitor for, perhaps, hours struggling to get the virtualization to work.

Now I have a fast and powerful way to check all my mail and run tasks in both operating systems without having to wait on my Windows Seven machine to boot up.

In a bizarre twist on “a double shot of my baby’s love,” once I got the virtual machine up and running, the Microsoft™ license manager for my legitimate (and fully paid for) copy of Windows XP Professional refused to accept my registration and would not update the software from SP2 to SP3, leaving me stuck with IE 6 as my browser. I will revisit this point later and try matching the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) with one of my other machines to see if I can get this puppy to IE8 and rock and roll.

The added capabilities of a virtual windows machine running under LINUX are, nevertheless, quite formidable and, for me, entirely worth my effort. I now have full use of the web version of Microsoft™ Outlook, complete with Calendar, Contacts and Mail.

Should I be tight on time and hard-pressed to wait on my Windows 7 machine to boot, I will know just where to go to check all my mail and run whatever tasks I need in a snap (at least once I clear up the license issue for this copy of Windows XP Pro).

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Posted in Desktop Computing, LINUX, microsoft, open-source, Virtual Machine | No Comments »

Optimum Content Collaboration

April 3rd, 2011

If your organization requires collaboration between team members for content development, then you should consider collaboration software. Further, if your teams are not centrally located, then you should consider a network solution for your collaboration. Finally, if your business computing foundation is Microsoft® Windows® you have several options, including, but not limited to SharePoint®.

In fact, there are several alternatives, including Zimbra™ from VMWare®. Zimbra™ is worth noting. The Zimbra server can run as a virtual appliance without dedicated hardware; therefore saving the user the expense of maintaining more hardware. In addition, Zimbra collaborative features include shared documents, calendar and email, thereby rounding out a worthy alternative to some of the functions of Microsoft® SharePoint® and Microsoft® Exchange.

The costs for collaborative capabilities have also declined substantially. For example, hosted Zimbra™ services can be had for as little as $4.15 per user per month. With low costs there are few excuses for not going forward with a team approach to document creation.

The benefits can be considerable: differing internal viewpoints on important topics can be given voices to enhance decision-making as to company positions. The quality of produced documents can be improved as the result of including more participants in the document creation process. The time required to update documents can be reduced by empowering more team members to review, correct and publish documents. Participation in document production can even prove to be a moral booster. Finally, collaboration can be used as a selling point for customers by allowing them to participate directly in the process, thereby streamlining the task of gaining customer approval for written deliverables.

Both Zimbra™ and Microsoft® SharePoint® implement web pages as the collaboration work space. Therefore, public presentation of finished documents can be accomplished that much faster and with less recourse to specialized personnel. All told, there are few excuses for businesses of any size not to implement document collaboration capabilities. Why not give them a try?

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2011 All Rights Reserved

Posted in Content Collaboration, Desktop Computing, microsoft, open-source | No Comments »

A Friendly LINUX Distribution for the Desktop — Ubuntu

March 27th, 2011

I have used LINUX for over 15 years. Until recently, I exclusively looked to SuSE for my LINUX computing needs. I started with SuSE LINUX 8.x and took it forward from there through the acquisition of SuSE LINUX by NOVELL and on. But now I am using Ubuntu and here’s why.

Dual boot never worked for me. At a cocktail party a few years ago a new acquaintance let me know about virtual machines. With a network of Windows, MAC OS X, and SuSE Linux computers already in place I saw no reason to just jump into virtual machines. But I was intrigued with the notion and easily envisioned substantial cost savings as the result of utilizing virtual machines for all the OSs I would need, going forward, as computers would fail and I would need to think of replacements.

The moment of opportunity to start utilizing virtual machines arrived when Windows 7 was released. This new Microsoft OS needed a place on my network. Coincidentally, my 12inch MAC Powerbook G4 died prematurely at a young age of 3 years. I learned my lesson from this bad MAC experience and went out looking for Intel Hardware running Windows 7. I found a refurbished Dell Precision T1500 Workstation–a real screamer and a welcome change from chug chug along MAC hardware and OS.

I visited EMC’s VMWare website and downloaded a trial instance of the VMWare Workstation software.  I then downloaded the latest SuSE Linux distribution (10.5) available at the time (approximately 2 years ago). The experience of running a virtual machine was very welcome. Simultaneous access to LINUX from Windows afforded me the opportunity to capture at least 90 percent of what MAC OS X was doing for me without the expensive cost of admission. The remaining 10 percent, for access to proprietary design tools like Adobe Creative Suite, was still there in the form of the MAC Mini that I still had running on my network.

I set up MySQL/Apache and VIM 7.x and started to have fun. But the smiles turned to a very grave and deep frown when an “automatic update” of the SuSE LINUX Kernel left me without a virtual machine recognizable to VMWare Workstation and no access whatsoever to my data. A search for culprits revealed that VMWare Tools were NOT running for the SuSE virtual machine.

