Going Mobile Helps Customers Find You

Always mobile-friendly, Andy endorses GoMo, Google’s initiative for businesses to go mobile. According to Google statistics, three-quarters of customers prefer a mobile-friendly site. Aside from making a good impression on most of your customers, GoMo offers more reasons mobile sites are more important than ever, as well as a window into how your current site looks on a mobile device. Like Google, we also think mobile has an enormous impact on your business, and we’d be happy to help you GoMo.

Web Design Goes Flat

Always keen to spot new online culture trends, David was interested to see “flat” design seemingly everywhere. Communications technologies have helped many rigid corporate hierarchies give way to more flat, democratic arrangements. And Internet archives and borderless online sharing have rendered time and space flat. So it’s no wonder that flat design should become a web design trend. From the design of Roberto’s favourite iOS weather app Solar, to one of our latest website builds SRG, flat design cuts down on visual clutter, and often provides a more streamlined user experience – especially on small screens.

A Friendly Ghost

We love obviously love WordPress, but we were interested by the Ghost CMS project, which is an under-development CMS that has sparked much talk about the future of online publishing. Since WordPress has grown from a blogging platform to a full-fledged Content Management System, many are looking for a simple blog platform like Blogger or Tumblr. Enter Ghost, a publishing platform built on WordPress, but that’s pared down to provide a sleek blogging experience without some of the fancier WordPress features. While Ghost hasn’t fully been released yet, it does offer a different vision of what WordPress could be, and something that would appeal to some users. We don’t find that the least bit spooky.

WordPress Education Inside the Dashboard

Always on the lookout for things that make online friendly, Brent was happy to see Toronto WordPress developers come up with the WPUniversity Dashboard Widget, which provides personalized WordPress training and assistance from inside your dashboard. We work with WordPress everyday, but we realize that not everyone’s familiar with WordPress, and this widget promises to help users every step of the way. If you want to give it a try, an early BETA version is available to install.

Seething Over CISPA

David overheard the grumblings from some major names in tech who are opposing a controversial cybersecurity bill that would give authorities access to personal information through services such as social networks and cloud services. The proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA) would enable government agencies and the private sector to share information on cyberattack threats, which are becoming increasingly bold and backed by foreign governments. However, some are worried that there’s little guarantee that the necessary precautions will prevent regular people from having their personal information revealed. And as our online and offline worlds lives become more entwined, it’s important not to legislate away our rights over private information.

WordPress.com Updates Make Blogging Easier

After the release of a bevy of editorial workflow improvements in WordPress.com, Andy was eager to write some posts. Some of these features include improved menus, post locking to prevent saving accidental changes, revision tracking to revert back to earlier versions, and autosave to protect content you havn’t saved yet. These improvements are designed to help bloggers smooth their workflow, and save time writing posts and organizing content. Spend less time worrying about the organization of your content, and more time writing great content. What’s not to love?

Also…

• Also, check out a WordPress e-commerce plugin from Toronto startup Shoplocket.

• Many of us here at KO are making the trip from our home base in Toronto to attend Ottawa’s inaugural WordCamp on April 27. Expect some great seminars on the WordPress platform including David’s presentation on “How to Write a Blog Post”.

The Internet’s full of freely available blog posts and articles. And while this content may be free to read, it’s not necessarily free to repost on your website. In fact, it’s best to assume that it’s not free to repost.

And while some blog writers may be flattered that you consider their blog post worth sharing, it’s usually good to assume that permission from the publisher is required unless otherwise stated. It can also be considered rude

Generally, websites will have different policies on reposting content ranging from the very strict (and litigious), to those with an open policy on reuse of their work (often under a Creative Commons license). If you don’t know where a publisher stands, it’s alway best to ask.

We recently requested information on reposting articles from a local paper and were happy to get a quick response. Their policy is that they need to give their permission for something to be reposted. In this case, you simply send a quick email each time you want to reproduce the content is what we need.

The content must be reproduced in its original form, without alteration, and credit must be given to the source. In this case, a backlink to the newspaper was not required but it’s appreciated.

This process may be different for the blog or article you want to use.

You can, of course, use material from someone’s blog post in your own blog post if they’re properly attributed, and that you’re adding something new. In this case the article in question would just be a source for an original post.

Even if you suspect someone doesn’t mind you republishing their entire posts and articles, it’s often good form to ask for permission first, and give the originator credit. Not everyone will be happy to see their work on your website.

