News : Small Business Marketing

7 Stages of the Content HourglassThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The need to produce content in marketing has grown so foundational that you can’t really get through a day without hearing about it, reading about it and perhaps stressing out about it. Marketers are beginning to think and ...

Have you wanted to attend a Tweet Chat but weren’t sure how it worked?  You are not alone, my friend.  Let me see if I can boil it down.

Bing has quietly added a new feature to the Bing Business Portal (BBP) that lets local businesses accept orders from mobile searchers using smartphones.

The Single Most Important Word In Any BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I want to ask you to take a little test. Go out and grab five or six of your best customers and pose this question to them: What’s one word you would use to describe how you think about our organization? The abi...

I’ve written before about Yelp advertising, but not to the depth that Rocky Agrawal has been writing about it in recent days. And most of what he’s writing isn’t positive.

Back in the day, if you wanted to know how successful your marketing had been you had to use expensive and time-consuming analysis.

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Foursquare Turns Into Powerful Local Search EngineThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Between you and me I had become a little bored with Foursquare. I think it has application for many small businesses and certainly know some businesses that use it quite well. As a consumer user however, it ne...

This seems to be a question that torments organizations of all kinds and size. What is the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement? Here’s how we explain it to clients: Your mission is what you do best every single day, and your vision is what the future will be like beca...

Last week, I received an email pitch from a PR agency looking to feature their client on my blog. The pitch was friendly enough, but had one glaring error. Here’s the pitch: Hi Danny, Thanks to social giant Klout, Badgeville gamification customers can now associate a numeric score with social...

Weekend Favs February EighteenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The...

I saw an article not long ago that had some terrific advice about writing great blog posts. But I didn’t agree with the main premise. The point of the article was something along the lines of how to hit a home run with every blog post your write. Here’s my thing: I don’t want eve...

There Can Be No Real Commitment Until You Surrender All DoubtThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing mirandiki via Flickr CCThere can be no life, passion or purpose in a business that lacks commitment. It’s just too hard otherwise. I’ve stated here before that I believe commitment or failure t...

5 Ways to Use Social Media and Your Online Presence to Drive People OfflineThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing No matter what your business sells, how it sells it or how and where people buy you it, people are going online to find it, pure and simple. That’s as true for those one of kind hand...

While many of the tips on blog resource sites concentrate on “personal blogging”, many can be transferred to a more business-minded blog. Yet what about corporate blogs, where many of the tips given might not apply, or come up against everyone’s favourite, the Red Tape Roadblock? Can generic...

Free Handbook: 7 Apps That Will Change The Way You Do MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing There’s always more to do than time to do it these days. That’s why I love discovering new tools and apps that help me get it all done. I also love to share what I find and so I teamed...

How To Make Yourself More Attractive to Potential PartnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing About once a week I receive an email or phone message that goes something like this: “I really like your site, I think we have a lot of synergies, we should get on the phone or go to lunch and explor...

Color (or the lack of color) triggers a very powerful emotional response in us.  We can use insight as we select company colors, design logos, create ads, build websites and even create products.

I used Twitter and Google+ to survey my followers on Friday about the somewhat common practice of retweeting when you get included in someone else’s Friday Follow (#FF) tweet. Several dozen replies came in (see below) and the overwhelming response is that it’s a bad idea.

For most (if not all) bloggers, one of the key metrics on how their blog has grown comes from how many readers it has. These don’t necessarily have to be subscribers, either, although I’m a fan of subscribers being more a metric than readers for success, since these are folks that are investing...

Weekend Favs February ElevenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The p...

With the volume of emails we all get every day, we can’t afford to let our emails go unattended.  We don’t want the people who email us to think we’re ignoring them, so if we’re going to be out of the office — most of us use some sort of an automated response system.

I’ve been meaning to write something about Manta’s local business directory for a little while now, primarily because I see it showing up more and more in local “place / category” search results. (They have some sharp SEOs from what I understand…)

Seeing Beyond the NumbersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Greg Cabtree (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Woodlouse via Flick CCTraditional accounting pr...

Time for this week’s update on my wife’s merged Google Places listings nightmare. This is the third installment, and things have gotten slightly better since the last update.

If you follow any brand news in social media, you’re probably aware of the criticism Toyota has been receiving over its Superbowl Twitter campaign. If you haven’t heard about it, Toyota wanted to promote its new Camry range, so it started numerous Twitter accounts to send tweets to peo...

How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral GeneratorThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve seen and heard this scenario countless times. Two perfectly suited strategic partners determine they should start doing some things together in an effort to create referral opportunities for each other...

There are a lot of national advertisers/marketers who should be, but aren’t, taking full advantage of the most basic local search marketing tactics. That’s the main conclusion to be drawn from a new study by GMS Local.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink.  And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control.

Turn Your Business Into a Community Building PlatformThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe the future of business and commitment building resides in the idea of viewing your business as a platform for your community. The notion of a platform is one that receives a fair amount of play i...

Sometimes you can spot a fake review a mile away. (Remember that old post about the fake florist reviews in California?) But some of the services that offer phony reviews for a small fee are getting smarter and less obvious about their spammy ways.

Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You ExpectedThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Quipol Image:One-Fat-Man via Flickr CC The poll question above is a bit loaded and, not that I want to skew the results, the answer for most lies in the fact that they don’t really know what results th...

Hey there! So I really wanted to add the Something Borrowed option too, but couldn’t think of anything, so the three in the title will have to do. So… It’s been a little quiet here last week, since Kevin Green’s great guest post about LinkedIn (and if you haven’t read ...

Does your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment?

This Is a Message from Your HeartThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I had a heart scan the other day – mainly because I’m old and my spouse is convincing in the most loving way. a4gpa via Flickr CCIf you’ve never done it, it’s a pretty incredible experience to get to watch the awes...

