Printville to Match USPS Offer
In honor of this, Printville is going to match the U.S. Postal Service’s 3% off, but only for LynxTo customers, and only through the end of August.

LynxTo To Sweeten The Pot For 2 Days
We loved the idea so much, we decided to sweeten the pot even more and for 2 days only will offer $30 off the purchase of your first LynxTo.  All you need to do is enter this code in during checkout “USPS3%” and it will lower the price on your LynxTo mobile webpage and QR code. But this is only good through the night of August 5th.

So get your LynxTo and then start planning your campaign an get to Printville this month. $30 off one of the most powerful QR code generators in the world and 6% off mailings thanks to Printville and the USPS is a pretty sweet deal.

That’s right, that might be the perfect time to do that direct mail campaign you’ve put on the back burner. In fact, through August 31st the USPS is running an upfront 3% discount on First-Class Mail and Standard Mail letters and flats that include a mobile “2D barcode or QR code” to help revive the dying practice. That’s why you see companies like American Express adding QR codes to their bills. And when no one else is abusing it…it becomes more powerful.

So maybe its time to take advantage of this process and grow your small business social network at the same time. Don’t get a QR code that just links to a vCard or a hard to read website. You can’t get connections that way. Find a solution like the fully customizable and affordable LynxTo QR code and mobile page. This is a perfect example of how you can help your customers scan, click and connect and build your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn community and get multiple benefits out of your discount. A mobile landing page at a very low cost and only 5 minutes to set up. Which is important, since you only have a couple weeks left on this Post Office offer.

Good luck…I’ll be watching for your ads in my mail box.

Hannush Enterprises, LLC Announces a Launch Date for the LynxTo Mobile and QR Code Platform

A Facebook Launch Party will Unveil the Next Generation Marketing and Business-Centric Connection Tool

(Greenville, SC) – Hannush Enterprises, LLC today announces the launch of a new combination web application, web mobile landing page, and QR code generator, being unveiled via the web on July 25, 2011 at 7 pm EST on both Facebook and www.lynxto.com.

The purpose of a LynxTo is to provide small businesses, event planners, and individuals a simple, cost effective way of creating lasting connections and enhancing their brand with customers through QR Code technology and a smartphone.

With the LynxTo technology, users can sign up and create a flexible QR code in minutes. This code can be used on business cards, brochures, posters, advertisements, as well as a variety of other sources. The LynxTo page allows the customer to scan and choose an action that most fits their need and personality, thus creating a meaningful connection with the business, event, or individual.

“We believe the industry has been under-utilizing the power of the QR code in regards to its development for small businesses.” said Drew Hannush, president of Hannush Enterprises, LLC. “This technology has the ability to fill a large void in getting meaningful action out of marketing touch points such as magazine ads, business cards, and brochures. And with the rise of smartphone use and customer exposure to QR code technology, the way is being paved.”

According to a recent comScore survey, 1 in 3 Americans now own a smartphone. In addition, bar code scanner applications are freely available for iPhones, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones that don’t already have the technology built in.

“Everywhere you go, you see people doing things with their smartphones,” said Hannush, “and you also see those QR codes popping up in magazines, on event signs, and even on restaurant walls. Unfortunately the businesses creating these codes have been very limited in what they could provide on the other side of the customer scan, so the experience has been somewhat flat. We feel this is a very critical time to harness the energy of this technology and provide a meaningful connection while the curiosity over QR technology still has the power to rise. This is a marketing tool that is still in its raw stages and we feel we are on the forefront of defining and enhancing its reputation.”

At 7 pm on July 25th, Hannush will launch the new software platform with a Facebook Party and website launch.  During the launch, Drew Hannush and his team will discuss the platform, provide video demonstrations, answer questions, announce the introductory price for early adopters, and give away free subscriptions and other prizes including the new iPod Touch with FaceTime, HD Video Recording and Retina Display. The Facebook Party will be exclusive to followers of the LynxTo Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/LynxTo) and a sign-up form will be presented hours before the party to sign up for the prize giveaways.

