Web sites are a good example. There are no financial barriers to entry here. Even on a very tight budget, there is no excuse for bad content, poor design, lack of clarity, no customer focus, sloppiness, lack of excitement, inconsistent branding, no added value, and poor coding. With a solid vision, good marketing plan, and focused web strategy, even a small web presence can be valuable to potential customers. It has everything to do with creating the best web communication platform possible and nothing to do with spending tons of money. As long as common sense and good business ethics prevail, there are no limits to what can be done. Creativity is alive and well and highly democratized on the Internet.

Social media. It’s essentially free to get started, so again there are no financial barriers, just time commitments. A Twitter account (if it’s the right business choice) takes less than three minutes to establish. A Facebook or MySpace page takes only a few minutes more. A blog definitely takes more effort to set-up, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to get started. These and other SM (social media) draws can be established for zero money down, but they do demand an ongoing time commitment. If a smaller company has the resources to allot to generating content that their customer base values, they too can build a profitable following.

Event Marketing. Professional sporting events and concert tours are expensive to sponsor, but there are limitless event possibilities that can be created for very little money. From open houses and facility tours, to seminars, guest speakers, neighborhood events, sale days, children’s events, local sponsorships, charity drives, business networking, block parties, partner events, food tastings, and lots more, there’s something for every business and every budget. Creativity and business sense can open up new opportunities to attract loyal customers.

So what’s the best way to get started on developing a big business attitude? Look at some of the big names in marketing and advertising like Nike, Apple, Honda, Budweiser, and McDonald’s and get a sense of how they portray their brands and the consistency and quality of their message. Look at their use of creativity and how they appeal to their target markets. Then have a look at their web sites and look around the web to get a sense of the ways and means in which they connect to their customers. Take those cues and then look at your communications and marketing methods and see if your approach measures up. If not, select simple areas that you can achieve clarity, consistency, and professionalism and work on improving them. Get inspiration from their innovative tactics and look for ways to make your messaging unique. Fix design and technical issues that create roadblocks for visitors to your web site and look for ways ways to add interest. Think of the most amazing event you can have at your facility and then set a budget that you can afford and revise, adjust, compromise, and stretch until you can have an event that you can justify. Then do it!

The bottom line is this: thinking small is not a reflection of budget, just a mindset. Most businesses have the ability to improve their customer perception and sales appeal with well executed inexpensive changes. Adopt a big business attitude and you’re likely to see your sales grow.

Step 2: Upload to You Tube.

Step 3: Sit back and watch it go viral. Globally.

Step 4: Cash in and stop reading this blog.

(Oh… and send us 10%)

Cynical? Nope. It has happened that way. It has happened that way for very very few people though (and they did not send us the 10%). It’s a great concept, but you will be hard pressed to find it really happening as described. If you have any doubts and believe the hype, get out your Mentos and soda and go for it!

From a business ROI point of view, You Tube is probably mostly useless content. If you can advertise around a lot if it, your perspective might be a little different. The company that made those blenders that ground up cell phones and golf balls and other stuff… what was their name again? Most people probably don’t remember and most people probably did not buy one of their blenders. However, they may have had a solid uptick in sales when capitalizing on You Tube like that was new and novel. Nowadays there are so many rip-offs and one-betters that using a product in a radical way is unlikely to get you too far on its own.

That hasn’t stopped a flurry of companies from promising to make your video viral on You Tube. Now that’s probably possible, but if they don’t get really really lucky, they will have to spend enormous (repeat enormous) amounts of cash and energy doing PR work of every kind, to “make” something go viral. And if that really can be bought, it would not be worth the investment.

Viral videos do happen. They happen when the timing is right, the content is right, and the public does their part. Mashable recently listed the Top 20 YouTube and Video Memes of All Time and if you look at them, there’s really only one that stands out as an effective, purpose made video, that arguably had huge ROI: “Obama Girl”. It may have helped elect a President and it probably put Barely Political on the map.

To think though, that a video can go viral and deliver a direct or indirect monetary result simply on its merits is a stretch, unless your threshold for measuring “viral” is really low. A recently reported statistic states that every minute, 10 hours of new video is uploaded to You Tube. That’s a huge amount of competition for your video to be found and then lit on fire.

The point here is that you can’t predict or control a virus. The touted bird flu pandemic has yet to happen. You can attempt to make something go viral and you can succeed, but the mere act of uploading a cool video is not the ticket, unless, like the bird flu scenario, the conditions are just right. It takes a great video, a strategy, a marketing plan, promotion, and lots of effort.

So, if you know of documented examples of purpose made viral videos that were simply posted to You Tube without the aforementioned support system, please tell us about it. And if you know about viral videos that went viral with the help of all the marketing mechanisms and had a measurable result, please share.

Accessibility refers to a web site that is usable (functional) for people with disabilities. Most often that means people who use specialized software, called screen readers, in place of traditional web browsers. As the name implies, screen readers look at the content of a web page and “read it” so that people can hear what the content is when they are unable to see it for themselves. With that understanding, it would be hard to find a web site owner that would knowingly choose to exclude people who are dependent upon screen readers from indulging in their web site. Unknowingly though, a large majority of sites do just that in some measure.

