Multi-Touch Solutions for Small Businesses

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Multi-touch solutions for small businesses focus on staying abreast of the latest technologies and software applications. Like most of the computer sciences industry, multi-touch technology is constantly evolving and those businesses that do not adapt will be left behind this perpetually rising curve. Touch screen displays allow companies and entrepreneurs the ability to forge better relationships with employees and clientele, resulting in a more efficient business process, increased employee knowledge and improved brand loyalty. However, because this technology is relatively new, it can be difficult to determine exactly what multi-touch solutions would apply to your business. The following are 6 professions that can significantly benefit from touch screen display integration:

Multi-Touch Solutions for Small Businesses

The Medical Community

Multi-touch solutions for the medical community can revolutionize the way doctors and patients communicate. This technology allows a medical professional the ability to convert X-rays, EKGs, MRIs, CT Scans and more into a digital image that can then be used in a graphical interface to better visualize and discuss diagnoses, show procedures and treatment options, present analyses and outline prevention measures.

The Legal Profession

Lawyers can use touch screen display interfaces to prepare for trial. It offers a way to graphically display research and investigative material and can be a powerful presentation tool - especially during trial. Attorneys can show high-definition digital images of evidence, play videos, animations or other graphics, display interactive timelines and more. Additionally, specialized multi-touch software programs for lawyers have been developed that allow the seamless connection of the many phases of trying a case.

Retail

For any business that needs to show clients its products - like jewelers, photographers and real estate agents, multi-touch solutions are critical for compelling a consumer through imagery. Retail businesses can have touch screen display hardware and software systems custom-manufactured that can be taken on the road or built to integrate with current sales space.

Sports

Those in the professional sporting industry know the value of strategy better than anyone, and there are few better tools for developing winning strategies than with multi-touch technology. Touch screen displays can be used for game preparation, opponent scouting, play development and team management.

Professional Services

Regardless of your industry, there are custom-made touch screen display solutions that can streamline business processes and increase ROI. This includes the ability to create dazzling presentations, document reviews, financial planning, account reconciliation, track supply chains and inventory, control purchasing and manage warehouse systems.

Public Safety

Critical public safety functions can be made significantly more efficient with multi-touch technology for law enforcement and rescue personnel. Interactive tracking and mapping features, graphical displays of response plans and continuing education and training programs can help to save lives - and money.

Whether used to interact with consumers, clients, employees or peers, the fact of the matter is that human beings are an exceptionally visually-oriented creature. Capitalizing on this by investing in multi-touch solutions isn't an expense - it's an investment in your future. To claim your place in it, click one of the links below to see videos where this technology is put into action.

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How to Create Effective Presentation Slides

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At some point in your professional career you may be called upon to make a presentation. Fortunately there is presentation software that is available that makes giving those presentations a fairly simple process. The key is in knowing how to create effective presentation slides.

How to Create Effective Presentation Slides

In learning how to create effective presentation slides you need to put yourself in your audiences seat. Many presenters get so caught up in all of the bells and whistles of the technology that the heart of the presentation gets lost. These tips will help you keep your focus so your audience gets the most out of the presentation.

Text

Unless you are presenting a slide show of your latest vacation pictures you are going to be using text on your presentation slides. You will need to make sure that the text you use is easy to read for the people that are viewing your presentation.

The size of the font will depend on how large the room is, how far away the audience is, and how large the screen you are projecting on. You need to make sure that the font you choose is easy to read for the people in the back row of the room.

You also need to make sure that you do not overload your slide with text. It is a natural tendency of people to read the slide that is on the screen. If they are reading the slide while you are speaking, they will miss what it is you are saying.

The other danger of too much text is that you may fall into the trap of reading your slides. It is much better to include bullet points or short lines to highlight the major points you are making.

The final thing you absolutely must do is check your text for spelling and grammar mistakes. You do not want your audience to be so focused on small mistakes that it distracts them from your presentation. Read the text on your slides several times, and them ask someone else to proofread your work.

Background

Use a simple background to add interest to your slides. A subtle background can make your presentation look more professional. If there is a design on your background, make sure that it is consistent across all of your slides. Using too many different backgrounds looks amateurish, and can appear as if you are just showing off your ability to find different backgrounds.

