What's Google My Business ?

Google has launched a bold strategy to get more businesses listed online. This has got to be a good thing, right. There are many out there that really need help. Apparently more the 50% of Australian businesses don't have a website. This is a problem, a problem for everyone really, not least of all the search giant and your business. If Google listings are a problem for your business now's the time to think about this over a nice cuppa tea.

Though at first sip by golly Google is burning the lips of many existing clients. A new interface, automatic upgrades and mixed messaging methods don't help. Highlighting again, how the young recruits at Google lack a little real world experience, particularly of the small business sector.

Of course who could complain, these tools are 'free' after all? Free as in 'free to use', not as in "free beer". Sure it may take you a week to work out and you run the risk of really messing up your listings but stick with it and you'll succeed. (Google recruits take note: Time is the most precious resource for a small business owner - even before an important upgrade).

Google asks "Playing hard to get?" - Many businesses are.

Yet we think it's all worth the effort. The system amalgamation is a natural development in the constantly evolving space of cloud based tools that the big G offer. So what do you get for your effort?

What you get is a simplified and streamlined dashboard for all vital business info; map location, phone numbers, domains, contact hours, services, product categories and the like. The sort of thing that should be available on your website, right? We understand that you may be too busy with clients to make this information handy online. Google have done a lot of the work for you. They've even created  Android and iPhone apps to help you keep everything at your finger tips. Go check it out, you be the judge, grab a cup of tea and contemplate Google My Business, we think you'll be glad you did.

As always if you need a little help, contact a certified Google partner agency. They're trained and motivated to help you get ahead, our listing's below :

A certified Google Partner Agency

TimeSlotStudio - We're building a very special broadcast ready studio for you

Creating video in a timely and straight forward manner is still a challenge for most organisations. There are so many considerations; lighting, audio, microphones, makeup and video formats. Not to mention all the camera work and script writing. It's no wonder many professional people find it way too hard to make a serious start.

That's why some of our friends we asked us to build a studio for customers and their clients. The concept we've worked up is "Walk in Walk out" - everything set up, everything ready to use; cameras, audio, lighting and props and broadcast - thanks to our incredibly fast NBN fibre networks.

Digital Dave gives a quick technical test of the studio - 

We've invested heavily in great networks and computers to allow you to broadcast or narrowcast your content in real time. This can be used for a lecture, a lesson or a musical performance. Importantly it can be used to help monetise your productions on a subscription or pay per view basis.

While our technical investments are up and working now, we have a vision of a greater studio. A infused with the 1960 and 1970s - the era of so much change. The era of the birth of the internet, video recording and amazing creativity.

We're commencing our own crowd funding campaign to make our studio something extra special for our partners, customers and their clients.

We've created a broad array of rewards for our crowd funding campaign - from full production series, exclusive T-shirts, and a special 60' / 70's themed cocktail party and much in between.

Get involved in our Pozible powered Crowd Funding program here:

Web: www.organise.net.au/TimeSlotStudio
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/timeslotstudio
FaceBook:
https://www.facebook.com/TimeSlotStudioTV
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TimeSlotStudio
Tumblr:
http://timeslotstudio.tumblr.com/
Instagram:
http://instagram.com/timeslotstudio

Come on board - join our mission to give you to best digitally leveraged AV studio on the East Coast of Australia.

CEBIT 2014 Digital Business report

Australia’s largest and most respected IT conference and expo CEBIT has morphed from a tech industry meet-up to a true digital business/economy event. This year’s CEBIT conference marked their transformation by moving west from Sydney’s Exhibition centre in Darling Harbour to Homebush the home of the successful 2000 Olympics. The move has re-energised the event, now in its 13th year. A revamped offering over 3 days was more about innovation and facilitating business than just geek tech.

Travelling out to Homebush by car was an unnecessary luxury as the train ticket was included in the entry, ( a nice touch and a vote of confidence in the event from the NSW government). My fellow traveller was a prominent business publisher and he’d just taken charge of a wonderful new car from Mercedes. The car has so much technology crammed into it I quickly became his onboard technology advisor.

Belkin, a Central Coast based company greeted us when entering the substantial expo hall. They were promoting their new range of Smart Home technologies; automated networking of all things electrical in the home/office. The pricing points for these once very expensive items are now incredibly digestible and worth a close look.

