wventrepreneur

SEO Architect Creates Website Blueprint for West Virginia Business Owners

2009-08-13T10:02:00.004-04:00

Award-winning Internet marketing consultant and certified SEO expert, Gregg Murray has launched a new Web site, blog, and podcast for West Virginia businesses. Website Blueprint (www.websiteblueprint.com) is designed to help small-business owners in West Virginia better understand how to build their business with modern Internet marketing; including search engine optimization (SEO), Web site management, Google pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, business blogging, and social media; such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Read more

West Virginia Business Leaders on LinkedIn

2009-03-10T10:22:00.006-04:00

There is a new group on LinkedIn called West Virginia Business Leaders. It is a great resource to get connected with other business leaders in West Virginia. The group is for West Virginia Business Leaders, Executives & Professionals who are influential in creating economic and business success in West Virginia. Supported by http://www.wvnewsline.com and http://www.statenewslines.com. It is an open group so be sure to connect today.

Mobile Outlook 2009

2008-11-25T20:17:00.008-05:00

Today I attended the Mobile Outlook 2009 event in Washington, DC representing StateNewslines, LLC. It was great to be back in DC to see some familiar faces and meet new ones. The event was hosted by Potomac Tech Wire and the panel was moderated by Paul Sherman, editor and publisher of Potomac Tech Wire which he co-founded in 1999. For more info and to signup for their newsletter go to www.potomactechwire.com.

The panel was made up of the following panelists:

Rebecca Hanson - Vice President of Strategy for Sprint's XOHM Mobile Broadband Business Unit - www.xohm.com (Just launched in Baltimore and coming soon to DC and Chicago)
Terry Hsiao - CEO of Hook Mobile - www.hookmobile.com
Jon Jackson - CEO of Mobile Posse - www.mobileposse.com
Matt Jones - Director of Mobile Strategy and Operations for Gannett Digital - www.gannettdigital.com
Gregg Smith - CEO of Acuity Mobile - www.acuitymobile.com

I will share the highlights of the questions and comments from today's event. The first question for the panel was to name their top 3 trends they see in the mobile industry over the next 3-5 years and to name their most overhyped trend.

Mobile Trends Next 3-5 Years

Handsets - more powerful smartphones. Touch screen devices are the future.
Speed - 3G and 4G with 3G representing 30% of the market.
Cost - plans with fixed rate and unlimited data usage plans continues to grow.
Merchandising Content - the adoption of the Apple AppStore is proof of this upward trend.
Prices - they will go down for consumers but the cost for providers will stay the same or rise.
Wireless HD - the demand for high speed video continues to rise.
Innovation - not much innovation in mobile over the past 10 years until the most recent 2 years. Hopefully this will continue.
Ad Support - should grow over the next 3 to 4 years.
3 Screen Integration - computer, TV and mobile device - current challenge for content providers but demand is there to show same content on 3 different devices.
Mobile Messaging - the most used and most profitable service for providers and it will continue to grow.
Ultra Mobile - devices such as the Nokia N810 could be the happy medium between a smartphone and notebook computer. It sports a bigger screen and querty keyboard.
Rich Data Apps - the demand for more "like Internet" experience on mobile phones. The Apple iPhone is driving this upward trend.

Overhyped Trends

All of the above in the near term in 2009
Bluetooth
Twitter
Openness in 3G carriers
Mobile Commerce
Apple iPhone

How is the current economic crisis affecting the mobile space?

Overall most of the panelists remain bullish on the mobile space and agreed with a top industry executive that mobile is virtually recession proof. People are less likely to give up their mobile phone and Internet service as compared to their cable TV service when times get tough.

Audience Survey Results (Over 200 in attendance)

Here are the results of the following questions from moderator Paul Sherman to the audience. Here is how we responded.

How many people use Twitter? less than 10%
How many Blackberry users? approx. 75%
How many iPhone users? approx. 25%
How many Android users? One person
How many people are on LinkedIn? approx. 99%
How many people are on Facebook? approx. 98%
How many people are on MySpace? One person

Most Interesting Stat

10% of the population have a smartphone with an unlimited data plan

Other Cool Stats

13 million iPhones sold worldwide
6-7 million iPhones in U.S. alone
2 million downloads per day from the Apple AppStore

What Device Do the Panelists Carry?

Apple 3G iPhone - favorite mobile app - Pandora
Blackberry Curve - favorite mobile app - Brick Breaker - soon will be moving to new Blackberry Storm
Blackberry Pearl - favorite mobile app - Facebook

Final Thoughts

The main take away when it came to mobile content is that if you are providing services on the mobile platform there are 3 major questions you need to make sure your product/service addresses. They are relevance, targetability and metrics. If it isn't relevant and you don't know who your customers are and you can't measure what you are doing you are going to fall short. Isn't this true about any business?

Veterans Business Conference and Contract Connections announced

2008-08-08T17:17:00.009-04:00

Charleston, WV – Contract Connections, held in conjunction with the statewide Veterans Business Conference, would like to invite you to attend this two day conference. There will be procurement technical assistance professionals in attendance to assist you with your procurement needs. Participation from the US Small Business Administration and the WV Small Business Development Center will enable individuals interested in opening a business to existing businesses the professional assistance needed. Both events take place on September 3rd and 4th, 2008 at the Civic Center, Charleston, WV. Visit www.contractconnections.org for detailed information and registration.

Certus Scientific Wins NASA Contract

2008-07-29T16:28:00.005-04:00

Certus Scientific responded to a NASA request for proposals entitled "Landing Sensor Advanced Component Technologies." The proposals were to address specific objectives of NASA's Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance (ALHAT) Project.

The proposals were evaluated by a team of experts in accordance with the NASA Research Announcement guidelines and evaluation criteria. The evaluation factors were the relevance of the proposed work to NASA's objectives, its intrinsic merit, and its cost.

The Certus 3D Image Preprocessing and Enhancement proposal to develop a Hazard Digital Elevation Map using the Flash lidar sensor was selected for funding. Certus staff are working within a six-month timeframe to complete this project. NASA will then begin testing the application in explorer landing vehicles.

Certus has also submitted proposals and received two SBIR Phase 0 awards from the State of West Virginia. For more information about Certus Scientific go to www.certusscientific.com.

WVU Law Clinic to Offer Services to Entrepreneurs

2008-07-25T10:32:00.009-04:00

The clinics at the College of Law at West Virginia University provide legal services to people who can't afford them while giving students real, on-the-ground experience. Read the full article at the State Journal.

Charleston Entrepreneur Tom Loehr launches Charleston Clean Energy LLC

2008-07-24T14:24:00.005-04:00

Former state treasurer Tom Loehr, a venture capitalist who runs companies called Fourth Venture Group and WeSave Inc. from his office on Capitol Street, said he has lined up private investors for the $3 million project, called Charleston Clean Energy LLC. Read more in the Charleston Gazette.

Follow wventrepreneur Updates On Twitter

2008-07-01T22:54:00.004-04:00

Be sure to follow our updates on Twitter. You can do this by going to http://twitter.com/wventrepreneur.

State Announces Corporate Tax Changes

2008-07-01T22:36:00.007-04:00

Beginning July 1 there are two tax changes that may be of interest to you. Click on the link to see the full article. http://tinyurl.com/3ms4zn