Sowing the Seeds of Innovation

Andy was intrigued with an education theory put forth by Harvard technology and entrepreneurship expert Tony Wagner that emphasizes skill development and motivation. Wagner says this is essential for students to be able to get (or make) jobs by the time they enter a workforce where many traditional careers have disappeared. In his new book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, he reimagines the classroom as a place of “play, passion and purpose” where teachers act as coaches, and testing is based on high-order skills such as critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication. This may sound idealistic or utopian, but we may owe it to the next generations to teach learning concepts and creativity in classrooms, not just facts.

Instagram Beauty Pageants and Self-Esteem

The era of social media has raised many concerns (and anxieties) for parents. The tools which Children can use to broadcast themselves worldwide can be as harmful as they are empowering. Knowing this, Caroline was impressed with parent Hollee Actman Becker who took action after seeing her daughter in a virtual Instagram beauty pageant (in which someone creates a grid of images and asks people to vote for the most attractive… and also who is least attractive). Becker created an Instagram sensation of her own when she started circulating an ultimatum: “If u post a beauty contest and tell people to vote, i will unfollow u forever…” Seeing this (and other posts) have helped many girls break from feeling bad about themselves because of these beauty pageants, and, instead, post inspirational messages of their own.

Technology with an Ability to Move

After seeing the many ways in which technology has transformed business, David is very interested in how technology is ushering in new forms of artistic expression. We were stunned by a video of the Kinetica Museum’s exhibition in London, that mixes technology, science and art. On display were balls that are perpetually falling, glass beams that create hypnotizing waves, and mechanical flowers that bloom when you come near. While flowers in nature (rather spectacularly) bloom according to the seasons, the rules we build into our machines means this is no longer the case. Let’s hope the responsibility to make technology bloom is well-placed.

So, what do I do here? It depends! I’m a man of many hats. When you walk in the front door, I’m here to greet you. If you’re calling us up, chances are I’ll be answering the phone. Have a project that needs doing? We’ll get it started together. Questions about your online marketing strategy? I have a hat for that too. Heck, even if we’re not the right fit for your project, I’ll help point you in the right direction if I can.

Outside of the office you’ll probably find me at a local meetup or sharing links on Twitter from the comfort of a Starbucks. I’m an avid reader, gamer, doodler, web geek, and Windows user. I grew up in Peterborough, went to school in Kingston, and moved to Toronto a few years ago. Helping small businesses do more with the web is what keeps me going every single day.

Phew! There you have it, me in a nutshell. Now what about you? I’m always up for a chat, so give me a call: 416-410-3266 x114.

Until next time!

Andy @ Kobayashi

With all the hubbub over social media and their ability to reach customers, many assume that email marketing is being replaced, or at least becoming a less effective marketing tool. But this actually isn’t the case.

In fact, many small businesses have found that email marketing is becoming an even more power way to build relationships.

In this post, we’ll explain five reasons why you should incorporate email into your small business marketing toolkit.

1. To Stay in Touch

Maybe this will sound familiar to you: your clients come to you at a time when they have a specific problem, but they don’t think about you when things are running smoothly. You only come to mind when there’s something wrong or a disaster’s happening.

In this scenario, you may not have opportunities to engage with them to show what your company is all about.

An email newsletter lets you keep in touch with people so they remember that you’re around, you’re still good at what you do (and getting better), and you have new products and services. It might even spur people to buy something they hadn’t considered before.

2. To Remind Customers You’re Interested In Their Business

Email doesn’t only tell people what you’re doing, but by the act of sending out an email to them means that you want to find solutions to their problems, you want to know what challenges they face, and how you can do business with them.

3. To Keep the Interest of Aspirational Future Clients

One of the problems with marketing luxury goods is that not everyone can afford to spend thousands of dollars on an item at any given time, or during every period of their lives. For instance, someone starting out in their career may not be able to buy your luxury product, but they’re interested in your product and identify with its culture. An email newsletter can be a good way to keep their interest until they’re able to become a customer.

4. To Give People a Sense of Exclusivity

Email is more personal than a website that anyone can access. This allows an email message to be more exclusive and give recipients the feeling that they’re on the inside track or getting something that isn’t available to the wider public. For instance, you can use email to make special announcements, or to let people know about exclusive deals they wouldn’t know about had they just visited your website.

5. For Direct and Reliable Communication

You can’t rely on people to be subscribed to the same social network where your message is being broadcast. A specific social network like Twitter  may simply not appeal to the client you’re trying to reach. Or worse: people shun specific social networks like Facebook, which many have moved away from because of growing privacy concerns or (as Douglas Rushkoff argues) out of fear that our information is being used against us.

And yet, chances are that even If you shun social networks, you’ll still have a personal email address or be given an email address by your workplace. The email address is about as ubiquitous the phone number. And people are often more likely to give it to you than their phone number.

While you can’t count on your message on those networks reaching your intended audience, in a lot of ways, email is the common denominator.

