Sunday Morning Listening

I've been up for a while this morning listening to Elliot Road. I had to check them out on Itunes to understand completely the group that I'm writing about. To be a good writer my thoughts are that you must experience completely the subject you are writing about. How could I write about a group that I hadn't listened to their complete CD? So I went out and purchased it this morning and have been listening to it ever since. I've never really been a fan of folk music until now. The music is very relaxing and calms my soul. Tonight I should be ready to sit down and begin to write the web communications for this group so make sure to check them out on my facebook fan page or jhasmal.com this week. The "Dust Covered Man" is a wonderful CD and I'm appreciative to have the opportunity to write about it.

Is Twitter really worth it?

I still don't completely understand Twitter. I'll probably get some nasty messages for saying it but it still doesn't make much sense to me. Who is the audience on Twitter? Do people really pay attention to Twitter feeds or they just follow people with the intent of trying to trick someone to follow them. If everyone is Tweeting who is actually reading the stuff. I do have a Twitter account and I'm following 6 people but no one is following me. I don't blame anyone for not following me because I have some boring post and really no posts for months. I've been keeping an eye on Twitter assuming they will make a change for me to completely see its value.

Apple communicates the best

I always look for companies that are doing their communications better than anyone else. Apple is doing a really good job of getting individuals to dream about their product. They do this on the web by giving you a video and presenting the glamour of the product and what it would feel like to own it.

Apple is not only using its technology to challenge the norm but their efforts in marketing and communications support the vibe of its technology.

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

Wikinomics - Kind of deep

So I just started reading a new book. I probably read a new book every two months. This time the book on my list is WIKINOMICS by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. This books is pretty deep so if you don't like talking about technology it's not for you. Considering of fascinated with communications and sites such as Twitter and Facebook this book is heaven. It's interesting to get real life example of how companies have used social media type sites to get answers to problems. The collaberation of individuals is very interesting. Even though some companies have figured out the benefits of social media there are other companies that are lagging behind. It seems like very large companies havent figured out that this is something that must be embraced. The question is how do you use these new outlets for communication. For individuals like me it's exciting and scary at the same time. As an employee for a large company it's scary because your job could be at stake for introducing these tools to management if it fails. From an individual entrepreneur perspective it evens the playing field for me to be competitive at a great cost - free.

It's hard...

It takes a lot of hard work and patience to build something that you're proud of. I remember rushing to build websites in the past that weren't something I was proud of. Many of the sites looked like a second grader built them. Now I finally have started putting my heart and soul into my website (www.jhasmal.com). This site is a part of me and I'm proud to put my name on it. It's the flagship to my future and I can vision big things coming from it.

I try to do something at least twice a week on the site. It's kind of hard to keep up so I find myself on some weekends staying up pretty late to work on it. I have my first client that I'm doing a communications campaign for. It's a small business going under the name of River Park Studios. They make wonderful blankets for babies.

Well, I guess it's time for me to stop blogging and get back to building my site.

Saturday Thought

It's not all about the fancy terms such as SEO, HTML, Flash that get people interested in a website. People come to websites for information. What is it that your site has that another doesn't. Is it a particular item for sale or news that can't be found anywhere else. If you are thinking about building a website make your site unique.

Making moves and helping small businesses

So now I've started to really working on creating a brand. It's a brand not only for my website but for other sites that I want to help create their own brand. I've approached a couple of small businesses that are just starting off. They have their own sites but have no communication plan for these sites. I'm going to create a plan to help them start building a brand presence online.

Phase one of the approach is using facebook to get my current followers aware of a new product. I don't count on any of my friends buying their product. What is more important is to get my friends talking about my clients product or thinking about it. I need them to start talking about the product - that's free advertising. This is why communications is very crucial to any small business just starting off. Many small businesses will use all of their financial resources paying for marketing campaigns that won't get them any results. Communications is a minimal investment with ability to provide a large return.

Phase two is to write news about clients on the website www.jhasmal.com. I need to get as much as exposure as possible to the small business. I'm also trying to pace myself when writing about each client not overwhelming the audience.