Weekend Favs February FourThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The pho...

Relevant web pages. Relevant title tags. Relevant meta descriptions. Relevant copywriting. You’ve heard it a million times, right? I’m guilty of talking about relevance to pretty much every SEO client I’ve ever had.

A couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art.  Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitc...

Does Your Marketing Make the GradeThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Laura Fitton (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) A number of years ago Hubspot created ...

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during January. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

What Say You About Scheduled TweetsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Yesterday’s post about using a tool called Buffer to schedule Tweets throughout the day had some folks cheering and some folks suggesting that scheduled Tweets ruined the conversation on Twitter and were kind of bot li...

The fun continues with my wife’s business listing in Google Places! As expected, Google has unmerged her listing with the Windermere Real Estate office in Richland. But it’s since re-merged the listing and created an even bigger mess. Ready to follow along?

This is a guest post by Kevin Green. Would anyone be really upset if LinkedIn’s .com destination up and disappeared tomorrow? It’s safe to assume that recruiters scouring the site for new talent and current shareholders would be pretty peeved, even if the stock (LNKD) is trading at half price f...

Erica’s note: This is a guest post from Jaime Tardy, who blogs at EventualMillionaire.com. I thought it would be interesting to get some perspectives from other people who have had success, both online and off, so I invited Jaime to post this based on her huge archive of interviews. Links to the full interviews are included where it is possible.

I woke up this morning and found a lot of buzz on Twitter about this ReadWriteWeb story that reports how companies in the Inc. 500 list are blogging less. But that headline may not really explain what’s going on.

How and Why I Use BufferThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the services I believe marketers should provide their followers and community members these days is that of filtering and aggregating good, relevant content. I subscribe to over 100 blogs and I hear over and over again how much ...

We all think and talk about our sales funnel a lot.  We’re always saying things like: We need to keep it full. We need to stay active with the prospects that have been in it for awhile. On average, it takes a prospect X months to move through it. And so on…. But consider the statistic...

As children, we have unbridled aspirations. We dream to be astronauts. We dream to be explorers. We dream to be princesses. We dream to be the world’s greatest sports star. We dream. Looking back at our childhood dreams, we rarely feel we failed because we didn’t become the astronaut. O...

Weekend Favs January Twenty EightThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. ...

How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the real underutilized opportunities these days is to use your online presence to drive local offline sales. In order to do this you must think beyond the content aspects of your website and s...

I’ve been thinking a lot about collaborative marketing lately, and how we can turn co-existing businesses more into partners and less about missed opportunities. I think there’s a great untapped market for someone that really wants to grab collaborative marketing and run with it. For example �...

Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First StepThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the most fulfilling moments in my consulting work comes when a client finally flashes a hint of realization that they do indeed have an affliction. And that affliction is – that they desperately need t...

From lawyers to doctors and now … dentists. Avvo has announced that it’s building out a dentists’ directory in the U.S. to complement its existing lawyer and doctor directories.

What Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’m going to get a bit personal today, but I believe there’s a solid business context for the message. I was sitting around a dinner table with a number of colleagues, which in this case meant people speaking at the same ...

Scott McNealy, former Sun Microsystems CEO, and
Larry Ellison of Oracle announce a closer partnership
in 2006, which led to Oracle acquiring Sun in 2009. There’s one (unfortunately common) marketing tactic out there that can actually take down your entire business. This is the true story of how I watched it unfold at a Fortune 500 company…

This was a pleasure and relief to see: In a new report about small businesses and social media, SMBs listed “new customers” as their most important metric for measuring the success of social media marketing.

Creating a Company of OwnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe that one of the greatest opportunities we have as business owners is to create wealth. By that I don’t necessarily me get wealthy. I mean create an asset, a business, which is worth more today than it was yesterday. All...

5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You need lots of content, you know that, but you also know that content creation is one of the more time intensive marketing activities you have to tackle. While you do need to create your own content as...

I’m a little tired. Not physically. I could always do with a little more sleep, but then so can everyone. No. I’m more tired about the constant “The End of PR”, “The End of Marketing”, “The End of Print” and “The End of Advertising” missives  that seem to be flying about at th...

Weekend Favs January Twenty OneThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. Th...

We buy products and services every day. Some we need, some we don’t. But we’ve heard good things about them so we buy them. Who have we heard good things from? Our friends. Our family. Our colleagues. People we trust. Why do we trust them? Because they’re not a mystery to us. They don’t we...

Still not sure if Foursquare is serious about local search? Consider this: The site just added menus thanks to a partnership with SinglePlatform. I’ll explain below why I think this matters.

Marketing Is The Ongoing Operation of a SystemThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing So often marketers get stuck in the reaction of the week kind of marketing and wonder why it always feels like such a bumpy road. Marketing should feel graceful, thoughtful, even joyful, but that takes planning, p...

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Infusing Your Business With Platform ThinkingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Phil Simon (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Iman Mosaad via Flickr CCI...

Small Business Marketing Workshops, Seminars and KeynotesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This is a video compilation of a few of the speaking events I’ve done over the past couple of years. In 2010 and into 2011 it seemed like all anyone wanted to talk about social media. This coming...

I think it’s great that Google is trying to improve customer service. In trying to fix my wife’s current merged listing cluster****, they’ve sent me more emails than I could’ve ever imagined. Yay Google! Except the last email they sent wasn’t so good.

Back at the end of 2008, I had an idea for doing something through social media to help charities. Thanks to some amazing friends and people like you that supported with your time and donations, that idea turned into a great exmple of how we can all make change if we really want to. The 12for12k pr...

