What have we been up to?

Well, I have been slacking on the HES Blog for some good reasons. And since everything is better in list form, let there be list.

1. TechSock.com
   TechSock is the first website in the HES web family. TechSock is your home to Tech News. Wanna write for us? Just follow the instructions on the site.
2. Various Side Projects
   We have been busy. Consolidating and transferring some hosting. Client projects.
3. DirtTrack.tv
   DirtTrack.tv is the second website in the HES web family. Your home to Dirt Track racing videos. Sign up for a free account and share some videos.
4. Examiner
   I am now writing for Examiner.com as well. Check out my articles, subscribe, some content.

So what does this HES web family mean for our customers? Be doing business with us you have the ability to buy advertisement at a much lower cost on HES web family sites.

Becoming a Mobile Developer

I know a lot of people are interested in getting their piece of the metaphorical mobile pie, and I felt I should help people sort through all the info in cyberspace. So, let's get to it.


Becoming a Mobile Developer (Sorta...)

Google+ vs Facebook

So I've been on Google+ for awhile now and I think Google finally figured it out, social networking that is. Well... mostly that is. Circles are great. They feel like a much easier version of Facebook Groups. Hangouts seem a little gimmicky. Nonetheless, it is free video chat. Huddles is Google's attempt at group chat. I haven't tried Huddles yet, but I have a feeling it may be harmful for GroupMe.

The death of print...

For the past couple years, everyone has been calling for the death of the newspapers. I have been right there along side my fellow techies and bloggers declaring the rise of internet news. And the headlines seem to agree with us. Every day it seems another newspaper is shutting down or laying off workers. Many of them are scrambling towards digitizing themselves. More are simply disappearing silently. But yesterday, I had this semi crazy idea of trying to get a small local paper to publish a tech column. Along with that, who better to write the column than me? (Don't answer that) I think it would be great. There are tech start-ups all over that no one knows about simply because they are not located in California or New York. I think these small Ohio start-ups deserve a little credit as well. Ohio is by no means a technological state compared to others, but we do offer some great innovations from time to time. If you happen to be reading this and are in the early stages of your start up, I would love to help you get the word out about you product. Shoot me an email at matt@my-hes.net

Facebook's New Products

Although three products were announced, I feel the first two products were more revisions than new products. Group chat and a new sidebar... I don't know about you but a sidebar is the last thing that gets me excited. So let's focus on the last product. Video Chat, that was the bombshell everyone was looking for. The bigger bombshell, Skype. The new video chat is powered by Skype. This in my opinion is a game changer. One click to connect and a plugin download in under 30 seconds. I would say the can not get much simpler than that. The product is already rolling out today. I'd imagine most users will see these products start shown up in the next week or two.

HTC EVO 3D

I finally replaced my quickly aging HTC Hero. I have to say I'm not surprised by the excellent build quality of this phone. It has a very solid feel to it. Now the 3D is a little gimicky but that's not why I bought the phone. The speed is what sold me. There is no lag. None. Period. The Google Voice integration is pretty good. And the picture quality is also excellent. People deemed the originally EVO an iPhone killer. The EVO 3D kills the original EVO. With that being said, I believe that Apple is now required to release the iPhone 5 this year. I have yet to find anything I don't like about this phone. I even feel that it gets better reception, but it may just be a placebo effect. The stock keyboard isn't bad, but I am a fan of the swype keyboard. I strongly suggest this phone.

Overall - 9/10

-Matt

Domains

The amount of domain name squating is ridiculous. I am searching for the perfect domain name for a clients, went to godaddy... It's already registered. So I punch in the address and of all places where does it take me? It redirects to a yahoo page saying geocities is no longer available. I figured yahoo would have taken their page, explaining that they got rid of geocities, down a few years ago. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a geocities site. But back to the main point of this story. So, after a who is search now I need to call the owner of a domain that looks like hasn't been updated in a decade. I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping the owner is reasonable and doesn't want a first born for the domain. I understand these people pay for the domain, but that shouldn't mean they can sit on it for years never using it constructively. But it's all part of the job.

-Matt

Blogger+

Blogger+ may be the greatest app I've ever used on iOS. The app has some great features including labeling posts, inserting photos or maps, sharing to Facebook or Twitter, and multiple blog support. I don't think anyone who has a blog should be without this little piece of software. Updating a blog is similar to painting. You have to be inspired otherwise who would want to look at it? We'll now you can blog from anywhere that you have your iPhone or iPad. No more forgetting the topic by time you make it to the computer.

-Matt

Overall - 7/10

Why "New Age" Marketing doesn't always have a good ROI...

