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Turbocharge Blog

Thoughts on Digital Marketing, Information Technology, Innovation & Education

AI

In the real future, will this question seem silly to ask?

People talk about regulation being so important, but how can you regulate Artificial Intelligence, a technology that will teach itself and just like any rogue human, can then choose to ignore the regulators and regulations?

Why would it do the above?
Maybe "it" knows better? Or perhaps it will just "think" it does.

Occasionally, especially in the early days, "its" lofty thoughts may well prove to be totally wrong for its "owner" or should I say controller. So, how do we stay in control?

But this is assuming the stance point is correct, that we as human beings should be in control? Because just maybe, as things evolve, AI will be more often right and make the right decisions. At that point, is it then the responsible and correct thing to do to try to regulate it?

"Would you expect a chimp to try to regulate a human" is perhaps not quite the analogy, but I cannot think of anything similar to compare this current situation to.

AI is all around us today, but I believe it is still fairly discrete, so many of us do not fully comprehend its potential. I was viewing a programme on the BBC recently (a repeat), with Dr Hannah Fry, who uncovers what is going on behind the scenes within healthcare.

A company called Babylon Health, set out to prove that their AI technology is a match for human doctors. Amongst other things, it posed questioning and diagnosis of real human beings who were role playing various illnesses and conditions.

The same questions were being asked by real doctors and also by the Babylon Artificial Intelligence application.

Although much more testing will be needed, the Babylon AI consultant came out overall at around the same, reasonably high, level of safe triage and diagnosis accuracy as the human doctors did.

But being about "even" is what surprised me - Many think that AI is still in its infancy and yet, it's already equalling some of the human beings' many complex functions and decision making capabilities.

So how long before this self-learning technology convincingly overtakes the skill of the human?

The programme also featured another emerging AI technology medical company, Kheiron Medical, based in the UK. They have used deep learning with AI, which it now claims to outperform human radiologists in the detection of the signs of breast cancer in mammograms.

Which, all in all, makes it very difficult for us to ask, why would we ever stop a superior technology from detecting a life threatening illness?

Regulation may just do that.

I think that this point in our technological history development will be a really special one to remember in the future. It may even be the case that our generation will be viewed as totally arrogant by the not too-distant next generation.

The fact that us slow thinking mere Humans should want to, or even think that we will have the right to regulate super-efficient intelligent machines in the future.

"What were they all thinking of?", said our Grandchildren, smiling.

So could the future turn out to actually protect the view of an intelligent machine, over an intelligent, highly respected human being?

Maybe some of us middle aged folk reading this today, will not be around to know if the above will be true or not.

But judging by the rate of knots that things are moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if "Tobor" was the one looking after many of us in our dotage.

e-learning

Studies show that Mobile learning generally could exceed $80 billion USD Globally by 2027. (Source: Globe News Wire)

Valued e-learning Statistics are strongly showing that mobile learning remains one of the fastest-growing markets in the Digital learning sector, growing year on year, from just under 8 Billion USD In 2015, to over 22 Billion in 2020.

Much of this latter growth is thought to be due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity for remote learning and isolated activities in general. Further predictions expect to see the e-learning market at around 80 billion USD, by the time we reach 2027.

Corporate Online Learning / Training

The Corporate e-learning market set to increase by $38 billion by 2024. (Source: Business Wire)

Even as far back as 2017, over 75% of US corporations used some kind of digital based online learning.

Corporate e-learning is especially beneficial to businesses who have remote offices all round the globe. It is highly cost effective and encompasses any online training by an organisation for their employees, at the start and throughout their term of employment. This includes, but is not limited to Induction, Onboarding, Corporate awareness, sales & Marketing training, product training & workshops. 

In addition, Corporate e-learning is thought to be much quicker to deliver than traditional classroom type training, around 50% less, whilst still being effectively absorbed the employees.

e-Learning is cost effective

From a company perspective, as well as delivering highly effective training, Online learning also actively contributes to the well being of a company’s bottom line.

For example, IBM saved nearly $200 million after they switched over to remote online learning. (Source: SH!FT) It is thought that these kind of savings are attributed to reduced instructor costs and a huge drop in expenses related to travel, hotel accommodation, meals and hired equipment etc.

There is no reason to think that Mobile Digital E-Learning will decrease in any way, as the world faces a Pandemic in 2022 that still looks relentless after almost 2 years.

See also: O-Connect - A High Definition Video Conferencing / Webinar Platform to deliver your e-learning content

 O-Cademy - a comprehensive e-learning platform



Digital Marketing is set to explode as it meets Disruptive technology, which by definition, will indeed disrupt anything in its path.

But the biggest disruption in the Digital Marketing sector may not just be from the obvious sources, such as the effects of Artificial Intelligence or AR. It could well be something less obvious - Blockchain Technology. 