5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content For YouThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You’ve heard enough about the need to produce content that I’m guessing you’re probably blogging away and curating, aggregating and filtering all manner of content. But there’s one type of content ...

Weekend Favs January FourteenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The ...

If you’re a local business owner, Foursquare isn’t a novelty anymore. Oh, sure, the points and badges and the game elements are still there, but Foursquare became a full-fledged local search engine yesterday with some nifty search and filtering options thanks to what’s now a whopping 1.5 billion check-ins.

Over at Jugnoo, our goal is to help educate business owners on the social web, and really help them both understand and improve their visibilty on it. Part of our approach is to offer resources that will act as a go-to for news, best practices, tips and awareness for all the various parts that m...

Turning Marketing Strategy Into ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Today I’m speaking with a group of small business owner that want to know about how to develop a marketing strategy that truly allows them to differentiate what they do from others. Cubmundo via FlickrI wrote recently a...

Google Search Plus Is Shaking Things Up a BitThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This week Google realigned it’s search results to officially add a feature that many had witnessed leaking into search results The new functionality is potentially as important as the switch to Universal Search a...

If you take a look at a list of the oldest companies in the world, you’ll see the glaringly obvious fact that the majority of the companies listed are Japanese. Germany makes a good argument for having a fair few, while the U.S. begins a late charge once they broke away from British rule. The re...

A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way.

5 Exercises in Perceptive ListeningThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Listening is a skill that all marketers must develop. Or, perhaps more accurately, redevelop. s1ng0 via Flickr CC Most people are born with the ability to hear and, over time, interpret what’s being said. Somewhere along t...

I know I posted about this earlier on Search Engine Land, but it bears repeating here in the event that anyone reading this doesn’t also read SEL (why not?). Read and bookmark this:

When Google+ emerged last summer, people’s reactions were to be expected.  The early adopters were all over it. But for most people who were already suffering from social media fatigue — their response was “oh no…not another site for me to maintain!”

What do people think of you when they first meet you? What do you think their immediate impression is? If it’s personally, you might not care too much – after all, to each their own, right? But what if you’re a business offering a service – does that change your train of thou...

What Is Shared CultureThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I wish I could give you a crisp definition of what the word culture, with regard to business, really means. It’s a tricky word that finds its way into most discussions regarding the workplace these days. Like so many things, it’s har...

The dust has settled a bit on Google’s decision to stop passing keyword referral data from searchers that are logged in to their Google accounts and using encrypted search by default. That began in mid-October and then ramped up a couple weeks later.

Weekend Favs January SevenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The pho...

What Would Happen to Your Business If You Lost All of Your Online DataThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I know you’re backing up your hard drive and network data, right? You use Dropbox, Carbonite, MOZY, AmazonS3, or JustCloud. Or maybe you’re a Mac Time Machine junky. Either way, here’...

For many of us, long term vision can be a scary concept. This is understandable, because it usually means that we’re having to put faith in something we’re doing now not showing a return until much later. This could be our businesses; our blogs; or our budding relationship with a ne...

Where’d all the good blog directories go? I came to wonder about that via a somewhat winding path, so follow along with me if you would, please. A couple nights ago, I was installing a new self-hosted WordPress blog. One of the many settings you’re asked to configure involves search eng...

How to Sell Anything Using Social MediaThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of my predictions for 2012 is that more people will come to understand that you can indeed do business using social networks and, frankly, I’m already seeing it. There are couple reasons this. First off, people a...

I’ll be coordinating four sessions at next month’s SMX West conference in San Jose, and time is running out if you’re hoping to speak at the show. I think at least two of the sessions I’m coordinating should be of great interest to most SBSM readers, so more on that below. First, some details:

Does a Franchise Make Sense as a Business OptionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Joel Libava (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Franchises have been with...

The problem with buying Facebook followers is that it’s sometimes painfully obvious that you’ve done it. Like when “Santiago,” “Jonathan” and “Bruce” all have the same exact avatar. And when “Theodore” and “Wayne” also have the same avatar. And “Everett” and “Elmer,” too. And sometimes they all show up on your Facebook widget at the same time and it makes you look bad.

This upcoming Presidential election will be my daughter’s first opportunity to vote. Combine that with the fact that we live in Iowa, the caucus is upon us and she’s a registered Independent and you can only imagine the flood of mail and calls she’s received leading up to the caucu...

Getting an Education Through Content CreationThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Many business owners, and certainly most marketers, have succumbed to the need to consistently product high quality, education based content as the foundation of their marketing efforts. Without looking too hard yo...

I had an idea to write an article with a checklist of items for small business owners to do once a year — stuff that would a good end-of-year or start-of-year project. You know, like “spring cleaning” but in the middle of winter.

The Single Greatest Factor of Success in BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing There are so many important ideas and concepts in business. Things like strategy, purpose, and passion are integral to success, but none of it really matters without one ingredient – and that’s clarity. Ima...

The great thing about blogging is that you get to meet so many smart people. While a post might start the conversation, the comments take it in a whole new direction altogether, and makes a post better for it. As well as blog comments offering the opportunity to read the views of these smart people...

Like pretty much everyone else who writes, I’ve been looking back at what I published here over the past 12 months. And like pretty much everyone else, I put together a list of my best articles of the year.

To my family, friends and blog readers: Wishing you a wonderful 2012 filled with smart marketing and fantastic ROI on all you do in your business and personal lives. Thanks for reading, commenting, sharing my articles with your friends/fans/followers and for contributing however you choose to contribute around here!

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during December. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

Weekend Favs December Thirty OneThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. T...

Over the past month, I’ve been posing what I hope have been some head scratching, thought provoking questions to help you get ready for 2012.

The Five Most Engaging Podcasts of the YearThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve been recording podcast interviews since some time in 2005 and it’s one of my favorite things to do. The show has opened some pretty cool doors and allowed me to meet some very cool people. This year ...

