Think about paper clips for a moment. They are about the most basic thing you will find in your desk drawer. When you consider your marketing, try to imagine selling paper clips. You probably do not think much about what brand you are buying when you need to replenish your paper clip supply. This is likely true of your product or service, too. Unless people have a good reason to remember you, it will be a lot harder to grow your paper clip market share and to become more prosperous.

If you challenged multiple companies with a truckload of paper clips to sell, somebody would sell out sooner than the rest. One would almost surely hit their stride and empty that truckload of paper clips before the others, and there must be a reason.

Have you been here before? I do not just mean here at my blog, but have you been faced with questions or doubts about your efforts. Maybe you question whether people understand the intent and purpose of your blog, or maybe you question the intent and purpose of the blogs you read. These are legitimate considerations for a lot of bloggers, whether producers or readers.

I am a big proponent of blogging. In fact, if you just google “reasons to blog”, you can see that I am practically a poster child for the benefits of blogging. If you need encouragement, I suggest giving my list of “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog” a thorough read. If you need blogging tools, I would recommend “6 Essential Blogging Tools for Bloggers and Non-Bloggers“.

Let’s face it, great blogging is hard work. I have actually considered making a video of my steps to produce a blog article, but then I want to break my own fingers just to avoid the temptation of all the video editing on top of the other efforts.

What does it take to produce a blog article? Here is a one-sentence rundown for you: I get a bright idea, then I research, write, print, proofread, edit, print, give it to an editor, edit again, find a graphic, edit the graphic, categorize it, tag it, keyword it, write a description, produce an excerpt, record a podcast, upload podcast, tag the podcast, preview the article, edit it, preview it again, publish it, tweet it, facebook it, linkedin it, stumble it, reddit it, ping it, diigo it, mixx it delicious it, then watch my web stats and keep my fingers crossed while hoping that some people will digg it, stumble it, facebook it, and etecetera.

I just read a blog article about a poor customer experience with US Airways. It got me to thinking about the ways we listen, and I think it could be described as two different types of ears.

Consumer Listening: Skeptical Ears

The first type of ears are those of a consumer. We have consumer listening skills which are pretty basic and instinctive. These are the ears we use to hear scandal and negativity. Most people have this set of ears cranked way up to hear anything they need to know as a consumer.

Consumer watchdogs are everywhere, and social media brings them out in a big way. In fact, it allows each and every one of us to be a consumer watchdog and to tell our story. Anybody with a bad experience can make a pretty loud sound using social media.

Is it true that there are some things you cannot sell online? I was recently visiting with a gentleman who had made some haphazard attempts to sell online. After his short-sighted efforts, he had developed some doubts about marketing his products and services on the Internet. I think this happens to a lot of people who are unfamiliar with online marketing and had a share of online failure. This gave me some interesting thinking points.

I want to help shatter the myth some people hold that their product or service cannot benefit from targeted online exposure and careful branding. I also want to explain how dreadfully wrong it is to assume that your ideal customers cannot be reached here on the Internet.

I was recently referred to a businessman by a a few mutually trusted acquaintances. In total, three different people have come to me suggesting that I could help this man to grow his business. Each of these three people are involved in his personal and professional life in different ways, and each carries a different level of trust. It all got me to thinking a lot about the importance of trust, and what a role it has in business relationships, personal relationships, and how they overlap.

I thought of the trust others had placed in my work and my integrity, and I thought about ways trust is conveyed to others. How to build trust is a tricky topic, at best. There are many factors involved, and it is different to each person. I do not have all the specific answers for this, but here are a few things that came to mind for me. I hope you will enjoy the food for thought.

I look around the Internet and see a lot of social media tactics without any overall strategy. It often leaves me shaking my head when I see so-called social media marketers who offer nothing but setting up a couple of social media accounts then find a handful of people for their client to spout advertisements to. Maybe they even offer to do the spouting, but often without a real sound plan. It leaves little wonder why so many people are left to question the usefulness of social media in their business. It is a sad fact for many companies, but [...]

In 1982 when the world heard that somebody had laced Tylenol products with potassium cyanide, many people were terrified to take a Tylenol for their headache for fear it would kill them. Some caution was in order, for certain. I remember my mother dumping out any Tylenol we had in the house after watching the reports on television. Was it realistic to believe we actually had laced Tylenol in our own home? Probably not, but similar types of unrealistic caution and chaos are still happening every day in social media. Can you imagine how many more people would have been [...]

Decorum is defined by Wikipedia as “Appropriate social behavior; propriety” or “A convention of social behavior”. Since it is a social topic, the standards of decorum are different depending on the social group. Yes, the people count, and what may seem completely innocent to you could be a great offense to another person with a different imposed expectation of decorum. It is more important than ever to be aware of the standards of decorum as it applies to your business, particularly due to the vast mingling of social media in business.
A lot of people talk about transparency in business these [...]

That probably sounds shocking, right? Let me explain what I mean by this title.
I know that it may sound a little “churchly”, but it certainly is not. I do not mean that I am looking for people to kiss snakes, sacrifice animals, or participate in some strange cult rituals. A disciple is defined by Princeton University as “someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another”, and who wouldn’t want that? After all, don’t we all want to associate with others who think like we think and are willing to spread a message? There is really only one way [...]

Should social media be renamed to “friendship media” or does that kill the business?
There is something really bitchy about social media. People tell people how to “do it right” and then a bunch of people hash it out and poke fun at the ones who “screw it up”. It is all just so confusing. Am I supposed to be social or not? What is social? Does social equal personal? Is business anti-personal? Get your thoughts moving and join this discussion of social media.
Here are three important questions to consider about business and personal interactions as they relate to social media.

Are [...]