I’ve spent time with clients discussing their objectives, and often, they confuse the process of reaching an audience with the structure of the site itself. The issues of multiple domains, sub-domains, directories, multi-language, and site categories and structure all play a role in how your audience, robots and SEO functions will benefit.

Why is this so important?

The critical issue is that if you go down the wrong path, fixing it later can be problematic. At the same time, there is no single best practice. Each site, each product, each service is different.

During the course of the coming few weeks, I’ll cover a range of factors that impact SEO and website performance. Topics will include GEO Targeting, how Authority/Trust/Domain Strength affects site design, how Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) can be best managed, and how Link Building and Link Structure impact site performance.

The objective is to help you evaluate your options and to develop best practices for managing the content of your website. As a starting point, consider the following questions:

• Do I have the resources to support multiple websites or subdomains?
• Do I have the knowledge to setup correctly the domains/subdomains?
• Can I develop a strong SEO campaign for them?
• Do I have enough content to add to all the new websites?
• Can I provide enough links to all the domains and subdomains?

The most basic workflow would be to utilize directories/folders within your web architecture. That will help define the process of tracking your site, it’s operational value, and segregating key elements of the site. And this goes beyond a database/application environment.

If you want to take the foundation of a good web concept and turn it into a strong, highly visible web environment, give these articles some consideration. Better still, give us a call and we’ll work thru it together.

Because Hollywood is unable to come up with a single original thought, most of all Columbia, I mean Sony Pictures, it makes sense (unfortunately) that they’d get excited about making the same film over again. “Only this time, it will be really cool!” I need to lighten up a bit, because the original story, “We can remember it for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick was terrific.

Who knows? The film isn’t out yet. But I’m going to see it. Why? Cuz the marketing for it is trick. For those of you too young or too smart to have been involved in the original Recall theatrical release, a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (now played by Colin Farrell) is frustrated with his life, so he decides to visit Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into reality. It doesn’t take much (any?) imagination to determine that things will quickly go sideways for Dougie.

The film might be crak, oh, crap, but the marketing is really fun. First off, check out the trailer. It’s terrific – great use of sound, imagery, and enticing storytelling.

So, here’s one example of coolness: in the trailer, at the end, the web URL flickers between…

www.welcometorecall.com

and

www.welcometorekall.com

Makes you want to visit both, right? Very cool. What’s up with the Rekall option? It’s more sinister than Facebook, and that makes it even cooler. You’ll visit the site. You will.

One gripe: They still haven’t figured out how to make a website at Sony without using Flash.

What’s the take away? Well, for me, the ability to get people to jump into a web experience before the film opens creates a “demand” and “success story” regardless of the kqualityl, um quality of the film. The tweets are interesting. And, the flickering web domains? Bitchin.

At the National Association of Broadcasters, where we saw more Thunderbolt drives and other peripherals connected via Thunderbolt cables than we’ve seen in any video production house so far. Lacie, G Technology, Western Digital and many more all had booths on the show floor sporting plenty of Thunderbolt drives plugged into the latest MacBook Pros. Are they faster? Yeah. But it’s more than that.

David Barrett explains why Thunderbolt really is a revolutionary technology, and why making the move will not only make your transfer of files faster, but it could also make your laptop faster, not to mention clean up that nasty tangle of cables you’ve got trapping dust bunnies behind your desk.

A quick look into the wayback machine is in order: When we began using Flash in the mid-1990s, it was a terrific way to animate elements to create short cartoons, marketing messages, and ads. It quickly evolved into a bit of an animation system, but then shifted towards the web.

Websites developed in Flash highlighted quality imagery and presentations. In the days of dial up modems, a Flash site presented high resolution, smooth (relatively) motion, and a quality that presented the website owner as an entity invested in reaching their audience with the best possible visible message.

Flash became entrenched in the world of the web at that point. Even for sites that were built using traditional methods, Flash was used for ads, and once YouTube (and Flash codecs) arrived, video. The huge surge in video created an equally large surge in the use of Flash. Web browsers were updated to support it. Computers were upgraded to enjoy it.

There were problems with Flash all through its existence – notably memory leaks that would eventually cause a web browser or PC to crash. NOTE: questioned posed on Adobe’s support forum regarding PCs that crash with Flash remain unanswered after more than two years.

