Here are some suggestions:

• Great for registering at events, for example: a charity ride
• Again, at say an event using it for on-the-fly Powerpoints.

With regard to the latter, recently we recorded at the InfoSec2010 event in London. The crew saw lots of people with i-pads, albeit that it is not available in the UK until late May 2010. Many used it for the purpose of quick demonstrations with powerpoint slides.

• In meetings, communicate specific ideas on a light multi-media device
• For example, it could be great for communicating diagrams, concepts or enlarging specific images – helping the creative process.
• Marketing survey’s – Obviously, better looking than a clip pad. You will probably have to put the i-pad on a chain to stop an unsuspecting quick running robber from dashing off with it!
• Related to the latter, design really engaging questionnaires for market research or product feedback.
• In addition, to questionnaires, signing-up people to subscription services through a simple touch-sensitive form could be appealing, especially if access to a portable application or on-line magazine could be demonstrated on the spot.
• As the world becomes more social (on-line), companies with Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, Ning, Myspace and shared bookmarking tools could be updated on the move with selective locally acquired content.
• Product demonstrations – showing multi-media views or insights of a product.
  You could develop a specific video tutorial or Motion Graphics film based promotion of a product.
• On-line magazine (interactive, flip-book type with rich media instead of or blended with flat images and text).

With regard to the latter, KHL Interactive offer online magazine conversions for existing PDFs. A proof-of-concept / trial can be set-up foc for upto 60 views.

What the i-pad brings us is what I have been dreaming about for years. An environmentally friendly unit that delivers rich engaging content. The video shows the potential for advertisers. NB The reality will be if more opportunities are given to many creative providers, not just traditional agencies. Why? Because everyone deserves a chance to bring in new ways of communicating messages within a commercial context.

Today, Advertising is too ‘In your face’!
Many feel that advertising needs to be more innovative and less, ‘in your face’, i.e: surveys have suggested that text message based adverts / spam, windows pop-ups or what I call web-page over-takers (adverts that simply confuse and hijack your reading space) are irritating. Even advertisements before watching a video can really turn-off the viewer!

So, what kind of advertisement is acceptable?
It is a known fact that entertainment orientated, subtle and relevant advertising is popular. There is also no point is placing advertising on the back of rich content, as by that time the viewer or listener is ready to move on. Maybe sponsored space is the best way to go, for example, a classified section that is sponsored? Or, how about shorter commercials, e.g: less than 10seconds.

In summary, it is great to see new tools like the i-book store coming our way, what we don’t want is commercial dominance by some players else they will be ‘talking to the hand’!!

With regard to the latter, when you start writing your blog posts it is important that you find keywords that will make it easier for your target audience to locate your content! This can easily be done using free keyword research tools.

However, what is more important is that you do it right! There are certain rules you need to follow when optimizing your blog content!

Rule 1: Don’t Overdo It!

Although the search engines do use keywords, among other things, to decide how a page should rank they don’t just rank the page with the most keywords the highest. The people working on the algorithms the search engines use are actually quite clever and they realize that people will just try to take advantage of this. That’s why you need to go with a keyword density that is no higher than 2.5%!

Rule 2: Use Your Main Keyword As Close To The Beginning Of The Title Of Your Blog Post As Possible!

The title of your page is very important to the search engines. For that reason it is important to put your main keywords close to the beginning if the article.

Rule 3: Never Let Keywords Ruin Your Content!

It can be tempting to flood your blog post with keywords. Don’t!

Doing so will not only make the post unreadable, but as mentioned in rule 1 the search engines will pick up on it. As important as keywords are to get your content recognized you should never sacrifice the quality of your content. It will only come back and hit you like a boomerang!

Rule 4: Above All Else Focus On Quality!

We talked a bit about it in rule 3, however, the importance on quality cannot be exaggerated! It might be possible to lure first time visitors to low quality content, but in the long run your blog will be far better served by providing only the highest level of quality. This rule applies not only to blogging websites, but to all websites!

Rule 5: Don’t Overdo It!

This is exactly the same as rule 1, but it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning as many times as possible.

Finding keywords that will boost your blogs search engine rankings is something you should always do to increase your blogs business potential. However, do make sure that you don’t overdo it!

