Shorten Services: Who knew the Internet connection to Libya?
It is very common to see the shorten service site such as bit.ly. It turns out that the “ly” is Libya’s Internet domain which uses the English language’s adverbial suffix: ly. English language Internet users like the ly…sort of catchy. The article states that 43% of the “ly” domain is owned by English speaking countries such the US, UK, and Canada. Today in the Wall Street Journal http://prnt.in/ZJm the entire possibly embarrassing connection is outlined. From the US Air Force, to House leaders to ordinary people, many Internet sites have used the “ly” domain. According to the article, bit.ly paid $75 for the domain name. According to the Treasury Department (another bit.ly user), a spokesperson says that Americans could not rent .ly domains from entities controlled by Gadhafi regime. Does it matter? You can be the judge. What shortening service do you use? At Printing Industrieswe have our own service and I enjoy it. Our service also gives a QR code for every address. I have not used that part yet. Just as other services, you can place a long Internet address in one part of the site, shrink the address, and share it with others. Note the Wall Street Article short address in the paragraph above. The best advantage is the ability to track how many clicks to the address were completed. When I wrote this article, I used my account to shorten the address. When a reader clicks on it, I will be able to track how many people bothered to check out the article. I cannot track “who” clicked on it. The number of clicks is the most important. It is very helpful for an author (like me) to see if some of the references are being used. In other words I can see if this topic is of interest. The use of a shorten service is widely accepted but I am surprised how many people don’t use it. Twitter users always need to shorten addresses to keep to the character limitations. Are you using a shorten service? Which one? Does it concern you that the “ly” is fromLibya? ...
read moreInnovative Online Game Asks New York Public Library Patrons to Find the Future
Along with following the latest trends in digital printing, we at the Digital Printing Council also keep our eyes on innovative developments in social media and marketing technologies. When we heard about an upcoming event at the New York Public Library (NYPL) called “Find the Future: The Game” we were so intrigued that we knew we had to share it. “Find the Future: The Game,” a combination interactive online game/real-world scavenger hunt, will coincide with NYPL’s Centennial Festival weekend, which takes place from May 20 to May 22 and honors the 100th birthday of the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The custom designed, alternate reality game will have players collaborating and solving clues with the aid of laptops and smartphones. Their goal? Locate 100 significant artifacts from NYPL’s collection—and write about them. Before it opens to the public, a group of 500 players will have the chance to experience the game in a unique “Write All Night” lock–in event at the Schwarzman Building. The pre-selected players will assemble into small groups and search for the hidden artifacts among 70 miles of books—including 40 miles of underground stacks not normally accessible to the public. Upon finding each artifact, players will record their discoveries using smartphones and a custom built iPhone/Android QR code App. Additionally, each hidden artifact will present players with a specific writing prompt. The responses to these prompts will then be used to create a collaborative book, which the Library will actually publish and add to its public archives. As stated in the FAQ section of the game’s website “It is the first game in the world in which winning the game means writing a book together—a collection of 100 ways to make history and change the future, inspired by 100 of the most intriguing works of the past.” For a chance to participate in “Write All Night,” prospective players (18 years or older only) must register on the game’s website (http://game.nypl.org/) and respond to the following prompt: “Just imagine who you are ten years from now. What do you want for the world? What extraordinary goal do you want to achieve? When you have a vivid picture of your future, just fill in the blank: In the year 2021, I will become the first person to_______________.” Responses will be judged on creativity, originality, and determination. “Find the Future: The Game” also contains a unique social component. Right now, you can visit the game’s website to read and vote on entrants’ responses to the initial query about where they see themselves in ten years. Then, once the game has been “unlocked” by the participants in the overnight event, individual responses to the writing prompts for each artifact will appear online as well. Understandably, few details are available about the identity of the 100 hidden artifacts. Information on NYPL’s website does identify at least one of the artifacts: a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting. Another rumored artifact is a cat-paw adorned letter opener originally owned by Charles Dickens. The “Write All Night” lock-in event for “Find the Future: The Game” begins on May 20, 2011 at 8 p.m and continues until 6 a.m. the next day. On May 21, people in New York City and worldwide will have the opportunity to play the...
read moreWhat Can the Ratios Tell Us?