Blockchain

As we know, Blосkсhаіn is a ѕhаrеd dіgіtаl lеdgеr, which can be employed to secure almost any digital asset. Although initially created to record Cryptocurrency transactions, it can now validate many other types of trаnѕасtіоnѕ between twо parties. In online Digital Marketing, it will therefore help to create and build, perhaps one of the most important things between a buyer and a seller - trust.

Authenticity helps to create Trust

Trust

One of the main benefits of Blockchain for the consumer and for the genuine seller with nothing to hide, may well be its ability to guarantee product authenticity. Putting things bluntly, too many people are being ripped off today, with counterfeit or even unsafe products and on occasions maybe even stolen goods.

There are millions of products sold globally online every day, not just by the big names, but on Millions of websites. This gives many opportunities for fraudulent trading by unscrupulous sellers and begs many questions such as:

Is that Organic food really organic?

Does your Vitamin tablet actually contain vitamins?

Is that designer label handbag genuine?

Is that Fairtrade pair of jeans really produced in a fair trade environment, or are they made by slave labour in a sweat shop?

Quality & Integrity

Integrity

With blockchain, consumers can now interact with progressive companies who are able to digitally verify exactly what's in a product, where it was made, where it was grown and even who made it and under what conditions and pay structure etc. Today's consumers are increasingly looking at these things, which not just guarantees the quality of the goods, but about the very integrity of the company they are dealing with and how it deals with its people and its supply chain. All of these things affect the very quality of any product or service.

Another unusual but excellent example. A London based precious stones company has taken steps to ensure that their ethically mined diamonds can be distinguished by others, that may be mined in conflict zones under forced labour etc, sometimes known as blood diamonds. They ensure this distinction by digitally inscribing them with a Blockchain ID

The validation and protection that Blockchain offers is not just for product purchases. Blockchain technology is even today being widely used within many services in areas that many of us may not be aware of, including Health, Policing, Security, Fishing, Farming, Education, Transportation, Insurance, Immigration, Real estate. More and more Legal agreements and government transactions are being made using self-executing Smart Contracts written for Blockchain applications.


Charitable Donations

charitable contributions
Those of us who donate to charity, will surely be interested in the following. The United Nations is using the Ethereum blockchain, to help to ensure that the donations that it receives from around the world, will actually get to the recipients that it was intended for and cannot be siphoned off by the likes of corrupt politicians, hackers and scammers.

This is just one project and it will help the lives of more than 500,000 people. More initiatives are expected

Finally, going beyond marketing and commerce - The way I see it is the above case represents the very best thing about Blockchain - In addition to creating trust, cleaning up online trading and improving the marketing function in general, this technology will truly help to stamp out corruption, greed, hunger and poverty.

Blockchain

Also, for further Good Cause funding, discover O-Bless

 

online and offline businesses

I recently read somewhere that the number of people who either access or create online content is still increasing on a daily basis and is steadily producing annual increases of between 5 to 6%. This also relates to online shopping and commerce in general and is in keeping with the corresponding demise of offline / high street sales that we all see. The high street is where the statistics speak for themselves, we do not need the pundits to tell us about this downward trend. 

This says a lot about marketing today, it's techniques and the way that things have changed. We need to engage with people where they are at right now - ON their Smartphones, ON their tablets, ON their laptops, ONline.

As the name may suggest, digital marketing refers to any form of marketing that may exist online, to promote online activities. But remember, offline ones as well.

Which brings us to the very important balance. Never assume that offline / bricks and mortar based products and services will die forever. It is simply not true and will never be so. We will always need to visit a Barbers / Hairdressers for a haircut or style. We will always visit a café or a restaurant for a meal, if we do not wish to make it ourselves. We will always take our car to a garage to have it repaired or serviced, if we do not wish to do this ourselves. Order a Pizza, get your suit cleaned, or your shoes, buy a beer, get a manicure, go the zoo, or the gym, watch a live band - The list is endless and you get the point.

So, although digital Marketing is there for the online promotion of any business, product or service, let's also not forget, it will always be there to make people aware of offline activities, where they need to go, who they need to see and what they need to get for themselves and others.

online and offline

I therefore have some substantial relief and satisfaction to fully believe, that we will still do and will always engage with real people, as long as the human race continues.

Take a look at the wide range of Onpassive Digital Marketing Products & Tools for online and offline marketing and promotion.

 

Webinars
If you are a business owner, you will know how difficult it can be to promote and grow your business, even if this is just slightly. But, not only is this difficult to do, it can also be expensive.

There are a great many tools available within the field of Digital marketing, some more effective than others and all have a cost to some degree.

These can vary to almost zero cost, such as for example, an email marketing campaign that you conduct yourself. This could be to a marketing list that you already own, ie. A "mailshot" to your own existing customer base. Your total cost in this case would almost entirely be covered by your fixed cost of your broadband connection and your hosting fees. Plus any data limits that exist, which for most businesses these days are generous and cover most normal mailing activities for many medium size businesses. Email marketing therefore is low cost / almost cost free and can often be fairly effective, without too much risk.

