Some great thoughts from this past week. Enjoy.

1. Losing Our Perfect Games (Crave Something More): Being a former collegiate pitcher, you can imagine the various opinions and observations I’ve had over the Galarraga just-missed perfect game saga this past week. With a few days behind us now, I’m actually glad it happened. We’ve seen a graceful handling of a misfortune pretty much across the board. But I also enjoyed Chris Tomlinson’s take on the whole thing. Perspective truly makes all the difference.
2. Social Media “Prove It” Week (Spike Jones): The ever-cynical and uber-accountable Spike Jones launched his Social Media “Prove It” Week. The post is good, and the comments are even better.
3. SEOMoz Office Gets a New Do (SEOMoz.org): I love how the geniuses (geniui?) at SEOMoz pulled back the curtain and let us fans take a peek at their world. It’s a great example that fans really do want to know this stuff, so let them have it.
4. Polishing Turds (Seth Godin): OK, Seth’s use of the phrase “polishing turds” has stuck with me all week (no pun intended). I’m pretty sure this isn’t a new phrase, but used in context of his post, it somehow gains even more oomph. The point is valid and rampant: maybe your social media/content/PR/branding/SEO/viral/cause marketing campaigns aren’t working because they’re empty.

Similar Posts:

• Customers vs. Colleagues
• Gobbledygook, Bananas and Hallways: 9 Links Worth Your Time This Week
• Freakin’ Awesome Reading to End the Year With

Enjoy these five great posts I’ve read over the past couple weeks.

1. 50 Examples of Hand-Drawn Elements in Web Design: I love the emerging trend of incorporating true drawing into web design. It’s certainly not always appropriate or effective, but it really ups the ante on merging art and use.
2. The 8-Step SEO Strategy: This series by Laura Lippay over at SEOMoz is a great ‘day-in-the-life’ of a true SEO. Very enlightening …. and eye-crossing.
3. The Mercenary’s Guide to Internet Marketing: Nathan does an excellent job capturing the struggle many of us face as we try to balance doing something we enjoy and making money. It’s hard to know when you’ve crossed the line into whoredom. Nathan’s story is pretty telling.
4. 6 Reasons to Add LinkedIn to your Online Marketing: LinkedIn is a great social network, but network marketers can have trouble making it work for their business. It works best when treated with true professionalism, and – let’s face it – network marketers don’t always do that. Janette Stoll offers these tips on how to make it work in direct sales.
5. Recipe for Success: And finally, this succinctly poignant gem by Steve Woodruff. What more do you need to know?

Similar Posts:

• 4 Ways Network Marketers Should Use Social Media
• 2 Mind-Blowing Guest Posts You Can’t Miss
• LinkedIn vs. Facebook: Apples and Oranges?

My reading has been quite focused lately: social media. Enjoy some of the real nuggets I found over the past two weeks.

1. Why USANA is excited about social media: this guest post over on Jen Fong’s blog by Tim Haran is a great summary of what one direct sales company is doing with social media. I’m a HUGE fan of what Tim and team are doing over at USANA. One thing that really interested me is that even a company USANA’s size requires time to really get the ball rolling. I assume their fan page has been up a year or more, and they just crossed the 10k fan number (I think they’re past 11k now). It’s easy to think that everyone is going to flock to your fan page the minute it’s launched because they’re excited as you are about it, but it normally doesn’t work that way. Slow and steady wins this race.
2. 13 Ways Businesses Can Leverage Foursquare and Gowalla: New friend Mike Merrill offers this packed list on how to use these two new social media tools. I admit, I didn’t know the first thing about these apps until reading his post. I’m not sure if I’ll jump on the bandwagon, but I do admit that the platform is powerfully promising.
3. On Being the Message: Another friend (and one of DFW’s best kept online marketing secrets) Frank Barnett just launched a new blog, and I already love it. Frank has years of experience running hugely successful search campaigns, and it appears as though he’s gonna share a little bit of his brain with us. Lucky us.
4. Fact: the Hundred Facebook Friends You Have Aren’t Real: Gangway Advertising reminds us of a humbling truth: “with social media, mass numbers are empty.” Too true, and too different from our normal way of thinking. How do you keep yourself in check from chasing followers and friends instead of connections and conversations?
5. TheOatmeal.com: Co-worker Frank Taylor made the mistake of showing me this site earlier this week. I can’t leave it. It’s too freakin’ funny. Any site that boasts title like “How to Suck at Facebook,” “5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth,” and some saucy language about Pterodactyls is worth at least an hour of your time. And for those who know how, check out the source code of the home page. Genius.

