According to a recent Survey by IDG, iPad use is growing among IT pros.  In fact iPad use has seen huge growth in business in general.

What this means is that many of people you are trying to reach have iPads, or will be getting them shortly. 67% of Professionals in the US use their iPad at work.  According to the survey.

IT and business professionals use their iPads more intensively, across a wider range of scenarios. Fully 51% of IT decision-makers say they “always” use their iPad at work (and a further 40% say they sometimes use it at work). Out-of-home usage is even more intense, with 79% of IT decision-makers saying that they “always” use their iPads “on the move”.

It’s becoming an app-centric world and if you want to compete, you need to be able to reach people with apps.

How does this play in regards to which platform to develop in?

I read another interesting article yesterday and it talked about the importance of the app stores (Apple, Google, or Amazon) and the lack of app stores for HTML 5/JS mobile apps.  Some companies are trying to circumvent the app stores by deploying standards based mobile application.  The problem with it is not a technological one in terms of getting adoption for their app.  The problem is a business problem.  There is no centralized app store for Standards Based apps, so they are difficult to find.  The app stores have such tight integration into the host operating system that just finding those other apps, as good as they may be, becomes much harder.

So what’s The Rub

Businesses have decisions to make.The choice of platform depends on where your audience is, what devices they have, and how they use them.  These are decisions that need serious consideration as more and more businesses decide to move into the app world.  The iPad is certainly a great platform to deploy to.  It has wide acceptance with both consumers and business professionals.  Is it the best platform for any app? Not necessarily.  Again it depends on your target market, where they go, what they are doing, and what devices they are doing it with.

Like Janus, The Voice looks both forward and back

January is named for Janus, the Roman two-faced god. One looks forward, to the new year. The other, back to the year past.

The Voice also has a split personality. One side are senior folk who know what they are doing. The other side of the coin is emerging talent, often as green as a field.

Do clients care? They certainly care about the senior talent. Customers want to “fly with eagles” as one peer recently said. They want best-in-class solutions from seasoned professionals, Do they care about the jr. talent? Sometimes. Occasionally there is a perceived notion that with new heads comes fresh thinking. Often customers are altruistic, believing that our apprentices should “get a shot.”

The interns in our model certainly don’t grow our business, from an advertising agency POV. But it is what we are all about. The Voice was founded 10 years ago to address a need: give emerging talent the chance to work on real projects for actual clients. To date, over 35 interns have come through our program. We will continue to evolve and grow to provide even more opportunity to them. The rest of us will have to accept our role as the older guy of Janus.

2012 will be the year that online advertising will outsell print advertising.  What does that mean for your business?

For many business it means that they will be more visible.  Properly targeted ads which is the strongest positive for online advertising, means that marketers can use their dollars more wisely.  As online advertising providers like Google, continue to improve their models and technologies for targeting ads, and as mobile grows this presents great opportunities for smart businesses to create new customers.

This also means that if you’re advertising but you’re not buying online advertising you are missing the boat. It means that your competitors have an opportunity to steal your customers by providing them with the right offers and buying opportunities, especially with mobile.  This last holiday season taught us that consumers buying from their iPads spent roughly 30% more than their non-iPad counterparts who were shopping from their desktops.

Targeted ads are one factor.  But another important factor is that you still need to grab your customer’s attention.  You still need to have well crafted ads that look good and connect with your audience.  This requires good design and execution (including strong SEO and SEM strategies), and is something that we work closely with our clients to achieve.  Great design, research and execution can make the most of your advertising dollars.

“In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment. “  Charles Darwin ~ British Naturalist and Author (1809 – 1882)

Adapt or perish – it’s not only the rule in nature, but in business as well.  All of a sudden, companies were “forced” in the late nineties and the early 21^st century to have a web presence.  Now, that same shift in how companies communicate to other businesses and their consumers has taken a quantum leap.  The power of social media can propel your message across the world in a matter of seconds, and it seems every company has to manage their presence on that front.

Where companies were previously seen as not serious about their business if they didn’t have a website, the same is true now in respect to social media.  The problem we see with many businesses is that they have waited so long to get started that they are behind the curve.

There are so many daunting aspects to social media and the technology involved that many people tasked with managing this part of their business have turned to social media marketing companies.  These “experts” have been popping up with great frequency over the last few years.  Furthermore, all it seems to become an expert all you have to do is to say you are an expert.

Usually, when someone has to tell you they are nice person the exact opposite is true.  The same goes for many of these social media experts.  While they may have a good grasp on the technology involved with Facebook, Twitter, and the rest, do they have a proven track record on how companies market and advertise?  Have they worked with companies helping them to market and sell B-to-B and B-to-C?  What do they advise once they have set up your social media sites?

These are all questions one has to ask before engaging a consultant.  While social media seems to be the new trend, don’t get fooled into spending thousands of dollars with a company just because they know the technology.  Make sure they are adept at marketing and have a proven track record of growing their client’s businesses.  Make sure they can show results.