New Technology

            When I consider future technology my mind usually goes to the crazy technology that is almost mind boggling, contacts that update you on everything around you via the internet, self-driving cars, cell phones chips inserted into our skin. Everything I saw growing up on sci-fi shows is coming to fruition. But the technology that I always find interesting is the seemingly simple things that you think have reached their peak and then they find a way to improve them.  One of the things that runs all of the above mentioned technologies but hasn’t really seen much technological advances are batteries. Obviously batteries have gotten smaller and a little more efficient but a charge on my cell phone battery still only last 14 hours. Apparently researchers across the country have had the same question that I have about why batteries aren’t improving when they are what is running all this new exciting technology, because batteries are being researched and improved in a lot of interesting ways.

              According to Pocket Lint “Big technology companies, and now car companies that are making electric vehicles, are all too aware of the limitations of lithium-ion batteries.” They state that these companies are pouring a lot of money into research in improving the batteries for their technology. They had a list of some futuristic sounding batteries that they claim aren’t that far from becoming mainstream.

              They spotlight a lithium-air battery that “uses oxygen as the oxidizer, rather than a material. The result is batteries that can be a fifth of the price and a fifth as light as lithium-ion, plus they could make phones and cars last five times longer.”

              Another the Alfa battery can last up to 14 days and recharges with water. “This battery will be able to recharge by simply being topped up with water, be it salty or normal. It should last a hefty 14 days, according to its creators Fuji Pigment and will be out later this year.”

Other interesting advancements include skin-powered batteries, ultrasound-powered over the air charging, sound powered and even urine powered. This technology might not seem as exciting as other future technology but the truth is that that future technology is pretty worthless without advancements in batteries. When considering how this will effect social media it will allow people to use social media without having to plug in their phone. Think of the times that you are at the very end of your phones battery life so you don’t take a picture to post to Instagram you don’t do a snap or even get on Facebook because you have to get home to a charger. These batteries will eliminate that “battery-saving” habit that we have found ourselves using. Many of the power sources are still being researched but a few of them were rumored to being close to production. I can’t wait until I can charge my phone by dipping it in water. 

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602245/why-we-still-dont-have-better-batteries/

Apps and Mobile Websites

            Apps. I am sure everyone has heard the phrase “There’s an app for that,” but did you know that Apple trademarked the phrase back in 2010. Why? Because it is true and they wanted the rights to its use. When looking up the phrase it also pulled up an app that people share funny phrases or memes about the phrase “There’s an App for that.” Seems a little ridiculous that we need an app that imitates popping bubble wrap or gives us a list of excuses to give to get out of a phone call (those are real apps, people) but our phones have essentially replaced our watches, calendars, calculators, address books, dictionary, pens, remote controls, voice recorders and Walkman or Discman depending on your generation. With the addition of Mobile apps that list could be made infinitely longer. But how important is it for a business to have a stand-alone mobile app vs. a mobile website?

              According to adweek.com “Standalone apps, with their single-minded purity, have the viral edge over apps trying to do too much.” Gone are the days of the days of telling your friend to check out a cool new website, nowadays it is all about the app. People will talk about and encourage one another to download an awesome new app but as the article points out even apps that try to do too much aren’t very successful. It sites apps that have something that makes them totally unique in the market as the apps that really take off. Snapchat for example is not usable on a web browser only in a downloaded app and its unique hook is the photo “self-destruction.”

              Now stand alone apps are obviously not conducive to every business, it is hard to make an app if you are a say a small beekeeping business. But making a mobile friendly website can be equally as important. There is nothing more frustrating than going to a website in your mobile device to find that it doesn’t work with mobile devices. Practicalecommerce.com says  “Having a mobile-friendly website isn’t just good practice — it’s a prerequisite. For the first time in history, mobile has exceeded desktop Internet usage.” They have a few easy ways to convert your already existing website into a mobile-friendly website. 1. Use a company to convert to your website for you. 2. Many hosting sites have easy to add plugins to make a mobile friendly site. 3. Design your site with a mobile-first approach.  Just by making some small changes you can make your website mobile friendly and hopefully increase your visits. 

