BroadBased Communications: Marketing, Public Relations, Graphic Design

The digital learning seminars at BroadBased provide inside information and guidance on the latest digital media strategies. Current topics are listed on our website, and presentations can be hosted in our office or yours. These informal sessions are an efficient way to “ramp up” management on a particular topic they may not be familiar with (social media, apps, analytics, QR codes) or show a group how these tools are being used in a particular industry.

Posted in Social Media Planning, Web/Interactive Development

Our digital learning seminars are designed to answer questions on popular online and digital topics. These gatherings are limited to eight people per session, and you needn’t be a client to attend. Attendance is free for current clients and private presentations are also available. A full list of topics is available on our website at bbased.com.

Topics and dates for April include:

Social Media Immersion – Learn the basics of message planning and interaction for social media, measuring response and impact, as well as how social media impacts search.

• Date: Friday, April 8
• Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Fee: $50 with lunch provided

App Development – Learn if your company or organization would benefit from a custom-branded smart phone app, and the associated expenses.

• Date: Wednesday, April 20
• Time: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Fee: $30 with lunch provided

Please email Tonisha@bbased.com with any questions and to make a reservation.

Posted in Social Media Planning, Web/Interactive Development

If there was any question as to THE hot marketing trend for 2011, the answer is becoming fast apparent at BroadBased: It’s mobile tagging via two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. Say what? Here’s the 411:

Mobile tagging (very popular in Asia and just now making a significant splash in the U.S.) provides data in the form of two-dimensional “codes,” which are photographed or scanned using an appropriate app on a cell phone or other mobile device. The result of the scan is that the device can launch a linked URL containing a video or mobile landing page, or even a document available for download. They can also generate a text message or provide a phone number that can be auto-dialed.

Popular 2D formats include Quick Response (QR) Codes and Microsoft (MS) Tags. At this point, MS Tags appear to offer a few more features, and perhaps more advanced analytics. But like much of the digital realm, the possibilities change with the day of the week.

2D or not 2D?

“We’re creating strategies with a variety of clients that feature the use of QR Codes in print advertising, marketing materials and trade show applications,” says Jan Korb, BroadBased CEO. “It’s an easy way to take your audience from a print experience directly to an online experience. It’s also a great opportunity to integrate media and track exposure to the digital message. Working with strategy and user experience is a fun side of the industry right now.”

Although 2011 is starting to look like the year of the 2D Code, Mashable, a popular Internet news blog, presented an article way back in June 2010 titled How To Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing.

Try our 2D Code

We created a couple of 2D codes to give you an idea of the possibilities with this technology.

Scan one of our codes for a unique experience and a chance to win a prize!

Or you can visit www.bbased.com/tivo for a sneak peek!

Posted in BroadBased, Web/Interactive Development

In 2010, BroadBased hosted a series of well-attended learning seminars designed to answer questions on popular online and digital topics. As technology evolves, so will our seminar topics. These gatherings are limited to eight people per session, and you don’t need to be a current client to attend. Additional dates will be added upon demand. Topics and dates for March include:

Social Search – Learn how social media can impact search results to your website, and ways to organically increase your rankings in this 1.5-hour morning session. $30 with continental breakfast provided. Wednesday, March 9, from 9-10:30 am.

App Development – Learn if your company or organization would benefit from a custom-branded smart phone app and the associated expenses in this two-hour lunch & learn. $50 with lunch provided. Wednesday, March 30, from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm.

Social Media Immersion Experience – Learn the basics of message planning and interaction for two popular social media sites, as well as how to measure response to see the impact on your business in this 1.5-hour morning session. $30 with continental breakfast provided. Wednesday, March 23, from 9-10:30 am.

Please email Tonisha@bbased.com with any questions or to make a reservation. All presentations are made at the BroadBased office, and seating is limited to eight attendees per session.

