In December, we launched a new website for 1-800-BETS-OFF.  If you are not familiar with the program, it was established by the Iowa Department of Public Health to reduce the harm that can be caused by problem gambling and also to educate about responsible gambling.

The new website is very simple.  It was redesigned to focus on getting people the help they need.  There is a quiz visitors can take to determine if they may be in need of help or getting close to needing help.

And, because video is such a popular communication tool, we’ve produced a video that explains what happens when you make that call.  The purpose is to make people feel more comfortable about taking that first step towards recovery.

Please review the new website and let us know your thoughts.

Smart phones are huge and mobile marketing is the current big thing  !!!  How many times have   you been told that?  Probably about as many times as you’ve been told your business is changing.  Probably about as many times as somebody has told you that social networking is an absolute must.

Nielsen predicts smart phones will overtake feature phones by the third quarter of 2011 which means that these handy little devices will have a major influence on how we market and communicate.

There are basically three ways to use smart phone technology in your marketing.

1. The first is SMS or texting.  Sixty percent of the U.S. uses texting.  The cost is relatively low, but you get a static, flat and limited communication with little or no user engagement beyond sending/receiving.  The texter and textee do not have to be very sophisticated technologically and they certainly don’t have to be good spellers.  ROFLMHO.SMS is best used for voting.  American Idol had over 178 million text messages in its 2009 season.  It can also be used for sweepstakes, trivia contests, coupons, opting in for alerts and updates and calls-to-action from other media.The best thing about SMS is that it’s cheap and fast to market.  Remember that privacy is paramount.  There is a code of conduct available on the Mobile Marketing Association website.
2. The mobile web is growing at breakneck speed.  Twent-five percent of us use our phones to access websites.  And that number is growing rapidly, coinciding with the growth of smart phones in general.  If you’re talking to Millennials, you can bet that they are looking at your website on their smart phone.The cost of making your website mobile friendly is low to moderate.  You can basically repurpose your existing content in a new layout, with some different navigation and programming.  While it can still be kind of glitchy sometimes, it is steadily improving with faster connections and more powerful devices.  And you can get to market pretty quickly.
3. The sexiest option is the creation of Apps, but it’s not always the best option… though every creative department wants to do them.  Apps generally have a short shelf life…most less than 30 days.  They are expensive to produce for a relatively small audience and they take a long time to get to market.But Apps can be really cool.  They can take advantage of motion graphics, GPS, and accelerometer.  The audience that uses Apps  is pretty technologically advanced.So why would you create an App for your business?  Our advice is that if your idea will improve the life of the user in a meaningful way, go for it.  If it adds to your brand’s utility go for it.  If it deepens the relationship you have with your customer it’s a great idea.  But if you’re developing one just to entertain or fill some creative urge, you’d be better off saving your money because you really don’t need an App for that.  You can probably download one for free.

There’s an old axiom among fishermen that goes something like this, “Some lures are meant for catching fishermen and others for catching fish.”  Having grown up fishing, my tackle box is living proof of that truth.  Seems like the flashiest and most colorful lures never caught a thing while the rattiest, most beat up piece of wood with hooks has a history of catching the most and the biggest.

The real truth is all lures will catch fish if fished properly, at the right time in places where there are fish.  Social media seems to be one of those kinds of lures.  It’s the hottest, shiniest new lure out there in the marketing lake. There are a lot of people fishin’  but only a few that are catchin’.

R2integrated just published a study indicating that nearly 50% of companies using social media have no social media strategy.  That probably also explains why 65% of those reporting indicated that they hadn’t increased sales as a result of using social media.  Yet 77% said they were doing social media for lead generation.  Huh?  Fifty-four percent said that social media is integral to their business.  Whaaaaa???????

So, half don’t have a strategy, Most know what they would like it to do. It’s not doing what they would like it to do but it’s integral to their business.  In the word of Bill Cosby, “RIIIIGHT!”