Similar Posts:

• Exploiting vs. Exploring
• Are Your Social Media Efforts Doomed to Fail? – by Jen Fong
• The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing

Enjoy!

1. On Dying, Mothers and Fighting for Your Ideas: If you don’t read any other posts from this article, read this one. Jonathan Morrow’s story will pump you up and coax a tear from you all at the same time.
2. Social Media Marketing Explained in 61 Words: David Meerman Scott has summed it up about as well as anyone can. This should be part of any keynote speaker’s address when discussing social media.
3. 7 Ways to Use the Web Developer Toolbar for SEO: You can always count on SEOMoz to deliver some practical, hands-on advice that will make a difference right away. This post is no different.
4. #1 Social Media Mistake We All Make: “Would you do it in someone’s living room?” The Stuff Christians Like blog by Jon Acuff has quickly become one of my guilty pleasures. It’s normally not marketing focused, but when the topic of social media came up, I just had to share.
5. Papa Bill: I don’t need to worry about you: Another off-topic post, but what great reading. Derek Sivers is another new favorite of mine.

Similar Posts:

• How Followship Becomes Leadership
• Your Drive to Work
• Pastors, Churches and Social Media

I’ve been catching up in my Google Reader lately. Here are some real gems I read this week:

1. The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing: Sonia Simone at Copyblogger bluntly shares the facts we all need to face about social media. What I like most is how she makes it clear that using social media in and of itself is close to useless; integrating it as part of a full content marketing plan is where its true treasures lie.
2. Link Building Has Changed: Just when you started to get the hang of linkbait, things have changed. But this is a good thing: Google is always going to find ways to filter the tricksters. Are you one of them?
3. 5 Excellent Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Blog: Personally, I think one of the best uses of social media is as a distribution channel and aggregator to/for great content. Zach Browne of Vizion Interactive has some strong tips on using social networking for this very reason.
4. New Provisions Strengthen the DSA Code of Ethics: Amy Robinson of DirectSelling411.com (and the Direct Selling Association) summarized recent improvements to the DSA Code of Ethics.
5. Instructions Included: My buddy Steve Sammartino catches himself from an all-too-tempting “fix:” making an instruction manual for what shouldn’t need one. As he puts it, “If we need steps to explain how things work, the system is broken.” Couldn’t agree more.

Are you new here? Do what all the cool kids do and subscribe to the feed now to get Marketing In Progress delivered automatically to your inbox or RSS Reader.Similar Posts:

• Gobbledygook, Bananas and Hallways: 9 Links Worth Your Time This Week
• A Comment on Comments
• 2 Mind-Blowing Guest Posts You Can’t Miss

Here are a few of the great posts I starred on Twitter this week:

1. Commercial Accounts on Twitter (via @EagleChris): looks like Twitter has at least found one way to make a little cash. This sounds promising, and I’m eager to find out just how deep we can go into the analytics they offer.
2. How Chris Brogan Uses Facebook (via @BillHurlbut): It’s always fascinating to find out how the true savants of social media use these tools. Chris seems to use Facebook mostly for keeping up with friends rather than business reasons.
3. The Ideal Business Plan for Small Business (via @TheMarketingGuy): This is a perfect list to briefly make sure you’re covering all the bases.
4. 54 of Fortune 100 on Twitter (via @mackcollier): Here are some great stats on how the big dogs are using Twitter. I think people are jumping in just cuz everybody else is.
5. Case Study: Coca-Cola uses social media in recent launch (via @QSRweb): I love how more and more case studies are coming out on corporate use of social media.

