Yesterday a social media friend, Jeff Cutler ,broke a story on Uscapeit- a terrific new technology just launched from here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts- Newton to be precise. Basically, Uscape.it is like Google’s “streetview” but for the inside. It allows you, with your trusty iphone, to take panaromic videos of a restaurant, hotel, your back yard, Fenway Park- you name it- and share with the rest of the world.
But isn’t this just another iPhone App? And what the heck does it have to do with Social Media and/or Marketing? Read on. I’ll break down what I like about it, and er, some “opportunities for improvement”. Here goes.
Why it is important to you as a marketer
- You can trust the technology. This isn’t their first rodeo. This is basically their consumer-focused brand for their existing technology for businesses- Everyscape. Everyscape creates visual guides for local search- popular with restaurant’s, hotels, and more. Plus they already have a good relationship with Bing (see @scottkirsner’s article here)
- For smaller retail establishments without big budgets- this is perfect- scan your shop, restaurant, salon and bingo- you have a virtual video of your establishment
- Real Estate Agents- No brainer. Uscape.it should try and partner with some big brands- Coldwell Banker, Century 21, et al. Gone are the days of hiring an overpriced film crew
- Location Based Marketing. Wow- opportunities are endless here. There’s a reason that Ebay just purchased WHERE and Groupon just purchased Whrrl. The ability to tap into group buying, hyper -local marketing, and mobile are endless. There is an easy tie-in here with any of the big LBS companies out there.
- Hospitality/Travel. Another opportunity here for some bigger brands like TripAdvisor to partner up. What if consumers simply shared videos of the ugly bathroom or the beautiful beach over at TripAdvisor.
What I’d love to see Uscape.it do
- Ability to embed videos on a website. Maybe this is the premium service, but would have loved to show everyone a video of how this works below- instead I will settle for a link from Jeff’s site- see below
- Ability to customize URL’s (sure this is on radar screen?)
- Make landing page social friendly as well, and don’t forget there are other platforms besides Facebook… Wouldn’t it be nice to integrate a video on a company’s Linkedin Page to show people inside views of their offices?
- For those in love with Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo- share with them as well. Would PixelPipe help be the third-party here with all of the technical translation?
Ok, those are my knee jerk reactions so far- what do you think?
Over the past few years, I’ve built a bunch of WordPress websites for clients, and honestly, I think I’m pretty good at it. Find a good domain, host it, find a good wordpress theme, add some plugins, and start creating some good content. Seems simple, right?
Well, it’s not THAT simple. Three months ago, I decided to re-vamp my website, and this time I asked my friend, Jim Spencer from JBS Partners, to run one of his reports on my website. I used the “Web Page Advisor” product from him, and boy, my website (this website) scored pretty low.
Here’s what Jim taught me along the way, and I thought I’d share with you. You’ll find his basic teachings below with my comments in orange
DUH, this one is a no-brainer but worth pointing out and noting that new search algorithms and products, Like “Google’s +1″ are placing more and more emphasis on user-generated content. You can’t trick Google with loads of tags, and keywords. They want to know what’s verified and liked by us humans.
Here is where I scored the lowest. I took the cheap route and decided to host with godaddy. Sure, it works, but you get what you pay for. New wordpress themes are now really “heavy” and take FOREVER to load using a cheap, Wal-mart-esque hosting service. Do yourself a favor, and pay more for a dedicated server. (Disclosure- I went ahead and did some private hosting with JBS Partners- load time of my site is dramatically faster.
Keep it simple, and easy to navigate. For example, I like the layout of Jim’s page www.webpageadvisor.com. It’s clear, simple and to the point. Not sure I need to keep coming back to THIS site, but I feel comfortable, and that’s half the battle.
Goes without saying. There are all sorts of widgets out there that keep your website socially optimized. For now, just stick with basics, Linkedin, Facebook,
and Twitter.
Ok, I won’t tell you how low I scored here….. :-) But there are lots of basics that you need to remember. It gets pretty technical, so I’ll simply refer you back to Jim
More Suggestions
- Lose the Flash- Can’t underscore this enough. It’s an ongoing joke how bad restaurant’s websites are- the reason? Most of them use flash. Click over here to see a very funny cartoon from the oatmeal on why restaurant websites are so bad… It’s another “heavy” app. and well, HTLM5 will take it’s place..
- Mobile, Mobile, Mobile- Test your website out on a bunch of different mobile devices. Chances are it looks bad.
- Think Tablet. I came across OnSwipe 2 days ago. This comes complimentary with any wordpress.com hosted website. It makes your website “tablet-friendly”. Right now, it’s only available to use with the iPad, but a year from now, assume that technologies like this will be out there for all kinds of tablets. So, as time goes on, more and more people will be looking at your website through a tablet. Are you ready yet?
So you don’t have time to read a full-fledged blog post today? That’s ok. I’ve teamed up (at least this one time) with the great folks over at Open View Ventures and Open View Labs and we shot a 90 second video recap of SXSW. [Big thanks to Corey and Amanda!]
Check it out. And go ahead and follow these guys over on Twitter. They actually walk the talk, and create, and curate some pretty compelling content…