The fix for a crashing site was simple – restart the box or relaunch the browser, so the main issue with Flash was more of an annoyance than a significant problem. Adobe worked diligently to upgrade Flash and did so often. Still, crashing continued, and as its popularity increased, security flaws became more relevant as malcontents would find ways to break into sites and servers hosting Flash thru its published security issues.

I don’t think the arrival of the Apple iPad signaled the turning point in the popularity and use of Flash, but it helped raise awareness of alternative and more modern technologies. Even with many modern browsers in smart phones and tablets, more people began to arrive at websites with blank spaces or red blocks where Flash elements had been.

With the rapid explosion of HTML-5 and other technologies, Flash has become a hindrance rather than a benefit for a website. It’s a mobile world today. And while there are developers who love Flash and swear by it, the fact remains that the public wants and deserves a quality experience when visiting a website. If you want a truly engaging web experience that serves the widest possible audience, Flash is done as a web technology.

In November of 2011, Adobe announced that its support for Flash Player on mobile browsers would end. And while no such announcement has been made relative to the desktop, it has already effectively occurred.

Make no mistake, Adobe Flash is powerful stuff: Stage 3D accelerated graphics rendering, 64-bit support, multi-threaded video decoding and the ability to interact with multiple tracking devices is both important and useful. But it’s not enough or perhaps the right tool for creating website content.

The renewed interest in Flash is oriented towards applications. Adobe is refocusing on the opportunities Flash presented in its earliest days, but with some new ideas thrown in. Adobe Air gives a developer the opportunity to use web authoring and to wrap the code into a runtime (application wrapper) that will play the content as an application – not in a web browser. A developer can then create content once, and deliver it to both desktop and mobile devices.

Adobe has also indicated that as it refocuses on applications, many of those apps will be entertainment oriented (read that as games). To ensure a revenue channel, Adobe has created a multiple tiered set of capabilities within Flash/Air, and if you use them (3D, GPU rendering, etc.), you’ll begin paying Adobe a royalty of 9% on all net sales over $50,000 in August of 2012.

So, it’s time for Flash to go from websites everywhere. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you can simply replace Flash content with HTML-5 content. Not so. HTML-5 is a huge step forward in web technology. It is not a direct replacement for Flash. The opportunity for entities that have used Flash for a long time is to redesign their website to fit into the mobile world. Evolve. That may be the best gift Adobe could give the web world. The chance to make websites look better than ever before. How ironic that doing so will eliminate the technology that made the web look good in the first place.

Stopped in at the Contour booth to see how their go-everywhere, do-anything brand of small, portable cameras held up to GoPro’s latest Hero2. Turns out they’re giving GoPro quite a run for its money.

ContourROAM $199
ContourGPS $299
Contour+ $499

Now at a professional video store (or a Target, or a surf shop, or a parachuting class) near you!

Several years ago, we’d say the issues of content were limited to television broadcasters. But today, anyone can be a broadcaster. The issues aren’t really about being able to do it – suddenly the issues are about doing it right and not being sent to the bottom like the RMS Titanic. If you think it can’t happen to you…

We’re in a new world now. Three years ago, there was no iPad, the iPhone was the new remarkable device to behold, the app store didn’t exist, and Facebook was only accessible thru a browser (and was used by a fraction of the people devoted to it today). Oh – no Twitter, either.

So, in just three short years, we’ve evolved to a point where not only are consumers consuming video in huge quantities, they often aren’t using televisions to do it. Are you a twenty something? Is your “TV” your laptop? Your iPad? Your mobile smart phone? You bet it is. And this traffic and usage of these devices is growing at a rate far in excess of 100% year over year.

In that short period of time, the providers of content have rushed to meet the demands of the new user base. Streaming to multiple formats, implementing the proper security for each device; not to mention finding the right adaptive bit rate for each device. Think of this new movement as TV Everywhere.

The issues involving TV Everywhere are complex. Done well, TV Everywhere merges the best facets of television and the Internet. Premium content and rich contextual controls create a powerful TV experience. Next, add in social media feeds, integrated search and all of the various iPad, Android, and related mobile apps – traditionally the domain of the Web – become applicable to a TV viewing audience .