Over on Twitter, Toronto police are using the #RIDE hashtag to counter drunk driving this holiday period. Standing for Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere, #RIDE aims to educate against drunk driving, and offer alternatives from the Toronto police on getting home safely. You’d think it’s...

Does Google Plus Change EverythingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Chris Brogan (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) There certainly are those that believe...

You probably know me as one of those people who’s a straight shooter. I don’t think entrepreneurship is easy, or that everyone should do it. But I do believe it’s rewarding, and that more people should do it. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I write this blog.

So today I opened the Google home page to check my Gmail account, and I was greeted with this funky image:

The Greatest Hits of the Entire YearThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For this year end post I thought I would rummage through the entire stock of  posts from the year and pick 11 for 2011. I picked the top 11 that you the readers reacted to most through your tweets, likes, comments and shar...

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

This is one of the long-running questions in my local search peer network, and perhaps one of the more important questions going forward when it comes to small businesses and online marketing. The general consensus is that there are more small businesses with Facebook Pages than with claimed Google Place Pages. That comes from anecdotal evidence and various survey estimates, but not from hard, reliable statistics.

For me, the best marketing or advertising success stories are exactly that – real stories. People connect with people, and that’s when the magic happens.

From Beliefs Commitment ComesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the central elements used by many companies to help simplify and tell what the company stands for in a way that generates commitment is through a list of stated core values or what I call Commitment Beliefs. Jeff Kubina via...

Why Profit Should Be Your Most Important GoalThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This time of year many business owners revisit goals and objectives for the coming year. I know that I do and it’s a practice that helps me focus on what’s really important all the way to the task level. Mr.Tho...

Weekend Favs December Twenty FourThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. ...

I just wanted to say thank you for reading, commenting and making this blog better. While I may write, you make the magic happen in the comments and social conversations elsewhere – and I’m so grateful for that.

I’d like to ask you to slow down for just a few minutes.  I know the holidays are crazy busy and you have gifts to buy, wrap or unwrap, baking to finish and all sorts of other very legitimate  things on your To Do list.

No matter what personality test I take, I tend to score off the chart on the extrovert scale.  I like big crowds, I’m comfortable speaking in front of thousands of people and I get a buzz from being at conferences, networking events and new situations with new people.

Two Ways to Make Social Networking Really PayThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing First off I want to apologize to anyone who came to this post expecting to hear about some new secret tool or approach for gaining Facebook fans. The reality is that you make social networking pay the way you’ve ...

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

Thinking of Starting a Business?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Charley Moore (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Starting a business has never been easi...

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Effective Planning Is About What to Leave OutThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Today my staff and I are taking the entire day to create a strategic plan for the coming year. The process, and its ongoing nature, is something I call Commitment Planning. This is a practice that I highly recommen...

I was speaking to a friend recently, and we got to chatting about charities and how supporters are almost like investors along the lines of venture capitalists, or stocks and shares guys. Yet these supporters are much more than a standard investor – as  well as donations, they invest time, resou...

Weekend Favs December SeventeenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. Th...

Will Credit Card Companies Cash in on Couponless Geo-Location TargetingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I checked into my office on Foursquare the other day and I got a message showing there was a special offer. I thought, that’s odd, I didn’t create a special offer. When I clicked on th...

Quick post here to share something that’s news to me: Local businesses can submit a listing to Acxiom online via a site called My Business Listing Manager.

Google’s rel=author markup feature has been frustrating and mysterious this year, to say the least. So it was quite a surprise this week to get a new site added to my profile and have the author avatar showing up for it in less than 24 hours.

For the past couple years, I’ve shared the results of the JWT annual year-end forecast of trends for the upcoming year.  In the past, we’ve seen predictions for the massive adoption of location based services (2010) and the coming of the Non Commitment Culture (2011) — both of which have come to be.

3 Ways to Make Learning Moments Part of Your CultureThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I had sort of a weird epiphany the other day. We’re always learning, whether we think so or not – even in those moments when we think what we’re doing is teaching. akeg via Flickr CC For even when we a...

It’s no secret that well-optimized videos can be a great way to increase visibility, especially in Google’s universal/blended results. Forrester Research did a well-known blog post a couple years ago, which estimated that videos are 50 times more likely to rank on page one in Google than regular, text-based content. The article was called “The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google,” and there’s one file-sharing site that seems to have really taken that to heart.

How and Why I Still Use DeliciousThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I know, I know, what, del.icio.us is so old school. And didn’t they get bought and killed off by Yahoo? Well, actually all Yahoo really did was make it Delicious.com, but fortunately they sold the technology to AVOS, a compa...

Why do you want to kill your competition (this is a generic you)? Why do you want to put on your size 42 boots, kick them in the sack and then trample them into the dirt? Why do you want them to fail so badly that the only people left they can come to is you? Is your alternative really that much be...

5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2012This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post originally appeared on American Express OPENForum. It’s time for my annual prediction of small-business trends. No matter what business trends are reported in the media, small businesses will always a...

How and Why to Use Pinterest for BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing These days we get a new “it” thing every few months. Right now a newish service called Pinterest qualifies as next year’s Google+ or Twitter. Essentially, Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that focuses on im...

Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and WorkThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Jon Gordon (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) There’s a potent lyric...

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

I read a book that seems to fit perfectly with some of the questions we’ve been asking as we think towards 2012.

The following post is an excerpt from my chapter in Danny Iny’s new book, Engagement From Scratch: How Super Community Builders Create a Loyal Audience and How You Can Do the Same.

Weekend Favs December TenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The phot...

