I’ve talked about the Future of Flash in the past, and well, technically now that the future is here I thought we should discuss it again.

First of all, I still stand by my original thoughts about Flash and SEO, however, Google has recently made some interesting improvements. One problem flash developers were facing was that Google would index any external content linked in the flash files as a separate entity. That’s if Google would index the external content at all. But now Google has added “external resource loading”.

This means that when a SWF file loads content from some other file—whether it’s text, HTML, XML, another SWF, etc.—we can index this external content too, and associate it with the parent SWF file and any documents that embed it.

- Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

So What’s The Current State of SEO and Flash?

Although most SEOs would argue to stay away from flash because of it’s inability to index the content properly, I would argue that it almost doesn’t matter anymore. SEOmoz said something that caught my ear in their “New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data“. They basically implied that header tags have less weight associated with them than they did in the past. It almost seems as if Google is paying less attention to the HTML markup and more attention to incoming links and conversations around the content.

So if your flash is getting indexed and you have a quality content with relevant incoming links, you should not have any problems with Flash being indexed and ranked properly in the search engines.

Now before you go and rip my head off I should state a few obvious problem that still exist:

• There are still accessibility issues (portable devices) when using flash elements however a good flash developer should know their way around them.
• HTML still provides a better format to organize your content for more efficient indexing

The main takeaways here should be that people should not be afraid to at least experiment with flash. It no longer has the indexing issues it used to have. Also, Google still supports the use of SWFObject which takes care of a lot of the indexing problems flash still has.

- Photo by Mazintosh << de nuevo en Granada >>

Wanted to give you all (the southern in me is coming out) some insight into why I think that the time is right for a service such as iFix.com. Also, how that impacts what we do at Magicomm.

Given the increasing pressures on printers to control, if not reduce their costs, during these trying economic times, I felt that the time was right to provide them (including dealers and independent services organizations) with the ability to extend the usefulness of their existing equipment. Many will decide to purchase the latest and greatest technology available, because that is what they have always done to maintain their competitive edge. But most will want to spend their limited resources in new growth areas that will provide them a higher margin and expanded business opportunities while maintaining their existing infrastructure and core business (Can’t kill the cash cow, ya know!). Replacing an existing platesetter with one that is shinier, faster, and more automated may not provide them with the biggest bang for their buck. Purchasing a system that allows them to automate and connect their internal processes may be a better place to spend their money. Or, expanding into fulfillment…Or, providing a web-to-print portal for their clients…Or, purchasing a digital press that is variable data capable…Or…Or….Or…You get the picture.

Additionally, the existing manufacturers of this equipment have gone through significant cost reductions (laying offs) and there are many highly qualified technicians that are looking for ways to support their families. Many are providing support to the clients that they had worked for through the years by servicing them directly, which would mean that they need a resources, besides the manufacturer, to help them with access to quality parts. AND, there are no organizations that will provide used parts (which means lower cost) available to them today(that I know of).

I know that many are leery of used parts, which is why we have provided a warranty that is even better than what you get with purchasing some new parts from the manufacturer. How do we do that, you may ask. Well, with our access to used equipment, we can use their parts at a fraction of the cost for us than by purchasing them separately. Also, we have extremely low overhead that is difficult to the larger manufacturers to match. It just seemed like a service like ifix.com that was right for the times, therefore we decided to take advantage of this changing environment that printers, dealers, and manufacturers are experiencing during these difficult economic times by providing them with a needed service that is not available anywhere else. A tsunami is hitting our industry and when it is over, we will look extremely different that we were back in the “good old days”.

What am I doing with Magicomm?

iFix.com is a natural extension of Magicomm. I hope to do many more of these type of business ventures in the future. With Magicomm being a innovative marketing solutions provider that is focused on leveraging all media and building integrated marketing solutions, I felt that by starting a ecommerce company that would provide a much needed solution to the graphics industry was a “no brainer”.

I was talking to a buddy of mine last year about the need for a resource that he could purchase reliable laser imaging parts for his clients platesetters….thus the idea began. We decided to use the resources of Magicomm to build the site (still working on it, but it is good to go now) that the industry could trust to purchase BOTH NEW AND USED PLATESETTER PARTS from. Took us almost a year, with no marketing, to fine tune our internal processes and sources for parts before we decided to “formally” launch the company. I have working in the industry for over 30 years and have been lucky to get to know people in the industry from all over the world, printers, dealers, and vendors. So, by leveraging my industry insight and experience with my contact base and what I have learned with Magicomm, it just made sense to start this business. I expect to be expanding into other areas, such as used equipment and software solutions, in the near future. Magicomm with ALWAYS be at the center of these efforts, because of the resources that we have and the knowledge we have developed during our marketing efforts in the graphics industry.

I will continue to look for opportunities to partner with other companies and individuals to develop new businesses and revenue streams for Magicomm. After all…Isn’t the goal for us all is to “Make money while we are sleeping?” and the ONLY way to do that is through the Internet and through the use of automated workflows. Stay tuned for the further adventures of Rick Littrell, Magicomm, and iFix.com!