Posted in BroadBased, Social Media Planning, Web/Interactive Development

There wasn’t an empty seat in BroadBased’s December “What’s In an App?” Lunch and Learn presented by Tonisha Landry-Gaines, BroadBased’s digital media strategist. The presentation, designed to demystify mobile apps for business, was attended by marketers from the legal, financial, insurance, healthcare, transportation and sales & marketing industries. The presentation focused on creating an experience that will best benefit the user, and was followed by a Q&A period in which Tonisha, and our development partners, fielded questions on technology, strategy and budgeting.

In many cases, a B2B app provides mobile access to information that is useful to patients or clients (calculators, directories, locations) and can be used without internet connectivity. The selection of apps listed below are examples of how different industries are using this technology.

Legal: DLA Phillips Fox developed an iPhone-friendly web-based document portal that allows iPhone users to securely retrieve legal records and other documents directly from the firm’s document management system.

Tax & Accounting: Thomson Reuters’ app allows access of important firm, staff, and client data 24/7 from anywhere.

Insurance: Nationwide provides an accident toolkit.

Healthcare: Priority Healthcare provides account information on the go.

Sales & Marketing: Trek Bicycle Corporation communicates technical features of new products to sales and dealer networks around the world.

Education: Coastal Law provides news items, faculty and staff directory, calendar of events, nearby attractions and a video gallery.

Posted in Web/Interactive Development

The Blood Alliance (TBA), headquartered in Jacksonville and with operations in North Florida and regions of Georgia and South Carolina, is one of the first community blood banks in the nation to introduce a smart phone App. BroadBased is very pleased to have consulted with TBA over the summer during its exploratory phase, with the TBA marketing communications staff executing development.

The iDon8 App, which can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store, offers eligible donors the opportunity to keep a record of their previous donations and alerts them of their next available date to donate. It conveniently provides locations of blood drives via Google Maps. iDon8 also provides donors with area notifications when the community blood supply is low or reaches a critical shortage.

BroadBased’s “What’s In an App” Lunch and Learn

If you are interested in finding out what it takes to develop an App, BroadBased is hosting a “What’s In An App” Lunch & Learn on Thursday, December 2, at 11:45 a.m. At this event you will have an opportunity to learn the steps of strategy, budgeting, development and rollout. Our developers will also be on hand to answer technical questions. Seating is extremely limited so please contact Tonisha if you are interested in attending.

The Apple compatible phone App from The Blood Alliance displays current blood supply inventories.

Posted in Web/Interactive Development

Continuing a long tradition of BroadBased volunteerism, our marketing Broad, Tonisha Landry-Gaines, spent the last several months participating in planning efforts for Bank on Jacksonville, a new initiative launched to help usher people into the financial mainstream. Landry-Gaines donated her time by serving on the marketing committee and spearheading the development of the website.

The Bank on Jacksonville initiative is a concentrated effort to engage ‘unbanked’ and ‘underbanked’ individuals and promote the availability of low- and no-cost financial accounts. (Unbanked refers to those who have never had an account at a bank or credit union, and underbanked are those who may need to reestablish a banking relationship.)

The collaborative effort, with a partnership of 15 local banks and credit unions, the City of Jacksonville, the U.S. Department of Treasury, FDIC, National League of Cities and a number of local community organizations, was launched with a press conference at City Hall on Monday Oct. 18.

Learn more about the Bank on Jacksonville initiative and what it means for the First Coast at www.bankonjacksonville.org.

Posted in Brand Development, Marketing Planning, Web/Interactive Development

Are you wondering if your company or organization is ready for a custom-branded smart phone app? If so, you are NOT alone. “A whopping 52 percent of firms see increasing customer engagement as their No. 1 mobile goal,” says Mobile Marketer in an Oct. 20 article. The article goes on to state: “70 percent of firms will increase their mobile budget in 2011, with one in four companies doubling or tripling it.”