I spent a fruitless week searching forums for a workable solution and then just gave up. I had heard about Ubuntu and decided to give it a try. Ubuntu is built on Debian. I had played around with Debian in the past and had some familiarity as the result of having explored the MAC Darwin project. So I revisited the VMWare site, decided that I did NOT need the Workstation whistles and bells and downloaded the free Player application. Player gave me all the functionality I needed (and still does so). I then downloaded Ubuntu and the rest is history.

The VMWare Tools work fine with the Ubuntu distribution. I have already gone through one kernel update for the Ubuntu 10.10 distribution without any problems. If you are like me, and would rather not spend lots of time on the backend futzing around with OS, then check out VMWare Player with Ubuntu as your LINUX Distribution. I am sure you will be pleased.

I should add that I am still running SuSE Linux 11.3 on two computers on my network, but both computers are dedicated LINUX servers.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2011 All Rights Reserved

 

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Posted in Desktop Computing, LINUX, microsoft, open-source, Virtual Machine, Windows 7 | No Comments »

Introducing Green Products Gallery

June 19th, 2010

Green Products Gallery has debuted on the net. This web site is an ecommerce effort to service the growing popularity of green products and green gift ideas. Site visitors can choose from a rich assortment of so-called sustainable products that are environmentally friendly, earth friendly, and even eco-friendly. Some of the novel offerings include household towels entirely fabricated from bamboo tree viscous; fashion hand bags manufactured from recycled plastics and automobile tires; and plantable paper notes, cards and stationery. In addition, visitors may purchase more conventional items associated with a green living lifestyle, including candles made from soy beans, dog leashes and collars fabricated from hemp and 100% cotton towel sets.

IMB Enterprises, Inc. assisted the site owner, Mr. Glenn Neuschwender with the launch of Green Products Gallery. We worked on the choice of a domain name; the technical implementation of the site shopping cart platform (a customized version of OSCommerce) and also on the editorial content for meta tags for search engine optimization and online promotion.

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A Self-Serving Sinking Ship

May 18th, 2010

More frequently than not, web pages are promoted by search web sites according to some measure of page authority. Best case, this practice supports lean and mean search web site data storage, where only certified authentic web sites are indexed. Worst case, this practice drops a thick fog over the web. Navigating under this condition of very low visibility, some important information may no longer flow. Out-of-the-norm information may be bottled-up in “not to be found” web sites, effectively sealed knowledge containers that are never served as search results by search web sites.

Restricted by low page rank, or a so-called “lack of authenticity” (as evidenced by a paucity of inbound links from so-called “authority” web sites) a web site with compelling and important content is, effectively, buried and inaccessible via web search. The public must seek other means of accessing the information. Faced with such opacity, we might as well be back in the pre-Internet days. The web is not going to deliver the out-of-the-norm information that we are after.

There is a case to be made for web search that indexes EVERYTHING online, a web search that eschews the application of inherently subjective (and thereby limited) assessment of web page authenticity or value. For the portion of the public that is after news, the use of such a web search service promises far greater return on effort. Perhaps such a web search can be monetized and built into a profitable online business. I do hope so as only by opening a view of the Internet that is wide enough to include all of the web pages “out there” can we, with some certainty, render a judgement regarding the availability (or lack of availability) of some piece of information. The Internet has much promise as the fastest mechanism available for information transfer, but only when everything on it can be scrutinized without filter.

Posted in internet, Internet Search, search engine marketing, technology | No Comments »

So Much for the Little Guy

May 17th, 2010

A client of mine is in a Financial Services Business. We chatted this morning about his interest in promoting his consulting business online through Search Engine Marketing. Online promotion is no longer a simple matter for folks like my client, meaning professional, licensed consultants in the Financial Services Business. So he looks to someone like me to lead the way.

The potential benefit of online marketing has changed, dramatically, for this business sector. The law now currently restricts the services and capabilities that Financial Services consultants may promote online. In addition, the vendors who provide product to these professionals, insurance companies selling annuities, or long term disability insurance, etc. are adding additional restrictions. The end result of this situation is that these services providers have very little latitude to avail of CPC advertising. Nor do they have the latitude to optimize a web site for organic search optimization via inbound link-building. So they are stuck in the water without an oar.

While they are floating, adrift in a becalmed sea, the vendors, themselves, are driving the cost per click on ads for Financial Services products through the roof. Consider that a click on an ad for the Metro New York City local market for the keyword phrase “long term disability insurance quotes” will now cost you $14.96. Only highly profitable entities, like Insurance Companies, themselves, can afford to pay these kinds of rates over a daily CPC budget. But consider, as well, that where the costs for CPC are high, it is safe to say that there is quite a bit of money to be made–else why would these businesses pay the bill for the clicks?

So here we have a situation where big companies are competing for keywords for highly lucrative markets. How can we get the little guy back into this picture short of regulating who buys what ad and when?