Your background should compliment the text you are using. If the background is too "busy" it will detract from your text. You also want to make sure that the shade of the background enhances the text and does not mask it. Make sure your text is easy to read. If your audience has to strain to see what is written they will stop paying attention to the presentation.

Graphics / Animations

Graphics can add interest to your slides, and if done well they can really enhance the presentation. However, if you do not choose your graphics wisely they can turn your professional presentation into a mess.

First, your graphics should be appropriate and relevant to the topic. If you are speaking on a new product line, it would be appropriate to include images of some of the products. It would not be appropriate to have your slide cluttered with photos of dogs and flowers.

If you are presenting data, a graphic of a bar graph or a pie chart is much preferred to using a table of raw data. The graphics will make your point, while the data chart will be hard to read, and you will end up losing your audience.

Layout

In general, when you lay your slides out, remember the axiom that "less is more." Keep your slides simple and uncluttered. Make sure that everything that is on the slide serves a purpose and is easy to understand. Look at your slides not only as the presenter, but also as an audience member.

Learning how to create effective presentation slides is a skill that can enhance your professional reputation. By learning to do professional quality presentations you will be perceived as an expert in the area you are presenting on. Continue working to refine this skill and watch your reputation grow.

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How to Earn Money Online Being a Graphic Designer

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A Graphic Designer with highly creative skills can easily earn money online. All you have to do is to make logos, website templates, flash animations etc in software's like Photoshop, Corel, and Flash. There are plenty of online marketplaces which have several clients looking for a perfect designer.

How to Earn Money Online Being a Graphic Designer

You have to create your portfolio and showcase it on your personal website. Designers have options of work like creating a logo, business card, letterhead, home-page / inner-page template of website, banners etc.

If you have knowledge of flash you may also make animation for various clients for their websites or to make educational CD's.

Points to keep in mind while working online are:-

1. Beware of cheaters who will never pay after getting the work done. To ensure this ask for some upfront payment.

2. Keep the size of your designs small as all online work needs to be lighter in size.

3. Learn new skills from the experts in the trade. New versions of all software's come up and you must purchase them to learn the new features as soon as possible.

4. Keep a high battery back-up for your computer or laptop in case of emergencies of work.

5. Your internet connection should be reliable otherwise change for better as your online work is mostly dependent on your internet speed and up-time.

The designs you make have to be contextual and should relate to the products of the company. You may keep some designs ready for general industries like automotive, handicrafts, E-Commerce stores etc. You may make some little customized changes in these designs and offer to your customers. This will help you save time for critical work.

Your mind should always look for new ideas as the Graphic Designer has to be creative. Come out of your studio often to take ideas from friends and surroundings.

Before taking up work clear all your doubts regarding the job like size of the picture / image, color theme or any other specification required by the client. Always stick to client's specification as you are making graphics for your client and not yourself. You may make suggestions but don't force your suggestion to the client.

Never work for free, you have to do self- evaluation of your skill and quote your own prices which should be reasonable.

Clients mostly like to view PDF or JPG file so don't try to send them in any other format unless they specifically ask for it. Keep them involved by showing the sketches of your work at all stages. Keep in touch with the client at regular intervals. If your customers like your work you may have repeated business and you may earn decent amount of money online on a regular basis.

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Is the iPad Useful? - Just the Facts

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I've always been somewhat of a gadget guy. I was an early adopter of the earliest video game systems (think Tank Battle, Atari, Colecovision) and home computers (remember the Vic 20, Commodore 64, Commodore Pet?). I even bought one of the early Casio calculator watches in the 1980s. Continuing the trend, I picked up a Casio electronic organizer in the early 1990s, followed by the original Palm PDA with stylus, and the first HP tablet PC in the mid 2000s. Dell's first tablet PC followed, then the iPhone, and now the iPad and iPad 2.

Is the iPad Useful? - Just the Facts

But, as much I'm a tech guy and an early adopter, I never bought a gadget because it was "cool." I am too pragmatic and always analyze the usefulness of a gadget before I buy. And like you, I'm too busy to play around with gadgets. I need a gadget that saves, not costs, me time and money.