The challenge that comes with the TV Everywhere opportunity is that if done poorly, viewers will seek out other providers for their content. That means a business may lose business if they create poor content, or don’t invest properly in this new use of technology. While some content providers invest heavily in their brand and in providing an enhanced experience around their content, others believe just doing it is enough.

This also relates to the misconception that many entities (especially corporations) have about content. They (often wrongly) believe that because a video camera is only a few hundred dollars that their marketing managers can create videos and media messages in-house. Just today, in conversation with several of my peers, there was talk of how marketing directors and Veeps were “thrilled” that hundreds of people had watched a YouTube video. The fact is that such numbers and the type of results often generated using home grown tactics are fully misleading and distract from a company’s marketing focus.

Creating quality video isn’t about being able to make a video – it’s about being able to take a company’s sales and marketing objectives and to turn those into quantifiable and effective stories USING video.

The other thing that was very apparent today was the increasing risk to businesses who use video randomly and as a “low cost marketing” opportunity: the risk of security breaches and attacks.

Security concerns amplify as corporations rely on increasingly global and device-based marketing and sales initiatives. When a new product is introduced, companies are making an iPad presentation, a YouTube video, and a FaceBook contest part of the process.

opportunities for digital revenue expansion. New business models – including direct-to-consumer subscription and content sales, embedded ecommerce and mobile applications – assume the risk of exposing sensitive customer data as a result of a security breach. The more popular they become, the greater the risk that an online endeavor might be negatively impacted, including:

• Any content on a corporate infrastructure could be attacked, exposed and brought down: production schedules, business productivity applications, content management systems, and more
• e-commerce: With an attack, a revenue-generating sales channel is taken down
• A website not being served, causing anyone that relies on Internet connectivity to do their job to be impacted and unable to access business critical Internet applications like email, Sharepoint or Salesforce.com
• FTP sites where content is uploaded and accessed
• Customer databases with personal information can be exposed

Security is not a new issue, per se. For the past several decades, those entities experienced with digital media distribution have been focused on protecting digital content and assets from online piracy, to ensure that only those who are proper rights may access media. Today, those concerns have merged with the need to protect assets from a new threat: the hacktivist movement.

This new threat is directly aimed at those entities that use media to share their message. It isn’t just media and entertainment companies that are at risk, either. Corporations that use the Internet to share video, presentations, sales promotions, PR, and community “brand” building are becoming targets.

And the threat isn’t just to delivery of the media. The threat is larger: threat to reputation, threat to revenue and threat to brands. Media and corporate websites are coming under increasing attack – hacking of home pages, replacement of video streams, DDoS bringing sites down to limit access, revenue streams for the business attacked, personal information stolen … and that’s just part of the threat board. Unfortunately, these kinds of attacks have not been on the radars of many media and corporate entities, and their entire marketing process may be at risk.

These factors are proving to be important issues at this year’s NAB. So, while the new Nikon D800 or the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite 6 may be enthralling, there are undercurrents that are just as essential: understanding how to create quality TV everywhere, and how to protect it as well.

The sky is still falling for people who don’t use Final Cut, but used to. Just this morning, on a LinkedIn group, I read people complaining that Final Cut Pro X doesn’t ingest projects from Final Cut 7. I read that multi-cam clips are a thing of the past, and as a result, someone’s business has been ruined. I read that people “never saw this coming.” That Apple would never create another Mac Pro tower (or related system).

Every one of the above bits of hand-wringing and finger pointing is just plain wrong.

Software evolves. Those legacy files CAN be integrated into FCP X. Multi-cam clips work well, so those of you who create wedding videos are saved.

If you want to change software bases, that’s cool. But, don’t make decisions based on bad data. Get the facts. If you’re running a business (whomever you are), you owe it to yourself to make sound decisions. And, it’s important to look into the future a bit as well. What will change? processors? graphics cards? operating systems? As yourself, “what will those changes do that affect my business?” I attend the NAB (starting on Monday) so I can learn and be prepared. If you can’t attend, read online and get the 411 that will give you an edge – and help you prepare. Don’t ever put yourself in a position where the future hits you in the face like a winter storm. Evolve, just as your tools do.

