This week’s collection of good reading doesn’t easily fall into any one category. We cover marriage, digital generations and lots of other stuff. So take it for what it’s worth, but know you’ll be smarter for reading it. Enjoy. Practicing Marriage, by Jon Swanson: If there’s one thing I’ve personally learned in my almost 7 [...]
It’s great being a goofball. It’s even better being a goofball with a guitar. But it’s completely AWESOME when you can be a goofball with a guitar with a friend and business colleague at an industry event.
As I recently wrote about, my summer has been a busy one, and it started with the Direct Selling Association annual conference in Miami. Many of you already know of Jen Fong, the social media expert of the direct selling industry (as well as frequent commenter and guest poster here at MiP). But did you know she’s got the ghost of Pat Benatar hiding deep within her soul, and it came rushing out at the DSA’s Got Talent event at the convention this year?
You are someone’s expert, and someone’s student.
You are someone’s hero, and someone’s enemy.
You are coveted by some, and pitied by others.
You are targeted by some, and ignored by others.
At the beginning.
Technology shouldn’t matter at the beginning of your planning stage. This is where a lot of people screw things up. An idea is sparked, and everyone immediately jumps to what technology can currently do.
Our system doesn’t work like that.
Those two things aren’t integrated.
Let’s make the Facebook Fan Page do this.
Social media marketing has now become an integral part of business processes and it is important that business owners take proper advantage of these tools if they want to take their business to new heights. In the following article I will be offering some tips on how businesses can use social media to build customer [...]
Have you heard the latest uproar over Mark Cuban’s recent blog post? It’s been a while since the Benefactor stirred the digital pot, so it’s nice to know he’s still got the touch. And this latest post had to do with new media and the locker rooms.
Essentially, Cuban made this point in his opening paragraph:
In the year 2011, I’m not sure I have a need for beat writers from ESPN.com, Yahoo, or any website for that matter to ever be in our locker room before or after a game. I think we have finally reached a point where not only can we communicate any and all factual information from our players and team directly to our fans and customers as effectively as any big sports website, but I think we have also reached a point where our interests are no longer aligned. I think those websites have become the equivalent of paparazzi rather than reporters.
If you’ve read anything about increasing your blog traffic, there’s no doubt you’ve heard at least one piece of tried-and-true advice:
People love lists.
In fact, I bet you’ve heard it so much that you don’t want to hear it anymore. I bet you want to hear something new. I bet you want to challenge the status quo.
But before you do …
I noticed sidebar of Copyblogger.com the other day, where it lists the most popular posts on the site. It’s a list of what I would assume are the top 30 posts on the site.
I received a tweet from a friend lately that I feel captures what many of us deal with on a regular basis. In response to something I wrote on selling and marketing not being the same thing, my friend said this:
I keep trying to explain this to Dad. As a good salesman, he thinks being good at marketing means being good at sales. Sigh.
Yep, we marketers deal with confusion over what is what all the time. I know my mom typically calls it all “promotion.” Others use the term “marketing” when they’re actually talking about “selling.” Then too many others think “marketing” is essentially just “advertising.”
Sigh.
It happens.
People get fired. Good people. Sometimes for good reasons. Sometimes not so much. But it happens.
In fact, I’m betting you know someone who’s been fired recently. Someone who sat nearby. Maybe a boss. Maybe it was you.
I had a colleague and friend recently let go, and I found myself wanting to help as much as I possibly could. Which is the normal reaction, I suppose. Unfortunately, what that normally leads to is just a bunch of “wanting” and not a lot of “doing.”
So here are some things I figured I could do to help my friend out that I thought were worth passing along.
When working with clients, I always tell them that they need to be themselves when they are speaking. While we should look up to people and try to emulate some of what they do, trying to copy someone else will make you come off as insincere and your credibility will decrease. Just be yourself and you will do just fine.
This thought came to me twice during the Super Bowl ads – and they both happened to be featuring Eminem.