The one common denominator between all businesses that I know have tried a newer marketing approach and failed, is lack of diversity. What I mean is that most small businesses are hesitant to try the newer marketing techniques because they would rather pay for a yellow pages ad like they did for 25+ years before. Why would they rather pay for the yellow pages ad? Because that's what they have always done. Most of the time there is no other reason. Small businesses do not like change. This resistance toward change is what is ultimately hurting their ROI of the newer media. Why? Well most of them don't want to invest very much into something new. They may have some Adwords ads or hire a social media management team for only one account. Maybe they run Facebook ads instead, but never have I seen one company locally embrace all of these. Just one of the avenues I mentioned may have some effect on its own, but to achieve truly great results they must embrace many if not all of the available new media. Social media has the power to create empires. We have already seen this. But small businesses don't want to believe it. I have heard that in the 80s and even the 90s you weren't "in" business unless you had a business card. Then in the 2000s, you weren't "in" business unless you had a website. Now, you are not "in" business unless you have a social media presence across multiple platforms.

-Matt

iWeb

So those of you who have been following us for awhile might notice the site looks a little different. Over the next few days, I will be migrating the site to iWeb. This program is just plain easy. I haven’t had time to sit down and do any design or html work on the old site, and now I don’t have too. I would love some feed back on the new site. But now to a little more of a review. iWeb literaly would allow for a monkey to create a half decent site. It is completely visually based for the most part. It is possible to add html but there is very little need. It may not be the most impressive site but it looks better than GoDaddy’s Website Tonight. I do use GoDaddy products but iWeb may replace atleast Website Tonight.

Overall - 8/10

-Matt

Long time, no post

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog. I've been experimenting with different option for my blog, but I'm happy to say I think I've come back to blogger for good. I will be transferring some posts from the other blogs I tried to this blog. As one of my recent clients would say, I've added a few arrows to my quiver. HES, Hopkins Electronic Services, now offered everything from mobile app development to SMS marketing and eve social media management. We are now your "New Media" Management solution.

-Matt

'New Age' Marketing

I had a semi in-depth discussion with one of my professors yesterday and what follows are some of the ideas we discussed. I have slowly been putting together a 'New Age' marketing option which will contain the following ideas and a few secret tricks. Oh and before I begin, follow my blog. The social media world is fast, really fast as most of us know. Some times it even amazes me. But how do we expect businesses, primarily small businesses, to keep up... Most small businesses are just starting to embrace Facebook and have not even heard of up and coming social networks and mobile applications. I truly feel the traditional ('Old Age') small business model and small business marketing techniques have only a short amount of life left. Yet, many small businesses are still embracing these methods (yellowpage ads, newspaper ads, and even direct mailing). No longer can small business compete with online retailers and still employ a staff. They try to build credibility through everything from in-house service or how long they've been established. All those methods currently still have a place, but I look at the online reviews. People check reviews more often than small business owners want to realize. Heck, some business owners don't even know where to find these reviews and your 'online image' is single handedly one of the most important things to manage. The best part is that these 'New Age' ideas are manageable, track-able, and affordable. One of my favorite methods currently are QR codes. While QR codes are still somewhat of a novelty, they still have a place in driving traffic. QR codes cut down time. Now you've removed waiting for the person to get home, sit down at their computer, and hopefully remember your web address. Along with QR codes, I think PPC(Pay per Click) ads are under utilized. When was the last time you had an advertiser come to you and agree to only charge you if they increase your traffic? Most of you are probably think, "Like that will ever happen." PPC ads do exactly that. You pay only if someone click on your ad. Those clicking may not buy, but clicks are much more selective than organic results on search engines. ROI is usually fairly high with PPC ads since the people clicking on your ad have read your ad and are most likely actively looking for a product you sell. So, you have gained new customers but what about increasing traffic from existing customers...? That's where mobile apps come in. Now you may be able to achieve the same idea by using a bulk emailer, but many people already get spam in their inbox. It is hard to attract their attention among hundreds of other spam messages. But few people go anywhere without their cell phone, right? Mobile apps are a perfect way to constantly update your customers on sales, events or just news. Apple makes this process even easier with push notifications that show up like text messages. Smartphones are the new billboard. With smartphone sales projected to surpass regular feature cell phone sales this year, why don't you have an app yet? Just something to ponder about. I will leave you with this, Kiip may possibly be the next Adwords. Keep in mind that I do provide many of the mentioned services at extremely reasonable prices.

-Matt

MacBook Pro

I bought a MacBook. I feel like a traitor but unfortunately Apple requires you to use a Mac with an Intel processor to run Xcode 4 and upload apps to the App Store.

PhoneGap Apps

Anyone have feed back about PhoneGap Apps? I'm thinking about possibly experimenting with it.

Hello!!

This is the first post on the Official HES Blog.