Biznology

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Most of you know that a great deal of my consulting is for large businesses, and–especially if you work for a small business–you might think that large businesses don’t need to specialize. If they’ve got all that money and they can produce whatever amounts they can sell, why would they need to specialize. After considering it for a moment, you might say to yourself that maybe large businesses would need to specialize only when they were up against other large companies. But you’d be wrong. Read the remainder of this entry »

It looks like we are rapidly moving toward the point where we are going to be communicating in flash cards of images–and words may be an unsettling extra, if needed at all. I get that I am exaggerating, but with the direction the online space is headed, it is going to become a rather important principle for businesses to grab on to and then run with. Why? Well, if everyone is doing it and you’re not, that may be a bad thing. This change is not sudden–although the relative hype around it is–and it’s this hype (read Pinterest) that is driving this new push toward the visual over the cerebral. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Link building is a huge part of an SEO campaign. Inbound links to a website convey trust and the search engines take that into consideration as part of their ranking algorithm. In order to know what kinds of inbound links are pointing to your website to better understand how the search engines are viewing your website, it’s necessary to conduct a link audit.
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Getty Images via @daylife

Event marketing has long been a staple in B-to-B, where the face-to-face conversation enabled by a trade show or corporate event plays a valuable role in launching or deepening a business relationship.  But these days, business events are taking off in new directions, empowered by advancements in digital technology.  I’ve been keeping an eye on some of the new developments, and happily share a few here.  Read the remainder of this entry »

I experience a lot of contempt for bloggers and social media influencers. From agencies and marketing firms as well as from self-professed social media experts and social media gurus. Bloggers and other social media online influencers may not know who Edward Bernays is or have the lingua franca of a trained communications professional, but they sure can spot the eye roll of condescension and contempt from a mile away, even through the terse messaging of a single pitch. While the biggest brands with the biggest gifts and social cachet can get away with being douche bags and intolerable asses because the level of peer and personal prestige and importance  more than compensate for bad manners, rudeness, and a condescending manner–the proverbial upturned nose and eye roll–this sort of behavior isn’t acceptable from anyone but the crown king and queen of their particular demographic. Read the remainder of this entry »