I just finished reading Chris Brogan’s weekly email. (It arrives every Sunday, full of wisdom. If you don’t already get it you should subscribe.) Today Chris protests the mindless act of “creating content.” Instead he encourages us to “communicate and connect.” I’ll confess, I’m as guilty as the next marketer of creating content without necessarily…
Less Distractions, Less Tools
One of my 3 Words for 2015 was ‘Focus’. To be honest, it’s probably the weakest of the words I chose to guide my 2015, simply because it—ironically—lacks focus. However, I chose it because I think it was my biggest nemesis in 2014. I won’t go into all of the reasons that focus became such…
on January 5, 2015
My 3 Words for 2015
I’ve never done this before, but I think Chris Brogan is a pretty smart guy and he does it every year. Reason enough to step out and give it a try. If you’re not familiar with the 3 Words a Year resolution/goal setting approach I encourage you to read the back story and Chris’ three…
on January 1, 2015
How to Generate Web Traffic that Generates Leads
One of the least talked about, yet most critical, components of digital marketing is the lead generation. To be fair, it’s also one of the hardest things to do with any consistency. Effectively generating web leads requires a perfect mix of relevant web traffic and website optimization to flow visitors to your website and into…
on December 30, 2014
5 Mistakes Founders and Business Owners Make
The statistics on new business failures is somewhat staggering. The most unfortunate part of the statistics is so many of the failures are attributed to ‘incompetence’, or what I would more softly term ignorance. Having started a few successful businesses and as the current founder and owner of a marketing agency going into it’s tenth…
on December 15, 2014
Startup Ideas, Hide or Share?
Ideas are funny things, especially if they’re linked to a startup idea. We tend to have them, assume we are the only one to have imagined such a thing, and then tuck them away in a notebook (or worse in some dusty corner of our brain) for safe keeping. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone…
on April 21, 2014
Rethinking Content Management Systems in a Mobile World
What should a mobile content management system (CMS) look like in a mobile environment? This article: Rethinking the content management system for mobile started my mind spinning around the requirements for CMS in an increasingly mobile world. Here are a few of my initial thoughts: It needs to be easy to riff off of other…
on March 27, 2014
Twitter is better when smart people follow you
I have soured a bit on Twitter over the last couple of years. I don’t use it as much as I once did and when I do, I don’t really enjoy it, like I used to. Having said that, I do believe in Twitter (I’m a shareholder). I think it will be critical Internet infrastructure…
on March 22, 2014
Responsive Design Should Be…
Ric van Westhreenen has a great thought piece on how responsive design is missing the boat on delivering content in an intelligent way. I don’t want to rehash this very excellent article, but I do want to riff on it a bit. Responsive design, in its current state, is merely the shuffling of content–often poorly–to…
on March 7, 2014
How to Attract Attention Online
If you want to attract the attention of customers, journalist, influencers, or any other audience for that matter, you can’t just talk about what you’re interested in. You have to capture their attention by commenting or expounding on something they care about. I know…reading that paragraph at face value sounds like I’m patronizing you. But…
on February 28, 2014