Similar Posts:

• Exploiting vs. Exploring
• Twitter Power 2.0 by Joel Comm (Book Review)
• Stop Shouting on Twitter

Enjoy some great marketing, direct sales and marketing links from the past week.

1. Mantras vs. Mission Statements? How About a Passion Statement: Travis from Dahle Communication makes a plea to toss the ever-corporate, lifeless mission statement and replace it with a passion statement. I like this idea. What’s your passion statement?
2. Direct Sales meets Internet Marketing: the Network Marketing industry is changing at an astronomical pace, trying to figure out the most effective way to incorporate digital marketing tactics in a direct sales model. This interview between Laurie Ayers and Melody Thacker is pretty telling of what direct sellers are dealing with today.
3. MLM Company Internet Policy Changes: Sticking with the web and network marketers, one of the biggest challenges direct sales companies face today is how to regulate what their independent sales force says online. On the one hand, you want to leverage the strength in numbers, but how much can you allow? Eldon makes a suggestion to push your personal brand, not the company’s. I’m not sure I agree, but it’s an interesting take.
4. BMW’s ‘Checkmate’ billboard: This is just freakin’ awesome, and the Holy Cow guys love it so much they’ll do it for free. You have to see this picture.
5. Where is the Lagniappe in Your Marketing?: Lan what? Stan Phelps guest posts over at Drew’s Marketing Minute and makes the case for that little extra, unexpected something that makes all the different. And he uses a cool cajun word to describe it.
6. Three Grammar Rules You Can (and Should) Break: I love posts like this! Michelle Pierce covers three rules that I bet would have your grandma rolling over in her rocking chair if she heard you use them. And that’s sorta what makes it so fun.

Similar Posts:

• How Can Direct Sellers Use the Internet Best?
• The Difference Between Sales and Marketing, part 1
• Overcoming the 4 Fears of Starting a Business

Here are some great links to some hefty bloggy goodness from the past couple weeks:

1. Social Media Statistics: As 2009 continues to prove itself as “The Year of Twitter,” it’s truly awesome to see Facebook eclipse the 200 million user mark and Twitter grow at absolutely unbelievable paces. Great social media stats here, thanks to Social Media at Work.
2. The Law of Leadership by Jack Trout: As I not-so-eloquently tried to encapsulate last week, being first matters. This Trout truth still rings true today, and reading this post is an excellent reminder.
3. Top Gobbledygook phrases used in 2008 and how to avoid them: I always love looking through this list. I’m actually surprised “stimulus” and “bailout” didn’t make the list. It’s a shame that “innovate” is #1.
4. Best Packaging Ever: A banana? Really? Steve makes a pretty powerful case.
5. Ford Hands Over the Keys to Fiesta Marketing: I think Ford is doing a smart thing here, as hard as it might be for a behemoth of a company to do so. Could you hand over the keys to your product and see what people really thought of it?
6. What is Continuity, Anyway?: A great role-play of the seller’s mindset vs. the buyer’s mindset, and how it affects auto-ship programs in the direct selling industry.
7. Intentionally building communities (More hallway!): I just can’t seem to get through one of these lists without linking over to Godin. His analogy of the community built in the hallways at conferences really stuck with me. His point? How do you “amplify the real reason they exist even if it means abandoning some of the time-honored tasks you’ve embraced.
8. Investing in Content? Invest in Talent: Mark at Really Practical Marketing cites a recent Wired magazine article that proves that talent still matters . . .  maybe more than ever before.
9. How Google’s Rankings Algorithm Has Changed Over Time: If you’re gonna dance the Google dance, you gotta stay in touch with the rhythm. SEOmoz.org is a new favorite of mine, and this chart and post show quickly what’s important in the SEO area these days.