But isn’t the culprit precisely the regulation that restricted the marketplace for these keywords to large business? And didn’t this restricted marketplace create the high prices for these ads? By tying the hands of the front line of this services sector, the powers that be opened the tent for the big business camel to come in and now there is no room for anyone else in the tent at all. Further regulation will not make this situation better, at all.
Let’s deregulate.

Posted in internet, online commerce, retail B to C, search engine marketing | No Comments »

Confused Local Strategy at Google

April 30th, 2010

From my perspective as a user of Google’s large arsenal of web site promotional tools, Google’s local strategy is very confused. It seems that I have three different ways of promoting customer business to a local market:

  • Google Local
  • Google Places
  • Google Maps

Which of these three tools is my best bet? I do not know how to clearly answer this question and here’s why:

I have a customer who is a design consultant. This customer has three different business locations: a first here in the States and on Long Island; a second in the States and in New York City and, finally, a third at an international location. My customer is keen on local online marketing and likes Google a lot. The problem is that we cannot successfully enter her second States location into the Google product line.

This lack of success spells bad news for Google. Everyone is either interested in Local online marketing or will be soon. Major markets, international market, are fiercely competitive. Local markets hold promise for smaller businesses or larger businesses with large numbers of local offices. But Google moving in three local marketing directions at once is not helpful. Ultimately, Google will suffer as the result of a confused presentation to the market.

A further detail on the problem of this specific client of mine: the usually reliable and helpful set of forums at Google for posting questions did not help me find a solution to the problem. A posting to the Places forum magnetized only one response and, after finding out the name of my customer and the location, that was the last I heard from this would be good samaritan.

An ambiguous and otherwise ineffective set of services for local search marketing constitutes a real opportunity for competitors to step into this arena. Alternatively, if Google is just another “too big to fail” entity, then perhaps it should be split up on this point.

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iPad Brouhaha

April 7th, 2010

I thought long and hard before writing this post as

  1. I do not own an iPad
  2. I do not own any other type of Tablet Personal Computer

HOWEVER, with all the fanfare and Brouhaha about the wonder of Apple’s iPad I thought I would jump in to simply add one, perhaps provocative thought to all the consternation:

Apple is a Master of Medium Marketing — No More, No Less

IMHO the technical realities of the iPad are irrelevant. Wake up and take notice. Apple is playing a marketing game and may be holding a full house. The target market is convinced that it is “cool to buy an iPad” since Apple “is the revolution” and sooooo “creative.”

Therefore, all the spoiled lousers (for example the eWeek crowd at Ziff Davis who are dying to take the wind out of Apple’s sails for technical reasons) are barking up the wrong tree and will probably collapse in an exhausted frenzy that accomplishes nada.

If you want to slay this beast you gotta beat the beast at its own game.

Microsoft: Keep building that Rebel kinda thing and that underdog kinda thing. You’ll get there.

This is not to say that market realities (anemic sales) will not do the same thing, but that these realities will take a lot longer to sink in.

Oh, I should add one more thing. A long time user of Mac I was and now I’ve gone to Windows 7 as I don’t believe that pricey machines like PowerBook G4s should be treated as “throw aways” if they happen to be 4 years old or even older and suffer a crashed hard drive.

Onto the fray, Gandalf.

Posted in apple, microsoft, technology, technology trends | No Comments »

“Flit” or Swim

February 5th, 2010

Ms. Katherine Boehret of The Wall Street recently published (Wednesday, February 3, 2010 publication date) nearly a full page article on yet another “new” shopping search engine, http://www.flit.com . Ms. Boehret claims that the Flit service enhances the online shopping experience by affording the shopper an opportunity to “shop using the same method they use at the mall: Start inside familiar stores, not in a giant bucket of products.” Ms. Boehret contends that the typical online shopping experience with popular shopping search engines like Amazon is precisely the quagmire of the giant bucket of products just mentioned.

I found it intriguing that Ms. Boehret claimed that Amazon, eBay, and the like are the most popular search engines for shoppers. In fact, I dropped her an email about her point with a request for substantiating data. My experience has been that even out-and-out shopping search sites like CitySearch still point to Google as the leading search engine for shopping. Hear me right. I am not saying that Ms. Boehret is wrong, I am just saying that I would like to see the substantiating data for myself.

As to Flit as a quantum step forward towards a natural and comfortable online shopping experience for a shopping mall habitue, my own experience was quite to contrary. I found my self not only literally with a bucket full of products, but a bucket full of stores of every type when I visited the site and ran a search of my own.

My search term was
maggie sottero

I opted to search premium stores only. Nevertheless, trusty Flit returned listings for products from Maggie Sottero on

  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • etc

along with categories for premium stores including Neiman Marcus, etc. I then had to go further to click on each store link and run the search for each store inventory. This whole process was a pain, to say the least. I must say that I did not find Flit to be a site where my type of shopper will “flit away the time.” On the contrary, I would recommend that the folks at Flit refine the search process to better reflect the capabilities that Ms. Boehret claims for their site.

DXNBWFP2P67R

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