Unless you’re really new around here, you should know that trust is a big deal to me. I’ve written about it on several occasions and continue to believe it’s the best strategy for achieving long-term business success — both online and offline.

Last week, Jay Baer wrote a post about how brands are responding on social media. Jay’s premise was that companies that can respond withing minutes on the social sphere are sending out a far more positive message than those that dilly-dally. It’s a really interesting read, and the comme...

3 Incredibly Useful Reasons to Hire a CoachThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve been coaching business owners for years. I’ve trained hundreds to be marketing coaches. I believe in the process of strategic thinking, planning and doing, but I had never employed a coach myself. euthman vi...

Writing has been slow lately, mainly due to the fact that I’ve been gone since Saturday at the SMX Social Media Marketing event down in Scottsdale, AZ. (It was, by all accounts, excellent. I highly recommend attending next year’s event.)

One of the best decisions I made as a college student was to get a Psych minor.  It certainly helps me be smarter when it comes to marketing, business ownership and life in general.  Besides, people fascinate me and I like understanding how they tick.

5 Ways Social Media Can Drive Local BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing “This article originally appeared on the OPEN App Center.  Visit ww.theopenappcenter.com for more information and resources for streamlining and growing your business.” La Citta Vita via Flickr If you r...

If This, Then ThatThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing QUOI Media via Flickr CC Reaching your goals takes hard work, drive and, more than anything, consistent action that moves you in the direction of your goals. One of the challenges to your ability to take right action is habits – or lack of...

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

It’s been a while since I did any book reviews here. Mainly because many of the business books I read in 2011 were okay, but nothing to write home about.

How to Use Instagram to Tell and Sell Your Marketing StoryThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing is about telling stories and few things tell a story faster than a picture. In fact, images are growing faster than any other form of shared content online due in large part to the tremendous...

Weekend Favs December ThreeThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The ph...

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to All the Google Plus HypeThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I suspect my friends camped firmly in the Google+ part of town won’t like hearing this, but one of the benefits of Google+ is that Facebook got better. Sure, you can claim, and you would be right...

Yes, I also get unwanted SEO sales pitches every day via email. I really love the ones that begin by telling me what SEO stands for and why it’s important to be found in search engines. You don’t say!!??!! Most of that spam gets deleted right away, but this one from Rahul in India caught my eye. Imagine being able to get 370 links every month for only $220 — what a smokin’ deal this must be!

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during November. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

It’s been a while since I did any book reviews here. Not that there weren’t a ton of books that could be reviewed – 2010 and 2011 saw more social media and marketing books released than there are reasons for Klout to exist. Probably.

It’s Always Been About the RelationshipThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Mari Smith (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Lots of marketers question th...

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I’m going to write a series of posts that are designed to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

If you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you don’t have an online marketing strategy. I’ve been saying that for some time now, and I think it’s never been more true than it is today. If you want to succeed online in any industry that’s even remotely competitive,...

5 Ways To Make An Email Newsletter Your Best Sales ToolThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing No matter how enamored you may be with social media, email still outpunches just about every tool out there when it comes to cost effective lead conversion. Now, done correctly, what this really means is ...

As a member of Amazon’s Vine program, I received a copy of Jason Falls and Erik Deckers‘ new book No Bullshit Social Media*. (click here to buy it) and knew it would be a great read — simply by knowing the authors.

Do the Things Others Aren’t Willing To DoThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing hAdamsky via Flickr The other day an attendee at an event where I was speaking asked me to reveal the secret to my success. I guess since I was the one on stage there was an assumption that I had actually figured som...

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

This really isn’t specifically about online marketing, SEO, social media, local search and a lot of the other stuff that I usually write about. But I think I can end the post by tying it back to a few things that I have talked about quite often over the years in this space. To be more specific, I’m referring to this envelope that came in the mail from Charter last week:

Check out this infographic (from mashwork.com) on what was expected this Black Friday. How did your behavior and choices compare? Most of these predictions were compiled using Twitter conversations from September through November 17th of this year.  Makes you wonder what marketing intelligence you ...

Weekend Favs November Twenty SixThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. T...

Change Is What You Think It IsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Happy Thanksgiving To live fully you must learn to welcome and embrace change. Resistance to change won’t kill you, but it will keep you from becoming the person you are meant to be and will cause friction as you try to realize...

One of the things we always talk about in this space we share is support. How we can encourage our online communities to rise to challenges and how the players on the field encourage others. Yet what are we doing offline with our “immediate communities”? Are we offering the same support and enc...

Coding Is the New Business BilingualThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Many schools teach a second language as early as elementary school. Business travelers snap up copies of the latest course that promises to teach Japanese, Portuguese or Arabic in 30 days or less. There are countless mobile...

5 Ways to Make the Incredibly Useful Dropbox Even More UsefulThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing In the past I’ve written about how I use the online file storage, backup and syncing tool called Dropbox. Because I depend on this tool so much I use the Team Version and pay an annual fee that is...

Fact – too many businesses still need to wake up and realize that social media is not “one of these Internet fads” that will disappear. Fact – because of this mindset, too many businesses are potentially missing out on extra business that could mean the difference between staying afloat and...

Weekend Favs November NineteenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The...

Social Networks Will Become MarketplacesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For the last few years I’ve been promoting the idea that social networks are like outposts, in many respects, best suited to point the way to your hub or main content site. Product for sale on Shoply.com While I still...

5 Ways to Improve Local Search Results for BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing “This article originally appeared on the OPEN App Center. Visit www.theopenappcenter.com for more information and resources for streamlining and growing your business.” Increasingly, when folks tu...

So, if you ever read my bio (whether here on the blog’s sidebar, or on any of my social networks), you may have noticed that I recently updated my professional description. Whereas before it was for Bonsai Interactive, as of last week it became Jugnoo, Inc. So, what was the change? Simple ...

