Is the Apple iPad a funky tech fad or a game changer?

After listening to Wired Magazine Chris Anderson’s keynote at adtech San Francisco this year, the iPad is not only a game changer and will forever change the way we consume the Internet, but will also reinvigorate the gasping publishing industry. His main argument — the iPad and future tablets from HP, Google and the rest offer a controlled delivery and experience that you cannot achieve through the traditional html-web browser format we’ve become accustomed to – because they must be cross-platform friendly and therefore allow for less control over the final packaging. On the iPad, the experience is controlled, which allows the web product to be more packaged and polished. For example, examine the difference between reading the Wall Street Journal as a newspaper vs. through your web browser vs. through the iPad app version. The iPad app allows the WSJ to flow more like a newspaper as it was painstakingly intended to be by their design and publishing team. A beautifully packaged and intuitive experience rather than the after-thought feel of reading WSJ through Firefox or Safari. This, along with the simple touchscreen interface that anybody and their grandmother can use, makes the iPad a compelling piece of technology that is very, very hard to ignore.

Business consultant and author Stephanie Chandler of The Leap! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business and The Business Startup Checklist and Planning Guide shares some great tips for business owners in this economy. Watch her video made exclusively for BIG Marketing for Small Business.

Social Media – start networking; it’s all about relationships. Don’t walk into a function thinking “What I am I gaining. What’s in it for me?” Go in there with the mindset that everything is an opportunity to build relationships.

Marketing Plans – get a vision; find what you need to make it happen. Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years? What steps and goals must be accomplished to reach that vision?

Publicity Plans – create a month-by-month plan of publicity opportunities for your business. Know who’s covering what and when they are covering. Don’t forget about online!

Check out the video for more tips. She also talks about the Project Rev contest that could give your small business a $5,000 boost!

Here’s a video recap by NovusTV of the F5 Expo held April 7th, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.

(Left to Right) Michael Tippet of NowPublic, Justin Young of Radar DDB, and myself discuss cost effective video marketing at the F5 Expo on April 7th in Vancouver, Canada.

Photos courtesy of www.jeremylim.ca

The F5 Expo held Wednesday, April 7th was a tremendous event. Rich content, well-attended and a powerful keynote from best-selling author of Blink, Tipping Point, and Outliers Malcolm Gladwell. His challenge to people using and developing on the Internet is to use it to create strong ties rather than just weak ties, of which the Internet is already very good at. Revolutionary change can only happen through strong ties Malcolm argued, as he cited several examples throughout history to prove his point. His feeling, and I agree, is that the world needs more social revolution, and if revolution can only occur through strong ties, then we must find ways to use the Internet to foster it. The question is, are we up for it?

Malcolm Gladwell argues that the Internet has only been good at generating weak ties quickly amongst crowds of people. Social revolution can only happen through strong ties.

I had signed up to moderate two panels, the first being Cloud Computing and the other Search Engine Marketing. Thank you to my panelists for a job well done. I got some very positive feedback on these topics from attendees. I was also a last second replacement on the Cost Effective Video Marketing panel and had the privilege of sharing the stage with Justin Young of Radar DDB Vancouver and Michael Tippet of NowPublic. All-in-all, I thought it was a great event… minus the registration snafu! Well done Linz!

Network and communications technology giant Cisco Systems has teamed up with Brickfish for a unique program called Heroes of the Human Network which celebrates and rewards small business operators. To enter the program, you’re asked to describe your small business and how technology has helped you to advance or how the right technology could help your small business advance. Your profile will then be posted on their site where it will be ranked amongst other profiles by site visitors. A winner will be drawn after March 3rd, and will be awarded over $10,000 worth of Cisco product in network improvement. Plus, the winner will be exalted to “hero” status in an upcoming Heroes of the Human Network advertisement. There will also be some runner up prizes doled out. If you’re interested, enter here.

Malcolm Gladwell takes live questions through Mingleverse at F5 Expo Launch Party.

I was in attendance at the F5 Expo Launch Party yesterday, January 26th. What a great turnout! The place was packed with over 200 people – and all eyeballs were fixated on the many screens around the V Lounge as Malcolm Gladwell appeared within the Mingleverse online universe (think Second Life) to take questions from the live audience. If this party was any indication of what we can expect of the main event on April 7th, the Vancouver business and tech scene is in for a special treat. F5 Expo is all about online business, marketing, and technology. Hot topics like Search Engine Optimization, social media, video blogging, and cloud computing will be tackled in interactive sessions and panel discussions. I’ve just been added as a moderator on the SEO panel. Should be fun!

If you haven’t registered yet, take advantage of my personal promo code that gives you 30% off the ticket price until Jan 31st.

REGISTER NOW

ENTER PROMO CODE: P1F510

The Internet, and the communications technology that has come with it, has handed small business owners an amazing marketing tool. No longer do middlemen wield a lot of control; instead, the small brands with remarkable products and services have the tools (namely search engines and social networks) to connect them with their ideal customer. But that means having a great website, because first impressions count. Here are a few BIG ideas for making your website a better marketing tool.