• How do you develop a strategy?
• How much does it cost to develop?
• How long will it take to develop?
• What does it take to create updates?
• What platform do you develop first? iPhone? Android? Blackberry? In what order? At what expense?

If you have questions similar to those listed above, we urge you to consider attending BroadBased’s free “What’s in an App?” Lunch and Learn to be held in early December. To reserve space, or to be kept current on dates and location, please email Tonisha@bbased.com with “App” in the subject line. Our development partners will also be on hand to answer your questions. Feel free to sign up with a co-worker or friend. We look forward to seeing you!

Posted in Web/Interactive Development

BroadBased was honored to collaborate with Florida Coastal School of Law (Coastal Law) to conceptualize, design and coordinate the launch of a custom iPhone app – a first for each party.

The app, designed as a mobile guide for faculty and students, features news items, a faculty and staff directory, calendar of events, listing of nearby attractions and a video gallery.

“As might be expected with any first foray, we hit some bumps in the road,” said Jan Korb, BroadBased’s CEO. “But we came away with a detailed protocol for future projects of this type, and gained invaluable insight that can only be obtained by going through the experience first-hand. We are really pleased with the final results.”

“We have a very robust connection with our students and faculty,” says Brooks Terry, Marketing Director for Coastal Law. “In addition to traditional outreach methods, we also utilize Facebook and Twitter as communication tools. The launch of a mobile app was the next step in our overarching communications plan. We believe Coastal Law is the first school of higher education to launch an app in Jacksonville.”

BroadBased is currently in strategy development with two additional clients for their app. If you are interested in the process, please call Tonisha at 904-398-7279 ext. 14, or consider attending one of our upcoming workshops described below.

Posted in Web/Interactive Development

Poison Apple t-shirt available at www.shirt.woot

By Jules Allen, CIO

It’s said that dogs age at a rate that is seven times that of humans. That’s crazy we say. Once you get a puppy home from the breeder or shelter, they seem to age at the speed of sound. And somewhere in between is the ever-changing technology of the Web. Technology’s forward march waits for no man, woman or dog it seems.

Who could have predicted that Apple’s recently released iPad would cause such a kerfuffle around Adobe’s Flash? Two giant corporations with GDPs rivaling small nations postured, press released, and inspired a deluge of Tweets from pundits large and small. You may not be aware, but none of the Apple suite of mobile Internet products – iPad, iTouch or iPhone – will run Flash. Apple won’t allow it on any of them. “Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices,” says Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. You can read more about Job’s thoughts on the topic at Wired.

So how does that affect you if you don’t even own one of these devices? Well, if your website is entirely Flash-based, or uses it for things like spiffy opening graphics or navigation, then anyone using one of these devices is locked out of that part of your website experience. Or if your call to action/strategic sales closer includes a Flash video, then nobody with an iDevice is going to see it, leaving them confused, no doubt.

“Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.” — Apple CEO Steve Jobs

A Web property is much like a owning a car: There’s regular maintenance, an occasional change of tires, replenishing fluids, and so forth. You wouldn’t dream of owning a car without thinking about these ongoing costs yet often this is what happens with websites. New browsers appear, entirely new platforms seem to drop out of the sky, and you’re doing yourself and your customers and prospects a disservice by not allowing them to interact with you. It’s now obvious that mobile compatibility is an essential part of a modern usable website, and this is a problem indeed.

Next up, Microsoft is striding toward releasing Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla’s FireFox 4 is just around the corner, and both browsers will be adopted en masse. Have you tested the pre-releases with your site? Aesthetics aside, if you have an ecommerce site and people can’t buy from you, you’re going to have to explain lost revenue to your CEO, board, or personal coffers. How will you know it’s not working other than an irate email from a prospect unable to buy from you?

BroadBased regularly reviews client websites for current and future compatibility issues and encourages you to do the same. Lost revenue, customer frustration and damage to your image are always more expensive than simple maintenance – even in the short term.

Posted in Web/Interactive Development