Twitter management solutions for businesses seem to be popping up left and right now that everyone’s jumping on the band wagon. We at Magicomm have spent some time playing around with the different services out there and came up with this list, we feel, are the top 5.

CoTweet instantly became my favorite multi-account manager for Twitter. Although still in private beta, it sports a slick user interface with intuitive Twitter management. Some cool features include:

• The ability to assign Tweeps to users for follow-up
• A consolidated replies/direct messages feed for multiple accounts.
• The ability to archive tweets
• Scheduled tweets
• A little red light that notifies other users when you’re on duty

It’s a pretty solid solution with a hell of an advisory board. CoTweet easily takes my number 1 spot.

HootSuite takes the cake for best multi-account management system that is not in beta. It won “Best App” in the Shorty Awards. Besides the easy to use interface, it even has it’s own URL shortener called the “ow.ly” along with it’s own analytics. Not bad if you’re looking for a free integrated Twitter management solution.

I had to throw this one in there as it is both free and very easy to use. While you are not given the ability to associate multiple users with one account, you can manage multiple accounts under one user. I like to think of it as a simplified version of CoTweet, minus the kick ass advisory board and cool follow-up features. But SpliTweet does a good job of what it does best, monitor multiple Twitter streams and “Brand Mentions”, which is basically a Twitter search for your brand.

EasyTweets is basically a paid version of HootSuite with a couple extra features thrown in. My favorite feature is the ability to shorten URLs with the service of my choice and integrate Google Analytics parameters. Some other cool features include:

• Auto-follow
• Monitor Twitter trends
• A TweetGrid like deck view
• The ability to receive brand mentions via email

TweeLater was probably the first of all these tools to bust on the scene with their tweet scheduling service. They have since transformed themselves into a rather complete Twitter solution for businesses … and spammers. The ability to “spin text” so you can schedule tweets without being branded as spam by Twitter seems slightly dishonest however can be a huge time saver when dealing with repetitive tweets.

But you can’t overlook the massive list of features that would make it the most complete solution out there. However, one could always argue that more tools aren’t necessarily better.

With the Internet moving at the speed of light it is important that companies keep up in an age of on-demand lifestyles. It may not be for everyone, but for most it is essential that you be kept up to date in the latest communication methods. Furthermore it is more important than ever that your company is only clicks away from your next most valuable client.

Here are a few things companies need to know these days:

1) Your website is more than a business card. The days of static websites floating out in the Internet are gone. Websites these days need to be focused on providing the most appropriate and up to date information to it’s viewers at all times. This is why it is almost essential that your website be on some sort of content management system that allows your most qualified staff to update your site with ease. It’s also important to have some sort of analytics in place so you can optimize your site based on it’s usage.

2) Position your self. Forget the yellow pages, is your site optimized for Google searches? Like I said before, we live in an on-demand world now and you need to position yourself to be found by your target audience. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website with keywords and easily indexable code. Some content management systems help with the SEO by cleaning up the HTML and linking structure of your site so it’s important to take into consideration when choosing the best platform.

3) Communicate. Who needs cold calling or newspaper ads when you have services like LinkedIn and Twitter ready and willing to facilitate your business networking at lightening speed. The mind shift has already taken place and people are openly talking about their lives with millions of other people from around the world. Learning how to use and leverage these tools to expand your business’s potential is a necessity in this economy.

4) Embrace your community. Companies are starting to submit to the candid discussions happening in social media. It’s no longer about controlling your image but rather responding to your communities feedback to make it better. This is a great reason to start blogging and monitoring the blogosphere for relevant conversations in your industry.

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The times are changing fast and you can either get on board and ride a long or you’ll get left behind.

Contact Magicomm today to learn how we can help you make the transition.

- Photo by boboroshi

Twitter Spam, we all hate it and want it to go away … but what is IT?

The general population of Twitter tends to classify spam as unsolicited promotional material that provides little to no value to the community.

Some (possible) examples of this are:

• Bots that RT specific users
• TwitterFeeds of blog posts
• Affiliate link feeds
• Software that forces you to Tweet a standard message
• Anything repetitive

I’m sure there are a lot of other spammy uses of Twitter but my main focus here is to explain how you can avoid being classified as a spammer.

First off, we need to remember that Twitter is an opt-in service. Basically you need to subscribe to someones Twitter feed before you start receiving their Tweets. Whenever you subscribe to someones Twitter account, they are most likely notified by email of your follow. This is where it is important that your public timeline is filled with conversations and quality links that people might find beneficial. If that user decides, in the split second they may view your page, that you are not contributing to the greater good of the Twitter community, they may write you off as spam and not follow you back.

Everyone has their own classification of what spam is on Twitter. Some other contributing factors to spammy accounts might be:

• You’re following too many people
• You never filled out your profile
• You never post anything
• You only post things from your blog
• You’re too good looking to be real
• You sound like a robot

So my advice?

• Avoid using services that promise mass amounts of followers.
• Don’t set up a TwitterFeed and instead manually post interesting content
• Complete your profile with as much information about yourself as possible
• TALK TO PEOPLE