Segway of Ohio is an authorized seller of Segway products. The Segway is a self-balancing personal transportation device with two wheels; can operate in any level pedestrian environment. Segway of Ohio has 5 retail stores located across Ohio and is currently using their web site to communicate with businesses and consumers in an exciting way. This striking Flash animation contains photos, text and videos. The web site was produced by Marcy Design.
WMMS was the premiere rock radio station in the late seventies in Cleveland, Ohio. Their brand of rock didn’t include Barry Manilow or Anne Murry. No, WMMS, blasted Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin and Kiss. All day and all night. Needless to say, WMMS and their mascot, the buzzard, was very popular on the campus of Kent State University.
In the Fall of 1975, as a freshman, a friend and I were walking the campus after class around 5:30 pm. It was a Friday and the end of our first week of classes. We noticed a lot of students opening windows in their dorm rooms. Soon they put speakers (facing outside) connected to their stereos on the ledge. The stereos were all tuned to WMMS with the volume on high. The sound was coming from almost every dorm all across the campus.
I hadn’t heard of WMMS before because I wasn’t from the area. I didn’t know that around 6:00 pm every Friday, a DJ named Murry Saul, would come on the air and begin a synopsis about celebrating the weekend. At the end of his rant, he would close with a few words of encouragement, the music would cue up, and the weekend was official. You could hear the campus roar with approval. The live audio version is listed above.
The process of branding begins with setting a goal; knowing who your target audience is; creating a strong message; and finally communicating that message consistently to your target audience. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that ‘Gotta Get Down!’ is the best example of branding. But, in the late seventies, WMMS was the only radio station that we listened to.
Podacast about the effects of social media and web site design.
Just how fast does news travel these days. Pretty darn fast if you ask me. If you haven’t heard already, a remarkable television event happened recently. Susan Boyle, an unknown Scottish citizen became internationally famous in the blink of an eye. She dreamed of becoming a professional singer, and entered a contest on the TV show; Britain’s Got Talent. Similar to America’s Got Talent, contestants vie for prize money by singing, dancing and displaying wide variety of entertainment.
Within 1 week the video (shown above) on YouTube had over 24 million views. Hundreds of blogs and major news media covered the event. When she walked on stage you could here the crowd laughing. But, I’ll let the video link above tell the rest of the story. She is living proof that you can do anything that you sent your mind to. She is also proof of the power and speed of the Internet.
An iconic comic strip has turned 20 years old. Dilbert, created by Scott Adams, was born on April 16th, 1989. Dilbert appears in 2000 papers in 65 countries and 25 languages. Currently, a book is available titled: Twenty Years of Dilbert (also on DVD). And according to Fast Company, Scott Adams has no plans of slowing down. Here’s to 20 more years!
Another Social Media web site has reached a tipping point. In the middle of a recession, Twitter has grown 131% in one month! According to comSCORE, the number of visitors to Twitter jumped to 9.3 million visitors. That equates to a 5 million more visitors than in February alone. Part of the growth can be attributed to mainstream media promoting communication between viewers and their networks. In other words, you’re likely to hear about Twitter almost every day.
Wind power generation is an important part of the renewable energy solution in the United States. In the Midwest, there is an exciting initiative underway to build 3,000 miles of a wind turbine ’superhighway’. The transmission infrastructure will span between North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and possibly into Indiana. This project is being managed by The Green Power Express. There still appear to be regulatory hurdles to overcome, but the plan is to complete the project by 2020.
If I told you that there was a device that over 2.7 billion people have worldwide, and they use that device every day to find information regarding products and services; would you want your business to be on that device? Or at the very least, make sure that your web site is compatible with the technology? Well that device is a cell phone. Worldwide the cell phone has grown larger and faster than the automobile (800 million); the telephone (1.3 billion); the computer (850 million); or even credit cards (1.2 billion). And mobile technology is continuing to grow at an unprecedented rate. The information supplied here is from a wonderful book that you can review at: Communities Dominate Brands.
When you also take into consideration that 17% of the Internet is browsed by cell phones, I believe that we are beyond the tipping point. Your business web site needs to be mobile-ready. The content that flows through your web site should be compatible with cell phone technology. This technology can also take advantage of another emerging market — Social Media. You know, 2.7 billion people can’t all be wrong.
Podacast about the effects of social media and web site design.
This morning, I was watching an old James Bond movie titled: ‘View to a Kill”. And I couldn’t remember the name of the actor who played the villain. Out comes my trusty iPhone and with one click to the Internet browser, I found the answer; Christopher Walken. He’s also the actor who did the hilarious dance on SNL years ago. A little while later my family and I were trying to decide which church to attend and what time the Masses were. Again, within seconds I knew the Mass schedule for 4 churches.
I could go on about how I find Indian restaurants for lunch during the week, check email, Twitter, and do literally hundreds of Internet searches from my iPhone. Cell phones have come a long way from just talking and text messaging. In fact, 17% of all Internet browsing in the U.S. is accomplished through cell phones. Knowing that, I made sure that our blog (for Marcy Design) is mobile-ready. Our Web site now detects if a browser is coming from a computer or a cell phone and displays the appropriate screen.
Does your target audience use their phone to find products and services? It might be time to see how the mobile world views your business.