In 2010 industry sales rebounded from the lows of 2009, increasing by 2.79% to $144.6 billion. 2009 was the first time in the 89 years that Printing Industriesof America has been tracking industry profitability via the Ratios Survey that we calculated industry losses. Losses as a percent of sales averaged 1.4% for all printers in 2009 and profit leaders (the top 25% of respondents) profit as a percentage of sales declined from 9.4% in 2008 to 7.0% in 2009. Despite the Great Recession profit leaders still earned a significant profit before taxes. How did profit leaders earn a profit in 2009 despite declining sales and the weak economy? Taking a look at the results from the 2010-2011 Ratios Survey (fiscal year 2009 results) the most impressive difference is the total Factory Cost of Product. As a percent of sales the average printer dedicated 80% of their sales on Total Factory Cost of Product expenses, which include Factory Payroll and Factory Expenses, while profit leaders only spent 73.8%. This more efficient use of both labor and capital explains 75% of the divide in profitability between the leaders and the industry average. According to our quarterly survey of printers both sales and profitability improved in 2010. On average printers sales increased by 5% and earned a reported profit on sales of 4.1%*. Total industry sales increased by 2.79% after adjusting for those firms that closed their doors in 2010. The graph below is a diffusion index of industry sales and profits for 2010. It is calculated by taking the percent of printers reporting increasing sales/profits subtracted by those reporting declining sales/profits. We are in the process of collecting data for the 2011 Ratios Survey. If you are interested in discovering how you are performing compared to industry profit leaders and learning where your company needs to focus its efforts to increase productivity and profitability go to www.printing.org/ratios to participate. Next time we’ll take an in depth look at the difference between the industry average and profit leaders Total Factory Cost of Product for a $3 million, $10 million and $18 million printer. *Quarterly profit as a percent of sales collected in the Quarterly Print Market Survey tends to be higher than what is collected in the Ratios Survey. This is most likely the result of the QMS figure being based on between 200 to 300 responses and the Ratios figure having a significantly larger sample size of between 400 to 500 printers. The QMS figure is a good directional indicator but in terms of magnitude tends to be...
read moreWorth the Time–A Video by Lon Safko & Social Media
There are so many free resources on the internet that it is difficult to choose what is worth your time. Watch Lon Safko, author of Social Media Bible. What I liked most were his examples of how social media has paid off. Real “dollars and cents” examples as well as fun examples. The Subway vs Quizno clip is excellent but actually dated 2007. http://prnt.in/ZJY What was news to me was the issue related to reputation management for Subway and the fact that Subway actually increased sales when Subway declined legal action. It is a bit long, but I listened and watched with one computer while I worked on another project on my other computer. ( yes, mulltitasking. ) Here is the link: http://prnt.in/ZJf for Lon Safko’s video. Please send me any “worth my time ” info! PS Also more “blend it” videos which we have all seen but still...
read moreKeep an Eye on This– eBooks vs Printed Books Transformation Prediction
With the struggle of bricks and mortar book stores and the reported eclipsing of the sale of ebooks by some sources, printers of all products shouldl be keeping abreast of the news. Some in the book industry predict the transmforamtion will happen faster than expected when compared to the music and movie industry. http://prnt.in/ZJx 24 Months? 12 months? In my observations while traveling, I still see more hard copy books than digital readers, but the volume of ereaders is definitely increasing. With the demographics of internet users constantly increasing, the cost of Kindle, iPad and other devices decreasing no one doubts the direction. Probably the “when” is the question. What are printers doing about this direction is of bigger concern. What new revenue streams are being developed? How are printers serving their customers who choose to publish digitally? Savvy printers are offering to digitize magazines and books as a service. Other printers are moving into a broader role in working with customers. What are your thoughts? When will the transformation take place? What should printers do about...
