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Monday, December 1, 2014

A Perfect Example of Terrible Managed Print Services Content -

Mold
Social Media Campaign
As I travel the back roads of internet marketing, recording experiences shared by copier dealers, MPS providers and the like, many things become clear:

What are "SEO Experts" -
Content is the art, SEO is relevant until the algorithm is changed.  The mystery of getting to the top of google results is just that - a mystery.  Sure, everybody has a plan and can show you how to get to the top, but is there an ROI?

There are more flim-flam artists in internet marketing than there are toner-pirates in our realm -
Business owners don't know the first thing about web-marketing because we spend our time working OEM rebate, warranty programs and employee issues.  Sometimes you sell.

Either way, getting to know what you need to know about your web-presence is a full time job and trusting those who have the answers is daunting.

All of our websites suck - 
Visually, most of the websites LOOK fine - indeed, some are downright attractive.  But beyond the pretty wrappers, a lot of websites are glorified product brochures with hollow content.

Your web-presence should not be a glorified yellow pages advertisement or deep dive, company resume.

Those are pretty broad observations, so let me boil it down to the latest affront.

I found this in my twit-stream, "Managed Print Services" - see the two screen-caps - the SM expert floods the stream with pictures of ...well.. alluring women.  I know a thing or two about utilizing this imagery, beyond that, the link reveals a most egregious example of click-bait and revolting content.

I don't claim to be a perfect writer, speller or grammar-ist, I know I've forgotten a comma or two and misspelled plenty, but never have I written such drivel - nor have I read a narrative so void.

Submitted for your review, the tip of the iceberg - incoherent content:

"Many organizations are coming up today. 

Many of them are facing problems when it comes to production of many paper copies. The machines are quite expensive, it is also expensive to have a technical team for the services. Many managers are hence opting to outsource the MPS services. You would save a lot of money if engaged with the right services providers. If you would like a professional team, you need to have the contacts of name redacted to protect the innocent.

There are things that you need to consider getting the right service providers since many people have joined the industry, and most of them are providing poor overhaul..."

"Poor Overhaul"?  What in God's, green, Earth is THAT?

This type of content is more prevalent than you think - don't let your social media/website/marketing company do this to you.

Better yet, call us -  I've put together a group of experts, Bright Stars, of internet marketing/sales and transformation and we provide a total solution portfolio of services:

  • WebCasts
  • Reputation Management
  • Website Monitoring and Security
  • PodCasts
  • Video
  • Salesforce and engagement management
  • ...and much, much more...


The sad thing is, somebody, somewhere is paying for this content.







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Friday, November 28, 2014

2014: The Year in Review - BORING.



Tis the season to be jolly and reflect on the past 12 months.  It is safe to say, technology in general expanded more and more at an accelerating pace - Moore's Law on nano-bio-bot-steroids.

But the managed print services, copiers, printers, and even managed services niche was, in a word, a mundane, tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful period.

B-O-R-I-N-G.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

"InterStellar" and The Printed Word


We just saw Interstellar. By far one of the best movies, let alone Sci-Fi movies, of the year - if you stretch your mind, you may consider it the thinking person's Guardians of the Galaxy.

There is balance in the universe.

Spoiler alert - sorta.

I could probably explain every scene I remember and NOT give away anything.  This is one of those movies that can't be spoiled.  I love viewing versions of future life, looking for the little details like how often the characters make copies or print.  It's a curse.

Perhaps it happens to a lot of people, we start seeing the same themes and images repeated in movies and TV shows - the older we get, the more often we see.

Interstellar, for all its original imagery and story-lines, paid homage to works of the past.

Here are a few:


Planet of the Apes - Charlton Heston version

The nose of the lifting body space craft can be seen poking out of water.  They crash land into a lake.

Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind -

Machines mystically return home, books fly off shelves and coordinates to a secret, government liar are revealed via morse code, leading our hero to the rings of Saturn.

2001 - A Space Odyssey -

Obvious reference as one of the robots discusses its 'sense of humor' setting.  The spinning ship and lights reflecting off of visors offers inescapable comparison.

For me, the master compare occurs when Cooper ejects and is alone in space.  Much like the ending scenes of Odyssey, man is alone.

The Perfect Storm -

Haven't seen a wave that big since Clooney and clan.

Batman & Inception -

Snow, rock and Ice.  Nolan loves those things.



Totally New Images -

Swinging seats in the Ranger spacecraft.  I don't know the exact functionality of a swing-chair cockpit - it all depends on Gravity.

Robot - fail.

I like the boxy, humorous robots except for one pivotal scene; when Cooper needs to get his craft spinning at the same rate as the out of control vessel, he recruits the robot, which in turn, extends an appendage to physically take hold of the stick.

No.  Like R2D2 on the Death Star, futuristic robots simply connect, digitally.  Hello, M2M folks.

References to print:

1.  A book at school.  It seems that missions to the moon are so not politically correct, "federally approved history books" explain the Apollo program never happened and the moon missions were all fake.  Another movie reference; Capricorn One, starring OJ Simpson.

Of course, Cooper's daughter brings in a pre-history-changing version and gets suspended for her efforts.  Cooper, an ex-NASA pilot, is not pleased with society or the evil education system, and explains how MRI machines are a direct result of those 'fictitious' trips to the moon.

2.  A Lab Book.  Notes are carefully jotted down by pencil into a common lab book.  A professor is also seen using a bank of chalk boards.

3.  Perhaps the best utilization of paper - explaining the wormhole.

In one scene, a scientist explains why the hole is a sphere by drawing on a slip of paper, bending it and sticking a pencil through.  It is a two dimensional circular hole.  In three dimensions, a circle represents what shape?

A sphere - physics lesson over, beer time.

Enjoy the movie.

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Contact Me

Greg Walters, Incorporated
greg@grwalters.com
262.370.4193