If You Still Think The Customer Is KingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Aaron Shapiro (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) You know the old adage – ...

If you’re hoping to get fans/friends to interact with you more on Facebook (and you should be!), posting photos is the best way to go. The worst? Posting links. That’s something for small business owners to think about in light of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm.

How to Be Present for Your BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The ability, some might say attempt, to multitask is a curse of sorts. While working on ten things at once may seem efficient, each of those things gets roughly 10% of our greatness while we’re doing it. That may actually...

This is just a quick pointer to an article I wrote on Search Engine Land a couple days ago: Eye-Tracking In Google Maps: Study Shows Value Of No. 1 Ranking & Social Content. It covers an eye-tracking and click-tracking study of Google Maps users doing local business searches. In a nutshell, the results show that being the first business listed gets you a lot of attention (as you’d expect), but in some cases lower results can get a lot of attention if they have better content — review snippets, ratings, and so forth.The eye-tracking study was a very small sample group, but I suspect the results would be pretty similar for a larger group, too.

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Most of us don’t have the luxury of selling ocean front property, the coolest laptop, the latest in tractor technology or porsches.  But in most cases, while it may not be sexy to many — someone really wants it.

This is a guest post by Stacey Acevero. The rise of social media has created all sorts of new opportunities for small business marketers to get the word out, but it has presented challenges too. The days of sending press releases to media outlets with the hopes of being lucky enough to get some cov...

Is Newsjacking a Legitimate TacticThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My friend David Meerman Scott just released an all digital book called Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. The idea behind this very quick read is to involve ...

My Video ToolboxThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I sat in on a session at the BlogWorld Expo led by Steve Garfield, author of Get Seen and long time advocate of video use. Steve mostly shared the low cost set of tools he employs to create his video and it got me thinking that I should do the...

Weekend Favs November TwelveThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The p...

Are Your Blind Spots Holding You BackThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Alexndra Levit (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Some time ago I wrote a post titl...

How smart are you? How do you rack up compared to your peers; your competitors; your parallel people? There’s all sorts of smart, but only one that counts. It’s not high school diploma. It’s not college degree. It’s not university PhD. It’s experiential smart. Your experience. Your knowle...

If you’ve ever updated a local business listing — on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or wherever — you’ve felt that fear and dread. It’s the fear and dread that comes when you submit the updated information and then start waiting for the postcard. Will the postcard reach me? Will it be obvious who it’s from and what it’s about? Will someone think it’s trash and throw it away? No such worries if you’re updating a listing in the Bing Business Portal. Have a look at the postcard they’re sending these days:

How to Delete a Google Plus Brand PageThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Lots of people are jumping in and playing around with the new Google+ Brand Pages for good and bad. 2 questions have come up repeatedly so I thought I would shoot a quick how to video: 1) How do I find my page after I sig...

Google Plus Rolls Out Brand PagesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The must talked about and awaited Google+ Brand Pages have finally gone live. Google+ Personal Pages have been with us now since July and many business owners have been waiting for this business only addition. You can find an...

Stop Looking Down At Your FeetThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing In all my years of owning a business there’s one thing I’ve witnessed to be true – that which gets my focus gets done or another way to say it is – my intention gets my attention. Daniel Morris via Flickr Of course, a...

A lot of the time, we look at ways we can be outrageously creative. We think of ways to outshine that viral video our competitor lucked out with. Or we look at the craziest competition we can offer that ties social media, mobile, print and online marketing all into one kickass promo. Or we think of ...

After months of promises, Google has finally launched Google+ Pages for local businesses. In fact, they’re for any company, product, brand, organization, etc. So the obvious question is this: Should my small business have a page on Google+? My answer: Yes, but….

If you also follow me on Twitter or Facebook — odds are you know that I have an 18 year old daughter who loves Josh Groban and his music.

Sell Me Something Damn ItThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Internet marketing types know that the only thing that matters is the sale – all that build up, spammy sounding long form sales copy, and gut wrenching emotional hot button pushing is about the sale and little else. I get that, you ...

Weekend Favs November FiveThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The pho...

7 Steps To Sure Fire Marketing SuccessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Here’s my take on business. Every business is simply a set of systems and marketing just happens to be the most important of these systems. Few business owners have trouble thinking in terms of business systems for thin...

If I asked you the most important part of your business, what would you say? Marketing? PR? Perhaps advertising or sales? Now what if I said they’re all irrelevant? What if I said you don’t need sales to be successful? You’d probably say (fairly sarcastically), “Why not just hand my busine...

If there’s a common theme in the conversations I have with business owners, it’s that they don’t have the time to consistently market their business.

Against the WindThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Wind is a funny thing – it is as equally capable of creating destruction as providing lift. When it falls directly in our face it’s hard to ignore, but when it’s at our back it can move us forward in ways that are frequently imperceptibl...

5 Step Approach to Learning the StumbleUpon Targeted Traffic TangoThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Maybe the term StumbleUpon is new to you, maybe you find it fascinating, or maybe you realize what an important traffic tool it is, either way, it’s time to dig in and learn a little more...

If you’re reading this while at the GetListed Local University workshop, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com. In my presentation, I mention a couple dozen web sites, articles, and other links that you may not have had time to jot down while I was speaking. If that’s the case, here are all the references I made in chronological order:

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during October. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

Many small businesses struggle with the desire to accept credit cards but the hassle factor or the costs make it seem impossible.

Why My Search Engine Use Is Dwindling and Why Yours Will TooThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Some days I pretty much live online. When I have a question, need a phone number, am bored, I go online to find what I need. Online behavior has supplanted many things that simply used to be. I no lo...