Full HD video is now something your iPhone 4s can do, and Siri isn’t even invited. If you’ve got an iPad, you can accurately claim that you’re an “Avid” editor. Yes, Avid Studio is available for the iPad, and while designed for fun short form content, it’s pretty slick, as is iMovie from Apple. And, if you’re serious, you can purchase an array of lens additions, stabilizers, tripods, and other goodies for your iPhone.

If you want your images to capture stuff moving, the new GoPro2 is as amazing as it gets. I’ve already commented on some of the f@cking great videos I’ve seen where a GoPro has been part of the show kit. Is 4K video the next step in mobile phone capture devices?

Sony, Panasonic, JVC, and about 1,874 other companies will show off new cameras, tripods, lights, storage devices, and lots of weird bits I can’t even describe. But I’ll be taking it in, tweeting, sharing notes, and drinking.

Seriously, because anyone can shoot, and due to the unbelievable amount of content out there, it strikes me that this is a good time to begin to introduce some new strategies and tactics for not only editing and distributing video, but managing media overall. To me, that means media management in the cloud, for one thing. Front Porch Digital is one firm that is expected to push cloud media management at NAB. Their new LYNX product is all about managing media using remote servers and (relatively) low costs to help all types of broadcasters and developers. NOTE: Their website sucks. They should hire (us!) to help them tell a better story.

Another company that will try to gain significant cloud headway is Aspera, with their fasp transfer technology, which essentially provides a fat pipe to move lots of data. NOTE: Do all of these companies build their websites in-house?

Because the HOW and WHY of content is so important these days, those who attend are likely to spend more time listening to those people who are using new technologies to break into new arenas, or to break box office numbers due to great storytelling. For filmmakers, this can be pretty exciting. This year, Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville, the Hunger Games) will speak, as will creative professionals working on shows such as Mad Men, Abduction, The Walking Dead, and other projects. Getting direct experience makes this show valuable to anyone in the biz.

Overall, the key will be to find solutions that are faster, cheaper, and mobile. Higher resolution cameras will be pimped in every corridor, while mobile compression solutions are likely to make even the most seasoned attendee run for the nearest bar (not a long run, mind you). And that brings us to the most challenging issue for any NAB – getting thru the noise to those products and solutions that really matter. For our team, that means editing faster, creating more amazing visual images to tell our stories, and creating better value for our clients. We’re good with cameras. We’re good with story lines. We will specifically look at new ways to manage media, store media, and prepare media for distribution. I already see the end of Blu Ray, as downloading content is THE WAY.

And finally, what about Apple? Last year, Apple introduced Final Cut Pro X just after the NAB event (it was previewed at the show, although Apple does not attend trade shows officially). Professional editors in television and features went into cardiac arrest as FCP X as initially shipped was a different metaphor for editing than pros without much time to learn new tricks could handle (oh, and Apple left out some pretty important functions, too. Bad Apple! Bad!).

This year, Apple was the rage of CES (due to the old and new iPad), and again, they didn’t attend. Avid and Adobe have been busy courting the professional creative crowd, and new versions of their editing and creative solutions will be introduced at the show. For some strange reason, the impact of FCP X on this year’s show is something all of our peers keep talking about. For us, well… we just want to create really nice video stories. The right tool in the right hands (our hands) will result in some pretty amazing stories. We’re excited.

It’s a pretty common misconception that the more followers you have, the more friends who like you, and more people who react to your messages, the more successful you’re going to be. Not so. In fact, I disown hundreds more people that attempt to follow me or our clients than those that we thank and accept. There are many reasons for people to use Twitter, Facebook, and other tools. Those that think of it as a popularity contest may well find themselves on the outside looking in.

For the sake of this posting, let’s leave personal use of social media out of the equation. In the business world, using social media involves some responsibility, if done properly. One of my biggest pet peeves about companies that use these tools is the one-sided narrative (often grammatically challenged) that takes place. Social media, when executed effectively, is a dialog, not a monolog.

So, what does that mean?

Let’s look at a company that does it the right way: Ford Motor Company.