read moreInnovative Online Game Asks New York Public Library Patrons to Find the Future
Along with following the latest trends in digital printing, we at the Digital Printing Council also keep our eyes on innovative developments in social media and marketing technologies. When we heard about an upcoming event at the New York Public Library (NYPL) called Find the Future: The Game we were so intrigued that we knew we had to share it. Find the Future is a combination interactive online game/real-world scavenger hunt that will coincide with NYPL’s Centennial Festival weekend, which begins on May 20. The custom designed game will have players collaborating and solving clues with the aid of laptops and smartphones. The goal is to locate 100 significant artifacts from NYPL’s collection—and to write about them. Before the game opens to the public, a group of 500 players will have the chance to participate in a “Write All Night” lock–in event. These selected players will be assembled into groups to search for the hidden artifacts among 70 miles of books—including 40 miles of underground stacks not normally accessible to the public—at NYPL’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. After finding each artifact, participants will record their discoveries using smartphones and a custom built iPhone/Android QR code App. Furthermore, each hidden artifact will present players with a specific writing prompt. Then, players’ responses to these prompts will help to create a collaborative book that will be published and added to the Library’s public archives. As stated in the FAQ section of the game’s website “It is the first game in the world in which winning the game means writing a book together—a collection of 100 ways to make history and change the future, inspired by 100 of the most intriguing works of the past.” To be considered for a chance to participate in the “Write All Night” event, prospective players (18 years or older only) must register on the game’s website (http://game.nypl.org/) and respond to the following prompt: “Just imagine who you are ten years from now. What do you want for the world? What extraordinary goal do you want to achieve? When you have a vivid picture of your future, just fill in the blank: In the year 2021, I will become the first person to_______________.” The responses to this prompt will be judged based on creativity, originality, and determination. The game will also contain a unique social component. Right now, you can visit the game’s website and read and vote on entrants’ responses to the initial query about where they see themselves in ten years. Then, once the game has been “unlocked” by the participants in the overnight event, players’ responses to the writing prompts for each artifact will appear online as well. Understandably, few details are available about the identity of the 100 hidden artifacts. Information on NYPL’s website does identify one of the artifacts: a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting. Another rumored artifact is a cat-paw adorned letter opener originally owned by Charles Dickens. Find the Future: The Game was designed for NYPL by renowned game designer Jane McGonical, author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. McGonical created the game along with Natron Baxter and Playmatics. To learn more about Jane McGonical and other games she has created, visit http://janemcgonical.com. The...
read moreTwo New web2award Categories
We’re now accepting entries for the web2awards, and, in its third year, it’s poised to once again highlight print service providers that are using web and online technology to grow their businesses. We continue to improve and refine the competition, with a new streamlined entry form that will make the actual entry process easy and separate categories for small, media and large companies to even-up the playing field. And this year we’ve added two new categories that recognize how social media has a growing role in what we do. The Social Media/Cross-Media Campaign/Promotional Case Study category is one in which we hope to see a lot of participation. If you have a story about how you’ve used social media or cross-media to showcase and grow your business, we want to hear about it. Have you used Twitter to find customers talking about your business and held a conversation with them? Did your YouTube video score you thousands of hits and bolster business? Are you using QR codes in a way no one else is? Tell us your story and include as much evidence as you can (especially tangible metrics if you’re measuring things like responses, traffic on the site, SEO ranking changes, etc.) The judging on this will be a bit different than the other categories, it will bit more subjective, but our panel of judges look forward to hearing what participants have been doing in our integrated media world. We’re calling the second new category the People’s Choice Award and we think it will be a lot of fun. The web is so people-focused, and we think it makes sense to give anyone, not just our esteemed panel of judges, a chance to vote in the web2awards. After the entry deadline on May 31st, we’ll be putting all the entered sites onto the web2award site. Entrants can point their customers, friends, family or anyone they wish to that page so they can cast a vote. We’re not putting restrictions into the system, so people can vote multiple times for the same entry if they wish. The purpose of the People’s Choice Award is to offer a way for entrants to take a more active role in the competition, possibly use it in their own brand-awareness campaign, and maybe even raise the web2award competitions visibility as well! We hope everyone has fun with this. To let people try it out before the 2011 entries are ready, we posted the 2010 participants and put up a voting page. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be recognized with a unique trophy at the end of the competition. For more information about the web2awards, the rules, how to enter, or a list of categories, visit dpc.printing.org/web2awards. If you have a question, leave a comment below for the post and we’ll get back to...