Every month I like to give a shout out to the sponsors who are supporting me and this blog. These are companies that value you, my readers, enough to want to have their names in front of your eyes. I hope you’ll read their messages below and, if interested, click through to learn more about what they provide.

On November 1st 2011, a new social media blog will launch. Set to counter the hyperbole of many social media stories and claims, it will be different from your normal social media blog. With viewpoints from award-winning bloggers, as well as business and media professionals, the new blog aims to q...

Weekend Favs Octobery Twenty NineThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. ...

Google Plus Adds New FeaturesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Google+ added three new features this week that, while not earth shattering, offer some additional functionality for the reported 40 million or so users of the network. What’s Hot – this is a pretty simple add and all...

First, apologies to anyone suffering Klout burnout here – but sometimes a topic has more than just a simple viewpoint. Especially when that topic is something like online privacy. And that privacy has (potentially) been broken by Klout. I was on Facebook today, and my friend Tonia Ries asked...

The removable divider on this awesome iPad case As you know, I am all about how spectacular the iPad is for business use. It can literally replace your laptop computer without you skipping a beat.  I love to use it in meetings — to take notes, to hop on the internet if that’s helpful t...

I think sometimes we make social media marketing too complicated. We have to promote our products on Twitter. What’s our Klout score? We need to get people to interact with us on Facebook. What’s EdgeRank all about? And so on….

This is a guest post by Bob LeDrew. I’ve been an observer of things Klouty for a while now. But I’ve been darned if I could work up a lot of excitement over it, positive OR negative. Until now. I got pointed to a post on the Klout blog today about their reworked formula. Since I haven’t any a...

We tend to gravitate towards the shiny new object in the marketing world.  Today, we’re a buzz about QR codes, social media and all things digital.  But as you are planning your marketing for 2012 (you’re doing that, right?) don’t dismiss traditional and local options.

Why You No Longer Need a BlogThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Despite the title of this post I happen to think that blogging as a business marketing tool is very much alive, but not in the same sense that kicked off what might be called the golden age of blogging. (Wonder if that period will...

A couple of months back, I wrote about online influence tool Klout, and their approach to how they build their membership (they use opt-out profiling, versus the more widely-used opt-in).

One of The First Business Books I ReadThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Harvey Mackay (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) One of the first business books I...

I was flying home from Utah earlier this year, and it included a stopover at Houston. The clouds over Houston were super thick, and it seriously looked like we were flying into mashed up cotton wool on our descent approach to the airport. Because it was an evening flight, it was starting to get pre...

The Most Important Element of Your Employee HandbookThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Lots of companies invest money and resources in the creation of employee handbooks. These valuable tools usually dive deeply into rules, regulations, mission, policy and conduct, but often ignore what might ...

Weekend Favs October Twenty TwoThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. Th...

One of the things I loved about playing chauffeur to my daughter when she was younger were the conversations we’d have in the car.  There’s something to be said about the implied “safety” of not looking the other person in the eyes when dealing with a difficult topic.

Often, we change things based on what we see in front of us, or based on perceptions of what we feel is in front of us. It may be that our sales channels are bringing in less than 12 months ago; so we change the sales team or manager. Or, our customers are leaving in numbers that are scary; so we c...

This post is inspired by this awesome article from Daniel Newman. There’s been a bit of conversation in recent months about mass unfollows on Twitter. These have been carried out by folks with large followings, with the biggest complaints being the numbers were unmanageable; spam was an issue...

No matter what business you’re in, your success can very often boil down to one thing – your people culture.

Blogging’s a great way to grow awareness of you and/or your brand and, with bloggers now getting book deals and media contracts, it can also be a lucrative one. Unfortunately, many bloggers shoot themselves in the foot by making some basic errors that holds their blog back from its true potential...

From the moment we can, we’re forever chasing shadows. As children, we chase the shadow of ourselves that the streetlight throws in front of us. As teenagers, we chase the impossible date with the most popular boy or girl. As adults, we chase the dream job that never happens, or the pot of go...

Take a moment and ask yourself these two questions: - How are we encouraging hope in those around us? - How are we helping to grow the leaders of tomorrow? I once wrote about the roles of companies needing to team-build differently, and I think some of the ideas mentioned in that post can help. Bu...

This is a guest post by Stuart Mills. “You are what you tweet.” – Alex Tew. I’ve found myself wondering whether social media is all it’s cracked up to be. Sure it makes it easier to connect with people from all over the world, from Nigeria to Nicaragua and from Pakistan to Poland, but how...

Take a look at the video at the end of this post. It’s a fan-made homage to the band Dashboard Confessional and their song So Long, So Long.

This is a guest post by Bruce Aristeo. It was late, and after a long day I stretched out my arms, took a deep breath, and let out a huge sigh. My hands reached out and I began clicking, swiping, and typing as my shoulders curled inward around my chest as if humped over in pain. My eyes were focusin...

Three years ago today, I posted the first article on this blog. It was a pretty simple piece – short, and more of an overview of what to expect in the days ahead.

In life, we often place merit on someone by the job they have. We may not mean to, but it’s no real fault of ours if we do – it’s been ingrained from us almost since we could walk. Parents tell us to get an education, or we won’t get a good job. Teachers tell us to study har...

Me, when Cobalt got bought out by Sun
in 2000, with my employee number and a
fake bar code marked on my arm. There are a lot of readers on this blog–perhaps you–who recently started reading. Lately I realized that as a new reader, you may not know much about me, who I am, or my history. You probably know that I “sold a business for $1.1 million at age 26″, since that’s in my sidebar. But what happened before that?

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”
-The Serenity Prayer

In early June, I embarked on a radical experiment: I gave up email for 30 days. Here are my results…

I’ve lived in California for my entire adult life, beginning way back when I was a naive 18-year-old living in the dorms of San Jose State University. (Talk about culture shock…coming from a small farm town in Indiana to the inner city of downtown San Jose!)