Ford’s got a lot going on these days. The new Focus is making lots of headlines, and the electric Focus is certainly an alternative drivetrain halo vehicle. The new ads, featuring the Ford Taurus SHO and new 2013 Ford Fusion are slick. And tied into these vehicles and their marketing is a slew of clever social media messages. But, these messages have the backbone to support their verve. The company even has a social media website, dedicated to the entire manufacturer/client conversation. Ford Social is a portal to a wide array of media and much of the content is user generated.

Ford has a number of customer service agents who have the specific task of searching Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, message boards and even websites to seek out comments that may include both kudos and complaints. As these messages are found, the issue is assigned to a customer service rep who will then attempt to reach the individual and either thank them, or work to solve their problem. But wait – there’s more. Ford works to create a one-on-one dialog with clients within four hours of discovering the online individual message. Ford estimates that they address nearly 2,000 issues per week. While this is clearly an incremental component to the overall Ford customer service strategy, it clearly demonstrates the importance that a two-way process in social media can have. It means happy people. It means brand satisfaction. It also means sales. How cool is that?

So, the question I have asked myself is, “is the problem the people, or the technology?” I deal with both, and it’s a never dull topic of (self directed) conversation.

So, what’s the problem? Let’s do a bit of the old Ben Franklin, shall we?

Social Media Good:

• instant news to your captive audience
• faster than a telephone call
• impersonal
• facebook is the ultimate audience tool
• seems to be inexpensive
• lots of social media experts to hire

Social Media Bad:

• impersonal
• takes up a lot of the average day
• most tweets are lame
• facebook is the devil
• turns out to be pricy, if done right
• lots of wanna be social media experts

Well, that didn’t work out well. Let’s look at it this way – in terms of time management, it’s a totally different animal than what we did in business even five years ago. As it relates to marketing a product, that too has changed…

I spoke to a VP of marketing at one of our client partners and he told me that social media was creating a series of false metrics for his middle and lower level managers to attain, while the board of directors was giddy, but typically because of their personal use of Twitter with kids and grand kids. He was serious. “Now, we look to see how many people belong to our Twitter accounts,” he said. “It’s as if that’s more important than sales figures – and we don’t care who those people following us are.” Note to self: client does not or want to get it.

For me, that’s not understanding social media. That’s not using it the way it could be used. True, numbers speak volumes, and often, people are obsessed with data. At the same time, now we have data – and for me, the key point is that anyone can create the demand and build their own set of data. You don’t need to be the Very Big Corporation any longer.

The key point when using Twitter is: do you have something relevant about your product to share?

The key point with Facebook is: are you building an audience of customers or future customers?

Those are the issues that rule the social media business day for me.

I was having lunch with a different client and she was agog with the power of what his firm was able to do when collaborating with us. “I just love that we can create an ad, place it, and measure its success – all online and without killing any trees or making expensive media buys,” she told me. Note to self: Client totally gets it.

Direct mail is yesterday’s news. The US Post Office will need to reinvent itself or die.

But the real downside is this: there is so much media in play today that cutting thru the noise is a challenge.

The Internet provides access to a broad and often defined audience. But the playing field is also smaller in terms of traction for a product campaign. That means you need to be more creative, bolder, and willing to take certain kinds of risks relative to campaigns and branding efforts. The good news is that trees may get to live a bit longer.

A prospect I spoke with recently wanted to know why we were promoting an online survey product (R/com Survey Manager). Her contention was that products like Survey Monkey were fine, and nearly free.

Measurement is often without any personal contact. Google analytics and other research tools are interesting and useful. When they’re used as a single metric, it’s often a stepping stone to incomplete information and potentially poor decisions. Analysis of who is watching, reading, downloading, sticking, clicking and tapping is important. At the same time, companies that demonstrate significant growth and profitability often combine that data with live research. It’s important that metrics be limited to actionable and useful statistics, not just a lump of data.

Overall, the most important thing we can learn about social media and product marketing is that it’s different, it’s moving, and it’s moving fast. In the days of print and television, a campaign worked year over year. Today, capable marketers need to take many more chances than ever before. The magic and makes the media work is changing continually. As such, our marketing efforts are no longer as safe as they once were, but the opportunities for success are much higher as well.