Do you use email marketing or are planning to start? Please let us know in the comments why you think it’s a good idea. And please feel free to contact us if you need some help getting started with email marketing.

Curation Creates Scarcity from a Deluge of Online Content

As a prolific creator of content, David was interested in the idea of social curation as reshaping the digital landscape (and even being called the Internet’s “4th wave”) by selecting what’s most useful, relevant and interesting. Obviously, curation certainly isn’t new. For instance, religious communities would create a biblical canon of books considered to be authoritative scripture, just as news editors choose what stories to cover based on their newsworthiness. But the idea of transferring this power to non-professionals in the social sphere is transforming how we discover and react to content. In a world of nearly limitless content, curation creates scarcity from abundance, and, like any other commodity, scarcity means greater value.

Get Ready for Agile Marketing

The idea of “agile” management is all the rage in business circles, where managers forgo a fixed idea of how a project will unfold (or, in some cases, turn out), but rather a process that’s iterative and adaptive. It involves people working in small teams or “scrums” who work in short cycles or “sprints” towards meeting market needs, and acting on new opportunities. And while the term “agile” has been applied to anything from web development to farming, Andy thinks agile marketing is something to pay attention to. Instead of making a marketing plan, agile marketing takes into account the complexities of a marketing environment, and it’s a matter of experimentation to find out what works and what doesn’t. Time to limber up!

No Monday Spoilers

Last Sunday, the Game of Thrones season premiere and the season finale of The Walking Dead aired at the same time, causing a dilemma for the geeky staff at Kobayashi Online. Sharlene thinks this could be some sort of ratings grab where people will watch their favorite series, or else have the latest developments spoiled the next day at work. And with other favs including Once Upon a Time, Mad Men and The Good Wife, Sunday is becoming a battleground. Just don’t give away the plots on Monday morning, please!

What Came Before…

This week, Caroline saw how every content-curationsocial network has its predecessor. LinkedIn has the Rolodex, Skype has the phone, and Tumblr has scissors and tape. It’s good news for our friends at Whiteboard Consulting that there’s no social network equivalent of the whiteboard, nor can we foresee one. Consider your dry-erase markers safe.

Entertaining Ourselves Away From Creativity

While it offers some entertainment in downtime, Daveed is a little worried his iPhone could be zapping his creativity. There’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that devices like the iPhone that let us text, tweet, update, call, watch, read, play, etc. prevent us from being alone with our thoughts, and this can limit our creativity. Letting our thoughts drift can often lead to the sorts of unexpected connections that formulate good ideas. The distraction of your iPhone could be putting constraints on your boredom. And boredom could be your muse.

Building Websites for Aphasiacs

In our ongoing effort to make the Internet accessible to everyone, Andy learned about how websites should be made so those with Aphasia can better use websites. Often linked to brain damage (including stroke), Aphasia is a condition of which symptoms range from difficulty remembering words to losing the ability to speak, read, or write. According to the Toronto Accessibility & Inclusive Design meetup group, there are some best-practices for building websites for those with Aphasia: use simple words, large print, white space, illustrations, and bold keywords. And as it turns out, good practices for Aphasia-friendly sites are good practice for low-vision-friendly sites.

The Lives of the Offline

What would you be missing out on by not being online? The 1-million Americans without Internet access may not know. This is why a new print, radio, and TV marketing campaign has been designed to help people know why they should be online – for instance, because more than 4 out of 5 job postings by major companies are posted exclusively online. On the other hand, some people choose to remain offline because they can’t afford it or because of other objections such as privacy concerns. To persuade these people to go online, perhaps some financial assistance or addressing some of the Internet’s downsides could be in order.

Teaching Teens to Respect Their Own Privacy

The emergence of social media, video, texts, audio, email and documents have contributed to a veritable explosion of Big Data. And while there’s no doubt it’s changing the landscape of marketing and giving us valuable customer insights and growth opportunities, Caroline is among a growing number of people concerned that teens may not know the repercussions of sharing online. Many teens have grown up with the Internet as a place for entertainment, information and communication, and also to vent and express themselves in ways they never would in real life. We have a duty to inform the young about their privacy rights for their safety – even though it could make our Big Data slightly smaller.

The Originality of Remixes

A fan of remixes and mashups of different media, David was excited about a new exhibition showing the work of artists who use digital remixing strategies to create new works. And while these works are sometimes seen as nothing more than copying and pasting the work of others, most artists would say that nothing’s entirely new and that every great work of art is indebted to those that came before. In an increasingly digital culture, where it’s easier to create new things by downloading and remixing, perhaps remixing won’t be seen as derivative but as re-appropriation, recycling, re-contextualization, and even a tribute to (more) original works. And perhaps we all do it.

