Your Blog, Your Hub!

One of the most overlooked tools in the digital makeup of your business is the blog. We have websites, microsites, landing pages and email blasts, just to name a few. Why blog? Because in it’s true form, it’s an organic form of digital media. It gives you the ability to automate and publish content whenever and wherever people are in your market. It establishes your personal brand! It helps build trust and influence to your users. Your blog should present in depth ideas and issues about your company in general, as well as the world around it. It provides a great voice. People want to know the inside story, and they demand it. With a blog tailored to your customer’s needs, you expand the number of eyes on your business or product. In a sense you are paving a path to further engagement with your business. A call to action.

If the blog is your true voice, why not use it as the hub of your digital business? An engaging blog supports many avenues and opportunities to get your readers to want to learn more about you or your company. From here, the end is limitless on how you can share your website, microsite, or even your company’s facebook profile.

Get blogging and let the hub plug the company for you!

Upload and Download

Now, if I could just create a job number for all the hours I spend waiting for files to upload or download. I mean a simple 53.1 MB file seems life forever when you have about 70 of those to download. In fact I wonder how many hours are spent daily around the world, downloading or uploading. Streams of information, back and forth, all day. With millions of people on the Internet everyday (no wonder bandwidth is so expensive), will we ever run out of digital space?

I find myself constantly looking at our server space and wondering, OK, what do I need to back up to DVD now? I mean there is only a certain amount of space on the server. Where does it all go, and what is the best way to files all those backups. Do we also need backups of our backups? I guess the only time you realize you do, is when your data is gone.

BACKUP People!!

The Paperless Trade Show Booth

Each and every season, the same question comes into play for most companies: “What do we do with our old trade show graphics?” Wouldn’t it be great if we could just change the graphics digitally, and just post them into the new trade show design? As someone who creates images and designs to be viewed digitally (on screen) everyday, it seems clear to me that it would be much easier to keep trade show booths fresh and new, if we were able to literally….just design and post. Now I now, your probably thinking, that this would be very expensive. Most would agree, except for the fact that I see thousands of dollars being spent in others areas around the trade show floor (i.e. talent, actors, heavy machinery, production equipment, smoke machines etc.) that can be replaced. Logic tells me that a few dollars spent in one area can reap rewards in another. Lets say for instance that you have a message that you want to deliver to your audience about a new product your selling, and the only way to have that information delivered is through a person speaking about it. Does it make sense to hire someone to travel, and become the spokesperson for your brand? Or does it make sense to create a great video, that can be revised and tailored to that particular trade shows needs? It also makes a case to become a giveaway, or to be played on screens around the corporate network. It also makes it easier to have corporate individuals deliver those messages straight to your audience without missing that board meeting later in the after noon at your local office. Two places at once, with the experts presenting the content.

Lets talk about that huge rig or piece of machinery that cost thousands to transport to each and every show. Wouldn’t it be nice to show a 3d rendering in all its glory on a plasma screen in high definition? Again, the piece becomes more than an object people walk by, it becomes a living work of art. Your art. Showing every detail of how the tool or product  actually works in a simulated environment. Now, there comes the idea of how this digital trade show will come to pass, are there flat screens everywhere? I say yes. Renting for one is cheaper than buying, and if trade show companies become smarter, they will begin to see the future of trade shows and how they are portrayed.

Digital media also invites many online experiences that can be tracked or downloaded. It also keeps the end user involved in a more intimate or hands on experience. Tidbits and avenues to lead back to your corporate site or portal. Endless data to be had, and that is a plus for your company! Put those memory sticks with your logo on it to work! There’s information to be dispersed!

See you at the show. Game on!

Visual Clutter?

As I look from my window each day, I am reminded that not only is design something to be printed or viewed on screen, it is in some cases an actual part of the landscape. Take for instance, the abandoned building on the corner of Commerce and Jackson St. (downtown Houston). On that very building stands a billboard that reads “Thermal Supply.” Now, by looking at the sign, I can tell that it has been some time since that sign was put there. I ask this question, when does a piece of art (i.e. a billboard) become visual clutter?