So when the iPad was introduced, I did my usual research to evaluate the product's usefulness in my daily life. There is plenty written about the iPad's "cool" features, design, and potential, and a fair bit written on its technical shortcomings. But, not so much written about its actual usefulness in daily life. With many people now asking me "how do you like your iPad," I figure I would just write this article to help others determine if it is right for them - after all, it's not a cheap buy.

General Observations

VISUAL DESIGN
As with most Apple gadgets, the iPad is certainly a beautiful product to look at. Similar to the iPod and iPhone, it's like buying a piece of jewelry. The iPad 2 further improves on the original design.

FEEL
I find the iPad awkward to hold. This was a surprise to me since it looks so sleek. But, with its weight and rounded edges, it doesn't feel comfortable. And, the more I try to grab it, the more likely my thumb will activate the touch screen in undesirable ways. Adding an optional case helps. For the iPad 1 I have Apple's case, and it's functional but, personally, I don't like the look and feel of the material. The iPad 2 comes with the sleek new magnetic cover design - neat but it only covers the screen (which may be fine for some perhaps).

FEATURES
While I could write about the touchscreen, 3G, or its many other features, the features really only matter if you find the apps that you want to use. And, that's too personal a choice for me to lend an opinion here.

PRICE
The low price of technology today is amazing, so when evaluating the price of the iPad, I have to do so in comparison to other technologies. A somewhat-close comparison today (in terms of portability, anyway) is likely a netbook -- one of those mini notebook computers that have recently become popular. Netbooks are available for half the price of the iPad, making the iPad seem expensive for a device that in some ways doesn't do as much. Although, it could be argued that even though the iPad does less, what it does well, it does very well. So, it comes down to what you need the gadget for, and whether the iPad or a netbook better serves that need. Other new gadgets are entering the market, so there will be more options available.

What I like best about the iPad

INSTANT ON
Click a button and it's on. No waiting. As a side note, the MacBook Air has near instant - very convenient.

EASY TO USE
It's the easiest-to-use computer you will find, period. For people who don't need the full capabilities of a conventional computer, the iPad is a perfect solution. If you have ever taught someone how to use a computer, you know how difficult it can be for an inexperienced person to navigate a computer operating system. Not so with the iPad. The learning curve is refreshingly gentle. In my mind, this same simplicity is what drove the success of the iPhone, perhaps more so than its multi-touch display and other innovative features. (iTunes on the other hand is another story; more on that below.)

OPTIMIZED FOR TOUCH
The iPad is designed as a touch device, so the interface is made for finger interaction. Tablet computers that use conventional operating systems (like Windows 7) are clumsy to use by comparison. The onscreen keyboard is quite good as well (although, power users will likely still want to have the optional wireless keyboard).

CONVENIENT TO USE AND FUN
It's a great device to pick up and just start "doing." And, it's easy to share with others nearby. You will find yourself reading/watching/playing just for the heck of it. It's kind of fun.

LONG BATTERY LIFE
Compared to a conventional computer, the iPad gives you many more hours of use between charges.

INEXPENSIVE AND AMAZING SOFTWARE THAT IS EASY TO INSTALL
Most iPad apps sell for under and can be installed with a single click. And, there are many amazing apps that take full advantage of the tablet format.

Where the iPad falls short

HANDWRITING IS TERRIBLE
Although I have looked, I have yet to find a good handwriting app. And, I don't think I will because the iPad's capacitive touch screen only works with a stylus that has a blunt sponge-like head (designed to mimic the electrical touch of a finger). This makes handwriting awkward for anything other than a few short words at a time with very large letters. Conversely, my Dell tablet PC with Windows 7 and OneNote allows me to use a typical pen-like stylus quite comfortably. I was hoping the iPad could replace my paper notebook, but not a chance.

DRAWING IS AWKWARD
Similar to handwriting, drawing with an iPad lacks precision. I've seen impressive drawings created by talented people using the iPad. But, I suspect that you have to be a very talented and patient artist to find it useful for drawing.

