Dan Soschin

QR Codes: here to stay?

ClickZ writes a great article examining whether QR codes will survive or become obsolete. I’m certainly on the fence with regards to this issue. While there are many great uses for QR codes, I’m not sure if user adoption is occurring at a fast enough clip. It is very possible that another technology such as NFR could in fact, eclipse QR codes. For now, I continue to use them selectively, and to demonstrate our University’s “mobile-forward” way of thinking. We’ll see how the next 24 months pan out though…
The cost of social media mishaps

Symantec last week released the findings of its latest survey regarding social media entitled, “2011 Social Media Protection Flash Poll“. It sought to identify the most common social media mishaps among large corporations and to assign them a monetary value.

Of course the report focuses on ‘big enterprise’ more so than small business, because the values are quite large. However, it underscores how social media is still a wild west and that those companies pioneering these waters should tread carefully.

Another good point is that Symantec is pushing its archiving and e-discovery software, which should be a good reminder to document social media issues well for legal purposes and have a well-defined triage, escalation and crises plan for handling issues in real-time.
Tips for Office Workers
I love this article by Steve Tobak entitled, “10 Things You Should Never Do At Work“. Take his advice, it will pay dividends in the long run.

My short tips off the top of my head:
- Resist urges to gossip
- Take the high road
- Don’t be petty
- Remember that everyone is on the same team, but just might have a different approach to addressing a problem
- Sometimes you have to sell to convince, don’t underestimate this necessity
- Recycle (shows that you care and aren’t lazy)
- Wash your hands every time you use the bathroom (demonstrates good hygiene)
- Lead by example
- Don’t ask to borrow money from someone
- Share candy and snacks (demonstrates generosity)
- Be so ethical they could study you in law school… that means if you think an expense is questionable, don’t expense it
- Do small favors, they will go a long way
SEM Audit Boilerplate

Igor Belogolovsky has assembled a great boilerplate for conducting an audit of your SEM (search engine marketing). Check it out at SearchEngineJournal.com:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/quick-guide-30-minute-sem-audit/30651/
More on Landing Page Optimization & Quality Scores

Yesterday I shared an article about landing page optimization and I’d like to follow it up with another written by Ron Jones at ClickZ.com. This article discusses the factors that you can influence to improve your AdWords Quality Score. Low and behold, one of those is your landing page!

I cannot emphasize enough at how important your landing pages are to conversion, ROI and your marketing costs. If you don’t invest time in testing and optimization, you should not be marketing them.

Here’s the link to Ron’s article: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2081597/tips-increasing-adwords-quality-score
Hiring a Search Engine Marketer?

Janet Driscoll Miller penned a great article with six tips on how to get hired in the field of search engine marketing (SEM). The tips are a great foundation for “getting yourself out there” and I preach them regularly when counseling peers on finding a new job.

I recently wrote about salaries and retention in the field of SEM.

The bottom line is: forget about job sites like Career Builder and HotJobs. Focus on LinkedIn and networking… but before you start your search, you should take Janet’s advice and start marketing (and packaging) yourself now, before the time when you actually need to find a job. Then, when you need to start looking, you’ll have a jump on the competition.
Great Post on Landing Page Optimization Basic Strategy

SEOmoz.org published a great article about optimizing landing pages. I particularly found of interest the section on “looking where other people are looking”. That would make a great split test for your business and I highly suggest doing so.

Here’s the article: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-essential-ppc-landing-page-optimizations
Facebook & Privacy – Why Can’t They Be Friends?

Facebook had a fantastic opportunity to evolve its brand over the past several years into a leader and champion of privacy and safety. Yet, it seems just the opposite may have taken place. Facebook continues to worry parents, communities, schools and privacy advocates due to its very open nature by deafult.

As Facebook release new features they could have been released with more educational materials for parents, teachers and site users. And, they should have been turned off out of the box.

But Facebook took the opposite approach and for a couple years it seemed that every time it release a new feature, it upset a large number of users.

It’s a shame Facebook didn’t want to be a leader in privacy. It could very well have been one.

Now, companies are piloting F-commerce, or commerce directly on Facebook via apps. Will this work? According to an article by Gavin O’Malley at MediaPost, users are a bit weary.
Why the Netflix Price Hike Doesn’t Matter (and Why You Should Stop Crying about it!)

If you have been living under a rock, then you may not have heard that Netflix raised its prices recently. The biggest change was to it’s big plan, splitting it between the DVD checkout system and streaming. Essentially, if you want to keep the streaming option, but also have 1-at-a-time DVD plan, you’d need to cough up 60% more per month (price goes up by $6).

Yes, that’s right, if you want to check out DVDs 1-at-a-time for $10, AND you want streaming, it will cost you $6 more per month.

Whoop-dee-freaking-doo.

If you are threatening to cancel Netflix, go for it. But you are not going to, so stop being all dramatic and saying you will. Put your money where your mouth is. I dare you to take 10 weeks off of Netflix, cold turkey. You can’t do it.

Netflix knows this. They “ain’t no fools”. They surveyed groups of customers and groups of prospective customers and knew they’d lose a few, but ultimately come out ahead in the long run. The bottom line is that this is still a very inexpensive service compared to alternatives.

So, stop whining all you cry babies. If the $6 puts you over the edge, you probably should not have had Netflix in the first place, because you couldn’t afford it.
Speed Up your Web Pages with a “Sprite”

Each time a browser makes a call to the web server for an image, it takes time. A page with a lot of images has to make a lot of separate image calls (or server pings). This adds up to a lot of time.

One way around this is to leverage what is called a “sprite” and your CSS. Instead of making multiple calls to the server for multiple files, simply create a single, optimized image that has all your icons and graphics on it. Think of it as a single rectangular canvas. Then, using CSS, you can reference the single image file, but just coordinates of the file to where the icon you need corresponds. The image will then appear as you desired.

This can really improve the performance of mobile sites especially, where load time means quite a bit. Additionally, it will help your SEO and PPC, as faster pages equal higher scores.

For more on sprites, check out these resources:

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/07/12/image-fairy-can-speed-mobile-sites

http://www.spritebox.net/

http://www.webmonkey.com/2011/06/create-image-sprites-the-easy-way/