If a web designer (one that is aware of accessibility) brings up the issue, a client is sure to agree that the site being developed needs to be accessible. But it’s not as simple as a yes or no decision. In part, that’s due to the various validation programs that exist to determine accessibility. Often they disagree on nuances of what is acceptable. A larger issue is aesthetic design. Although the appeal of any given design is individual, there are really nice sites and really basic sites. Accessibility forces the pendulum more in the direction of basic sites.

There is a gray area between the ultimate, exotic, beautiful side and a more basic design where your accessible site is forced to reside. Flash is out. So are other script or plug-in driven aspects that don’t degrade gracefully. The means for using graphical elements may be changed slightly as well, such as limiting or eliminating some types of button roll-overs.

Some government entities are mandated by law to be compliant with accessibility standards. Some larger businesses have been on the receiving end of class action law suits regarding lack of proper accessibility too. For smaller businesses, the degree of accessibility implemented in a site often comes down to compromise.

You can choose to disregard accessibility and possibly disenfranchise part of your target market that depends on it. You can go all out and achieve “100%” accessibility, possibly losing some appeal or competitive edge with a simpler site, in an effort to be usable by all. Another option is to balance design with reasonable accessibility, where your site is still exciting, but it can degrade and be accessible in all critical areas.

Whatever your decision may be, remember, there is no way to appeal to everyone on the Internet, all their desires and all their needs. The best business decision to make is the one that first complies with any applicable laws and then satisfies the largest potential audience you can reach, considering all sides of the choice(s) you make.

The typewriter first hit the market in 1870’s as a novelty, innovation, efficiency device, and wonder of technology that was destined to change business. It did all that and as the decades passed, it improved, became ubiquitous, and arguably reached maturity somewhere in the realm of the IBM Selectric. By the late 1990’s, it was essentially antiquated and mothballed. Look at that history and there’s a bell curve there. No not a nice even one, but a bell curve influenced by the ever faster adoption rate of technology as we’ve moved into modernity.

The gasoline powered car is following a similar curve, with other technologies and fuels poised to end its reign in the next 2-3 decades. How about MTV? It’s still around and a huge brand, but the novelty of its origins, 24×7 music video, is passe with so many other outlets to get (on demand)  music and entertainment from. Then there’s Yahoo – still a big Internet entity, but not like in 1996 when the media went on and on about it being this new killer app that no one can live without. After keeping their head above the competition, they were eclipsed in no time by that other search site G-something or other.

These are not isolated examples. They are the direct product of innovation meeting technology, coupled with the human fascination for the latest and greatest. The cycle will never end and it will always follow some form of bell shaped curve if it takes its normal trajectory.

There’s a new wave of “revolutionary” technology going on right now that the media and culture can’t let go of. Not genome research or nanotechnology. Social media/marketing. We’re told that it will change everything and we will never be able to go back. Yeah, it will probably make profound changes that have lasting effect, but we won’t have to go back, because many of “the old ways” are unlikely to really go anywhere.

The individually crafted, type rendered document is still here, it just comes from a printer now and will for a long time to come. Cars will go on, they’ll just leave gasoline behind and not many people will care. Refined search will continue regardless if Google can hold the number one spot or not.

The only constant here is change… and human nature. So be careful about getting too locked in to any one end all solution to your marketing/promotion needs. You never really know where you are on the bell curve until it’s obvious.

Everyone hates getting junk mail in their (snail mail) mailbox and everyone hates spam e-mail as well. There is spam all over Twitter, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is the incessant use of Tweets, many of which are, well, utterly worthless (insert your term here _______). When you’re tweeting for personal use, no biggie. For businesses that see this new social marketing medium as a moneymaker, it matters a lot. If you’re the source of non-spam junk, it’s nearly a certainty that you will not see any direct or indirect benefit to tweeting. And if you’re doing everything right, tweeting meaningfully and considerately, your message still runs the risk of being lost among (your) followers who are burdened by sifting through the junk they receive from others. Not an indictment of tweeting, rather an indication that you need to tweet at the lowest rate that helps you gain measurable results from the effort.

It comes back to working the way an auto mechanic, carpenter, or even a chef work. They have a range of quality tools at there disposal to work effectively and efficiently, but they don’t use every tool all the time. They decide what tool fits the desired objective and they grab it. That’s the role of Twittering for business. Be wary of the claims that you “must” tweet X number of times a day or you won’t succeed. You must tweet exactly the number of times to have a positive effect on your followers if you ever hope to have a positive effect come back to you. Couple that with other communications like a good e-mail marketing program, an effective web site, a great brochure, good customer service, etc, and you have a gleaming set of tools you can be proud of. Not for the way they look, but for the way they help you master your craft.

History is now repeating itself again with the predictions, claims, rants, and raves over “social marketing” and “social media”. Social marketing is absolutely an accelerating phenomenon and a rule changer/breaker from traditional marketing concepts (not entirely though). It has already accumulated numerous success stories for those that have not only embraced it early, but embraced it well.

However, to go as far as many have and claim and push an agenda that states “traditional marketing is dead” is just a bit too naive and on the same plane as all manner of earlier predictions, like the one cited above.

Successful marketing, like most things on Earth is about balance. There are always marketing tactics that break that rule, but over time, they tend to revert back to the center, after they’ve made their breakthrough. So before you get the notion of abandoning everything that has to do with traditional marketing, think about a plan that can take the best of both worlds and achieve a balance that has the most effect on ROI. Otherwise, you might one day find yourself left hung out to dry (by your competition).