LACK OF FLASH SUPPORT
If you really want the full Internet, you need Flash. Too many websites rely on it (and for more than just games or animated banners). Maybe things will be different in 5 years time, but today, the lack of Flash support means I have to forgo much of the Internet that I find most useful. Apple has publicly suggested that the iPad will never support Flash. It's an issue.

COPY AND PASTE IS CUMBERSOME
I frequently need to copy and paste text. While the iPad has this capability, it is slow and cumbersome to use, prompting me to jump frequently to my notebook computer to send an email or post a website comment.

NO CAMERA ON iPAD 1
Not having a camera limits the usefulness of the iPad 1 as a device to have around the home and on the go. Being able to capture impromptu photo moments is an important benefit of a mobile device. iPad 2 solves this problem with the addition of front and back cameras, similar to the iPhone 4.

FINGERPRINTS ARE EVERYWHERE
The display is nice, but when you shut it off it looks like you were finger painting on it. A small but annoying inconvenience common to most touch devices.

SHORT POWER CABLE
It's very short. (An extension is available as a separate purchase).

FINDING THE RIGHT APPS IS DIFFICULT
There are free apps and there are apps you must buy to try. It would be helpful if most apps were provided on a free trial basis, but it seems only a few apps are available this way. Luckily, most prices are quite low, so the risk of buying something that you don't like is manageable. Still, who wants to buy five cheap apps just to find the right one?

iTUNES IS REQUIRED
The iPad locks you into using iTunes to manage your music, photos, and other content. While having a single application to manage content has its benefits, it can be very inconvenient at times (and costly). And, you have to have a computer to use it and enable your iPad for the first time. Maybe it's just me, but I have always found the iTunes interface confusing and the program painfully slow, not to mention the frequent and annoyingly-large minor upgrades. iTunes is surprisingly one area where Apple's design sensibilities continue to fall short.

Final thoughts

The iPad is essentially a large iPod Touch or iPhone without the phone. Its larger size makes it more useful at home than smaller mobile devices. It is more convenient (and fun) than a notebook, netbook, or tablet computer, but falls short in important ways. While using the iPad, I have to frequently run to my computer to send an email, browse a website, watch a video, or do "real work." For those who do not need the capabilities of a full computer, it is a truly great option. For those who do not need the capabilities of a full computer, it is a truly great option. For those of you who do, it's a nice gadget to have around the house for sure (especially if you have kids), but you can live without it - for now.

Mathew Georghiou, Founder and CEO, MediaSpark Inc
MediaSpark applies the power of educational games, simulations, and social networks

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Free SEO Tips The Pros Charge For

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) both the bane and boon of many a person's existence. It's a known fact that the best way to get traffic to your website is by simply having your site show up in the first page or two of the major search engine's results. Visitors that come in from those search engine results pages (referred to as SERP) have two main things going for them. They are more likely to buy, and they didn't cost you any money to get there. Getting your site onto those first two pages can be a struggle, and people are always watching what you are doing and gunning for the top spot. You have to keep aware of all of the latest tactics and methods and measure yourself against your competitors.

Free SEO Tips The Pros Charge For

Yes, competitors. Many people aren't aware of the competitive nature of SERPs positioning, but it is. Keep in mind that you are ranked in comparison with the other sites in the results. If the search engine thinks that your content is more relevant, then you rank higher, if it is determined that your content is less relevant, then you fall in the results. If they know what they are doing, the other sites showing up for the searches you wish to rank high in are watching you, and the other sites on the first two pages to see what they are doing, and if they are rising or falling.

So how do you ensure that you can rank well against the other sites out there and rise in the SERPs? Well, for starters, let's assume that there are only three search engines, because frankly, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN (in that order) represent the majority, the vast majority of searches. And Google represents the vast majority amongst those three. For the purposes of this article we'll focus only on Google. If you do right by them, what you do will be good for other search engines as well.

Before we go any further it's important that you understand the nature of SEO. It is not an exact science. The exalted minds inside the Googleplex do not share their secret sauce with the unwashed masses. The reason for this is simple: if they revealed exactly how their logic works, it would be exploited--this has happened before. The methods for performing SEO are based upon the trial and error of many, many internet users as they worked out what works, what doesn't and what will get your site unindexed - or worse: banned.

