I saw this article in the December 2011 issue of "The Costco Connection."  (pg 9, http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201112#pg11)  I think this a great read, and is very important for small businesses to be aware of:  

AS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES, mobile phones are taking on a greater role in consumers’ lives. Because smartphones can now tell users where they are and what businesses are nearby, opportunities for small-business owners to take advantage of mobile marketing are growing tremendously, according to Costco member Shelly Allen (www.ShellyAllenOnline.com), a small-business consultant. “In a recent survey by JiWire, more than half of mobile users want to receive location-specific advertising, and nearly 40 percent want location-based coupons,” says Allen.  More...

Sales up. Positive business expansion. Customer loyalty stronger than ever. 

Sounds good doesn’t it? But how do you get these results for your organization? Hard work and smart decisions for sure. But you already know that. 

You also know that you have to have a focused media strategy, where all your internal communications to your employees and external communications to your customers, are consistent and of high quality to match your company’s brand. You’d be amazed at what some of  your oldest customers don’t know about your business and its services. They don’t know because you haven’t told them. You know all about you. They don’t. And, it’s a continuing process to educate and keep them updated on new offerings that you bring to the market to stay competitive. More...

West Chester, Ohio (July 20, 2011) - Murray Multimedia Resources LLC has received a Silver and a Bronze Telly Award for videos produced in 2010. The Silver Telly, the highest honor given by the Telly Awards Council, was awarded for the documentary, "Americaʼs Voice" produced for the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting and funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty. The Bronze Telly was awarded for the video "Whiz Kids Works" about a City Gospel Mission program that provides tutoring for at-risk elementary students through out greater Cincinnati.

"Americaʼs Voice," narrated by Nick Clooney, tells a story of patriotism, geopolitical intrigue, wartime strategy, and good ole Yankee ingenuity, regarding Voice of America and itʼs Bethany Relay Station. This documentary links Greyʼs History of Wireless collection and the legacy of Cincinnati broadcasting to Voice of America. It is a tale of pioneering technology, incredible feats of engineering, and innovative entertainment that will hopefully be preserved as the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting. Nick Clooney provided the voiceover. The video can be viewed at http://www.voamuseum.org. More...

Before you spend a lot of money on LinkedIn to find a qualified employee, there are some things you can do for free that work pretty well.  Regardless of whether you're looking for someone who is currently unemployed, or maybe looking to recruit someone from a current job to come work for you, these tips should apply across the board: More...

When Capital Concepts, Inc. needed a complete refresh of their brand and image, they turned to MMR.  MMR worked with Capital Concepts from the beginning to develop a new brand, including logo, tag line, and website...redesigned from the ground up.  From the start, MMR listened to Capital Concepts to understand their business and client communication needs, and then developed their new identity to make their brand relevant for today's clientele.  After establishing a new brand, MMR created a website that allowed Capital Concepts to manage much of their site's content, created a custom solution to keep them compliant with increasing financial regulation, and meet the needs of their clients.  

You can check out Capital Concepts new branding and website by visiting them at www.CapitalConcepts.net 

Murray Multimedia Resources, LLC was commissioned by the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting to help tell their exciting story of the Bethany Relay Station located in West Chester, Ohio. After months of research, a script was written and a recording session with Nick Clooney as the narrator was booked. More...

Many small business owners are frequently asking me if they should add video content to their website, and if so, why?  The answer:  Yes!  The simple truth is that we live in an age of online video.  More then 84% of Americans are watching videos online.  People are looking at over 33 billion videos monthly.  On average, a person will spend 11 hours a month watching video content online.  Nearly 40% of all this video content is on YouTube, which also happens to be the easiest way to add video to your site.  Two big reasons for adding this video content to your website are search engine optimization (SEO) and video is the future of online media. More...

Here’s the second part of my blog on the new iPhone 4; specifically…shooting, editing and uploading hi def video, all on the new phone. In my previous post I gave a review of what I liked (really liked!) about Apple’s new iPhone. Today, a quick look at what you can do on this phone, from a video perspective.

First of all, you’ll need to purchase the $4.99 iMovie app from the iTunes store. Once done, you’ll need to get familiar with what the app can and cannot do. Here’s a quick link to iMovie for iPhone 4 FAQ’s:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4174?viewlocale=en_US  More...

OK, my wife says I’m an early adapter. I try to be on the cutting edge of new technologies without crossing over into geekland, and yes, I now own a new iPhone 4…but I didn’t wait in line for two days to get it. I let FedEx deliver it to me (two days ahead of schedule) after being shipped from Shenzen, China. Now for the lowdown: this is one amazing piece of technology. It just feels good in your hand. I upgraded from my two-year old iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 4 is like a Audi R8 in comparison. Apps open much, much faster. You can switch between apps (multi-tasking) and return back to any open app exactly where you left off, meaning the app doesn’t have to relaunch each time you go to it. More...

Part of any marketing strategy for a business today includes getting a website setup so customers can learn more about, and interact with your business.  With over 230 million people on the internet in the United States alone, people look to the internet when they want to find a business and learn more about it.  Surprisingly, over the next five years, this will no longer be enough.  The next internet revolution is already upon us...people accessing the internet from mobile devices.

People don't just carry cell phones with them anymore.  More and more people are buying smartphones like iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry that are able to access the internet and a wide variety of media.  By next year, over 85% of new handsets (including smartphones) will be able to access the mobile web.  Last year a half a billion people worldwide accessed the mobile Internet, with 285.6 million of those subscribers being in the USA.  With the explosive growth of access to the mobile web, it is expected that in five years the number of people accessing the mobile Internet will overtake the desktop PC as the most popular way to get on the Web.  Over the past 12 months, traffic to mobile websites has grown by 600%, and the average time spent on a site has more then doubled. More...