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Hannush Enterprises, LLC is a web and application development company based in Greenville, SC. Established in 2002, Hannush Web has developed a variety of in-house and client centered applications to improve business performance and attainment of business goals.

For more information, contact press@lynxto.com or call 1-864-918-5992.

In a break from tradition though, Google does not have a directory address or alias under google.com, like mail.google.com or google.com/analytics.  Instead, it has its very own address wdyl.com. An interesting step away from their branding.

But I can’t help think that while this service could be handy for finding information under a lot of resources at once, it also sort of adds to the noise.  The page results are loaded and almost overwhelming.  It doesn’t let you prioritize the modules by dragging and dropping. In fact, the order of modules changes every time you refresh. Plus there is a lot of fluff.  Do I really care what the trends are on, say “Dan Brown” or where he’s located if I’m trying to find information about his books?

Also all the services are Google’s. This includes a campy Google Chrome plug at the end. So, its really not a full service application, instead…it might be better phrased as What Would Google Do.

Check it out.  See what you think…and then think about it…what would you use “What Do You Love” for?

Because of this glut of social stimulation, I have found it easier to limit my attention to the big three…Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Yet, even narrowing the field still does not relieve the frustration or feeling that I’m falling behind on the social side of my business.

Facebook is where I spend most of my time talking with friends and colleagues and it really does promote daily communication, because its mission and delivery are in sync. In other words, the idea of this social network is to be social and the tools are in place to facilitate this. Mission accomplished. Although I don’t know how much talking about my 30 song countdown, or talking about my favorite ballparks is really affecting my bottom line at the office.As for Facebook Pages, they are business focused and are starting to become more business friendly, but Mark Zuckerberg’s vision was not about building up businesses, it was about personal “hook-ups.” And it shows in the way Pages are designed. And if the spam isn’t controlled better in the future, I may have to lock up my profile which takes away all the advantages of getting feedback from clients.

The other popular social platforms also create difficulties for the small to medium business.  Twitter is very stripped down and so it takes some knowledge to get the most out of it. If you work it, you can really build value in relationships and business contacts on this network. But most of the people who are good at this are in the social media field, not the small business owner running a mom and pop outfit. Its a time management issue and they usually turn it over to a third-party, which is entirely the wrong way to handle a social experience for a client.

So that leaves LinkedIn.  The problem is, of all the major social platforms, this one seems to want to be all things to everyone and it really goes beyond its original mission.

It tries to mimic Facebook and Twitter as a social network with the ability to update your followers.  But who is hanging out on LinkedIn chatting with their colleagues? And do you really want to hire someone who is hanging out on LinkedIn at their job all day?

It tries to be Facebook Pages with company profiles, but no one sits around all day reading stale marketed company profiles…they just use it like the Yellow Pages…when they need it, they look it up.

And some things it could do, it doesn’t do well. It doesn’t have a good lead capturing system, because it requires you to have worked or have gone to school with the contact, otherwise you have to go through hoops.  It would also be nice if you could directly refer people without having to write a recommendation (which I have found most people ignore anyway). And as a referral source, its really no better than email (sending messages) or Twitter (having to work relationships consistently).

LinkedIn, to me, started as a replacement for my roll-a-decks. It was a great way to connect with people I did business with or went to school with and keep up with them wherever I go or they go.  It was a dynamic address book.  And this was good. And it still does this, but that original purpose is now muddied with tools, status updates, news and clutter that is starting to remind me of MySpace.

With this general overkill of information, I find that I don’t use LinkedIn for any more than what I did originally…a replacement for my roll-a-deck…a way to keep up with contacts.

Then, two days ago, I received an invitation to join someone’s ReferralKey network.  Apparently ReferralKey has been lurking around behind the shadows for about 3 or 4 years, but in April had a relaunching of sorts.