Social media has caught a lot of fishermen but it hasn’t put many fish in the boat.  So as most businesses cast and crank their social media lures into a vast ocean with a few prospects swimming in it, there are a few who’ve used strategy to locate fish concentration and entice those prospects into their pond.

What is a social networking strategy?  If you think about it in purely social terms, it’s why you get invited to a dinner party.  You either supply interesting conversation…which usually means you’re don’t talk about yourself constantly because you’d be a complete bore and you’re really not that interesting.  Or, they really like your significant other.  In any case, your social media strategy should have its own shiny new lure to draw fish into your area of the lake.  Then you need to know what bait to use to get and keep them involved.  And that’s the difference between fishin’ and catchin’.

We are expecting the delivery of a couple of iPads in the next day or so.  As a result, I’ve been poking around the iPad app stores looking for some content for  the wonderful device that we anticipate receiving.  Mr. Murdoch has said that the iPad will be the savior of print media as we know it.  That’s good because I like to read my newspaper without a keyboard in front of me.

Unfortunately, when I look at the free apps for the Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Newsweek and others, I find negative reviews galore.  It seems that these publications charge nearly as much or more for the iPad edition as they do for the old school print version.  Not very green of them.

Now we understand that there’s programming involved in getting it on the iPad, but we doubt that it’s as difficult as the old cold type versions of newspapers we see in western movies.  So, why exactly are the iPad versions so expensive?

In the first place “free” is not a sustainable model. That is presuming you would like professional journalists doing their jobs being objective, investigative and unbiased.  (Hoy, that’s a whole different discussion)  So regardless of our desire for free, it can’t happen long term.  A Wall Street Journal on the iPad has every cost associated with the collection, gathering and writing of information as does the tree killing old school version that I know and love.  What it loses is the production, printing and delivery costs.  It adds a cost from Apple.

From a revenue point of view, we may be buying in-depth advertising rather than a quarter page.  So the cost of the ad will depend on what’s behind the first photo and how deep the content is that can be explored by the reader.  Hard to understand for a medium with ink under its finger nails.

It maybe even harder for internet savvy readers to understand why they should pay for content.  Enter the Drudge Tax.  The Drudge Tax is an idea floated by the FTC that would tax news aggregators like the Drudge Report for using/stealing content paid for by the traditional media and then channel some of that tax back to newspapers.  That is after the bureaucrats take their cut.  Consumerists are up in arms saying that 74% of consumers are against that tax.  Duh?  Who wants to end free?

The point is good content is not free or even cheap.  And while blogs, facebook and twitter have made us all publishers of some sort, the quality of what we collectively publish is highly suspect.  Except of course for What’s New at ZLRIGNTION which is beyond reproach.

Good content should be a competitive advantage for traditional media turned digital and it should not be free.  Nor should any Tom, Dick or Drudge be able to cheapen the value by violating copyrights of the creators of the content.  Believe me these news aggregators are making their money for doing little more than linking to traditional media outlets.

So when our iPads come in, we’ll pay for the Journal, the New York Times, Wired Magazine and all the others and hope quality journalism never dies even if its currently on life support.

More importantly, why should I follow you?

This Twitter thing maybe the largest bandwagon in the world. Micro blogging about burritos, traffic jams, and mocha. Wooohoo!

There seems to be two sides to the issue. You love it or you think it’s the most worthless waste of time ever to hit a mobile phone.

I’ve been getting follow notices from the strangest places. A grocery store twenty miles away from me. A convenience store chain. A fishing guide in Florida. Even a competing ad agency! Okay, I admit I follow them.

I appreciate their belief that I have something intelligent to say in 140 characters, but do they really expect me to reciprocate? Where’s the strategy? Where’s the cross promotion? Where’s your boss?

Social media is a great way to “socialize your brand” and it’s also a great way to waste your time and to look silly. Have a strategy? Answer the question, “Why should anyone follow me?”
If you have an answer to that question, use it in your bio…maybe even your name. If the answer is “Great deals at the grocery store!” maybe I’ll follow to see how great your deals are. But if your answer is, “Because I’m trying to use social media so I don’t have to spend any money!” don’t waste my time.