Viral Videos

             Viral videos are an interesting topic, just like everything else that has to do with technology and particularly social media they have evolved so much from their beginnings. I am old enough to remember videos that went “viral” before platforms like Facebook or YouTube were mainstream. Videos that had hundreds of thousands of views on humor websites and being passed around via email. The amazing thing about these videos is that they are still widely known today even though they didn’t begin on YouTube. Videos like The Numa Numa Guy and Star Wars Kid were both before Youtube was even created. These videos were organically grown and passed along mostly for their humor content. They were funny home videos that were shared with friends and family and grew from there. There was never a thought when they were filming these videos that they might be viewed worldwide or that the stars would become internationally recognizable. The world of viral videos today is much different.

              Today viral videos are the goal. They are the goal of social media stars, like Youtubers and bloggers, and they are the goal of almost every company that makes video content for their social media platforms. You still get authentic, organic viral videos that get the “star’ their fifteen minutes of fame but so many of the viral videos we see today shared on social media today are planned directed and financed with the sole goal of becoming viral. Because more viral equals more exposure equals more money. This has become such a commonplace business practice that researchers have done studies trying to determine the formula for a viral video. One researcher Dr. Brent Coker has spent a lot of time researching a recipe for viral videos and he came up with four simple ingredients to the recipe.

1.       “Sharability”

2.       Connection – via music or nostalgia

3.       Large emotional range – going from feeling happy to sad to ecstatic

4.       Frission – a thrill or physical response like getting goosdebumps.

              There is even research done on the exact amount of time a video should last for maximum exposure and shares. I know personally that if I open up a video on Youtube and I see that it is longer than 5 minutes (excluding car repair videos) I don’t even waste my time watching it. A great example of a company using viral videos and basically nailing it every time is Buzzfeed with their Tasty videos. They found that food 40 seconds was the sweet spot for more shares and views of their videos. In February of 2017 Tasty videos garnered a total of 1.2 billion views on Facebook alone. Interestingly their videos don’t follow the above “recipe” for viral videos but they do contain actual food which seems to be a huge hit in the video world. They have turned these videos into an entire division of their company complete with cookbook and channels that cover many different cultures. Obviously they have the recipe down (forgive the pun) for viral food videos and it is making them a lot of money.

              Whether it is food or guys crying about Britney Spears viral videos aren’t going to go anywhere, more likely they will turn into their own field of job opportunities. Entire firms exists to make viral videos and that will only continue to grow as long as social media is still widely used. 

Search Engine Optimization

               I use google every day, multiple times a day. Lately I have been working on my car a lot so a lot of my searches have been geared towards car parts and repairs. Have you ever stopped to wonder why when you search say, car parts Auto Zone is higher up on the page then NAPA? Well it is not because AutoZone comes first alphabetically it is because AutoZone is doing a better job with their SEO. Search engine optimization is not a new thing. In an article written in 2010 for Business Insider they break SEO down to its most basic definition, getting more traffic to your webpage thru a search engine. Doesn’t seem very complicated when it is broken down like that and is it really that important?

              According to Business Insider every business that has a website should have SEO as a part of their growth strategy and now in 2017 I think this advice given 7 years ago is probably even more relevant. It is not a coincidence that AutoZone, O’Reily and NAPA are the top three results when I search car parts and it is also not a coincidence that by page three of my google search it is listing companies I have never heard of. There is a very real possibility that these lesser known companies could become more successful if they were higher up in rank in a search engine. For me personally, I open the first couple compare parts and prices and buy from whomever gives me the best quality of the best deal and if that is some no name parts company then the only reason they would get my business is by being higher in my google search.

              SEO can get pretty complicated and there are many business that have a position dedicated completely to it. A person or a whole team of people whose main goal is get their website the number one spot on a search engine in a number of different searches. You can even hire a firm to come in and improve the SEO of your company. For small business it is hard to get into that top spot for generalized searches like “car parts” but a small business can work on targeting a spot for a search for “car parts, logan ut.” Forbes  published a great article on SEO for small local businesses and they make starting the process seem less intimidating. They suggest making accurate places pages on all the major search engines. They also suggest uploading lots of quality content to your webpage as well as simply making sure you have accurate addresses, hours of operation and other information on your page and on searches. One that I found interesting is the suggestion to get good google reviews to bump up your SEO.

              While SEO can seem really complicating it is nice to know that there are little things that you can do as a small business to raise your rank a little.