This is important. There are good and bad ways to optimize your site. The bad ways are called 'Black Hat'. Sure, they may work for awhile, and some Google can't (or doesn't bother to) pick up automatically. However you can report a site to Google as using Black Hat SEO tactics and Google will remove that site from the index (meaning it won't show up in search results). Removing a site from the index is usually only done for a certain amount of time and can be appealable. Banning is far more severe and banned sites are often gone for good with no way to get Google to add it back to their index. Beware of a lot of things that seem shady. If you think they are shady, chances are that the folks at Google will think so too and if one of those other sites in the SERPs wants to rise up and they visit your site and see your shady tactics, they won't hesitate to report you.

Yeah, it's a bit unfair, but it's the world we live in. Google's not alone in this--the other search engines will do it too.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's dive into the two ways to optimize your site.

On Page Optimization

This is what most people think of when they think of SEO. In reality it is the less effective of the two methods, though as Google improves its ability to determine real content from fluff it is getting more valuable. A bit of history first.

Back when people started realizing that they could make or break their business by where they came up in the SERPs, they started adding all sorts of content to their sites to improve their ranking. The most common of these was the meta keywords. These are words that are placed in the code on a website that tell the search engines what the site is about. Way back when the 'net was young, the search engines believed these keywords. They don't anymore. People abused the keywords system by putting their competitors names in them, or by even putting completely bogus words in. A site looking to sell more jeans would put Britney Spears in their keywords to get people to visit them inadvertently. Needless to say, keywords play very little importance anymore. I have gotten sites to the #1 position on Google without using keywords at all.

As the search engines got wise to the whole bogus keywords thing, they started looking at all of the content on a website. They can only read text, so images and animated graphics (like flash) were ignored. People learned tactics to place all sorts of text on their site that was invisible to users, but that the search engines (looking at the source code) would see. So search engines started to distrust the websites themselves.

You're asking yourself how they can know what a site is about then. They asked themselves the same question and came up with an obvious answer: they can't. But other humans can. This is called 'Off Page Optimization' and is covered in the second type of optimization.

They never really disregarded the webpage entirely, but they lowered its importance in their overall factoring of a page's importance and relevancy. However, as their savvy increases and they have more computing power to analyze content, search engines are starting to consider the page's content as being more and more important. They can often discern the difference between human generated and computer generated text, and can tell if the content on a page is relevant to a particular topic or not. As they do this more, the page itself will continue to get more important.

There used to be a lot of tactics and tricks to get the search engines to pay more attention to your page, but the number one tip is now this: Write human readable content (don't try to write it to load it with terms and keywords) that has value and real relevancy. Make sure that you do use the words and phrases you think people will search for, and do use them more than once, but don't go overboard. Bolding and using larger fonts (and H1 tags) will help as well, but don't overdo it. If you make your page look too wonky it will not work for the second type of optimization.

Here's a quick rundown of things to make sure you do.

• Make sure the page title is descriptive - make it different with each page if you can
• Use the meta description tag and make it good - this is what most search engines show as the blurb about your site on the results page.
• Don't worry a lot about your HTML formatting. Search engines are used to reading crappy HTML and they don't care too much
• Make sure you use your keywords in your copy more than once
• Do bold them if it works in your content
• If you can make it work, use an H1 or H2 tag. If you are comfortable with CSS you can make the text in them smaller (this is becoming less and less important).
• Make sure to use alt and title tags on images. It lets the search engines know what the image is about and can cause your images to show up on the Google image search.
• Use title tags on your links. It will help the search engines know more about the page you are linking to and improve relevancy
• Don't put too many links to other sites. Links out lower your page's importance.

Off Page Optimization

This is also called 'Off Site Optimization' which is a misnomer. Search engines care little about 'websites' and care more about 'web pages'. The reason for this is that they don't link to a site, they link to a page. So what is this mysterious type of SEO you ask? Well, if you read the on page part above you will have learned that Google and the other search engines decided that they couldn't trust the page itself too much as too many people put fake content on a page to generate traffic. So they decided that the best way to know if a page was relevant was to let people do it for them.

