There’s an interesting trend on Facebook. People use their real names and talk about real life events. While many of these same people want to be anonymous on most of the internet, they let those barriers down on Facebook. And it may be, in part, due to the fact that much of Facebook’s information is not available to search engines. Users can restrict their profiles to be seen by friends only. And that makes them more comfortable with sharing personal information.
On the other hand, there’s Google. You need SEO, page rank, and search results with Google. People only find you …read more

Bloggers can be an important part of your marketing plan. If you use a blog on your company site, hiring a blogger makes sense. Your blog stays regularly updated in a professional manner. And yes, you should absolutely give fair compensation to a writer in this capacity (as you would in any other business writing situation).
But what about when you try to get a blogger to write about you on their own blog? Or when you ask them to do a giveaway of your product? Do you compensate them at that point?
Think about this — do you compensate any PR …read more

The customer you are seeking is smart, savvy and knows what she wants, correct? So then why is it that you disrespect her at every turn, treating her like she’s stupid? Instead, you really need to respect your customer’s intelligence.
Remember my recent complaints about annoying infomercial practices? They bother me because they don’t respect the knowledge and abilities of their customers. They basically treat them like idiots. And I don’t know about you, but I roll my eyes at them every time. I can’t help it. Do you want your customers to believe that you think they’re stupid?
Then stop treating …read more

Have you ever tried to plan a road trip to a new destination without a map? It’s a little tough if you don’t know where you’re going, or even which direction to head in. It’s the same for your business. You need to know the plan for your company — and that includes marketing.
A marketing plan is a road map for growing your business. And if you’re a small business or a start-up, you need to plan your marketing strategy. You don’t have the money to throw at various marketing endeavors. You need to plan where you’ll spend your marketing …read more