Beyond the big company stands there was an impressive array of foreign trade stands from China, Germany, India and the UK. Though it was the crafty New Zealanders from Wellington that had the best pitch to my mind. The aspiring Tech City of Wellington had dragged over a bunch of fun business people to talk up their city and NZ as a whole. A mix of good business data, coffee, food and cheeky personalities was winning people over, me included. Wellington fell short on only one count, fibre optic broadband. Something I bragged Gosford had over them. Of course they quickly replied that they were onto it and a full fibre optic rollout to all premises was well on the way.

The conference side of the event was as thorough as always, with so called Big Data, eHealth, Cloud, Mobility and Cyber Security the main lecture themes. Though Paul Budde’s bite sized info sessions proved most popular. Paul heads a Central Coast based global telecommunications consultancy Budde.com which has become a hallmark of CEBIT Australia over the last decade. His experience from around the world helps frame the Australian version of the CEBIT global franchise.

Close to my heart was a fun new concept this year. As startup’s have been on everyone’s lips this year, CEBIT revamped and expanded it’s fun ‘StartUp Alley’ concept. Almost 100 startup projects were present providing the quirky energy and pizzazz that tech expos usually lack. There was a wide range of new concepts waving their idea flags in the wind, all of whom later competed at a pitch fest event. One of the winners was a mob called MathsSpace, that is evolving the teaching of complex mathematics concepts in a very cool and engaging way. Though most of all the Startup alley bought new faces to the event, many young people of course, though notable were less tech looking experienced old hands and most encouraging many more entrepreneurial women.

An honorable mention to the University of Newcastle who were out in force again with their micro robotics students, a specialisation that the UoN are gaining a global reputation for. Their Nubots program was most popular with the crowd. Nubots are programmable 1 foot high robots that can do many things, among other things play football (watch out CC Mariners).

3D printing exhibitors were there in full force. This technology is evolving rapidly and is fast becoming mainstream. The sophistication of items that can be printed now is incredible; bones, complex tools and industrial spare parts among them. The price points for the machines has dropped incredibly and range from a few thousand dollars for basic machines to just $60k for incredibly sophisticated industrial units.

The opportunities these technologies represent to revitalise local manufacturing should not be under-estimated.

CEBIT Australia is now well underway to evolving into the “must visit” event on the Australian/Pacific digital business calendar. I was informed by an insider of the parent company in Hanover, Germany that the Australian franchise, started by Jacquie Taranto is seen as the innovation leader in it’s field. That’s saying something, as if you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting CEBIT Europe it is a mighty tough gig to beat the Germans at their own expo game.

“Digital” Dave Abrahams

@digitdave

This article appeared in the Central Coast Business Review & on ABC Central Coast Radio 92.5

Journalists & wordsmiths need to learn video or perish

Remember when the world wide web was an amazing opportunity for businesses to connect with customers directly. The web promised to cut out the media outlets and business directories by beating a direct path to your customers' hearts, via their wallets and credit cards. Them were heady days. Of course reality was a little more complex than the promise. The web subsequently flourished with enough text to fill a battle ship. Wordsmithing become a seriously important part of creating quality online content. It still is.
Today's communication world is full of online content; images, memes, audio and increasingly video footage.

The growth in video delivered to mobile devices 

People are now overwhelmingly looking to video for their information, entertainment and education needs. The graph below compiled by BI Intelligence illustrates the real and projected growth of mobile global video traffic.

Quiet apart from the infrastructure needed to carry all this data traffic we need to be thinking of ways to quickly produce quality audio and video content that is fit for purpose. 

To be effective, video needs to be put in context and narrowcast to the intended audience quickly and with little fuss. Easily said, difficult to execute. 

The skills required to produce a quality short video are quiet different to those of creating quality written content. Quality written content has a long history, it's taught at schools all over the world in all languages. Arguably most established cultures are founded on the written word. It is the thoughtful producers that build the respect of their readers. Those wordsmiths now need to turn their insightful training to producing video if they are to maintain their relevance. 

Creating video will be a challenge to many. Lighting, audio and articulation skills are all part of the equation. Though more importantly the quality of the story is what will help you get noticed in an increasingly noisy media landscape.

NB: Our research shows that inserting a short video into a blog such as this greatly increases the views that a blog receives. Grab your phone, make a YouTube video and give it a test yourself. 

Dave Abrahams, Principal Consultant OI, Organise Internet