Similar Posts:

• 27 Things Companies Should NOT do with Social Media
• Customers vs. Colleagues
• Brogan on Facebook, Commercial Accounts on Twitter, and Biz Plans Done Right

Eight juicy tidbits from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy.

1. Stuff Christians Like. I’ve just stumbled upon this extremely entertaining blog by Prodigal John. A couple of posts that got me both thinking and laughing are his Great Sex! Flat Abs! and Jesus!, and his Understanding How Metrosexual Your Worship Leader Is.
2. Online MLM Sponsoring. Eldon at Network Marketing Now ponders whether MLM affiliate opportunities are really worth. On a bigger scale, I often wonder if direct sellers/network marketers on relying too much on the web. What’s your take?
3. Ignore Your Critics. Seth Godin asks who you should be paying close attention to. Your critics? Your fans? Or someone else . . . .
4. The $64,000 Question. How do you pin ROI on social media? Can we treat it the same way, in terms of analysis, as we do traditional media? David Reich of My Two Cents details an exchange with Lewis Green.
5. Lose Your Job, Get Your Offering Back. OK, the Hyundai Assurance Program is cool, but this is a really, really stupid idea. Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks.
6. Lego: the Greatest Business Cards Ever. Brilliant! I guarantee you no one just tosses these business cards to the curb.
7. Definitions and purposes. Bill’s Flashes of Insight are, well, insightful in the least. Read this. Marinate in it. Apply. Repeat.
8. 5 Tips on Creating a Good Logo. Sometimes I think logo design is taken way, WAY too seriously, and yet the basics are still so often overlooked. Drew at his Marketing Minute encapsulates the must-have’s for any good logo (then offers up a freebie).

Similar Posts:

• 2 Mind-Blowing Guest Posts You Can’t Miss
• Should Churches Bother With Marketing?
• Overcoming the 4 Fears of Starting a Business

OK, I haven’t passed along some great links in a LONG time, so here’s to catching up. This stuff is really, really good. 

1. I Love Lists. Written by Todd Andrlik, this post is half enlightening commentary, half resourceful list . . . of lists. Definitely worth checking out just to link on to the lists he lists. 
2. Watch the Road, not the Ditch. Indexed is always sure to please. This one I found especially funny. 
3. I’m Not Going to Say Anything (a Simpsons spoof on Apple). This is just funny in a way that only the Simpsons can do it. 
4. 10 Surefire Steps to Beating Blogger’s Block. Orna at CopyBlogger offers up this sensible list of ideas to get the thoughts on the screen. Too many times, people post up the same ol’ stuff about coming up with fresh content, but this has some real meat to it. 
5. How Long Does It Take to Become a Social Media Expert? This one might cross your eyes, but then again it might also encourage the heck out of ya. Forget social media; you could be closer to “expert” status in your field than you think. 
6. The marketplace is the outside world, not your comfortable office. David Meerman Scott, one of my new favorite pontificators, covers several areas in this post. The money quote: “When I worked as a VP-leval marketing positions for several very large companies, I spent a lot of time focused inward. But in the small organizations I worked for, I was focused on the marketplace. ”
7. Great Work from Craig. This is simply too entertaining to not pass along, from Steve Sammartino at Start Up Blog. 
8. Mark Batterson on Church Growth. The money quote: “I’m not concerned about church growth. I’m concerned about personal growth. And if you’re experiencing personal growth, church growth will take care of itself.” There’s an element to that which doesn’t just apply to churches, methinks. From ChurchMarketingSucks.com
9. Handling Price Objections. A nice approach to something we all deal with, from Results with Radio. 
10. Blogs are your best search marketing investment. From Andy Sernovitz, about Jeremiah Owyang. The truth shall set you free. 

Similar Posts:

• Twitter Lists, How Do I Love Thee?
• “Don’t Drink Piss”
• Pastors, Churches and Social Media