Anchor Marketing » Jasper J.

Telephone > Phone > Mobile Device

Jasper J. — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:59:58 +0000

I am not too young to remember the ringing of a good ol’ telephone in our house. It was a staple of communications for many years. We even had an “outside” ringer.

Landline Telephone

Things changed a bit in the early 90′s when my dad’s ’85 LeBaron showed up one day with a “car phone” installed. I remember talking to my mom on it while I was out on assignment with dad, either chasing storms or taking family pictures somewhere. Times changed again in the mid to late 90′s when we realized no one was home very much, so why have a landline? Since then, I have not had a landline in any of my residences and my kids will grow up not having one either (I’m not too sad about it).

Office Phone

HOLD ON: it does take a few years, but the business world is changing. Business will be dropping their landlines, it just make sense. Everyone is busy, out with clients, working remotely. With mobile phones now becoming “devices” that have integrated web cams (Apple’s Facetime on iPhone and iPad, which will also run Skype and other video conferencing software) you could almost run your business from the 9th hole of your favorite course.

Mobile "Device"

One of these days, kids 5-6-7 years old will be bound to a mobile phone. It’s just much easier that way. Why try to find a “landline” when you can just pull the phone out of your pocket? They have phones these days that will only call out to 5 locked-in numbers, or only accept calls from 5 incoming numbers…no fancy touchscreen, just a simple phone with “mom” “dad” and a few other buttons to call the ones you need most.

It won’t be long now and everyone will be using their phones or pads or tablets or Kindles or Nooks to do everything they are doing now with their laptop or desktop computers. Some people already are.

5 Things You Can Do With A QR Code…a what?

Jasper J. — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:15:39 +0000

Back in the mid-1990s, Toyota developed a new ID tag for car parts, to replace the bar code. The QR Code was born and it soon proved to be faster to read and less prone to error. Now, with consumers sporting hand-held bar code readers in the form of smartphones, QR Codes are being used by businesses to attract and retain customers. Here are five interesting ways that you can use a QR codes for your business.

1: Deliver videos or coupons directly to a smartphone: Engage your customers on the spot to check out your Facebook page.

2: Contact information: You can program a QR code to hold your contact information. One brief pass with a user’s smartphone QR code reader app and they’ll have all of your contact information stored in their phone.

3. Calendar Entries: Have a big event coming up? Why not post a QR code with the details on your ads? When scanned, smartphone users can add your event directly to their calendars.

4. Text: This may sound “boring” but think of it as the old “hidden ink” trick. Perhaps you could include a secret code for a discount, or a secret location to win prizes. Have your customers or friends scan it to find the “secret.” I even know a couple who was expecting their first baby that – instead of telling people if it was a boy or a girl – simply sent an email with a QR code on it. Once I scanned it, it said “IT’S A BOY!”

5. Directions: If a customer has a smartphone with a QR code reader, there is a good chance that they are on a nationwide wireless network. You can use a QR code to link up to Google maps and provide them with real time directions to get to your business.

The true potential for using QR codes has yet to be realized. We’re just getting started!

Find more about QR codes on our QR code landing page http://www.anchorwebsite.com/qr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
http://www.bizreport.com/2011/03/10-ways-you-can-use-qr-codes-now.html

The Cloud and the Tornado

Jasper J. — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:54:23 +0000

If you haven’t heard lately, more and more businesses are “moving to the cloud.” What is this cloud people keep talking about and why should you worry about it? Cloud computing is nothing new, basically it’s been around since the internet started, just in a different form. What cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service) have done is move dependency on local servers, to the internet or “cloud.” Instead of connecting to a server that you have to maintain, now it’s someone else’s problem. Instead of paying oodles of money for software and a server specific to you and your needs, the SaaS providers have found a niche to supply this software on their own servers (that they pay to maintain and manage). They resell this to other companies as well, so essentially you are paying a monthly license fee to “rent” the software.

A web site for your business is essentially in “the cloud”. A web site is usually a face for your business, but now add in some features that allow you to connect to your customers (message board, Facebook integration, blogs and comments, interactive forms, vertical integration through to your retail point-of-sale, online billpay) and you have the perfect ingredients for SaaS.

A good situation for SaaS is one with many workers in many different areas. You can use a service like 37signals Backpack to collaborate with your team. Files, contacts, calendars…they’re all in the “cloud” so you can access them anytime/anywhere. Plus you don’t need an IT guy to setup, maintain or “work on” the system. Email hosting is headed in the cloud at an incredible rate.

Many businesses worry about security in the cloud and the old saying remains true, “Don’t put anything out there if you don’t want anyone to get a hold of it.” Software developers do put a lot of thought and security measures in place, but it’s still possible that they may be hacked at some point. A great way to think about it is the roof on your house. You put shingles on it, because you know its going to rain….you even buy expensive “135mph-rated” shingles to give your roof even more strength.. but if 160mph tornado winds come, they may rip your roof off anyway. All we can do is be prepared and do as much work upfront as we can. Just have good backups in multiple locations in-case an “internet tornado” hits.

I’m not completely certain how this “cloud concept” is going to change computing, but I’m certain that it will be dramatic. Let’s keep an eye on it together.

The FYI on CMS

Jasper J. — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:57:50 +0000

Content Management Systems (CMS) are huge these days. In the world of the internet, the development of CMS is akin the invention of the wheel. They allow non-tech users to make revisions to web sites, and they free web developers to work more on complex coding issues rather than text changes.

When building a new web site, or re-building an old one, a CMS should always be taken into consideration. Some of the core functions include:

adding new pages (more robust CMS allow for this)
editing/removing/organizing current pages
updating content
adding images or updating photo galleries

There are many different flavors of CMS. Some are restricted to just editing content, others allow full control to edit virtually anything on your website. All of these factors should be explored in the planning stages of your new website, as its more cost affective to implement a CMS in the beginning stages than it is to retrofit a web site that is live. Don’t get me wrong though, it can be done. Paul Boag does a great job of explaining things to consider when choosing a CMS in his article “10 Thing To Consider When Choosing a Perfect CMS”

The benefits of a CMS are also huge. Let’s say you want to start publishing your news updates to an RSS feed. If your CMS was set up correctly, it would only take a tiny bit of programming (maybe just a checkbox) to “start” that feed. If your CMS wasn’t set up for it – or if you don’t use a CMS on your site currently – it could be a pretty big headache (in both time and money) trying to show feeds from static pages.

CMS is just a small tool to help the creation and maintenance of a healthy web presence. There are many more details and variables to work out when starting or rebuilding a web site. However, if the right CMS is implemented from the start, it will help to address the variables and changes you have along the way – in the end reducing your dependence on programmers (which saves you money).