It caught my attention.  It reminded me why I signed up for LinkedIn so many years ago.  It has a simple, business friendly interface and a simple purpose that solves a business problem.  In this case, it gets to the core of why a small business owner should be on the social networks, to build business and exposure.  And it does it easily, without having to troll the site for weeks to get exposure, or build a personality. It wins by creating rewards for referrals, which is something that I think creates a more compelling reason to use it and share referrals…more than any recommendation.

Its not subtle, you know what its about up front. They have a mission and I hope they stick to it.

LinkedIn has to bow to its investors and will most likely continue to bloat over time. Its core purpose was never really a money maker (being a fancy online address book) and still more than anything is a place to go when you are looking for a job (more HR support for small business than bottom line).  So to, Twitter is discovering a utopian project sooner or later has to make money and while they are doing a better job of holding to their vision, you still will be interrupted with ads, so they can make money.

Referral Key, on the other hand, has built a model off of delivering what small businesses really need…new business.  I was told it charges a membership fee if you want more than just a few referrals, but I haven’t seen information on this yet. If it does, it should be a little bit more up front about that, but still, at $20 per month, it might be worth the extended referrals.

It won’t fit all businesses, but is great for a country of service industry providers. It will be interesting to see how they plan on making money off of the site. Maybe they get residuals off of the companies that they promote “rewards” through?

If they stick with this mission and don’t go off on a tangent, trying to displace Facebook, Twitter, or more likely LinkedIn, I think I will be more satisfied with my ReferralKey network experience.  Because I will use it for what I need it for.  But, if they clutter it up and think I’m going to use it as a social network…they might be in for some disappointment. If LinkedIn isn’t winning me over with clutter, ReferralKey doesn’t have a prayer if they do the same.  Just help me with referrals, prove your value and I will use you when I need you…then pass the word on.  And isn’t that what makes a business friendly social network?

Holy crap, someone might recognize my face on a social network?!  Isn’t this the point?

Frankly, I laugh at the hysteria around these feature updates.  If you use common sense, none of these will ruin your life.  In other words, understand that even if you have your profile locked down, you still shouldn’t share sensitive information on a social network and everything will be okay.

The one major security issue I see though has always been there and I have never heard one person complain about it…and it could affect 90% of the people that use Facebook. What is it, you say?

Well, most females who use Facebook tend to put their maiden names on their profile.  Most females and males also tend to have mothers that also use Facebook and who are shown as friends.  Now, think about how many services ask for your mother’s maiden name as a security question (credit cards, banks, etc.)  Even with a mostly locked down profile, it probably only takes minutes to figure out this sensitive detail that could be as bad as giving away your social security number.

Ouch.  Now just having Facebook recognizing your face to make tagging easier doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Here is the best way to combat this problem.  Don’t go beat down Mark Zuckerberg’s door…you probably won’t get too far.  Just use common sense.

When giving your mother’s maiden name to a credit card company…think of a different name than the real one (one not related to you in any way) and use it everywhere, for ease of remembering.  That way, you protect that information and Facebook can’t cause problems for you.

Also, remember that Facebook is public domain…no matter what you do.  If Sony’s compromised database of customer passwords should show us anything, its that the web is vulnerable.  Be smart…share only what you wouldn’t be embarrassed or damaged sharing.  And if Facebook gives away your phone number and address…I’m sorry, its not the end of the world, but you should expect it could happen someday.

Its the cost of playing in someone else’s space.

But Twitter’s business model is one in which it is basically just a database, rather than a website portal for information.  Many of us never go to Twitter.com.  And it would be interesting to know how many people actually use third party tools for all of their accessing of Twitter.  In my case, I do all of my work in HootSuite and other apps that just access Twitter feeds.

So, how long before Twitter advertisers figure this out?

Not only are these ads on a page that probably doesn’t get viewed much, but also, their static position at the bottom of the page will probably create a Twitter ad avoidance area (ad avoidance being the area of web pages that users learn to avoid once they become established as advertising areas).

