According to some new figures reported recently, mobility is still on the path to becoming king of the interactive hill. For the first time, use of mobile apps has overtaken time spent on the web by just about 8 minutes per day. With an ever increasing number of devices in your customers’ hands, that trend means more – and changing – opportunities for success in marketing.

It also means that now more than ever it’s imperative that you’re well represented in the mobile space. There’s no question that your business will benefit from a mobile presence – and the smarter, more relevant and beneficial platform you use to broadcast it, the better. But which platform is best for your needs? Should you develop a mobile app, or a mobile version of your website? (more…)

The Inbound Marketing Summit scored more than a few touchdowns at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA on October 5 and 6. As part of FutureM week, IMS featured 2 jam-packed days of rapid fire sessions around the shifting of the marketing conversation model away from being one based on interruption to one that is engaged, social, and interconnected. Thanks to all who stopped by the Bridgeline booth to speak with us, learn a little about iAPPS and take a shot at winning an Apple TV.

And unlike most conferences where as an exhibitor you never get to attend the sessions, the booth area was in full view of the session stage. My favorite session was by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz who spoke to the crowd on The Science of Search Engine Rankings. Did you know inbound links from .edu and .gov websites give you nothing extra in terms of SEO benefits? Thanks, Rand, for debunking this theory!

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The staff at MITX organized another excellent event in Massachusetts. Bridgeline was happy to be a part of Future M: “the first-ever week long, collaborative multi-location conference offering participants the opportunity to tap into the freshest thinkers in marketing, media and technology. ” FutureM scattered events all around Massachusetts during the week rather than just staying in Boston. Most people don’t know, but Massachusetts has the highest venture capital investment in the world! There’s lots of innovation going on in Massachusetts and it was a great week spending time with fellow visionaries.

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Getting started with a web content management system is a huge priority for many business. Many marketing departments need full control to create and edit their web pages. Often, this can lead to a back-and-forth between Marketing and IT, with some frayed nerves along the way! But finally, you’ve gotten budget for a CMS implementaton, and are ready to crank out some content to lure in some leads! After performing some searches on Google, browsing a few forums, and listening to recommendations from peers, you may gotten varying opinions on many content management systems, leaving your more confused before your search began. How to do you choose the best CMS for you and your company?

Bridgeline has assisted many customers with CMS implemenations and we’ve come up with a pretty thorough list of factors to consider that will guide you along your decision-making path. Give our latest eBook a read to understand the points below.

• Price/Performance
• Return On Investment (ROI)
• Search Engine Optimization
• Ease of Use
• Grows With Your Business
• Integrates With Analytics
• Technology Platform
• Flexible Licensing
• Application Integration
• Implementation
• Scalability
• Infrastructure Compatibility

I found myself in a debate with a colleague the other day regarding file sizes for advertisement banners on a website. We are in the process of setting image size specifications for static advertisement banners to give to ad vendors who will be creating the final ads. Based on the width and height of the ads in question I proposed a conservative yet realistic file size of 20kb, just to keep sizes down where possible. I was met with some resistance, and an argument that went something like “with all the broadband connections out there, why would we not allow for 50kb so that we can get the best image quality?”. My view on this is actually the other way around. Why would you not optimize your website wherever possible? Why not force the smaller file sizes (which were well within reason to begin with) so that page load, file storage, bandwidth, etc. can all benefit, even if just a tiny bit, from the savings. It all adds up.

Let me use an example outside of the web to draw a comparison. When Mazda was redesigning their latest model of the Miata MX5 a few years ago, they were faced with a car that was going to be larger, with more safety features, and would represent a vast improvement from the previous model. However, with a small, great handling car like the MX5, weight is the enemy – and this car could have easily gained hundreds of pounds through the model change. Mazda tasked all of their engineers and designers to shave weight wherever they could. They saved a few grams off of redesigning the rear view mirror, for example. They did this with hundreds of components within the car. In the end the new model only ended up weighing 27 pounds more than the previous model. An amazing accomplishment considering what was involved to get it there.

So back to my point. 20 or 30kb here or there may not seem like much. But when you account for thousands of page loads and potentially hundreds of banners, it eventually all ads up (pun intended). We should always adhere to best practices, even if technology seems to grant us more leeway than we are used to having.

Written by Matt Glaze

Continued lack of Flash support on the iPhone OS means it's time for web creators to adjust.

The recent unveiling of the iPad brought one glaring truth to the attention to the web community: Apple does not like Adobe. That might be a bit simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that the iPhone OS has never supported Flash and in the public unveiling of their new “magical” uber internet device, still no Flash support. Of course, Apple is the leader in controlled computing experiences, so it makes sense they would avoid Adobe’s technology, especially since it compromises the security and stability of their devices.

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