SOB Business Cafe 07-30-10
Filed Under Great Finds, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment
Welcome to the SOB Cafe
We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.
The Specials this Week are
Brian Solis
A recent study conducted by Duke University and the American Marketing Association documented the rise of hiring, budgets, and social media spend over next year.
According to the 2010 CMO Survey, on average, CMOs expect to increase marketing budgets by 5.9% citing social media as a crucial slice of the Internet marketing mix.
Fast Company
Sure, these companies could have found this data elsewhere, at any time–but they likely didn’t. Public information on a Facebook page is still public, and public means your friends as well as sort of scary corporations like Halliburton, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin have access to it.
Harvard Business Review
Culture determines who will work for you, who stays, and who quits. Once formed, culture is nearly impossible to change. People who work well within the culture quickly self-select. And those who don’t fit leave.
Problogger
One of the biggest challenges for a new bloggers starting out in an established niche is to find a way to stand out from the crowd and find their first readers. Without existing profile and/or credibility – getting those first readers can be very tough.
grow smart business
The lessons and advice imparted in Dale Carnegie’s ground breaking 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People are as useful today as they were then. Think about the reasons we small business owners spend time and money on marketing, especially social media: We want to connect with current and prospective clients and convince them that they need our product or service. To do that, we need to know exactly how to connect with them, and this is where the book comes in.
TAG Communications
Second only to “how much is this all going to cost?” the question of how to control their brand ranks high on our clients’ list of priorities.
The short answer? You can’t.
Related ala carte selections include
Co Design
via @MelissaPierce
Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m a proud affiliate of
SOB Business Cafe 07-23-10
Filed Under Great Finds | 2 Comments
Welcome to the SOB Cafe
We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.
The Specials this Week are
Awake @ the Wheel by Alexis Neely
If you are reading this blog, it means you are a pretty smart cookie. You love to read, think, critique, improve. Me too.
Reading at three. High school and college, a breeze. Graduated first in my law school class (more to do with over-studying as a result of massive fear that I was the dumbest person in the room than to innate smartness).
A smarty-pants.
The Brand Builder
Point: Knowing full well that a method, tool or model no longer yields the desired outcome (assuming it ever did), some organizations will continue to bet on it, in the hopes that the laws of the universe will shift in the night and miraculously turn a completely ludicrous project into success.
Geoff Livingston
Ever interrupt a conversation with people you don’t know at a party and start talking right away, only to find the members leave? It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? No one likes to have their conversation interrupted, and normal conventions are to walk up, listen, introduce yourself, maybe even ask a question, and then participate after listening for a couple of minutes.
Listening Comes First
Note: You can download the first drafted chapter of the new edition — Welcome to the Fifth Estate — for free.
Digital Peas & Carrots
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers, the latest report by eConsultancy, takes a look at consumer behavior in both the US and UK with a focus on 1) how consumers interact with e-commerce brands 2) how consumers conduct product research and 3) how consumers are affected by different factors in the buying decision-making process.
Carol Roth
After I stopped rolling my eyes, I realized it was such a great reminder of how you need to sell your products in a location and manner relevant to your customers.
Thought Gadgets
Web stats go up and down, but it’s noteworthy that Google’s share of total U.S. search volume has plummeted since it redesigned its main page back in May. In April, just before adding bells and whistles to its search venue, Google led U.S. search volume with 71.4% share. In June, its share had fallen to 62.6%. Third-place chaser Bing is gaining fast, up from 9.4% to 12.7% of all U.S. searches in the same period.
Related ala carte selections include
SOBCon COLORADO CONTEST
Win! Win! Win!
Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m a proud affiliate of
SOB Business Cafe 07-16-10
Filed Under Great Finds, Successful Blog | 1 Comment
Welcome to the SOB Cafe
We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.
The Specials this Week are
AdBusters
Psychologists have long known that North Americans overestimate their own distinctiveness, especially in comparison with East Asians. When asked to describe themselves, Americans and Canadians tend to talk about their individual personality and personal outlook more than Japanese do. North Americans tend to settle arguments in terms of right and wrong, whereas East Asians tend to seek compromises. Dirty Harry is an extreme and violent example, but he is emblematic of Western culture and he sums up our single-minded, goal-oriented behavior with aplomb. “When I see an adult male chasing a female with the intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That’s my policy.”
Pure Natural Diva
The session echoed many of the thoughts that have been running through my mind & dancing through my notes during the past few months. It challenged us to; OWN our irresistibility, really define our goals for our businesses, and it reminded us not to underestimate our worth.
Gwen Bell
In 2005, during yoga teacher training, a teacher explained the importance of off-the-mat time. She recommended we go on retreat four times a year – once a quarter. I recall internal resistance. As the discussion unfolded, it turned out I wasn’t alone. How could we take time away from yoga?