A First Look at Google Keep

Roberto and Andy were keen to take note of Google’s new cloud service, Google Keep, which is designed to help people keep track of their information and stay organized across their computer, tablet and phone. The overwhelming pace of new knowledge on the Internet has saw the success of virtual notebook services such as Evernote that let you jot down ideas and create lists. However, we remained a little underwhelmed after our first peek at Google Keep since it lacks (as a blogger Alex Chitu noted) organizational features such as labels, comments, multiple notebooks, rich-text editing, and sharing. It will be interesting to see if Google can keep up with the competition.

Many of us here at Kobayashi Online have friends in bands, or have been involved in the music industry in one way or another.

One of the common things we’ve found is that many of our peers have trouble figuring out their online presence. This is really something many bands and musicians can benefit from because it will allow them to be more easily found online, get heard by new people, and be at least a little accountable to fans.

We put together this post on what online marketing tools bands and practices we’d recommend for most bands trying to make a name for themselves.

1. Get on BandCamp or SoundCloud

Built around the idea of directly supporting those who make music, the Bandcamp website is an online platform for artist promotion that allows artists to sell their music and merch directly to fans, and helps fans discover new music. SoundCloud is a website that boasts the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music and audio. A free account allows you to upload as many tracks as you like. Not only do BandCamp and SoundCloud bring your music to a broader community of music fans, but they also get around file upload limits typically imposed by bargain hosting plans. You can embed code on your site, and even in some social media posts so that people can listen to your music.

Pick a strategy for your online music.

Bandcamp is great for handling all e-commerce elements of selling music, and also allows you to have free downloads. The downside is that the number of free downloads are limited based on how much you sell, so big bands that sell lots of downloads will be able to provide more free downloads through their service. If not, or if you don’t  specifically want to sell music, then you might be better off putting up free stuff on SoundCloud.

2. Make the Most of Video

Don’t overlook the power of video. In many ways, YouTube is the new radio. It’s a place where many where many people go to discover new music. Also, people generally don’t expect big budget videos on YouTube. If you can afford something creative, that’s great, but if you can’t, you can still put somethingup on YouTube, even if it’s just a video of a live gig recorded on a camera phone. People are likely to embed Videos on their blogs and Facebook feeds, which helps you promote shows. People will click on it just to see what you have to offer, and if they like the song, they won’t care that there’s not much there in terms of Hollywood film style.

3. Have a Website

Having even a simple website will help people know about your band. For ideas on what you need to build a brand with a website, see our posts on deciding your website requirements, and how to find a great domain.

4. Register for Social Media Accounts

Give yourself a profile on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to fill out your profiles with a description of your band, and post news, photos and media to give life to your profile.

To determine which social networks to be on, think about where your fans are mostly likely to be, and which networks are most conducive to you as an artist. For instance, you may find that Twitter is the perfect way to post quick tour photos and observations, or you might find it too onerous to post several times a day, so thought-out Facebook posts a few times a week are something you’d rather do.

5. Show Tour Dates

Display tour dates on your website as an easy way for people to know where and when you’re playing. Also, you might want to try registering for services like Songkick, which lets music fans playing know about your gig when you come to their city.

6. Let Local Media Know About Your Gig

Most large cities have at least one local alternative weekly (in Toronto, for instance, we have NOW Magazine, Exclaim, and The Grid). And even if you can’t score an interview with them, there are oftentimes forms where you can submit your gig to a “What’s On” page that lists events – almost like a free, events classified section. Someone who wouldn’t otherwise know about your show might find your listing, and go to your show for something to do.

7. Offer Band Updates on your Blog and Social Media

So much of music is about the personality of a musician. Many people look for honesty in lyrics, and decry the “selling out” of their favourite bands when they make questionable decisions.

A blog or social media presence can help you give fans an inside look at your band – what you’re working on, what you’re listening to, and what you’re interested in outside of music.

Furthermore, a Facebook page gives something that people can easily join for updates.

Facebook is great for getting the word out about local shows. Update it with unique event pages so that members of your page can invite their friends to your event. Before a show, post links, videos, anything about the show to your bands Facebook page, and the event page – this helps remind people that your event is coming up.  And people might hear about your gig from a friend rather hear from you yourself.

This can get people excited about your event. However, don’t spam people about your gig because your updates go to those who signed up, and people might not want people to tune you out.

When your show is over, post something about it on your band page, add photos if you can. Remind those who didn’t go that they missed something special. They’ll be more likely to come to the next one!

By having systems setup to promote your band and its music, you can concentrate more on making great music without worrying that you’re doing nothing to build your audience and nurture your fan base.

We hope some of these online marketing tactics we’ve shared with you help you and your band rise above the noise.