How do they make this work? Well, they simply look at who links to you and what their page is about. If your page is about sewing, and another page that Google knows people like is also about sewing and it links to you, then your page is probably not misrepresenting itself. This is the driving force behind what is called 'Page Rank'. Page rank is essentially a calculation of the importance of the pages linking to you vs the relevancy of your content to those pages. If a page about banking links to a page about peanut butter, then chances are that the search engines won't assign any importance to that link, but links between pages of similar content have high importance.

There is also a nebulous thing that we know exists, but don't know how to quantify. It is the matter of how much a search engine trusts a site. Sites with high trust have their outbound links given more importance than sites the search engine does not trust. An easy way to determine if a site is trustworthy or not is to think about it yourself. The folks at the search engines are humans, they will trust the same sites you do and distrust the same sites you do (give or take a bit).

Untrustworthy Sites

• Link/Banner farms - sites with nothing but links to various other sites. These used to work, but the search engines wised up and now having a link farm link to you will hurt, not help
• Sites with a lot of advertising on them - The search engines know that these sites are mostly computer generated and have no valuable content, and so don't pay any heed to what they link to.
• Black Hat Sites - sites that use questionable SEO tactics aren't ones that you want linking to you. Google is suspicious of them, no reason to make it suspicious of you

Trustworthy Sites

• Directories - There are two types of directories. Automatic and Human verified. Google knows which are which and if your site is listed on a human verified directory (meaning that someone looked at your site and verified that your description and content match the category you chose to have it listed in) then it knows that your content is relevant to the description you gave. Find the directories for your market (just Google things like sewing boston directory or whatever your niche/market is and you'll find some to list in.
• News Sites - Many news sites allow you to post comments on them. Don't spam, but find some relevant articles to your site and post a few comments. Its not advised that you place your link right in the article (unless you think it applies) but rather have your link in your profile.
• Sites with high page rank - This is key. There is little point having sites with no page rank link to your site with no page rank. You want sites with high page rank linking to you. Install the Google toolbar and select yes when it asks if you want to view pagerank. This will let you know how other sites rank and help you determine where to try to get links.

There are a lot of other tips and helpful bits of information out there and I'll be posting a few more specialized articles about them. While there is a lot of bogus software and ebooks out there that will literally tell you no more than what you have read above, there are some that will help you carry out the suggestions above. They'll suggest directories, give you reports on how well you rank against your competitors and many other things. Most you can do on your own, but they take time. Good SEO software should mainly remove the tedious, manual tasks involved in SEO and help you focus on more important things like niche research and adding actual, valuable content to your site.

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Internet Education

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Today's Internet education is comprised of a myriad of academic courses to train future web designers, webmasters and others. Internet training is quite diverse as curriculums often include studies in animation, communications, graphics, imaging and multimedia. In addition, students who enroll in an Internet education program will gain basics of networking and e-commerce.

Internet Education

Internet training is readily available in technical schools, trade schools, and even online Internet schools. Training may include in-depth studies in computer languages such as ASP, Cold Fusion, HTML, Java and Javascript, Perl, SQL, and XML. Because professional web developers require a strong foundation in computer technology and software, a solid computer education is strongly advised, and often a requisite to obtain employment in the field. Additionally, individuals who choose to pursue a degree in Internet technology can qualify to be web designers, database administrators, project managers, and other related web positions.

Prospective candidates who enter a trade school for an Internet education must possess some degree of technical know-how to successfully comprehend and develop Internet applications; they must understand and apply professional techniques that are essential in information technology and multimedia communications.

Those who have completed their Internet education and enter into the field of Internet technology can anticipate substantial career prospects; according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, occupations in this field are expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations. Furthermore, salaries vary, but may be as much as 0,000 or more annually, depending on the level of Internet education and experience.

If you would like to learn more about Internet Education and Internet Schools, you can find more in-depth information and resources on our website.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2007 - All rights reserved by SchoolsGalore.com, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc.