There is a complete disconnect between people ages 18-25 and the people who hire them (employers–that’s us!) This is a huge problem–one that we as employers need to recognize, and respect, before we lose an entire generation of young workers.

Something has to change, because this is killing me. It’s taking over my life, and it’s slowly but surely sucking my soul away. And yet, getting rid of it may prove to be one of the most difficult feats I’ve ever attempted.

How to hire an employee. I’ve spoken a lot about hiring employees here on erica.biz, and why it’s so important to start hiring early, especially if you are just starting out and you don’t have a lot of free time to pursue your business. But many people I speak to don’t know how to hire an employee.

You’ve spent hours working on your business concept, and you’ve figured out something people will pay you for. Congratulations!

“I came to South by Southwest. In a kayak.” Tyler Tervooren and I were walking along the street toward my rental car to head out and grab the best chicken wings in town for lunch at South by Southwest. Tyler decided to stay in a hostel directly across the river from the Austin Conventi...

Have you ever done the “perfect day” exercise? Jack Canfield writes about it in his book The Success Principles. It goes like this:

  Challenges related to a content marketing strategy In August of this year, HiveFire surveyed marketing professionals to better understand the state of the B2B marketing landscape including what was really creating the biggest challenges, how they were choosing to market and what they saw on ...

  Facebook advertising best practices For many businesses, advertising on the social network Facebook has proven to be a very successful model.  Facebook’s model is to be pretty rigid in terms of what you can and can’t do on your ad.  They’re all the same size and shape.  The format f...

I can’t remember a world mourning the loss of a business leader like we’ve witnessed this past week after the announcement of Steve Job’s death.  The fact that FEEL the loss, that we GRIEVE this man’s passing and that we WORRY that no one can take his place tells you something.

At McLellan Marketing Group, we live by our core beliefs.  One of them is: We take our work seriously.  Ourselves… not so much. Let’s be honest here.  None of us save lives every day.  (Okay, if you actually do… you have my permission to skip this post) Sometimes, I think we ne...

  Amazon’s Vine program We all know how awesome word of mouth is.  We know it beats any mode of advertising and that over 90% of consumers say it’s the most compelling factor in their decision to buy. We all want it.  We want our customers to go skipping down the street, singing ...

This is not a new notion but when you’re buying/using media — use more than one vehicle and when possible, blend how the information is ingested.  In other words, I see/hear your TV spot (or YouTube video), so add in a print element or something online that I can read.  Access more of the audiences’ senses for more impact.

Mercedes Benz released this print ad series earlier this year and as it often goes, it is just starting to get some viral buzz.

I do a lot of driving.  Between work, providing my mom (3.5 hours away) with computer support and fetching my daughter every so often at college (2 hours away) — I’m on the road quite a bit.

  Facebook lets you actually talk to people! A comment made on my blog post about Facebook’s dominance which basically said… “Facebook is only for people who care about social media and media types” had me shaking my head. He’s not alone in his opinion. Check out ...

It may be the greatest of all business cliches — you have to differentiate yourself.  I’ve said it myself more than once.  While it is certainly true… many businesses struggle with how to bring the idea to life.

Would Your Employees Refer You?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing The title to this post should stop and make some business owners question a few things. Things like – I’ve never really thought of my employees as a referral source. I don’t know if my employees know how to refer me, or wo...

The Ultimate Measure of Marketing SuccessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For most businesses the primary measures of marketing success are more sales, more profits and greater brand recognition. sahlgoode via Flickr CC That seems like a pretty obvious, logical and healthy way to view market...

Money Isn’t the Best MotivatorThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had three separate occasions to talk to small business owners about referrals. (The most recent in Brazil for the launch of the Portuguese version of The Referral Engine – Máquina de ...

The Changing Face of Lead GenerationThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve spent a great deal of time over the last few years professing the virtues of what I’ve been calling the lead generation trio made up of some combination or advertising, public relations and referrals. GoDakshin via...

Weekend Favs October FifteenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The p...

5 Things You Must Do To Sell To a Small Business OwnerThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Small business owners are an odd lot. I can say this without judgment because I am one. Duct Tape Marketing Word HQ Cracking the small business code is something that routinely perplexes large organization...

5 Steps to Small Business Public Relations SuccessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Getting positive mentions of your business, products, people and events in the publications that your ideal clients consume is an essential part of what I call the lead generation trio (advertising and referra...

Why Should Words Only Be For Word Nerds?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Jay Heinrichs (Click to play or right-click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) My guest for this week’s ...

Small business owners: When you’re just launching a new website and getting started with SEO, it’s okay to feel like you’re walking around in dark cave. You don’t know what’s ahead nor what to expect. And you’re not sure if you’re going in the right direction. And that’s perfectly normal. Over time, though, things will become clearer if you’re on the right path. One way to monitor that is to watch for the three stages of keyword success.

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Quick note that my latest article for the American Express OPEN Forum has just been published:

About six weeks ago, Google put webmasters on alert about more upcoming changes to how it fights spam. Specifically, Google asked for help in identifying “scraper” sites — sites that copy content from somewhere else and republish it on their own site. I wrote about this on Search Engine Land and, in the comments there, a reader named Trent asked a good question that I wanted to answer here in a little more detail.

The next stop for GetListed.org’s Local University is less than a month away, and it’s also likely to be the last stop of the 2011 calendar year. We’ll be in Western New York on November 1st and you can read on for details of a $40 discount code good for either morning or afternoon session.

The Bing Business Portal was already pretty impressive when it launched back in the spring, and Bing has recently rolled out a series of updates and new features that only make it more impressive — not only for online marketing, but also for offline, too.