Do You Trust Advertising or Friends?

What's the first thing you do when you see an interesting ad? You call a friend to see if they will validate the product or service.  We have always looked to our friends to get their opinions because we know their frame of reference and we trust them.  With the advent of social media this […]

Read the full article

The Easiest Internet Marketing Mistake to Fix

It’s your signature. While many of us communicate more than we ever imagined via messages on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and many other networks, we still rely on email as our main communication stream. Regardless of your social media savvy, you will surely agree that you still send more business proposals via email than any other […]

Read the full article

My No-Risk Business Model for This Economy

This is the time of year when you are finishing up, actively involved with, or at least thinking about your business plans for next year.  If you have been in business for a while, you know with certainty that business in the future will be dramatically different as a result of at least two influences […]

Read the full article

What You Should Do When You Get Here

What is social media?  This is a question that I am asked to address in too many of my presentations.  It's a question that makes me want to stick a fork in my ear.  Maybe the reason is that you can easily learn the basics of this topic and any other by jumping on the […]

Read the full article

Here's What You Should Blog About

What should I blog about? This is the most frequent inquiry I get from clients.  Do you know why this is such an interesting question?  Because you can blog about anything you please, notwithstanding a few guidelines that were recently laid down by the FTC.  New bloggers are like kids in the candy store with […]

Read the full article

Engaging with Communities

Many of us in the United States will be reengaging with our regular business communities after nearly a week of visiting or hosting family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  This ritual will again be repeated for a number of upcoming holidays, depending upon your faith, upbringing and background, and if you travel to warmer climates during […]

Read the full article

Viral Thanks-Giving: The Power of Social Media

One measure of the value of social media is how it helps our friends, and in turn helps their friends. During this Thanksgiving season it is easy to to be thankful for family, as we should.  We interact with our family members on a regular basis.  They know us  We see ourselves in them, and […]

Read the full article

The New Playground – A Digital Conference Collaboration

This weekend I was very excited to wake up to a surprise in my inbox -  my advance copy of Google Wave.   I have to be honest, Google Wave doesn't make much of a first impression.  It is an uninspiring template that you have to learn to love.  Here is my suggestion on how to […]

Read the full article

Writing My First Book: A Fortnight of Lessons

On this day I had promised all of you that I would have the first draft of my book completed, all 60,000 words.  While I have only 30,000 to my credit, I didn't actually get started writing until after the first week.  This became the most important lesson of this little endeavor.  It isn't that […]

Read the full article

Every Great Performance Starts Back Stage

Entrepreneurs and small business owners understand that the product, the performance, the end-game – whatever you wish to call it, requires a well planned back-stage effort.  This is the one of the greatest challenges with social media marketing.  Before the audience or customer can enjoy the performance, which is the delivery of your product or […]

Read the full article