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Brand Equity - Brand Identity Guru

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7 Qualities Of A Strong Brand:

Brand Equity - Brand Identity Guru

1. Commands premium pricing while retaining loyalty

2. Shortens the sales cycle

3. Deflects competition

4. Resists commoditization

5. Establishes top of mind awareness (mindshare)

6. Generates referral "word of mouth" momentum

7. Meets and exceeds shareholder expectations

If you are lacking some of these qualities read on to learn how you can strengthen your brand!

Putting Your Message In Motion...

" Persuasion is the centerpiece of business activity," writes Robert McKee, Screenwriting Coach, in a June 2003 Harvard Business Review article on storytelling. "...If you can harness imagination and the principles of a well-told story, then you get people rising to their feet amid thunderous applause instead of yawning and ignoring you."

You tend to listen to a guy who has taught people how to spin yarns like The Color Purple, Forrest Gump and Sleepless in Seattle. Though in this article McKee was referring to executives' effective storytelling to inspire their various stakeholders, the same principles resonate through a company's brand communications. First you've got to capture your prospects' imaginations and make them believe your story. Only then are you within reach of branding a customer and opening a new revenue stream. Multimedia makes this goal a lot easier to reach.

The term "multimedia" encompasses any medium that relies on more than one of the human senses to communicate. For example, print ads use only sight (except for "scratch 'n sniff). Radio uses only sound. By contrast, web movies, television and cinema use sight and sound together for a more effective presentation. So though technically multimedia has been around for a long time, today the reference is chiefly reserved for digital presentations with motion, visuals and sound.

Study after study proves that the more senses involved in telling your story (sight, sound, touch, etc.), the more effective it becomes. The greatest advantage of multimedia for B2B marketers isn't really the media itself, but the channels now available to distribute it to niche audiences with surgical precision. DVD and the web, search engines and email provide the perfect mix of vehicles to drive a highly targeted stream of people to hear and see their stories. So in this age of digital information, it's no wonder that marketers are rushing to use this highly targeted storytelling medium.

MicroSoft PowerPoint

This is a simple multimedia-capable tool. The next step up from a photo slide show, PowerPoint has become the most popular multimedia program in distribution today. PowerPoint's elementary animation of typography and images richens the cracker-dry corporate slide presentation of the past and brings the entire presentation process in-house, relegating it to administrative assistants instead of outsourced creative specialists.

The problem we've seen with PowerPoint is that it is so easy to use that companies allow people untrained in even basic storytelling, graphics or their specific corporate brand standards to create these presentations. This does more to undermine the integrity of a consistent brand image than anything else we've seen. Everyone wants to add their "creative touches" to the PowerPoint presentation, and before you know it, a conservative-minded company can look like Disneyland at the board of directors meeting.

And since PowerPoint contains libraries of backgrounds, effects and color palettes for all to use, it is easy to develop presentations with a "canned" flavor, defeating the objective of brand differentiation. The use of these common library images and elements also increases the chances of your presentation taking on the same look and feel of one of your competitors.

The solution? A unique, yet standardized template based on corporate brand identity standards should be issued to a select group of managers whose departments regularly create presentations. Each completed presentation should be reviewed for adherence to standards prior to use in the field, or even internally. Creating a brand review committee will help immensely, even if it is an ad hoc, part-time or outsourced function.

Flash by Macromedia

This is an animation software tool well suited for telling conceptual stories where motion is important to express the concept, but actual cinematic media (motion film) is not the answer (for either expressive or budgetary reasons). This might work well in the case of demonstrating the principal of a machine's operation, of which many parts are not visible.

Flash is a vector (as opposed to a raster) digital format. Vector programs like Flash and Adobe Illustrator hold quality as they rescale in size or dimension, take up far smaller amounts of disk space and download faster on the web.

Flash is built for flexibility in resolution and aspect ratios. The same presentation can be used on a laptop computer for a sales presentation as well as a 60" letterbox plasma screen at a trade show with the same high quality results requiring only minor adjustments in display settings.

Though actual photos and even motion film or video clips can be embedded in Flash, its true capabilities shine in the animation mode. With a capable and creative designer, Flash can be a very entertaining and effective tool. It can instantly be embed in the mind of the viewer, a core concept that would otherwise take far more time and explanation.

