New Year, New Look

The New Year always brings a sense of renewal.  It’s a great time to step back and take a look at the past year and determine what you can do to make the upcoming year even better.  

With that in mind, take this opportunity to look at your online presence.  Your website, mobile website and even social media pages like Facebook or YouTube.  When it comes to technology, time moves very quickly.  What was an amazing website five years ago, may no longer function correctly or be the masterpiece it once was.

If you have a dynamic, vibrant business, a stagnant, out-dated web presence will not serve you well.  Use the arrival of the New Year as an opportunity to review your online presence.  Go through your website page by page.  Take a look at your website on iPhones, iPads and Android phones.  Is your brand represented the way you’d like it to be?  If not, start making an effort to improve.  Even small improvements over time can lead to great improvements.

In business, there is no standing still – you’re either moving forward or falling behind.  Now is the time to do what it takes to keep your business moving in the right direction this year.

Most Fun Trade Show in the World!

Oh my gosh, IAAPA was fantastic!  For those of you not in the industry, the IAAPA Expo is the biggest trade show in the amusement and attraction industry.  As you can imagine it is a lot more fun than your average trade show.  This year I gave two talks, participated in two round tables and attended the Family Entertainment Center Committee meeting.  Scott gave two talks as well.  Jeff gave a presentation in the Technology Showcase and basically “represented” at all the cool parties.  Mark made sure all of our IT worked in the booth and basically kept me sane.  Kumi did an awesome job for her first year talking to customers and looking adorable every day.   I think she was surprised at how hard the whole trade show experience is physically. 

We saw tons of old friends and got to meet face to face with a lot of clients that we usually only get to communicate with via phone and email, which was great.  So nice to see real people for a change!  It is also funny how people move around in this industry.  It is like pro football.  The players are the same, they just change uniforms. 

There is such a wonderful international flavor to the show.  Amusement is a worldwide industry and this is where the world meets.  Mark, Jeff and I all attended the Blooloop party given by two of our favorite Brits, Charlie and Rachel Read.

We ended the week with a rousing game of miniature golf at Hollywood Drive-In Mini Golf at Universal City Walk using the new mini golf scorecard app we created for them.  It is hands down the coolest mini golf course anywhere ever!  We all agreed that we liked the “Invaders from Planet Putt” course the best. 

With the IAAPA Expo behind us, it’s time to get back to work until we head back to do it all again next year!

Getting Ready for IAAPA

It is that time of year again when most of our marketing efforts are spent preparing for the November IAAPA Expo.  If you are not part of the amusement industry you may not know about IAAPA – the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.  The November Orlando show is the “big show” of the year for the amusement industry so of course we will be there!

This year we have increased our booth (#4060) size to 20 by 20!  Mark and I will be going, along with Jeff Prystajko, Scott Brown and a new addition this year Kumi Sano.  We are looking forward to seeing all of our old friends and clients who we rarely get to spend much face to face time with.    If we don’t see you in the booth during the day, we would love to catch you for lunch or a beer in the evening!

Of course we will be doing our regular “educational duty” for the members by presenting educational presentations during the week.    On Tuesday, I will be leading the Mobile Media Forum at 3:30 and on Thursday I will speak on the Family Entertainment Center  (FEC) Track about Mobile Marketing. (See a trend?)  I will also be a facilitator at the Social Media Round Table on Tuesday.

Scott is going to lend his expertise as a former operator and marketer extraordinaire to 2 sessions about Group Sales for FEC’s on Thursday.  Jeff will be presenting some of our cutting edge mobile application technology at the New Technology Showcase on Tuesday.  Whew!  What a week. 

It will be hard work, but a great fun week for us to tell our story to the industry again and to reconnect. 

Your Domain Name Is Like A Car. Is The "Title" In Your Name?

Your domain name is an asset like a car and needs to be controlled and protected.

And, just like a car, your domain name has a Title.

If someone other than you (your website provider, an employee or former employee) is listed as the Registrant of your domain name you don’t own it, they do!

It’s very easy, and free, to check. Just go here: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

Type your domain name in the “Search all WHOIS Records” box and click the “search” button.

The results will display three contacts:

• Registrant (or owner)
• This should be you.
• Administrative contact
• Anyone the owner designates to manage the domain name, pay for renewals, designate technical contacts and keep the contact information up to date.
• This is usually someone in your organization or your IT or website company.
• Technical Contact:
• Anyone the owner or administrator designates to “point” your domain name to the proper servers for your website, web services and email.
• This is usually your IT or website company.

If you are not the Registrant you need to work with the current owner and the Registrar (this is just a fancy Internet name for “title agency”) to get ownership.

While you at it, be sure that all three contacts have current information (Names, addresses, email) are up to date.

Mobile Site vs. Mobile App

Now I don't want to insult the intelligence of any of you technophiles out there, but there are some folks who are a bit confused about this whole mobile site vs. mobile app business.

Basically your smart phone, (i.e. iPhone, Android, Blackberry) is a little computer. That computer can surf the web using a browser or it can run programs which are...apps! Instead of buying your programs at a brick and mortar store, you buy them at the "app" store and they are downloaded and installed on your phone.

So a "mobile site" is a website that you visit in a browser on your phone, and a "mobile app" is a small program that you purchase from the app store (or download for free from that store) and install onto your phone.

Both a mobile site and your mobile app can pull information off the Internet if you are connected. However, most if not all of the functionality of a mobile app is available, even if you are not connected to the Internet.

For example, if you were visiting an amusement park and that park had a mobile website, you could visit that mobile site and get a lot of information about the park. However, if you did not have an Internet connection while in the park or the connection was poor, the experience could be bad. You may get some information, slow information or none at all. However, if that amusement park has a mobile app that you can download from the app store, you will be able to use the application to find out about ride information, full GPS mapping and even where your friends are in the park, all without an Internet connection!

Mobile sites are important too. If website owners look at their traffic reports they will see regular visitors to their site of 10-20%* or more are accessing their website from a mobile phone. If you have a website and it is important to you that this large segment of your audience be able to see and navigate your site easily on their phone, you need a mobile website. If 10-20% of your users were using a new browser, wouldn't you want your website optimized to look good in that browser?

When a visitor comes to your website, the server can detect what type of device they are using whether it is a desktop computer or an iPhone and display a different interface that is easiest to use. So if you have a mobile site, and someone comes to your web address on their phone, it will automatically show them the mobile site. Mobile sites can also access gps information and serve up conditional content based on the visitors geographic location. Your desktop website can't do that! However, a mobile site needs to have information formatted to be easy to get around and easy to read on a phone. If you have ever tried to visit a site that is not optimized for a phone, you will know how difficult it can be to get around.

Mobile Apps can be for more than just consumers and customers; they can also help with business practices. Now everyone in your company who has a smart phone has a "mobile computer" that can run programs that allow them to do work in the field and on the fly. Custom "apps" can be built for your company's needs and side loaded onto your phones only bypassing the stores. These apps can help reps in the field get and input important information.

Using the amusement park example from above, supervisors or other workers in the park could transmit ride wait times, crowd information or incident reports right from their phone via a custom secure mobile application.

So an app is a program, like a game or an email client that can run on your smartphone. A mobile site is a mobile viewing optimized version of a website that displays on a mobile phone in the mobile browser.

Mobile phones are not going anywhere and smartphone usage is increasing every year. Companies who recognize the value of mobile technology both for marketing and for operations will be ahead of the competition.