Make it a One Stop Shop. You’re putting in a lot of work and effort to keep your brand top of mind with the customer. So why not take advantage of being the business of choice? Partner with others or launch your own additional products and services to bring in some ancillary income. Airlines have done this for years with travel insurance, hotels, and car rentals.  Why can’t you? Web technology makes it easy – just think hard about what would be a good fit.  You don’t want to make it too complicated.

Find What’s Missing. In a lot of verticals, you’ll find customers often complaining about the information that’s missing. Maybe it is a lack of reviews, maybe it’s just a directory of suppliers, or maybe it’s something deeper. Can you find what’s missing?  You might have to launch a site separate to yours, but wouldn’t it be nice to be the only advertiser and sponsor of a site your niche or industry has been desperate for? Make sure it isn’t adding noise or just another layer in the process.

Make It Simpler. We’ve been talking about a lot of extra stuff. But you don’t want bells and whistles, you want value. So maybe, for you, less is more? If you are suffering from an information glut, the winning formula might be a better way to present and sort through all that information.

Build a Community. Yes, yes – the social media pundits have been touting this one for awhile. But they’re right: if you want people to keep coming back to your website and your brand, you need it to be a place where they feel welcome. The easiest way to do that is to give them a seat at your table. Allowing comments on articles and accepting contributions of photos/articles/videos are two easy ways to start. But change your tone as well – why not call them “community members” instead of customers?

Ask Your Customers For Their Feedback. Feedback is invaluable, so why not ask your “community members” (see previous!)– the ones who are the raving fans and active participants in the discussion – what they think? You want to hear about what they like, but more importantly, what’s wrong? As hard as you try, you will never be perfect, but if you are listening to what your most profitable and engaged clients are saying, you can come close.

Guest Contributor – Andy Hayes is a professional writer and published author. He is the managing director of  Travel Online Partners  (TOP), the go-to resource for small businesses in travel and tourism for help with online technology. If you need more BIG ideas for your small business website, he can help.


I’m already a fan of these types of sites. I’m an avid user of Trip Advisor, which aggregates user reviews and ratings on hotel accommodations around the world. A couple of years ago, I booked my entire European trip based on user recommendations I found on Trip Advisor. Every single hotel I booked was exactly as described, and in most cases, much better. And there would have been no other way for me to discover these hotels without such a site, as all of them were not parts of big chains.

More and more sites are popping up that are crowd sourcing user ratings, reviews and recommendations – and I don’t see an end to it. Who needs to listen to a select few self-proclaimed experts to guide us on which films to watch, restaurants to visit, or cars to buy when you can get the straight goods from everyday people. I can’t remember the last time I followed the advise of a movie review in a newspaper or on television. Not when I can go to Flixster, instead.

No. 1 – Wordpress
My all-time favorite. I’ve written countless times about my love affair with Wordpress and how it can be used not only for your blog, but for your company website. The platform is incredibly easy to use and comes complete with a wide selection of templates and widgets, site traffic stats, spam filtering, and much more. And it’s all free. You can have a site up and running in less than 5 minutes.

No. 2 – Weebly
Weebly lets you create a free website and blog in little time. It has an incredibly easy drag-and-drop interface, and offers lots of design templates and themes to choose from, as well as free domain hosting. Add pictures, videos, music, documents, and photos with ease.

No. 3 – Bravenet
Want to add message forums, online calendars, guestbooks, or other web tools to your website? Check out Bravenet. Bravenet offers these and lots more, along with free hosting and optional professional hosting. You can either build a pre-existing website and upload it through FTP to Bravenet to host, or use Viviti, their drag-and-drop site builder and content manager to build your site with them.

No.4 – Wix
Looking to build a stunning Flash website for free? Then Wix is your answer. Simple drag-and-drop editor, lots of customizable Flash templates  to choose from, and apparently search engine friendly – I don’t have proof that it is, but very important when building Flash sites, which are notoriously unfriendly to search engines.

No. 5 – Squarespace
Okay, this service is not free but it’s damn good so I’ve included it here. Starting at $8 per month, Squarespace offers you a fully hosted and highly professional custom looking websites that are easy to build. If you’re looking for greater control over the look and feel, as well as the content of your website, Squarespace is the right choice. Celebrities like Jamie Kennedy, Dane Cook and Kevin Pollak use it, as well as fashion giant Marc Ecko Enterprises.

• Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote presentation
• Access to all sessions and panel discussions
• Lunch and refreshments
• USB memory stick preloaded with exclusive offerings and savings for your business
• Admission to the post-event networking reception with Malcolm in attendance

BONUS: Your name will be entered into a draw to meet Malcolm in-person. Only 20 tickets will be made available for this private reception.

Order Early Bird Tickets Here