The key is to tell an engaging story with your Flash animation. Start by identifying with your audience and encountering the problem in the way they would. Instead of simply showing a demonstration, try creating a unique character with a personality that is consistent with your brand promise or typifies your customer. Or personify inanimate objects. Build the storyline with a problem/solution orientation. Like any other marketing project, do your homework so your presentation is credible.

Here are a few tips for Flash use:

A 90-second Flash introduction to a sales presentation can standardize the way your story is told (solution story versus product features) and allow your sales reps to get to the negotiation stage faster. It is a good idea to build control buttons into the sales and web versions of the presentation to allow reps and visitors to pause at key points, fast forward through less relevant segments and rewind for those "let's see that again" requests.

On the web, don't use Flash for an introduction to your web site. People can grow impatient when forced to view your show before your home page. Instead, put voluntary links to your Flash movies on your home page and promote them throughout the site.

Use Flash movies for

- Positioning

- Demonstration

- Comparison

- Concept Illustration

Raster Web ("Director") Movies

B2B marketers have long been envious of consumer marketers' effective use of television. TV commercials are one of the most powerful mass positioning tools of all time. But for most B2B marketers, the television medium doesn't efficiently target niche B2B segments. And though cable television has provided more specialized programming where more B2B corporate positioning commercials are finding success, for the vast majority of the middle market, it's still a bit rich for the budget. But movies on the web...now there's a combo with some B2B traction.

In contrast to Flash vector movies, raster web movies are simply actual videos or motion film productions that are available on the web. These movies are created no differently than cinema or television commercials. They're simply digitized, edited and optimized for use on a DVD, CD or the web. They are quite a bit larger in file size than vector movies, so many times streaming technology is used for playback rather than downloading the entire movie before playing.

With the web growing fast as the number-one resource for business marketers, it is beginning to make sense to make special "infomercials" and short positioning movies for the web. In essence, this is simply a more engaging reincarnation of the obligatory, dust-collecting "corporate video" but with some new twists and exciting, new distribution options. Rather than make one corporate video that comes packaged with caffeine supplements, produce exciting, new, shorter, more to-the-point flicks that aim for high marks in immediacy and relevancy with web-savvy buyers.

BMW has become a leader in this area. You may have seen promotions for their web movies over the past couple of years. I received a great email last week from BMW promoting their new 3-Series cars. In the well-designed html email was a still photo of the car with a link to a movie that allowed me to set it in motion. I watched the car cornering and performing other BMW-esque maneuvers on a winding coastal highway. Very nice for positioning. Very effective story telling.

T-Mobile is now unveiling a custom-produced version of the smash TV series "24" on short web movies delivered to select web-capable wireless phones. Though this may be a superfluous demonstration of technology and off-task with the utility of wireless phones, the fact that it can be done is in itself impressive.

Other uses for this phone technology and storytelling style are sure to catch fire over the next few years (movie trailers, mobile video mail, etc).

Paid search engines are a great way to efficiently target and recruit viewer-ship for your web movies and Flash presentations. Services such as Google's AdWords, Yahoo's Overture, Espotting.com and FindWhat.com are services that guide search inquiries from popular search engines to your website and only charge per click-through to your web site. This is a very efficient promotional tool to hook up with exceptionally qualified, active prospects.

ROI

The great thing about doing anything on the web -like multimedia presentations - is that you can get some fantastic metrics on who is watching, when and why. From this and other information, relationships can be made between ROI and spending that could never have been as precise before web technology.

Most Internet Service Providers (a.k.a. "ISPs" or Hosting Services) now include web metrics packages that enable you to see how much traffic you're getting, through what pages visitors enter your website, how long they visit, which pages they visit, when, and a host of other metrics.

How do you use this information for determining the ROI of web media? When you run promotions (with strong offers via email or other direct marketing), use a special web address as a response device, so you can measure the effectiveness of lead generation. Once the visitors are on the site, you can carefully structure their paths with strategic links that lead to your web movies, Flash presentations and other web media. This should help to position your brand and motivate the visitor. A call for action to download information or order products at the end of the movies can be used to measure the effectiveness of the movies.

With each marketing or branding objective, new and creative ways of measuring your ROI can be devised, and motion media developed to motivate action.

"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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