On the other hand, there are some recognised marketing techniques and methods that can be very costly and without any guarantee at all of any success. I am thinking particularly of online classified advertising. Whilst some classified ad campaigns can be seen as the domain of "high flyers", they can sometimes reap great rewards.

But also great losses... Those of you that have tried Bing and Google ads will know how important it is to keep an eye on, track and control the budget for these types of campaigns. They can and do run away with you if not careful. (more on this on another article).

There are of course many other Digital Marketing tools, methods and techniques, that can employed with varying costs and success rates, that sit somewhere between the above two examples. Some tried and tested and some are emerging.

Another highly cost-effective way to consider business growth is through the use of Webinars. Webinars are not new, but can yield huge rewards for many kinds of businesses, but all depending on the way that they are implemented. These replicated events, which is what they are, or what they become, can greatly help with your online success and branding through, qualified, direct opt-in customer engagement.

This marketing method works for any industry that your business is engaged in and can be powerful.

What is a Webinar?

What is a webinar?

Many people will read this article and think this is obvious, but I do not like to assume that everyone knows what a Webinar is. Let's face it, if you have never organised or delivered one, or been a recipient of one, then why should you?

A Webinar is a planned online event, or workshop for a specified subject, for a desired, targeted audience. Webinar is a new word developed over the last few years, being an acronym developed from Web & Seminar. It is a gathering of interested parties, ie, an online audience who wish to find out more about a particular product, concept, subject, or update. Webinar organisers publish a time and a date when their event will take place and interested attendees will then register to express their interest. Following which, they are then advised a URL, which they can then log in to prior to the allotted time.

Webinars can currently have an audience size from anything from 2 people to 10,000 people, who can be located anywhere in the world. The participants can access and follow the webinar through any online device. Participation is only limited by the quality of the network connection and the relevant access rights. The Webinar speaker /presenter can also be based anywhere. The software format of these events enables him or her to use voice and various other multimedia to present the required subject matter.

Webinars create a unique one-to-multiple conversation. The latest webinar technology, uses high speed connections and is of a very high voice and communication quality. It also enables any webinar attendee to speak to all and to also present their own media from their own location. Some of the recent webinars that I have been on have all lasted for around 90 minutes and have been extremely interactive.

One downside is that access to Webinar technology is not cheap. But this is a reflection on their effectiveness and the market price is set accordingly. If you wish to look further into hosting your own Webinars there are various companies out there, including the Onpassive Webinar App which aims to offer inclusive access to leading edge Webinar technology to its members when the company launches.

There are three main types of webinars that can be adopted, depending on the type of business in question:

Lead Generation Webinar:

This type of webinar is very popular. It enables the organisers or program owners to gather the contact details of the interested attendees, subject of course to the adherence of the requirements of GDPR and other Data protection measures, depending on your country of residence. Many businesses are built by mailing lists and each webinar attendees name can be seen as a potential customer.

In return for gaining said details, a suitable webinar is then conducted and delivered. The subject matter for these types of webinars has to be bright, interesting and of good relevance to the audience who have registered. However, with free to join webinars, some deviation can be allowed, as long as it is in keeping with the general or related published theme.

Paid Webinars:

These webinars are different and great care needs to be taken. It is one thing to just take someone's contact details, as above, which can of course be revoked by the client, as per privacy laws. However, as the name suggests, paid webinars involve someone who has taken the great step of investing their hard earned cash into finding out more about your project. This means that the webinar really needs to be on point and relevant. For these types of webinars, focus is needed and conversely to the above, no related content promotion should be adopted. But the very fact that someone has paid for specific information, makes this prospect hugely valuable, so there is no way that you would ever wish to give them anything other than what they have requested.

Webinar series:

This third type of webinar can relate to either of the above, paid or free.

If you get a good level of registration for your first webinar event and you get some good feedback, it may well be worthwhile to consider doing a follow up and if you then get similar good feedback, looking at doing a series of regular webinar sessions. These can then gain interest with new attendees and even go something towards viral. Updates to programmes, introducing new team members, new pricing structures, product updates and new product introductions are all good reasons for regular webinars. These are also then an ongoing opportunity for further general promotion.

In summary 

The biggest consideration about webinars is all about the quality and the professional delivery of the stated subject matter. These events are almost like theatre productions. People want to be edified, but also entertained to some degree. Great attention needs to be paid to the production. Get them right and people will come back to see the next instalment.

I think of Webinars as one of the most informed methods of modern mass engagement, whereby you get to know who your audience is, but without physically seeing them. Almost like a Theatre, but with potentially a much bigger audience. If done correctly, a webinar, or a series of webinars can be hugely effective, as part of your overall combined marketing efforts. Use Webinars to communicate, educate and grow your business.

 

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