Digital Sabbatical
Purple Wren
It should be all set up now to post to my facebook, linkedin, typepad, twitter, flickr accounts at the same time. That’s cool. It’s been a hit or miss lately as I pick whatever is the most handy. I’ll see how this goes. Depends on the content. Let’s upload a photo just for fun.
Copyblogger
The good news is that writing makes you a better writer. Just like practicing the piano makes you a better pianist, or riding a trail bike makes you a better biker.
hugoguzman.com
Back in the Spring of 2009, I created a short video that summarized my thoughts on how some marketing executives were getting social media all wrong. I called it “Social Media Idiot”:
Related ala carte selections include
The Old Spice Guy Responds
via @IttyBiz Old Spice guy is responding to comments w/ indiv videos. I am DYING. Start here
Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m a proud affiliate of
SOB Business Cafe 07-09-10
Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog | 3 Comments
Welcome to the SOB Cafe
We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.
The Specials this Week are
Brass Tack Thinking
But I really think they missed the mark with The Influence Project, in a big way, and confused the idea of “influence” with ego.
Comminquépr
With small- and medium-sized business playing such a critical role in the health of our nation’s economy, it is no surprise that there are thousands of blogs aimed at helping people grow or manage their companies. However, with so many blogs written for the entrepreneur or business owner, we felt it important to highlight the ones we believe offer fresh insight or the most value.
One Mann’s Opinion
Many in the room thought we should stop leaning on certain phrases and terms.
The challenge is to know when a saying becomes a cliché and when a cliché becomes a crutch.
Extraordinary Mommy
I raised my hand, I gripped the microphone. And, in front of 75 odd people – some I know and some I don’t, I said, “This has always been my dream. I would love to have a television show focused on telling people’s stories – average, everyday people. We all have a story.
C-Level Strategies & Awakenings
Successful people are, generally speaking, open to and aware of opportunities and they approach their visions and dreams with intent.
And yet we often hide from our success in important ways that dim our ability to inspire and energize others and thus impact the world. What do I mean by that?
Online Media Daily
Meanwhile, displaying a degree of comfort bordering on foolishness, 42% of respondents think photos of themselves visibly intoxicated make appropriate Facebook fare, while 32% say photos of themselves or others making obscene gestures are okay. That’s despite the fact that two-thirds — 63% — claim to use Facebook as a career networking tool.
Related ala carte selections include
Smashing Magazine
Yes, logo design is only one facet of the powerful force that we call brand identity. Yes, a branded design environment can communicate sophisticated brand meaning without much (any?) usage of logos. But some ‘brand gurus’ or ‘brand evangelists’ (translation: ‘bastions of corporate pretension’) seem to enjoy making hyperbolic pronouncements just to sound shocking or cutting-edge. Logo design is not dead.
Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m a proud affiliate of
SOB Business Cafe 07-02-10
Filed Under Great Finds, Successful Blog | 2 Comments
Welcome to the SOB Cafe
We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.
The Specials this Week are
Underway
Holidays, they are the high points of the year, where everyone celebrates. The Fourth of July is the largest national holiday of the year in the US. Many people plan for months for the perfect evening out.
Carol Roth
Anyone who says otherwise is lying
There’s a big white elephant in the room (or sometimes a tiny white elephant in the room) and that is size. You keep hearing people say that size doesn’t matter- in business, in social media, sometime in boxer briefs- but let’s call it like it is- it’s not really true. When you get to the debate of quantity vs. quality, the real answer is that both matter.
McCurry’s Corner
The problem is sometimes people working in service businesses get so wrapped up in following instructions, or completing the task at hand, that they forget about the most important part, the customer experience. It happens all the time, especially in a society where speed seems to take precedence over everything else.
We Blog Better
You sit down at your desk, turn on the computer with your to-do list in hand – all set to knock out a few blog posts and then maybe work on an ongoing project or two. You start your post, and then decide to do some quick research to validate a point you want to make.
One minute you’re finding interesting information that you’ve definitely got to integrate into your post but then you notice a few mentions on Twitter you’d like to respond to…
Todd Weiss, C.F.A.
In all seriousness, how does one write a good blog article? How can you quickly draw in readers and keep them reading? Or better yet, make a comment? A Re-Tweet? Or Subscribe to your RSS feed?
Harvard Business Review
Susan Harrison, my mother in law, died several months ago after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Like most of us, she was not famous. If you didn’t know her you probably didn’t know of her. She lived in the relatively small community of Savannah, Georgia.
Smart Blog on Social Media
LEGO is a classic example of how a focus on your fans can change everything for a brand. In the late ’90s, sales were down, product innovation was low, and the big retailers they relied on were telling them they didn’t know enough about their customers.
Related ala carte selections include
Congratulations to Eric Lukazewski
on his new photo blog!
Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I’m a proud affiliate of
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