I know, I have not blogged in a while. I am sorry, and I do plan to make it up to you. I have a great excuse, though. You see, I was busy looking for just the right job. I decided that I would stop taking new clients way back on January first.

In order that you may excuse my absence and in hopes that you will find your way back here for more sensible marketing advice (you subscribe to my blog, right?) - I want to share what I’ve been up to. This is how I shared it on Facebook, so rather than totally re-write it …

HERE IT IS!

The time has finally come when I can make the announcement I have waited anxiously to share.

As my friends know, I made a decision in early 2012 to change my career path. I had simply stopped feeling the love in my work, and I was ready for a monumental change. The change I had expected was to work as a Chief Marketing Officer or Senior Vice President of marketing for a corporation other than my own. That would be a big change, but it was very exciting to me, and felt like a breath of fresh air. The biggest obstacle would be to find a company I could respect and feel good about.

My path was changing for a few years - but 2012 was monumental. As a marketing professional since the late 1980’s, I realized a huge shift since 2009 the likes of which I had not seen in the preceding decades. It was as if clients were almost intentionally sabotaging their own companies and stopped taking even the most prudent and well-researched advice. They all seemed to gain confidence in their own “gut feelings” (mostly fear-induced) while putting solid market research and planning to waste.

Social media should be an invaluable asset to a job seeker. At least that is the case if what we read is true. There are many stories of people landing a dream job with little more than a tweet on Twitter. Others will say it was their really great connections on LinkedIn, or friends who helped them spread their word on Facebook.

We’ve all surely heard that recruiters rely heavily on the use of social media for filling positions. It’s why we take down all of the party pics on Facebook, and stop beating our chest about politics or religion on Twitter. Those recruiters are watching. Right?

According to some people, recruiters and hiring managers are filling their quotas with the use of what they call “social recruiting”, but is it actually the way they’re telling it? Is social recruiting really the way jobs are being filled? I know what they’re saying, but I see something very different in what they’re actually doing.

What will it take to make your brand more durable? It is an important question for any business, and it’s worth some careful consideration.

Branding can be described as the “feel” that develops around a company or a person. Once a brand is forged in a person’s mind, it can be a time-consuming challenge to change that feel. Just consider the correlative affects of branding to understand why it is important to get it right.

Pick a brand - any brand - and consider what it brings to mind. For me, if you mention K-Mart, I think of grade school in the 1970’s when saying “Your mom buys your clothes at K-Mart” was an insult of the highest degree. That was memorable for me.

If you mention Applebee’s restaurant, I get a knot in my stomach, along with an ugly flashback of the last time I ate at Applebee’s. On the other hand, if you mention McDonald’s, I may nod my head and think to myself “yeah, I really do deserve a break today.”

If it ever seems you’ve tried “everything” and it is not working out the way you planned, there is probably a good reason. A very common cause for a plan to fail is lack of planning.

Consider something as complex as a space ship for a moment. Space ships don’t always launch as planned, but they have an overall good record, considering their challenges. That’s because of careful planning. It has to begin somewhere, and it begins with a vision.

It is more than a coincidence that most successful companies have a vision statement. Those visions can change, but there should always be a vision. Vision is what guides people and keeps them on the right path to achievements.

You have undoubtedly heard somebody express the importance of setting goals and envisioning the outcome you want. It can sometimes sound far-fetched, and even a bit hokey. If you reverse-engineer this notion of having vision, the reality may not be as you expected.

My grandmother is intelligent. She can grasp a complex concept if you communicate it nicely. If you insult her intelligence, she may turn into a vicious ninja.

My grandmother will turn 95 years old in a few weeks. In honor of my dear Grandma and other real-world people like her, I’m here to deliver a valuable reminder about effective marketing communications.

Let’s consider Grandma for a moment, and imagine how she communicates. She talks like a real person. She thinks and communicates in logical phrases. Grandma uses plain and simple language to make herself clear to others. Most people are a lot like Grandma in this respect. Most of them will also find themselves indifferent and even insulted if you try to talk over their heads.