Benjamin Franklin recommended that you build an App. Well, sort of. “Time is money,” Mr. Franklin advised, in his pamphlet Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One. You’ve probably heard this thought on the value of time before? Perhaps, in a way, Ben’s ponderings from 1748 are applicable today in a, well, application he never could have predicted. 265 years later, our lives are extremely fast-paced. While Ben Franklin discussed the value of hours and days, we look at mere seconds and see dollar signs. Simply put, no one can afford to wait anymore. We’re all getting used to the availability of instant information. As a business owner, if you know that your clients appreciate streamlined, highly informative content available rapidly, then you can keep them happy by providing information that is always accessible. Unfortunately, a nice website (and even a mobi...
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When I first learned of Pinterest, I had little interest in it. Another social networking website? No way - I already wasted enough time on Facebook; I wasn't interested in joining another social outlet. However, I eventually found myself suckered in and clicking around on the website. When I began to think of Pinterest as not only fun but resourceful, I was sold. I am a pretty average Pinterest user: 25 (ages 25-34 make up the largest percentage of users), middle class, bachelor's degree ('some' college is the highest percentage of users at 60%, which makes me think that many of the users are still in college), and oh - yeah... female! (Women make up 80% of the user database). I use Pinterest to plan weekly menus (with my husband hanging over my shoulder giving his recommendations by pointing to photos of bacon-this-or-that), to learn how to take care of my young gar...
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Posted March 01, 2012
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A Book Review Most people think of trying to show that their company is the best at something. They are determined to show how their product is the best and how it can do so many things. However, the most important thing to remember is that people want help with whatever problem they are having. If a person is in the landscaping business, you must understand what their problems are and that will help you “market” to that company. This book, by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin, discussed learning the client’s pain. In the landscaping illustration, the client does not care about the mower, trimmer, and blower, ect. All they care about is having a manicured lawn. When trying to target that segment of the market, do not spend time and money showing the minute features of your product. Instead show how your product can give them that manicured lawn that they want. You...
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We often get asked the question: should I have my blog as a separate entity from my main corporate site? The answer is no. In a January 17, 2011 Business Insider article "Your Corporate Blog Could Be Sabotaging Your Business: Six ways your blog could accidentally sabotage your bottom line, plus tips for avoiding them" Lisa Barone notes this as one of the top 3 pitfalls to establishing a sucessful company blog. She states: "Corporate blogs work best when they're a natural extension of the rest of your Web site. When the content found on the blog serves to give more information/street cred. to your services. And to do that, readers need to be able to see the connection that exists between the two entities. Your corporate blog fails when you put it on a separate domain and make it hard for people to tie back or access your site. It fails when your blog doesn't link to an...
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