There were no letters for ‘Dear Techie’ this week, so here is me on my tech soapbox.
Ashland, WI has natural beauty, outdoor activities all year long and great Main Street shopping. However, the city is lacking two things:
- city wide wifi
- good jobs.
It seems that the majority work either in service industry, retail or medical. There are no technology jobs, tech start-ups nor technology job agents; this would be fine in the 20th century when people would move based on rumors or family connections concerning employment. But times have changed.
Nowadays, technology can define a town. People surf the web for information regarding businesses, utilities, health care, services, and government agencies — are you prepared?
GPS
The shortest and fastest route to Ashland, WI from the west is NOT Route 2 going by the Visitor Center or Ashland Chamber of Commerce; all GPS technology directs a driver to take 137 (Golf Course Road). This means the visitor’s first sight upon entering Ashland, WI is the corner of 137 & 112 (Golf Course Road & Sanborn Ave) – no pretty flowers just a beat up street and a half-boarded up building. The problem here is not limited to aesthetics; where is the “Welcome to Ashland” sign or directions to main street services? How does the GPS come into your town? What route will it take visitors?
Welcome to Ashland, WI
Websites
This past week a major local information website site was down 9pm 08/09/10 though 9:15am on 08/10/10 with a 503 error – which usually stand for ‘closed for repair’. It is still functioning minimally because it can at least respond with a 503 status code, but full service is impossible i.e. the Web site is simply unavailable. There are a myriad possible reasons for this, but generally it is because of some human intervention by the operators of the Web server machine. You can usually expect that someone is working on the problem, and normal service will resume as soon as possible. If you have to do maintenance do it on a Sunday 10pm. Never do maintenance, upgrades or major changes Monday through Saturday.
- Is your website available on all major search engines?
- Is your website smart phone, iPhone or WAP enabled? It should be. For example; a local church’s site had 2 pages viewed by an iPhone in January 2010 with a huge jump to 107 pages viewed on an iPhone July 2010. Hint: If you want to see what your website looks on an iPhone.
- Do you read your website log reports monthly?
- Do you have a blog associated with your website? The easiest way to get to the top of a search engine is by making regular changes updates or news. If your website information never changes why should anyone give you a second look?
- Does your contact email have the same domain as your website? There are too many Ashland businesses who use their ISP email address (@centurytel.net, @verizon.com, @att.net, etc…) or conventional free email services (@gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc…). I assume it is simply because that’s been their address for several years now. Stop that right now, just stop. Here are some reasons to stop using a non-domain email address.
- It doesn’t feel very ‘official’.
- It feels cheap and lazy. For around $25 you can get your own domain name and an email address @yourcompanyname.com, so why wouldn’t you? (http://soketnetto.com/)
- With ISP email systems, you’re getting a substandard email solution and no control over email. Read messages may be removed from servers 30 days after delivery. Unread messages may be removed from servers within the same period time after delivery. Furthermore, free email providers reserve the right to deactivate your email accounts that have not been accessed within a period time.
- With ISP email systems, you’re stuck with having to stay with that ISP for fear of losing your address.
- ISP email systems rarely have cloud functionality. This means that once you’ve downloaded your emails to one computer, those emails are ONLY accessible from and searchable on that one computer.
- Businesses buy each other -Alltel is now Verizon. So all those who used an @alltel.net email address had to change over to @verizon.net. This would not happen if you used your own @domain.com email server.
- Unlimited users with your own domain email server allows for function vs individual. There should be a sales@domain.com not suzy134@centurytel.net or contact@domain.com not steveh@gmail.com – individuals change — but the functional email stays the same.
- Social Networking
Getting Social
Facebook is one of many social networks. Facebook is fun and a terrific way to connect with Facebook people. But professionally speaking, that is not the only place you should be making a presence. Twitter, LinkedIn and many more sites exclusive to businesses are available. It takes time, but using a free service that sends updates to all Social networks at once are available (HootSuite, Ping.FM, lifestream.aol.com). Do not assume Facebook will be around for ever; do you remember MySpace, Friendster or SixDegrees? They were social networks before Facebook and there are many set to take the place of Facebook in the near future.
NOTE: Do you have a social media policy in place with specific rules of engagement across multiple networks including social networks? You should. On Facebook it is just one click away to see your employees using Facebook. Facebook users, and employees of XYZ Co (suzy134 or steveh) might complain about management on Facebook or worse yet . . . have a fight on Facebook for the whole world to see. This reflects on the business not just the employee. Most people don’t secure their Facebook accounts, which means employees suzy134 or steveh and their Facebook complaints about their bosses might show up on Google searches for “XYZ Co”.
Apps World
It is an apps world. More and more people are using their cell phones as a way to navigate locally. Which means if someone would like a hamburger in your town they would look on their cell phone for suggestions and reviews. The new tech generation will NOT use the Yellow Pages but they’ll use cell phone apps and online apps. One of the most popular apps for food is called UrbanSpoon. The Urbanspoon app (http://tinyurl.com/TTUrbanSpoon) allows you to pinpoint a restaurant of your desire in a specific area. It classifies results by food types and price range, and of course, provides ratings and user reviews. Get your business listed on every app possible.
Don’t think for a moment that adding your business to an app is a waste of time. 1) The Apple products will not longer be limited to the AT&T network. You can use the iPod Touch on Sprint network and the iPhone is coming to Verizon. 2) Apps are on just about every phone and app developers are building their stuff to be installed across all provider networks.
Final Note
Do you want people to just stay on Route 2 and drive through or do you want them to stay at least a day to play and pay?
If you would like more information or a free consultation please contact Tech Talk.