read moreSocial Media Activities on Our End!
This month Julie Shaffer presented a program at the Vision 3 Summit (see www.vision3summit.org) on social media entitled, Social “Security”–Cementing Client Relationships with Social Media. This was attended by a large group which had many questions. Also, Julie Shaffer and I presented three webinars on social media topics. The three topics were Using LinkedIn as a Sales Prospecting Tool; Monitoring Your Online Reputation Using Social Media Tools, and Putting Your Business on the Map with Geo-Social Tools. It was fun to deliver and the follow up questions were really good. Also we have several microlessons on the topics that people can use for written background. See www.printing.org/microlessons Have you participated in social media learning events? What were they? What were your thoughts on needed programs? Let us know. Any ideas are welcome. ...
read moreInterview with Frank Shear, President, Seaboard Bindery, Inc.
The Binding Industries Associaton Conference is coming up in May and we took the time to talk with past attendee Frank Shear, president, Seaboard Bindery, Inc., about his conference experience. Enjoy the brief interview and let us know what you think in the comments! Have you implemented anything you’ve learned from the BIA conference into your own work? Most definitely. Much of what I take back with me results from conversations with people. I remember a discussion from one year about employee communication that resulted in me having monthly meetings with our employees to review what we have accomplished in the past month and discuss challenges and opportunities ahead. Employees have told me they find value in those brief meetings. What were some of the takeaways from the conference? One part of the marketing session involved discussion of where social media marketing fits into the marketing mix. We are now trying to implement a social media focus into our marketing. Last year there was a panel of print buyers discussing how binders can expand their reach into non-traditional customers. We have implemented some of this here. Two years ago the seminar on mailing and fulfillment really excited me. We started offering more fulfillment as part of our services, not to the degree of a specialty fulfillment house, but to give us added value. How useful were the tours? The tours are always eye opening. There is always something that someone else does differently. We all get to the same end point, but the paths there are always different. You get to chat with operators, you get to watch jobs run, it’s a great time to pick the brains of others looking at the same process. New ideas pop up, the juices start flowing. Was it useful to share ideas with your peers? That is what the conference is all about. The most effective learning for me comes with simply chatting with others. You might overhear someone talking about a problem that you are encountering, or a solution that they are implementing for a problem that you share. Standing around and talking is perhaps one of the best opportunities to learn. What would you say to someone on the fence about attending the BIA Conference? One never knows what is likely to come up from a seminar or person to person discussion. I have always had some issue in common with whomever I happened to be talking with. One new idea or insight can be priceless....
read moreGearing up for the Premier Print Awards
It’s that time of the year again–we’re now accepting entries for the Premier Print Awards! This is a great time to be in the print industry because we get flooded with print pieces from all over the world. We see the pop-up books, all sorts of magazines, fascinating labels, and incredibly complex and detailed printed pieces. If you haven’t listened to this interview with Wyatt Hogue , vice president of Adams Lithographing, the Best of Show winner last year, it provides great insight for how important this award is for a company. Last year, I had the opportunity to cover the judging process. I wrote up a detailed post which you can find here . It was breathtaking to see a press room filled with print and I’m eager to see what sort of pieces we’ll see this...
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