Even Toddlers Know Not to Steal

We know we sometimes sound preachy about copyright.

Before technology changed, people copying art or photographs or writing were called thieves.

See? Being adamant about intellectual property rights is easy if you try.

Few of us are perfect or blameless. We’ve copied someone else’s work, even if only to email a photo to a friend. But who knows where that photographer’s work goes after that? And that’s one of the big issues that creative talents face.

We look at some developing stories in online marketing and intellectual property rights that surfaced this week. Protecting your organization’s rights and training your team so that they know you won’t tolerate their using someone else’s work is a good first step.

And you know those YouTube videos that have a line claiming that the copyright belongs to someone else? They’re just posting this for “entertainment” or some silly excuse? All that person did was admit to the artist’s attorney that they knew they were stealing. Don’t do that. Especially don’t do it at work.

We aren’t attorneys. The Silver Beacon family includes an award-winning photographer, and we have photography and book clients. And we know that most people are generally good and want to do the right thing.

Check with us if you need help or a good attorney referral.

Google is flagging some websites for being too slow and a client helping adults with disabilities opens its third location.

What you need to know about “The Dress”

The dress of many colors was a random bit of viral content that spread throughout the planet. I received responses from Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia when I asked people using super-cool new social network Plague how far the issue had spread.

As an organization leader, you should understand that this started late Wednesday night and saturated the Internet by Thursday afternoon. Smart marketers offered “dress-free” zones and “explainer” articles for their communities.

You missed the opportunity if you didn’t publish then because everything was over by midday Friday. That’s the speed needed for social media.

News You Should Know

Congratulations!

You already know that more of your website visitors are arriving via mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Even if you don’t study your website’s analytics, you surely know that your own activity is increasingly done on devices other than a computer. The website may remain the hub of your digital presence, but social media, email and your presence on other websites are all important components of your organization’s marketing.

Car with sign on roof is early example of mobile advertising.
Old school mobile advertising

We routinely see data showing client websites receive up to   half of their visitors via mobile devices. That’s true on specialty sites receiving few visitors and sites that receive thousands of visitors every day.

Up to half and growing is an important number.

Google is meeting the trend by creating “call-only” advertising campaigns that should be part of every local retailer and service company’s strategy moving forward. The mobile feature launches with the ability for your agency to start scripting messages and landing pages directly for mobile. And that means you can save significant amounts of advertising expenses by optimizing a mobile-only ad campaign.

Mobile advertising has been available for years, but mobile-only is a giant step for the world’s leading search engine company. Remember that almost all Google profit comes from advertising so Google mobile advertising is not a casual test. The company says that “70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results.”

If only a fraction of that number is accurate, your organization needs to be using this new feature fast. Talk with us about call-only advertising if you’re a client or think you should be one.

 

Source: Charge up your phones with call-only campaigns – Google Inside AdWords
Image: Mobile Advertising by Ardfern via CC 3.0