For those of you that haven’t seen the ads yet, I have highlighted one in yellow below:

Not that I am baiting Twitter to start throwing these ads directly into your thread, but I really think its the only way they will be able to show value to their advertisers.  In adding ads to your thread, they force you to have to look through legitimate posts and figure out which ones are ads…thus reducing avoidance and issues with people not going to the Twitter website  But I think they are worried that doing this will upset the apple cart all together and that people will see Twitter as a spam engine…thus causing some people to give up on the medium.

I truly believe making revenue will continue to be the biggest issue facing the social media giants for the next couple of years.

For the advertiser though, in this case (using Twitterspeak), I’d say #adfail.

At our office, we have taken advantage of a lot of these services and products.  One of my favorites has been Sun Microsystems’ Open Office.  After spending $300 plus dollars on an upgrade of Microsoft Office Professional a few years back, I was frustrated to find out that Office wouldn’t install on the new laptop I bought weeks later, because it said that it would no longer upgrade to the newer versions of Microsoft Works.

This immediately sent me looking for another solution and drove me into using Open Office, which was open source and free.

I have happily used that software for the last 6 years, without an issue (or the pain of spending $600 to replace the software I had just spend $300 on).  But a couple days ago, I learned that Oracle (who had purchased Sun Microsystems) was doing away with the suite.  Luckily, there was a team that convinced them to hand over the code and now, it has been reintroduced as LibreOffice.

But the bigger question is, at what risk do we put ourselves by converting our businesses over to these “free” services?

Last night, I received an email from Google letting me know that they are trimming the allotment of email addresses for their Google Accounts.  We recently began talking our clients into using this service as an alternative to our hosted email solution.  The reason? Clients could use the GMail interface and all the advantages of Google Mail, use their own domain name in their address (@yourcompany.com), and get more space for free (up to 50 email accounts at 7 GB each).

Well, it looks like the window to that free ride is closing as well.  Here is the message received from Google:

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for hannush.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.
Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

Just as we were getting everyone interested in it. But, to their credit though, Google is letting those of us that were originally promised up to 50 email accounts the ability to keep those (for a while at least), without charge.

But it makes sense.  Sooner or later, these companies have to show a profit, to remain in business.  Our expectations of a forever free ride are unrealistic.  The world unfortunately cannot be free.

So, it looks like we all need to keep a cautious eye not making these open source and complementary services too much of an integrated part of our business model.

To this day, I keep waiting for Twitter to “go out of business” because they still don’t have a business model for long term financial stability.  And how many companies are starting to use Twitter as a hub for their business practices?

And as much as we all love Facebook, there may be a day when the model no longer works…or some scandal leaves us sick that we’re using the service.  So, what then?

What do you think? And are there any free services you’re taking for granted right now that you could see being “taken away.”

As a service provider, if you found out that your competition charged 3 to 10 times higher for their services than you…would you:

A) Raise your prices to meet the market, so as to not undervalue your industry.

B) Slowly start raising the prices of your services to be in the middle.

C) Keep your prices the same. You worked out pricing that you felt was fair and that helps your business grow, if slowly.

I think this leads to the bigger question.  How do your potential customers see you?  If you go into a proposal phase and the companies you go up against end up charging 3 times and 10 times more than you respectively…does your potential client:

a) Avoid you because your low price must equate to low quality.

b) Go with the middle company, because they must be the average of the industry.

c) Take the largest bid because they must provide the best service and support to cost that much.

What do you think? I would love your feedback on this.

I have attached both the PowerPoint presentation I used today and a quick mini-guide to do-it-yourself search engine optimization (SEO).  If you don’t know why Lucy and Ricky are smoking cigarettes (yes there is some scandalous content in this PowerPoint) than you need to join me for my next presentation or invite me to speak to your organization (hopefully you’ll want to know more than just why Lucy and Ricky are smoking in my slide).

Thanks to those that did attend.  I hope the information was fulfilling and that you learned something that will help you improve your customer service and marketing techniques as we move into this new world of influence-based marketing.

Hannush Internet Marketing (2011 pt 1) (pdf)
Hannush Web SEO Research (pdf)