The good thing about the U1 product is its potential to both adapt and provide flexible applications.

Another interesting concept is the 2 screen e-Book. I always wondered how writing an e-Book with links would work. Cynics suggest that it could limit the writing capability as the tapestry or mental images provided by great text will be compromised by a simple link. My view is that there is room for those that want an ascetic feel of a book and / or creative writing.

Take a look at the following. I wonder how many actual e-Books with interactivity are actually available yet?

Click here to view the embedded video.

With Google’s recent encounters with news outlets and Microsoft attempting to ‘cut’ exclusive content deals with traditional media giants what is the future of media.

Is mixing advertising with content a good way to fund journalism?
What is certainly interesting is the repulsion of the public against text (sms) based advertising. Survey’s reveal this to be irrirating. Personally, it is frustrating to watch a 15 second advertisement before watching a video on Youtube or even the scrolling adverts underneath, albeit that you can compromise on how much you can see as there is a shortening/summary button.

Will the tablets usher in a new way of advertising or fueling news content?

The Video showing a mock-up of what a Sports Illustrated magazine could look like is fascinating. It shows a whole new world of possibilities. For example: Sponsored articles, product placement and also affiliation with brands. Surely, that should be enought to fuel any journalist’s salary or media moguls financial outlook. Maybe the idea for charging for content has been considered due to the success of the i-phone. Clearly with 90,000 applications for the latter device, demand is strong for developers to use this technology as an outreach for their content services et al.

Other opportunities include:

• Mobile services
• Gaming
• Interactive Video
• Interactive Music
• Subscription services for specialist content rather than exclusive content.
• Mash-up of content to derive selling opportunities and hardware sales!
• Aggregation around multiple sources is another possibility

With regard to the latter, just look at BizBuzzz, it focuses  on bringing you the best Blogs, News and Entertainment news all from one channel.
On a related note, there has been a lot of debate this year about the future of video streaming. Again, this offers new possibilities for established media outlets. If networks can establish both niche and relevant everyday content in an accessible and high quality format, then we have the start of new convergence strategies – news like you have never experienced news before.

Dancing wedding videos as a future business marketing campaign?

Though ideally not your typical board meeting proposal as a future marketing scheme, this unconventional way of broadcasting seemed to do the trick. Whether it was stumbled upon accidentally, innocently or as a new business venture of some sort, according to the numerous views, high publicity and ratings this particular video has received, this means of marketing seems to create quite a buzz.

Jill and Kevin simply wanted like every other couple to make their day magical and special. What they didn’t expect was the 12 million guests that their wedding would attract, and it only took a hit song, a bridal party and a few dance moves down the isle, that catapulted this day into a business opportunity.

So Can viral Video support a business marketing campaign? Lets look at the stats.
YouTube claims that since the release of the video, the demand for the song “Forever -Chris Brown”, have sky-rocketed,  taking into consideration that this song was released over a year ago!

Due to the publicity the video has created, the charity Wellstone Action, that the couple supports has gained a significant amount of publicity resulting in an immediate increase in funds and in addition,  proceeds form the video as well as external  donations will help to boast the organizations cause.

And as for the couple, as if the publicity of the video on youtube was not already enough, they recently recreated the moment live on the highly acclaimed NBC’s The Today Show, elevating their popularity even further.

Clearly, a viral video hit like the JK Wedding Entrance Dance, which has been viewed over 12 millions times, has the power to sell music. Expanding on a venture using a similar method as this, can make millions as well as attract attention to various other future business projects.

However though they can be very entertaining as well as profitable, viral video hits are few and far between, so it could be a mistake to try and draw conclusions from this one. For every JK Wedding Entrance Dance, there are millions of YouTube videos that get only a few views.

What do you think? Is the JK Wedding Entrance Dance video an example of how companies should be capitalizing on user-generated video, or is it just an extreme case?

How to Develop good content, Get it Delivered in the right context and have it Distributed to all the right people?

New Media content development, delivery and distribution is often considered the hardest, most tactical approach to any type of development, especially for something as delicate as a developing organization. Content distribution today come in so many forms, RSS, Blogs, MMS, video publishing and the list goes on. The key however stated by some of the most successful companies is all in the wording. The familiar phrase comes to mind, ‘Less is More’.

It has been proven that less can be so much more when developing the right content, a sure marketing tactic that will be notably profitable. The less customers or future clients have to read and take in the better, if the content is factual, to the point and more importantly precise. Wasting time to hand over large amounts of documents to a prospective client to read only signals for an early exit.First impressions count, so the development of meaningful content is only the first but very important step in attracting and keeping clients.

The Delivery of the content is next and  comes hand in hand with the content development. Where technology and New media advancements have made it widely impossible to run out of delivery ideas. The delivery of the content is not to be confused with distribution! The delivery is simply put how the information is brought across to the public! With media such as video, audio and the age old text, there are many ways of manipulating the following to your advantage, i.e. video and audio presentations etc. Be creative! Remember attracting and keeping the attention of the client or customer is your primary aim.

Last but not least is the Distribution, this is the deal sealer. No one will ever hear about the wonders of your organization if there is no audience, or platform for your content to be seen. Here in comes the networking of your product and company. Think of and utilize all the available and most popular means of getting your content known, and what better way to get it seen if not by the world, more specifically the World Wide Web. This is where your social media skills should kick in, Facebook contacts, Twitter feeds, Video and Audio Podcasting, Website Development and Advertising. All have high success rates of interaction and marketing.

There is no exsuse all the right resources are avaliable so Get Started!

Here are some of the benefits:

1. Multiple grid patterns available
2. Great for multi-tweets, for example both corporate and indvidual, linked to a common owner
3. Monitoring activity with colleagues
4. Assistance in understanding valuable contributors Vs imposters!
5. Instant access to replies.

Here is the link to this very useful application: http://tweetgrid.com/

Interestingly, it is blockbuster shows, major sporting events and major reality TV shows that are keeping audiences. For example, programmes like, So you think you can dance, Britain’s got talent, The Apprentice, X-Factor and Strictly come dancing, (NB there are
international equivalents of these shows too) are successful in keeping audiences hooked.

NB Huge audience demographic for some of these programmes are teenagers.

Therefore, in the future they may have multiple windows open on their computers, some with a discussion about the show in their virtual world and another with a ‘live’ reality TV programmes with a pay per vote option. Maybe the advert time will be the only time they
(teens) will have to chat with their parents or carry on chatting with their virtual friends, 90-95% of whom they have probably never met!

It is this new frontier of media (new media) where there is a potential to develop interesting and engaging content. New talent will emerge but there will also be the need for companies to position themselves, not just with the right Public Relations strategy but with a multichannel
approach (with varying demographic considerations) for existing clients, new business and supplier relationship development.

Obama is an outstanding orator. He appears calm and collective and all of these skills are valuable in developing an effective communication strategy. What was just as important was the choice of media, i.e: The electronic dimension and style of the campaign certainly helps to capture people’s imagination.

Hang on! What people are we talking about? Are we talking about ‘Natives’ – i.e.: those that grew up with technology and find it a natural interface to gather news / share opinions or views on line. Or, are we talking about the ‘Immigrants’ – Those described as technologies who have had to ‘port’ / migrate their skills from the mainframe / mini computer generation to Web 2.0 functions like social networking.

Interestingly, some of the Internet strategy was developed by a volunteer: Chris Hughes. Chris is a former founder of Facebook. Taking time off his work on an unpaid basis he took time for no money and volunteered to participate in the campaign.

Millions of Dollars were also raised online, i.e: Raising $200M online with an average donation size of $84.

The messaging adopted, to borrow a term from eLearning was ‘blended’, i.e.: using face-to-face and online communication of knowledge.

There is one more element that was in the mix. That was the use of traditional media, i.e.: Television and Radio.

From a channel outlet perspective, we should map this to the demographic: Young voters of all colours… Interestingly, advertising slots on MTV were purchased to get to the heart of a listening/ watching generation! It is also worth reviewing Barak’s mobile SMS approach – albeit that mobile computing in the European consumer base is developing at a faster rate.

With on line blogs associated discussion threads and an approach that attempted to put the owness on the reader to participate – the motivational mix of the consumer/ potential voter the strategy fuelled itself.

All of these strategies can be summarised for organisations by suggesting online proliferation of ideas, services and products can help with the right New media and supporting organisation to provide innovative ideas and content redeployment strategies.